To me personally, startups are very dear. This is because, I have been an entrepreneur all my life and can relate to startup founders naturally.
At the outset we have to recognise this fact.
No startup founder would like to discuss his/her idea in public nor with someone who has no qualification of startups.
So, who is the person the startup founder will discuss their startup idea?
Principal? Faculty?
The right person is the TBI Head who will be in a better position to guide the startup founder.
The roles mentioned in the above picture will ensure that the student is encouraged to continue with his ideas and make it grow.
The TBI Head – will be the go to person for all 1000 students in your college with their ideas.
When they approach the TBI office, students should feel part of a vibrant startup culture and be motivated to pursue their idea further.
This is called as pre incubation stage.
At this stage the student and his team have to be exposed to the various facts, trends, and ML and AI, and IoT aspects to take their startup to a national and if possible international level.
So, how does one trigger this and ensure that all students know where to go with their idea.
Simple.
The TBI head has to visit every class, give a lecture on a startup related topic.
And, that is not enough.
TBI Head has to meet every student, hand over a leaflet personally, introducing himself and essentially treat them well.
If that is simple old fashioned salesmanship, the TBI has to be available to all students in the TBI office, and should be accessible.
Knowledge and sensitivity on how to interact with students, knowledge of startups and their working, ability to understand different type of startups, and based on this knowledge guide the student startups.
Students should feel welcoming and not intimidated to think out of the box.
Let us for a minute step back and ask ourselves “Who is changing this world?”. It is the youth who will change this world.
So, educational institutions are the place to encourage students to think of startups.
The simple test for a TBI Head and Mentor is “Is he willing to talk to all students irrespective of their background, their academic record, their expression skills one to one or one to team”.
If the answer is yes, then you have a good TBI head.