TiE ISB Connect, slide 8

the most irrefutable reason for an incubator is that it takes away regret from the ideating populace,. corporate businesses around the world have been built on myriad graves of ideas which might have been executed, could have been executed and really should have been executed, but weren't because there was no eco-system for it. Good incubators give the necessary push and thrust for ideas to come forth and see the light of the day. in the absence of incubators, many an idea is still-born.

TiE ISB Connect, slide 7

just the way it is important for every entrepreneur to be unreasonably optimisitc about his biz, it is equally important to understand that sometimes even with the best of resources and efforts, the whole biz may fall by the wayside. to me, bankruptcy is as much written in blood as an entrepreneur's passion is. when you do the biz plan, the sub-text here is that if any of the assumptions go wrong, the tasks delineated may not lead to the milestones, and if milestones are not met, there will be a resource crunch, and if there is a resource crunch, the biz may come a cropper.

i do think it is the job of the incubator to keep the entrepreneur constantly  grounded to this unassailable fact. not so  it  spooks the entrepreneur but impresses upon him time and again that he has to demonstrate as much passion for implementing the plan as he did for ideating it.

TiE ISB Connect, slide 6

once you have successfully built the biz, it may sound romantic to say that you could do a lot of things because you didn't have money, but the truth is having money, if not all of it, atleast some of it, particularly in the early stages, either during product development stage or going-to-get-your-first-customer stage, ensures two things, one that you don't abandon the thought of becoming an entrepreneur and two that you do direct constructive energy on task at hand.

a good incubator should provide pre-seed/seed capital. unfortunately no incubator does this and even in international conferences, i have heard engineering professors from ivy league schools lament that they are not able to encourage entrepreneurship because the institution does not have funding. what use is an incubator without seed funding ?

in the incubators that i have set up at PES School of Engineering and New Horizon College of Engineering, the respective managements have committed a fund ear-marked for this purpose. This is a good way to start. going forward, the fund can be made into a sizeable one by leveraging alumni networks, international  agencies that are interested in a foot print in india for encouraging entrepreneurship, international agencies specifically interested in the clean-tech space, funds that are set up only to encourage enterprises which have high and deep impact across the fabric of indian society, government grants, etc.

TiE ISB Connect, slide 5

it is in the incubator that the entrepreneur learns how to see the bigger picture. it is here that he learns that there are other stories too, besides his own. and it becomes the responsibilty of the mentor to make him acquire this sense of perspective.

entrepreneurs are notoriously here-and-the-now people. rarely do they ponder over future ramifications. if a solution can mitigate a particular problem today, go for it, tomorrow will take care of itself!! this is the most common mind-set.

time and again i come across entrepreneurs who are in a hurry to distribute equity to employees because the way they see it, there is no imminent cash flow by way of payroll!! i'm always appalled by this short-sighted approach and shudder every time an entrepreneur comes to me with this proposal.

like i said a mentor is not just must have but can't not have.

TiE ISB Connect, slide 4

unfortunately the association of entrepreneurs with heroism has become banal in the minds of non-entrepreneurs, sometimes even in the minds of entrepreneurs. i think it is very important for entrepreneurs to believe that they are the magical thinkers, the heroes, like prometheus who stole fire from the gods.

caught in the rigours of building the biz, many entrepreneurs give up on their madness and begin to live phantom lives and i believe it is the job of the incubator to make sure that this does not happen. only if the entrepreneur believes in himself can he make the world believe in him. however banal it sounds, he has to internalise that he is the hero in his script.

TiE ISB Connect Slide 3

an incubator is one which hand-holds the entrepreneur to get his ideas off the drawing board into the market place. which means pretty much every single step, all the way.

a lawyer for incorporating the company, filing for patent, and drawing up the necessary contracts for biz partners, customers and investors;

a chartered accountant for managing the books of accounts;

partners who may be necessary for developing the product ;

an HR company for providing the right team ;

biz partners for sourcing the components ;

market specialists for reaching the product to the market place ;

communication experts for articulating the message to the market ;

investors for funding it all ;

and most important of all, mentors who not only make the above connections possible but also make sure that entrepreneurs show the same passion for execution as they did for ideation.

TiE ISB Connect, slide 2

I then showed this slide and asked people what it represented. it was pretty much as i expected. no one knew. i would have been really surprised if someone had said i was talking about an incubator. and with that i rest my case.

no more validation is necessary that incubators in india suck.to me the three most important components of an incubator are mentorship, seed/pre seed capital and real estate. and necessarily in that order.many educational institutions comply on the real estate bit. they give work stations, computers with internet and telephone. many of them charge a rental for it.

no one provides capital. many entrepreneurs need some money even at the product development stage. not everyone is able to bootstrap. a good incubator should provide this. In Bangalore, we have set up incubators at PES School of Engineering and New Horizon College of Engineering  and the respective managements have committed funds for this purpose.

many of them provide some form of mentorship but it's way below what's actually required. mentorship is about bridging the experience gap. today more and more youngsters are becoming entrepreneurs right out of engineering and management schools. they have no exposure to how organizations function, so obviously they have no clue how to build organizations that function effectively. this is where mentorship plays a crucial role.

mentorship is also about networking. as a young entrepreneur, the only thing he has going for him is the twinkle in his eye, the passion in his heart and the song on his lips. he needs someone who can open doors for him. he needs someone to play interference that he needs to be taken seriously.

mentorship is about knowledge. ask any entrepreneur whether he knows how to build the biz around his idea. and the answer will be no. right from writing the biz plan, incorporating the company, filing for patent, hiring the right team, going to the market, fully armed - doing all the right things at the right time,- mentors are a must have. not just good to have.