SRINOVATION
THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUB
OF
SRI SRI UNIVERSITY
About Srinovation:
Srinovation, the Entrepreneurship Club of Sri Sri University (SSU) was established in 2014, with an objective to cultivate the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship among our students. Srinovation provides a platform for transforming innovative ideas into reality. The club aims to inspire individuals to become not only good managers, but also great leaders. We make sure that the graduate and post graduate students get exposed to the Startup world, thereby encouraging them to start their own ventures. We achieve that by organising various events such as; workshops, seminars, startup week, boot camp, pitch lab, etc. Srinovation has taken initiatives to organize talks with founders of emerging and successful startups to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs. Mentoring sessions by successful entrepreneurs have been organized to guide the student entrepreneurs to evaluate their ideas and support them at the embryonic stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
Vision:
To develop, enhance and carve out the inner entrepreneurial potentials of the students by way of providing them an opportunity.
Mission:
The mission of Srinovation is to encourage students to be job creators to address the unemployment issue of India.
Snapshot of Entrepreneurship Development Events Organized by Srinovation
Inspirational Talk by Alumni Entrepreneurs
Alumni entrepreneurs play a major role in motivating the students to get in to entrepreneurship. Sri Sri University organized SSU Alumni Entrepreneurs Talk (SAE Talk) on 18th and 19th January, 2019. Our alumni; Mr. Dipankar Lamba, Mr. Utkarsh Jain, founders, Stellargrid Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Kameshwar Kota, Founders, Leafera Mr. Jil Bimani, Founder, Sri Sri Embark, Mr. Sharnam Harish, CMO, Beach Sports Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Bibhu Prusty, founder, Krushak, Ms. Niveditha Peddi, founder, JGD Educational Services Pvt Ltd., shared their entrepreneurial journey with the students of SSU and motivated them to start their ventures. The alumni entrepreneurs also assured them to support at each stage of their entrepreneurial journey through mentoring and linkage to different stakeholders of the startup ecosystem.
Hackathon- HACK4FOOD:
A two-day Hackathon – HACK4FOOD was organized in collaboration with Startup Odisha at Sri Sri University on 29-30 March, 2019. 57 aspiring and budding entrepreneurs from OUAT, Utkal University, GEC, Birla Global University, SOA University, KIIT University, etc. participated in the Hackathon. The theme for the Hackathon was the technologies in Agri and Food Processing sector. Twelve prototypes were developed by the participants in the areas of IOT based apiculture, soil moisture management app, app for market linkage for farmers, horticulture, aquaculture, fertilizer management, micro irrigation, etc.
Startup Forerunner:
Startup Forerunner was the weeklong event organized from 9-14th Sept. 2019 at Sri Sri University. This platform united different stakeholders of the startup ecosystem such as; entrepreneurs, mentors, successful startup founders, alumni entrepreneurs, financial experts, industry experts and policy makers. 82 aspiring and budding entrepreneurs from various institutes of Odisha participated in the event. 17 mentors were invited to mentor the entrepreneurs on various areas such as; idea generation and idea validation, prototype development, IPR, value proposition, how to register the legal entity, Govt. initiatives for startup support, etc. Two prospective investors were also invited to this programme and they shared their rich experience on investor readiness. This event assisted the aspiring and budding entrepreneurs to shape their ideas and launching their ventures.
Startup Boot Camp:
A week long programme was organized by Startup India at Sri Sri University and more than 300 startup ideas were generated by students of the University during the Boot camp and SSU received the award from Chief Minister of Odisha for contributing maximum number of startup ideas.
Mentoring by Successful Entrepreneurs:
A mentoring session was organized on 9th November, 2019 for the budding and aspiring entrepreneurs of SSU. Successful entrepreneurs of the startup ecosystem such as; Mr. S.K. Mohanty, founder Atharv Tech Pvt. Ltd, Mr. B.K. Sahoo, founder, Playbook Consulting Pvt. Ltd. CA R.K. Gupta mentored the students on various areas of entrepreneurship such as; idea validation process, cofounder identification, business model canvas, digital marketing, cash flow management, pitch deck for investors. The participants clarified their doubts from the mentors.
Idea Competition:
To encourage the culture of entrepreneurship among students an idea competition was organized for the aspiring student entrepreneurs of Sri Sri University on 11th Dec. 2019. 47 students participated in the idea competition and 12 ideas were presented. Most of the ideas were from Agriculture, food processing sector and social sector. The jury members guided the participants on how to develop minimum viable product and register their startups.
Workshop on How to Identify Cofounders:
A right founding team is very crucial for success of any startup and most of the startup founders face problem in identifying their cofounders. Many startups have failed due to lack of cohesion and proper understanding between co-founders. To overcome this challenge, Sri Sri University organized a workshop on “How to identify your Cofounders” on 18th January, 2020, where students from National Law University, KIIT University, DRIEMS, IMI Bhubaneswar participated in the workshop. Students were trained on different entrepreneurship styles and also trained on how to identify cofounders based on certain psychological tests during the workshop. The session was conducted by Mr. Deepak Motwani, ex-regional manager, National Entrepreneurship Network.
Global Ideathon:
20.5 million people lost their jobs in April, 2020 at global level, due to Covid-19, as per a recent study by CNBC and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Understanding the requirement of job creation, Sri Sri University organized a Virtual Global Ideathon from 7th – 9th August, 2020. Participants from 7 different countries, 20 plus states of India and from premium institutes such as IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikode, VIT, XIMB, etc pitched their ideas. This programme was mentored by established startup founders and industry experts and other key stakeholders of Stratup ecosystem from 9 different countries. Chief Guest, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director, Kent RO Systems Ltd, Guest of Honours like Dr. Pravat K. Roul, MD, APICOL, and Dr. S.K. Sahoo, Director In-charge, MSME-DI, Cuttack inspired the young entrepreneurs.
The uniqueness of the event was:
- Top 5 ideas/teams got mentoring support for next 6 months at zero cost, by a group of experienced mentors of Sri Sri University.
- Top 5 ideas/teams got the opportunity to pitch their ideas to prospective investors
- Top 5 ideas in Social / CSR sector got access to pitch to International Association of Human Values (IAHV) and got the opportunity to tap to seed funding.
This Global Ideathon was not just another entrepreneurship competition, but it was a support platform for budding and aspiring entrepreneurs to convert their ideas in to actions and dreams in to reality, by providing handholding support at each stage of their entrepreneurial journey, which will lead to job creation in Post Covid-19 difficult times.
The event was blessed by Sri Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Hon’ble Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India.