Start-up
culture in Nepal has just evolved. It is at its initial stage but this
doesn't mean we don't make world class products already.
In the world of Information Technology, we are only restricted by our thoughts. But when we aim to make a Global Product, we gotta think GLOBAL.
I being from Nepal have noticed that, despite of voluminous talent present here, entrepreneurs struggle with their start-ups. They have no idea of how to move ahead with their company. They might take this as a reason that there are not enough opportunities present. But the truth is, there are ample of opportunities prevailing for start-ups these days. The only thing is, you need to be aware of it and start exploring opportunities around the world to pitch.
One such good opportunity we found was Start-Up Chile program and Picovico is the first Nepalese Start-up to get through it. In this program, the Chilean Govt. provides an equity free fund of 40,000 USD and a platform to build your product. It is one of the greatest opportunities for Nepalese start-ups to explore. With this, you can be a part of the global, diversified and world class start-up community. You get a temporary resident visa for 1 year but you may leave the country after 24 weeks (at the end of the program) if you want. Here, Suraj explains it really well about the benefits of this program. Details can be found here.
Another one leading from India is The Morpheus start-up accelerator program. Here, they choose 10-15 start-ups every six months. They provide a funding of 5L INR (~10K USD), along with 4 months of mentor-ship (more value than money) and take 6-9% equity in return. With this program, I'd say its not just 4 months program that you get but mentors for life time and its more valuable for your start-up to have them on board. Luckily, Picovico was a part of this program too.
Further, here is a list of popular start-up accelerators from around the world. Besides this, there are a lot of Start-up programs and events that happens in Silicon Valley, Europe and India, where you can go and pitch your start-up. You can get updates here.
If you are looking for funding from Angel Investors, you can put your start-up in Angel.co. It is the biggest angel network in world.
And there are products and services that you need to run your business such as, Mailchimp, Google Adwords , Odesk, 99designs, Zendesk etc. Here are few links that give you discount/free coupons on such stuffs:
www.startuppack.org
www.rewardli.com
This was my experience from our start-up journey so far. I am sure there are lots of experiences yet to come, which I will be sharing with you all.
Would love to hear your feedback and comments.
Gracius!
I being from Nepal have noticed that, despite of voluminous talent present here, entrepreneurs struggle with their start-ups. They have no idea of how to move ahead with their company. They might take this as a reason that there are not enough opportunities present. But the truth is, there are ample of opportunities prevailing for start-ups these days. The only thing is, you need to be aware of it and start exploring opportunities around the world to pitch.
One such good opportunity we found was Start-Up Chile program and Picovico is the first Nepalese Start-up to get through it. In this program, the Chilean Govt. provides an equity free fund of 40,000 USD and a platform to build your product. It is one of the greatest opportunities for Nepalese start-ups to explore. With this, you can be a part of the global, diversified and world class start-up community. You get a temporary resident visa for 1 year but you may leave the country after 24 weeks (at the end of the program) if you want. Here, Suraj explains it really well about the benefits of this program. Details can be found here.
Another one leading from India is The Morpheus start-up accelerator program. Here, they choose 10-15 start-ups every six months. They provide a funding of 5L INR (~10K USD), along with 4 months of mentor-ship (more value than money) and take 6-9% equity in return. With this program, I'd say its not just 4 months program that you get but mentors for life time and its more valuable for your start-up to have them on board. Luckily, Picovico was a part of this program too.
Further, here is a list of popular start-up accelerators from around the world. Besides this, there are a lot of Start-up programs and events that happens in Silicon Valley, Europe and India, where you can go and pitch your start-up. You can get updates here.
If you are looking for funding from Angel Investors, you can put your start-up in Angel.co. It is the biggest angel network in world.
And there are products and services that you need to run your business such as, Mailchimp, Google Adwords , Odesk, 99designs, Zendesk etc. Here are few links that give you discount/free coupons on such stuffs:
www.startuppack.org
www.rewardli.com
This was my experience from our start-up journey so far. I am sure there are lots of experiences yet to come, which I will be sharing with you all.
Would love to hear your feedback and comments.
Gracius!
6 comments:
Beautiful and to the point. Everything's covered for a Startup beginner.
Great! I wish we get to hear more about such start-ups from Nepal. And nicely explained Mr.Modi, Keep up the good work.
We are startup-PICOVICO :)
Great post Manish. To add to post, Biruwa Ventures, a private startup incubator, was set up in Kathmandu in July 2011 to support entrepreneurs launch their business. We recently launched Udhyami Seed Fund which provides seed capital worth Rs. 5 lakh to startup companies. We are in the process of making our first investments in three companies by March 2013. For more information check out www.biruwa.net for more information.
Thanks Vidhan. I am glad to hear about your initiatives for start-up ecosystem in Nepal. Its a great news for startups and I am sure lots of startups will be looking for this opportunity.
Along with fund, mentor-ship is an important aspect of it, where we can engage with startups and add value to them.
We must also look for the tie-ups where Angels/VC's can invest further in Startups.
Great! Liked the line "In the world of Information Technology, we are only restricted by our thoughts."
Wish to see many more initiations from Nepal.
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