The document highlights the journeys of various young entrepreneurs who pursued their dreams by starting businesses while studying. Each story illustrates their challenges, innovations, and the lessons learned, emphasizing persistence, creativity, and the importance of addressing market needs. Key takeaways include the significance of hard work, staying focused on one's vision, and the value of seizing opportunities in entrepreneurship.

1. A
TALK
ON
ARISE, AWAKE
By:
NAVEEN DUBEY
Dept of Electronics & Communications

2. Arise! Awake! And stop not
till the goal is reached.
- Swami Vivekananda

4. Arise, Awake is the story of 10 young
entrepreneurs who started a business
while studying in college or right
after graduation.
Turning their backs on
lucrative placements,
To pursue dreams
of their own

5. Contents
-Rankers
They Cracked the toughest
entrance exam in the country.
And then took on new challenges
for which there is no
‘coaching classes’
-Rebels With A Cause
These mavericks strayed away
from the beaten path into
weird and wonderful places.
Because …. Who you are is
more than a ‘placement’
-Repeaters
The dudes who
tried- and failed –but had the will
to try again. Because nothing that
Is worth anything comes easily.
And….
“Giving up is not an option”

6. 1.
Life is a beach
Practo -Technologies
(A software used by 10,000
doctors. A company of
300 employees and
revenues close to ₹ 20
crore) Abhinav Lal & Shashank ND
NIT Surathkal

7. The Storyline
NIT Suratkal –
The only college in India with its
own private beach.
They joined college in 2005,
when nobody heard of the
term ‘Entrepreneurship”.
NIT was one of the first colleges
in India to start an E-Cell
Just after 4th year they organized
conference for doctors,
struggled for seeking
investors.
Morpheus* venture provided
inputs on sales and
marketing, finally they
clinched deal with Sequoia**.
“The venture, started in 4th year
of college, has blossomed and
grown into practo
*India’s first startup accelerator, **early investor both in apple and google
The Business Idea
“a software for
doctors”

8. Turning Points
“I saw a poster in my drom for
‘Eforea’ and it seemed like
very new and exciting thing”
Prof Turner’s message “ You can
invent, you can lead, put in
the hard work and you can
make anything happen”
One doctor –Dr Mohhamad Ali –
came back and said, “ I like
your idea- when can you
meet me”
Year 2008 and the buzz around
the internet was facebook
and small startup flipkart and
there was a sense “Ki kuch ho
raha hai”
2009Launch of practo2.0, a
tough decision job or practo
March 2011 we had 4-digit
number in bank and they at
sequoia said , we will give
you 8-digit figure.
Chindi phase ended, visible
fallout was better salary,
better food

9. Take Away
Play for love, play for money,
play to win! The ball is right
there in front of you.
It is really important to stick to
your vision , the vision should
not be, “ I want a 100 crore
company but “I am going to
solve this problem”
-- Abhinav lal
Things will not come easy to you.
Work really hard, build a
great product and sell, sell,
sell!
In India you have to give 75% of
your time to sales, sales
means face-to-face business
meetings.
Stay grounded, stay focused,
automatically, success will
come to you.
-Shashank N D

10. 2.
You can do magic
Magicrete
(A fresh graduate and a fresh
CA decided to shake up an
age-old industry. Today,
Magicrete is a ₹150 crore
company which is changing
the face of construction )
Puneet Mittal (CA)
Saurabh Bansal
IIT- Kgp
Sidharth Bansal
IIT-D, IIM-Lko

11. The Storyline
Saurabh Cracked IIT-JEE and
joined IIT-Kgp.
RK HALL – Room No D-206
Graffiti “5000 crore”
One day he noticed a customer
Siporex placed very large 50-
100 tons order in his father’s
quicklime factory.
He visited Siporex for the sake of
curiosity and discovered they
were manufacturing ACC
blocks.
ACC blocks 10X size of normal
brick but 70% lighter, they
were not used widely because
2X cost.
Started his venture Magicrete
with investment of some
family friends and bank loan.
And the trio (Saurabh, Puneet,
Siddharth ) redefined an old
age industry.
The Business Idea:
ACC Block Production
at low cost

