4th November 2023: The BSSS Incubation Centre organized “Pitch Perfect” a workshop on designing a start-up on 4th November 2023 from 10:00 am in Seminar Hall, Main Building. Dr. Anurag S.D. Rai who is Director at Kalchuri LNCT Group Incubation Centre, was present as the expert to guide the students in designing a start-up. Incubates of the BSSS Incubation Centre along with students of Essentials of Entrepreneurship Development, B. Com Tourism and BBA participated in the workshop. The students of B.Com and BBA were promoted by Dr. Rana Shahwal and Dr. Darshan Subherwal.
The objective of the workshop was to guide participants in designing a start-up and they were detailed on the following:
The workshop commenced with Ms Simra Khan welcoming all the participants to the workshop and detailing to them on the outcome they can expect. Post which Mr. Arun Panicker discussed with the participants on how the BSSS Incubation Centre is supporting students with Start-up ideas and also a couple of external incubates. There was also a briefing him on the workshop and different stages of developing a start-up, primarily problem identification which can lead to some innovation by the participants.
Ms. Simra then invited Dr. Arti Mudaliar, Nodal Officer of BSSS Incubation Centre who addressed the participants about the event and motivated them to approach BSSS Incubation Centre with start-up idea after benefiting from the workshop. She then introduced and invited Dr. Anurag S.D. Rai to the workshop with a round of applause. There after the stage was taken up by Dr. Anurag Rai for the day.
Dr. Rai detailed about his professional experiences to the participants and also introduced his Incubation Centre by briefing them about their achievements in Start-up ecosystem. There on he detailed on the various aspects of planning and designing a start-up. He initiated with a discussion on 6 lenses, in which he discussed on faster approach, execution, better, cheaper, simpler, greener and smarter. There after he discussed on the importance of pitching by detailing on how first generation or futuristic business plans should be presented. The pitch should give extra detailing on raw cost, cost of founder logistics and margins to middlemen.
The next he did a detailed discussion with the participants on what are the challenges they want to resolve with their business idea, will it be business challenge, operations challenge, customers challenge or arrive at challenge statement for each category.
With a small break, he continued the workshop by initiating the discussion on market opportunities which can be seized by anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur by conducting market analysis on growing business trends, changes in technologies, demographics, industry 4.0, government policies and customer & market trends. Post this he gave his guidance on conducting customer research for a minimum viable product by identifying of real problems, frustrations, desires, products, aspirations, future customer needs and customers constraints. After a detailed discussion on MVP, the next topic that was detailed and discussed by Dr. Anurag Rai on Smart Product Formation. The detailing on smart product formation was done by making the participants understand what is articulated needs, unreserved markets, unresolved challenges, unorganized markets and opportunities unseen by competition.
During the workshop, on the basis of the elements being discussed, the participants were identifying particulars as per the requirement of the ideas they were working on. In continuation to the session, he explained on new market segments and how price and customers are factors to it. Dr Anurag was accompanied by Entrepreneurwoods a start-up incuabated by his Incubation Centre. The founder also detailed on their journey from identification of problem which led to the opportunity of being an entrepreneur and factors on which extra effort should be given by budding entrepreneurs.
With another break for lunch, the workshop resumed with the expert initiating the discussion on Lean Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas. He explained on the importance of Lean Canvas in pitching as why is it required when a start-up pitches its idea to an investor. He detailed the various aspects and features of lean canvas which are:
Post his detailing, the participants were asked to prepare the lean canvas on the basis of their understanding and request for the guidance of the experts. There was a discussion by participants to understand the detailing on various particulars they should detail in lean canvas. Most of the participants were working on the lean canvas in the team and couple of them were individuals. They were assigned 45 minutes of time to work on the canvas and fill in the particulars with the guidance of the experts. After the completion of the time assigned, Dr. Anurag analysed couple of canvas filled by the participants. It was found that most of the participants understood how to design a lean canvas, with some who had still doubts related to canvas were guided by the Dr. Anurag as per their ideas.
With the help of Lean Canvas Dr. Anurag guided on how to develop a pitch for an idea with Lean Canvas all the factors of a start-up have been identified. He explained all the identified factors have to be aligned and defined properly in the pitch.
A couple of students also presented their business ideas in the workshop as per the learnings and Dr Anurag and other experts guided them on the mistakes they were making and gave their advises for the same. With this, the workshop came to an end with Dr. Arti delivering the vote of thanks and appreciating the efforts given by Dr. Anurag to guide the participants attending the workshop. She also appreciated the efforts by Dr Rana Shahwal from the Department of Commerce and Dr Darshan Subherwal from the Department of Management to promote their students for the workshop.