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Hearing them out

Students air their business plans to academics, financial experts, potential investors, and to anyone who will listen, as they wait for their dreams to take off

Young minds matter in business and small ideas can get a head start if conditions are right for entrepreneurship. Business plans by wannabe student business leaders in the UAE are getting a fair hearing and some are turning into concrete ventures.

Auditoriums last week were filled with investors, financial experts, academics and media representatives, who listened patiently to student business proposals, discussing them threadbare and later questioning their viability in a difficult environment.

More than 50 ideas from students last week on different platforms showed the glut of entrepreneurial 
talent that needs to be tapped, and dreams are soaring across campuses 
to build an economy on small and medium enterprises.

Sreeyuth Lal from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani-Dubai never really thought of himself as an entrepreneur, but that was before The Big Start programme was introduced to him.

The finalist of the competition launched by Al Tamimi Investments last year to support and fund student ventures brought out the budding businessman in the engineering student.

“The streak of entrepreneurship came only when I reached my final year because; until then I wanted to complete my masters,” said the mechanical engineering graduate. “Just having an idea is not enough.”

“The competition took me through a breeding session on how I need to make my idea commercially viable, how to present to potential investors and how to persuade them to accept your plan.”

His incentivised recycling project did not win, but Lal said it has motivated him to continue working on this and other plans.

“I have the confidence to go ahead and build my career with the right training and back-up.”

The biggest role of the competition was to introduce students to industry experts and getting their business plans in order.

Rachael Wunsch, General Manager for Al Tamimi Investments said the real challenge for students is a lack of platform to pitch their work. “There is always an appetite for ideas and new businesses,” she said.

“But it is hard to get people to sit down and listen to them and we have tried to facilitate this.”

The creator of DemoCamp, an event that provides a platform to entrepreneurs to demonstrate their technological application to an industry based audience, believes this is an opportunity for people to act on their ideas. “With the financial crisis, people have become more innovative,” he said.

“The growing number of Internet users makes it a good market to service.”

The event that began last year and showcased more than 36 proposals, has seen seven businesses see the light of day. “This is a good networking event for the demonstrator as well.”

Showing the way

Mentoring, guidance and consultancy are the drivers behind the success of start-ups, explains Amna Rashed Lootah, Executive Director of Finance, Dubai Airport Freezone and Director of Dubai Enterprise Center (DEC).

DEC was established as an incubator for SMEs last September. “Our research shows that it is key for a start up to have an advisor or mentor who can show you another way to approach a problem or approach business development. A marketing expert will guide you to market your product.”

Potential entrepreneurs will be guided by DEC’s board members, who will help sharpen the plan and look at financial aspects. “The UAE’s progressive economic policies have attracted a lot of intellectual capital in to the region especially during the economic boom and the center gives an opportunity to talented professionals and graduates to flourish,” she said.

The business incubating center 
has started approaching universities 
to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

They have teamed up with the University of Dubai (UoD) to launch workshops for students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship and Business Development programme for women.

Usha Kaul, director of the course, which is jointly run by the Dubai Chamber and Citigroup’s Citi Foundation and is offered free to women, says in the past five years more than 30 per cent of the students have set up their own businesses. “This year in our batch of 29 students, four have already set up their ventures.”

‘‘The grueling process of convincing the Citi bosses that their business 
was worth any investors’ money was beneficial,’’ said student Ritika Gupta Merchant, who is looking to cater to a niche market.

Despite hailing from a service background, she exudes the confidence and tact of a entrepreneur and requests to keep her idea under wraps until she’s ready for a launch later this year.

“The programme helped me tweak my proposal, look at the pros and cons and create something concrete that can be translated into reality,” she said.

Roadblocks

With plans in place, young entrepreneurs still face financial hurdles 
and that stops many from taking a step further.

Fida Tahboub was taught how to create a proposal to start therapeutic beauty services for pregnant woman at UoD but finds her funding options slim. “This is any start-up’s biggest concern,” she says. “Regulations and loan criteria should be relaxed for new entrants.”

She suggests a system of venture capitalists and funds to promote starts up among both, nationals and non-nationals. “I’ve met so many people at networking events with fantastic ideas but are looking for the right partner or funding to move ahead.”

Lal, who is contemplating approaching another investor with his business idea, said supporting home grown industries is important for the UAE to become a global power.

“Look at the USA…they all have an entrepreneurship streak and that has developed in them only because the market is generally very conducive to start a business.”

“If the UAE plans to become a global power, it is important that more venture capitalists come forward and support businesses.”

afshan@khaleejtimes.com