12. Turning Points
In room D-206 RK Hall, the
topic of discussion was ‘What
do you want to do in your
life?’, Koi kuch kah raha tha,
koi kuch aur, suddenly a
young man stood up and
wrote a number on the wall-
‘5000 crore’
I thought that when there are
listed companies in steel and
cements, why not in bricks?
The Siporex was using a diesel
boiler, where coal boiler are
60-70% cheaper and there
were many areas we can
bring cost down.
Saurabh started approaching
angel investors and angle
came in form of uncle Rajesh
Poddar and he agreed to
invest 10 crore in return 70%
equity stake.
Once a deal was struck CA
Puneet mittal came into the
picture.
I remember how it felt to get that
first loan – Ki yaar bank ne
10 crore loan pass kar diya
based on our own credentials.

13. Take Away
Dream big and work hard and
put in all efforts, keep on
innovating and striving
towards your goal. Take the
plunge early. Age of 20-30
are the most dynamic years.
-Saurabh
Kuchh bhi start karne se pahle
uska ek road map hona
chahiye, at least 2-3 sal apko
bahut clearity honi chahiye
ke aage kya karna hai. Jo start
kiya hai, you have to stick for
2-3 years, 5 years and then
go forward and be gutsy!!
- Puneet
Entrepreneurs should always focus on ‘making the
system work’. The indicator of depth in management
is that the business should grow even in their
absence.
- Sidharth

14. 3.
Gift of the Gab
Sacred Moments
(He exited the campus with a
ready –to –launch business.
8 years on, he is the CEO of
a ₹ 4.5 crore company and
has no regrets.)
Praksh Mundhra
SCMHRD, Pune

15. The Storyline
Prakash appeared in CAT
examination but got
eliminated from IIMs.
SCMHRD- 1st Year ITC “Mera
Gaon Mera Desh” B-Plan.
His idea was in top 3 B-plan in
“Business Bazigar” a Z-TV
show.
He utilized all prize money and
consulted with Pujari(s) and
finally prepared Diwali pooja
kit, that includes all required
items along with a pujan
vidhi booklet.
The brand name was “Subh
Labh”
He sold more than 10000 pooja
kits during Diwali season,
including some good clients
like “TOI, Ambuja Cements,
etc”
The Business Idea:
Pooja Kit
packaging and
delivery (E-Com)

16. Turning Points
The year he joined MBA, there
was news of Vardan Kabra
from IIMA refusing
placement to start a school.
So the trend of
entrepreneurship had begun.
Agarbatti was the only product
which I could easily
understand.
I could see that my generation is
inclined towards puja, but
they want it to be a hassle-
free experience.
When one of the my exam at
SCMHRD was clashing with a
B-Plan contest, I ditched the
exam.
A Punjabi family, gave puja kit to
all their baratis as a gift.
By March’2014 Sacred Moments
had clocked a turnover of ₹
4.5 crore

17. Take Away
You don’t have to hide behind a
tree like Ekalavya to observe
Guru Dronacharya. Choose
your own gurus, follow their
words, their deeds and their
feats.
Believe in power of marketing-
use the internet, social media
marketing and
telecommunication to your
advantage.
Non-IIM students needs to have
strong belief that, it is your
learning during the course
which matters and not the
IIM tag. When it comes to
being an entrepreneur.
-- Parkash

18. 4.
Two Idiots
Bewakoof Brands
(The young entrepreneurs sell
funky clothing and
accessories online – with
order crossing ₹1 crore per
month. 1.4 million followers
of the Bewakoof brand on
Facebook)
Prabhkiran Singh, IIT-B
Siddharth Munot, IIT-B

19. The Storyline
A Punjabi boy from Ludhiyana
wanted to do something big.
IIT-B 3rd Year :
.
At the same time one of his
regular customer Sidhdharth
was experimenting with a
website “bewkoof.com”.
To promote this website they
used to wear self designed
bewkoof T-shirt.
Folks loved the T-shirt and
wanted to know “where can
we buy it ?” and they got the
business idea.
They started T-shirt business and
got 200-300 order from
hostel itself.
“Ghanta Engineering” design of
T-shirt introduced in mood
indigo festival at IIT-B.
Khadke Glassi:
Flavored Lassi Shop
The Business Idea:
Funky clothing and
accessories (E-Com)

