View: Redesigning the entry gate to startup dreams

A dream can be an entry gate to eternity, a 13th-century Persian philosopher and writer, Rumi once said. In reality, an entry gate is a dream for an eternal number of people. Finding the right entry gate to one's dream career is crucial. And building a startup has become one of the most common dreams.

India's entrepreneurial ecosystem is thriving thanks to these ambitious dreams and untamed spirits. And in recent years, university campuses, colleges, and schools have started banking on them. They have started organising business plan competitions.

These competitions provide a productive and practical platform for aspiring entrepreneurs. And help them connecting with mentors, experts, and investors. Importantly, they form a basis for entrepreneurs to test their ideas and devise a way to plan and execute them.

I have been taking part in these b-plan competitions for almost a decade now as a mentor and jury member. And I have some observations that can make these platforms more competent.

One, b-plan competitions should be a step in the process. Not a solitary event. One must integrate the entire journey of a participant beyond competitions while planning such competitions. The buck does not and should not stop at the award ceremonies.

The success of any b-plan competition should not be judged based on what happened in the competition. Rather, it should be based on what happened to the winners after winning.

It is one of the most important metrics to evaluate the contribution of any b-plan competition to the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Institutions can tie up with incubation centres, startup mentors, and experts to facilitate their journey.

Two, in the current (theoretical) form, such competitions favour presentation skills. A participant's presentation and public speaking skills decide the outcome of the competitions. Thus, defeating the purpose of the exercise. And to cause further harm, 'first position in a b-plan competition' becomes a showcase piece for the achievement section of their CVs. We need to separate these competitions from this irony as far as possible.

This brings me to my third observation. These competitions serve as a mirror for us. They show the dearth of real startup mentors and new venture creation experts in the country.

Building a new venture is a specialization area. Groundless storytelling and speaking skills impress the jury only when it is not related to the universe of new venture creation.

To remedy this, institutions can involve national and international networks of mentors to such competitions more meaningful.

If India wants to realize its dream of becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy, it should remember strong economies are built by strong businesses. These b-plan competitions serve as entry gates into the business world. But wasting the capacities of youngsters because we could not improve the design of this entry gate is disastrous.