GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT 2017 - tGELF...We are at an inflection point for change in the area...

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT2017

SESSION SUMMARY REPORT

This report was prepared byThe Leadership Development Programme Fellows atThe Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF)Email: [email protected]

Copyright © 2018All Rights ReservedThe Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF)An Initiative of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation

Photos:Courtesy of NITI Aayog

Design:Anubha Jain

www.tGELF.org1st Floor, Plot No- 39, Sector – 32 Institutional Area Gurgaon, Haryana, 122001- India

The power to think differently and ahead of time for the betterment of

mankind is what sets entrepreneurs apart.

Shri Narendra Modi

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India

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ABOUT GES 2017

For seven years, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) has connected top entrepreneurship talent with investors and startup ecosystems across the globe to innovate the world’s most exciting solutions. In partnership with the Government of the United States of America, NITI Aayog hosted the eighth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India from November 28-30, 2017. The Summit was addressed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, and the US delegation was led by Ms. Ivanka Trump, Advisor to President Donald Trump.

Since its inception, GES has traveled across the world from Washington, D.C. to Istanbul, Dubai, Marrakech, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, Silicon Valley, and now finally to Hyderabad!

GES 2017 was the first Summit to be hosted in South Asia, and the event highlight-ed India’s enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship – including the government’s measures to increase the ease of doing business, eliminate unnec-essary regulations, and support startups.

The 2017 Summit created an environment that empowered innovators and entre-preneurs, and particularly women, to take their ideas to the next level. Women offer tremendous promise of economic growth and prosperity - but in both devel-oping and developed countries, they also face great barriers to building businesses.

This year’s GES theme was “Women First, Prosperity for All” to celebrate our world’s entrepreneurial spirit in all its entirety, diversity, and strength. GES 2017 aimed to inspire innovative initiatives, forge new collaborations across countries, and increase economic opportunities.

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#GES2017 – Session Summary Report

WOMEN FIRST,PROSPERITY FOR ALL

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#GES2017

Day 0

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM INAUGURAL SESSION• Be the Change: Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership

Day 1

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM OPENING PLENARY• Plenary Session - We Can Do it! Innovations in Workforce

Development Skills Training

11.15 AM – 12.30 PM SESSIONS• Money Counts: Attracting Private Equity• Future of Cinema• Easy Entrepreneurship: Public Sector Perspective• The Business of Winning at Sports Entrepreneurship• Innovations that Bridge the Digital Divide• AgriTech Matters: Feed Billions by Harvesting Technology• She Means Business: Mentoring and Network• Under the Microscope: Investing in Healthcare Startups

1:30 PM – 2:45 PM SESSIONS• If I Knew Then What I Know Now• Easy Entrepreneurship: The Entrepreneurs’ Perspective• Capital Success: Crowd Funding and Bootstrapping• Water Everywhere: Managing a Scarce Resource• Grassroots Grows: Women in Emerging Markets• Payment Platforms: What is the Next Game Changer?• Retooling Learning and Schooling• Meet George Jetson, Modernizing Mobility Infrastructure

3.45 PM - 5.15 PM SESSIONS• Byte into a Better Future: FinTech Disruptors• Getting on the Grid• Better Health without Breaking the Bank: How Low-Cost

Innovations are Revolutionizing Healthcare• Building Your Customer Oriented Brand• From the Drawing board to the Boardroom, Creative Entrepreneurs• Go For It: Tapping Alternative Financing Solutions• The Missing Middle: Making the Leap• Easy Entrepreneurship: Investor’s Perspective

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GES 2017: AGENDA

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#GES2017

Day 2

9:00 AM – 10:15 AM SESSIONS• Capital Success: Seed Funds to Venture Capital• Beyond Returns: Investing in Emerging Markets• Harvesting Change through Entrepreneurship: Tackling Global

Agricultural Challenges• The City that Never Sleeps: Cities of Tomorrow• Diversifying Supply Chains: Linking Global Commerce and

Women-Owned Businesses• Innovation Hubs: Skilling the CEOs of the Future – Incubators• From the Lab to the Market: Connecting Science to the

Entrepreneurship World• An Audience of Billions: How to Break into Big Emerging

Markets

11.15 AM - 12.30 PM SESSIONS• Knowing the Future: How Artificial Intelligence will Shape

Tomorrow• Reimagining the Future of Health• Pitch to the Rich: Key Messages to Deliver to Investors• How to Fail Better• Own Your Message: Effectively Using Traditional and Social

Media

• The Reality of the Future: How Technologies are Shaping Experiences

1:30 PM – 2:45 PM SESSIONS• Developing the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem• E-Commerce as a Critical Tool in Scaling Entrepreneurship• The Language of Entrepreneurship• Success! Keeping and Nurturing Women in STEM• The “Enterprise” of Space: Advances In and Applications of

Space Technology Are Driving Economic Growth Around the World

• The Missing Middle: Increasing Your Presence

3.45 PM - 5.15 PM CLOSING PLENARY• When Women Win, We All Win: Promoting Inclusive Environments

for Women Entrepreneurs

SPEAKERS OVERVIEWABOUT NITI AAYOGABOUT THE US DEAPRTMENT OF STATEABOUT tGELF

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SESSION REPORTS

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INAUGURAL SESSION

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This opening session addressed the overarching theme for GES 2017: Women’sentrepreneurial leadership. In so doing, several key components were discussed.To begin with, it was unanimously agreed upon that there a host of challenges that need to be overcome. Firstly, women face a relative lack of mentorship, which in turn leads to difficulty in accessing risk capital, an area in which mentors are par-ticularly helpful. Mentorship is also a facilitator for success by playing a support function, as entrepreneurs can talk openly and seek advice. Along similar lines is the lack of networks, given that the ecosystem of women entrepreneurs is smaller than that of men. Men therefore need to create sponsorship, mentorship, and net-work opportunities for their women counterparts, in an effort to address the issue.

A further set of challenges revolve around women’s lack of access to finance and capital, as well as inequitable laws that hinder women’s access to entrepreneurial leadership. Women are also greatly underrepresented in STEM fields. Technology is disrupting every industry, yet women are less digitally literate and less likely to take up jobs in fields such as engineering than men. If we fail to prioritize this, the Fourth Industrial Revolution could actually make negative progress for gender equality.

Within this context, succeeding in a male-dominated world involves following a passion and dream. Perseverance is key. However, it is crucial that we as a society and ecosystem create opportunity. In India, women have always had to fight for their voice to be heard from time immemorial. While on one hand, we have had women leaders being part of crucial moments in time like the writing of the In-dian Constitution, on the other, there has always been an evident lack of support for female involvement across sectors and fields. Keeping this challenge in mind, the panellists pushed for promoting education as a social catalyst and using it as a focussed tool to change the face of female leadership across the board.

The panel closed with a call to action for all participants of GES 2017. Marcus Wallenberg urged the audience to set a goal to help one entrepreneur each during the coming year. Nirmala Sitharaman asked women to come forward, knock at ev-ery door for opportunities, and push for themselves. Sibongile Rejoyce challenged every member of the audience to make a difference and mentor each young girl and boy – boys will be our leaders too. Last but not the least, Ivanka Trump empha-sised mentorship, and called for every member of GES 2017 to find another person who could benefit from our knowledge.

SPEAKERS Ivanka TrumpJohn ChambersMarcus WallenbergNirmala SitharamanSibongile Rejoyce

Plenary Session: Be The Change: Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership

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Key Takeaways

Gender equality can have the most economic bene-fit for countries represented in GES2017, adding to the global GDP by USD12 trillion by 2025 (includ-ing USD700 billion in India and USD3 billion in the USA).

“You just have to do it. Too often, there is a myth that everyone who started a business was 100% sure that it would succeed - not true. Many waited, pivoted, failed to come back again.” (Ivanka Trump)

The proportion of the population that is working reflects in the proportion of thepopulation benefiting from the work; this is a tangible incentive for greater genderequality in the workforce.

We are at an inflection point for change in the area of gender equality in the context of entrepreneurship and leadership around the world.

GES 2017 is a chance to dream together, col-laborate and “Be the Change.” For people to come together, beyond the limitations of age, gender, nationality, or field.

From L - R: Nirmala Sitharaman, Marcus Wallenberg, Ivanka Trump

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DAY 1

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The session encapsulated a crucial discussion on the importance of innovation and skill building in promoting an enabling and inclusive ecosystem for entrepreneurs both male and female.

Boosting women’s participation in the workforce begins with creating a condu-cive ecosystem. This includes institutional support from the government, a healthy work environment, and a strong family backing. Educating and empowering wom-en helps not only them but the knock on effects are felt on the rest of society as well. India has one of the lowest participation of women in the workforce; em-powering them will significantly boost India’s economic growth and development. In particular, India and the world need more women in STEM-related and other unconventional roles.

Increasing women’s participation in the workforce will occur at the confluence of government, business, and family values. For instance, governments need to play an enabling role and implement policies that support the modern family, for example, by giving tax credits and paid paternity and maternity leave. Governments need to place women’s issues as a top public policy priority.

The business world also needs to adapt to support gender balance, especially for new mothers. Technology has a big role to play here. For instance, IT enables working women to work from home while caring for their family. Finally, the fam-ily in particular and society, in general, need to rid their biases against women working and earning a living. For this, men need to play an increasingly important role in ensuring that their partners or daughters receive equitable opportunities for intellectual and professional growth. The importance of education, encourage-ment, and empowerment as the recipe for women’s greater participation in the workforce was echoed by all panellists. The session ended with a call to action for better environments and increasing support for women in the workforce.

SPEAKERS KTR Rao (Moderator)Chanda Kochhar Cherie Blair Ivanka TrumpKaren Hughes-Quntos

Plenary Session: We Can Do It! Innovations in Workforce Development & Skills Training

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Key Takeaways

Success for women depends on support from family and the entire ecosystem within which she works. Do not give up when a woman decides to start a fam-ily - family should be a part of professional growth and progress.

Technology plays a vital role today. It plays an enabling role in keeping women in the work-force and also in rehiring them.

The longer we can preserve the purity of passion and lack of societal assumptions on young girls, the better opportunities they end up getting or creating for themselves.

We should create conducive organisations for wom-en e.g. new mothers can work from home, get paid for travel & stay of child and caretaker for overnight trips etc. Their merit should lie in their work and not in the familial or social role they play.

Social bias training for men is crucial. We all have biases but need to recognise and address them personally and professionally.

From L - R: Karen Hughes, Cherie Blair, KTR Rao, Ivanka Trump, Chanda Kochhar

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This session provided some crucial insights into the investor’s perspective as they vet startups to fund.

The panellists stressed how optimistic they are about investing in initial businesses in emerging markets. TVS Capital is dedicated to Indian businesses and it only takes money from Indian investors. “At the end of the day, you’ll end up doing what your clients want you to, so you want to make sure they understand the market you are working with. We work with investors from India because what they want will ultimately reflect what the Indian market wants, which is exactly what we need,” said Srinivasan.

They also talked about the positive impact the businesses they invest in end up having on various economies. Washburne added, “One of the businesses in our portfolio is the biggest employer in Afghanistan. Without them, all their employees would possibly be walking around in the streets without a job.”

After giving some context to the current scenario, they went on to describe what it takes to be one of these businesses that make a difference. Investors look at both the quality of the idea and at the quality of the team when deciding on whether an

investment is worth it. The entrepreneur has to be passionate about the idea, but also serious about implementing it. “We are not about hear, we are about gut.”

The entrepreneurs, on the other hand, have to know which investors are the right ones for them at each stage. It is more than just money. You most often want to bring investors who can bring expertise and network that is relevant to your business. You also want to choose the right type of investment. When you have some sort of proof of concept but are not able to state the market space for your idea quite well, you probably want an angel investor who’s a geek about your in-dustry. When you have lots of growth but little cash flow, then you would probably look for a VC. If you have both growth and a healthy cash flow, then private equity may be a good option.

When asked about the diversity problem when it comes to gender in business and about what male advocates can do to help fix it, the panellists mentioned: the importance of participating in conferences like GES and the role of micro-credit in democratizing access to capital to women entrepreneurs is crucial and goes a long way in bridging the gap.

SPEAKERS Priya Rajan (Moderator)Gopal SrinivasanRay Washburne

Money Counts: Attracting Private Equity

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Key Takeaways

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Common mistakes entrepreneurs make: being ex-cessively confident in their ways; over-sell their busi-ness instead of being realistic; second-guess what investors are looking for; doing stuff because it is the flavor of the moment instead of the fact that they enjoy it.

Investors look for passionate entrepreneurs who can easily adapt to whatever happens.

Investors do background check on entrepre-neurs. They check, for example, what results they had in previous businesses. If they failed (which is totally fine), it is important to un-derstand how they handled the failure. After all, if they are not ready to handle failure, how would they handle success?

Private equity is usually looking for value [that a company creates] rather than for valuation. This way they can get a good exit. Making 10x the investment would be awesome, but it is also very rare. Private equity is really looking for business that will return 2-3x.

A major issue that investors face in choosing the right entrepreneurs is finding those who can manage big teams.

From L - R: Ray Washburne, Priya Rajan, Gopal Srinivasan

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The session explored different themes within the overarching theme of tracing cinema as it moves forward. The speakers focused on the role of women and their representation on the screen, not just as actors but also as directors and producers. They acknowledged the challenge women face in the industry but they were also hopeful about the future role of women in the industry.

Furthermore, a central topic of discussion was the shift in consumption of cinema-tography due to shifting habits of technology usage. From a filmmaker’s perspec-tive the biggest new trend in cinematography is the way content is now being con-sumed. Because consumption has moved from the theaters to watching movies on mobile devices such as a cellphones, laptops or tablets. Therefore, the way content is being produced needs to be rethought. These news trends influence the style in which filmmakers think and foresee the production of their films. The key to suc-cess is to embrace the new trends and patterns of the consumers, in order to reach more diverse backgrounds and go beyond the typical borders.

Technology here, grants the capability to extend to frontiers that were never ex-plored before.

Emphasis on the role of government was also explored in the panel discussion. Thespeakers affirmed that government trust and support is important since the in-dustry creates job opportunities and explores different types of art such as music, dancing, and acting. There is a need to see the movie industry as worthy enough of public investment.

The session ended with a call to action from speakers for promoting greater pub-lic-private partnership in the film industry and also to advance the industry to go on to explore more and more creative avenues.

SPEAKERS Subhash Chandra (Moderator)Aditi Rao HydariOnyekachi StephanieRonnie Screwvala

Future of Cinema

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Key Takeaways

Film making is not about geographical boundaries, it is about the vision of the filmmakers because feelings do not have a language.

The future of cinema relies on a marriage between both passion and education. Training and education are key components of what makes an actor or actress successful in the industry.

Actors, actresses, producers, and directors have a responsibility to use their powers to raise awareness on various different social is-sues such as diversity and representation.

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2The film industry provides an opportunity for diverse cultres to come together through the sharing of these different arts through collabo-ration across geographies (e.g. Bollywood and Nollywood collaborations)

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Audience during the GIST Pitching Competition

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The session revolved around the importance of government and startups collabo-rating for an enterprising future.

We are at an inflection point in the interaction between startups and government. We have now moved past the era when we think that governments should just get out of the way of entrepreneurs; governments who are not at the table in the start-up communities, listening and integrating their work are falling behind. There is a symbiotic relationship between them.

Smart regulation is in order. Startups have moved away from simply building apps, and are now into energy, and other industries and sectors. A wide array of regulato-ry challenges face entrepreneurs and the policy-makers who work with them. Par-ticular challenges arise where it is dangerous or unrealistic to permit live testbeds in areas of healthcare, for instance, as people’s lives are in the hands of startups that can run out of money, or where founders can just move on.

Governments can support in creating environments and ecosystems. Denmark started out by creating councils to think collectively, such as a Startup Council, Competitive Council, and more. Labour markets and education systems are in-

fluential in this context. In Denmark’s case, it has one of the most liberal labour market in the world, with a high level of organised workers in labour unions and businesses organised in entrepreneur unions. Agencies, protocols, programmes dedicated to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can help understanding their power and take them further. In the USA, SCORE mentors SMEs of all genders and backgrounds, and Small Business Administration (SBA) conducts personal engage-ments and town hall meetings to learn what the dynamics are that are preventing SMEs from being successful. In India, the fifteen-day turnaround for establishing a company is working really well for startups, and the GST tax structure is reliable for all stakeholders. What is required is infrastructure, roads, energy, and access to capital. Some barriers that are unique to women also need to be addressed by the government.

SPEAKERS Jonathan Ortmans (Moderator)Anders SamuelsenAruna SundarajanJovita Carranza

Easy Entrepreneurship: Public Sector Perspective

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Key Takeaways

“A messy culture like the entrepreneurial culture is a difficult one for governments to embrace” (Jonathan Ortmans) - but governments who do not do so will fall behind.

It is important to distinguish ease of doing busi-ness from attractiveness in business, e.g. Den-mark is #1 in ease of doing business, though businesses do not necessarily move to Denmark to make money.

By definition, entrepreneurs need to be dis-ruptive and break the system, yet women are socialised into playing by the rules, and thus face double the challenges. We need to work on this on a societal level to give women the necessary confidence to demand more and disrupt the system.

There are challenges for all small businesses - not only women’s businesses - and must be addressed as such, because if there are issues in men’s small businesses, it will be com-pounded for women.

Designing regulatory systems is challenging, as over-regulation and under-regulation are damaging; “you cannot just have a hands-off policy.” (Aruna Sundarajan)

Partnership between startups and government must be conscientious, to avoid choosing a sin-gle partner, be open to the entire playing field, and steer clear from pre-empting policy.

