About Program in brief

iCreate Idea Accelerator

iIA is an introductory programme aimed at idea-stage startups. With this programme, we help you translate your idea into a profitable business plan. Its starting point is you – a person with an idea ready to find its market. iIA is designed to provide each participant extensive mentoring and field work so that they evolve a complete financial roadmap for their idea.

What’s in for you

Immersive learning journey focussing on your own project

Personalised guidance by seasoned startup mentors and industry experts

Certificate of participation from iCreate, India's leading incubator of startups based on tech innovation

Personalised scorecard based on 5 parameters critical to building a successful startup

Hands-on learning that provides you practical, real world insights

Learning through peer interaction, team mentoring, and one-to-one mentoring

Experience of pitching to investors and industry experts, with guidance on pitch preparation

iCreate-Best-Incubator-in-India-Ecosystem-Corporate

Get access to our Alumni Network

Being an entrepreneur is a magical, liberating feeling. Magical because you are the creator of something that did not exist before. An innovation, a business, or as we like to put it, an innovation-led business. It is about transforming your dreams into reality, and building something of great value. Liberating because, when you start up, you are your own boss. You are motivated not by HR’s appraisals and increments, but by the fire in your belly to create something that will make an impact.

 

What does it take to start up:

It all begins with a dream. Though just dreaming is not good enough. You must have a strong sense of conviction in your dream. But still be open to good advice. You must be willing to work very, very hard. Handle rejection. Restart by working hard once again. You must be comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity in your life. Yet learn to present your case with well-structured logic. You must have an insatiable curiosity about technology. Yet recognise that tech is as good as the human needs it fulfils. You must draw on your inner reserves when even near and dear ones have doubts. Yet learn to build a circle of believers.

This is an introductory programme that helps you translate your idea into a profitable business plan. Its starting point is you – a person with an idea ready to find its market. iIA is an intensive programme designed to provide you extensive mentoring and entails field work with actual customers, so that you can evolve a complete financial, strategic and operational roadmap for your idea. It not only helps you decide whether your idea has the potential to be a successful business, it also provides you invaluable inputs on how to refine it, or pivot if necessary.
We strongly believe in personalised interactions, whether it is one-on-one mentoring or assessment by domain experts.

The iIA programme consists of three mentor-guided modules:

Module 1: Validating your idea by defining the value you bring to your customers, visualising your target market and its size, understanding the assumptions that drive your revenue and costs, converting all of this into a projected financial plan.

Module 2: Talking to potential customers, so you can see through their eyes the value you bring to them, validating your revenue and cost assumptions, understanding the product-market fit, and what it will take to build a successful business.

Module 3: Using market feedback to modify your idea, and pivoting if needed to align to market requirements, so that when you launch, you are better prepared to hit the ground running.

  • Identifying your customer’s pain point
  • Crafting your value proposition
  • FAB (Features-Advantages-Benefits) analysis
  • Basics of market research
  • Resources you need to start up
  • Cost and revenue assumptions
  • Understanding early-stage funding
  • Basics of making a financial plan
  • Process of creating startups and accelerating them into unicorns

Emerge with a clear roadmap, a practical toolkit, and a well rounded understanding of what makes a startup successful.

  • Financial roadmap
  • Assistance in making a business plan
  • Idea validation by customers
  • Experience of pitching to an expert panel
  • Opportunity to get support and prototype development grant of up to Rs 10 lakh
  • Actionable feedback through a granular Project
  • Assessment Scorecard on critical success factors

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria for applicants:

This is an introductory programme that helps you translate your idea into a profitable business plan. Its starting point is you – a person with an idea ready to find its market.

Previous Batches

Batch 04
Batch 05
Batch 06
iIA4-Batch

The fourth batch of iIA was conducted from 26th October 2020 to 6th November 2020. This batch attracted very innovative 12 startups.

Batch 04
iIA5-Batch

The fifth batch of iIA was conducted from 4th January 2021 to 19th January 2021. This batch attracted very innovative 14 startups.

Batch 05
iIA6-Batch

The sixth batch of iIA was conducted from 5th April 2021 to 16th April 2021. This batch attracted very innovative 10 startups.

