‘It is never too late to realise your dream’

National Entrepreneurship Summit, ‘UDYAMI 2016-Entrepreneurial Crossroads’, is an endeavour of entrepreneurship development cell of Panjab University’s University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET). It is organised every year to motivate students and guide them on how to set up successful startups. Creative and innovative entrepreneurs are invited every year as panellists at the summit. Some of them have achieved success at a young age, even leaving blooming careers to achieve their dream projects.

Simranjeet Singh, 25, CEO, Mindbatteries, Chandigarh, “Formal education is quite boring and people always need entertainment. For the past five years, I have been working on mixing these two aspects to make education fun through media education venture Mindbatteries. I have been working on various social projects like location-based blood donation camp and ‘viral claps’ to stop people from littering in public.”

Chinmay Agarwal, 28, Chief technology officer, Jugnoo, “Jugnoo is an app to provide a reliable auto-rickshaw service at your doorstep. It was launched in November 2014 . As auto-rickshaws are hailed by people more than taxis here, we thought about giving it a shot. We did marketing, arranged funding and developed an app.”

Kunal Nandwani, founder, uTrade Solutions, “Failure is subjective. Even if your startup fails, you’ve definitely gained experience out of it, if nothing else. Don’t run after money. Learn from your mistakes. I have also been investing in other startups for the past one year. Diversifying your investments and risks always makes better business sense to sail through any kind of crisis.”

Manjula Sularia, CEO, The Transformers Value Creators, “I left my 8-year-old HR job and founded this life skills training organisation two years ago. My team holds workshops for children, parents as well as teachers. We are spreading awareness on sensitive issues like child abuse, gender sensitisation, sex education and adolescent issues even in rural areas for tackling these issues on a war-footing.”

Sunali Aggarwal, CEO, Beon Systems, Chandigarh, “Beon Systems is a web, mobile and desktop based design application. I believe in diversity of experience. If you stay in one field only, you start thinking about that field as your only world. The more you explore, the more is the experience you get out of it. Exploring yourself is the best route to success.”