Programs

At VDC, we offer multiple programs for different interest levels in entrepreneurship for our students at both the Bachelor & Master's levels, faculty & alumni alike. Besides our flagship NU-IDEA program, VDC also launched a mandatory foundational course, Venture Discovery, for all first-year students at GITAM agnostic of the institute of study. Venture Discovery focuses on Entrepreneurship & Innovation, introducing students to the concept of Design Thinking for problem-identification and problem-solving. These programs are run with the support of highly qualified and internationally-trained start-up coaches.

Principals of Entrepreneurship (PoE)- PoE

is a super foundational level course aimed at delivering the basics & first principles in Entrepreneurship to the entire GITAM academia. The topics in POE are self-paced, with about 3.5 hours of highly engaging content with real-world examples & use-cases. The topics include,


  • Entrepreneur's Journey Assessment
  • The fundamentals of Accounting
  • Accounting Assessment
  • The fundamentals of Marketing
  • Marketing Assessment

Venture Discovery (VDC111)- VDC111

is a mandatory 2-credit foundational & a completely hands-on activity-based course in Entrepreneurship & Innovation for all the first-year year students at GITAM across three campuses, agnostic of the institute of their study. This course is designed by the Northeastern University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Education (NUCEE), Boston. It is driven by highly-qualified and seasoned teaching faculty from various institutes of GITAM with real-world teaching and consulting experience. The topics covered,


NU-IDEA

is our flagship program consisting of three stages as part of the venture-building process. This program helps foster the development of entrepreneurs through a holistic approach to experiential learning. It helps develop an entrepreneur’s business from concept to launch. Throughout the entrepreneurs’ journey, we also provide various support functions for our ventures like Makerspace, Venture Mentor Network, Prototyping Grant, Design Studio, Seed-fund, Exposure to the local and global startup communities, Open-house pitching sessions, Societal Outreach Programs, Meeting successful entrepreneurs through various events, opportunities to engage in experiential learning, among others. The three stages of the NU-IDEA program are as follows,


  • Ready Stage- Focuses on, Application of Design Thinking, Venture Ideation, Market & Competitive Intelligence, Customer Discovery, Customer Validation, Customer Segmentation, and Solution Design.
  • Set Stage- Focuses on, Building the full-scale solution (products/ services), Business Model Design, Revenue Model Design, Exposure to Repeatable Revenue Models, Operating Model Design, Identifying Resource Requirements for Organizational Planning, and Financial Projections.
  • Go Stage- Focuses on Business Planning & Pitching, Launching of the Venture, and Venture Financing/Funding.

Program Benefits
  • Rolling Enrolment

    Our program is open 365 days for young entrepreneurs to enroll with their disruptive ideas and audacious entrepreneurial goals. We firmly believe that the light-bulb moment might occur at any time and don’t want anyone to wait for the next cohort to begin.

  • Interdisciplinary Teams / Cross-Functional Synergy

    We encourage & support students/faculty/alumni to form teams with people from diversified backgrounds, fields of study, expertise, and experiences to build winning teams.

  • Open House Pitching Sessions

    We offer idea/concept pitching opportunities fortnightly for all the aspiring entrepreneurs in the GITAM fraternity. They get constructive feedback from the jury & fellow entrepreneurs.

  • Distinguished Industry Connect

    Through Venture Mentor Network, we connect teams enrolled in our program with industry mentors, where they can seek support to progress with their venture goals.

  • Exposure to Global Arena

    Various activities and events are conducted throughout the season for aspiring entrepreneurs to participate and gain exposure at the national & global levels. Annually, potential & promising teams will get an opportunity to visit Northeastern University, Boston, for 2-weeks Days to attend Global Entrepreneurship Week.

  • Networking & Team Building Support

    During the early stages, we assist & match single founders with co-founders & CXOs through our vast network of students, faculty & alumni by helping them collaborate.

  • Self-Paced Learning Platform

    Our NUIDEA program is hosted on the Canvas platform. This super intuitive & Interactive platform supports teams to learn various concepts in entrepreneurship & apply them to their venture at their own pace.

  • Certified Start-Up Coaches

    All our enrolled teams interact daily with internationally certified start-up coaches, who are seasoned & carry diversified industry experience from the various tech & non-tech domains.

