I am glad and fortunate to have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and startups over the last 10 years and there has been a lot of learning which I have personally gained based on the experience of witnessing the journey of many entrepreneurs from across India and few outside India as well. These learnings & insights are like tool mantras for founders with a combination of attributes as well as parameters to look at startup success.

1. Intersection with your own self is one of the key elements for a successful & long term entrepreneur journey . It is a journey where a founder has to look at his/her self discovery in terms of inner attributes, likings, deep rooted purpose, aspiration as well as skills and desires. A right intersection between self and entrepreneur path brings a spiritual fulfillment and brings about the element of joy and long term success.

2. Another key element for a founder is to identify the right spot or set the right goal post which he/she wants to chase in terms of solving a right problem or innovating right opportunity or filling up a gap or solving or addressing specific need. This right match has to be inline with the entrepreneur’s self and his interest and ability match as well.

3. The aspect of customer empathy plays a very important role for entrepreneur success. When it comes to defining the right kind of a solution which eventually will get validated and would be commercialized ,the pain of the customer, the feeling and empathetic view from a customer perspective is very important for an entrepreneur to understand. This is almost like living the life of a customer and to imagine the right of a solution which becomes an acceptable solution.

4. The right validation for the startup offering is vital. The right solution given to a right set of customers as part of proof of concept or a testing phase is also important. This is where a customer accepts the solution and is able and is ready to pay for it. So unless it is monetization in a real life environment, the validation is incomplete.

5. The other personal characteristics of an entrepreneur like being mindful of his work and integrity in terms of core values and trust are also critical when it comes to building a team or winning your customers’ confidence as well as having a vision for long which can create a brand for the society. The intention, genuinity and purity of the persona of an entrepreneur do matter.

6. Thinking of making a startup sustainable is also vital for long term success where whatever product or service and entrepreneur is trying to create, it has to be business model where it can be monetized, it can be commercialized and it can also scale up to become a bigger solution where it can impact larger and larger customer base. Sustainability thought from both ecology and economy are important.

Overall it’s the right attributes of an entrepreneur combined with a right spot with a mindful execution. I think this is a success mantra for an entrepreneur .The entrepreneur impacts many customer lives for betterment purposes. There is definitely wealth creation and at the end it has a lot of social impact through creating jobs and bringing economic growth for the nation. The spirit of entrepreneurship, spirit of innovation, the spirit of creation needs to be saluted and respected by society. This spirit is also successful no matter if a specific business wins or loses.

About the author

Mr. Deepak Menaria is Founder & CEO of Lemon Ideas. He is a passionate Creator, Executor and brings along multiple creations. He is the chair- Experiential Learning’s at Lemon School of Entrepreneurship (LSE). He brings rich experience in talent management for DIY approach at Lemon School. His avid
love for experimentation and taking offbeat paths filled with ‘crazy’ ideas has been a visible colour in his self –made professional journey.

Before founding Lemon ideas, he co-founded Lambent Technologies (Now GlobalLogic). GlobalLogic
is a Hitachi company now and one of the biggest product engineering companies in the world. He is
diversely educated in Computer Engineering, Management and Psychology. He learned Creativity &
Innovation from IIM Ahmedabad.

Deepak firmly believes in change as the mother of innovation and is on a mission Innovation by
EveryONE! Deepak has mentored, guided, supported around 100+ startups/ideas and 3000+
individuals as part of his personal interest in youth training and mentorship during 25+ years of rich
experience. He loves Adventures, Driving, Music and Philanthropy.

The post Success Mantra for Startup Founders first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

Post Covid, LSE have relaunched its offline programs. Enrolments are open for our Certificate Program on Entrepreneurial leadership & Idea Validation

 The essence of this program is to assist you to have a holistic view of nuances of Entrepreneurship and learn  “How To Start A Startup”. Before  starting up one requires to understand the process of ideation as  every idea may be good but not suitable for you to take it up as a venture. Failure is another challenge which you must learn to accept. Learn from our mentors How to Face Failures.