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From L - R: Anders Samuelsen, Aruna Sundarajan, Jonathan Ortmans, Jovita Carranza

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This session saw two starkly opposing views on the future of sports entrepreneur-ship. The first view, espoused by Pullela Gopichand and Sania Mirza, held that sports at the local level should be given more importance and local heroes should be celebrated as a means to encourage young athletes to take up professional sup-port. The counter view, held by Chatri Sityodtong, placed huge importance on the role of marketing, ‘storytelling’, and ‘rockstar CEOs’ in being the catalysts for sports entrepreneurship.

Pullela Gopichand took a largely conventional, orthodox view in saying that the purity of sports is being lost with media hype around some of the more popular sports. Instead, sports should be allowed to grow organically in local areas, and not in a centralised manner. Grassroots infrastructure needs to be improved and local heroes be celebrated.

Sania Mirza agreed to the extent that media has to be responsible in a way that it portrays sports and athletes. The media needs to balance the prominence it gives to cricket vis-a-vis other sports. Even as a society, we need to appreciate all sports equitably.

Chatri Sityodtong presented a counter-view in that sports leagues across the globe are worth billions of dollars (e.g. NBA & NFL in the US, EPL & F1 in the US) be-cause they are marketed brilliantly. The media will pick up and highlight sports if they are provided with good content. Therefore, storytelling becomes important, as does glamour and glitz.

In terms of women in sports, both Mithali Raj and Sania Mirza echoed the fact that women’s participation in sports has increased over the years as have the facilities; however, a lot is yet to be achieved.

Business of Winning at Sports Entrepreneurship

SPEAKERS Harsha Bhogle (Moderator) Chatri Sityodtong Mithali RajPullela GopichandSania Mirza

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Key Takeaways

Sports is no longer only in the sports industry, but in the ‘catch your eyeballs’ industry and are competing with films, concerts, etc. The more you watch sports (“eyeballs”), the more money that sport makes.

Media plays an important role in promoting the lesser known sports, for instance, there are 2 pages for cricket, and then 2 pages for all oth-er sports. Media needs to cover all sports with equal enthusiasm.

We should celebrate sport and athletes for themselves, and not through Bollywood.

Sport should be run as an industry - however, not all sport is equal, so government intervention is needed there.

Sports infrastructure for girls is not up to the mark. It also needs to be better integrated into the school curriculum.

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2 4 Sports should not be only about winning but also about happiness, overall well-being, sat-isfaction, etc.

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From L - R: Pullela Gopichand, Mithali Raj, Harsha Bhogle, Sania Mirza, Chatri Sityodtong

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This session set out to break down the reasons behind a very evident digital gap and divide in the world. The discussion also centred around how the digital divide in itself is highly gendered.

In developing countries, the digital gap is continuously increasing. It exists and con-tinues to grow due to multiple reasons but prime out them are lack of education, access to technology, and non-affordability of devices. A crucial discussion within the topic of the obvious digital divide however, is the intersection of gender and digital literacy.

Women in rural areas spend a majority of their day in the fields and looking after their family. They do not spend any time on digital devices, as the products or content being pushed out is not relevant. This goes on to become one of the main reasons as to why digital device usage is not high in rural areas. When relevant content is provided to rural women - usage of devices goes up. The Internet is an incredible resource that can teach new skills to people through internet-based ser-vices. Therefore, the focus needs to shift towards providing relevant content that is high in demand and that in turn will increase the use of digital devices. Experi-ments with classroom teaching have not had any significant results but it is noted

that online platforms and digital devices have actually managed to engage female learners. Online digital devices provide privacy to female learners. With no one watching over their shoulder, women become more engaged and learn better. We need to make use of this opportunity to educate women on everyday skills and even more specialized subjects. Education is bound to bring positive changes in the lives of rural women. Once educated, women feel more empowered self-confident and are able to communicate with their children better. Education also helps them bring an additional income to the household, hence earning them more impor-tance in the family.

Out of 7 billion people worldwide, only 3.5 billion people are connected to the in-ternet. Bringing the gender gap within this context and noticing how female users are even lesser than male users makes the importance of bridging this digital divide even more crucial. In order to increase this number, affordable devices and afford-able data need to be provided. Language and the sheer diversity of it in India is another obstacle that needs to be overcome. Taking into account that most people are comfortable speaking rather than typing on the internet, a robust voice-driven internet service system is a must.

SPEAKERS Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Moderator)Anousheh AnsariRadha Kapoor KhannaRajan AnandanRoya Mahboob

Innovations that Bridge the Digital Divide

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Key Takeaways

It is not what companies think is important, it is what the users know is important for them. The digital services and content need to become more and more relevant and tailored to user needs.

7 billion people worldwide, only 3.5 billion people are connected to the internet. It is about time that internet reaches the farthest corners of the world. We nee to reimagine internet for it to become more inclusive and more benefi-cial for everyone connected to it.

Through digital literacy, women are empowered within their own homes - they are able to commu-nicate better, with their family and especially with their children.

If you do not have the courage to dream noth-ing will change. Majority of what a digitally lit-erate population can achieve is a dream that is yet to be realised. We need to dream big and dream better.

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From L - R: Roya Mahboob, Radha Kapoor Khanna, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Anousheh Ansari, Rajan Anandan

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The panel focussed on key themes of agriculture pertaining to the resolution of supply chain bottlenecks ensuring an increase in farmer incomes and betterment in the quality of lives of over 1.5 billion people living in rural areas around the world. The panel also discussed the role of technology in catalyzing more sustainable, ef-ficient and profitable agrarian practices, ensuring good quality of produce in terms of nutrient content and also the safety of the consumed food. With impending cli-mate change threatening the sustainability of agrarian land as well as productivity of existing holdings, technological development needs to be executed to ensure safeguards against such forces. Moreover, in a country like India food security also needs to be ensured in order to foster a peaceful and prosperous society. Also tak-ing into account the kind of resource stress that is being faced by the agrarian sector, technology needs to be the disruptor to resolve some of the pain points of modern agriculture.

One such pain point is the lack of space in the face of growing population. This pain point can be tackled by technologies like vertical farming that can usher in a cul-ture of household farms on steep walls, thus enabling urban farming in emerging markets like India. The scalability and sustainability of such technology need to be evaluated empirically. Similarly, lack of access to water is another major challenge

to the sustainability of agriculture which can be tackled by modern technologies like air to water type of equipment that can ensure adequate availability of water. Global collaboration is imperative to ensure universal access to such disruptive technologies that can transform the face of agriculture across the world.

Tech is definitely going to play a role, but worldwide more and more people need to join agriculture as well.We need to encourage a mindset change whereby agri-culture can be seen as a viable option by more and more quality tech-savvy people who can transform farms into professional factory-like institutions. Last but not the least, an aspect of this behavioural shift also pertains to encouraging greater women’s participation in the agrarian workforce. This shift, however, needs to be complemented by a reduction in the impending drudgery faced by many women in the sector and that can be made possible by technological advancements and their strategic deployment.

SPEAKERS Ritu Verma (Moderator)Ramana GogulaSivakumar SurampudiMaxim Pasik

AgriTech Matters: Feed Billions by Harvesting Technology

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Key Takeaways

There is a need to promote Smart agriculture and hi-tech agriculture. It also allows young people to get engaged in agriculture and also turn agricultural practices more tech savvy and modern.

While technology will play a huge role in the indus-try of agriculture worldwide, more people still need to join the sector. Technology has a major role to play in attracting this new human capital, and the onset of technology is not incompatible with people entering into agriculture.

Communities of consumer and communities of producers need to be connected. This con-nection will lead to more relevant innovation within agriculture.

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From L - R: Ritu Verma, Ramana Gogula

Global collaboration over newer technologies and innovative practices is crucial to more and more people gaining access to them. The world needs to come together to usher in a new era in the field of agriculture.

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The panel conversation revolved around the importance of the role that coaches, mentors and sponsors play for entrepreneurs. It was discussed how these external elements of support are necessary during the initial stages of starting a business, and also during periods of transition, when startups are scaling or adopting ele-ments of the business operation. It is also important during stages when one has faced a significant set of challenges. The importance this plays for women entrepre-neurs was discussed in particular detail.

It was agreed upon that mentorship may not be totally necessary, but it definitely does allow entrepreneurs to maximize their potential. It is also important to be open-minded about the sources from which one can receive mentorship.

Mentorship can be formal and informal, and can come from many different sourc-es. And often it is the little nuggets of advice that are the most valuable in the long term, stick with an entrepreneur only to become pivotal to their success. Mentors should however be outside of one’s work or entrepreneurial environment. These people should not be directly invested, but should be able to relate to the situation, and therefore successfully mentor and coach with their insight.

The importance of taking cultural contexts into account when interacting in a glob-al market and seeking mentorship was also touched upon during the discussion.

The session ended with a call to action by the panellists, as they asked the audience to strive towards making the full suite of tools and support, existing within the industry, available to women.

SPEAKERS Susan Chodakewitz (Moderator)Sumithra GomatamVanitha Narayanan

She Means Business: Mentoring and Networking

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Key Takeaways

It is sometimes hard to pick mentors, and figure out what you need. People seeking mentorship need to be prepared, and ask for what they need during the mentorship. Leverage and use mentorship well.

When working in different international con-texts, one has to reprogram context and as-sumptions on how you relate with people. When you’re successful you bridge those gaps and establish a common context to create communication… establish where everyone is coming from.

Women must benefit from the full suite of tools and support that our male counterparts enjoy and posses. And women are increasing-ly important to national economic growth and prosperity. Women are a resource for na-tional competitiveness.

Women just aren’t included in networks, even though networks are extremely critical to be suc-cessful in business. These have been traditionally only available to men. It is therefore important to change this culture and find new ways to network.

The ecosystem of support around you can give you confidence to make necessary decisions. In changes there are vulnerabilities, so it is im-portant to have a positive outlook, which can happen through the confidence you get from support networks.

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From L - R: Susan Chodakewitz, Sumithra Gomatam, Vanitha Narayanan

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The session entailed an elaborate conversation on the norms in companies for giv-ing and receiving funding for healthcare startups. Panellists noted that funders must first define what it is it that they need to identify in order to take the plunge. They also added that entrepreneurs need to study and consider potential VCs as much as one would expect a VC to study and consider a potential investment. Wilson went on to discuss the cruciality of proof of concept—does your technology work? She emphasised that it is far less about your pitch as it is about proving, verifying, and validating your design. Do you understand your customer, and will your product or service adequately meet their needs?

Byrapaneni discussed how there are different types of funding, and you must de-termine what funding is most appropriate for your startup’s needs. For instance, he noted that accelerators are a different model than a traditional VC, and there are ac-celerators specifically for healthcare and life sciences. Fernandez added that when you look at your product pipeline, you must understand what market it serves. If it is a domestic market, domestic funding makes sense. Byrapaneni encouraged healthcare entrepreneurs to be very focused on their customers—patients, doc-tors, hospital administrators, etc. He advised the audience to find the “pain points” and address them—“there are enough pain points in healthcare to be resolved.” He

went on to say that if you want to conquer your market, you have to know it inside and out.

Bharadwaj noted that as an investor, if you have red flags, they never really get better—they will stay the same or get worse, so one must pick up on the subtle signals and trust their intuition (e.g., if someone is arrogant or confrontational, if the chemistry is off, if someone seems greedy, etc.). When asked how entrepre-neurs should approach funding in this field, Byrapaneni advised that they bootstrap as long as they can, get as many grants as possible, do not use a financial consultant to mitigate or negotiate deals. He emphatically stated that the trust between parties is far more important than the excel sheet, and one should never do a deal if they are not happy with the set expectations. He closed by reminding the audience that many underestimate the complexity of the medical and healthcare industries, and we must not underestimate the thought leadership from journals, publications, and research in the field.

SPEAKERS Tania Fernandez (Moderator)Dr. Ramesh ByrapaneniNeeraj BharadwajTiffany Wilson

Under the Microscope: Investing in Healthcare Startups

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Key Takeaways

Healthcare encompasses numerous markets, Health-care services are the predominant part of the mar-ket, with healthcare tech accounting for about 25% and pharmacology and biotech representing 10-15% each.

As an entrepreneur, you must understand what investors are looking for, and not just in your product or service. Consider what investors are looking for in you as an entrepreneur, in-cluding strong leadership, willingness to listen and learn, etc.

Science entrepreneurship is not an individual sport it is a team sport. Be open to the coach-ing and the advice.

Trends in health care need to inform how we invest in healthcare. Only relevant investment can address the pertinent pain points.

You must know your market inside and out, down to the minutiae, and you must let your market inform the kind of funding you pursue.

India is a heal-ness driven market not a well-ness driven market. Do not wait for a mind-set change in the wellness industry, be cre-ative and partner with larger institutions

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GES Delegates

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This session saw the panellists discussing their learnings as they traversed the en-trepreneurial landscape.

DeVos recounted the genesis of Amway. Amway started with a dream of owning a business. However, while creating Amway, free enterprise was kept in mind. The idea was to empower employees to feel like business owners. That was the cause that was followed up with absolute commitment.

Vikas Khanna, on the other hand, had limited knowledge when he began working at the age of 16. What he did achieve, however, was that by the age of 16 he had hired 4 people to work for him. Only through persistence.

Rajashree being a technophile held the belief that every problem can be solved by technology. Making life simple, was the main aim. What she learnt, however, was that sometimes trying to oversimplify a process tends to over complicate it.

The common consensus was, there are lessons in life and lessons at work, and both are not very different. Setting up any business is difficult, it is wise to have a plan in place however a plan may not always work. It is the spirituality that often helps

in moments of difficulty. The risk factor differs between industries. The common thread between all sectors, however, is that the challenges faced are often the same.

The first business that the founders of Amway got into was teaching people to fly aeroplanes, without having any experience in that field. They did not succeed but the failure taught them another important lesson: It is important to be passionate, adventurous and not afraid of taking risks. It is alright to fail, it is important to pick yourself when you do.

Lastly, it was unanimously agreed upon that after having a dream and idea, the next step is to find people who share the same values as you and believe in your idea. Entrusting faith in a core team is crucial. Unless you let go, you cannot scale up. Strength comes from your surrounding and support system, however, it does not always have to be a positive reinforcement.

SPEAKERS Geetanjali Kirloskar (Moderator)Doug DeVosRajashree Natarajan Vikas Khanna

If I Knew Then What I Know Now

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Key Takeaways

One must never lose faith no matter how bad a fall is. Things are constantly changing form, and it is never really the end.

The current environment is more open to di-versity, both in terms of ideas and the kind of people that are taking up entrepreneurial ad-ventures.

A successful person’s motivation does not always have to be positive. There is more to learn in failure than all successes.

“Start with a cause and follow up with commitment,” said Doug DeVos. Both dreaming big and working hard is very important.

Unless you cannot let go, you cannot scale up. You need ot have faith in the team you build and not micromanage if you want to grow.

“The word passion is overrated!” - Vikas Khanna

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From L - R: Doug DeVos, Rajashree Natarajan

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This session has each panellist discussing and analyzing the concept, “easy entre-preneurship.” Although the entrepreneurship journey is a rewarding experience, the underlying message conveyed by the panellists characterized entrepreneurship as a lonely path, requiring courage, stamina, and an unrelenting pursuit to create a successful enterprise. In fact, entrepreneurship was described as “painful,” and a “spiritual journey” with endless challenges. The panellists continued the session de-scribing their own journeys to entrepreneurship. Srikanth was the first internation-al blind student to graduate with a degree in cognitive science and business from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through persistence and relentlessness, he not only graduated from MIT but also founded a company that generates over 25 crores in revenue. Christine Souffrant’s journey emerged after witnessing the struggles of her mother and grandmother as street vendors in Haiti and New York. These experiences and learnings informed and inspired her desire to provide a market and platform for vendors to sell their products. Through her experience in scientific research, Sandra developed innovations in biotechnology, a field domi-nated by men.

In the second half of the session, the panellists discussed the role of government and higher education in creating spaces for entrepreneurs to excel. The key takeaway

was that governments should make laws and regulations for starting and maintain-ing businesses transparently. Often, even the “experts” lack the knowledge needed to convey and translate regulations and opportunities for entrepreneurs. Transparency is paramount.

Regarding the pursuit of higher education to fortify entrepreneurial experience and knowledge, the panellists recommended entrepreneurs to only pursue a de-gree if necessary. The panellists argued that a degree helps in building networks, but by using social media to creatively find consumers and marketplaces and craft-ing a digital profile, entrepreneurs can circumvent traditional educational medi-ums. The three main skills highlighted by panellists were product management, digital marketing, and data management, and these skills can be learned either through traditional training methods or the grit-and-grind of trial and error. Being an entrepreneur is not easy, but trusting in one’s past experiences, creativity, and motivations can lay the groundwork for establishing an exceptional enterprise.

SPEAKERS Ronnie Screwvala (Moderator)Christine SouffrantSandra Jonsdottir-BuchSrikanth Bolla

Easy Entrepreneurship: The Entrepreneurs’ Perspective

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Key Takeaways

Capital is not liquid capital; it is social capital. Be cre-ative in how you use your social networks to establish a formidable enterprise.

“Your degree does not matter, your exposure matters. Without exposure all your hard work and talent will not take you beyond breaking stones.” -Srikanth

There has to be a compelling reason to be-come an entrepreneur, and it cannot be only about business.

Listen to the patterns of your life, and these pat-terns will inform that type of idea and endeavor you should pursue.

