Students come up with Uber for tailors, date-based alternative for coffee and custom art & portrait startup
Business Blasters, Kejriwal Government’s inventive show is laying the ground for the world’s next generation of CEOs. It aired its fourth episode on Sunday, December 19, 2021. After drawing attention and praise from Indians across states, the episode featured students of Delhi Government schools who pitched their innovative business ideas to judges, Taniya- Co-Founder, Suta and Neeraj Gulati- Founder, Tod Fod Jod and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
The first idea on the show stemmed from a personal experience of failing to get a dress stitched on time due to the packed schedules and availability brought on by festive seasons.
Presented by Afifa, Gulnaaz, Dhruvi and Asghar, a group of four dynamic students of Sarvodaya Co-Ed Senior Secondary School, Moti Bagh, presented ‘Silai Mitr’ an app based stitching service that allows the end customer to get clothes stitched from India’s best tailors.
Talking about the venture, team lead Afifa said: “Our app provides you with the option to choose from a variety of design catalogues, and get the final delivery well in time. We wish to employ home grown tailors who have the skill but need a platform to show it. We want to provide them with that platform and also serve the needs of our end customer.”
On being questioned by judges on their expansion plans she added: “We wish to expand our services to men and kids’ wear as well. Business Blasters has already helped us gather ideas and put them into a workable plan. This additional seed money of 1 Lakh rupees will help us further develop the ‘Silai Mitr’ app, advertise our services better and also market our product.”
After wowing the judges with their ideas the students successfully overcame the hurdles of their questions and managed to get an investment of rupees one lac for their unique business.
Suta Co-Founder Taniya was quite impressed by the idea and said: “This is a simple and effective idea as it solves a challenge that people face on a day-to-day basis, i.e. finding a tailor. With a little bit of a nudge, this can go really big, not only in Delhi but in all of India.”
The second idea called ‘Tap and draw’ deals with delivering artistic portraits and drawings, which they market using their own YouTube and Instagram channels. This power packed team of students— Sakshi, Mayank, Abhishek and Rahul— presented the idea for a seed money requirement of INR 60,000 to scale up their venture and have already serviced 25 customers and made a profit of INR 26,000 in a month! The team answered tough questions on their pricing strategy, scaling up plans and customer acquisition. “While we will reach out to our known contacts through our personal networks, we primarily wish to target potential buyers digitally because that is the way of the future. We are grateful to the government for introducing the very concept of Business Blasters which has given us a platform to run our business. The EMC curriculum enabled us to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, and assisted in comprehending how to run a business practically. Through the process we gained confidence, bettered our communications and marketing skills and mere financial beginnings helped us gain a sense of independence. Now, we want to build credibility in the eyes of the judges so that they feel confident about their investment in us,” said Abhishek, Team Lead of Tap and Draw.
The team received an investment of INR 25,000 from Tod Fod Jod Founder Neeraj Gulati and advanced orders of INR 62,500 from Suta Co-founder Taniya. Taniya also promised them mentorship in branding, and assured visibility for them on her personal brand’s page.
Team members Sufi, Varsha, Yash and Himanshu pitched the third business idea on the show, which was that of a nutritious beverage, positioned as a healthy and replacement for coffee. Made from ground date seeds, ‘Mystique Dates’ is a homegrown traditional recipe passed down from one generation to the next and is now being sold in the market. “It smells and tastes like coffee but is much healthier as it has no preservatives, and additives. I am taking forward my grandfather’s legacy who used to make this recipe as he was against wastage of any kind. To market our product, we have approached places which do not allow coffee due to its addictive properties. Places like Iskcon Temple have requested us for a sample. Business Blasters has given us an understanding of which is helping us plan for the future. The seed money of INR 10,000 received initially has helped us tremendously, and with this additional capital of INR 85,000, I am sure we will be able to scale it up by investing in customer acquisition, roasting, weighing and grounding machinery and trademarking.”
The idea impressed the judges and in addition to the investment of Rs 85,000, they decided to offer them mentoring in branding and devising a marketing strategy to help them build a brand.
Business Blasters is India’s first of its kind televised event which will give class 11th and 12th students of Delhi government schools an opportunity to present their projects to investors and obtain investment capital to take them to the next level. The show will witness students’ business ideas, shortlisted from 51,000 ideas submitted by 3,00,000 students. Watch students face some tough questions, and convince judges to support them with seed capital to scale their businesses, every Sunday, 7 pm. To be a mentor to these budding entrepreneurs, one can register on thebusinessblasters.in
About Business Blasters
Business Blasters is a practical component of EMC for classes 11th and 12th and has been designed to provide our students an experience to work in teams, brainstorm and identify social challenges or business opportunities, prepare business plans and implement their ideas in their neighbourhoods. All participating students can receive seed money of Rs. 2000 per student. The teams will use this seed money with a clear objective to either earn profit or create social impact.