This program will provide you with tools to develop an entrepreneurial thought process, innovative mindset and give a new approach of finding opportunity in every problem.

 We have selected few articles and videos from our pool to give some insights of what kind of learnings you are going to get at LSE

Do I require formal training? | Business after Corona | 10 Books for Entrepreneurs

Idea to Reality Workshop | Lemon Alumni Funding stories  | Ideation Workshop

This program has been curated by our mentors based on the learnings developed over past 9 years of interaction with various entrepreneurs , startups ,mentors, ecosystem players, customer feedback , Angle investors, Venture Capitalists etc.  Experiential learning is the USP at Lemon and you would enjoy being part of it. The learning experience gets enhanced in the lap of nature with an outdoor adventure camp as a part of the program. These programs are designed to bring out the best leader in you.

Program Outline

The total duration of the Certificate Program in Entrepreneurial Leadership & Idea Validation Program is 1 month.

• Cohort size would be restricted to max 20 participants
• The Program focuses on different aspects of entrepreneur’s journey (Skill building, Management education, Idea to Reality and Real life experience)
• The Program has a three-dimensional approach: Foundation | Do-it-Yourself (DIY) | Finishing
• Combination of Offline (10 days) and Online Modules ( 8 hours)
• Total duration of the course is 108 Hrs
• Residential training bootcamp at Learning campus at Nagpur, Maharashtra
• Experiential learning on leadership skills at Adventure camp site near Nagpur
• Successful candidates to become eligible for the next phase of the Program (Entrepreneurial Management & Venture Creation) & 3 months of extended incubation and “launch your venture” support by Incubation partner Lemon Ideas.
  
• Participation in future Funding Demo days for two years
• Flexibility to Learn while pursuing other engagements
• Provision of livelihood stipends for full-timers under EiR program

Curriculum

LSE’s Entrepreneurial Leadership & Idea Validation program is comprehensive; combining one-on-one business counseling with group theory & practical sessions. The program starts with self-discovery and ideation. All essential management and entrepreneurship teachings including Idea generation, Idea Funnelling, Introduction to Entrepreneurship, Spirituality, Mindful Entrepreneurship, Self-Awareness, Attributes, Leadership skills for Entrepreneur, Managing Risks, Conflict resolution, Team Dynamics, Outbound learning, Problem-Solution Modelling, 6E Model, etc are well addressed in the course.

The curriculum is based on recognized education principles, effectively linking theory and practice, with inputs from international experts, supported by well-known partner organizations.

Learning Tracks

• Spirituality and Discovery
  Self-Awareness; Self-Learning; Self-Exploration; Creative-Thinking; Understanding Psychological Personality; Idea generation; Sources of ideas Psychological Orientation for entrepreneurship; Integration of self and social conscience; Alignment of self with entrepreneurship journey; Self Development Goals; Mindful Entrepreneurship; Ethics and values; Social impact, SDG’s.
• Core Entrepreneurship
  Introduction to Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship attributes; Risk-taking; Entrepreneurs Mind set; Idea Selection & Validation; Converting Idea to Reality; 6-E measurement; Business Modeling; Metric analysis and tracking; Design Thinking, Innovation & Blue Ocean strategy; Kick-starting your venture.
• Entrepreneurial Leadership
  Leading an Organization ; Finishing Skill building; Effective Communication (Verbal & Writing); Time Management; Team building; Behavioral Soft skills; Outbound / Life-skills camp etc
• Experience Lab
  Experiential Learning; Real Life Immersion; Assignments; Projects; Startup case studies; Building Professional skills; Entrepreneurship in Residence; Entrepreneurship in Shadow.

Eligibility

Anyone over 14 years of age can enroll into LSE programs; man or woman, looking at domestic or overseas business ventures; rural or urban business; LSE offers programs for each of these. The program has no specific prerequisites for education, degree, experience, or marks.
The selection process is simple. Candidates will be admitted based on a Personal Interview. A reference from somebody in the Lemon Ecosystem would be an added advantage for selection. A certificate will be awarded to entrepreneurs on successful completion of the program.

