Startup Weekend Kathmandu: University Edition

Overview :

Startup Weekend Kathmandu: University Edition is the 11th iteration of the event, organized for the first time in Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM).The event organized by Nepal Entrepreneurs’ Hub (NEHUB) in association with Kathmandu University began from November 10, |Friday till November 12, Sunday. The event experienced tremendous participation from 80 university students. The main sponsors for the event was Unilever.

The objective of the 11th iteration of the event was to provide a platform for university level students to transform their innovative ideas into reality and assist in the initial setup of their business.

 

Meet, Pitch & Team Up

The event formally began on November 10, 2017, Friday which was primarily focused on the idea pitching from the selected participants. The event experienced participation from the 80 students from various universities of Nepal who pitched their individual ideas. The participants voted for the ideas and out of 65 pitched ideas, top 12 ideas were selected for further pitching. The participants formed 12 cross functional teams to work on the selected ideas and prepare to pitch their final business idea on Sunday evening.

The event was initiated by Mr. Suman Shakya, Co-founder of NEHUB, Co-organizer of Startup Weekend 2017. Friday’s session began with basic warm up and accommodation for the participants.

Following Mr. Shakya, Mr. Sixit Bhatta, CEO of Tootle Nepal and the inspirational speaker for the day, spoke how following one’s passion is a step taken in the ladder of being an entrepreneur. Mr. Bhatta began his speech by encouraging the participants to break the rules to innovate. Mr. Bhatta said, “As an entrepreneur, do not follow rules.” Mr. Bhatta further shared his life experiences and shifts in jobs before finally debuting as an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship was his way of expressing himself. He comprehensively briefed about the journey as an entrepreneur and also motivated participants to never give up on failures, which they encountered in their journey rather consider it as a great learning opportunity.

The session continued with mock pitch. The main notion behind the pitch was to make participants familiar with pressure, which they have to face in upcoming 54 hours. Mr. Shakya further in the session stimulated to participants to work on their ideas diligently and reshape it to make it commercial. He also explained about the code of conduct of the event and different perks that would be provided to participants for their ideas. Again he repeated the schedule that participants are ought to follow throughout the event for three days.

The main session of the event, pitching ideas started progressively where each participant came up with unique and interesting ideas. They are:

1. Home Away from Home, Biodegradable Sanitary Napkins, Food Truck, Rent-it, Smart Agriculture System, Portable Washing Machine, Ambulance Trace Application, Investomania, Second Hand Book Website, Go-green Recycle Plastic, Chew-ra and Cookie with a cause

Learn & Work

On Saturday, the second day of Startup Weekend , participants were facilitated by mentors from various fields of expertise. Local mentors and domain experts came throughout the event to coach the teams through the planning process. The team detailed their idea into a business plan and presented their ideas in front of the coaches for the feedback and comments.

 

Mentors provided insights to participants to build their idea more effective and feasible. This session of the day was in fact very fruitful for the participants. They came across different things to be considered while presenting their unique ideas. The mentors were given a schedule to ensure that each team got to meet the mentors and the interaction was free from interruption.

Mock Presentation

Mentoring continued the next day as well. On Sunday morning mentors, Debesh Lal Pradhan and Rajiv Sharma, facilitated the participants from 8am to 12am .

The later phase of the last day of event started from the final pitching of ideas by top twelve teams in front of panel of judges. Twelve teams with varying business ideas presented their startup idea to the list of judges which included: a. Jay Maharjan, Scholar, University of Southern California b. Kishore Maharjan, Former CEO, Civil Bank c. Pranaya Hada, Marketing Head, Unilever Nepal Limited

All those unique ideas were appreciated by judges. The ideas were judged on the basis of business model, customer validation, execution and prototype. After rigorous discussion among the panel of judges, three teams were nominated as winners starting from smart agriculture holding 3rd position, Flavored Chew-ra holding 2nd place and lastly Rani Biodegradable Sanitary Napkins winning the entire competition.

On the occasion, Registrar and Dean of Kathmandu University opined that these sort of events motivate students to startup their own business and this has a significant role in economic development of our nation. All the participants were encouraged to work on their ideas and participate in upcoming Hult prize at KU, Dhulikhel. Finally after having the grand dinner, startup event was wrapped up.

 

 

The top three winning ideas in Startup Weekend Kathmandu: University Edition were:

  1. Biodegradable Sanitary Pads by Shambhavi Singh

The idea is to develop environment friendly sanitary napkins as sustainable choices for women.

  1. Flavored Chew-ra by Samayee Dhungel

The idea is to manufacture beaten rice in different flavors and position as a cheaper substitute to other imported breakfast cereals.

III. Smart Agriculture System by Prajan Shrestha

The idea is based on IOT system which uses sensors to monitor values and send those information to the internet that can be accessed from smartphone.

Judges

Pranaya Hada
Pranaya Hada

Pranya Hada has been working as the head of Marketing department since 2013. Previously he worked for Hansraj Hulaschand and Co. for three years.  His key skills include building marketing strategy, performing integrated marketing and marketing research.