“If 99% of people do not get what you are say-ing, you are either wrong, or you will change the world” – Christine Souffrant

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From L - R: Ronnie Screwvala, Christine Souffrant, Sandra Jonsdottir-Buch, Srikanth Bolla

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The session started with a focused discussion on the different models of crowd-funding. Yeone Fok started with a brief discussion about what makes crowdfunding unique; first, the opportunity to share your idea with the market before approach-ing investors; second, the process of co-creation involved in the model and, diver-sity of contributions which is not limited by geography or time. Then Shanti Mohan started her response by saying that you should not start a venture with the sole focus being, raising money. Further, that it is important to first spend considerable time in understanding the market, your customer and the space you’re in. Yeone added to her point bringing the focus back to reward-based crowdfunding platforms and how they are ideal for companies not looking to lose equity through raising capital and interested in testing their product with the market before producing at scale. Vikram added to the discussion and said when your customer becomes your inves-tor, your idea has true potential to scale.

Then the discussion shifted to understanding the investor perspective. The need to understand your potential investors was collectively emphasised. Vikram led the discussion recommending the entrepreneurs in the audience to understand their needs first: are they looking for serious capital or are they also looking for men-torship bundled with the capital? He emphasised the importance of conducting

in-depth research of all your potential investors including their risk appetite, their average exit time, and what kind of market does the investor invests in. He con-cluded by saying that entrepreneurs should reverse their usual practice, first ask the investor what they are interested in and then pitch your idea to them.

The discussion then shifted to bootstrapping and how to make it work. Vikram started by saying that if you want to bootstrap, you have to look at customer money – income levels and what kind of market you’re targeting. Yeone and Shanti empha-sised the potential of reward-based crowdfunding platforms, especially for found-ers who wish to bootstrap and enter the market before raising any external money.

To conclude, crowdfunding is a new and emerging industry but is fast growing and developing. Crowdfunding empowers individuals, networks and ideas irrespective of differences. Crowdsourcing is not just about raising money but about customer acquisition, building an ecosystem around your organisation and creating value.

SPEAKERS Vikram Gupta (Moderator)Ram ReddyShanti MohanYeone Fok

Capital Success: Crowdfunding and Bootstrapping

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Key Takeaways

You should not start a venture just because you want to raise money. Passion and vision is important. In-vestors need to have genuine buy-in into your vision for the company.

It is important to understand what people are looking for and more importantly understand-ing the problem that you are trying to solve and the space you are in.

Hustle and find people who will be part of the community Does not just fall into your lap. You have to go out there and create it.

Customer money is always cheaper than equity.

Raising money externally is like climbing onto a treadmill and it becomes faster as you raise more and more.

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From L - R: Vikram Gupta, Ram Reddy, Yeone Fok, Shanti Mohan

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The session encapsulated the way forward for entrepreneurship and innovation in the field of water technology and management.

To foster entrepreneurship in clean water technology, the key is not innovation in water purification processes, but in the preceeding stage, that is accessibility and supply. Tying entrepreneurship to clean water usage, where franchisee rural entrepreneurs make money when their communities drink more clean water, has proven effective in rural India as per Sarvajal’s experience. There is a huge scope for technology and private entrepreneurship in the space of water technology. While the state has a monopoly over water supply, if business models can work for better, cheaper water, then we should shift in the other direction (for instance producing water out of the air).

It was also noted that the industry of water is too ‘boring’, and insufficiently attrac-tive to college graduates, even though there are entrepreneurial opportunities to find better solutions within the realm.

However, there are a definite set of challenges. Water procurement is one of them. It does not make sense for all water coming out of taps to be potable. In countries

like the US, creating infrastructure for differentiated procurement is a massive challenge; in countries like India, the distinction may affect lives through reducing the time and financial costs involved in fetching water. Managing groundwater is also a challenge in India, as 85% of water consumption comes from groundwater and we extract more groundwater in India than in the US and China combined.

The panel noted that innovation is needed in connection with water to other indus-tries such as meat consumption and agriculture, which are highly water-intensive. The need for getting government involved was reiterated time and again. In India, there is incentivisation of state governments based on competition and through major campaigns such as the Swachh Bharat Mission. We need greater groundwa-ter legislation and differentiations in pricing of water. It is also fundamental that governments create an enabling environment for partnerships in the area of water management and security. Inspiration can be taken from initiatives such as those in India around hand soap usage, where partnerships with corporate marketing ef-forts from hand soap producers were dovetailed by government efforts to increase its usage in order to save 2 million children’s lives per year.

SPEAKERS Maxim Pasik (Moderator)Anand ShahBartholomeus de JongeParameswaran IyerVikas Shah

Water Everywhere: Managing a Scarce Resource

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Key Takeaways

Water impacts livelihoods and economies at all levels. A lack of clean water and sanitation lead to diseases; 443m school days are lost each year to water-related diseases. Water scarcity will only increase this.

Behaviour change is fundamental to the con-versation, and initiatives such as Swachh Bharat demonstrate this in India, as it generated an understanding that clean water is connected to health.

As individuals and as crop producers, we do not live within our means in water terms. We cultivate crops that do not match the water availability in any given region.

Two thirds of the world will have a lack of water by 2025. There is a dire need for efficient innovation within the field of clean water technology and man-agement.

Clean water technology is a game changer in saving and improving lives. Access to clean drinking water allows families to free up time, seek employment, education, reduce health-care costs, etc. It is also a business decision - healthy populations permit prosperous econo-mies.

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GES Delegates

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With a panel comprised of all women, this session focused on the many different challenges that the panellists have faced during their careers. The speakers shared their experiences in each one of the fields where they have worked such as banking, private investment, and law.

They all agreed that for the development of society and global economy, it is our duty to include women and to create environments which are friendly and wel-coming to varying female needs. One of the speakers, Kathryn Kaufman, pointed out that the years during which a woman builds her career happen to be the same years during which she forms a family. Since both occupations carry considerable responsibilities, there is a great need to build work places which can allow women to make well-informed choices.

While the session continued, the conversation moved to the power of technology in building platforms to establish your own business and to use it as a tool for your own growth. The connectivity that new technologies provide can be used not only to get new information and to facilitate female business, but also to expand con-nections. Technology also gives women the opportunity to create conducive work

environments that enable them to navigate their work and personal responsibilities with ease.

Finally, the speakers emphasised the need to expand sisterhood, where women can help other women, not only to lead, but also to provide a strong support system for one another.

SPEAKERS Su Shan Tan (Moderator)Kathryn Kaufman Anjali BansalPratibha SinghOtara Gunewardene

Grassroots Grows: Women in Emerging Markets

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Key Takeaways

In every global economic metric, women are behind men. But it is time now for this to change. More and more women are leading the workforce from the helm and it is bound to shift the global metrics to-ward the positive.

You need grit to overcome challenges and suc-ceed. Most entrepreneurs agree that it was relentless perserverance that enabled them to succeed in their ventures.

Be authentic. Do not try to be somebody else, it will not work. Channel your lived ex-periences and gain strength from them.

Technology cuts every aspect of life. It disrupts a lot of things and we must be ready to use it for our own good.

The solution for global instability is to invest in women. We cannot progress as a global econ-omy if we leave half of our human potential behind.

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From L - R: Kathryn Kaufman, Anjali Bansal, Su Shan Tan, Pratibha Singh, Otara Gunewardene

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The session began with the question of how digital payments have disrupted com-merce and trade as it exists today. Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart, rightly men-tioned that most transactions in India are still in cash, but digital payments in India will be a 7 – 10 trillion dollar economy in the very near future. More and more people having access to internet and smart phones is transforming the way busi-nesses are run. With digital commerce, thousands of sellers have new access to wid-er markets, customers have access to new products, and transactions have become more transparent. Digital commerce is opening new arenas for new high-quality products. Melissa Frakmen pointed out how, for India, demonetization was a tip-ping point for fintech. People are starting fintech startups. Ruth Goodwin-Groen talked about how the future of digital technology is fintech. Digital payments are the foundation for entrepreneurs to grow their business. The talk then shifted to the topic of financial inclusion and how to push more and more for financial inclusion. It was pointed out that financial inclusion is very im-portant for development and there needs to be capital available for the companies that want to push fintech as a driver for financial inclusion. The panel swiftly shifted to the problems of cash where Ruth Goodwin-Groen emphasised the importance of stopping the cash. There is a transparency issue with cash; there is a security

problem, especially for minorities who have a harder problem securing their mon-ey and cash. Moving cash is slow and expensive and finally, it creates bigger prob-lem amongst minorities in creating a credit history.

The game changers in tech as well as what governments are doing to innovate, were the final topics of conversation amongst the panel. The panel talked about blockchain and tokenization, and how cross border trade is maximized. It was also pointed out that India is the pioneer in biometric identity.

SPEAKERS Lisa Mather (Moderator)Dr. Ruth Goodwin-GroenSachin BansalMelissa Frakman

Payment Platforms: What is the Next Game Changer?

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Key Takeaways

It is very expensive to be poor. In the US, more than US$ 1 billion is spent on fees by people who do not have access to financial services.

Digital payments are exciting because they will allow many small and medium entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Tracking your cred-it history is a lot easier with digital payments, and that allows a lot more entrepreneurs to get microcredit so that their smaller businesses can expand after finding a proof of concept.

Right now, new models are growing. There are villages, for example, that are incentiviz-ing digital payments and decentralization.

Digital payments and digital commerce are different, and they do not necessarily happen together. In lots of places where digital commerce is growing, pay-ments are still happening in cash.

In the next 10 years, almost 1 billion people will have access to 4G in India.1 3 5

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From L - R: Melissa Frankman, Sachin Bansal, Lisa Mather, Dr. Ruth Goodwin-Groen

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The session focused on how the landscape of education is changing through techno-logical and computing innovations, and how this is drastically changing the experi-ence of learning within and beyond the classroom. The panel discussed the changes that need to occur in the space of education in order to accommodate the changes happening in the world. The current educational system was developed in the in-dustrial age, and we are about to go through the 4th industrial revolution. Change is clearly happening, but is it happening everywhere? And fast enough?

The Asia Pacific region faces particular challenges, like the rigidity of current teach-ing methodologies, focusing on informational learning as opposed to experiential learning etc. Additionally, children face enormous parental and societal pressure in this very specific type of learning that is not tailored to every child. This is sadly resulting in serious mental health issues and in some cases suicide among young students. Clearly, something needs to be done. Children need to be given the space to pursue their passions, and teaching methodologies should be more individually tailored. Children also need to be given choice in the matter.

For this reason, it is important to work with parents, as well as bridge the digital divide for them to see the world of possibilities out there for a child’s development. For example, if a child is excelling in video games, the stigma should be removed, and the possibilities should be explored for their talent to actually be maximized productively. When it comes to technology and education, a low floor and high ceiling approach needs to be taken. Governments and corporates should provide technology to en-sure equal opportunities for everyone to achieve with a level playing field (low floor), however, a high bar needs to be set to keep challenging young people and inspiring them to do amazing things (high ceiling). Young people of today need to be trained to innovate and come up with solutions to the problems previous gen-erations are leaving behind. With the job market changing so rapidly, things that students learn at school and college, or jobs that they are working towards, may not be even relevant by the time they graduate. Therefore, learning should be teaching them how to have an entrepreneurial mindset to always create possibilities and success throughout their lives.

SPEAKERS Rukmini Banerji (Moderator)Mukul KanitkarVivian LauSunil Manohar Gavaskar

Retooling Learning and Schooling

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Key Takeaways

It is important to delink learning from schooling. Es-pecially as technological advances are allowing peo-ple to live longer, all people need to keep learning throughout their lives, and the facilities for this to occur need to be established.

The education system we have comes from the industrial age and we are in the 4th industrial revolution. Need to make education relevant to students again and provide them with rea-sons as to why they are there to learn – to solve problems.

Young people should be encouraged to learn how to learn, and that is by making mistakes. There is too much parental pressure, espe-cially in Asia, for academic perfection. Chil-dren should be given the space to make mis-takes and build resilience.

Learning needs to be experiential, interactive, and beyond informational instruction and rote learning. Lessons and assessments should be tailored towards individual students’ needs. These major shifts are oc-curring in methodologies globally. Teachers should give students the joy of learning.

Sports should be included in school curricula, as it teaches hard work, perseverance, disci-pline, determination, and dedication. It teaches you how to deal with failure, giving students a better idea of how to deal with other issues in life.

“There is a difference between entrepreneur-ship and entrepreneurial skills. Not everyone will be an entrepreneur, but everyone can use entrepreneurial skills. We want children to develop entrepreneurial skills to create successes throughout their entire lives.” – Vivian Lau

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From L - R: Mukul Krantikar, Rukmini Banerji, Vivian Lau, Sunil Manohar Gavaskar

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The panel began with a quick description of the panellists’ story and the work their organisation does. Deepak explained how he came up with the idea of Rivigo in 2014 to radically rethink the logistics model in India that suffers from large-scale inefficiencies. Also, how his model of relaying truckers from city to city instead of getting them to drive the entire journey, has made the trucking business an appeal-ing job alternative. He believes this is the future of trucking, at least in emerging markets.

The conversation then moved towards the future of diesel in the world. There is a need for cleaner diesel to be adopted and India has taken a very positive step towards this by adopting Bharat Fuel Stage VI. Another important change that will take place over the coming years is a higher degree of hybridisation.

The other important discussion was on the mode of energy that is likely to play a major role in mobility that is solar energy. The ability to convert solar energy in to electricity and then utilise it for transportation is a game changer.

Drones also formed a sizeable part of the discussion. We will probably not have a Jetsons city anytime soon. However, there are organisations that have started working on dedicated flight paths and some argue that we might not be too far away from transporting people through drones. In any case, drones will definitely be important in niche areas.

SPEAKERS Carlo Ratti (Moderator)Deepak GargJan Oliver Roehrl

Meet George Jetson, Modernizing Mobility Infrastructure

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Key Takeaways

The future of mobility lies in drones.There are or-ganisations already working on ways to transport people through drones.

The potential for innovation in the space of mo-bility is tremendous. Alternate forms of energy and reformed processes can change the way people and goods are transported.

Self driving cars will be the future of mass transpor-tation. People will stop owning cars.

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will play a critical role in mobility in the com-ing years. Artificial Intelligence will be a mas-sive game changer as we progress.

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From L - R: Jan Oliver Roehrl, Carlo Ratti, Deepak Garg

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The session centred around patterns and innovations in FinTech ‘disruptors’ to im-prove financial access, empowerment, and economic growth at all levels. For these initiatives to work, we need access to digital technology in the first place. This is important in the context of access to the phoneless (300 million in India above the age of 15 years) and smartphone-less. The proliferation of smarter phones and pen-etration of the telecom infrastructure facilitates connectivity to financial services.

In India, we are data rich before we are financially rich. How do we use this source of data for access to financial services? These shifts are underway to utilise data for better access to credit, but there is a long way to go.

There are issues of convenience and trust in the space of FinTech. Convenience is key, as long as it goes hand in hand with trust. The paperless shift is one such exam-ple - when you make something 100% paperless, transaction growth will no longer be 1-2 times greater as it was in the past, but 10 times greater.

The challenge of regulation: the Central Bank / all banks require all sorts of oner-ous processes (Know Your Customer) to prevent money laundering, etc. Impor-tantly, FinTech makes the delivery process much easier and more convenient for customers.

There was concurrence that the cost of delivering credit in the microfinance sector will significantly reduce because of digital technology. Telecom infrastructure and not mobile phones are key because banking is being provided through micro-ATMs.

In conclusion, all panellists agreed that digital technology in finance has only start-ed to improve lives and will go a long way in future.

SPEAKERS Rajiv Behari Lall (Moderator)Adhil ShettyDiana LayfieldUpasana Taku

Byte into a Better Future: FinTech Disruptors

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Key Takeaways

We are on the cusp of a revolution in the delivery access to financial services in India, which is headed in a digital direction; more than 100 million make digital transactions and more than 10 million mer-chants accept digital transactions.

Consumers are asking for extreme convenience in order to buy, as seen with Amazon, Google, etc. and we can see this with financial products. It is about convenience and trust.

Banks will continue to play a fundamental role in the future; other stakeholders are not trying to break this down, but to build an ecosystem for greater and more effective access. These services and products are build-ers, not disruptors.

“Digital” is a very equal platform. It does not dis-criminate on the basis of what you look like or what you wear; it also solves the mobility issue, as services are readily and remotely available.

While India is going online, the proportion of women online is less than that of men. This re-flects as a difference in empowerment between genders in the field of finance, and this needs to be bridged.

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From L - R: Adhil Shetty, Rajiv Behari Lall, Upasana Taku, Diana Layfield

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The session started with discussing the challenges that India and other developing countries are facing in providing access to electricity to their citizens. For any country like India, diversification and improving energy access for over 300 million people is a challenge. There is a 3-4% deficit in urban India itself, so ensuring access in the rural parts is even more challenging. Improvement has happened from the government’s side over the past few years but it is not sufficient.

The panellists highlighted that India does not have adequate sources of oil, so solar is going to be the next big source of energy but we also need to explore other re-newable sources of energy as well. One of the panellists (Ravi Kailas) highlighted that cost of solar energy is 50% less in India than that of coal.

In 2010 the solar industry size was 20GW and now it is 200 GW in India. Adding another 200 GW of solar is definitely going to happen but the question is when? No one knew that one day there will be over a billion mobile users, including the rural area as well. This did not happen because of government policy but because of demand. Same will happen to the solar sector if we provide value to people.

