The life of an entrepreneur is not as easy as it seems. Since the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey they have to go through various challenges which come along the journey. Being broke forced them to work from warehouses, they have to wait for years to raise seed funding and then finally pitch a market with product validation. Early stage ventures had to struggle for a number of years to see a glint of hope.
An attempt to ensure that great ideas are not nipped in the bud from the lack of wise guidance, there is another startup incubator to offer its hand to the startups in the country. The Startup Tunnel is a new kind of incubator, focused on developing the capabilities of entrepreneurs as well as achieving market fit for their innovations. “We can do this because of our tremendous strengths in design, user experience, prototyping and product validation, owing to our affiliation with CKS Consulting on one hand and the Adianta School on the other”, said Aditya Dev Sood, who is an early investor in startups since 2005 with a background in design and product development.
Startup Tunnel is affiliated with the Adianta School, colocated in the Vihara Innovation Campus with its several sister organizations which are a source for ideas, feedback, expertise and networks. These include the Bihar Innovation Lab, the Reading Lab, the Civic Innovation Lab and the Center for Knowledge Societies.
The Adianta School has a faculty network of more than 60 mentors and advisors, who will be there for the incubatees so that they can gain access to by arrangement or through frequent workshops and courses.
Its mentor team include Jatin Modi, a serial entrepreneur, Christian Leborg, design and brand expert, Nasr Ul Hadi, a social media expert who advises leading organizations in India on digital strategy.
Currently it has one startup working out of Startup Tunnel (Stun) as of now. The program will kickstart from January next year and has space for up-to 56 workstations.
Related:The Rise Of Entrepreneurship Schools In India
It will be investing upto INR 15 lakhs as funding for early seed startups. For the moment, however, it has a special inaugural offer of no equity-no fees for the incubation program but for future it will charge for the same.
During the three month long incubation program, startups will be exposed to the fundamentals of product development and will further help them to gain an insight into the startup life of entrepreneurs. It has split its module into two parts: Digital Product Development and Startup Operations and Management. It introduces budding entrepreneurs to the challenges, opportunities and perks of entrepreneurship. From incorporation to IPO, this is a one-stop platform to know about the essentials of entrepreneurship.
With this it also organises exclusive meet ups frequently at the campus such as GSF, social innovation conclaves such as Design Public and startup demo get-togethers such as Pecha Kucha Night. All these helps startups develop influential networks with investors, advisors, and even customers.
Startups working in the Mobile tech, health services, education tech, medical technologies, financial services, governance apps, and similarly oriented entrepreneurs can apply for the program.
Click here to apply for the program.
