Success mantra for startups

Interactive session held on entrepreneurship at GITAM University. Sharing key steps for building a business model, he said that collaboration is the key. "Traditionally, we have a bias towards not sharing our ideas.

Sijo Kuruvilla George, Founding CEO of Kochi Startup Village, interacting with students at GITAM University in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

Sijo Kuruvilla George, Founding CEO of Kochi Startup Village, knows what it takes to build a venture amidst the challenges. But the starting point for any entrepreneurial venture, according to him, is a deep-seated desire to do something interesting. As he recounted his journey from being an undergraduate student with entrepreneurship dreams to the success story of creating a startup ecosystem in Kerala, the students of GITAM University listened to him wide-eyed during an interactive session held here on Tuesday.

“Entrepreneurship is a tough journey, but it is addictive and the best time to try out your ideas is when you are in college. After graduation, the social pressures of settling down in a job often get the better of you and many entrepreneurial dreams never take shape,” said the 31-year-old, who is on the Board of Directors of the Kochi Startup Village.

He shared many success stories during his interaction. “Some ideas are very basic, but their approach in developing the app is different,” he added. For instance, Kochi-based startup Riafy Technologies developed a personalised recipe app for android which makes cooking an inspirational experience. The app allows those who are not sure of what they want to cook, an option to choose from a variety of recipes. “Today, the startup makes $10,000 a day and gets a million new clients a month,” he said.

Key steps

Sharing key steps for building a business model, he said that collaboration is the key. “Traditionally, we have a bias towards not sharing our ideas. But you may have a great idea, but unless you collaborate, you can’t focus on the execution part,” he said.

Later, in a chat with The Hindu , George said, “We have seen more than Rs. 30 crore of money coming into various startups in Kochi in a short time since its inception. We have seen companies raise funds from Rs. 5 lakh in grant to two million dollars in investments. We are now focussing on putting together an ebook that captures all the success stories of these small entrepreneurs and so that students here can access it. It is important to understand the journey, the struggle of these entrepreneurs before looking at their success.”