TiE Rajasthan has launched India’s first StartUp Accelerator program ‘TiE-Accel’ a joint initiative of Industry Veterans, Angel Investors and Start-up Incubators. The Accelerator programwas officially launched on June 26, 2015 by Startup Oasis.  Initiating the program from Udaipur on 2^nd July at Advaiya, StartUp Oasis tapped the start-up network in the city, through eChai, Udaipur’s very own entrepreneurial group.

TiE-Accel was also the first event organized by TiE Udaipur Chapter, where Charter Members of TiE Udaipur convened with young entrepreneurs of Udaipur, the coordination being managed by Startup Oasis. Startup Oasis is a Jaipur based incubation center that is developing an ecosystem in Rajasthan to inspire and support students, aspiring entrepreneurs and Start-ups to solve unrelenting problems, develop breakthrough innovations and create world class enterprises. Startup Oasis has been set-up under the joint initiative of RIICO, Rajasthan’s premiere industrial promotion organization, and the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM Ahmadabad, India’s leading incubation and entrepreneurship center.  RIICO and CIIE felt the need to tap into the pool of traditional Rajasthan entrepreneurship and use the joint expertise of RIICO and CIIE to channelize the entrepreneurial energies to foster creativity and innovations in order to solve some of the most obstinate problems of the state and the country.

ChintanBakshi, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Startup Oasis, held the session with budding entrepreneurs from Udaipur. Chintanbrings a unique experience of managing new ventures and tech Start-up companies primarily in the BoP (Base of the Economic Pyramid) space, specializing in rural distribution. Chintan has over 6 years of new project management and implementation experience with reputed Indian and multinational companies like Maruti Suzuki and Indian Hotels Company Limited, prior to starting his first venture in the year 2000 – Procurez.com, a web enabled eProcurement platform.

The event commenced with an introduction by Manish Godha, President, TiE Udaipur and Founder& CEO of Advaiya.  The dais was then taken up by Chintan, who first briefed the participants about Startup Oasis, TiEAccel and then took them through the process and protocols of engagement with the program.

Charter Members of TiE Udaipur were also present at the event. There were around 25 budding entrepreneurs with their exciting business ideas. Some of them came up only with the ideas; however some had their start-ups in place, with either the prototype being built or the pilot having been launched.  Almost all entrepreneurs possessed aTechnology or Mastersdegree with some of them being from the IIM.

TiE-Accel is an intensive acceleration program where startups will be taken through high powered knowledge and mentoring sessions over 10 weekends on lean startup methodologies, customer acquisition, go-to-market strategies & financial modelling before they pitch to angels/venture capital investors & corporates for funding and commercialization.

A successful first for TiE Udaipur, the TiE-Accel Introduction event ended with networking over tea where all budding entrepreneurs and TiE Udaipur Charter members introduced each other and shared their experiences and ideas on Entrepreneurship.