In a move to create a common platform for startups, entrepreneurs and domain experts, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) recently launched the GROWTHOURS event series. This endeavour is to strengthen the local ecosystem of Pune as well as address key pain points startups face through interactive workshops led by domain experts.
The first edition of the GROWTHOURS series was recently hosted at CIIE’s co-working space in Shivaji Nagar, Pune, and was sold out on explara.com within 72 hrs of posting the event on the portal. The overwhelming response was a sign of Pune’s thriving entrepreneurial activity. Over 70 startups from various domains like IoT, EduTech, Fintech, Analytics etc. attended the first GROWTHOURS.
The event was structured for the startups to have a one-to-one interaction with a CIIE member before the main event. The startups who opted to do so were requested to share a pitch deck beforehand which was then mapped to a CIIE member of relevant experience. The one-to-one interaction was followed by an interactive session where Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder of Elephant Design, took charge of leading the first GROWTHOURS session. The focus of this session was Designing for a user; which dealt with how Startups fall in love with their ideas and work really hard to make it see the light of day and hence put all their energy in raising funds. However, the session illuminated how, somewhere down the line, startups forget that the product or solution they are working on is actually to solve the problem of an actual user; Ashwini helped them take a step back and place themselves in the shoes of their prospective users in order to re-evaluate their efforts.
CIIE will continue to host subsequent editions of GROWTHOURS and aims to bring about more involved partnerships between entrepreneurs and enablers. On April 1st 2016 CIIE will host GROWTHOURS 2.0 featuring Chirag Tanna, founder of Ink Idee, who will be speaking on Intellectual Property Rights — Dos and Don’ts for startups, tackling another major pain point for startups i.e., legality and protection of their interests in an exponentially growing and ever-changing environment.
Registration for GROWTHOURS 2.0 is now open at https://in.explara.com/e/growthours2-0
