“Opportunities for Startups and SME's post Covid-19”

(51 st Startup Sathi webinar Organised by i-Hub dated –22 May, 2020)

Speaker: Shashikant Chaudhary, Co-founder Nagpur Angels

Moderator: Mr. Hiranmay Mahanta(SSIP-Ihub)

About seminar: The webinar revolves around the discussion on which sectors opportunities will rise post

COVID-19.

Topics of discussion:

- Talent has no age bar, a person can make wonders at any age but our first objective of our Nagpur alumni

association was to find out those extraordinary minds and provide them with mentorship. The efforts for this

are done for the first year students itself before the students become stereotype and decide their fate. Three

hour workshops are arranged for spreading awareness about entrepreneurship.

-To find out the actual number of students that are genuinely interested in entrepreneurship, workshops are

held and students are filtered out. These filtered out students are nurtured, taught and asked to work on their

own ideas. They are asked to present in front of their own classmates who act as investors. After passing all

these barriers selected students are given pre-incubation grants from alumni funding. This is done by a special

alumni group called VNIT special 100 which funds upto Rs 1 crore.

- The current pandemic is going to bring a lot of changes. We might keep discussing pre-pandemic and post-

pandemic situations now forever. Changes in working styles will occur due to the pandemic since one of the

largest IT companies ‘Infosys’ has told that by the year 2025 75% people will be working from home and only

25% population will be working from offices. So, the preference will be given to skills and not the geography.

Jobs will go wherever the skills are. A Delhi based start up company called grey-orange already has wide

spread teams across the world. 57% of big companies were started in the depressing phases. It is a good

opportunity to start a company when the market is down, and it surely peaks when the market peaks. Doing

right things at the wrong moments can be a great competitive advantage.

-Areas of opportunities after COVID-19:

MEDICINE: Telemedicine, 3D printing, Isolation units, Low cost ventilators, Treatment Tents, High quality

imported food, Self diagnosing medical devices, UV chambers, certification baby care, PPE for professionals,

real time threat monitoring, elder care, drive-in test kits, Ayurveda for Immunity, Physiotherapy for cancer

patients, tiny face shields, fitbits, Robotic nurse, Microbiome, contact free monitor, videos for pregnant, smart

thermometers,

WORKING SECTORS: Covid proof certification, disinfections, Antimicrobial chair, Fan, AC, gymming

equipments, quite pet/kids toys, tools for small companies, Interactive transcripts of online videos, Digilocker,

Digital sign, colorized disinfectants, Time series data for employees, Blockchain educational credentials.

TOURISM: Airlines grade hotels, real time bio screens, Med records for restaurants, Kitchen sanitizing services,

streaming video cloud, Immcertifications, Smart helmet, safety advice pre-tips, multilingual chat bots, real

time disruptions, Mask OK, etc.

ENTERTAINMENT: multiplayer games, bed-time stories, online cooking classes, memes, virtual visit to

landmarks.

E-COMMERCE: Video editors, voiceover, gift cards, groceries, DIY, digital marketing, etc.

EDUCATION: Online fitness, home schooling, virtual classrooms, Music classes, Tool training for old people

online degree distribution, online assessment, peer-peer learning.

Quote/ Suggestion: If success of alumni is celebrated in educational institutes, positive stories can attract

positive stories.

Facebook video link: https://www.facebook.com/ihubgujarat/videos/597525921118713/