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Monday, 28 July 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
MIT GSL initiated their Sri Lanka chapter in 2011. For the first three years, MIT GSL partnered with the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. This is the fourth year GSL is being held in Sri Lanka, and the first time it is operating on a national scale over the course of seven months, with students from multiple local universities as well as recent graduates and professionals across various disciplines participating in the program.
The GSL program is unique because it gives aspiring entrepreneurs access to curriculum from MIT, connections to top industry experts in Sri Lanka, mentorship from companies including Brandix, Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM), Stax and many others.
GSL assists any aspiring entrepreneur – whether they are still at university or currently working. It does not matter whether the entrepreneur already has a start-up or just an idea, since the program strives to help anyone who is passionate about entrepreneurship and wants to commercialise his/her idea.
This year, Brandix has come forward to partner and sponsor the seven month GSL program. The program is also supported by SLASSCOM, and Open University of Sri Lanka (‘OUSL’) where Phase I was held.
At the launch Day, Ruwindhu Peiris, Managing Director of Stax and long time supporter of the program provided inspirational input to the participants to start off GSL 2014.
In the first week of GSL 2014, participants focused on continuing to refine their ideas. By the second week, participants were already in the deep end, pitching their ideas to each other and guest speakers. Notable guests included Yasas Hewage, founder of SkillSalad, who gave an encouraging speech titled ‘Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast’, Hasitha Liyanage, Chief Architect at Infoshare Limited, who gave practical technical advice to each team, and Hiran Embuldeniya, Director at York Street Partners, who gave teams valuable and actionable feedback on validating their proposed business models. GSL 2014 also hosted talks from Dhanika Perera, founder and CEO of Bhasha and Ruwan Dissanayaka, cofounder and CEO of Extrogene, both successful alumni of MIT GSL.
The third phase was launched on16 June at the University of Colombo, School of Computing, where Sandra de Zoysa, Group Chief Customer Officer at Dialog Axiata, and Professor Gihan Wikramanayake, Director of the University of Colombo, School of Computing, provided an inspirational talk to the teams participating in this year’s GSL.
During the last week of GSL 2014, Kishan Gunawardena of Brandix spent reviewing teams’ financial models whilst Assistant Professor Suranga Nanayakkara of Singapore University of Technology and Design spoke to the participants regarding the best way to convey a product vision and user experience by creating a good concept video, whilst also giving the teams feedback on their own storyboard ideas.
July 22 was the last practice pitch session for the participants before a guest panel consisting of Sandra De Zoysa, Isura Silva of Sarvodaya Fusion, Ransith Fernando of MAS Holdings, and Professor Saman Amarasinghe of MIT.
On the last occasion which was the fourth phase and the last phase before the demo day which is scheduled for the 30 July, seven teams were given the opportunity to pitch in their business plan to a panel consisting of members of the Lankan Angel Network (LAN) as well as members of the GSL Committee.
As pre-demo day, the panel was able to provide valuable input in order to prepare the teams for the demo day, where the teams will be showcasing months of hard work when they pitch their start-up ideas to sponsors, invited guests, and perhaps most importantly potential investors ready to invest in the next big idea.
The start-ups will be assessed based on the market need, value proposition, competitive advantage, business model, growth strategy, financial analysis and the team’s strength
The final seven teams are: Organic Hug, a physical and social platform that connects consumers and farmers for buying and selling organic foods; TopNotch, a social rewards platform that helps to build strong, lasting relationships with customers before they have even walked into the users’ store; ShopIn, a behavioural and location based data analytics solution for fashion retailers; Dolawa, a platform to locate the on-demand nearest taxis with user ratings and best rates at the users’ fingertips; D-Care, a mobile-based solution for dyslexic children that is used in their therapy sessions; Boarding.lk, a platform that connects university students seeking housing with owners of available apartments; and EagleEye, an advanced intruder detection system that accurately identifies human-movement in real-time using existing security cameras.
These 7 start-ups will be pitching for seed money and mentorship on demo day where members of the LAN will be potential investors. The start-ups will be pitching to LAN members and regardless of whether they are placed in the top three; they still have a chance to get their start-ups funded based on the categories they are assessed on.
Throughout the program the teams will receive invaluable mentorship from a several industry experts, investors, and supporters of the program and also the participants are expected to continue and build on those relationships that they built during the program which will assist them to expand their start-up with time.
