Connect, connect and connect! This is one powerful mantra which is followed by almost all the startups across the globe. Building a strong network is an essential thing nowadays. It helps you to know the potential investors who are likely to fund your startup, associate with successful entrepreneurs who can mentor and guide you all throughout your journey, make useful contacts that might help your startup evolve. And, enTRIPreneur is based on this very crucial thing of networking and connecting in a lot more engaging way!
To serve the above stated purpose India has witnessed a startling increase in the number of conferences and seminars associated with entrepreneurship. Designed with the purpose to bring together different minds to multi-fold creativity and connect like-minded entrepreneurs; these seminars have somehow failed. They fail to serve the main objective of breaking the shackles of formality and relating the fellow entrepreneurs beyond the seminars. Addressing this particular pain point a group of young, free-spirited entrepreneurs came together and formed enTRIPreneur.
Anuj Agarwal, who runs a digital marketing agency came up with the idea of enTRIPreneur after discussing with his friends – Jahnvi Sharma, an independent traveler, Swapnil Soni a marketing and advertising enthusiast who was working with Anuj and Rachna Ghiya who runs a video making company Crisptalks.
Aiming to provide the entrepreneurs with a rather informal platform to connect, learn, discuss, share and make lifetime connections, this startup is blending travel and entrepreneurship in a unique way. enTRIPrenuer’s main objective is to deeply relate entrepreneurs on a relaxing trip to a serene location where they can interact about real-time problems and brainstorm solutions.
Anuj says, “We believe that networking is much more than exchanging visiting cards. It is not just about knowing each other’s names or businesses, rather it is all about knowing a person both professionally and personally in order to create a connect that is firmly laid on the strong base of friendship.”
What segregates enTRIPreneur from other monotonous conferences?
Forget normal conferences in huge halls with a massive crowd. Too cliché! Instead of fancy air-conditioned halls, they are choosing offbeat destinations situated miles away from the dazzling city lights. Also they are including a lot of fun filled adventure activities in their itinerary. These activities serve the purpose of ice-breaking and hence the sessions are more fruitful as it helps the attendees to know each other better.
Setting a perfect trip for each set of entrepreneurs
The platform selects like-minded people so that they can discuss, and also find people as their future work partners based on their synergies which they discover during the journey.
Each entrepreneur is handpicked after a suitable selection process. Each applicant is asked to fill an application form. The applicant’s response serves as one of the basic selection criteria. After going through the applicant’s social media profiles, a one-to-one conversation is conducted before selecting the entrepreneurs.
After the basic criterion is fulfilled, entrepreneurs are selected depending on the kind of value they bring to the trip. Another major criteria for selection is that every selected entrepreneur should complement every other entrepreneur in the group so that the trip is mutually beneficial.
Bootstrapping the Future
When asked, How do you see enTRIPreneur five years down the line, Anuj replies “The way we see it, in the coming 5 years, there will be a community of at least 5,000 entrepreneurs strongly connected and partnered with each other to form new startups. We will be also building a common platform for entrepreneurs joining us for different trips so that they can connect to each other.”
The startup is presently bootstrapped and does not plan to raise funding anytime soon. They intend to get more international entrepreneurs on board as well as plan trips overseas. Along with the current travel itineraries, they are planning to start work-away camps, which will be week-long trips to isolated locations, with the provision to WiFi to continue to do their work.
Upcoming Entrepreneur Travel Trip
enTRIPreneur has recently announced their second trip after getting huge success in their first trip to Viratkhaai with 15 entrepreneurs! This will be a 4 day long trip from 4th to 7th December, 2016. The location of the trip is the picturesque destination, Wayanad situated in God’s own country, Kerela. “This Southern expedition will add another feather in our hat as from this trip we will bring on board international entrepreneurs to travel with us,” says Anuj.
What can one expect from the trip is some wonderful memories one will always cherish, life-long connections, self-rejuvenation, and most importantly, making new friends.
There is no age criteria to apply. Applications are welcome from both successful and initial stage entrepreneurs. They tend to keep the gender ratio 1:1. One can apply for the trip till 15th October, 2016.
To know more about it, visit their official website.
Rashika Daga
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