    Idea Respository
    Title Sector or Domain Innovation Form
    Problem Being Solved
    Around 67 million tons of food is wasted in India every year which has been valued at around Rs 92,000 crores. People share videos about food wastage, but nobody really cares about it. But, we are here to change that problem into a solution that would feed millions.
    She Cab Smart Cities Service
    Problem Being Solved
    Buiding a safest car & bike taxis platform driven & ridden by women.
    Merch Club Fashion & Textiles Product
    Problem Being Solved
    Creating a culture of belonging and oneness through school & college merchandise.
    Idler Education Service
    Problem Being Solved
    Building a platform that brings transparency in Higher Educational Institutions' clubs and its opportunities for all the students on a campus and communicating students desires and passions to the institute's management.
    Read More...

    Student Club

    Complementing the VDC’s actions, we have E-Clubs on all three campuses that are entirely student-run. Our E-Clubs, drive various initiatives that prompt and promote entrepreneurship by conducting multiple events throughout the calendar year, namely Speaker Series, Chai-Chats, Workshops, SmartIDEAthon, MySOIL, FUEL, and Bootcamps, among others. Our E-Clubs aim to enhance the GITAM fraternity’s entrepreneurial quotient by honing the skills of its students, faculty & alumni. Further, the E-Club brings the GITAM community some great networking opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs, mentors, government officials, think tanks, and resource persons from various fields. Click here to know more about the E-Club..

    Testimonials

    I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience in the Venture Discovery Course, the instructor's classes were highly engaging and interactive. I have learnt that entrepreneurship is not just about creating a solution to a problem, but turning that problem into an opportunity. The final Assignment was even more interesting, as we got to work on creating our own business idea using our Innovative thoughts.

    Aashish P

    1st Year MBA Student
    GITAM Vizag
    We had stepped into Venture Development Centre with a basic thought of solving the menstrual problem of visually and mentally challenged women. VDC has provided us with all the resources which helped us convert our thought into the productive ideas. RSG program can be done at our own pace and gives us the required inputs and space to work on our dream project.

    Team COACT

    Co-Founders, COACT (Student Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    Exposure and guidance in real-world scenarios are essential for creating a successful Startup Ventures. The mentors with their years of experience and knowledge help us in bringing the best version of ourselves thus helping us grow personally and professionally. The co-working space provided at VDC is filled with like-minded people, which is the craving of any budding entrepreneur.

    Team Aushadam

    Founders, Aushadam (Alumni Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    My experience with the Venture development Centre at GITAM is quite insightful. The expertise from the mentors helped me to go in a proper direction. My startup is focussed on Space Education for all, majorly deals with college-going students. Being at VDC gave me many chances to talk to students and other budding entrepreneurs which enabled me get different perspectives.

    Sai Srujan

    Founder, Astro (Alumni Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    It's been 1 month since I started working on my project in VDC. So far, the experience has been great, as I could learn and explore new things. I have learnt how much work goes into developing an idea to starting a business. I'm in the early stage of my project, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly because of the liveliness in this ecosystem.

    Aparna A

    Co-Founder, JAla Usha (Student Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    VDC is a wholesome experience overall, period! I have learnt a lot and love the fact that each and every idea or opinion is appreciated and respected over here. Coaches and mentors are a true support, and help us sort out by asking the right set of questions. I look forward to work with my team and the coaches here. As usual, every day is a new day with new challenges and opportunities, and I'm very excited to solve challenges everyday.

    Devarsh S

    1st Year Engineering Student
    GITAM Vizag
    Ginseng is a venture in the food and beverages segment to promote natural supplementary products for calisthenics and sports persons. We have started our NU-IDEA (RSG) journey offered by VDC @ GITAM. We enrolled in the program after attending an open-house pitching session. VDC helped us gain some useful insights & perspectives that were previous unexplored by our team to develop and holistic understanding of our probelm and it's scope. We haven't seen this happen elsewhere.

    Team Ginseng

    Founders, Ginseng (Student Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    I am thankful for the dedication of all the VDC coaches. The various workshops and weekly pitching sessions have provided me with much more clarity on my strengths and weaknesses. I would also like to thank my coach for guiding me and motivating me throughout this whole journey. His advice has been most helpful.

    Syed Mansoor

    Founder, Chabutra (Student Startup)
    GITAM Bangalore
    Providing a well-suited atmosphere for a seed to grow into a tree is as important as planting a seed. I, along with my teammates have received the best that there is in helping us improve our entrepreneurial skills and the opportunity to learn the skills at VDC from the very beginning days of our college-life. Kudos to the VDC team.

    Asoori Lokanath

    Founder, PFIR (Student Startup)
    GITAM Bangalore
    Prior to our journey with VDC, our idea during pitching was only confined to explaining scientific details. VDC helped us understand the business side of our idea and the potential it has got to scale and penetrate into other markets with similar use-cases. VDC team also offered insights on the different factors involved in converting a raw idea into a full-fledged startup through the NU-IDEA (Ready-Set-Go) Program. We are thankful to the VDC team for their support.

