Conquest 2021: Reaching New Peaks
Whilst marveling at the intuitive power of the Time Value of Money, it is easy to forget the significance of its equally important twin, the Money Value of Time. Participating in any activity has a cost, which varies from person to person. Wasting time is as good as wasting money and even worse for budding entrepreneurs.
Life is too short to learn from your own mistakes, so learn from others.
This quote embodies the spirit of budding startups. Entrepreneurs do not have the luxury to test every strategy that comes to their mind, nor can they risk launching an untested product. That can put the startups in a no-win situation.
Accelerating the Indian Startup Ecosystem
Not even a quarter into 2021, India has already witnessed the birth of 10 new unicorns. With a tremendous increase in the number of new startups each year, the Indian startup ecosystem continues to grow. However, the spread of coronavirus around the world has caused widespread uncertainty among investors, consumer hysteria, and disruption of supply chains. The national lockdown made young startups very vulnerable, with most of them having to shut down operations.
Conquest has the privilege of being recognized as India’s first student-run Startup Accelerator. As the term “accelerator” implies, joining a Startup Accelerator helps your startup gain momentum, on its journey to success, and it is the best way to maximize the Money Value of your Time.
Considering the impact of the pandemic, it was important for us to understand the role that we played in the startup ecosystem as an Accelerator. Despite numerous challenges, we pivoted our existing model and successfully conducted the entirety of the 16th edition in online mode.
Why Conquest?
We, at Conquest, aim to provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity and network to succeed. Having a great idea does not guarantee success. As Steve Jobs said, execution is worth millions. Provided with the right kind of support, entrepreneurs can do great things. All of our work goes into ensuring that every startup associated with Conquest receives everything that they require and more. This includes but is not limited to personal coaches, ‘Ask Me Anything sessions, weekly collaborative sessions, workshops, media presence, and a content repository. The cherry on top is our Grand Finale, where we give you a platform to showcase your startup to our wide investor network.
Mentorship: Young entrepreneurs often lack the foresight that experienced founders have while executing an idea. We recognize that proper mentorship should be able to bridge this gap. Each startup in our Accelerator Program will be allotted a personal coach to monitor their progress and guide them throughout the Program. The importance of these coaches should not be understated. Some of these coaches have invested in the startups that they were mentoring while some others have made their relationship with the startups permanent by becoming full-time advisors of the company.
Community: All startups in Conquest also have the opportunity to interact with our entire community of Mentors, consisting of stellar personalities like Roopan Aulakh, MD of Pi Ventures, and Vaibhav Agarwal, Partner at Lightspeed. We arrange one-on-one meetings for the startups with the mentors who the startups have requested to meet.
AMA Sessions: Most startups flounder because they fail to get enough marketing exposure in the first place. Experienced founders can nudge young entrepreneurs in the right direction as they were in their shoes at some point. With this purpose we organize informal ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions hosted by industry experts, to get them enough understanding of their industry.
Progress Tracking: At Conquest, we help the startups to quantify their progress over the entire duration of our Accelerator Program. The personal coaches help their startups to select key performance indicators (KPIs) on which they want to be judged. This ensures that the startups have a short-term goal in mind that they want to achieve by the end of the Program.
Collaboration Opportunities: A collaborative environment allows everyone to grow. With that purpose in mind, we will be having weekly sessions where each startup would be expected to update everyone with their progress over the past week. This will often be preceded by a successful entrepreneur having a behind-the-scenes candid conversation with startups.
Fundraising Workshops: Raising funds is very important for a startup and we understand that. We organize several workshops to get the startups to pitch ready. Startups get personal feedback on their pitch from our VC Partners like Accel Partners, which helps them think from the perspective of the investors.
Grand Finale: The Grand Finale involves the top 10 startups pitching their ideas to investors, jury members, and the other esteemed personalities in the audience. The Keynote speeches and Panel Discussions promise to be a memorable experience in attendance. With a lot of distinguished personalities in attendance, it is the perfect place for startups to make a mark in the startup ecosystem. It also provides everyone with an opportunity to network with many important people in the startup ecosystem.
Academy: Even after the Grand Finale, you will have access to our Academy which will have the necessary resources, videos of mentoring sessions and workshops, curated content, and much more. It would be the complete learning kit that the startups can take away from Conquest.
Greatness is more than potential, it is the execution of that potential and with us, you will.
Registrations for Conquest 2021 are now open. Register at conquest.org.in. Make a Mark.
