The impact of startups has been significant in all walks of life. In recent years, India has emerged as one of the top three countries globally regarding the number of startups founded. The India startup ecosystem looks vibrant, as seen by the number of companies founded across various sectors. This era can reasonably be regarded as A Golden Era to start up. However, the lack of awareness, guidance, and infrastructure keeps an individual from starting up; this is where an E-Cell comes into the picture, and helps budding entrepreneurs break the shackles.

Jadavpur University E-Cell is a non-profit organization run by the students. It has been established with the objective of creating, manifesting the entrepreneurial spirit amongst the students and encourages them to be budding entrepreneurs.
It is a one stop platform for all informational needs with regards to start up activities, funding, mentoring, networking and knowledge sharing. We want to build an ecosystem where networking and knowledge sharing happens. The cell conducts numerous workshops, seminars, events and interactive sessions with eminent entrepreneurs, thus, providing the students with unparalleled exposure to the entrepreneurial world. The Ecell’s vision is to provide the students a platform to work on the live projects from start-ups which adds a star to their experience and exposure, and boosts management expertise.


In my second year, I had participated in many Entrepreneurship events of other colleges to get an idea of how things are done, and what more can be done with an ECell in JU. The only thing I observed was, we can always do better.

At the start of my third year, co-founding the ECell became pretty much an easy task for me as I found friends/batch-mates who shared the same passion for entrepreneurship and management as I did.
We tried to do the right things initially, things that were essential to the success of our Cell. To conduct events smoothly, we managed to get a Professor in Charge, who would help us get the required permissions and other forms of help from the University.

We, at the Entrepreneurship Cell, have always believed in taking student coordinators (for the ECell team) who want to work, not just for the passion but the ones who show enthusiasm and are willing to put that extra effort. As a team, we wanted to do things very differently, we wanted to make a difference that would reflect.

We had a clear plan of marketing for the ECell as a platform, we made sure everyone in our University knows there is an E-Cell and in the process, other colleges came to know about us. We are a familiar name now in the Entrepreneurial ecosystem of Kolkata, among VCs, investors, renowned mentors, and others.

We have been very successful in making good relations with some great mentors, VCs, Entrepreneurs and others. For that, our team has always been in constant touch with them for inputs, suggestions etc. 

Our immediate goal is the incubation for Startups in our University. The Ecell is currently working on its framework for the upcoming Incubation Centre, which should and will help emanate more Startups more Jadavpur University and Kolkata.


E'ship is not about proving to someone else. It is about getting the kick from working on things that you are passionate about. Although there are exceptions, generally it takes time and knowledge of skills and sectors to be a good entrepreneur and finding those passionate issues. It is also about the opportunity cost.

Being an organization that promotes entrepreneurship, we try and practice innovative ways of doing stuff and you will be questioned if you suggest a path that is commonly followed. Internally, there are tons of chances to pitch new ideas, start new divisions, and run some small events on your own!
It isn’t just about linearly growing the organization. Being a mission driven organization, we focus on how effectively we are scaling up our E'ship promoting activities while maintaining growth in footfall and sponsorship.


Personally, this whole experience has helped me in three aspects - attitude, skills, and knowledge.
 
Attitude - If you spend enough time with the organization and make the maximum use of the opportunity, you will get to work with a number of entrepreneurs and will face times when you are uncertain of the success of the task you are doing. All these experiences will help you in developing a great can-do attitude to do things.
Skills - It helps you in honing your leadership, communication, problem solving, sales pitching, networking, and a host of other organizational skills.


Knowledge - You will get to learn a lot from your peers, seniors and workshops on trends in entrepreneurship, and on basics of business and funding ventures which are great skills to prep for your future in corporate sector or startups. 

 Joining the ECell will surely give you great exposure and experience, you will be more clear about your field of interest, you will gain lots of skills through different activities and you will interact with so many other people, especially seniors, entrepreneurs etc. The ECell team comprises of members who aspire to become entrepreneurs and of members who aspire to become great managers.
We always tried to ensure the organisation is apolitical & brings in the best people of JU together with a similar interest. I hope the same spirit continues

In the end, that's what makes the startup culture interesting, you keep on learning! 😎😃💓