Batch 06

Our Mentors

At iCreate, we recognise how important good mentors are to guiding, challenging, motivating startups in translating their dreams into reality. We assign each startup a mentor or a group of mentors to shape the desired outcome as per a pre-planned schedule. Seasoned and accomplished technical as well as business mentors guide all our projects with a mandate to drive the startup founders towards achieving mutually determined outcomes.

Dr. Raashid Saiyed

Marketing Consultant, iCreate

With diverse experience across industries, consulting, academia and startup incubation, Dr Saiyed is a CEO coach and mentor to startups, specialising in strategy and marketing. His areas of interest include guiding organisations in building attractive valuation, and articulation of innovations that have distinctive value propositions.

Mr. Vinit Taneja

Founder, Tresonance Consulting

Vinit is an IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta alumnus with 40+ years of experience. His work is focused on helping leaders and CXOs, including startup founders, to become successful. He specialises in holistic wellbeing, competencies assessment, personal and executive coaching, culture building, and leadership development.

Mr. Shantanu Chaturvedi

Lead Technology Analyst, iCreate

Shantanu is an avid technologist with vast experience in managing prototyping programmes for early-stage startups, end-to-end, from evaluating technologies to helping build a market-ready product. His core competencies include PCB design, circuit design and electronics.

Ms. Tejashree Shah

Consultant, iCreate

With experience of over 5 years in mentoring startups, Tejashree offers expert inputs in the areas of strategic planning, FAB analysis and pitching.

Mr. Jatin Kataria

Founder & CEO, We Shape up

A serial entrepreneur and innovation consultant, Jatin has been active in the global startup ecosystem for over a decade in different capacities - as a mentor, speaker, jury member.

Mr. Shantanu Poddar

Marketing & Sales Consultant, iCreate

Versatile Result-oriented business leader having close to 28 years of rich experience spanning across leadership & tactical roles in diverse industry landscape including Electric vehicles ,Automotive, Telecom and Office Automation. Adept at working in high pressure environments with strict deadlines and multiple deliverables, having been recognized for driving high-value revenue & profit gains and improved organizational productivity & performance. Identifying practical opportunities and implementing strategic plans to secure strong and sustainable streams of revenue.

Mr. Hemang Vaidya

Incubation Manager, iCreate

Leading the Incubation development of iCreate and being part of core TBI and incubation team for 4 years, Hemang has a wide portfolio of supporting startups at different stages through techno-commercial mentoring. At iCreate, Hemang is responsible for screening and evaluating startup applications, Development of startup lifecycle management as well organizational incubation processes. With postgraduate degree in engineering and having wide experience in business incubation, he carries out research & development for innovation & technology, Incubation of projects, Heading management and supervision of Technology Laboratories like CISCO and Prayas Shala, Establishment of Centre of Excellences for iCreate, Support to startup ecosystem through engagement with government and private stakeholders. He also represents iCreate as an evaluator, jury and delivers expert sessions to external incubation centres and institutions

Mr. Nikunj Trivedi

Account Consultant, iCreate

A qualified chartered accountant having 5 years of experience in the area of accounting and finance. He helps startups build up their financial roadmap and also provides mentoring on taxation and legal matters.

Testimonials

What our participants have to say

I learnt that skills can be sharpened with proper guidance and mentoring. The programme really boosted my confidence. What worked well for me was the one-to-one individual guidance and frank feedback on my innovation.

Saurabh Baviskar

Founder, Warm Water

I learnt that I need to have more hands-on experience and knowledge, develop the ability to do large scale quality work within a short time span, and to bounce back after failure. Also, how to validate my idea, build my network, and tap into the energy of people.

Preet Kadivar

Founder, PPV Streamings

I learnt that one needs a combination of business intelligence and design interventions to build a successful startup. I found the one-on-one mentoring extremely useful in bringing greater clarity to my product-market mapping.

Arun Kushwaha

Founder, Some Hands With Hearts

It was a fabulous experience! Although the programme was virtual, we didn't feel any problem because the mentors were available 24x7 for any discussions or clarifications. We now have a clear idea about how we want to take our business forward, as well as an end-to-end vision for our business.

Vinaya Sathyanarayana

Founder, Sthana.ai

Changing environment reiterating the need and importance of quick and reliable technology solutions in accordance with local needs.