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Business News/ Opinion / The importance of the right ecosystem for entrepreneurs
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The importance of the right ecosystem for entrepreneurs

While India may have a long way to go to achieve the vibrancy of a Silicon Valley ecosystem, it is developing its own model and connectedness that is bearing fruit

Clusters of campus ecosystems are beginning to form a web of connectedness that is both practical and self propagating. Photo: BloombergPremium
Clusters of campus ecosystems are beginning to form a web of connectedness that is both practical and self propagating. Photo: Bloomberg

There ARE more entrepreneurs than there are in India!" The cryptic comment was made by a colleague several years ago when we were returning from a meeting with aspiring entrepreneurs on an educational campus. She was alluding to the fact that there clearly were a lot of potential entrepreneurs, who, with the right environment and support would actively start companies. After many years and multiple editions of Tata First Dot, powered by the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), student entrepreneurs have proved us right. Every year there are more young students who are starting up businesses while still on campus. What has brought about this change?

NEN has worked in the intervening years to build the right environment and an ecosystem on campus, starting with entrepreneurship clubs, or E Cells.

Data from the 2014 competition shows clearly that over 85% of participating student entrepreneurs are active within their E Cells and engage in multiple activities ranging from the inspirational, such as direct interaction with entrepreneurs to hands-on learning through, B Plan competitions, internships at start-ups and running campus companies.

Workshops and mentoring seem to gain greater importance once the students start up their own companies. A closer look at such student entrepreneurs, especially those with more advanced start-ups, shows that participation is not limited to activities that are available on their own campus alone. These student entrepreneurs seek relevant support from programmes and activities through the network across other E Cells and organizations.

“When I came across a programme that looked interesting, I said to myself ‘I will go once and see what it is like’." said Rakesh Singh, co-founder of the travel and accommodation start-up Room n House, a winner from the 2013 edition of First Dot and a second-time entrepreneur. Like most students he was undecided about what he wanted to do. The decision to be an entrepreneur, when it’s made, is gradual and not an overnight one. Therefore, proximity to an active ecosystem facilitates more participation in programmes and allows entrepreneurship to slowly seep into an individual’s DNA. Singh actively sought mentoring, networking and other programmes from his own campus and even more from across E Cells at other colleges in Mumbai. “Networks help," he says. “Hearing other people’s experiences helped me to refine my business model, figure out legalities and other things, all of which was very useful as I built my company."

Ecosystems we find are very much about touch and feel; they need to be visible, predictably active and easily accessible to people. Our own experience of building an ecosystem indicates strongly that the mantra for an effective ecosystem might be to “Go local" and “Think clusters".

So while India may have a long way to go to achieve the vibrancy of a Silicon Valley ecosystem, it is certainly developing its own model and connectedness that is bearing fruit; certainly in the student entrepreneurship space. We see that more campuses in the network today have active and prominent student entrepreneurship ecosystems. Even more significantly, these campus ecosystems are actively beginning to connect to one another. They are sharing resources, ideas, show-casing role models, co-leading programmes and actively encouraging participation of aspiring and student entrepreneurs from each other’s campuses. We believe that these clusters of campus ecosystems are beginning to form a web of connectedness that is both practical and self propagating. So indeed, we will see that there will be even more entrepreneurs on campuses and in the community in the years to come!

Sunita Singh is senior director and co-founder, National Entrepreneurship Network.

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Published: 27 Jan 2014, 12:12 AM IST
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