Accelerating entrepreneurship among budding bizmen

Vijayawada: The AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) has introduced Accelerator Programme at various city colleges as part of a pilot project, which aims to develop entrepreneurship skills among young businessmen. They have associated with Northeastern University, Boston, USA, to provide a framework along with guidance and resources, which will help students turn their ideas into viable business ventures.
“We have conducted around 55 different events, including boot camps and contests for business ideas, and selected around 320 students from various colleges in and around the city in August 2017,” said Krish Nangegadda, adviser, NU-IDEA India Entrepreneur-in-Residence, International Institute of Entrepreneurship Development (i2E). Nangegadda, who moved from Boston, USA, to the city for the pilot project, is the man behind the foundation of i2E, an initiative of APSSDC.
The students are trained in using 14 video modules, which deal with aspects, market introduction and intelligence collection from the market. The students have exciting ideas but lack the skills to implement them.
The project has three stages like Ready, Set, and Go. Currently, there are some 106 ideas in ready stage, and the students will demonstrate their coached ideas on July 2 before the committee, which wil also comprise the professors from Northeastern University. In the ‘Set’ stage, students will have to come up with business and revenue models, and develop projections.
In the ‘Go’ stage, the students will be asked to pitch their plans to the investors. “Once the ideas pass through all the stages successfully, we connect students to investors,” he said.