At 2 AM on a cold November night, a certain room in BITS Pilani was buzzing with activity. A group of students were talking, almost shouting with excitement. They had decided on doing something radical. But, with every radical idea came the inertia of change.
With the old model of Conquest, a B-Plan competition, we felt that our scope for impact was limited and that we had the potential to do more. What followed was a phase of rigorous ideation and planning and we came up with a complete overhaul, something we were excited about. Then came the hard part; pulling it off.
After months of mailing and calling, everything was finally in place. With our Top 50 shortlisted out of over 600 registered startups, we were ready to move on to the next phase.
The Conquest Mentoring Session saw 50 of the best startups across the country assemble at Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi and interact with some of the most accomplished individuals of the startup community. Our mentors helped us shortlist the 10 that would qualify for the next stage. Something that was equally new for us as it was for them- The Conquest Summer Program.
Our aim with the Program was to give the startups a platform where they can connect with experienced individuals and provide them access to resources that will help them reach great heights, without delegating any of their own efforts to do so. We also aimed to inculcate a feeling of co-working and learning together so that they can grow, with their peers. The Hub, Bangalore gave the startups a living and working space that helped act as the catalyst the startups needed to share and create together.
The Sunday Sessions were planned to be a chance to learn and assimilate. The one-on-one sessions with mentors would be a chance for startups to share their ideas, problems and get feedback from domain specialists. They could then go on to make plans and set short-term and long-term goals which mentors prescribed. The startups would also share their progress and give updates to the rest of the Conquest participants to discuss solutions and develop a peer support system.
On the 3rd of June, 10 startups and the members of CEL assembled at The Hub for the first session of the Summer Program, for an interactive session with Abhishek Nayak, co-founder of YC backed Wise Mobile and Bicycle AI. He spoke about his experience with investors and how a startup should approach investment. The following weeks featured online sessions with Deepak Tuli, co-founder of GoIbibo and Farid Ahsan, co-founder of ShareChat. They discussed the hurdles that upcoming startups face and how they went about solving these problems.
A session featuring YC backed founders Vamsee Chamakura, co-founder of DocTalk and Abhishek Nayak was conducted at BHIVE, where startups could interact and plan strategies to take their startups to great heights. A similar interaction session on 24th saw startups from previous iterations of Conquest like ThinkerBell Labs.
After a month long of hard work, came the part where the startups prepared for what was to come next. Eight investment workshops were scheduled from 21st to 27th where the participants were exposed to practice on pitching and investment meetings. These workshops were conducted by our VC partners, Accel, LetsVenture, Invest India, LightSpeed and Blume Ventures.
After one month of toil, hard work, training, planning and implementation the startups were ready for the culmination of the Summer Program: The Conquest Grand Finale.
The Grand Hall of The Sheraton, Bangalore was abuzz with activity since the wee hours of 30th June. The Conquest team running about, optimizing the placement of seating and finalizing the logistics of the event. A warm Bangalore Sunday would be the easel on which the Top 10 would make their mark. The invitees of the Grand Finale started streaming in at 11 AM and the Grand Finale kicked off with an address by Prof. Ashoke Sarkar, Director, BITS Pilani. He spoke about the immense power that students have and that the ability to create and implement is not defined by age or location, but a strong desire to innovate and achieve.
After the introduction to Conquest by Antriksh Jain, Rahul Chhabra, CEO of Conquest 2018, took to the stage. He spoke about the journey Conquest took, the hurdles we faced and the resilience and hard work the team displayed to make our revolutionary dream come true.
As soon as the talks and introductions were concluded, it was time to get to business; The Pitching Session. Each startup was given a total of 10 minutes, 7 minutes of pitching and 3 minutes to answer any questions. They were to pitch the startup, the revenue model and scope of scaling up to a jury of some of the most eminent Founders, VCs and Angels like Dev Khare of LightSpeed, Abhishek Surendran of Pi Ventures and Sameer Nigam of PhonePe amongst many others.
After the first 5 startups finished their pitching, the gathering adjourned for lunch. The founders and the Conquest team alike took this opportunity to interact and network with the invited guests. Startups took this chance to go beyond the 10 minutes they had, to go into more in-depth conversations about their startups.
The networking lunch was followed by pitches of the next 5 startups. The startups gave excellent pitches and answered the insightful questions that the panel presented to them. Following the pitches, some of our esteemed guests took to the stage for two panel discussion and QnA sessions to answer some of the teeming questions of the audience. The panel discussions gave the audience an insight into the minds of VCs and what a startup should do to achieve the goals they have set.
The day ended with a vote of thanks from Rahul, who thanked everything who had contributed to making Conquest the success it had become. He pointed out how instrumental every little contribution was, to help us make our mark. Everyone left the Grand Finale a little wiser, a little more informed. Everyone left with a sense of accomplishment.
Visit us at conquest.org.in to learn what we’re up to for Conquest 2019.