Kishore Maharjan
Kishore Maharjan

Kishore Maharjan served as the Chief Executive Officer of Civil Bank Limited and Sunrise Bank Limited. Mr. Maharjan also served as a general manager at Himalayan Bank Limited for 13 years. He has done Master’s degree in Finance from Tribhuvan University. Given his long term service in financial sector of Nepal for more than 3 decades, he has come to possess a strong set of skills like financial analysis, strategic planning, credit analysis, risk management, commercial lending, business development and the like.

Jay Maharjan
Jay Maharjan

Jay Maharjan is an author, entrepreneur, angel investor and a community leader. Inspired by his personal mentor Peter Drucker, Maharjan has dedicated his life to advocate for entrepreneurship and community leadership. Maharjan served as a region champion for the White House initiative Startup America Partnership, and along the way, represented the region – to contribute towards major business legislations of this generation.

With a unique background in engineering, art, management and public policy, Maharjan is singularly qualified to lay out the clear challenges and opportunities that both entrepreneurs and the workforce will encounter in this new economy. Maharjan has received rave reviews for his first book. Maharjan continues to lend his expertise at major conventions and media outlets. Jay Maharjan is currently a public policy leadership scholar at the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Mentors

Post Raj Pokharel
Post Raj Pokharel

Post Raj Pokharel worked as a senior finance manager at Times Pharmaceuticals P. LTD for 10 years. With professional experience, he facilitates students of Kathmandu University School of Management in the field of finance.  He is well known for his expertise in research and strategic planning.

Prashraya Ratna Tuladhar
Prashraya Ratna Tuladhar

When no one had a clue about digital marketing, Prashraya Ratna Tuladhar stepped in and established “Ads”. He has also founded Ratna Razz Luxury Tailoring after completion of MBA from Ace Institute of Management.

Euden Koirala
Euden Koirala

Euden Koirala has tremendous experience of working in the non-profit organization and in the Banking industry. She is also famous for her skills in Branch Management, Business Relationship Management, Business Planning, Risk Management, and Customer Relation Management. She is regarded as a strong human resources professional with a NLP Practitioner focused in NLP from ANLP New Delhi, India.

Swati Lohia
Swati Lohia

Over six years of rich experience across marketing functions including branding and promotion strategies, market and competitive analysis and marketing strategy and planning, she has led marketing function at Coca-Cola Nepal and headed business development and structured organic expansion into new geographies across Asia for a Nepal based FMCG firm. Currently she is the managing partner of Business Brainz that delivers high value business research and customized secondary research services.

Rajiv Sharma
Rajiv Sharma

Rajiv Sharma serves as an HR consultant and recruitment specialist to several organizations. He also served as a Principal Consultant to Nepal Red Cross Society, National Information Commission and Swiss Red Cross. With his vivid global experience he supports organizations in strengthening capacity of their human resources via executive coaching, developing compensation packages and developing performance management system.

Debesh Lal Pradhan
Debesh Lal Pradhan

Debesh Lal Pradhan is a business analyst at One to Watch. He is responsible for consultancy and analysis of projects as well as business development of investee companies in One to Watch. He helps companies realize their market potential and helps them grow through strategic decisions. He uses intensive market research and study of companies to bridge the gap between their services and market requirements.

Amun Thapa
Amun Thapa

Amun Thapa, the founder and CEO of Sastodeal believes that we should start small and test our business model before reaching out to the mass. He is someone who is constantly juggling between several ventures. At present, besides managing Sastodeal, he is also the co-founder at Sasto Book, co-founder at Anthropose which is Nepal’s first eyewear brand and a proprietor of Chhahari Production. He is the former co-owner at Irish Pub. Recently, he has become a co-owner of Khaalisisi which is the first waste-collection and recycling industry of Nepal.

Aashish Adhikari
Aashish Adhikari

Aashish Adhikari is the founder of Red Mud Coffee PL. Established in 2012, Red Mud Coffee has grown from one outlet to now seven outlets. It currently employs 75 people and provides training and opportunities to underprivileged youth. Red Mud Coffee was also the recipient of Rockstart Impact 2014-15 and was the first company to bag an investment deal with a Dutch Investor. Currently, Adhikari along with his team, is aiming to open up more outlets throughout Nepal and also outside the country. Aashish Adhikari also coaches aspiring entrepreneurs.

Victoria Ous
Victoria Ous

Victoria has packed a lot of accomplishments in the four years she has been working in the startup ecosystem of Netherlands. As an Associate in Rockstart, she expanded Rockstart Answers in 18 European cities and contributed to the extension strategy formulation of Rockstart Answers. While working as the Head of Global Events for Capital on Stage, she organized seven funding conferences involving startup scouting, VC account management, speakers’ management, and operational activities. She also created a new event series, PITCH36, which is licensed throughout the world. As a team member in Angel Island, a voluntary community-driven festival built to level the playing field for startups and investors, she has organized an event with 400 handpicked guests; a curated group of purpose-driven startup founders, virgin & angel investors, and EU Community leaders. At Rockstart Impact she is the umbrella that holds the entire program together. She leads the team as well as operations and keeps a close track of entrepreneurs’ progress.

Sunita Nhemaphuki
Sunita Nhemaphuki

Sunita has been working in agriculture sector to address the challenges faced by  farmers since last 6 years. Sunita’s expertise is in agriculture communication, and developing agriculture value chain ecosystem. Her organization provides a unique platform for any agro aspirants to become an entrepreneur .