"The success ÃÃÃÂ of young entrepreneur will be the key to India's transformation in the new millennium."Ã
Is the statement said by Dhirubhai Ambani and somehow Mr. Chintan Bakshi, the Chief operating officer of startup oasis is flourishing it through the startup oasis platform which is fostering innovation driven enterprise in Rajasthan. Startup oasis serves as an incubation center in Jaipur to inspire and support the students especially aspiring entrepreneurs. Chintan Bakshi was a student passed from IIM Bangalore and has over 9 years of experience in the industry says that an entrepreneur is:
"Someone who has zeal to make a new change which can create an impact in society. The initial few years of startup will be quite tough, but they will have the zeal and passion to innovate something new while there are few people who are madly driven by money and they can never be an entrepreneur"Ã
And it is very true because an entrepreneur is the person who "Start where he is, use what he have, and do what he can."Ã
Exhilarating Saga of Mr. Bakshi
When we asked him about his educational background and past experiences he said that " I have passed from a conventional kind of educational background and stayed in corporate companies for about 5-6 years. After that I started my own venture in the year 2001, a business 2 business e-commerce company with two of my batch mates and things did not go well and then I decided to move out of this corporate rat race; that moment I realized to work in semi urban rural areas where I can use technology for the benefit of people. Then I thought about bottom of the pyramid space, if technology can be used to edify people and joined grassroots innovation where I learned working in rural areas and after 2 years I joined very early stage startup which was named as united villages where I co-founded India operations and done many pilots and expanded operations as CEO of that company. After a few years in 2013, I joined startup oasis which is a joint venture of IIM Ahmedabad CIIE, RICOO to operate various incubation programs in Rajasthan"Ã.
Startup Oasis-an Incubation center cum Helping Hand
About Startup oasis Mr Bakshi nimbly said that "We work with innovative companies and help few companies and students as a start-up support with 5 modules. We have different programs for disparate levels of startups like for early stage we have a program called launch board in which the startup's are launched that means those who want to be an entrepreneur can come to startup oasis incubation centers and light demonstrations are given to them so that they are able to find some startup ideas themselves.
The second level of programs is pre-accelerators which are meant for those startups who have already launched things in the market and have few sales and customers with them. Then we at startup oasis provide them guidelines, how to create a business model through some mentoring and hand holding; finally try to provide them some seed investors. The third level of mentoring is for more matured startups who require funding, we help them by providing some investors and also provide them training's. The fourth plan is a startup oasis growth program which requires a good customer validation, i.e. they have already some kind of funding, but need to grow more through certain fund raising etc.
We at startup oasis also provide Co-working space with a very nominal fee where people can come and find a good networking, a good energy and track for the startup. At present our 65-70 seats has already been reserved with startup's, designers, developers etc".
He explained us that, startup oasis basically works on the implementation of the Rajasthan Startup Policy.
On the day of inauguration of Rajasthan startup policy Vasundhara Raje, the chief minister of Rajasthan said that "If Bengaluru is where it all began in startups, I can assure you Rajasthan is where it is going to be. It is a very important step in the history of Rajasthan,"Ã
And startup oasis follows this Policy and also promotes it; Mr. Bakshi said that those who want to apply for any of the mentioned plans of startup oasis can apply for the same on the website of startup oasis through a simple application form.
Mr. Bakshi sedately explained that, since the work they are doing is very intensive and they are concentrated to all stages of startup so they help only the startup's located in the Rajasthan State Region, but if in case there is Delhi based startup and has a significant effect on the Rajasthan state or might expand in the Rajasthan, then they will definitely consider those startups.
Pushing entrepreneurship through Training
Students are trained through boot camps in which there is a three day program where students work with startup oasis and introduce some kind of concepts in which students can define their ideas. These are concepts like design thinking, lean model methodologies, etc. and to create a business model around their ideas. Students are given opportunities for pitching sessions and all the boot camps are done in the colleges. Chintan Bakshi also informed us that,
"Last year they have done boot camps in 5 colleges and this year they are planning to have boot camp in 30 colleges, if they get proper funds from government. The procedure we follow is, we talk to the college administration to have boot camps as we don't have access to students and if the college management agrees we have the camps in that particular college who agrees. Till date we have trained around 1200 students and in July we will have a startup festival in Kota"Ã.
According to Chintan Bakshi experience is good for any kind of jobs and even for startups. He suggested that if any student wants to be an entrepreneur than he should start with the research work from the 2nd year of college and do theÃÃÃÂ trainingÃÃÃÂ in the specific company. For example, if someoneÃÃÃÂ wants to have a startup in the solar space then they can do internship in that particular company which have certain kind of plants. The Business plan andÃÃÃÂ PilotsÃÃÃÂ prototype should have beenÃÃÃÂ started when students pass from the college and whenever they graduate should pitch forÃÃÃÂ funding's. ÃÃÃÂ
On asking him about his views that education and tags of big colleges like IIT's and IIM's are necessary to start any kind of startup's and he said, "It was compulsory about 20-25 years back when people had limited choices and going to abroad because they had limited choices. If you talk about college degree it is not of great relevance, only the passion and attitude is important. The college may be the helping hand or would be without a college education if one has ideas for a startup"Ã.
"Children must be taught how to think, not what to think"Ã, Chintan Bakshi believes in this and delivers that our education system must be much more practical than the conventional type of education system.; it should give enough space to flower especially at the school level.
Lastly, he wished Brainbuxa a best of luck and said that, "Brainbuxa provides a good platform for students because at college and school level, there is a lack of awareness and it empowers the students through information. Brainbuxa provides more choice and adds significant value to the students. The access to knowledge and information about making choices for career is great at Brainbuxa"Ã.
