PMD Social Entrepreneur's Journey by REAL Foundation: Recent Episodes
REAL Foundation
The Programme Migration & Diaspora (PMD) is a global project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development with the following objective: key players in partner countries are increasingly benefitting from the positive effects that regular migration and diaspora engagement are having on local social and economic development. The core offer "Business Ideas for Development" (BID) of the field of action ‘Financial and Economic Development Contribution of the Diaspora and Migrants’ advises and accompanies migrants in Germany who want to start a development relevant enterprise in their country of origin and provides them with industry and context-specific knowledge, skills and contacts relevant to business start-ups. "Business Ideas for Development" (BID) component of the Programme Migartion & Diaspora, are currently supporting 7 entrepreneurs (teams) in the first cohort who have recently completed their market exploration, and two entrepreneurs (teams) in the second cohort who are being onboarded into the programme. Through the planned podcasts with these 7 entrepreneurs, we want to bring out the feelings and experiences that these entrepreneurs have gathered during their journey.
This Gujarathi duo is all set for green revolution II. Tune in to learn more about Vaibhav
and Mitesh’s entrepreneurial expedition towards finding solutions for a green economy.
Green is the future and two young entrepreneurs have captured it. Hope you enjoy it...
Girish Srinivas in this podcast talks of his farmer centric venture called Green Biotics with
uncertainty of a startup that excites him most in his entrepreneurial journey and managing
expectation as the hardest. He feels support from GIZ was great, its motivation first and then
comes funding and we all need to listen to his theory of cathedral building concept.
Today’s podcast has Pratiksha, who has a newgen venture cultivating vitamin D rich mushrooms in New Delhi, India. She is balancing work with a toddler son and works when he sleeps. This podcast is one in which you will learn how to form an LLP company and work small scale but think big.
Listening to Pratiksha you now know women can make it big as well. From a simple single task of a basic idea she plans to make it big – we wish her the best
Here’s a story of Avinash, a PhD student in Germany who is also the co-founder of a start-up that’s focused on recycling electronic waste. The podcast encapsulates the entrepreneur’s encounters with practical and mental roadblocks and his account of how he is getting the better of it.
Stanzin, a light-hearted compassionate human from Ladakh is on a mission to introduce
Biomass pellets as a sustainable heating system to battle all the climate destructions caused
by the traditional heating method in an extreme place like Ladakh.
And this is that story.
Stanzin is originally from Ladakh who is currently living in Germany after pursuing a masters
in Public health. He arrives with a myriad of experiences of having grown up in various cities.
He has shifted cities throughout his education and career and is fluent with the cultural shifts.
He is a physiotherapist by profession, who stumbled upon a seminar by GIZ. An idea striked
through the process and he initiated the conversation with an NGO in Ladakh.
The start-up idea was born on the keen observations of all the challenges faced with a
conventional stove, which caused extreme inconveniences due to the intensive power cuts
in Ladakh. The vision of this business model is to help and create awareness amongst
people, hold their hands and gradually walk towards a sustainable biomass system that is
tender on the climate. GIZ and incubators from Ahmedabad have been a constant motivation
in his entrepreneurial journey. He states that consistency and believing in the uncertainty of
the journey makes it a tad bit easier. The thought of his idea coming to life as a functioning
service is what fuels him as a person. A simple motive to transform his idea into a living,
serving component. He describes the constant emotional highs and lows that float along in
an entrepreneurial journey. He emphasizes the importance of family, friends and people who
radiate constant mental support. He feels grateful for having a supportive core team, mutual
understanding and trust is the driving force of their venture. Stanzin has had some
experience with the natives in Ladakh, the same prior experience, mutual trust and ease of
communication is helping him sustain the startup despite the distance between the two
countries. He sets short term goals for smooth execution of tasks towards the establishment
of the start-up as well as long term visions that provide him with a sense of direction.
The value additions he has had in his entrepreneurial journey are:
Social entrepreneurship is a slow progressive process. The growth of the idea into a tangible
service demands time and patience. The importance of diving into the grass-root level to understand the core concepts of supply-chain systems and business models.
His approach to problem-solving is to try with all your might, but if the problem is stubborn
enough, leave it at the moment and come back to it later. He embraces a light, flowing state
of mind rather than getting anxious and paranoid over an obstacle in the journey. When
asked about his philosophy of life, he said “Jiyo aur Jeene do yaar” which translates to Live.
and let live.
He strives to succeed in his venture with a continuous effort and belief in his idea. A
revolution that is stored in biomass pellets, one that can be used as an alternative heating
system. The real challenge lies in explaining this concept with the native users, he explains.
Stanzin walks across life in a subtle playfulness, innocence and faith in his own journey. He
quotes that there must be a connection, a personal drive in your business idea. An empty
inspiration and hyped up idea is bound to fail. Connection draws all the difference and
continuity.
He is taking baby steps towards achieving his dream of helping the NGO with the profit
earned through this venture. A community-oriented goal, a strong sense of belief and the
urge to try and solve issues playfully is the highlight of his evolving story.
An NRI couple in Germany is striving to create an ecosystem of charged battery providing systems that erases all the misconceptions about electric vehicles and their misinterpreted inconvenience, and this; is that story.
V-SWAP is a company that swaps batteries to build a progressive transition from conventional vehicles to solutionary transport.
A childhood in Indore pushed Naincy Jain to launch this service in a tier two city in India. Naincy and her partner are on a journey to replicate electric charging stations with charged batteries; an idea derived from the concept of petrol stations. Their constant travels to India every year and the deteriorating air quality and disheartening change in the environment inspired the duo to plunge into the process of making this idea a reality. The root idea is to have stations with charged batteries and provide electric vehicle users with the same, hence reducing the downtime of charging at their expense.
The company believes in collaborative innovation and is identifying partners who supply green energy and units that re-use electric batteries for a sustainable workflow. The company is currently in the prototyping stage. GIZ and their respective incubators played a significant role in narrowing down the idea to a solvable component. “Naincy stated, As social entrepreneurs, we wanted to win the world, but after narrowing down the problem; now we know the first step to win the world ’’
As the co-founder of the company, Naincy strongly believes that effective planning, discipline and organised environment is the defining factor for a company’s success.
At every step, they are striving to constantly evolve. V- SWAP entirely focused on the magnitude of impact and the ability to offer the customer a seamless transition from conventional vehicles to electric vehicles. There were multiple challenges she faced in the entrepreneurial journey. Resource crunch and lack of information are the prominent ones. Naincy believes that networking and effective communication is the exciting part of being an entrepreneur. Naincy states that GIZ is a resolving element that helps the company in overcoming entrepreneurial obstacles. Pivot or persevere is a constant juggle that an entrepreneur faces, and Naincy makes a decision based on a statement that has had a strong impression on her. She quoted a learned professor saying, “ If your vision is clear, let a thousand people say you’re wrong. The day you start thinking you’re wrong, you are actually wrong’’
She is a person who focuses on building teams as she believes that people can have great ideas but without a team, you really cannot proceed. Apart from the core team, GIZ acts as a catalyst in shaping the presentation for an impactful demonstration of the company’s vision.
Naincy and her team are dedicatedly working to build a revolutionary ecosystem where electric vehicles are prominent thereby significantly reducing carbon emissions to paint sustainable cities of a greener world.
Understanding the journey of Social Entrepreneur, Anurag and Krishna are being interviewed on their journey. They are two young engineers who have started a venture called Mitti Collective. Mitti in Hindi means mud and the duo’s initiative deals with validating farmers products throughout the value change. They also envisage building carbon credits for farmers so corporates could invest in the venture. The ups and downs are captured in this short meaningful podcast.