IDEAS – Innovation, Development and Entrepreneurship with Alumni Support is the key mentoring and pre-incubation program introduced in 2018, supported by Class of 1990 alumni of IIT Bombay. It provides accelerated hands-on learning to first time entrepreneurs, enabling faster progress toward venture creation. Students, researchers, faculty and alumni can avail the benefits of the initiatives at any stage during the pre-incubation phase, starting from choosing entrepreneurship, ideation, validation, initial funding and connection to investors and incubators.

The initiatives under IDEAS are spread across three levels. The IDEAS Level-0 Program includes bootcamps and mixers for ideation and team formation. At Level 0, we offer unstructured mentoring to help the entrepreneurs navigate the early stages of discovery via Startup Clinic, supported by workshops on ideation, bootcamp and building mixers, as well as Mentor Hours and Mentor Connect with IITB alumni. Level 1 and Level 2 are structured programs. In both levels, micro-grants are provided to cover basic costs of prototyping, testing, travel, business planning and other expenses. Inputs provided to IDEAS teams include mentoring by subject matter experts and recent entrepreneurs, access to labs and prototyping facilities, inputs for business planning, and networks/connections.

Level 1 is a structured cohort-based, 3-month program with workshops and weekly webinars to find Problem-Solution fit. Each team has at least two students, who undergo intense weekly coaching by the IDEAS team and mentoring by an alumni mentor. They learn the ropes by carrying out customer discovery and market research, unmet need identification, problem definition, solution design and a potential proof-of-concept fabrication. The goal of this level is evidence-based decision: go, no-go or pivot. Level 2 is a 12-month self-paced program to find the product-market fit. Each team is guided by two alumni mentors in building the minimum viable product and testing it in the market, as well as get exposure to legal, financial, leadership, marketing, sales and other aspects of business model.

More than 100 IITB alumni are in the pool of volunteer mentors for the IDEAS program. Many of them have more than 20 years in industry and several have at least one entrepreneurial venture. The IDEAS program has significantly enhanced the overall engagement with aspirants, leading to more startups and higher levels of funding secured by them. During 2018-2022, the outcomes of the IDEAS program have been as follows. Over 750 individuals have participated in the program, 131 Level 1 teams have been formed, 54 teams have moved to Level 2. 22 ventures have registered as startups, with some going to incubators like Y-Combinator and academic incubators in India. and others generating revenue while being bootstrapped or angel-invested.

Women in Entrepreneurship (WiE) program, supported by CGI’s CSR program, encourages and supports aspiring women entrepreneurs. It is meant for under-graduate and post-graduate students as well as the staff and residents of IIT Bombay. Women aspirants from outside IIT Bombay -have also been encouraged to participate.

The program was launched in August 2019, with a talk by Devdutt Pattnaik and panel discussion with women entrepreneurs Suhani Mohan, Zenobia Driver, Roli Gupta, Surabhi Shrivastava hosted by IITB alumnus Anu Narasimhan attended by over 100 participants.

This was followed by bootcamps, workshops and fireside chats with women leaders to build relevant skills including design thinking, legal aspects, finance, communication and leadership that were organized in the last few months. Further support includes mentoring by industry professionals, visits to start-ups, internships and seed grants for converting ideas into products and for creating business plans to market the products.

The program has been striving to build a community of women leaders and entrepreneurs who support each other. This community primarily on Whatsapp has  become a great resource for future partnerships, seeking constructive advice, and accessing a highly effective network.