    M Vamsi

    CEO, Swank (Student Startup)
    GITAM Bangalore
    VDC is extremely effective at inculcating an entrepreneurial mindset among students. The mentors encourage our venture ideas but at the same time are insightful of our shortcomings and guide us through the process. Overall it is a great place to hone our entrepreneurial, communication and networking skills.

    Team NIFNA

    Co-Founder, NIFNA (Student Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    I’d like to thank VDC for its constant support in all areas with respect to the field of Entrepreneurship. VDC has helped enhance my idea which is customer-centric. VDC nurtures every single aspiring student entreprenur, and I'm excited to learn more from the coaches constantly going forward as well.

    Namrata Y

    Founder, Yumm Drinks (Student Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    As a young ambitious student, I'm glad to have guidance from VDC for developing entrepreneurial skills. It is an incredible experience to be guided by the team of VDC whose skills are notable with versatile work-experience. I get to learn something new everyday at VDC.

    Prasanth B

    Co-Founder, The Wheel (Student Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    Thank you, VDC, for the continuous help in our project. Your valuable insights have helped our team understand our problem's scope better and letting us do better ideation as part of solution desing. VDC helps you to be lean yet scale fast with efficiency.

    Suchandrahas M

    Founder, Praja Samyugn (Student Venture)
    GITAM Vizag
    The Venture Development Centre at GITAM has been a tremendous asset to us as a team. The support in business strategy, prototyping, networking, infrastructure, and numerous other verticals has been invaluable. My colleagues and I came from engineering backgrounds, so the NUIDEA Ready-Set-Go training was a life-changing experience. As a result, we were able to turn our idea into a business after taking this journey. Without our dedicated mentors at VDC, we would not have been able to win AIM-ICDK 2.0 national championship. In addition, the E-Club students were exceptionally helpful and supportive, which accelerated the challenge's development. We're hoping that GITAM's aspiring entrepreneurs will take advantage of this fantastic opportunity to turn their business idea into reality.

    Team HydroGravitricity

    Co-Founder, HydroGravitricity (Alumni Startup)
    GITAM Vizag
    Firstly, the ambiance of the VDC is so cool and attractive with so much of life, creativity and innovation with high-tech resources & lecture theatres. Secondly, the coaches are highly qualified with versatile experience across various industries and possess vast knowledge and experience in different business functions with many coaches with experiene building their own ventures as well.

    Jeevan P

    1st Year MBA Student
    GITAM Vizag
    Nuturing an idea through streamlined and expertise guidance plays a crucial role for any entrepreneur or startup. Being an alumnus I’m previlged to have that guidance from VDC and also as a workspace for my team in our early days, VDC team and the space is one of the best early venture springboards.

    Raviteja S

    Fouder & CEO, Mosaic Dots (Alumni Startup)
    GITAM Vizag

    Accolades

    The WEDP Phase 3.0

    Organized by: SWIO Hub

    Team is the winner in top 10 out 2000+ startup applications

    Click Here

    6th National Social entreprise challenge

    Organized by: Azim Premji Foundation

    They were finalists among 16 teams selected to present the idea out of hundreds of entres across India

    Click Here

    Earth Sastra

    Organized by: Youth Alliance

    N.A

    Click Here

    Smart Ideathon 2020

    Organized by: VDC GITAM University

    2nd Runners Up

    Click Here

    TiE University Global Pitch competition 2021-Deltanow

    Abhishikth C & Sai Charan K

    Global Finalist with over $13,000 US in prizes.

    Global Student Entrepreneurs Awards (GSEA) 2021- Deltanow

    Abhishikth C & Sai Charan K

    First runner-up with about $1,000 US in prizes.


    TiE AP University Pitch competition 2021- Deltanow

    Abhishikth C & Sai Charan K

    Winner with about $1,000 US in prizes.


    TiE Andhra Pradesh At IIT-Tirupati- Hydrogravitricity

    Anik P, Sashikanth P & Prithvi T

    Winner of Tirustava B-PLAN contest with about $12000 US in prizes.

    Click Here


    AIM-ICDK Water Innovation Challenge 2.0

    Organized by: AIM-NITI Aayog and Innovation Center Denmark (ICDK), Denmark Embassy in India and the Denmark Technical University (DTU)

    One of the five Indian student teams, out of 900+ teams

    Click Here


    Next Generation Water Action 2022 Finals

    Organized by: AIM-NITI Aayog and Innovation Center Denmark (ICDK), Denmark Embassy in India and the Denmark Technical University (DTU)

    National Winner India

    Click Here