The next phase of the discussion was about the different alternatives out there for electrifying villages. The panellists discussed the benefits and drawbacks of adding people to the main centralised grid vs promoting micro-villages for the villages. There should be more options for people to choose between government grids, or setting up your own individual panel or setting up a micro-grid.

Some of the challenges that the sector faces are: Power everywhere in the world is sold on a subsidy model. When you start building these microgrids, you are taking away the larger customers of established companies and that is when local regula-tors create problems. Exit mechanism for microgrids is another issue that a lot of companies face. There is no security on capital.

Towards the end, the panellists discussed a huge opportunity that exists in terms of making hybrid appliances that run on renewable sources of energy and are also efficient. The panellists discussed how we can bring in sustainable income sources and democratize learning for people in abject poverty through appliances like a solar sewing machine or a solar projector.

SPEAKERS Harish Hande (Moderator)Piyush MathurRavi KailasSara Vakshouri

Getting on the Grid

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Key Takeaways

For any country like India, diversification a improv-ing energy access for over 300 million people is a challenge. India does not have adequate sources of oil, so solar is going to be the next big source of en-ergy.

Ensuring 24 hours energy is a big challenge for India. There is a 3-4% deficit in urban India itself, so ensur-ing access in the rural parts is even more challenging. Improvement has happened from the government side over the past few years but it is not sufficient.

Cost of solar energy is less in India. It is 50% less than the cost of coal. India has a conducive environment to increase reliance on alternate sources of energy.

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From L - R: Harish Hande, Piyush Mathur, Ravi Kailas, Sara Vakshouri

In 2010 the entire industry size was 20GW and now it is 200 GW. Adding 200GW of solar is definitely going to happen but the question is when? In 2 years, 5 or 7. No one knew that there would be over a billion mobile users in both urban and rural areas, and they have driv-en the demand for alternative energy, not pol-icies.

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People need to see value in using alternative renewable energy sources in order drive de-mand and thus enable the green shift at scale.

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In India, access to quality and affordable healthcare is a major challenge, and there is significant room for innovation in this space. In tandem with innovation, the private sector has a huge role to play. Both product and deployment of healthcare technol-ogies - specifically medical devices and pharmaceuticals - are important. Address-ing this issue is critically important not only because of the direct cost of adverse health, but the indirect cost associated with man-hours lost due to ill health of both patient and accompanying the person, negative externalities of an unhealthy pop-ulation on society, and so on. With healthcare, as with the water problem, impor-tance of behavioural change is incremental since people do not change their health care habits very easily.

For low-income populations, tiered pricing is important so that healthcare provid-ers do not ‘break the bank’ for patients in rural India by charging a high price to consumers. Cross-subsidisation could be a solution to this challenge. Furthermore, although the overall healthcare costs have been increasing due to longer lifespans and population explosion, individual costs are reducing due to increased purchas-ing power and technological innovations in healthcare delivery. However, human-kind is presently spending more than $3 million every day for 3,000 years; this is a shocking estimate. Healthcare solutions can also be found at different levels of

the supply chain. For example, addressing supply-side issues will definitely reduce costs. Healthcare products also need to be made affordable and accessible. Fur-thermore, preventative measures should be given greater precedence over curing methodologies.

In terms of opportunities for healthcare startups, several opportunities exist for several reasons. Firstly, established, large corporates often lack the hunger to inno-vate or the appetite to take risks in a way that startups do; secondly, startups can find low cost solutions to existing problems more easily; thirdly, startups with a tech focus are bridging the gap between doctors and patients.

SPEAKERS K Chandrasekhar (Moderator)Anand Madanagopal Chrispin Kambii Priya Tandon

Better Health without Breaking the Bank:How Low-Cost Innovations are Revolutionising Healthcare

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Key Takeaways

Access to quality healthcare biggest challenge in In-dia. Both product innovation and deployment of in-novation in healthcare is therefore very important.

Healthcare costs have generally been going up because of population increase therefore “total” costs have gone up (people living longer, more people on planet, etc.); however, purchasing power has also increased over time - individual costs going down.

Low cost/no cost models address the cost problem but create a utilisation/impact prob-lem. Therefore, we need influencer engage-ment to create mindset change in people.

There are direct costs in healthcare but also indirect cost of travel and opportunity cost of work hours lost, of patient as well as those accompanying pa-tient, therefore, deployment of innovation becomes vital in this case.

Big companies do not take risk, do not have the appetite to disrupt and innovate - therefore, huge scope for startups

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From L - R: K Chandrasekhar, Anand Madanagopal, Chrispin Kambii, Priya Tandon

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This session gave the audience an insight into building brands that foucs on consum-er needs above everything else. This discussion began with an emphasis on research and development (R&D). While building a brand, money should first be invested in R&D. Prior to the launch of any product or brand, R&D is crucial. The product created should be of superior quality. Creating a high-quality product ensures that customers become brand advocates. Social media marketing and a sales team are the second steps, in terms of investment.

The 4 P’s: product, pricing, placement, and people should be focused on while de-veloping a brand. There should be a root to market plan. The consumer base needs to be followed, even if it means redefining the brand. The product needs to be adapted in order to meet customer needs. Consumers are very self-aware. Listen to the customer, and then listen and follow the advice of the sales team.

In order to create an enduring brand, product excellence must be ensured. This is guaranteed via constant innovation and brand development. The brand must be reevaluated constantly. “Do not be obsessed with your solution, be obsessed with the consumer’s problem”. Again, listening to the consumer is key.

A millennial consumer responds to content. A brand communicates stories and ideas to the customer. Define your brand and create a narrative around it. Create content that customers will listen to and follow. Utilize social media and influenc-ers to push out your messaging. E-commerce is a great opportunity for new entre-preneurs, at it is low risk. However, since e-commerce is product category specific, it works great for the business to consumer category.

The session ended with the panellists unanimously agreeing that consumer be-haviour is at the threshold of another huge change as there is bound to be a major shift from retail to e-commerce. To keep up with this, brands need to constantly innovate.

SPEAKERS Priya Nair (Moderator)Lisa SraoPriyanka Mital Shivani Malik

Building Your Customer Oriented Brand

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Key Takeaways

Customers reward you if you give them what they want. Always listen to the customer. Build your brand around their needs and you will get the returns.

Once a brand is already out there, you need to build a relationship with the customer through social media. Social media is the next big thing in the field of marketing.

Define the role and the responsibilities of the employees. Once they realised their impor-tance in keeping consumers. They perform better.

Do not be obsessed with your solution, be obsessed with the consumer’s problem. No solution is a hit and win in a market driven by consumer needs, which are constantly changing. Be open to tweaking your idea.

Keep adapting, keep changing, keep talking to the sales team. The trends in sales are a direct indicator of consumer behaviour.

From an Indian perspective - customer ser-vice is crucial! The Indian market is very value-driven. Give your customers the value and there will be demand.

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From L - R: Lisa Srao, Priya Nair, Priyanka Mital, Shivani Malik

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This session discussed the challenges faced by creative entrepreneurs - especially women - and how those challenges can be overcome. Rohini Dey started off by saying that one just has to believe in oneself and have to be disciplined to be a suc-cessful creative entrepreneur. Furthermore, it is essential that all entrepreneurs learn their numbers since capital is extremely important when it comes to building a business. In other words, financial literacy is a crucial quality that all entrepre-neurs must master in order to at least make some progress in their business, and eventually succeed. Dey shared her story about the beginning of her journey, where she needed five million dollars to open her first restaurant in New York City. She managed to raise one million dollars herself and planned on getting loans from commercial banks. However, none of the banks would lend her money, because she was a woman. After struggling for quite a while, she finally succeeded in getting a loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA). She was able to pay off all her investors and SBA within the first two years of her restaurant opening. She conclud-ed that it is undoubtedly more difficult to get access to finance and build a business in the creative industry, especially as a woman.

Anita Dongre stressed that creativity mixed with empathy is key to succeed in the creative industry. She also underlined that women need to get over the phobia

of asking for things - whether it is asking for money, asking for credit, asking for help - and be direct like most men. She added that women tend to underplay their strengths and undermine themselves, which hinders them from making progress and thus succeeding in their business. Finally, she stated that “analysis paralysis” has become a big issue for many entrepreneurs. She advised not to spend an unneces-sarily long time trying to plan everything out perfectly, and instead set a time frame and focus on one thing at a time.

SPEAKERS Rasmus Wiinstedt Tscherning(Moderator)Anita DongreRohini Dey

From the Drawing Board to the Boardroom Creative Entrepreneurs

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Key Takeaways

Creativity mixed with empathy is the key to succees.

Capital is extremely important to build any business. But procurring that capital comes with its own set of challenges. As a women, it-becomes even more difficult.

It is more difficult to get access to finance and build your business in the creative industry.

You have to believe in yourself to succeed. Entrepre-neurship is a challenging journey with many obsta-cles. Passion and faith in one’s idea can take a person a long way.

All entrepreneurs must learn their numbers. Financial literacy is one of the pre-requisites to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

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From L - R: Rohini Dey, Anita Dongre, Rasmus Wiinstedt Tschering

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Alternative modes of financing an idea or enterprise exist outside the traditional venture capitalists models. Corporations have their own investment arms; incuba-tors through the help of foundations and government grants offer capital to start-ups; philanthropic and social currency models are also often the untapped funding sources. In these funding streams, investors consistently search for entrepreneurs who are coachable and who passionately seek to change the world. Investors are extremely selective with investments, and entrepreneurs should carry the same due diligence when selecting investors, ensuring that investors are committed to the idea and have some level of expertise in the field. Corporations invest through three main models: 1) dedicated funds towards a portfolio of companies, which can be diverse in nature 2) strategic investments in enterprises that improve corporate weaknesses and offer a strategic competitive advantage to boost returns 3) port-folio and strategic investment driven. Corporations are generally more patient, viewing investments as long term processes which offers entrepreneurs the time and space to develop an enterprise and gradually emerge in the market.

Within the philanthropic and social sector, new avenues for receiving and finding financial support are emerging. One such avenue, recently launched by Horyou, is called Spotlight. Spotlight is the world’s first digital social currency. Users can buy

units of currency but must give this currency back to people and organizations that inspire them. Spotlight is also a social network where people are able to highlight particular organizations that create high impact. The aim of this initiative is to make capitalism more sustainable by promoting an altruistic vision of the future. Busi-ness and organizations who do good work will have the visibility and the resources needed to improve the world.

Incubators operate in the region where market failures miss opportunities on high potential companies and where private support is not easy to find. By connecting to incubators such as CIEE, startups receive on the ground training, mentorship, alumni support, partnership opportunities, and funding options to move forward in the startup phases.

To compete in a competitive funding market, entrepreneurs should find alternative methods of funding through corporate investment, incubators, CSR, crowd-fund-ing, social currency, philanthropic giving, and government and foundation grants. Resources exist, but it takes creativity and sharp public relations to make one’s business visible and attractive in these diverse funding pools.

SPEAKERS Sanjeev Aggarwal (Moderator)Steve NordlundYonathan ParientiPriyanka Chopra

Go for it: Tapping Alternative Financing Solutions

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Key Takeaways

We have to make capitalism more sustainable and promote an altruistic vision for the future.

Women give back to society almost all the val-ue they generate. We need to support more and more women-led enterprises.

I look for people who want to change the world. To me, entrepreneurs are people who are on a mission to make a difference, and they must be passionate about it.

Solutions have to come from people who are facing challenges on the ground. My task it to raise aware-ness from these people so that they can come up with these solutions and implement them.

The first question entrepreneurs and investors ask themselves should not be how you make money, it should be how much impact they will have.

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From L - R: Steve Nordlund, Yonathan Parienti, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjeev Aggarwal

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This session entailed a very insightful discussion on how venture capital works. The panellists emphasised that their definition of the missing middle has been expanded to include any company at any stage of growth that has received the first stage of funding and has for some reason, plateaued in their growth.

The conversation shifted to why funding stops after the first round of funding. Vani Kola talked about the importance of financial solvency of a company and that not enough startups talk or think about it. She mentioned that ideally, a company needs 12 months of capital at any given point. Allie Burns also pointed out the importance of knowing what sort of funding is necessary for a company or startup and sometimes, venture capital is not what they should be looking for. It might be important to look at grant financing instead of venture capital.

The next topic that was discussed was the importance of education, and whether an MBA or being a graduate of an IIT helps overcoming the middle plateau. It was emphasised by all members of the panel that an IIT education or an MBA do not guarantee success. It is the network that is the most important factor along with the co-founders and the core team that is part of the company. Education is a tool and entrepreneurship requires looking at life in a certain “warped manner”. Entrepre-

neurs are the ones who dare to dream and are crazy enough to pursue that dream. It is the ability to look at risks differently. Allie Burns pointed out that the study undertaken by Village capital showed the qualities that made startups successful – multiple founders were better, diversity was better, and lived experiences of the founders (knowing their market) were the crucial points for the best and most suc-cessful startups. The conversation ended with talking about products that fit ven-ture capitalism and the importance of domain insight for a startup and the product.

SPEAKERS Venktesh Shukla (Moderator)Vani KolaLavanya Nalli RamanathanAllyson Burns

The Missing Middle: Making the Leap

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Key Takeaways

The missing middle is defined as when a company gets the initial funding but their growth plateaus. There is something missing to push them over that plateau and into areas of growth.

There are many other ways to achieve funding than only through venture capital. Venture cap-ital is a very particular form of funding for very particular things - especially companies and ideas that can have exponential growth in the future. There needs to be awareness amongst founders and startups about the different op-tions of funding available and which to choose.

Domain insight is more important that do-main expertise when creating a business or product as an entrepreneur.

The ideal number of founders for a company is 2 or 3. Building a company is not a democracy. There needs to be a decision as to who is going to make the tough decisions and who has the veto power.

IIT degrees and MBAs do not matter. Even if 60% of venture funding goes to alumni of IITs, it is not the most important thing. Networks and where you find your co-founders matter. Educational background as a determination of success is not true.

Financial solvency of a company is an import-ant aspect that is missed by most startups. Ideally a company should have 12 months of capital and have to continue raising that capi-tal or have unit sales that are enough to keep the company profitable.

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From L - R: Vani Kola, Venktesh Shukla, Lavanya Nalli Ramanathan, Allie Burns

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This session put forth the point of view of investors and how they have observed the changes in the invesment space. Government reforms over the years have cre-ated a big difference. While on the national level things are extremely positive, on the ground level it is still a little challenging for entrepreneurs because regulators behave differently in each state and city. Rehauled arbitration laws have made a big difference as arbitration can easily kill a fund. Now, there is also a very positive open dialogue between industry and regulatory authorities. GST is also a powerful step in the long term and the government has played an important role in ensuring financial inclusion. The discussion then shifted to the importance of value creation. Also, the source of capital plays a critical role in scaling an enterprise. The nomen-clature of the enterprise also matters. There should be nothing known as a social or impact enterprise because anything that is not particularly destructive is social and impactful. In the impact as well as the non-impact space, another big issue is that enterprises are looking towards valuation creation and not value creation. The focus has to be on the value.

Zooming in, one can notice the evident gender disparity both as funders and entre-preneurs. Funds need to play a larger role in closing the gender gap. The first thing is that women just need to be given a fair hearing. It is not about giving women spe-

cial treatment but just about removing the implicit bias and making it easier to have a dialogue. Investing in women is not impact investing. Like all others, women can bring terrific returns and can also bring great risks. An issue faced by the industry currently is that there are not enough women sitting across the table representing the funds and firms.

The session ended with a discussion on the connective tissue between big and small companies. Big corporates are excited and intrigued by what is happening in the start-up ecosystem and the small ones are out there pitching and trying to impress the big ones. Both are essential to each other. At the end of the day, small startups can be the suppliers or the buyers of mass orders from the big corporates.

SPEAKERS Vineet Rai (Moderator)Anjali BansalThomas Hyland

Easy Entrepreneurship: Investor’s Perspective

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Key Takeaways

Some things and changes are very positive in alterna-tive investment. There is now an open dialogue be-tween industry and regulatory authorities.

Investing in women is not impact investing, it is the same as investing in any other start-ups. It can create terrific returns and can be a great risk as well just like others.

To create opportunity you need to create an ecosystem - startups are creating business among themselves. The ingredients of the ecosystem are educational facilities, money, accelerators and strong ecosystem layers.

What can funds to close gender gap? They firstly need to give women a fair hearing. It is not about special treatment but about removing unconscious biases. We need to make it easier to have a dialogue.

We do not see women on the other side of the table. Most investors are white males.

There is always a tradeoff between scaling of small enterprises and getting investors the return that they expect.

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GES Delegates

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DAY 2

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This session provided participants an insight into seed funds and venture capital as alternatives to conventional financing.

The session started with a discussion about the different trends and patterns in investments across the globe. The panellists highlighted that 2015 saw the most amount invested after the dot-com bubble, a total of $ 80BN. They also said that an increasing amount of Indian entrepreneurs are now looking towards the US for funding and there are huge opportunities there.

The discussion then moved on to the problems that entrepreneurs generally face in raising funds for their ventures. One of the important factors that were highlighted is finding the right institutions which can actually understand the struggle of the entrepreneurs and also mentor them along the way on the technical side as well as for getting finances. One of the panellists applauded the efforts of the Indian government for promoting research and quoted Bi-rac as an example. But there are two major challenges that we face, the amount of capital available in India for research is not that high and pairing of a business idea and research is not that fo-cused on in India. The panel also discussed the need for more grant based capital, especially for research-oriented ventures. In the case of research, it is important

to create an atmosphere where quality research can be produced. Not only the research ecosystem has to be developed but also adding business support system is important, like what Stanford has done.