Mentor

The Mentor, Guest Speakers and Facilitators for the Entrepreneurial Leadership and Idea Validation program would be seasoned entrepreneurs, veteran experts, investors and subject matter specialists from India and international ecosystems like Europe, America, Japan and Africa. The Lemon mentor pool has a rich diversity of individuals from various domains and management functions ensuring right experiential input for various entrepreneurs at LSE.

Admission Process

Please write to us at hello@lemonideas.in | or call us on +91-8407911142 and request for the application form. Submit the application form and candidates will be scheduled for a Personal Interview. Details of which would be communicated separately by the program coordinator.

So, what are you waiting for? Apply now and book your seat for the program and enjoy 10 days of fun filled experiential Bootcamp followed by 20 days of online support for an investment of less than Rs 900 per day. Program commences from 6th Jan 2023

About Lemon Ecosystem

Established in 2013, Lemon Ideas (www.lemonideas.in )is on a mission “Innovation by EveryONE” and is working towards empowering talented individuals to convert their Ideas into Reality (Business Ventures). Evolved as a self-sustaining start-up ecosystem for aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners as well as early-stage start-ups for complete end to end support at various stages of their journey including training, mentoring, ideation, validation, launch, execution, growth as well as fundraising. Innopreneurs Startup Contest (www.innopreneurs.in ) is a highly popular yearly contest hosted by Lemon Ideas. It is much more than a conventional B-plan contest. It is an international level platform that encourages individuals/ students/ professionals to bring ideas, innovations to the platter for others to devour. Lemon School of Entrepreneurship- www.lemon-school.com  (LSE) is a unique, new age Gurukul with a vision to support, mentor, and train budding as well as early-stage entrepreneurs. The pedagogy being learning by Doing, Learn through reflections, and real-life experimentation, LSE believes that creation of work portfolio through experiential learning and pre-incubation training is vital for entrepreneurship. Lemon has touched the lives of 10K entrepreneurs over the years.

Visit us at www.lemonideas.in | www.lemon-school.com | www.innopreneurs.in

The post Boot-Camp on Entrepreneurial Leadership & Idea Validation first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

The winner of the contest was Falak Arora aged 14 yrs from Zedberrie from Neerja Modi School, Jaipur while Ishaan Kaila aged 14 yrs from Shri Ram School, Gurgoan was first runner up. The second runner up team was a team from CPS Nagpur class X including Anushree Deshpande; Diksha Gidwani; Sakshi Dahikar; Krishna Taori.

The winning team developed/working on making fashion apparel and accessories from textile waste and they have even sold their fashion apparel and accessories to bollywood celebrities like Shilpa Shetty. 

Special appreciation for the youngest innovator was given to 8 years old Anay Ramakrishnan; Abeer Ramakrishna from Centre Point international wants to build an Immvers-tech platform for digital avatars of humans across eras using GAN technology.

1st Runner Up was Comedy Majors. Ishaan Kaila from Shri Ram School, Gurgaon has built an app for promoting Humour. This app has over 40K downloads for family friendly Humor content.

2nd Runner Up for Innopreneurs Junior was the team from CPS Nagpur including Anushree Deshpande; Diksha Gidwani; Sakshi Dahikar; Krishna Taori is building an open platform for classical dance performers to showcase their talent to a mass audience.

Dilip Kamdar from Naivedhyam Hospitality encouraged/said “I am thrilled to see the innovative ideas by these young minds and looking at them, I am sure that India’s future is bright. He also spoke about competition and that we should go to C2C (Competition to Creativity)”.

