‘Start-Up India Innovation Week’ brings for Mentors in Mumbai, a Masterclass to sharpen mentoring skills

MAARG Platform creates pathways for entrepreneurs and mentors to engage and innovate

As part of the ongoing Start Up India Innovation Week, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) with the support of Zone Startups India held the MAARG Mentor Masterclass at Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai, today. The objective of the workshop was to capacitate and augment knowledge of mentors from among the industry stalwarts on effective ways of mentoring startups.  The workshop saw enthusiastic participation from mentors in both physical and online modes.

Speakers for the technical sessions included Bhushan Gajaria, Founder, Beehive Capital and Vikrant Potnis of FundEnable. Mr. Bhsuhan’s session focused on adopting the right framework for effective mentoring. Mr. Potnis spoke to the participating mentors on the different ways in which capital can be given to mentees, bringing different avenues of funding to the table and providing feedback beyond business plans and financials. The Masterclass also included a panel discussion titled ‘What Founders Expect from Mentors’ led by Mr. Prasad Menon, CEO, CIBA. The discussion brought out various perspectives on mentoring expectations.

More than one forty MAARG mentors as well as aspiring mentors mentoring Start-Ups in their entrepreneurial journey attended the MAARG Mentor Masterclass. Held with an aim of training present and potential mentors, the Matserclass was also able to create awareness regarding the MAARG Portal. It succeeded in facilitating mentor connects and engaging mentors from MAARG with the larger ecosystem.

MAARG (Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience, and Growth), the National Mentorship Platform is a one stop platform to facilitate mentorship for Start-Ups across diverse sectors, functions, stages, geographies, and domains. Find more information about the MAARG Portal here.

The Prime Minister has announced 16th January, the founding day of Startup India, as the National Startup Day. Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry is organizing Startup India Innovation Week from 10th January 2023 to 16th January 2023 to celebrate the Indian Startup Ecosystem. In this context, various Start-Up related workshops, capacity building sessions and events are being hosted by Start-Up India with each session dedicated to a particular theme pertaining to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

The Startup India initiative was announced by Prime Minister of India on 16th January 2016. The flagship initiative by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under Ministry of Commerce and Industry aims to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

Startup mentorship capacity building via MAARG mentor masterclass strengthens mentor skills and ecosystem connections during innovation week. DPIIT organised a MAARG Mentor Masterclass to capacitate industry mentors on effective mentoring frameworks, funding avenues and feedback beyond business plans, promote the MAARG National Mentorship Platform, and facilitate mentor-startup connections to strengthen mentor engagement across the startup ecosystem.