There was a brief discussion about us being too much IPR dependent and the im-portance of focusing on collaboration and sharing of information. The importance of mentorship and the gap that exists between seed stage and maturity stage was discussed in detail and the panellists also quoted some personal examples for the same.

SPEAKERS Rema Subramanian (Moderator)Nandini TandonAndrew Tsao

Capital Success: Seed Funds to Venture Capital

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Key Takeaways

We are seeing an increasing amount of Indian entre-preneurs looking towards US for funding.

The amount of capital available in India for re-search is not that high. That is why the research products are not that good. There is a need to pair business ideas and research.

While we think globally, we also have to act globally. More and more collaboration is im-portant on a global scale.

It is important for an entrepreneur to find institu-tions that understand your struggle and mentor you along on the Technical side as well as for Finance.

In bio-tech and med-tech, early stage requires a research of a certain quality. The levels of re-search are very high in Israel. In India, the eco-system that is built around is not that dense but there definitely is some good research being done.

Do your homework, at the end of the day it is all about connecting the dots and under-standing the pattern. You are the most im-portant entity that the investor is going to in-vest in; Not your technology, not your idea.

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From L - R: Rema Subramanian, Andrew Tsao, Nandini Tandon

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In this session, the speakers discussed the possibility of creating social impact through investing in emerging markets, and whether these investments would have lasting returns. The environmental and social problems of today’s world are too big to solve without a coordinated effort. Thus the conversation should take place between different organisations as it is not just about one company or individual. Amit Midha outlined the three ways in which companies can create social impact. The first being, giving a percentage of business profits to a certain cause. The sec-ond is creating impact through socially or environmentally conscious company policies for the way the company lives and acts every day. The third is the middle ground of impact investing, where a company makes a difference while succeeding in their business activities, for example investing in a social entrepreneur and see-ing the returns. Driving performance and prices are also ways of creating impact. India provides a huge opportunity in the next few years to make a large social and financial foot-print. 56% of the worlds global poor is in the Asia Pacific and this means there is a huge opportunity for companies to make an impact as responsible businesses. The environmental changes in India are a huge opportunity for getting things going,

with profit and impact. The point was also made that even in developed markets, you have vulnerable populations that need to be supported.

A company should look at the needs wherever they arise, and assess their capability to have an impact through philanthropy – always look for opportunities to drive societal change. Furthermore, 50% of millennials will not join a company unless there is a focus on social good. It is therefore good for businesses to engage in issues that millennials are passionate about, in order to attract top talent to your organisation.

When deciding on what to invest in, the company has to start with core values, and then see whether you take the step to give money. Today there is a greater view on the efficiency of every dollar given, and see the impact that it is creating. It is very useful for corporates to look at it from an investment perspective.

SPEAKERS Ankur Sahu (Moderator)Kirsten Lund-JurgensenRajan NavaniAmit Midha

Beyond Returns: Investing in Emerging Markets

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Key Takeaways

In today’s world it is important to create businesses that can do well, but also make a difference, espe-cially in the Asia Pacific region. The key motivations behind entrepreneurial endeavours have changed as human needs are changing over time.

Sustainability of business depends on – pur-pose, performance, passion and diversity (in thoughts, actions and culture). The social im-pact aspect is therefore crucial to sustainabili-ty. It is important to give this social advantage through philanthropy but then monitor it pro-fessionally.

Everywhere is culturally different and how things work are different. Global companies have to understand this and support the lo-cal culture and environment. Need to reach out to partners – collaborative effort is im-portant. Helps when local governments are supportive.

Impact investing is a mutually beneficial and attrac-tive way of creating social good, as it coincides with the company succeeding in business. It is also good for business, as millennials look for employment at companies that are creating social impact.

It is useful to look at engagement through digi-tal platform to see what consumers care about, especially young people. Business demands companies to be impactful, because consumers and employees want to be associated with com-panies that give them pride.

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From L - R: Ankur Sahu, Kirsten Lund Juergensen, Rajan Navani, Amit Midha

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The session emphasised the need for global innovation within agriculture. It was collectively stressed that we should not look at agriculture as one entity. Some farmers make good money and can invest in capital (e.g. in grains) make far less, and some are in between. As a result, the technology that farmers in the latter cate-gory require differs, and is around accessing water or knowing when to sow, rather than how to use drones. By addressing different segments differently, we can use technology appropriately and effectively.

The future of the agriculture business involves acquiring new technologies and using them for the purposes of efficient agriculture. Entrepreneurship fits into this piece. There is both a profound social need and serious economic opportunity for agricultural innovation. In fact, improvement in the agricultural sector lifts the income of working core 2-4 times faster than other sectors. In India, a lot of work has to take place through partnerships. A small startup can interface with millions of farmers through another agency rather than directly, and India is an agricultural ecosystem that is characterised by small farmers and huge agro-business companies who have learned to interact with them. The use of technology in farming in India is complex, and there is reluctance around taking new technologies to scale. No company has yet made money by trying to sell apps or digital technology to farm-

ers. While there are now cost-effective ways to get technology available to farmers of all scales, the challenge is often sustaining the model of providing this technol-ogy. Although it is cost-effective at first, it does not always remain so, for instance, due to service needs.

Furthermore, there are issues of trust. Technology that has a lot of value but no im-mediate return (e.g. drones) needs to be sold to the intermediary agents, and only then will it be used by farmers within a few years. It is often a question of selling to the right intermediary group.

A huge future prospect is information for all stakeholders and at all stages, and technology-led information given information asymmetries in the Indian context; anything that levels the information playing field will allow the market in India to develop much further. Automation and machine learning will also change the game. Farming is universally a tough field, and in all markets, automation technol-ogies need to step in to relieve farmers who do not want their children in farming (anywhere in the world). Machine learning and AI will be as ubiquitous as electric-ity, incorporated everywhere as a force for efficiency and force multiplier.

SPEAKERS Roee Tamari (Moderator)Anil JainDan BryantMark KahnRitu Verma

Harvesting Change through Entrepreneurship:Tackling Global Agricultural Challenges

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Key Takeaways

Agriculture represents 20% of the Indian economy and 50% of the Indian population. With a growing global population, the need for agricultural innova-tion is fundamental. 120 million Indian farmers need access to technology to change the way they work.

Issues in talent in agriculture are derived from the lack of interest in agriculture, and there is an ensuing lack of excellence in agricultural in-novations and processes.

Entrepreneurs in agriculture do not generally play well together; there is some business that they do together, but it is rare and difficult.

Future trends to look out for, within ‘Ag Tech’, in-volve information and machine learning.

It is difficult to convince farmers of returns on the use of technology; the most effective way to frame this in India is by demonstrating cost savings rather than attempting to sell potential for greater yield (which is subjective, multi-di-mensional, etc.).

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From L - R: Ritu Verma, Mark Kahn, Dan Bryant, Anil Jain, Roee Tamari

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The session focused on the challenges of building smart cities. The discussion went from creating conscious citizens to building a model which fits the needs of each particular city. Amitabh Kant emphasised the need to focus on specific needs of the cities and how each city is different. He emphasised that the design of smart cities need to be done case by case. We need to start planning our cities without following the typical old patterns of western city planning.

Amory Lovins focussed a lot on the interconnectivity that needs to be built in new cities. The new cities need to have new designs that should focus on “dense capillary networks” where there are different styles of buildings, roads, etc for all the differ-ent people. He also strengthened the point of creating cities that are affordable and cost smart for all strata of society.

Priyanka Bakaya, a successful businesswoman who focuses on the recycling, talked more about the environmental threats our cities pose and the importance of waste management in new cities. She talked in detail about the damage of plastic and non-biodegradable products. She especially focused on the harms of such neglect on our water resources. Priyanka also believes that the conversation about smart cities is incomplete without bringing the topic of labour and work division. We

need to also focus on the people who work hard in duties such as waste picking. Especially within this topic, there needs to be a gender discussion. For instance, around 70% of waste pickers are women, and they deserve similar respect and opportunities to grow while also fighting gender discrimination.

The session finished with the idea of creating smart citizens that are sustained by smart citizens. The whole process of an organization needs to be people centric and citizens need to feel ownership of their own places.

SPEAKERS Anjana Menon (Moderator)Amory LovinsAmitabh KantPriyanka Bakaya

The City Never Sleeps: Cities of Tomorrow

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Key Takeaways

Smart cities need to be improving the quality of liv-ing for people. Better livability comes from better compact cities, which are efficient, inclusive, and cost-smart.

Conversation about smart cities should also focus on the people who work hard in duties such as waste picking. Also, there needs to be a special discussion about gender within. Women working blue-collar jobs deserve more care and growth opportunities.

Citizens need a sense of ownership. In order to build a smart city, you need smart citizens.

The design of smart cities need to be done case by case, without following the typical old pat-terns of western city planning.

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From L - R: Amory Lovins, Anjana Menon, Amitabh Kant, Priyanka Bakaya

The discussion on waste management within smart cities is vital. As cities grow smart, the stress they put on the environment should decrease instead of increase.Our cities need to be environmentally smart.

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This session started with the panellists quoting real-time examples of companies that link themselves to global supply chains. The first example that was elaborated on was SDI International. SDI International started off with its own suppliers who were all certified. Looking at the success it brought, they turned it into their main strategy as they looked to the tail end of the supply chain. Even though they were too small to go after a big company, they allowed themselves to have a foot in the door and be involved in the entire process. In addition, they did a lot of management and backend work, which proved to be extensively successful for them. They now have offices around the world and are considered a successful global organization. Another example quoted was of Walmart. At Walmart, the focus is on serving the customers. In store and online, customers are truly connecting and having relation-ships with Walmart’s suppliers. By focusing on specific initiatives, Walmart made this happen. For example, Walmart’s Women Empowerment Commitment focuses on bringing women to realize their potential and allow them to fulfill their dreams. They now have a Women Entrepreneurship Development Program in India – this not only helps them to develop good partners but also create impact in an efficient way.

There is a need to employ initiatives and ideas for small women-owned businesses to help them get into and have a more effective access to the market and supply chains. There is a dire need to give them marketing support so that these women can successfully sell their products and do well in their business. But an important question to consider is, ‘How do we make diverse supply chains a long term engagement strategy?’ The answer lies in the fact that this whole supply chain process also needs to be made sustainable at the same time. Businesses need to build strategic partnerships with suppliers instead of going down the vicious cycles of taking loans. To begin with, these organizations need to start within their community and within their diaspora. In order to gain access to the required re-sources as they begin to expand, these companies need to connect with trade or-ganizations, embassies, and other international groups that can support them and help build a successful supply chain based on strategic partnerships.

SPEAKERS Sumita Ghose (Moderator)Angie CooperVirginia LittlejohnRahama Wright

Diversifying Supply Chains:Linking Global Commerce and Women-owned Businesses

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Key Takeaways

Showing up at events is extremely important for business owners. Being persistent is crucial and it re-quires you to ‘be there’ and follow up. Nothing will not work unless you are there to follow up and have the important dates penciled into your calendar.

Storytelling is extremely important for peo-ple to connect to you. They have to relate to you, but you do not have to shift from your core message. The way the production works is a supply chain issue. Understand the val-ue change through storytelling and explain through language that people can relate to ex-periences.

It is difficult to get funding for minority and women-owned businesses at par. But if there are people who are not giving you money to begin with, there is also another reason. And it is important to focus on yourself to see how and what mistakes you are making. It is important to fail and then get trained.

Building relationships with your suppliers is also ex-tremely important. This is true because if you have a business that keeps changing, they need to be flexi-ble along with you to ensure that you are effectively serving your customers.

“The more rejections you get, the closer you are to getting a yes!”1 3 5

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From L - R: Sumita Ghose, Angie Cooper, Virginia Littlejohn, Rahama Wright

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The session began with each panellist explaining the work that their incubator has been doing. We heard examples of incubators based in US, Israel, and India. In Israel, many startups are focussed on problems of rich people, but a lot of context is required for the problems that exist in different parts. At the Pears Program for Global Innovation, the focus is to take people who know how to do things and help them find an idea that can be accelerated. At Halycon incubator, very interesting ideas are being incubated such as the one creating miniature fibre optic cable that can be laid on the roads at one-tenth of the cost. The IKP Knowledge Park (India’s first and largest life science park) incubated companies like Lorris labs, that had and IPO worth 700 million USD.

The conversation then moved towards the difference between incubators and ac-celerators, innovators and entrepreneurs. Different incubators may have different definitions and different target groups of entrepreneurs. An incubator provides physical infrastructure, a slew of services like hiring, and so on. An accelerator has a much more condensed course with definite prerequisites and deliverables. It is also usually cohort based and aligns services better.

The conversation then moved to what really makes startups fail. Factors such as the lack of a strong team, an obsession and love for one’s own product, poor un-derstanding of the market, among others really impact the potential of a startup. However, entrepreneurs who know when and how to pivot their products, and are in it for the long term, tend to fail less.

A question was raised about the potential of innovators becoming good entrepre-neurs, and about the difference between innovation and entrepreneurship. The panel unanimously agreed that while innovation is important, enterprises are not just abou innovation. Perseverance and grit are crucial. Entrepreneurs also need to also create a team with diverse skills and then hold them together.

SPEAKERS Jayadeep Krishnan (Moderator)Aliza InbalDeepanwita ChattopadhyayJosh Mandell

Innovation Hubs: Skilling the CEOs of the Future - Incubators

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Key Takeaways

While Halycon incubator is working with small com-panies it makes sure that these companies are doing really exciting work and are passionate about the product they set out to build.

In the current geopolitical arena, ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ is the one thing that is going beyond the division of borders and bring-ing like-minded people together to collaborate and scale up their ideas.

There is a difference between incubating a startup and creating a community that helps each other. There needs to be a push for more and more collaboration amongst complemen-tary ideas. Way too many enterprises exist in silos when they can be gaining knowledge and support from other startups and their experi-ence in the space.

One should not become an entrepreneur because one does not want a standard 9 to 5 job. Entrepre-neurship is a much tougher and a 24x7 lifestyle. It is way more than just a job.

While the idea and innovation is crucial to the success of a start-up, what often leads them to failure is the lack of a good team. Building a dedicated team is crucial to sustaining any idea.

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From L - R: Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, Josh Mandell Aliza Inbal, Jayadeep Krishnan

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Though the theme of the session was “Connecting Science to the Entrepreneur-ship World,” what followed was an engaging conversation about the pursuance of entrepreneurship as a whole, especially by young people. Jagannathan opened by discussing that while most ideas never hit the market, the idea is just a small part of the problem. It is the team, the people, that can make or break the idea, and the success of those people is dependent on a supporting ecosystem. If you have the ecosystem, the discipline, and the passion, your success rate goes up significantly. Wangchuk noted that part of this ecosystem includes schools, students, and teach-ers. In the education system in Ladakh, he said, they apply an entrepreneurial mind-set to their curriculum. Why just learn about heat from a textbook when you can learn by creating a solar-heated building? Teaching students how to preserve foods is a direct route to teaching them about the biology of germs. If students develop a love for innovation and entrepreneurship while studying, they will pursue it in life. Wangchuk emphatically reminded the audience that young people are much more capable than just sitting in a classroom, listening and taking notes. “You must engage students—the energy packed in their bodies comes out negatively when you force teens to sit at a desk unengaged all day; let’s use that energy in a positive and fruitful way!” The ecosystem needs to be built with the knowledge economy in mind added Jagannathan. There is a difference between knowledge creation

and knowledge application and transformation to products and services, but these stages need to be connected. The people who create the knowledge may not be interested in the market, which is why the ecosystem needs to have a flow that can facilitate the transfer of technology and knowledge. Wangchuk noted that this ecosystem can begin at home: the mindset of society—especially parents—must shift to support and promote entrepreneurship in young people, and the ecosystem has to support this. “We need celebrations and awards not just for young entrepre-neurs but for their parents for supporting them!” Jagannathan noted that it is the people who do not traditionally have access to a good or service who will drive the most impactful changes in the economy. In this fashion, while education in the west traditionally caters to a small percentage of the population, education is getting disrupted to become more accessible.

Both Jagannathan and Wangchuk discussed big-picture ideas for achieving success both as an entrepreneur and as a positively-contributing member of society. Jagan-nathan implored the audience that one has to believe in what one wants to do. If one does not commit to oneself, regardless of what one wants to do, one will fail. It is not about the capital—one will find the capital.

SPEAKERS Anuradha Acharya (Moderator)Ramesh JagannathanSonam Wangchuk

From the Lab to the Market: Connecting Science to the Entrepreneurship World

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Key Takeaways

A supporting ecosystem is a crucial part of success-ful entrepreneurship. One’s discipline, team, people, and other forms of support can make or break one’s entrepreneurial journey.

An entrepreneur has to wholeheartedly believe in what they are doing, or they will not be suc-cessful.

Lots of knowledge that is produced is never applied; it is important to look at the transfer of knowledge creation to knowledge application.

Education plays a huge role in increasing entre-preneurship; the education system should help students learn how to be entrepreneurial.

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From L - R: Ramesh Jagannathan, Anuradha Acharya, Sonam Wangchuk

We need a more robust hands-on education system to promote entrepreneurship right from the primary school. If kids develop a love for innovation and entrepreneurship while in their school years, they will pursue it in life.