The jury members for the finale included Siddharth Saraf, Director, FIRE Arcor Infrastructure Private Limited, Shruti Sharma,  Founder at Siddhayu Healthcare (Baidyanath group and Nitin Katiyar, Founder; The Achievers School (Kratin Group), Founder of Lemon Ideas, Deepak Menaria mentioned that this program was organized in line with the newly launched National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Promotion Policy (NIEPP) by the Government of India. The contest included training & mentoring elements as well. Lt Col Saurabh Shah (COO – Lemon Ideas) announced that this would be an annual feature and open for students from across India to join and take benefit. Mukesh Ashar was the host for the event while team members Amartya, Ashwin, Dikki, Krishnkant and others worked hard for the success of the event, Prominently present on the occasion were Poonam Menaria (Counsellor), Pramod Pampatwar (Director – Technical, JIT – Nagpur).

The Junior contest was conceptualised by Lemon Ideas and powered by Aerobay (Aviotron Aerospace) – A Lemon mentored start-up providing experiential STEAM education for school children. The finale event is supported by The Achievers school and an exclusive training bootcamp is organized by Lemon School of Entrepreneurship for the benefit of the participants.

Lemon Ideas has been pioneering in the start-up ecosystem to foster innovations and nurture Job creators for the last 9 years.  It has touched more than 7000 entrepreneurs through various initiatives including contests, cohorts, community & consulting. One of the flagship programs is startup contest -Innopreneurs (www.innopreneurs.in)  which is among the top results on google search. Previous 7 editions of Innopreneurs attracted 10K participants from India and 15 more countries to join for recognition, training, mentoring, collaboration and funding support. 

The post Innopreneurs Juniors Finale first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

Envisioning a mindful ecosystem at Lemon ideas

The post Mindful Ecosystem – Pledge first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

What’s Stopping Indian Youth from Getting into Entrepreneurship?

The post Entrepreneurship amongst Teens first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

We are happy to share that a startup incubated at Lemon Ideas named as Bloodstream (Asia’s First Medical Drone Delivery Service) recently got featured by various media & news houses across the Asian and American continent.

The startup is functional in medical blood delivery through the drone. Their significant work can be understood from the following data points.

• 105 KM Range
• 150000+ KMs Tested
• 200+ Payloads Drops Tested

Following this, we have made it easier for you to go through the media & news coverage of BloodStream. Marking the list below.

• Indian Express
• Times of India (Nagpur)
• Times of India (Mumbai)
• The Drive
• ABP Majha
• Reacho
• Progress Daily
• Daily Hunt
• MAROC DIPLOMATIQUE
• Agile Security Force
• The New York Magazine

Keep updated on our website for more such updates.

The post Lemon incubated startup Bloodstream featured in various media stories! first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

Any idea is a gem only if it is executed in the right direction with utmost passion. Incubated in Lemon Ideas, Sabzilana.com is one such amazing initiative taken by Mr. Rajesh Pugalia, which provides clean and fresh vegetables and fruits at the doorstep of their customers. Their aim is not just to deliver untouched hygienic veggies but also to start a green and clean drive to create a healthier and better society. Sabzilana’s efforts of making a profound change into conventional vegetable shopping and providing flexible and on time services to their customers have recently been acknowledged by Silicon India Magazine. They have been nominated as one of the most promising and excellently performing startups in Maharashtra and this accomplishment is a huge boost for them to keep giving their best to their consumers.

The key to a successful business lies in how well it can keep up with the changing trends in technology. With Google having rolled out Mobile-First Indexing, the importance of mobile applications increased exponentially and every website being mobile-friendly became a must! Built by two young and passionate entrepreneurs, Vishal Chawda and Amit Tiwari; Flying Penguins is a dynamism which makes any business technically sound and digitally inclined using their dexterity in Mobile app development and Automation. As a result of their excellent performance in areas like Mobile App Design, Web Design and Development, Enterprise Solutions, CRM Solution and Social Marketing, Flying Penguins has been nominated in top 10 most promising mobile app startups in the year 2018 by CIO Review.

