IITAV and Melbourne Business School’s (MBS) Innovation Club jointly organised a networking event on 19 June 2013 on the topic “The Innovation Paradigm – From iDEA to iNVESTMENT”.
Dr Lim, Associate Professor at MBS and Sameer Babbar, IITAV member and MD of SVB group, talked about idea generation, entrepreneurial growth and funding from their research and practical experience. This was followed by a stimulating panel discussion moderated by Mr. Nikhil Kumar, IITAV’s Coordinator – Networking.
Sameer Babbar highlighted several issues faced by a young entrepreneur like defining the product and appropriate market segment and pricing of the product. On the investment front, he suggested that investors look for people skills and commitment to the idea and cautioned future entrepreneurs to avoid pretend-preneurs, and vulture capitalists.
Professor Lim’s advice to budding entrepreneurs is to immerse themselves in an entrepreneurial ecosystem since the founder and founding conditions are the key to shape the culture of an organisation. He stressed that a strong, fundamental disciplinary background with knowledge-brokering across technical domains can provide ideas for entrepreneurship, citing the success of biotechnology firms as an example.
He pointed out that Australia is an untapped opportunity that could provide a jump start for Asian communities to test their products and services before entering the western world. On the other hand, he said that scaling, funding and access to overseas market are the biggest obstacles for entrepreneurship in Australia. He suggested that a lean start-up along with early ties with funding organizations is a key to growing low-risk entrepreneurial firms in the current climate.
Dr. Raj Rajakumar, IITAV President, thanked Dr. Lim and Mr Babbar for their talks and MBS Innovation Club for hosting the collaborative event. The event was well received by the attendees who also appreciated the networking opportunity before and after the event.