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In this session, the panellists discussed tools needed to succeed in emerging mar-kets. Each panellist explored their own individual path to success. Sean Blagsvedt created Babajob to give the disadvantaged access to jobs in a formal fashion. By using technology and creativity, the company was able to activate millions of users on its platform, connecting people to opportunities that would otherwise remain vacated. An important ingredient to the success of Babajob was flexibility and cre-ativity. The company created an automated dialling and messaging system to fill the technology gap for the unemployed without smartphones. Additionally, the team took advantage of media channels by befriending local newspapers, conducting in-terviews, creating quality content such as pictographs and visual data, and publish-ing editorials. This led to increased visibility through a solid public relations and marketing strategy. The emergence of Apollo Hospitals Group originated from a desire to use tech-nology and healthcare experiences from abroad to meet the healthcare needs of the Indian population. Apollo Hospitals leveraged mobile applications and online health serving systems to interact with patients in a meaningful manner; these pro-grams also turned into marketing campaigns to increase visibility. Sangita Reddy remarked that changing the landscape of the healthcare system requires health in-

surance options and the infrastructure to create a strong healthcare environment. Merrill Fernando and Dilmah Tea epitomize community giving in the private sec-tor. All profits and proceeds go back to Sri Lanka and assist the tea growers and their families through education, childcare support, technical skills, and so on. Merrill sought to make the freshest tea in the world and to create a brand owned by farmers and tea makers. Despite the vast resources and market share of tea making lions, Dilmah Tea was able to succeed particularly due to its genuineness, authen-ticity, and commitment to improving the local community. To conclude, the panellists discussed the necessity of building a team of committed and devoted people. The energy and motivation of a team have to come from the entrepreneur to create a culture where people want to stay. Entrepreneurs need to consider where the future is headed and anticipate, in order to form an enterprise relevant to the times. Lastly, the goal of an entrepreneur should be to serve and uplift the communities around them.

SPEAKERS Merrill Fernando (Moderator)Sangita Reddy KondaSean Blagsvedt

An Audience of Billions: How to Break into Big Emerging Markets

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Key Takeaways

Use modern day trends; be connected to where the world is going. Your idea needs to be constantly up-dated for it to remain relevant to the masses.

In the end, people matter. Collect a really good team of people who are motivated and empow-ered. Create a culture where people want to be there and want to stay.

The blueprint for a better healthcare society: enhance infrastructure, employ more parameters, increase insurance coverage, lower input costs for innovation, and reduce the impact of the burden of disease.

Take care of the communities around you, and they will give back exponentially to your en-terprise. Dilmah tea is a classic example of this approach.

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GES Delegates

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The session explored Artificial Intelligence (AI) and entrepreneurship at length, and AI was discussed in varying degrees. One of the resounding opinions was that entrepreneurs are insufficiently engaging with AI. The best founders are those who use AI as a tool, not those who make AI their core focus. Those who have lower failure rates are those who fit into the former group, where the end customer is key and AI is used as a support. The panellists all agreed that AI cannot be addressed without acknowledging data, and the bias that can affect the interpretation and use of data in practice. 90% of the world’s data was generated in the past couple of years, and the majority of it is unstructured and has not been tapped into yet. Biases are also a big problem, as machines learn from the data they are fed. Deeply ingrained human prejudice and bias can be multiplied as machines learn them. We need transparency in order to know what is informing data to decisions. There is immense potential for the use of data in generating information through con-necting users with service providers. For instance, if cars’ data collection on road bumps and the speed of windscreen wipers could be sent to infrastructure and meteorology agencies, this information could be used for effective processes.

Though algorithms have gotten smarter and computers faster, machine intelligence is still augmenting human intelligence. There was a consensus among the panel

that technology is only as dangerous as the people behind it, and that we need to continue to keep technology in check. The common consensus was that AI is fun-damental in society. There are massive opportunities for people to get involved; many jobs currently need to be filled in this field. There will be different kinds of jobs required and available, and we have to re-skill ourselves for when AI takes over the repetitive jobs that humans will no longer need to perform. Our analysis capa-bilities should range from descriptive to cognitive, and this is what our education systems should train us for in the future. Educational institutions need to shift away from memorisation, and towards creativity, thinking outside the box, emotional intelligence. Citizens should also think carefully about who they are electing. In the US, only 10% of Congress has any technical background, and this is primarily com-puter science as opposed to AI. We all need to take responsibility to be informed and ensure our public officials are informed in the field of AI.

Finally, the session was concluded with everyone echoing the need to consider the role of three components of building an AI system, and many stakeholders are contributing to all these dimensions: data sets, model building and deployment.

SPEAKERS Rama Kalyani Akkiraju (Moderator)Elizabeth GoreNivruti RaiShubha Nabar

Knowing the Future: How Artificial Intelligence will Shape Tomorrow

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Key Takeaways

AI is the new electricity, and we should assess how much impact AI will make on jobs and our econo-mies in similar ways as we have studied the revolu-tionary change that electricity brought.

AI is changing how we view diversity and in-clusion within the context of entrepreneurship, regarding women, minorities, people outside major cities, etc. in reducing barriers for these people.

Women and minorities need to be more pres-ent in AI; as should the discussion around val-ues.

Governments must partner with educational institu-tions and industry to rethink education and develop flexible, cost-effective training programmes available to everyone, to train people up in vocational skills that companies are looking for that are not repetitive.

AI expedites the delivery of services, simplifies processes, etc. It is applicable to all aspects of industry, including healthcare, cities, traffic, infrastructure management, security, customer support, financial services, etc.

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Audience during GES 2017

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The future of technology in healthcare is robust and there is much that can be done to make healthcare better. It is important and crucial that developments in technology in healthcare address three basic tenets - accessibility, affordability and quality. The role of robotics, deep learning, data analysis, artificial intelligence and 3D implants have the power to transform healthcare in India and the world.

When it comes to accessibility, just the incorporation of hospital data to websites such has Practo have reduced wait times to see the doctor from 30-40 minutes to 2-3 minutes. Something as easy as compiling data and information has had resound-ing effects on patient lives. For rural India and rural parts of the world, developing of telemedicine and teleconsulting centres have the ability to save the lives of mil-lions of people. It is an easy, relatively cheap, and quick method to provide access to healthcare to people currently lacking this accessibility.

For the world, affordability of healthcare is still a major issue. Technological ad-vances in the field of healthcare have the ability to cut costs in more ways that one. From teleconsulting centres which reduce the cost of transportation of resources to 3D printed kneecaps, the scope of technology to decrease the cost of health-care is immense. Another major area and one with the most activity is increasing

the quality of healthcare. With data analysis and machine learning, it is possible to curate and provide targeted healthcare to individuals without the necessity of immense man-power. Individualized health coaches and data analysis software will also help in preventing many health-related issues and will decrease the cost of procedures by detecting issues early.

However, a major issue in dealing with technology and data gathering in healthcare is the protection and unbiased analysis of the medical data. It is important for the data gathering to be standardised and regulated to ensure that responsible use and protection of the individuals and their data. It is crucial that this data analysis also be undertaken by diverse groups of individuals to ensure that data analysis is unbi-ased and as accepting of all the people using the technology.

SPEAKERS Barath Shankar Subramanian(Moderator)Mukesh BansalSangita ReddyShashank Navalurkar Dattatreya

Re-imagining the Future of Health

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Key Takeaways

All technological advances in healthcare need to fo-cus on three major tenets: affordability, accessibility and quality.

Telemedicine centres and teleconsulting cen-tres can really address accessibility issues of healthcare. This can go a long way, especially in rural areas.

We definitely need incremental use of tech-nology but we also need disruptive change to reach to millions who need care.

Accessibility: Wait to see doctor has reduced from 30-40 mins on average to 2 mins through Practo

Affordability has always been a major road-block to good healthcare. However, tech-based apps have reduced costs of healthcare delivery and made it much more accessible to a vast ar-ray of stratas of society.

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From L - R: Barath Shankar Subramanian, Sangita Reddy, Mukesh Bansal, Shashank ND

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The session apart from delving into the details of angel investing also gave great insight into the importance of mentorship. Successful entrepreneurs need to step up and mentor young entrepreneurs to holistically develop and strengthen local ecosystems that can support rapid entrepreneurial growth. Investors who operate their own companies in executive roles are better off giving their investments to angel funds and engaging with companies that they can help. Angel investments al-low established entrepreneurs to support promising ideas as well as stay connected to the ecosystem to stay ahead of the curve with respect to latest technologies and disruptions.

Investors often judge entrepreneurs for who they are, their commitment to the idea, and their ability to convince the investors about their passion to bounce back out of failure. Testing conviction of the entrepreneur is also an important param-eter for an investor. As an entrepreneur one also needs to understand the fine line between self esteem and ego, in order to pivot plan, but also keep coming back sticking to the core of your business.

A celebration of failure is pivotal to build a thriving and successful enterprise. Also, research shows that teams of co-founders are often more successful than individu-

als, and therefore in a pitch, it is important to communicate the skill set, strength and the bond of the founding team, rather than have a one man show. The ability to pre-empt the next question during a pitch is a great skill of an entrepreneur. Exe-cution and the conviction of the team are at times more important than the idea in and of itself. The ability to take strong bets when the chips are down is crucial. The conclusion drawn from the discussion was that, in a pitch, there needs to be a focus on all aspects of the problem you are solving, the quality of their team, the size and scale of their market and showcase the credibility of their background.

SPEAKERS Stephanie Marrus (Moderator)Bhavish AggarwalKristina DavisonDeep Kalra

Pitch to the Rich: Key message to deliver to Investors

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Key Takeaways

Angel investing has been an important tool to stay connected with what is happening in the ecosystem. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of the latest technolo-gies.

Start-ups are nothing but an idea that current-ly is under the ground. And you want it to be-come a tree and a flourishing ecosystem.

Age is not a barrier. Some grey hair does help in certain positions of the team but young people bring unparalleled energy.

Grit. Determination. Presence. These are the three key traits I look for while investing in entrepreneurs.

Best enterprises would not have seen the light of the day if they quit too early. Do not give up too early!

Execution and the conviction of the team is at times more important than the idea in and of itself!

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From L - R: Deep Kalra, Kristina Davison, Bhavish Aggarwal, Stephanie Marrus

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This session highlighted the significant role that failure plays in any entrepreneur’s journey to success. Lerato Motsamai described failure as being “stuck at the bottom of the food chain.” According to her, you can do two things when you’re stuck at the bottom: stay at the bottom, or move up. While you do not have to move up immediately, she warned not to stay at the bottom for too long, or else you might give up and give into depression.

Jaxay Shah discussed the process of learning from your failures. According to Shah, everyone is so hyper focused on the result that they get lost along the way and thus do not enjoy the journey. He emphasised that the journey is more important than the result, and that failure is simply a part of the journey and you just have to learn to accept it and embrace it. Furthermore, Shah noted that an entrepreneur must have a resilient nature to succeed. If your foundations are strong, then there will be reasons for your failures which you can learn from and use to succeed the next time. Shah also stated that mistakes have to be good since good mistakes teach you about what went wrong. Mistakes should also be original, meaning that you should not make the same mistake again. Finally, Shah noted that being socially connected helps bounce back from failures. In other words, the key to building your resilience is to be as socially connected as possible.

Leticia Serrano advised entrepreneurs not to spend months trying to come up with the perfect business plan. All entrepreneurs should fail fast, create a prototype, test it, validate their business ideas, and understand their risks. Serrano shared one of her favorite lines: “success is never final, failure is never fatal.” Failure will always be there no matter what; the important part is how you face and deal with failure.

When asked about how to avoid failures, Claudia Mirza shared her experience dealing with customer complaints. By listening very carefully to every single com-plaint and trying her absolute best to fix those issues, she was able to prevent future failures.

SPEAKERS Claudia Mirza (Moderator)Jaxay ShahLerato MotsamaiLeticia Gasca Serrano

How to Fail Better

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Key Takeaways

Innovation is not something you know; if you know it, it is not innovation.

Entrepreneurship should be spiritual (from within), not superficial. It should be character-ised by a deep passion for the goal you have set out to achieve.

There are three types of failures: inevitable failures, preventable failures, and intelligent failures. An entrepreneur is bound to face one or all of them at some point in his/her journey. What is crucial, however, is how one deals with them.

You must have a resilient nature to succeed. If your foundations are strong, then there will be reasons for your failures which you can learn from and use to succeed the next time.

Good mistakes teach you about what went wrong. Mistakes should also be original, mean-ing that you shouldn’t make the same mistake again.

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From L - R: Claudia Mirza, Jaxay Shah, Lerato Motsamai, Leticia Gasca Serrano

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This session was all about amplifying one’s brand through social media. Owning your own message is not just about communicating but about listening, engaging, and learning too. Traditional and social media need to come together. Social media in today’s world is a small answer to a much larger question. The big answer is own-ing and honing your message. Social media is an important tool for quick answering and constant presence, but it needs to be augmented with traditional methods. A brand cannot be built solely using social media. The need to be honest and handle social media as a tool responsibly was reiterated over and over. What is being said on social media, should be verifiable and fact-checked. Online content usually has a tendency to go on a forever loop thus lasting online forever. One also needs to do enough research to know your audience, know their mood and know their preferences. One needs to be patient, consistent and overall truly know one’s brand. Brands need to create a dependency in their mes-sage and through that utilize social media to amplify that message.

Another important factor to take into account is that virality should not be a goal. As a brand, one definitely wants to have a few viral moments, but through tradi-tional media, you want to ensure that your brand has a long-lasting effect. Also, as

an interesting point, it was put forth that shares count more than likes.

The session ended with a common consensus that ‘Glocalization’ is a key part of a product. Brands should remember that each market is different, therefore they need to adapt and change depending on the customers and their own backgrounds.

SPEAKERS Piyush Pandey (Moderator)Teresa Nelson CarpenterShashi Shekhar Vempati

Own Your Message: Effectively Using Traditional and Social Media

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Key Takeaways

What sounds and visuals can do for you, a 4 inch screen cannot.Your message should be a holistic mix of the right kind of audio and visuals to actually make a mark on consumers’ minds.

Products are made in factories, brands are made in office rooms. So much of the success of one’s product depends on the brand value on creates through the right kind of marketing and messaging.

If you make a mistake, tell the truth, make an apology and move on. Social media has a way of keeping things online and available forever.

Social media is a great medium, however, it cannot be used primarily by itself. One’s message needs to be augmented by traditional media too.

Music does matter, its more than half the equa-tion. Sounds have a lasting impact on consum-ers’ mindsets.

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GIST Pitch Competition

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The session shed some very crucial light on where we are headed with new tech-nologies constantly shaping our reality. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reali-ty (VR) are constantly grabbing the headlines because it where the future is headed. It is important to realise that immersion in these realities does not equate to isola-tionism from the world. AR and VR transcend the user to a different reality but are able to connect people to their environment in a way never thought of before. Cre-ating these comfortable ecosystems is a brand new concept and requires creative thinking that will only keep developing as technology advances. It relies on using these tools as a medium to transmit knowledge and insights in a creative manner so that people can connect with each other as well as their environment.

The best aspect of AR and VR is that it brings together different ideas and people to create an environment that would not have worked previously in the world. It is a time to move towards interactive storytelling and learning. Creating these environ-ments is art meeting science; it is design and human understanding meeting AI and machine learning. This is where we are heading.

There is an important distinction between content and information that is pro-cessed and understood by individuals, and content that exist but is not consumed.

This gap is what AR and VR try to shorten. It will become an engaging manner in which to consume information that exists in this world today.

It is not impossible to foresee a future where our environments and gadgets are fully augmented with technology. Organisations need to be able to keep up with the expectations of the future. Many companies working on the AR and VR expe-riences have made it accessible for smaller and medium-sized enterprises to work towards this future by making their APIs free and accessible. For the future of many organisations, it is crucial that they develop proprietary tools for AR and VR.

A major challenge with creating new AR and VR environments is in the hardware required for the experience. Wearable gadgets that do not weigh more than 60g are important. The gadgets need to feel as though it is part of the user and not as an addition. There is a long way to go for these realities to be an easy part of the world. There are small steps and enormous amounts of data that need to be captured for a seamless integration of our world with this technology. It is definitely possible and should be expected that our world will be slightly more ingrained with technology within the next 15 years.

SPEAKERS Anand Gandhi (Moderator)Ashutosh JhaveriJessica RovelloMaxine ChapmanJudith Okonkwo

The Reality of the Future: How Technologies are Shaping Future Experiences

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Key Takeaways

There is an increase of companies in the AR and VR space that are using creative methodology to bring data to life. There are companies like Arcadium working to bring about interactive visualisations us-ing big data and artificial intelligence.

AR and VR are going to be a game-changer in education, as immersive learning and experi-encing content will change the way quality edu-cation is imparted. Access to virtual classrooms and teachers will also help make education accessible and available to a larger population. Shared learning environments will also help in dealing with and understanding conflict.

By changing the idea of what it means to have “a presence” in the world - understanding that presence is not restricted to geography and physical location - will change how the world works.

VR has the ability to transcend boundaries and bar-riers. It is easy to assume that the increase of these technologies will result in isolated individuals, but it is the hope that people will discover the ways in which it helps connect people and information to-gether.

The adoption rate of AR and VR technologies is low mainly because of the hardware. Creat-ing cheaper, aesthetically pleasing, light weight and wearable hardware is crucial to increase the adoption amongst the population that is not ac-tively involved in the area.

It is important that there are diverse groups of people - different races, genders, expe-riences - working on the development of this technology. It is crucial for there to be a diverse portfolio of companies and people leading this technology for a more equal, just and inclusive world of the future.