Bloodstream, the brainchild of young and raring entrepreneurs named Anshul Sharma, Arunabha Bhattacharya and Rishab Gupta have turned drones into a lifesaver. This med-tech startup has developed a technology which helps in supplying blood with the help of drones. And not just blood, but it will also supply vaccines, emergency medicines, anti-snake venom serum, and life-saving equipment to patients even in the remote, rural areas. Women with post-delivery complications are a priority for Bloodstream. They have made 19 successful deliveries using “Magnum” (name of the drone) which weigh around 9 kgs and can carry payloads of 1.5 kg, with a single battery charge allowing for 105 km round-trips. These drones work perfectly fine even when it’s windy or raining. This amazing innovation of the brainy trio has received 15 awards for best-performing drones from the United States of America and Asia-Pacific. They also have been felicitated by industry giants such as NASA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Airbus. This team have been featured in various media stories across the globe. Check out here.

Lemon Ideas is honoured to be associated with these incredible Entrepreneurial ventures.  It’s been both exciting and inspirational for us to watch how steadily and expeditiously they have advanced – onward and upward! The recognition and fem they are gaining are well deserved and we are sure they will keep pursuing excellence and keep their ‘Stop at Nothing’ attitude kicking new doors of success. Cheers!

The post Lemon Startups Got Significant Recognitions! first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

Why Co-working space is the best for you?

Cost: Cost efficiency is one of the biggest advantages of coworking. You can actually set up your optimally equipped office without spending too much money and this automatically reduces monthly recurring spend.

Common infrastructure: Office place isn’t just about desks and shelves; it is never complete without proper facilities like housekeeping, canteen, reception, and other infrastructure availabilities etc. which can sometimes cost more than the working place. If you are a part of the co-working space, all these things are already taken care of which reduces extra monetary and mental burden as common facilities and infrastructure are shared among all the occupants.

Flexibility: This is again one more add-on into the long list of advantages. There is always a choice of working as per your comfort and convenience. There is no restriction of time or place when it comes to coworking and you can work out of a cabin space, open space or even a meeting room.

Multiple offices: If you have clients, partners or employees in different cities, or if any part of your work requires you to travel a lot then it’s not feasible for you to have full-fledged offices at all the locations. Co-working spaces are the big help in such cases.

According to Global Coworking Forecast, there will be an exponential increase in the number of global coworking spaces and it will grow from 14,411 in 2017 to over 30,000 in 2022. The number of people using the place is expected to grow from 1.74 million in 2017 to 5.1 million in 2022. This growth in the numbers is evident on how coworking is proving its effectiveness in the current ecosystem!

In this ongoing trend, Lemon Ideas have established amazing incubation centre which is the perfect coworking place for all the freelancers, Entrepreneurs, Startups with small teams or the professionals who are working alone. Apart from all the above benefits of coworking what makes Lemon Ideas stand out from the crowd are its complimentary vouchers which include training, mentoring, ideation, validation, execution as well as fundraising. You can brace yourself to fetch the goal you have set for yourself by learning about the domains like Branding, Marketing, Digital Marketing, Technology, Finance, Legal, HR etc. Here you get direct intellectual input from the experts in the startup ecosystem which is more than helpful in boosting your entrepreneurial journey! Many of the startups which are incubated at Lemon Ideas have already reached the zenith of success and are aiming for new goals to conquer. Being the biggest Co-working space in Nagpur region, Lemon Ideas aims to create many more such opportunities where innovative minds will come together and realize their ideas with ease.

Here are some testimonials from our existing incubates; see what they have to say about us…

Coworking at Lemon is one of the smartest choices I have ever made. The benefit of the ecosystem, mentors, peer support and referential customers becomes much accessible. And this is the only one thing which makes me relocate to Nagpur all the way from Gwalior.

• Krishnkant Chaturvedi, Toomely

Lemon’s coworking has made us more efficient as everything from maintaining the infrastructure to managing the administrative work like looking after the securities, hygiene is being taken care by Lemon itself! It allows us to focus mainly on our idea due to which we can bring added acceleration to the work.

