For last week’s recap, click here

Innovate Delhi continues to go very well. During the second week, the students learned about different business models and started using the Lean Canvas. The topic for the week was Health and the students developed some very interesting health startup ideas.

I got to teach a couple sessions last week and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. On Wednesday morning, I provided an overview of different business models and various strategies for validating them. On Saturday, I gave an ‘Intro to Negotiations’ talk - a favorite subject of mine. By student request, I gave a talk Monday morning on various revenue streams. Yesterday afternoon, Sharique and ran a forum on grad school programs.

All the talks were fun to create and deliver. I love public speaking, especially on a topic as fun as entrepreneurship. I was lucky to have a warm, inquisitive audience and a packed house - even for the optional talks.

We’re heading into the final days of the program. This week the students are free to make their own teams and work on whatever idea they like. The best ideas will be pitched to a panel of investors on Sunday. I’m deeply in mentor mode right now - helping teams evaluate their plans. To make better use of our time, we’ve forced the students to quickly answer four questions (in one sentence each). The questions are:

  1. What problem are you solving?
  2. What is your solution?
  3. How will you get your users?
  4. What are the economics?

This has been pretty effective at forcing them to concisely communicate their ideas. When they cannot articulate the problem, we send them back to the drawing board.

Many teams are arriving at exciting ideas and are validating them by talking to potential customers at the metro station or mall. It’s been great to see the business plans evolve and I’m excited to see the final pitches this weekend!