Conquest (Start-up Challenge)

Conquest is an international start-up competition organized by students at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani. The competition offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to present their ideas to venture capitalists and investors, and to meet with other entrepreneurs for mentoring and networking.

History

The Conquest competition was started in 2004 as a Business Plan Competition, by a group of BITS students with the mission to invite start-up companies and help them network with potential investors.[1] It was designed to help start-ups raise funds and pitch their ideas in an interactive session with potential investors.

2004-2007

Started in 2004 as a Business Plan Competition, Conquest went international in 2006 and since 2007. It started inviting successful entrepreneurs to share their insights. Conquest provided a network-building platform, not only for entrepreneurs all over India, but also for the students of BITS.

2007-2010

Up to 2007, the focus of Conquest was on mentoring new ideas through the start up phase. However, many of the business ideas introduced in the competion failed to launch. Participants in business plan competitions all over India were focusing more on making better presentations and less on their core business models. Changes were introduced in the format to attract good start-up participation and keep non-serious business plans from winning.

The competion format changed during this period. Competitors submitted Executive Summaries of their ideas, and from these, the competition committee picked the top 100 most promising to forward to the judging panel. The judges winnowed the list to 30 entries who would then move to the next phase of the competition by preparing full business plans over a three week period. Of these full plans, the judges selected five teams who then received mentoring for a period of six weeks prior to making a final 20 minute pitch to the judges, who then selected the winning team.

2011-present

In 2011, Conquest received a facelift by bringing about a few worthwhile changes in the format. The startups were, for the first time, given the opportunity to choose their mentors, not one, but multiple mentors. Also, in the earlier one-on-one mentoring system, one mentor was connected to only one startup. However, 2011 onwards, each mentor is connected to multiple mentees of his choice, increasing his chances of coming across an impressive startup. This step ensured reiterated interest of the mentor in Conquest. Thus, in Conquest 2011, the mentor chose multiple startup ideas to mentor, at his own discretion. Another remarkable change that Conquest 2011 saw was a change in the medium of mentoring sessions. Instead of mere communicating through emails and telephone, the startups got the chance to meet mentors in a face-to-face session. The sessions were held across 4 cities in India - Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad simultaneously on July 22, 2011.

Notable Winners

References

  1. ↑ "Venturebeat.com". Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "India Times". Retrieved 16 April 2015.

External Links

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