20. Turning Points
“I was scared and hesitant but
people responded very well.”
Singh saab realised there was a
bright side to the story,
Mumbai ja kar bachcha
bhatak bhi sakta tha, chalo at
least he is doing something,
kuchh to seekhega”
Folks loved the Bewkoof T-shirt
and wanted to buy, “then we
thought this is a good idea-
chalo yahi karte hai”
IIT se pass hone ke baad suru me
to khane ka paisa bhi, it was
like kabhi idhar se udhaar,
kabhi udhar se udhaar.
Being from a Gujarati business
class our senior could see ki
isame kuchh dam hai. This
idea is working.
After we got a couple of warning
from FB we made “no
politics”, “no religion” rule.

21. Take Away
On thing is that mehnat to karna
padega. Hard work karte
raho persistently. Just keep
doing, keep doing and keep
motivating yourself.
-- Siddharth
When you start early, you do not
have contacts, you don’t have
money- it’s tough! At every
point of time, you will have to
prove yourself. But the plus
point is that you have more
liberty and you can
experiment more.
- Parbhkiran

22. 5.
Locha-E-Business
Ho Gaya
Innovese Technologies
(Two friends came up with a
cool idea. Innovese was a
shining star in the startup
sky, until interpersonal issue
tore the company apart)
Ankit Gupta & Dhruv Sogani
BITS Pilani

23. The Storyline
Ankit Gupta was born and
brought up in Jaipur, he was
very fascinated by the idea to
starting something of his
own.
Neeraj left the company and
finally in 2013 they concluded
deal with Gruner+jahr
*Facebook changed policy and reset user at zero, slambook ended with its natural death
slambook* venture
with a friend Neeraj
and Dhruv
winter 2010 college
result portal for mid
sem examination,
started experiment
with Captcha
The Business Idea:
Advertising using
Captcha : YoCaptcha
(Advertising
Industry)

24. Turning Points
I nagged my parents until they
gave in. I think, it is one of
the best decision I took in my
life .
I was confused and on the verge
of taking chemical. But
friends like Dhruv convince
me to go far the 5-year
integrated course.
It was only when I asked to
extend a deadline due to
exams, he asked, “Oh, you are
all students ?”
We had very interesting
discussion where we basically
said- let’s try to and break
captcha.
First of all, We realised we are in
advertising industry, So we
have to understand how this
works ?.
The first big website to sign was
ibibo.com, Zapak, Way2SMS,
TOI.
Neerj left the company via SMS
and we thought G+R will do
justice with innovese and
now we are working for G+R

25. Take Away
I would advise college startups to
sign a ‘co-founder’
agreement. This would be
very helpful in case one of
the founders decides to
suddenly opt out of the
company because of family
pressure or lure of placement.
-- Ankit
College time is the best to
experiment with your life.
-Neeraj
It’s easy to create an app and
start feeling ‘I have made it’
you are up in the air, great!
But at some point you have
to become grounded and
practical.. You have to built
suitable business.
--Dhruv

26. 6.
Awara Paagal Deewana
Inopen Technologies
(Some one who considered himself
as a failure at age 17 , became a
self –taught programmer,
marketer and ‘people person’, his
company , now teaches computer
science to over 5 Lakh
schoolchildren)
Rupesh Shah (IET-Alwar)

27. The Storyline
Rupesh shah was one such
student- he not only failed to
enter IIT, he failed in 12th
board exam. He failed to
enter in engineering college
on merit and the he went on
failing in 1st year university
exam.
Failiure bhi usse tang aakar boli-
“Jao, koi aur girlfriend
dhoondo!”
“Pyaar Kiya to darna kya, fail
huye to marna Kya”
IIT-B internship
INTUX-OS
Downloaded by
100K users
The Business Idea:
Teaching Computer
Science in form of
converstaion of cartoon
characters
(e-education)

