Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Calling Budding Entrepreneurs

I have been asked to post about iAccelerator, a programme that helps internet and mobile startups in India. Are there any entrepreneurs/would-be entrepreneurs reading my blog?

Here's what the email says:
We’re looking for brilliant individuals and teams who want to make a dent in the universe and do so profitably. Our incubation programme runs from June 1st to August 1st this year. The deadline for our 2010 edition is April 10th.
The programme provides mentoring, funding, and helps the entrepreneur find her first set of customers:
It's fairly simple. You send us an application for funding saying that you want a startup that does xyz. We read every single application that comes in. If we like your application, we'll get in touch with you via email and then meet you if the email conversation goes well.

We're funding companies in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay, Bangalore & Mumbai. We offer living and working space in each of these cities if the startup needs them.

Once you get selected, you spend 10 days at IIM to sort things like your business plan, get your company incorporated, etc... After that, you spend 3 months building the first version of your product. We'll have weekly meetings with mentors & inspiring speakers in your cities + free dinner !

After 3 months, we help you get your first set of customers so you can see if your product is actually viable. We'll take it from there after that... if you need funding and your customers are happy, we'd be happy to fund you ourselves or introduce you to other investors too.
The programme is supported by IIM-A. Also, Karam Lakshman from the programme who wrote to me says:
The best thing I can say however is that we've got zero in the way of red-tape even though we're technically a government organization. That and we read every single application that comes in.

Sounds like a great programme. If you know anyone who might be interested, spread the word. More details here.

Also, the programme has already been run three times, so do you know anyone who has been in it? I'd love to know what the experience was like...

2 comments:

Perakath said...

Wow. This could be exactly what I need. Thank you!

Unmana said...

Oh good! I wasn't sure whether any of my readers would be interested, but I thought I'd post it anyway, because it seems an interesting initiative. It would be awesome if one of my favourite readers could benefit from it!