Around 40 early-stage startups from all over the state of Tamilnadu, including campus startups (or studentpreneurs), participated at the ‘Aadukalam’, a startup pitching, validating and mentorship program driven by startups, mentors, investors and local ecosystem community enablers to validate, iterate the business model and value proposition.
The event organized by the Erode Hub team and Coimbatore North and South Community Circles of Startup TN (TANSIM), and hosted at the Nehru Group of Institutions (NGI) TBI in Coimbatore was marked by active participation of early-stage startups ready to pitch their ideas and products before an elite jury panel comprising CA K Jalapathi, Founder of Chartered Accountant Firm Anbarasu & Jalapathi; Sriram Sankaran, Chairman and MD of Synchron Group; Sunil S Nair, Co-Founder of Magicmyna Pvt. Limited; Gowtham, Founder & CEO of Nutz; Nawin; Founder of Startup Payanam; and Shameer, Founder of By The Startups Community.
The pitching event was elaborately arranged by Dr. Vaikundaselvan, Executive Director at NGI TBi and his team, whilst the startups were shortlisted and invited to pitch by the Startup TN’s Erode Hub Team comprising Sakti, Sunganya and Rajsekhar. The event started off with an inaugural session, followed by motivational talks by the jury panel, whilst Sakti and Sunganya spoke on the modality and procedure of ‘Aadukalam’. Suganya also hinted at how Startup TN has been proactively helping startups with a number of tailored startup events for mentoring, pitching, seed funds, grants and brand exposure including Thadai Adhai Udai (Break the Barriers), BrandLabs, S2G Buy Day, TN SC/ST Startup Fund and TANSEED.
Startups that participated at the event expressed they were able to break down the various barriers and day-to-day challenges with the inputs and feedback received from the mentor panel which also provided tips on creating pitch deck and honing their presentation skills.