Round the Clock Bootcamp Rocked by Bennett University’s Students

Magnolia Quality Development Corporation Limited (MQDC) Whizdom Club, stayed true towards its commitment of nurturing young talent and building an ecosystem of ideas by organizing a one of its kind non-stop 24-hour Bootcamp for the Bennett University Students, in association with a startup incubation and advisory company called TurningIdeas Ventures. The knowledge grabbing entrepreneurship program kick-started on the 7th and ended on the 8th of February 2020. The program allowed the participants to experience the life of an entrepreneur through an interactive and gamified event with many twists and turns.  

The event was hosted at Whizdom Club, located in G.K. II, New Delhi with over MBA students and 70 B.Tech and of Bennett University at MQDC’s. The students were divided into batches consisting of 14 teams and were furnished with problem statements, mentorship sessions, and virtual equity to create pitches and had to submit their ideas within 24 hours. The program enabled the participants to experience every step of a new business venture, from the initial ideation to a commercially viable business that could finally be pitched to the esteemed jury featuring Sorabh Agarwal, Angel Investor, Strategic and M&A Advisor; Sanjeev Singh, Associate Professor, IIC, UDSC; Ritu Marya, Editor-in-Chief, Entrepreneur APAC and India, Sanjeev Singhal, Co-Founder, InnerChef and Sameer Garg, Vice President, and Group Head, Axis Bank.

“Zero2One by Whizdom Club, is a first of its kind startup Bootcamp which focused on letting the founders experience the entire lifecycle of a startup from ideation to fund-raise, peppered with real-life situations all in 24 hrs,” said Ashish Mittal, Chief Mentor, TurningIdeas.

Innovative topics such as building a platform for co-working to offer single-window services for startups ‘Failed Startup Asset Monetization Platform’ for startups, developing alternative government processes for ease of issue of license or registration by government departments to reduce physical interface, permission, etc. An IVR system to connect blue-collar employees to vast job opportunities was created by the winning team. A WhatsApp platform was also created by the students that send automated replies to those with smartphone access based on responses received from the employees. Winners earned themselves workspace passes at Whizdom Club, an internship opportunity at MQDC India and Turning Ideas Ventures, incubation support, technology credits, certification from Whizdom Club, MQDC India and more.

Commenting on the event, Ms. Chulamas (Amy) Jitpatima, Director Whizdom Club by MQDC India, said, “This one-day program was designed to inspire young minds to become innovative change-makers and gain first-hand experience of ground realities. It was exciting to see the energy and passion the BU students exhibited during the 24-hour marathon”.  

Bennett University, established by Times of India group in 2016 has a thriving start-up culture under Bennett Hatchery, the in-house business incubation center. With more than 30 student start-ups being mentored on campus, Bennett University also facilitates participation in global boot-camps, national competitions, visits to Accelerators and talks by Start-ups/VCs for budding entrepreneurs. In a short history of 3 years, external funding of USD 3 Million was raised by two of the students' start-ups from Bennett University and are running commercial operations.

Dr. Vinod Shastri, Head Academics & Research - Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Bennett University said, “The Bootcamp at Whizdom Club was a great learning experience for the students. It gave them a glimpse of the life of an entrepreneur as well as an opportunity to share their ideas and be mentored by industry veterans”.