Entrepreneurship Journey

Dec 2016 - Dec 2017 Incubation Center Agripreneur Medical Electronics

My journey into the entrepreneurial world begun in the 3rd year of my undergrad when I got shortlisted for the national final of the National Instruments NIYANTRA 2016- The Annual Graphical System Design Contest.

Project Title: Portable Low-Cost Real-Time Soil Health Monitoring System Approach: The idea was to make hardware + mobile app which could be used by farmers, to get an update about any issues along with useful information like rain possibility, soil moisture, pH. And accordingly providing suggestions regarding the best fertilizers & farming practices based on the data gathered from the sensor unit. Apart from this it we also try to widen the reach of the farmer to the market by providing them real-time updated selling prices of crops in the farm markets near to them.

It was during this time, I came to know about the concept of building a product for the market. We tried our best to deliver the best we can with the mentor assigned to us by National Instruments. However, we failed to qualify for the finals. But this gives me learning that these projects can only be useful if we prepare for the market, not for any competition.

Inspired by the same, I applied to an incubation program AgriBiz Incubation Program-'ARISE' 2016, organized by the Zonal Technology Management and Business Planning & Development Unit, ICAR, IARI Indian Agriculture Research Institute) New Delhi, India, with the same project we worked on the previous competition. But with a different approach. This time we have added the financial aspect of our product which ultimately led us to shortlist for the nationals final.

The Arise was an initiative in sync with the Govt. of India policy of “Start-Up India” and “Skill India” and aims to provide a platform for budding agripreneurs to provide innovative solutions to today’s market needs. Its motto was to identify young entrepreneurs/ideas at various stages of their development (Ideation / Prototype development / Expansion stage) and provide the much-needed mentoring support and Industry exposure to develop a viable business proposition.

I learned that to get your reach to the funding you need to bootstrap your product at least for a few months to increase chances for the pitch in front of the investors. With all this experience, I got to know that to bring something useful into the market, we need to implement a holistic approach. An approach that not only covers the engineering behind the product but also the management aspects as well.

With all this in execution, in the last quarter of 2016, I got shortlisted to appear for an all-expenses covered interview at the Incubation Center for Medical Electronics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, India to present my project on building thermal energy harvesting system for biomedical implants. The jury likes my approach to present the product along with the financial aspect and decided to offer me a pre incubatee position in the center with office space, access to labs with support of Faculty in charge, and funding worth 1 Million Indian rupees to bring my product into the market. As a result, I begin working on the project remotely from Jan 2017 before finally working in person with Prof. Dr. Kailash Chandra Ray in the summer of 2017.