28. Turning Points
Linux is a great platform but to
geeky for layman. I felt there
was a need for hybrid OS and
at that moment, “I made up
my mind- I have to be at IIT-
Bombay.
“I bugged Professor Phatak to the
extent that he gave up and
allowed me 3 month
internship at IIT-B” , my
project ‘Intux’ was
downloaded by 100,000
users in few month.
Professor Sridhar allowed me to
work from IIT meeting room,
“Kushi thi ke IIT me kam kar
raha hu” but when I tried for
incubation, they asked for
bussiness plan. Mujhe laga
“ye kya hota hai”
Inopen ke achche din aa gaye as
company received a strategic
investment from Japanese
education company.
The unofficial endorsement from
MIT gave him a new
confidence to take bold step
now they are planning
partnership with Khan
Academy

29. Take Away
When I started college, I didn’t know that a word called startup and
till date I get the spelling of entrepreneurship wrong .
Chahe Kitane bhi mistakes karo , log kuchh bhi bole , just keep doing
it.
-- Rupesh

30. 7.
The Hunger Game
Bhukkad
(A third year student of NLS found
his true calling in life and
started a take away food joint
to cater to the many bhukkads
.)
Aruj Garg (NLS- Bangalore)

31. The Storyline
NLS is fantastic campus to be in-
Aruj simply loved it. What he
didn’t like, however was ‘law’
itself.
Aruj realised that the thing an
entrepreneur need is a
problem- a ‘pain point’ to
solve. And what bigger pain
point for hostellers than the
food?
The goal is to set up commercial
kitchen and have Bukkhad
outlet all over Bangalore
The Business Idea:
Door-to-Door food
delivery by assembling
precooked, refrigerated
food items .
(Food Chain)

32. Turning Points
Nobody is happy with the mess
ka khana. “So, I thought, why
not we start a small food joint
on campus? A couple of my
friends also said it was good
idea, let’s do it together.
We wanted to be an assembly
unit, like subway. They were
my big inspiration.
Eventually, I decided that I had
the momentum so it was
logical and sensible for me to
continue.
Dominos stands for Pizza,
McDonalds for burgers- we
had a little bit of everything.
like the sound of Bhukkad and
the name has definitely been
lucky for me! But, yes, we
need to work on branding.

33. Take Away
Just be at it. Keep doing things. Even though they won’t
make sense at that point. There is a larger jigsaw which is being
solved in this process.
If you are still unsure, try working with startups in your
vacations. That’s one sure way of knowing if you are a cut out for
an entrepreneur’s life.
-- Aruj

34. 8.
Feel like Home
Ganpati Facilities
(A MBA student who faced
accommodation issue when he
joined college in Pune. He seized
opportunity and started hostel
business in 2nd year for new
batch and made ₹25 lakh in
profit 5 times the salary he could
have got through placement)
Anurag Arora
ICFAI Business School, Pune

35. The Storyline
When Anurag Arora got an
admit letter from ICFAI, he
was on the top of the world.
There was just one problem-
the college did not have
hostel.
He joined a private hostel but the
condition was very bad, even
he left the room on 3rd day
and lost 46,000 non
refundable fees.
All of sudden Anurag was hit by
a big and bold idea.
Being a student he had the idea
about students needs .
A small idea made big impact
and Ganpati Facilities came
into existence .
The Business Idea:
Providing home like facility
in hostel .
(Service Sector)

36. Turning Points
That’s the age when people fall
in love and I was in a
relationship… we broke up
on the verge of 12th board
and it affected me very
badly.
I earned more than 30 lakh and
blew it all up on clothes,
movies, eating out. So when
someone used to meet my dad
and ask, ‘what your son is
doing ?, he used to feel
ashamed.” .
At this point I decided to go back
to studies
I thought if there is no hostel
provider, why don’t I set one
up?
Mai khud ek student hoon,
mujhe ek achchhe flat me
rahne ka sauk hai to bakiyo
ko bhi hoga.
Last time, I paid 3 lakh to
brokers to get flats. This time,
I approached Kumar Builders
and they put me in touch
with owners.
My students are my “brand
ambassadors”

37. Take Away
You have to think of creative ways and means to fund your ideas.
Think of doing something with a good heart and an intention to help
people and success will come to you along the way.
--Anurag Arora

