Incubees: We’d like your Incubation Centre’s brief introduction.
Divya Rajput: JSSATE STEP, NOIDA is India’s first TBI, started in 2000 and recognized by NSTEDB (under DST, GoI) in 2004. JSS STEP nurtures post-ideation stage ventures in TRL 5 and above. With more than 180 start-ups incubated to date, 98% of the start-ups we’ve supported deployed Technology as their core.
Our focus remains on trending technologies such as Electric Mobility, Smart City Tech, Clean-Tech, Health-Tech, and Deep Tech (IoT, AI, ML, Computer Vision, Robotics, Drones, Blockchain, AR/VR, and Quantum computing). Having such a focus has helped us to engage with mentors, corporate and investors in the same domain.
Backed by formidable forces
JSS Mahavidyapeetha (JSSMVP), Mysore, is an organization dedicated to the vision of “Education for all” and currently manages more than 370 institutions in the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala in India, Dubai, and Mauritius. Under its Directorate of Technical Education, JSSMVP has established 4 engineering colleges at Mysore, Bangalore, Noida, and Mauritius. As part of the vision of value-added education, three ‘Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park’ (STEP) have been established in the three colleges in India.
The National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), established in 1982 by the Government of India under the aegis of the Department of Science & Technology, is an institutional mechanism to help promote knowledge-driven and technology-intensive enterprises. The Board, having representations from socio-economic and scientific Ministries/Departments, aims to convert “job-seekers” into “job-generators” through Science & Technology (S&T) interventions.
The key Interventions include:
-Identify, engage and hand-hold potential ideas to convert them into a formal business opportunity
-Build capacity of Tech start-up founders in Business & Leadership skills
-Build a knowledge pool of mentors suitable for new ventures and provide them with demand
-Engage with government departments and private investors to create a channel for their funds to reach deserving technology ventures
-Understand challenges from founders and if a pattern emerges, take them to the Government for policy intervention
-Enable local, national, and/or global market access through connections and partnerships and facilitate it to its incubated ventures.
Incubees: What kind of start-ups do you support?
Divya Rajput: Start-ups at Technology Readiness Level 5 and above.
Incubees: What are the policies governing your Incubation programs? How many start-ups has it aided so far?
Divya Rajput: Uttar Pradesh Information Technology & Start-Up Policy 2017-2022; 200 start-ups have benefited. We facilitate DST’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, deploy Start-up India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) and DST’s NIDHI Seed Support Scheme.
Incubees: What do you think about the existing potential for start-ups? What significant role do you envision yourself playing?
Divya Rajput: The existing potential lies in the following sectors: HealthTech, MedTech, Deep Tech, EV, & IoT (IIoT).
Significant Role:
– Promotion: Developing curated programs for the above sectors wherein we incubate and nurture start-ups innovating in these domains.
– Mentoring: We already have identified relevant Mentors/Subject matter Experts for these sectors and are already in the process of organizing mentoring (1:1 and 1-many) for start-ups working (or planning to work) in these sectors
– Funding: JSS STEP is an instrument for scouting good start-ups and infusing funds. In the past, we have received an average ROI of 60% on our seed funding investments.
– Makers Lab: upgrading existing labs with sector-specific instruments and machine tools and offering this space for rapid prototyping enabling startups to validate their concept at a very early stage only
– GTM: already having tie-ups with many institutions and groups that can help in promoting the business of these startups
– Pilot run: JSS STEP has access to the JSS Mahavidyapitha support institutes. Can offer a platform to run pilots be it in MedTech/HealthTech domain or core Deep Tech space.
Incubees: What differences do you notice between startups from urban centres and rural areas?
Divya Rajput: Start-ups from Urban centres: are sounder in the market, technology, various funding instruments, and ecosystem. Their hand holding becomes easier. They possess better clarity and have a scalable vision. Mostly work on cutting-edge technology and focus on urban people.
From our experience working with rural start-ups, they are mostly mission-driven and tend to solve local/ regional challenges. They have great grassroots and traditional knowledge; however, they sometimes miss the larger vision of creating robust business models.
Those entrepreneurs with a technical background are better positioned to create scalable business models from a rural or urban setup.
Incubees: What do you believe causes certain start-ups to stagnate or fail?
Divya Rajput: Poor tech constitution, bad partnerships
- Poor capital management and utilization
- Lack of Product-Market Fir, a lack of research, ineffective marketing
- Being too much devoted to Technology part
- Getting married to their idea and becoming un-coachable
- Relying too much on Govt. Funds and not bootstrapping
Incubees: Who are your competitors?
Divya Rajput: Incubation is a collaborative space; however, our major competition comes from co-working spaces.
Co-working spaces: as they are offering office spaces at a very discounted price, alluring start-ups to start their operations from there (though, these start-ups miss out on getting crucial hand-holding support as provided by an Incubator)
The mindset of the founders: Most of the time, it is seen that start-ups approach Incubators only for Funds and not for the plethora of value-add services that could help them make a robust disruptive start-up.
Incubees: As an incubation centre, what would you like to convey to our readers?
Divya Rajput: As an incubation centre, we would like to advise the following:
- Equity is precious; do not dilute more than 10% of your equity at too early stages.
- A start-up is a temporary organization searching for a repeated, scalable business model.
- The survival rate of start-ups in incubators is higher than outside incubators.
To know more, visit: www.jssstepnoida.org
