The one-year full time MBA (Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management – EPGP) Class of 2015, at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM B), organized the second edition of its startup event, Connexions 2014, on December 22, 2014.
The EPGP at IIM B is an MBA programme that exclusively recruits candidates with work experience. The programme attracts students who typically have 5 to 15 years work experience – much like one-year full time and two-year full time MBA programmes in USA and Europe.
As per IIM B, many of these students aspire to either start something of their own or join a startup. Startup Connexions at IIM B aims to bring together upcoming startups and EPGP students.
Seven startups attended the campus event this year and made presentations to the participants, highlighting their area of work, present and future goals and the roles they would like to offer to the EPGP students.
Interested EPGP students were interviewed by the founders/senior management of these companies during the event to take the recruitment process forward.
I2India, a startup incubation center and VC, gave insights on the struggles of startups for funding and how their company helps startups grow. Daily Dump, that works in the area of waste management, interacted with the students on how waste can be used for revenue generation.
Well-known startups in the area of e-commerce that attended the event were SellerworX and CBazaar. The digital advertising domain was represented icecreamlabs. Other startups who attended the event were Budli, a re-commerce venture, and Gifting Nation, an e-commerce platform for gifts.
“We are really pleased that Startup Connexions has been able to provide a platform to EPGP students to interact with startups”, said Muthukumar Kandasamy, one of the organizers of the event. “Students who are interested in the unique challenges offered by startups will be able to find out more about the opportunities in this sector.”
Professor Sankarshan Basu, Chairperson, Career Development Services (CDS), and Sapna Agarwal, Consultant, CDS, welcomed the seven startups to campus.
Poonam Bir Kasturi, co-founder of Daily Dump said, “For startups, this is a great format. We get to meet young people, with work experience, who are willing to take risks and make change happen.”
Professor U Dinesh Kumar, Chairperson of IIMB’s Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management, said: “Startup Connexions is a great opportunity for the students who are looking for an alternative career path. We are happy to see students taking up enterprising career options.”