Espark Viridian Launches Online Startup Case Study Contest – Case In Point

NCR-based startup accelerator Espark Viridian has launched its first ever online startup case study content. Dubbed as Case In Point, the competition, which is being held from December 2017-January 2018, aims to help budding entrepreneurs understand and solve the key challenges faced by real startups.

As part of the contest, participants will also get the opportunity to have their solutions tested and evaluated by a panel of mentors.

Speaking about the objective behind Case In Point, Espark Viridian Director Vibhuti Channa stated, “Entrepreneurs need lots of mental acuity and problem-solving skills to succeed in the Indian startup world. Exposure to real startup problems can truly help shape the budding entrepreneur’s mindset to face the upcoming challenges.”

The competition is being held in two rounds. Round 1 consists of an online case study quiz, wherein participants need to choose from 3 real-world industry problems and solve the challenges commonly associated with it. The current iteration of Case In Point focusses on the following case studies: an IT-based vehicle repair and services platform, a real estate search engine/aggregator and online furniture rental startup.

Through this exercise, the organisers are looking to put the participants into the shoes of a real, running startup, where they will need to understand how the startup is doing and then answer questions based on the key challenges faced by the startup in question.

From the initial pool of candidates, the top 20 will move on to Round 2, which will be a live event held at antiSOCIAL in Delhi. As part of the second round, participants will be divided into teams of two, following which they will have to solve 10 in-depth case studies and come up with creative solutions on all aspects of the business such as product development, operations, marketing, designing and technology. All within 30 minutes!

Winners of the competition will be awarded prize money and free acceleration in Espark Viridian’s upcoming cohorts in 2018 and 2019. The best team will be awarded a prize of $777.1 (INR 50,000); the first runner-ups will get $466.3 (INR 30,000) and the second runner-ups will be given $310.8 (INR 20,000).

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Earlier In October, the accelerator announced the winners of its pan-India business plan contest SmartUp 2017, which was conducted during the same month at Kirori Mal College in North Campus, Delhi University. The competition was initiated to assist aspiring entrepreneurs in validating their ideas, gaining access to one-on-one mentorship from internationally recognised experts as well as a wide network of investors.

From the top 25 shortlisted startups, three were crowned as winners. These included  Marketyard Agrisolutions, Bengaluru based Machstatz, and Jaipur based ClinMD.

A Bit About Espark Viridian And What It Has Set Out To Do

Espark Viridian is a joint venture between Entrepreneurial Spark, a Europe-based dynamic business accelerator for early-stage and growing ventures and Viridian Ventures, a venture catalyst in the startup and SME space. Launched in 2015, it is a sector-agnostic business accelerator for early stage and growing ventures.

It supports startups in the country by offering up to 14-month-long accelerator programme to Indian entrepreneurs, along with access to a platform that includes infrastructure, Seed capital and mentoring. Espark Viridian’s centres are located in Gandhinagar, Chandigarh, Greater Noida (NCR), Bengaluru and Mumbai. Additional centres are currently being rolled out in other major business nerve centres across India.

Every startup in the accelerator programme gets an enabler, who in turn works closely with the startup throughout its journey. The initial 45 days of the programme are focussed on idea validation, during which the startups can carry out the customer, product, and market assessments.

Till date, more than 40 startups have graduated from the Espark Viridian accelerator, including Matrubharti, PlayLab, ProBazzar, KleverMind, ParentZap, Accelerate Social Kount and Propel, among others.

The Case In Point contest offers aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to test and strengthen their startup skills. The latest date for attempting the online quiz is December 30. To participate in the contest, click here.

[This article is powered by Espark Viridian.]