The afternoon of 1st February 2017 at the GIT Jaipur campus was looking more than nimble. The hall was abuzz with the debates of young bright minds, probably the brightest in the city, their unconventional innovations and scintillating discussions. It was a marvelous gathering of entrepreneurs who gathered in order to revolutionize the startup ecosystem, to look for innovation and to laud the best ideas which would drive the nation towards betterment. The event was none other than Khoj 2017 Jaipur by Z Nation Lab in association with GIT Jaipur as campus partners
The event consisted of as many as 20 panelists and 10 speakers who addressed the attendee’s participants and put forth arguments and discussions which would help accelerate growth in the business sector as well as help scale new businesses to convert startups into successful sustainable companies. Veterans from different industries came and shared their experiences and gave their pearls of wisdom to every budding entrepreneur in the room.
The event began with the welcome address by me (Neha Jain) Director, CMO – Z Nation Lab
As the startup world is esoteric to many, it is required to have discussions, to steer clear of doubts and to give innovation and knowledge a room to grow. Hence a panel discussion was held on entrepreneurship growth in Rajasthan with Mr. Mahavir Pratap Sharma – Founder- Rain, Mr. Anupam Roongta – Co-Founder – Neos Angel, Mr. Chintan Bakshi – Founder – Startup Oasis and Mr. Prateek Aggarwal – Founder – Daedol Technovation which was lead by Mr. Jairaj Meshru.
This was followed by a Fire sight chat on global perspective for Indian startups with Sunil Ranka – Venture Partner – Z Nation Lab and Jairaj Meshru – Venture Partner – Z Nation Lab this was with a Live QnA session where the audience was given the opportunity of interacting with the panel if there was any concept which they found abstruse. The entire session was filled with impeccable questions and equally impressive reverts by our well-esteemed panel.
In the course of the event, Startup pitches were up next. With more than 100 entries received the most competent were chosen to have their ideas pitched in front of the panel. Entrepreneurs presented their ideas in front of a jury which consisted of Sunil Ranka – Venture Partner – Z Nation Lab, Jairaj Meshru – Venture Partner – Z Nation Lab, Mr. Dhanpatraj Dhariwal – Mentor Startup Oasis, Mr. Ruchir Gupta – Director VKALP Services, Mr. Vidhant Jain – COO at Juna Ventures, Mr. Priyanka Mishra – Faculty Head – E Cell GIT, Mr. Paresh Gupta – Founder – Neos Angels Network, and Mrs. Shipra Bhutani – Woman Entrepreneur Educationist Quantum Career Academy in a room filled with a huge number of investors. A plethora of new ideas was discussed and every entrepreneur presented themselves in the most zealous manner possible. These budding entrepreneurs soared high beyond the myriad of mediocre startups and wowed the jury.
Frush was announced as the winner of Khoj 2017 Jaipur thus ending the magnanimous event. The event would not have been possible without our partners at Your Story, GIT Jaipur, Lead Angels, Headstart, cute office, The Hacker Street, Rain, Startup oasis, Connect Jaipur, GTC, and Suits Café.
Khoj, as the word suggests is a search for entrepreneurs, for ideas and most importantly for innovation. We conceptualized Khoj with an aim to revolutionizing the startup ecosystem especially in tier II cities in India and I am so overwhelmed with the feedback we received so far not only from the startups but also from all our university partners and mentors. We have conducted KHOJ initiative across multiple cities in India and have till date accelerated and funded about 12 startup Entrepreneurs in last one year. Innovation is at the core of Khoj, where the idea is to bring together the entire ecosystem to collaborate, network and to find the right connects. It is a competition where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas and present themselves in front of a jury of investors and entrepreneurs alike. It intends to bring together startups, educational institutes, government bodies, investors, mentors and Corporates under one roof to understand and help the entrepreneurship flourish in India. The one most deserving startup will be called to Mumbai for the finals where they stand a chance to obtain funding, tech validations, scaling up opportunities and Z Nation Lab partnership programs as well.
If you are looking at partnering or sponsoring our next khoj event. Write to me at neha@znationlab.com.
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