Sparks New Ventures

Sparks New Ventures is a program, conducted in association with BITSAA to help students create technology-based startups. It is offered as a business plan course and the main purpose is to not only study entrepreneurship but practice it. Student teams are expected to create a startup and write a business plan including all the essential aspects of creating a new venture. The program was launched in Fall 2009 and was an invaluable experience for truly aspiring entrepreneurs.

Salient Features:

• The course features guest lectures from prestigious entrepreneurs, investors and academicians with strong experience in creating and running startups.
• Each team is assigned an experienced entrepreneur mentor who guides them through the semester and beyond. Mentors include successful entrepreneurs and investors from top tier firms (DFJ, Sequoia, Helion, Nokia).
• The teams compete with each other and the best teams will be awarded seed funding to pursue their business idea after the completion of the course.
• Lectures provide introduction to concepts and tools essential to the entrepreneurial process, overview of the technology enterprise, and the role of the individual and team within high-impact ventures.
• Students study and implement various facets of a startup – product development, market research, technology viability, fund raising, competitive analysis, team formation, marketing & sales strategy.

Application Instructions:

• Write an essay in 500 words or less. Include
  
  
  1. Entrepreneurship goals (Why entrepreneurship?)
  2. Entrepreneurship efforts to date
  3. Describe 2 business ideas you would like to pursue. Describe problem, size of problem & solution. If applying as a team, 1 of the business ideas should be shared with the team.
  4. Your Name & Contact (email + phone), Team Name & Members (include primary contact)
• Applicants are encouraged to create a team of 3-5 members prior to applying.
• All applicants should submit individual applications.
• Use Microsoft Word for your submission. Please DO NOT submit Adobe PDF files.
• Students from all years and disciplines are encouraged to apply.
• Email your application to Dr. Arya Kumar (aryakum@gmail.com) and Abhinav Khushraj (akhushraj@bitsaa.org)
  

Lectures & Presentations – Pedagogy:

• Two guest speaker lectures each week on a startup topic
• Elevator pitch contest & three pitch-deck presentations
• Bi-weekly mentoring sessions with the assigned mentor
• Field-trip to New Delhi to meet with entrepreneurs and investors
  

Deadline

The deadline to apply for Sparks New Ventures is April 18, 2010 11:59 P.M.

Sparks New Ventures: Application Process

The application process for Sparks New Ventures is now up. Major updates are

• Details about what to include in the essay
• A FAQs file to answer common queries
• The course is going to be a Project Type Course
  
• Applicants need to send their applications to 3 email IDs
• Uploaded the slide deck and audio clips used during the Info Session on 1oth Apr.
  

Please download the following files for the complete information. For people inside the BITS Pilani Intranet, please click on the Intranet Link for faster download.

• Sparks New Ventures-Application Guidelines (Intranet Link)
• Sparks New Ventures-FAQs (Intranet Link)
• Sparks New Ventures-Info Slide Deck (Intranet Link)
• Sparks New Ventures-Audio Clips (Intranet Link)

You can download these files from jet's DC++ Hub [172.16.10.74]. User : NOTA. Search for Sparks directory.

For any clarifications, write to me at rachit at celbits dot org or talk to me at 97844 61853.

SparkS New Venture : A Course on Offer

The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership is pleased to a announce a new course that'll be offered as Project Type Course : Sparks New Ventures next semester (Aug -Dec 2009) in collaboration with BITSAA International and EDIPRU.

It is a unique course in terms of the pedagogy that invloves leading entrepreneurs, VCs, academicians rom across the globe as speakers, mentors,judges and brings them into the classroom. The top Business Plans that come out of the course will receive seed funding and mentoring beyond the semester

It aims to let students

* Practice entrepreneurship
* Create a technology based startup
* Write business plan including all building blocks
* Attend guest lectures from entrepreneurs, investors and academicians
* Receive mentoring from an experienced professional
* Be eligible for seed funding to pursue idea beyond the semester

The lectures would be taken by speakers like

*Nickhil Jakatdar
*Satish Gupta
*Diaz Nesamoney
*Anurag Jain
*Anand Daniel

The confirmed mentors include

* Prasanna Krishnan, Associate, DFJ
* VT Bharadwaj, Vice President, Sequoia Capital
* Rahul Chandra, Director, Helion Venture Partners
* Abhinav Khushraj, Strategy & Biz Dev Mgt, Nokia


You (BITS Pilani students who would be on-campus during Aug-Dec 2009) have to apply to this course before 2359 hours, 19th April 2009.Only selected people will be able to register for this.

You can either apply alone or in teams of 3-5. You should write an essay(in less than 500 words) which talks about the following

* Entrepreneurship goals (Why entrepreneurship?)
* Entrepreneurship efforts to date (e.g. startup, CEL)
* Describe up to 2 business ideas you would like to pursue

In case you are applying as a team, each member of the team should apply individually.However, please mention the names and ID numbers of your team mates at the top.

The name of the file containing the essay should be .pdf (eg 2006A7PS012.pdf).

Mail your essays to Prof. Arya Kumar and Abhinav Khushraj at all these e mail IDs before the deadline.

• aryakumar at bits hyphen pilani dot ac dot in
  
• aryakum at gmail dot com
• akhushraj at bitsaa dot org

For queries, call Rachit Chandra at +91 97844 61853 or Karteek Addanki at +91 97729 74577