IBM, NEN to hold Melas for entrepreneurs

BANGALORE, INDIA: IBM on Wednesday announced a tie up with the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) for a series of IBM-NEN Mentor Melas to provide growing entrepreneurs in India the knowledge, support and connections to achieve their greatest impact.

This is the first community initiative in a series that IBM will be engaging in as it gears to celebrate its Centennial on June 16, said a press release.

To be held across six cities in the country - Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and NCR - the IBM-NEN Mentor Melas will comprise 12 mentoring sessions, in which nearly 400 volunteer IBM experts will mentor over 300 innovation-driven young entrepreneurs from a range of sectors, helping them overcome critical challenges.

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Each IBM mentor will have the opportunity to mentor three entrepreneurs, and each entrepreneur will have the opportunity to tap into the expertise of three IBM mentors, through separate 1:1 sessions that are facilitated and run by NEN in the mentor’s city, the release added.

The series will commence with the Mentor Mela at the Jyothi Nivas College, Bangalore. Each Mentor Mela session will pair 30 NEN entrepreneurs with three different IBM experts. Every entrepreneur will have 45 minutes, one-on-one, with each of the three mentors to discuss any challenges that he/she is facing.

The entrepreneur seeking advice will be pre-matched to the mentors based on challenges in different functional areas across finance, marketing, human resources, logistics, technology solutions etc. Similarly, every IBM expert will also mentor three NEN entrepreneurs.

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Robin Willner, VP, Global Community Initiatives IBM Corporation, said, “Entrepreneurs are creative and ambitious and with the right guidance can provide immense growth to an economy as well as bring about a progressive change in thinking and culture.”

He added, “India is at a point where there are infinite opportunities for the youth and we are delighted to partner with NEN to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship here. At IBM we already have several initiatives that support entrepreneurship and we are sure these Melas will result in a creative exchange of ideas.”

The entrepreneurs seeking advice will be from startups, or ventures in the early-growth stage or even seasoned entrepreneurs facing growth challenges or those whose ventures are in the prototype or pre-revenue stage.

Laura Parkin, co-founder and CEO of NEN, said, “One of the critical barriers to business growth in India is the lack of effective and accessible mentoring support for young and new entrepreneurs. Through these melas in partnership with IBM, seasoned business leaders and industry experts will provide excellent and valuable input to these young and growing entrepreneurs, helping them reach their potential. We are very excited by IBM’s continued commitment to growing India’s next generation of entrepreneurs and ventures.”