Chance for college students to win Rs. 15 lakh, apply by July 31

Indore’s IIT and IIM have come together to co-host Venture-I, a part of the i5 summit, where budding entrepreneurs can impress investors with their business idea in seven minutes and win an amount of Rs. 15 lakh if they succeed. i5 Summit is a two-day event to be conducted at IIM Indore campus from August 22, 2015 onwards.

The tip to winning the hearts of the investors is simple. “Think through your business model well. Talk about the strengths that you think your business model has. If you have any customers, do talk about them in details and how you have acquired them. Be steady with the financial model and marketing plan. You are surely going to get the funding,” says Soumyadeep Chakraborty, coordinator, i5 Summit, IIM Indore. The major reason for start-ups not getting funded is their ambiguity with the financials, he added.

The participants will get seven minutes to pitch their ideas. This will be followed by a question and answer round of three minutes. The contest, which aims to attract more applications from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, has received over 500 applications, mostly from cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune and about 30% of the applications are from tier-2 cities. College students as well as entrepreneurs can register for the contest. A total of 15 ventures will be shortlisted for the final round of the summit.

The summit will give young entrepreneurs a platform to interact with potential investors and mentors, who can help them develop their business plan. “The Indian government’s move to create one million jobs every month will be impossible without involving entrepreneurs,” says Chakraborty. Few participants will directly qualify for Nasscom’s Innotrek programme and get an opportunity to go to the Silicon Valley for a week and interact with peers from the entrepreneurial community. For more details, visit here .The deadline for application is July 31, 2015.