Kathmandu, November 15, 2017: With the purpose of cherishing and celebrating the entrepreneurial month of November, Nepal Entrepreneurs’ Hub together with Kathmandu University organized the University Edition of the ‘Techstars Startup Weekend’ in the second weekend of November at the premises of Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM).
The program engaged as many as 80 young minds from diversified academic backgrounds and brought them together to form teams, develop ideas and test the practicality of those ideas. With the purpose of making the youth aware of how the real corporate world actually looks like, mentorship was also provided to the teams where some of the most influential business leaders from various corporate houses of Kathmandu were invited to guide and show the correct pathway to the teams so that they could develop their business ideas. In the commencement program itself, Mr. Sixit Bhatta from Tootle App shared some of his life experiences with the participants.
The event came to a conclusion on 12th of November when the three most dynamic ideas of ‘Rani Biodegradable Sanitary Napkins’, ‘Flavored Chew-Ra’ and ‘Smart Agricultural System’ were declared as winner, first runner-up and second runner-up respectively. The panel of judges which comprised of Mr. Pranaya Hada from Unilever Nepal, Mr. Jay Maharjan from University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Mr. Kishore Maharjan from Civil Bank Nepal seemed to be really impressed by the ideas that were presented.
In a conversation to Glocal Khabar, NEHUB co-founder Mr. Suman Shakya shared,
What we see in Start-Up Weekend is enthusiasm and active participation from students. It is because of the immense energy they possess that they are able to come up with such good ideas within a limited time frame of 54 hours. The essence of start-up weekend is that you work with strangers, connect with them, make lifetime friends out of them and in some fortunate cases you also find your co-founder among them. The equal participation of females in the event of 2017 showed girl power. Events like these show how capable Nepalese youths are and how if their energy and innovation if harnessed properly, the status quo of Nepal can be transformed in the coming years.
The event was sponsored by Unilever Nepal Limited along with co-sponsorship of Khalti, Ads, WorldLink, New Business Age, Sparrow SMS and Professional Educational Consultancy. The facilitation provided by Kathmandu University shows its dedication and contribution towards the development of young minds.
Photographs: Nepal Entrepreneurs’ Hub
By Mahima Poddar
The writer is currently pursuing BBA at Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM).