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From L - R: Ashutosh Jhaveri, Jessica Rovello, Maxine Chapman, Judith Okonkwo, Anand Gandhi

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This session on the ecosystems of entrepreneurship addressed many levels of eco-system-building and enhancement that need to be achieved in order to facilitate mindsets, societies, and economies that are driven to greater degrees by entrepre-neurs. An important starting point is an intentionality for all stakeholders within the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The question of mindset is also fundamental, and more importantly, the development and curation of a mindset. Kindergarten and preschool teachers need to be trained in the entrepreneurial mindset for the mind-set so that they impart the same mindset to their students.

The role of government was also discussed. Governments should not give free cash for startups, but rather, programmes such as loan guarantees in order to spread risk and bolster entrepreneurs in sustainable and healthy ways. They cannot be capital providers but should be catalysts. Governments should also use their potential as conveners. Israel is effective at connecting entrepreneurs, incubation, etc. and sim-ilarly governments can support in this space. We should dissociate the various levels of government. States in India are doing fantastic work, and things are changing on the ground, where increasing the ease of doing business is facilitating the entrepre-neurial ecosystems required.

The need for focus on the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship was also dis-cussed by the panel. Entrepreneurship involves hurdles for everyone, but they are set at different heights for different people - women are amongst those with higher hurdles. This is accurate in access to capital funding. Greater innovation in funding sources for women is required. Networks are another such hurdle, where we need to better identify types of networks that will be helpful to women. Role models are key: we need to tell the stories of heroes who will attract attention, showcase what is possible and be role models at all levels, such that everyone sees themselves in a role model. Success begets success. There was disagreement as to the type of effort that is required. Some panellists contended that there is a need for targeted interventions to support women’s entrepreneurship, as the rate of organic growth is unacceptably low. Others maintained that through efforts in the ecosystem as a whole, there would be positive a change. Generally speaking, however, ecosystems created from the top down do not work, and other disadvantaged minorities should be a part of the design of the ecosystem, including entrepreneurs with a disability.

SPEAKERS Ramesh Abhishek (Moderator)Amit Ranbir ChandraPatricia GreeneRavi Kailas

Developing the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

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Key Takeaways

Entrepreneurs need to play their part in making en-trepreneurship accessible and relatable in order to build and support the development of the ecosys-tem and culture. They need to play a greater part in taking ‘the rest’ along with them and breaking down myths of entrepreneurship.

There are opportunities for entrepreneurship in areas that are typically within the government’s ambit, and this is particularly pronounced in India, where infrastructure and transport, for instance, are high revenue-generating indus-tries for entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship should be tech-enabled, not tech-focused. We need to increase the use of technology as a facilitator in all busi-nesses, without disproportionately focusing on tech-related businesses per se.

Women, minorities and disadvantaged groups face particular hurdles above and beyond the challenges that entrepreneurship entails. We need to be con-scious of this and address these challenges at all levels - on the individual, government, and private levels.

We are at the cusp of a massive entrepreneurial revolution in India. Our culture is changing, en-couraging entrepreneurship among the youth. Policy is going in the right direction (e.g. Make In India), and should continue to enhance ease of doing business.

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From L - R: Patricia Greene, Ravi Kailas, Ramesh Abhishek, Amit Ranbir Chandra

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The session entailed an informative discussion not only for budding but also es-tablished entrepreneurs. It explored the importance of a conscious entrepreneur who is in touch with their core values and vision. A lot of entrepreneurs talk like investors and about exits etc. But now is the time when entrepreneurs need to start focusing on their core passions and truly ask themselves- what is the problem I am trying to solve?

In India, there is not enough focus on Tier 3 and 4 cities as well as customers. But in the long run, they play a key role. Especially in a country that is changing at such a rapid pace, the focus needs to shift from just numbers and profits. The entre-preneurs need to have a more holistic vision of their idea. Another crucial key to scaling up correctly is just being true to oneself. Selling and moulding your core thought drastically only according to the popularity or investors’ taste never yields any results.

While India is a phenomenal market and the numbers of phones, networks, smart-phones etc are increasing at a phenomenal rate, 26 million credit cards are used by only 12 million users. 40% of India does not have access to the ideas only ac-cessible through online means or tier one methods. The example of BookMyShow

was quoted. BookMyShow focussed on only 10 % of the market when it started. The market has increased rapidly and the vision for today’s entrepreneurs needs to change. The market today is growing very rapidly. YouTube alone has seen 9x growth in the last 12 months. Now is exactly the time when entrepreneurship has to be a marathon and not a short run.

India is a huge consumer market. In a market like this, profitability vs scale/growth is a never-ending debate. There is a subtle balance between the two. Investors too have to face their set of dilemmas. They need to make sure they are investing in capabilities because that is what will be monetized later.

The session concluded with the importance of building trust. To generate scale you have to create trust. There is a genuine lack of trust in emerging markets like India. The government also needs to step up to actually establish a healthy ecosystem. The government needs to look into various nuances like income, income distribution and the gender gap. 50% of Indian women are under 25. At the state level, there is a new breed of young female bureaucrats and officials who are straightforward and want to get real work done. They are moving from just being enablers to in-fluencers.

SPEAKERS Radhika Aggarwal (Moderator)Ashish HemrajaniRitesh AgarwalAnkiti Bose

E-Commerce as a Critical Tool in Scaling Entrepreneurship

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Key Takeaways

To generate scale, you need to create trust. Be-haviour change is good as long as it builds trust. Your customers need to have faith in the product and ser-vice you deliver.

Do whatever as an entrepreneur and sell what-ever product seems fit to the investors but make sure you are being true to yourself.

Sometimes companies need a reality check to meet needs of the bottom of the pyramid. It is easy to skip the needs of consumers in tier 3 and 4 cities and that is what hinders true scale.

Women empowerment is not only a social matter, but one of economics as well. 50% of Indian women are below 25 years of age. We need to enable them to achieve their dreams to truly create growth and development.

Gender equality initiatives should not be char-ity but women should be treated as allies at the leadership and decision-making level.

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From L - R: Radhika Aggarwal, Ankiti Bose, Ritesh Agarwal, Ashish Hemrajani

98

This session focused on the importance of the language that entrepreneurs have to use, especially in conversation with investors, in order to sell ideas and secure funding.

Entrepreneurs should have a strong elevator pitch, which takes less than 60 sec-onds, in order to create a successful first impression. Be concise and say who you are, what your company is, what problems it will solve, and what the benefits to the client are and what the scope for investment is.

The first conversation must really demonstrate the passion of the entrepreneur and indicate that they are onto something interesting. This passion and dedication to the idea should continue into subsequent meetings. Beyond this, the entrepreneur should be able to genuinely convince the investor that they can be trusted. It is crucial that the investor knows the entrepreneur will be careful with their money and will follow through on their activities. Communicating a strong business plan is central to this, with a strong grasp of the financial aspects involved – more so than charisma and pitching skills. Smooth talkers may get things done quicker at first, but this is not sustainable in the long-term unless the proper foundation is laid. Entrepreneurs should remember that since most times they are essentially a strang-

er to the investor, the investor will predominantly be thinking about their bank account when hearing the pitch. This was a common thread discussed throughout the session, that in all investor conversations, the entrepreneur pitching must re-member that they are asking for money, and the language used should be conscious of this fact. If you have people advising your company, it is useful to mention this to the investor.

Another factor that should be conveyed to the investor is that the entrepreneur is someone that can build teams and have people on their side during the business building process. Investors want an indication that you will be able to attract the right employees, who love working for you, through strong management and in-terpersonal skills. People are the most important part of your business.

The panel also touched on potential issues often faced by women entrepreneurs in conveying their story, especially when the idea is addressing an issue that male entrepreneurs may not have exposure to. It is often harder for women, but they must have the confidence and conviction to believe in themselves to successfully pitch their ideas.

SPEAKERS Upasana Taku (Moderator)Udit Harish ShethSibongile SamboLoretta McCarthy

The Language of Entrepreneurship

99


Key Takeaways

Communication: presentations, speaking style, the way you show yourself matters. It is important to know how to market yourself – people have to learn this after several pitches.

Elevator pitch: What is your company? What really works? What is the right thing? Be con-cise, what is the problem you are solving? What is the benefit to the client? This should not be more than 60 seconds.

Important to know who you are pitching to. The many cultural differences that exist on the planet – how will you make your voice heard? Study your audience and maximize what you get from the people you are pitch-ing to.

People that are part of your organization from the beginning should be convinced more than anyone else. They should be as passionate as you are about the same thing. Show your team that you respect their opinions and contributions.

Women entrepreneurs: It may require more explanations and work, but the same level of confidence and conviction has to be projected. Remove the gender perspective – just do what you do well and make your business successful.

The challenges in your business will constant-ly change. The team and proof of concept is the most important stage. The idea only gets you to the door – but then the people and HR matters the most.

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From L - R: Udit Harish Sheth, Upasana Taku, Sibongile Sambo, Loretta McCarthy

100

Being a woman in STEM fields is challenging and requires a different level of com-mitment than many other fields. Mainly due to the domination of men in the field throughout history, it is hard to fight biases and stereotypes associated with women in the field. However, it is interesting to note that it is much easier to be a woman in STEM in India. A major reason being the job security associated with STEM related jobs in India, and the belief in the system by families. Unfortunately, there are still many challenges that women need to overcome in India and the world.

A major reason for women leaving the field is due to the concept of “work-life balance” and about the inability to take care of the family while maintaining a job, and having “flexible working hours” is not the only easy solution. It needs to be ac-cepted or at least tolerated that sometimes women will take a break from work to take care of her family or due to pregnancy. What is also necessary is to find a way to bridge the gap in knowledge and experience due to these breaks. Retraining and skill development is crucial to keeping women in the field. If women are aware that the opportunities still exist, they will return to the field even after a break.

The role of mentors in crucial in keeping women in the field, and especially the role of women role models. It is important for women, especially those from the

middle class and underprivileged backgrounds to see role models working and growing from similar stations. It is important to follow and learn from these men-tors and emulate what they are doing to be the best at their jobs. For women and kids, it is important to have mentors their age and not just mentors older than them. It is important to point out that there are also plenty of great male mentors for women. APJ Abdul Kalam was a perfect example of a great teacher and mentor who helped everyone he saw with potential.

For keeping women in STEM it is also important that they have a supportive eco-system around them. There needs to be family and parents encouraging women to study, learn, and keep fighting. It needs to be an environment where everyone learns. Even with the ecosystem, women themselves need to have the passion and belief in what they are doing and building. It is crucial to have the passion to stick to your goals and staying on the course even when there are backlashes and struggles. Passion for the goal, the mission, and the product will help the most in keeping women in STEM.

SPEAKERS Hema Vallabh (Moderator)Dr. Tessy ThomasRama Kalyani Akkiraju

Success! Keeping and Nurturing Women in STEM

101


Key Takeaways

It is a very different culture in India to be a woman in STEM, especially in the South. It does not matter what you like, you are either going to study engi-neering or medicine. The question is how to keep women in STEM.

It is okay for mentors to be men. There are some great men doing some great work who are good people - who support, nurture and promote women’s skills and knowledge. APJ Abdul Kalam was one such person and he was a fantastic mentor.

Sometimes women do need to take a break from their careers, but it is important for companies to ensure that the minute these women want to come back, they are given the training and opportunity to bridge the gap in knowledge that might have occured. They were there initially because of their merit. Respect them enough to help them learn again to be as successful as before.

“Men need to be part of the conversation in empow-ering, enabling and helping women in the industry”

Engineers build and to build you need a vi-sion and a passion for that vision. It requires working together and visualizing exactly what you want to achieve, and constantly striving to achieve that vision and stay on that course.

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From L - R: Hema Vallabh, Dr. Tessy Thomas, Rama Kalyani Akkiraju

102

This engaging session honed in on what we can learn from space and how that can impact life on earth. Wood detailed that technology in space can help us solve problems in sustainable development on earth in all sorts of ways. This includes earth observation, satellite communication for disaster-affected areas, satellite po-sitioning enabling GPS (which for example can be used for conserving wildlife by tracking species movement), microgravity research imitating rapid ageing, and space spinoffs, which are technologies invented for space exploration that can then enter other markets, for example, the microwave.

Wood noted that space is becoming more and more accessible to people - students are now able to build satellites! Seetharam reminded the audience that data from satellites, combined with other technologies, can provide very valuable informa-tion to all industries. Govindhasamy added that space is going through a huge trans-formation. The information that we derive from satellites will be vital to future technologies, humans, communities, and technology overall. We can derive infor-mation from this data that can be put to many uses. With increased accessibility, more companies and industries can gather and harness this data. Advice to entre-preneurs: tap into these opportunities!

Ansari addressed the question of how we can open space to people beyond the ex-isting exclusive group by suggesting that commercial players start innovating and developing technologies to reduce the cost of access to space. Ansari and X-prize have leveraged competitions to encourage this sort of involvement. Being in space is a transformative experience, she said and hopes it becomes more accessible. She compared this to the development of the Internet, which started out with only scientists as users. When it became more accessible and easy to innovate, we saw a huge flurry of innovation around it. That is what we are seeing in the space industry. Seetharam noted that there are open-access data portals for data collected from space and that entrepreneurs should access this data to inform their entrepreneur-ial ventures. Govindhasamy added that the end goal is making data not only acces-sible but also actionable enough to leverage. He emphatically reminded the audi-ence: you do not have to be a rocket scientist to use space! Ansari agreed: a lot of what NASA does is actually open and accessible to everyone. There is a ton of IP that can be used for commercial uses and partnerships. Seetharam noted that India is on the threshold of major change in space activity—she firmly believes that India must nurture an interest in space amongst young people. .

SPEAKERS Danielle Wood (Moderator)Anousheh AnsariKarthik GovindhasamyShoba Taladpady Seetharam

The “Enterprise” of Space

103


Key Takeaways

Technology in the space industry can be used to help address issues of sustainable development on earth. This includes earth observation, satellite communi-cation for disaster-affected areas, satellite positioning enabling GPS, microgravity research imitating rapid ageing, and space spinoffs, which are technologies invented for space exploration that can then enter other markets

You do not have to be a rocket scientist to use space! Commercial players need to start inno-vating and developing technologies to reduce the cost of access to space for common masses.

Space is becoming increasingly more accessible to anyone, and this is changing the industry. Data from satellites, combined with other technologies, can provide very valuable information to all industries.

You can collect all sorts of data from space—it is about then turning that data into information and applying that information to other indus-tries.

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From L - R: Danielle Wood, Shoba Taladpady Seetharam, Karthik Govindhasamy, Anousheh Ansari

104

This session highlighted ways to cultivate operations at every stage of the develop-ment of one’s business. Devita Saraf pointed out that taking risks is crucial when it comes to business. She also noted that women in India are generally overprotected and bound and thus they lack power, adding that very few women see themselves as a powerful being. Saraf also noted that entrepreneurs need the conviction to succeed, as well as both societal and familial support. But most importantly, the entrepreneur must want to and be able to go through the process. The problem that most entrepreneurs face is not actually the fear of failure, but the fear of success. Entrepreneurs must ask themselves: “Do I really have the appetite to establish a bil-lion dollar company? Should I give up or should I not?” Another fascinating question she posed was: “Do you want to be rich or a king? In other words, do you want to own 20% of a billion-dollar company or 100% of a smaller company?” These are all critical questions that can determine an entrepreneur’s success.

Arjun Gupta noted that a certain amount of failure is a fact of life and that if you have not failed yet, you must fail fast so that you can learn how to deal with fail-ure in the future. Furthermore, he pointed out that scaling will always be a great challenge, no matter how organized and prepared you are. As an entrepreneur, you must identify and accept your problems, and if you are honest about your prob-

lems, then there will always be people who will be willing to help you. Finally, he emphasised that entrepreneurship has nothing to do with the notion of educational degrees and qualifications. Anyone and everyone can be an entrepreneur and suc-ceed, as long as they have the right mindset and attitude.

Deep Kalra stressed resilience as the most important quality that an entrepreneur must have in order to survive and succeed. In addition, it is crucial to have faith in your idea and stay motivated, in order to keep those who work for you motivated as well. Kalra also mentioned that entrepreneurs facing big problems should break those into a series of small problems, which should make it easier to solve those problems. He concluded with the statement: You just have to be phenomenal at one thing in life.

SPEAKERS Sushma Rajagopalan (Moderator)Deep KalraArjun GuptaDevita Saraf

The Missing Middle:Increasing Your Presence

105


Key Takeaways

The pre-existing power is not there when it comes to women. Women in India are generally overprotected and bound and thus they lack power or even the abil-ity to see themselves as powerful beings.

The problem is the fear of success, not the fear of failure. Entrepreneurs must ask themselves: “Do I really have the appetite to establish a bil-lion dollar company? Should I give up or should I not?”

Entrepreneurship has nothing to do with the notion of educational degrees and qualifica-tions. Anyone and everyone can be an entre-preneur and succeed, as long as they have the right mindset and attitude.

One needs conviction to succeed. It is the most im-portant quality that an entrepreneur must have in or-der to survive and succeed. In addition to that, it is crucial to have faith in your idea and stay motivated, in order to keep those who work for you motivated as well.

You need both societal and familial support. It becomes even more vital in case of women entrepreneurs since the obstacles they face are often rooted in the societal misconception of them being incapable of doing business.

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GES Delegates

106

The closing plenary of GES 2017 was a lively panel focused on the importance of having women at positions of power. Green opened the session by remarking that this is the time for women entrepreneurs—when they rise, we all rise.