• Vishal Chawda, Flying Penguins

To know more about Lemon Coworking, you can visit this page. Or can contact us at +918407911142

The post Have You Heard? CO-WORKING Is Your Best Bet To Grow first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

The post Lemon Publication Launch and Alumni meetup event first appeared on Lemon Ideas.

Lemon School of Entrepreneurship is neither affiliated to any University/ Governing Body nor provides any recognized degree or diploma. We believe that the creation of a work portfolio through experiential learning and pre-incubation training is vital for entrepreneurship. We offer entrepreneurship training programs and business training workshops. We also work with colleges and universities to build a robust ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ ecosystem. It includes pre-Incubation consulting and experiential workshops.

Since 2013, LEMON has slowly evolved as a self-sustaining start-up ecosystem for aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners as well as early-stage start-ups for complete end to end support at various stages of their journey including training, mentoring, ideation, validation, launch, execution, growth as well as fundraising. Lemon is among very few truly entrepreneurial start-up enabler supporting and nurturing job creators in India. The ecosystem has become very fertile for idea seeds to get sprouted and become sustainable ventures. The magic of co-creation and peer learning is instrumental in the transformation of entrepreneurs at Lemon. Lemon is a recognized startup by DIPP, Govt. of India and proudly supports the Startup India movement.

In this series, Uganda’s High Commissioner to India, Grace Akello, has pledged to support Muni University by linking it to higher institutions of learning in India and other parts of the world for benchmarking and collaboration on joint projects. Akello was on Wednesday speaking at the signing of a two-year memorandum of understanding between Lemon School of Entrepreneurship in India and Muni University, at the university main campus in Arua, an arrangement which the commissioner herself connected. Areas of collaboration include

1. Conducting training programmes in entrepreneurship development for students
2. Conducting faculty development programmes in entrepreneurship for lecturers
3. Conducting entrepreneurship orientation assessment for the Students and handholding support for setting up
4. Management of incubator among others

The High Commissioner said she wanted to support the West Nile region through Muni University because the region has been lagging behind in development from colonial times until the ruling National Resistance Movement came to power. ‘West Nile was left at the back of this country from the 1900s until the start of the NRM government. For a long, West Nile was the reserve for Ugandan labour, as workers in tea plantations and workers in sugar plantations, provision of private security. I want to help bring the minds, brains and thoughts of the West The nile to power Uganda’s development. That’s why I want to support Muni University,’ Akello said. She said she supports the West Nile region because it is a strategic location as a business hub for four countries in the neighbourhood, namely, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Kenya, and the Central African Republic. She also gifted the University with 19 copies of three of her books she has authored, namely: Women in Diplomacy; Thoughts of an African Ambassador, My Barren Song and It is also Thought Patterns in Tales. The Vice-Chancellor of Muni University, Prof. Christine Dranzoa, thanked the ambassador for presenting an opportunity for the University to collaborate with other institutions, saying networking is a critical factor in the development of the country. ‘Our prayer is that you continue linking and networking with partners including refugee-support because West Nile hosts more refugees than any region in the country,’ she said. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Associate Prof. Simon Anguma, said: ‘Through the collaborative programmes, we are going to develop the human resource that is critically needed for industrialization.’ He prayed that such collaborations continue even after the two years. Professor Robert Kojobe also joined the conversation and told the importance of engineering in the development of any nation. He is proud of his work that he is building engineers. He also told about the importance of staff exchange. If someone from Uganda goes and works with the Indian eco-system then it will be very productive for both of the countries. Professor Openjuru George and Professor David Owiny shared the conversation and prayed for the success of this venture with Muni University.

By

Vaibhav Singh
Hindu College. University of Delhi
New Delhi – 110007
Phone. +91-9455599489

The post Lemon School of Entrepreneurship Collaboration in Uganda first appeared on Lemon Ideas.