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.
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.
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.
Emerge with a clear roadmap, a practical toolkit, and a well rounded understanding of what makes a startup successful.
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.
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.
Ashish Kanaujia is known for the conversion of ideas from lab scale to commercial scale. He brings more than 20 years of experience in multiple dimensions of technologies, Ashish’s area of expertise varies from Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and Brain Computer Interface to Healthcare as well as ICT. He has worked as a consultant with various offshore clients and MNCs. Ashish is very instrumental in mentoring startups and already running incubation centres at Greater Noida, Lucknow and Kanpur. Currently, he is mentoring and providing technological guidance to a number of startups at iCreate (a Government of Gujarat TBI). His experience to work with engineers, academicians, patent attorneys and being inventor by himself make him sync well with the new emerging technologies. He has been an expert in software and electronics. He has been instrumental in ideation and implementation of various electronics and software products in different capacities.
Gladis Nair is a management professional with 17 plus years of experience with multinational companies like Wipro Technologies, HSBC & Tech Mahindra. She has also worked with few of the renowned educational institutions. A university topper in M.phil from Barkatullah Vishwavidyalaya, along with 3 Master’s degrees in English Literature, Sociology and Human resources. She is a globally certified transform trainer. She has also worked as a freelancer with some of the national leading newspapers like MP chronicle, Danik Bhaskar. She has also worked as moderator and hosted various National and international programs.
Mr. Gupta is practising as a Company Secretary for more than 25 years. He is also a visiting faculty at many institutes. He is mentoring many new projects for technocrats at various incubators. He is also associated with various NGOs – the social organizations.
Highly experienced technology professional with 32 years of diverse expertise, holding degrees from India's renowned institutes. Vast contributions in Set Top Boxes, Web Technologies, IoT, Bluetooth, Cryptography, RFID, and more. Guided research projects on media convergence, medical sciences, and mentored successful technology startups. Expertise in software development for Clinical Trials, HR, Security, GIS, Remote Sensing, and Image Processing. Actively involved in various technology forums. Skilled in analyzing business needs, defining technical vision, and streamlining operations to deliver successful products. Continuously updating knowledge through academic and research institutions. A risk-aware consultant with deep business insights.
Dr. Madhukumar Mehta is a technocrat who turned to being a coach for pursuit of next gen entrepreneurship. In the past he has founded three companies. First was a consulting firm to design digital electronics based products (notably calculators). This was followed by Digital Innovations, which designed and marketed computers for diverse applications. The third venture - Anjaleem, created attended PCO and shaped the birth of STD PCO markets in India. Dr. Mehta has mentored many startups and is also involved with many industry, non-profits, university bodies to promote technology and entrepreneurship.
Specialized in mechatronics and control system hardware, backed by over 7 years of teaching experience at renowned engineering institutions. Additionally, have held directorship positions in three start-up companies focused on automation.
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.
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.
An industry and academic professional with 20+ years of experience delivering successful technology, outcomes and transformation.
Mr. K. Thyagrajan has a professional career journey of over 30 years that has traversed across a variety of fields; hard-core engineering (involving design-manufacturing-project management), management consulting, mentoring and propagating next-generation entrepreneurship, and academic teaching in diverse areas of technology, business management and entrepreneurship, and advisory in policy making. He is currently mentoring start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs in the areas of Bio-medical diagnostics, Edutainment, Digital records management, ERP & CRM, Special equipment design and manufacturing, Energy conservation products, Environmental conservation, and APPs development. Mr. Thyagrajan was earlier involved in setting up and running a unique Technology Business Incubator - NirmaLabs for close to four years (2004-2007), as its Chief Executive where he mentored over 40 potential entrepreneurs across 8 projects that have been set up as commercial ventures in High Technology sectors including electronics, computer science, mechatronics, biotechnology, and pharmacy. He is currently on the Advisory Board of some of these ventures. In his earlier stint for over 25 years with Mott MacDonald Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Thyagrajan served in various capacities; starting out as a Management Consultant to heading their India operations as General Manager - HR and Learning & Development. As a Management Consultant he was associated with a variety of business advisory projects and consulting engagements for several leading business houses in India, MNCs, central and state governments and multilateral agencies like The World Bank, ADB, EC, etc. Mr. Thyagrajan is a Mechanical Engineer by education, with a PGD in Business and Industrial Management.
Changing environment reiterating the need and importance of quick and reliable technology solutions in accordance with local needs.
