Ahmedabad, DeshGujarat, 6 March 2008 ( Press Release)

Entrepreneurship calling: The Elite League gets stronger

It is said that Jeff Bezos, a Princeton graduate, gave up a lucrative career with a New
York hedge fund to start Amazon in his garage. Now a billionaire many times over and
the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Bezos is a case study for entrepreneurial success.

Final Placements 2008 at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad commence
from March 6th , but there is a select group of students who will not be fancying the big
recruiter names on campus. With as many as eleven talented young people opting out
of the placement system to start their own ventures, the trend of taking this less
traveled road has grown stronger. Just like Bezos, they have all the right ingredients
for success: bright minds, a top class education and the drive to succeed. And just like
Bezos, they are going to give up lucrative jobs to challenge the paradigm of business
today.

Prof. Vasant Gandhi observes, “This shows a new spirit of independence, risk-taking,
innovation and confidence seen in top management schools abroad such as in the US.
What is striking is the diversity of ideas pursued from fruit-vegetable supply-chain from
Bihar to Delhi, to portal for retail investors, to agro-processing and railway-station
advertising. This gives confidence that India is clearly on the rise!”

Looking beyond the IT Horizon

As mentioned by Prof. Gandhi, these students have plans to start their ventures in areas
as diverse as logistics, manufacturing, advertising, finance and agro-processing in
addition to information technology. Take the example of Kaushik Mukherjee and Arun
Balakrishnan. Their venture is aimed at redefining e-commerce in India.
“Unlike other online shopping websites, this website does not follow the ‘Auction’ or the
‘Buy-at-Fixed-Price’ model. The portal will host both new and used goods and
follow a unique model of price determination of a sale with a simple underlying ideology
– “Every Price is Negotiable”” say Kaushik and Arun.

Their website is also defining an interesting shift in entrepreneurial trends. While many
startups in the past have been pure-play IT based, their website combines IT with logistics
and supply chain to create a brick and click structure which has been used successfully in
the west by many e-commerce websites. The business reflects the founders’ backgrounds;
Kaushik has work experience in the IT sector while Arun has worked in shipping and
logistics before coming to IIM Ahmedabad.

IIM Ahmedabad – An Incubation Center par excellence

Another young entrepreneur, Ranjith P. Ajaykumar, is planning on launching a series of
consumer based websites. According to Ranjith, his two years at IIM Ahmedabad have
helped him structure his idea. “IIMA has helped me by equipping me with all the right
tools of management to excel in this field. After completing the PGP program from IIMA
I know all the aspects of a running a company which is invaluable education for an
entrepreneur”, he observes.

Nageshwar V G Neela is planning on entering the agro-processing industry. According
to Neela, his motivation for starting his own venture is the state of the Indian economy. “I
think that with the kind of growth that our economy is seeing recently, it makes more
sense to invest the time and efforts in entrepreneurship and reap its benefits. I was always
of the opinion that the only master one can serve best is oneself. So, the route of
entrepreneurship came naturally to me.”

In the finance domain, Satvik Upadhyay and Ankit Mathur have spotted a big opportunity
in the Indian market. Their website is an independent platform for Indian
retail investors to come together. The website, which will go live within a month “aims to
provide simple access to credible and relevant information for its users”, says Satvik.
According to him, “IIMA has been a great learning opportunity and the perfect place to
start up. We have got a lot of help from professors and friends, and it doesn’t end with the
course.”

Nirmal Kumar has started his venture in the out of home advertising business by the
name of NPPL (Nirmal Prachaar Pvt Ltd). His idea is to come up with different concepts
providing maximum visibility to he brands shown at his display. “We also add value to
viewers in terms of providing information like live news and railway information on the
station. We have taken up our pilot project from Ahmedabad station and are now
expanding it to other places. We are getting good response from the corporate houses.”
He further adds, “Going through two years of rigorous courses at IIMA have pumped in
me the confidence to take any challenges in my career. This is the place that has groomed
my personality.”

Inspiring Young Leaders to Think Big

There are many factors driving these young entrepreneurs: a larger appetite for risk, the
thrill of controlling their own destiny and the promise of great success. IIM Ahmedabad
is also playing a part in promoting this trend; the institute recently came up with the

policy of a ‘placement holiday’, which allows graduating students who choose
entrepreneurship as a career option to sit for the institutes’ placement process for two
years after passing out from the institute.

However, so far not a single person has availed of this policy, which is testament to the
quality of ventures started by students passing out. On the contrary, Quetzal Group, a
venture started by the four students from the Class of 2007 at IIMA, came back to the
institute to offer post-graduate internships to students passing out this March. Perhaps the
day is not far where the big names at campus recruitments will be companies founded by
IIM A alumni.

Leveraging the Quality and Experience of Faculty

The faculty at IIM Ahmedabad has also been forthcoming to help these young
entrepreneurs. According to Siddharth Jaiswal, “The encouragement from faculty has
been phenomenal. One of the professors has been mentoring us like his own children. I
could never have thought about these big plans had it not been his support and constant
guidance despite time constraints and busy schedule.” Dushyant Mullur, who plans a
venture in the Services Domain, echoes similar sentiments about the place, “The culture
is wonderfully supportive in terms of encouraging entrepreneurship. Be it professors,
peers or the institute, support is one thing certainly not lacking.”

Contrary to popular belief, even the course structure at the institute is geared towards a
highly practical learning. In fact the institute runs a hugely popular elective course in the
second year titled ‘Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation’ or LEM – which has
acted as a breeding ground for some of these next generation CEOs. Jaiswal adds, “I had
started a business before I entered IIMA but was not able to manage it as efficiently as I
would have liked. After my course at IIMA, I have realized my shortcomings and am
doubly prepared so as how to follow a systematic, planned approach for optimum
utilization of resources. All things said and done, I feel the biggest learning for me at
IIMA has been to think BIG.”

And that’s what these students are doing. Some of them are giving up jobs and six figure
salaries at firms like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to venture out into the world
of business in diverse areas. Their spirit is embodied in this quote by Jeff Bezos; when
asked about the great success of Amazon, he said, “It’s still the very beginning”.