Enterprise Sindh Challenge
A 16 week (5 month) business plan competition will be held ideally after cycle 3 of Innovate Sindh. The Business plan competition would enter piloted startups and existing businesses with an intent to accelerate the businesses through intense exercises with components of training, mentoring coaching. At the end of the competition, participants would have written a business plan document submitted and have it whetted by mentors and coaches. Additionally, the program would require prototype development, beta testing or client acquisition according to a maturity state of the venture.
- Accelerate the growth of agribusinesses in Sindh.
- Develop and test new approaches for connecting entrepreneurs with knowledge, markets, networks, and capital needed to grow businesses.
- Build local capacity to improve local business growth and capacity to compete.
- Deliver proven methodologies for planning, supporting, growing, monitoring, growth of innovative agribusiness enterprises.
At the end of the five-month cycle, the projects would be judged by an expert panel on a predetermined criterion which would include the impact and growth prospects of the business, the team and business plan of the team.
The winning team would be awarded with a combination of Seed funds, further training and mentoring and export support and connect.
Key Milestones
Project Initiation
Formation of Project Management Committees, Sponsorship, Event Management, and other committees.
Finalization thematic areas, awards criteria, and prize money
System training: how to use forms, templates and criterions.
Selecting Coordinators, Student volunteers, Judges, Trainers, Mentors, Graders and Domain Experts
Round 1: Teams Formation, Idea selection and short listing of ideas:
- Registration of teams and ideas.
- Joint Industry-Academia Teams
- Industry Participant to assign a problem as a project to the joint team with the commitment to acquire if successful
- Idea Selection (Max 100 ideas will be shortlisted)
Round 2: Training and Short Listing of up to 30 teams:
- Workshops for Business Plan, Executive Summary, Presentation and Elevator Pitch
- Preparation and Submission of Executive Summary and Elevator Pitch
- Development of project and industrial beta testing
Round 3: Business Plans Preparation & Short Listing of up to 10 finalists
- Preparation and submission of final business plan and draft presentation
- 1 to 1 Mentor assignment and counselling
- Shortlisting of 10 best teams, business plans, draft presentations and successful beta testing report of these teams.
- Max 10 Teams will be selected and go to round 4
Round 4: Final Judging and Awards Ceremony
- Each of the 10 teams to demonstrate the project to selected industry partner's site
- Judges to select top 5 final teams
- Final day coaching
- Final Presentation: Top presentations and selections of winners (Winner, First Runner-up, Second Runner-up)
Winner Prizes
First Prize
2nd Runner Up
Runner Up
Honorable Mention(10 Prizes)
Eligibility Criteria
The competition is open for teams comprising of undergraduate and post-graduate students. The field of study should be multi-disciplinary. -The program is restricted to the maritime industry. -Participants must have a properly constructed business idea and concept paper along with the team. -Ideal composition of team (a technologist, business, finance, economy, operations etc.) -Each team should have an advisor or an industry specialist.
Formation of Teams
Maximum 4 to 5 members permitted in the team. -One participant cannot be a part of more than one team. -No change of team structure is permitted after the team is registered. -One of the team members should be registered as Team Leader. -The team must register on the link/website provided before: (date) -All correspondences will be done through his/her email ID. -Universities with maximum number of participation will get a special participation award.
Participate as a Mentor
Are you an industry leader, Academician, or veteran of the marine economy? Participate as a mentor or judge. We are looking for experts in the fields mentioned in the thematic areas who are willing to guide and coach the student teams towards developing an industry entrepreneurial approach. For more information contact us or register on the link provided.