Motsamai reminded the large audience that “women do not just build businesses, they build nations”. Davison noted that it is important for VCs to be sure to listen to women entrepreneurs who have great ideas not only because they are women, but because they have a great idea. Men must also identify specific problems women face and help provide tools for them to take it on. Goenka added that there is an economic benefit to this as well: $2.9 billion will be added to the economy if the gender gap is closed. Motsamai took inspiration from the girls in her company’s social impact program—she shared that given the proper resources, these girls are creating solutions to the SDGs that truly could be groundbreaking and that they are empowered to view these issues as their responsibility as much as it is their parents’ and the government’s. Davison noted that change cannot only happen from the bottom up - if closing the gap is not a priority from the top leadership, then men will not think it is a prob-lem, and it will not happen. Green echoed that it is impossible for us to solve the

world’s biggest challenges unless we are listening to all kinds of voices, and this needs to be the mission of every company and organization.

When asked how people can help erase the stigma around women in positions of power, Goenka recommended creating and supporting mentors within communi-ties who can serve as role models. She added that training men to share tradition-ally gendered responsibilities will also help erase the stigma. When asked how we can make changes to the mindset of women coming from cultures where women themselves may be resistant to this kind of work, Sabharwal insisted that what we are calling a cultural problem is in fact an absence of the infrastructure of op-portunity and that we must focus on fixing the infrastructure of opportunity, not criticizing the culture. Kant noted that men have a critical role to play in “women first, prosperity for all,” and part of this includes men getting into roles traditionally fulfilled by women. He closed GES 2017 with an optimistic report: women are outperforming men in every single national exam in India.

SPEAKERS Amitabh Kant (Moderator)Dipali GoenkaKristina DavisonLerato Selina MotsamaiManish SabharwalMark Green

When Women Win, We All Win: Promoting Inclusive Environments for Women Entrepreneurs

107


Key Takeaways

The success of all people is impacted by the em-powerment of women. $2.9 bn will be added to the economy if we close the gender gap.

The education and empowerment of women has a ripple effect that reaches far and wide. There is a natural optimism, energy, and hope as women rise further and further and take their rightful role at the table. “Women don’t just build businesses, they build nations”.

Men will be key participants in closing all gender gaps. They need to consciously help equalize the par-ticipation of women. Men have to recognize the par-ticular barriers that women face—access to credit, digital divide, etc. and help provide tools for them to take it on.

We will never solve the world’s problems if we discount half of the world’s voices. A collective change in mindsets is needed. Women must be provided the same infrastructure of opportuni-ty as men naturally have access to.

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From L - R: Mark Green, Amitabh Kant, Lerato Motsamai, Dipali Goenka

108

SPEAKERS(In alphabetical order)

Adhil Shetty

CEO & Co-Founder

(BankBazaar.com)

Aditi Rao Hydari

Actress

Amory Lovins

Cofounder & Chief

Scientist

(Rocky Mountain Institute)

Anand Gandhi

Founder & CEO

(Memesys Cultural Lab)

Anand Shah

Founder

(Sarvajal)

Anders Samuelsen

Minister of Foreign Affairs

(Denmark)

Andrew Tsao

Director of Global

Gateway

(Silicon Valley Bank)

Anand Madanagopal

Founder & CEO

(Cardiac Design Labs)

Aliza Inbal

Director

(Pears Program for Global

Innovation)

Allyson Burns

Managing Director

(Village Capital)

Amit Midha

President Asia Pacific &

Japan Commercial

(Dell EMC)

Amit Ranbir Chandra

Managing Director

(Bain Capital Advisors

India Pvt Limited)

Amitabh Kant

CEO

(NITI Aayog)

Angie Cooper

Senior Director of Global

Public Policy

(Walmart)

109


Anita Dongre

Chief Creative Officer

(House of Anita Dongre

Limited)

Aruna Sundaranjan

Secretary

(Indian Department of

Telecommunication)

Ashish Hemrajani

CEO & Founder

(Bigtree Entertainment

Pvt Ltd.)

Ashu Suyash

Managing Director & CEO

(CRISIL Limited)

Ashutosh Jhaveri

Vice President of Business

Development

(Facebook and Oculus)

Bartholomeus de

Jonge

CEO

(Si Technologies)

Bharath Shankar

Subramanian

Principal

(Accel)

Arjun Gupta

Founder

(Telesoft Partners)

Anjali Bansal

Founder & CEO

(ABS Advisors)

Anjana Menon

Founder & CEO

(Content Pixies)

Anuradha Acharya

CEO

(Mapmygenome [India]

Ltd.)

Anousheh Ansari

Co-founder & CEO

(Prodea Systems)

Ankur Sahu

Managing Director & Co-

Head Asia Pacific

(Goldman Sachs Japan)

Ankiti Bose

Co-founder & CEO

(Zilingo)

110


Bhavish Aggarwal

Co-founder & CEO

(OLA)

Carlo Ratti

Professor & Director

(MIT/Senseable City Lab)

Christine Duhaime

CEO

(Digital Finance Institute)

Claudia Mirza

CEO

(Akorbi)

Danielle WoodAssociate Professor of

Media Arts & Sciences;

Director of Space Enabled

(MIT)

Deep Kalra

Founder & Group Chief

Executive Officer

(MakeMyTrip.com)

Deepak Garg

Founder & CEO

(Rivigo Service Pvt. Ltd.)

Deepanwita

Chattopadhyay

Chairman & CEO

(IKP Knowledge Park)

Dan Bryant

Senior Vice President for

Global Policy & Govern-

ment Affairs

(Walmart)

Chanda Kochhar


(ICICI Bank Limited)

Chatri Sityodtong

Founder, Chairman &

CEO

(ONE Championship)

Cherie Blair

Founder

(Cherie Blair Foundation

for Women)

Chrispin Kambii

Global Medical Affairs

Leader

(Johnson & Johnson)

Christine Baah Ntim

Partner & COO

(Global Startup

Ecosystem)

111


Harsha Bhogle

Cricket Commentator &

Journalist

Hema Vallabh

Founder

(WomEng & WomHub)

Ivanka Trump

Advisor to the President

(United States)

Jan Oliver Roehrl

Chief Technical Officer

(Bosch Ltd)

Jaxay Shah

Managing Director

(Savvy Infrastructure

Pvt Ltd)

Jayadeep Krishnan

CEO

(T-Hub)

Dr. Harish Hande

CEO

(SELCO Foundation)

Devita Saraf

Founder & CEO

(Vu Technologies)

Diana Layfield

VP Project Managemnet,

Next Billion Users

(Google)

Geetanjali Kirloskar

Chairperson

(Kriloskar Systems Ltd.)

Gopal Srinivasan

Chairman & Managing

Director

(TVS Capital Funds P. Ltd)

Elizabeth Gore

Chairman & Entrepreneur

in Residence

(Alice and Dell)

Doug DeVos

President

(Amway)

Dipali Goenka

CEO and Joint MD

(Welspun India Ltd.)

112


Jessica Rovello

CEO

(Arkadium)

John Chambers

Chairman

(USISPF)

Kalvakuntla Taraka

Rama Rao

Minister for IT E&C

(Government of

Telangana)

Karen Hughes

Quintos

Chief Customer Officer

(Dell)

Kathryn Kaufman

Managing Director of

Global Women’s Issues

(Overseas Private

Investment Corporation)

Kristen Lund-

Jurgensen

EVP, President Pfizer

Global Supply

(Pfizer)

Kristina Davison

Co-Founder & Managing

Partner

(iEurope Capital LLC)

Lavanya Nalli

Ramanathan

Vice-chair

(Nalli Group of

Companies)

Karthik Govindhasamy

CTO & EVP

of Engineering

(Planet Labs, Inc.)

Jonathan Ortmans

President

(Global Entrepreneurship

Network)

Josh Mandell

Director of Policy & Inter-

national Programs

(Halcyon)

Jovita Carranza

Treasurer

(United States

Department of Treasury)

Judith Okonkwo

Founder

(Imisi 3D)

K Chandrasekhar

President

(NASSCOM)

113


Mark Green

Administrator

(USAID)

Mark Kahn

Founding Partner

(Omnivore)

Maxim Pasik

Executive Chairman

(Watergen / Vertical Field)

Maxine Chapman

Associate Director

(Manufacturing

Technology Centre)

Megha Mittal

Chairwoman and

Managing Director

(Escada)

Melissa C. Frankman

Emerging Markets Fintech

Investor

(Fortune500 & high-

growth companies)

Marcus Wallenberg

Chairman

(SEB)

Lerato Motsamai

Founder & CEO

(Petrolink)

Leticia Gasca Serrano

Founder & Managing

Director

(Failure Institue)

Lorraine Martin

Executive Vice President

and Deputy

(Lockheed Martin Corporation)

Manish Sabharwal

Chairman

(Teamlease Services Ltd)

Loretta McCarthy

Managing Partner

(Golden Seeds)

Lisa Srao

Chairman & Managing

Director

(I Brands Beverages)

Lisa Mather

VP & Chief International

Counsel

(PayPal)

114


Merrill Fernando

Chairman

(Dilmah Ceylon Tea

Company PLC)

Mithali Dorai Raj

Captain

(Indian Women’s Cricket

Team)

Nivruti Rai

Country General

Manager & Vice President

of Data Center Group

(Intel Technologies India)

Onyekachi Stephanie

CEO

(Next Page Productions)

Parameswaran Iyer

Secretary

(Indian Ministry of

Drinking Water and

Sanitation)

Patricia Greene

Director of Women’s

Bureau

(U.S. Department of

Labor)

Piyush Mathur

CEO

(Simpa Energy)

Piyush Pandey

Executive Chairman and

Creative Driector; South

Asia

(Ogilvy & Mather)

Otara Gunewardene

Director

(Otara Foundation/

Embark)

Mukesh Bansal

Founder

(CureFit)

Mukul Kanitkar

National Organizing

Secretary

(Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal)

Nandini Tandon

Founder & CEO

(Tenacity Global Goup)

Neeraj Bharadwaj

Managing Director

(Carlyle India Advisors

Private Limited)

Nirmala Sitharaman

Defence Minister

(Government of India)

115


Radha Kapoor Khanna

Founder and Exectuive

Director

(DICE Ecosystem)

Radhika Aggarwal

Co Founder and Chief

Business Officer

(Shopclues.com)

Rahama Wright

Founder and CEO

(Shea Yeleen Health and

Beauty)

Rajan Anandan

Vice President; Google

India and South East Asia

(Google)

Rajan Navani

Vice Chairman & Manag-

ing Director

(Jetline Group of

Companies)

Rajashree Natarajan

Chief Operating Officer

(Cognizant Foundation)

Pullela Gopichand

Chief National Coach

(Indian Badminton)

Prathiba Singh

Judge

(New Delhi High Court)

Priya Nair

Executive Director

(Hindustan Unilever

Limited)

Priyanka Chopra

CEO

(Centre of Innovation

Incubation & Entrepreneurship)

Priyanka Mital

Director

(KRBL Limited)

Priyanka Bakaya

CEO & Founder

(Renewlogy)

Priya Tandon

Founder & India CEO

(Tenacity Global Group)

Priya Rajan

Director of Early Stage

Practice

(Silicon Valley Bank)

116


Rajiv Behari Lall

Founder & CEO

(IDFC Bank)

Ram Reddy

Chairman

(Global Industry Analysts)

Rasmus Wiinstedt

Tscherning

CEO & Founder

(Creative Business Cup)

Ravi Kailas

Chairman

(Mytrah Energy)

Rema Subramanian

Managing Partner &

Founder

(Ankur Capital)

Ritesh Agarwal

Founder and CEO

(OYO Rooms)

Dr. Ritu Verma

Co Founder and

Managing Partner

(Ankur Capital)

Roee Tamari

CEO

(Herodium Investments)

Ray Washburne

President & CEO

(Overseas Private

Investment Corporation)

Rama Kalyani Akkiraju

Distinguished Engineer

(IBM)

Ramana Gogula

Vice President Clean

Technology Innovation

(Stanley Black & Decker)

Ramesh Abhishek

Secretary

(Indian Department of Industri-

al Policy and Promotion)

Dr. Ramesh

Byrapaneni

MD

(Endiya Partners)

Ramesh Jagannathan

Vice Provost/ Managing

Director

(NYU Abu Dhabi)

117


Sania Mirza

Tennis Champion

Sanjeev Aggarwal

Senior Managing Director

(Helion Advisors Pvt Ltd)

Sanjeev Bikhchandani

Founder & Vice Chairman

(Info Edge India Ltd)

Sara Vakshouri

President

(SVB Energy International)

Sean Blagsvedt

Founder

(Babajob)

Shalini Collins

Founding General Partner

(Shatter Fund)

Sangita Reddy Konda

Joint Mangaing Director

(Apollo Hospitals Group)

Rohini Dey

Founder and Owner

(Vermilion Restaurant

Chicago and NYC)

Ronnie Screvwala

Founder

(UpGrad)

Sachin Bansal

Executive Chairman & Co

Founder

(Flipkart.com)

Sandra Jonsdottir

Buch

CEO

(Platome Biotechnology)

Ruth Goodwin-Groen

Managing Director

(Better Than Cash

Alliance/UCDF)

Rukmini Banerji

CEO

(Pratham Education

Foundation)

Roya Mahboob

CEO

(Digital Citizen Fund)

118


Shanti Mohan

Founder & CEO

(LetsVenture)

Shashank Navalurkar

Dattatreya

Founder & CEO

(Practo)

Sivakumar Surampudi

Group Head - Agri & IT

Businesses

(ITC Limited)

Sonam Wangchuk

Founding Director

(Students’ Educational

and Cultural Movement of

Ladakh)

Stephanie Marrus

Director, Entrepreneurship

(University of California

San Francisco)

Steve Nordlund

President

(The Boeing Company /

Horizon X)

Su Shah Tan

Managing Director

(DBS Bank)

Subhash Chandra

Chairman

(Essel Group)

Srikanth Bolla

CEO

(Bollant Industries)

Shashi Shekhar

Vempati

CEO

(Prasar Bharati)

Shivani Malik

Marketing Director

(Da Milano Leathers)

Shubha Nabar

Managing Director

(SRS Aviation and SRS

Petroleum)

Sibongile Rejoyce

Sambo

Senior Director

(Salesforce Einstein)

Shobha Taladpady

Seetharam

Executive Director

(Indian Space Research Organisation)

119


Tessy Thomas

Director

(DRDO)

Thomas Hyland

Co Founder and Partner

(Aspada Investments)

Tiffany Wilson

CEO

(GCMI)

Udit Harish Sheth

Founder &

ManagingDirector

(Se TransStadia Pvt. Ltd.)

Upasana Taku

Co-founder

(Mobikwik)

Vani Kola

Managing Director

(Kalaari Capital)

Teresa Nelson

Carpenter

President & CEO

(Reel Muzik Werks LLC)

Sumita Ghose

Managing Director

(Rangsutra Crafts India)

Sushma Rajagopalan


(ITC Infotech)

Tania Fernandez

President and CEO

(Midissia Therapeutics)

Susan Beth

Chodakewitz

President and CEO

(Nathan Associates Inc)

Sunil Manohar

Gavaskar

Director

(Professional Management Group)

Sumithra Gomatam

President

(Cognizant Digital

Operations)

Varitha Narayanan

Chairman

(IBM India Private Ltd.)

120


Venktesh Shukla

Managing Director

(Monta Vista Capital)

Vivian Lau

President

(JA Asia Pacific Ltd.)

Yonathan Parienti

Founder and CEO

(HORYOU)

Yeone Fok

Founder

(SparkRaise)

Vikas Khanna

Founder & CEO

(Vikas Khanna Flavors)

Vikas Shah

COO

(Water Health

International)

Virginia Littlejohn

Co-founder & President

(Quantum Leaps Inc)

Vikram Gupta

Founder & Managing

Partner

(IvyCap Ventures Advisors)

Vineet Chandra Rai

CEO & Founding Partner

(Aavishkaar IntelleCap

Group)

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NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While designing strategic and long term policies and programs for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.

NITI Aayog acts as the quintessential platform of the Government of India to bring States to act together in national interest, and thereby fosters Cooperative Federalism. NITI Aayog is also developing itself as a State of the Art Resource Centre, with the necessary resources, knowledge and skills, that will enable it to act with speed, promote research and innovation, provide strategic policy vision for the gov-ernment, and deal with contingent issues.

NITI Aayog was the host of GES 2017 in Hyderabad.

About NITI Aayog

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The Department of State advises the President and leads the nation in foreign policy issues. The State Department negotiates treaties and agreements with foreign entities, and represents the United States at the United Nations.

On behalf of the American people the State Department promotes and demonstrates democratic values and advances a free, peaceful, and prosperous world. The mission of the U.S. Department of State is to advance the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity, by leading America’s foreign policy through di-plomacy, advocacy, and assistance.

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit is an initiative under the U.S. Department of State’s Global Entrepreneurship Program.

About the U.S. Department of State

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The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF) is a pro-gram initiative of The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation. tGELF was founded in 2006, and was officially inaugurated in 2008 by the then Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh. tGELF has designed a comprehensive leadership journey for aspiring great leaders at school, university and post-university level.

The foundation is committed to identifying and nurturing ethical and altruistic leaders across the globe to be agents of change. tGELF’s program initiatives are focused in Education &; Skilling, Technology for Good, Social Movements, and Entrepreneurship.

tGELF was a core partner of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017.

About The Global Education & Leadership Foundation

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PARTNERS OF GES 2017

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GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT 2017 - tGELF...We are at an inflection point for change in the area...

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