In the Indian start-up eco-system, we are seeing lot of buzz. Money is flowing in from outside and it is bound to attract non-serious players in the market too. However, during 2016 and H1 2017, we have seen over 200 visible start-ups in India failed. According to CB Insights, top 5 reasons of startup failure are no market need (42%), ran out of cash (29%), not the right team (23%), Get over-competed (19%), Pricing / cost issues (18%).
Considering this market fit, execution ability of the founders become core. Current market trend of putting money in the venture first and mentoring thereafter, is creating a void of mismanaged expectation, wrong selection and in-sufficient due diligence.
In such a scenario, Able2enable, a 16-week accelerator program aim to address the needs of start-ups and investors alike. The program is built on the concept of design-thinking where both start up founder and investor must be able to find desirability of their product / investment in their respective customer. This means mentoring precedes the investment, to provide potential investors a chance to interact with the founders and vice versa, to consciously choose their partners, as the journey needs partners and not just investors. “Here CXOs from the corporate join as mentor in the program, expose connections and guide founders ably, as they do to their business, and think of investment during this journey once trust and venture understanding has been established both way”, said Ashish Jain, chief evangelist at The Startup Board.
He further explains, “Corporate investment have added advantage of tapping customers, deep domain knowledge and available mentors”. Investment is strategic for the start-up and thus increases the chances of success. To the corporate, they do not need to invest upfront in captive R&D to bring new technology, products or services to the market or to their own clients. Such partnerships work better.
Program includes CEO of Liqvid Vivek Agarwal, co-founder of Nucleus software Yogesh Andley, CEO of Huges Systique Vinod Sood, Digital Head at Café Coffee Day Nikhil Kumar, CEO of Sattviko Prasoon Gupta, former head of IIM B incubation Suryanarayan, SEBI registered category one 100 cr fund owner Rahul Narvekar, CTO of Innerchef Sanjeev Singhal, COO of French Sopra Steria Sunil Goyal, CEO of Cash Karo Rohan Bhargava, Partner at startup assessment company Oddup among over 30 such mentors.
Application to the program are open till 7th Nov and program starts from 2nd Dec, every Saturday, for 16 weeks and over a year thereafter through virtual means.
