Chitkara University, GEN inaugurate Start-Up Huddle in Chandigarh, Mohali

Chitkara University is excited to announce the launch of Start-Up Huddle in Chandigarh and Mohali in association with Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN).

The objective of the Start-Up Huddle is to help local entrepreneurs hone their pitch skills and discover solutions to the challenges they face.

Start-Up Huddle is a program designed to educate, engage and connect entrepreneurs. As an experiential learning opportunity, the Start-Up Huddle format is consistent in each location: on a given morning, one or two early-stage start-up founders give a six-minute presentation of their companies to a diverse audience of peers, mentors, educators and advisers. Each presentation is followed by a 20-minute question and answer session and feedback via an audience survey.

The culture surrounding Start-Up Huddle is that of a supportive, neutral space, welcoming entrepreneurs to be open and honest about their businesses and the challenges they face. Each event is organized by local entrepreneurs and community builders who volunteer their time to secure a venue and select presenters and publicize the event.

Start-Up Huddle is an educational experience for both the audience and the presenters. Presenters are given resources and support to prepare for their presentation and surveyed after their presentation to see what they've learned.

"In the growing entrepreneurship ecosystem of India, our tier-two towns and cities have a key role to play in economic development through innovations and new enterprises. We are proud to have academic partners like Chitkara University and local ecosystem builders from Chandigarh region who have taken the lead in establishing Start-up Huddles in Northern India. We are confident this will boost entrepreneurship and provide a huge support to aspiring entrepreneurs of the region," said Yatin Thakur, managing director of GEN India.

"Chitkara University is one of the pioneers in India to have its own Innovation Incubation Centre in operation for five years now. Five years of innovation at Chitkara University has led to filing of over 130 patents. We are now happy to be part of the Start-Up Huddle in association with GEN. Through this initiative we aim to create a healthy atmosphere for Start-Ups to operate," added Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Vice-Chancellor of Chitkara University.

Sumeer Walia, Director at the Chitkara University Centre for Entrepreneurship in Education and Development said, "A lack of awareness in society on opportunities at local and global levels is why Huddle is important for communities. Knowledge sharing is very important, technology knowledge sharing is important, and we believe cross-learning will come through such a networking event and collaborative environment will develop due to perpetual nature of Start-up Huddle."

"Through Start-up Huddle, we wish to increase awareness about GEN and its great mission. We wish to collect more data of start-ups and be the key players in the ecosystem, as well as a role model for other chapters across India and eventually create a harmonious ecosystem for start-ups," he added.