38. 9.
To Catch A Thief
Fraudexpress
(A girl who believed in herself and
in her ability to clean up the
world- one fraud at a time, at
age of 24, she has launched a
university recognized course in
field of fraud risk management)
Apurva Joshi (CA final Student)

39. The Storyline
A small town girl came to Pune,
looking for a break with CA
firm. She got break with
Indiaforensic,- a small
startup.
The young trainee soon found
herself conducting ‘fraud-
risk-assessment’ and studying
company balance sheet for
‘early warning sign of fraud’
Some thought it was risky and
advised her to stick to
taxation and audit. “Kyu aise
Jhamele me Padne ka?”
During her article ship, Apurva
entered the unusual domain
of forensic accounting.
fraud risk management.
… And FraudExpress is running
on right track.
The Business Idea:
Providing course
material and assessment
in fraud risk
management and a firm
of forensic accounting.
(Education and
forensics)

40. Turning Points
Mayur Said, “Articleship me
normally bachche income-
tax return bharna seekhate
hai, auditing seekhate hai –
would you like to learn
something different”.
The man said, “TVs are stacked
on the top, how will you open
these boxes” , “Mai chad gayi
ssedi par aur upar ke maaley
par baith gayee.
She open first box: empty, secon
box: empty and so on…
It was difficult tool but maine
seekh liya. I was told ki you
are the first lady to master
this tool in the country.
I further convinced by
mentioning that Solapur
University would be the first
to launch such a course in
country.
We proposed to create a
database of politically
exposed parties .. Key
politicians ke kitane paise
ghoom rahe hai aur kaha
lage huye hai.

41. Take Away
Don’t run behind degrees. If you clear you CA in first attempt after
doing a ‘dummy’ articleship’ what is its market value ? Zero. So go
after practical knowledge. That is far more important.
Aur thoda daring dikhana padta hai. Be daring, be bold! Do not be
afraid of anyone or anything!!
-- Apurva

42. 10.
Holy Rava Masala
Dosamatic
(Two young lads set out to create
an dosamatic dosa machine. 3
year later, they have succeeded
in producing the world’s first
tabletop ‘dosa printer’ and
secured order from more than
100 restaurant owners.)
Eshwar Vikas & Sudeep Sabat
(SRM Engg. College, Chennai)

43. The Storyline
There was one dude in SRM
Engg. College Ehswar Vikas
who was different from
others. Rushing after classes
to catch a train to his place of
work which came without a
salary, without any job value.
One day he got an idea of
making automatic Dosa
machine from a restaurant in
Karol Bag Delhi
.
The boys scarifies their sleep,
social life, even summer
vacations .
Went into the gallis and bazaars
of Chennai to earn real life
education in mechanics.
3 year later, they have succeeded
in producing the world’s first
table top Dosa printer.
The Business Idea:
Production and sale of
Table to Dosha printer.
(Machine Design , R& D)

44. Turning Points
Eshwar did not hesitate to go up
to the speaker and says, “ Sir,
I want to become an
entrepreneur- can you help
me?”
I was not getting paid, not even
for my transport but I was
learning so much.
Milan--Pre-book your vada pav
and jaljeera- get 20% flat off!
No condition applied.
Eshwar went to Raja Ganesh and
said “ I want to work for you”
In Karol bag Delhi cost of Masala
Dosa was Rupees 130. It was
a rude shock. Why was South
Indian food so expensive?
Cost goes up because cook
charges 20000-30000 per
month. Could there be a
machine for it ! Let’s try it
80% of the shopowners won’t
even talk to you, they will say,
tell me which part 562B or C
“I solved the problem” He
declared.
“We made plain dosa, butter
dosa and masala dosa.. We
got funding.

45. Take Away
An idea is not enough, you need
to develop a prototype. Then
go out and test it in the real
world. Not just in college,
where everyone knows you.
- Sudeep
Don’t think you are doing
college project. It has to be
commercial, somebody must
be willing to pay for your
product.
-- Eshwar

46. “Rise and rise again until lambs become lions”
- Robin Hood