The November edition of Startup Saturday was held on the 8th of November at SP Jain and the focus was on social enterprises. Social entrepreneurs bring in their techno-commercial expertise in the domain of human and environmental well-being. They do not wait for others to solve the problems faced by a society but take it upon themselves to fix the issues. With the country booming on the economic front, there is a greater need to align the society with the increasing economy. This has led to a number of individuals taking up the mantle for the holistic betterment of the standard of life and hence, Startup Saturday had decided to portray their various endeavours through our forum.
We had six great speakers to throw light on the various aspects of the leading a for profit organisation in the social space and a beautiful message through a lightning pitch followed by a networking session.
Our first speaker was Dhruv Lakra from Mirakle couriers. Mirakle unlike others offers jobs to individuals who cannot hear and speak. It is his way of giving them an equal chance in life and not considering them any less than others. This thinking helped him establish Mirakle as a trustworthy brand and his hard work won him a national award in 2010. He spoke about not being different than any other courier service in terms of efficiency but still not being accepted in that manner by a number of organisations. He enthralled the audience by having an interaction throughout his duration and did a great job at drilling home the point of Mirakle being an effective time-bound courier delivery service.
Our second speakers were Aditi Shrivastava and Sohil Shah from Intellecap. Intellecap helps build and scale sustainable enterprises. They work with an entrepreneur from ideation phase to its acceleration. Intellecap helps find a right investor for every startup as every young entrepreneur needs a good mentor as sometimes only money can’t help grow a startup. They explained the entire phase from incubation to making it big but made sure the audience does not fall for the fallacy of not getting incubated is equal to no success. They said that close to 95% of startups in India reach the VC phase without the need of seed money.
The third speaker for the day was Paroma Bhattacharya from UnLtd India. UnLtd India is a launch for Social entrepreneurs as they support individuals wanting to bring a change to India’s social problems. She spoke about their selection criteria boiling down to 4 ‘I’. The first being Individual, the scoring point is passion for the idea. The second is for Idea, will it bring about a change. The third is for Impact, will it have far reaching consequences and the fourth for Incubation, can the idea click with a seed fund of 2 lakhs. Since UnLtd India is a not for profit organisation with no stake in the entrepreneur’s startup, they don’t give a seed fund beyond 2.5 lakhs.
Paroma along with Intellecap helped the audience understand the process behind a starting a social enterprise. The audience realised that the working will remain the same in spite of the sector one ventures in and also the joy in realising the dreams of the underprivileged.
Our fourth speakers were Jahan Jamas and Sanvar Oberoi from BOHECO. BOHECO was recently incubated by UnLtd India for their vision to solve the problems in agriculture. They grow hemp, popularly known as bhang in rural India along with the native farmers. Growing hemp is legal as per NDPS Act as long as it’s only for industrial purposes. Hemp as an additive has been used as automobile fuel and is stronger than steel. Hemp can easily be grown here as India has the most suitable environmental conditions for the same. It opens up a largely untapped market in India as hemp can be used in food, clothing and shelter. Jahan and Sanvar made everyone realise that use of hemp in a number of applications, thereby creating a whole new industry. The audience was intrigued by the industrial use of bhang other than getting oneself stoned. They asked the audience to visualise use of other native agricultural products in a similar sector which in turn will help boost poverty alleviation in rural areas. Their vision was also appreciated by the Govt. of India and they were rightly sponsored for their endeavour.
Our last speaker for the evening was Suhani Mohan from Healthera. Suhani met her team on a Jagriti Yatra, which she had embarked as she always wanted to do her bit for the society. Healthera designs and manufactures innovative machines in the healthcare space for rural India. They have currently working on spreading awareness on sanitary pads in Indian heartland. Their journey helped them realise that women not being breadwinners, their health was never looked after. They would therefore have to use their own piece of clothing without realising the ill consequences of the same. She made everyone realise the health issues being faced by people living outside cities and an immense need to provide innovative solutions to their problems.
All our Speakers gave us a pretty thorough insight into the social enterprise sector and urged the audience to take up issues close to their hearts. The audience had a great time connecting with the speakers during the networking session and also got a better understanding behind the motives of our speakers in taking up their respective paths.
Writeup by:
Vibhav Gupta, Volunteer @SSMUM Team
An electrical engineer, currently working with Reliance, whose startup aim is to work in the field of renewable energy.