28 Jul 2019, Indore, VSTART:
- Idea Validation
- Mentoring
- Co-working
- GTM strategizing
- Funding & Scaling
These are the fundamentals of the StartUp Cycle and most incubators strive hard to offer all these services efficiently. One such prominent incubator from Indore Madhya Pradesh had a candid chat with Way2World.
VSTART is an all-in-one solution to ideators to walk in with an idea and after a certain period walk-out with a successful enterprise.
The founding team of VSTART are Vikas Singh and Meenakshi Tirulkar, while the former had the vision the later efficiently executed the strategy to become a brand in the local ecosystem and now they are trying to outreach globally, through networking with like-minded entities. We had a chance to interact with Vikas Singh who briefed us on how VSTART was functioning.
How is the ecosystem in Madhya Pradesh?
MP has a good startup ecosystem particularly in Indore and Bhopal. Overall MP has 517 registered StartUps (the number is feeling on daily basis) 28 incubators and a start-up and incubation policy in place.
How is the state Government support?
Government is doing ample policies to give an edge to the StartUp Ecosystem in the state. And much to our delight things have started taking good shape after Shri VC Dubey became nodal officer. Of course lots means to be done yet but we are on the right path.
What are the challenges in Madhya Pradesh?
Lack of funds, bureaucracy, poor academic institution and almost zero support from banks are four major challenges we are facing.
How are the stakeholders reacting in the eco system and their system?
The main stake holders are:
1) Government: They need to improve on the responsive time to make things faster. This would help the issues stay within control.
2) Academic institutes: They organize many events, however we need dedicated institutions that focus on quality research both in technologies or management.
3) Entrepreneurs: They are good in spite of all adversities they are able to make their way out and some of them have even got national and global recognition also.
4) Banks: They do not want to take risk of supporting any StartUp. They must change their mind-set to bring a rapid change in the ecosystem.
5) Funds: There are only two angel funds in MP they are funding very less number of companies. However MPVFL (Madhya Pradesh Venture Fund Ltd.) never performed o optimum levels.
How are the events unfolding in MP?
Something about local events in Indore are every week there are 3-4 StartUp , entrepreneurship and networking events taking place. However other than StartUp Yatra and StartUp conclave in 2018 there has been no big event by far. We need more such events to nurture a positive ecosystem. We are planning big one in November, this year.
How VSTART is different?
VSTART is my newest brain child. However it is Ms Meenakshi Tirulkar, who is the face of it. I am just the brain and face she is the hands and soul of it. She is the Co-founder of VSTART.
I am a practising business coach and coaching around 500 companies across the globe. I established first incubator of Madhya Pradesh in January 2018 with MPAKVN Indore (Now known as MPIDC) that was the beginning of start-up ecosystem in MP but while working with government I could see nothing much can be done due to their own limitations so decided to launch my own venture to take the ecosystem to the next level.
How did you come upon this idea?
It came out of pain of not being able to serve people as much as I can. I wanted to take my smart entrepreneurs global, which was not possible at SRIJAN so I started VSTART.
How does the founding team envision for VSTART?
At VSTART ‘we aim to develop Incubators/ Accelerators across the globe on a Franchise Owned Company Operated Model. Here we will identify the partners who will contribute by developing working space as per our specifications and manage it. All Infrastructures related expense would be borne by these franchisees.
VSTART shall act as a bridge between opportunities and the participating businesses. It shall help businesses by providing them with world class coaching and consulting support, office spaces and global network. It shall help Indian entrepreneurs to go global by providing soft landing in the countries like Canada, USA, the Netherlands, Irelands, Singapore and Australia
What is the support you offer new startups apart from space?
1) Mentoring
2) Funding (We are developing our own investors club)
3) Global exposure ( we are developing an accelerator in Canada for Indian entrepreneurs. It will provide a soft landing support to indian entrepreneurs in west.I am here to that thing only
4) Physical and virtual incubation
5) Government connects (Since I am a consultant to government of MP we have a say there.)
6) One on one Mentoring
7) Allied services like HR, Accounting, finance and legal.
What is your USP?
We are the first incubator in MP (probably in india as well which has developed an SLP in Canada for Indian startups. Next year we are going to do it in US as well and in 2021 in Europe). We have our own ERP tool called VAIDIK AI that we offer to our startups for manging their resources. On the basis of the data we help our startups to generate cross sales and up sales.
What is your future plans?
We are developing 10 branches of VSTART, take an intake of around 10 startup in each facility , help at least 10 startups every year to go global. We will launch our community in next quarter and a virtual incubation facility in the last quarter of this fiscal year.
Keep watching for more updates on incubates at VSTART on these pages. Wishing the VSTART team a very grand success as their initiatives will foster the ecosystem breathing in more life into ideas.
#Way2World brings #StartUpNews from #StartUpResources about #StartUpFounders, #Co-Founders, #WomenEntrepreneurs, #WomenLeaders, #StartUpMentors, #StartUpInnovation #StartUpIncubators, #StartUpAccelerators and #StartUpListing. The #StartUpArticles, #StartUpReviews and #StartUpStories discuss about #StartUpFunding, #IndianStart-Ups their #BusinessServices along with #StartUpName and #technologyimpactness. (This story is published from an agency feed without modifications to the text) With Inputs from internet – RajKishan