The finals of the TiE International StartUp Competition Udaipur Chapter were held on 31^st January, where four teams were selected as winners, and will represent the TiE Udaipur Chapter in the Asia Finals to be held in New Delhi in March 2017.

In a day long marathon of final pitch presentations, organized by Udaipur Chapter of “The Indus Entrepreneurs” in association with Sir Padampat Singhania University and Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur, 22 participants went through two rounds after which the jury declared three winners.

Manish Godha, CEO and Founder of Advaiya Solutions and President of TiE Udaipur, in his address to the jury and participants, said that this being the first year of incorporation of Udaipur chapter of the TiE Global Forum, it was an achievement that the Chapter has participated in the TiE International StartUp competition.  He further said that an overwhelming 50 plus participants had submitted their applications from cities across the country, viz. Bangalore, Indore, Pune, Delhi as well as many entries from Udaipur.

Madhukar Dubey, in his address to the audience, advised the participants and to all those making an entrepreneurial pitch in their professional lives, to live up to their dreams and focus on the goal.  Things would eventually fall in place, he said.

Raj Surana, an Executive Member of TiE Udaipur, in his comments to UdaipurTimes, said that he was overwhelmed by the energy showcased by the participants at such a young age.  To note, the youngest of the shortlisted participants in the competition was Shashank Sharade from Pune.  He is in XIth class.

The process of inviting candidature and screening began in association with SPSU, Udaipur way back in December 2016, and over a period of a few weeks, many entries were received, of which 50 entries were shortlisted in the initial screening.  Of these 50 entries, a final set of 22 entries were shortlisted, based on pre-defined global criteria, by a panel consisting of charter members of the TiE Udaipur Chapter.

These 22 shortlisted entries consisted of companies that were already in operation, and also those that were at ideation stage or pre-release stage. Business ideas included both web based, information technology focused and engineering based business plans.

Mentors, consisting of persons from industry and academic field as well members of TiE Udaipur Executive committee, were assigned these 22 finalists.  Over a period of 3 weeks, the candidates were mentored in terms of re-visiting business plans, financials, operation structures, presentations, etc.

Finally, on judgment day, the 22 candidates were invited for the final pitch of their polished plans, in front of a jury consisting of members from TiE Udaipur chapter, Arun Singhal from IIM-U, Arun Atri from Wonder Cement and members from Sir Padampat Singhania University.

The 22 teams were spread over three juries, each jury consisting of 6 members.  The initial presentation and pitch were made to these jury members, who ranked the team based on pre-defined parameters, which the teams were already informed about.  Once the rankings were done, the teams were ranked under strict scrutiny, and two teams from each Jury selection were asked to present the final Elevator pitch in front of a fully packed auditorium consisting of all jury members, other participating teams and students from SPSU.

Where the initial jury presentation was for 15 minutes plus a 5 minute Q&A round, the final pitch was for 60 minutes.  Jury members ranked the finalists according to their performance in the jury rounds and the final elevator pitch and 4 teams were finally selected for representing TiE Udaipur at the Asia Finals to be held in Delhi in March 2016.

The four finalists, Climatenza (team from Delhi); MyMentor (team Saksham e-Cell at IIM-U) ; TorchIt (team from Saksham e-Cell at IIM-U) and MedHola (team from Udaipur) will represent TiE Udaipur at the Asia Finals in Delhi.  Winners from the Asia finals will represent the region at the International event that will be held at TiE Global, Silicon Valley in the US and at Rice University.