Image: Event Hall

“Why Entrepreneurship in Nepal? - A step towards creating more technologists, innovators and entrepreneurs in Nepal” was the one-day event focussing on networking and awareness around entrepreneurship and innovation in Nepal. It was conducted on 31st Aug 2019 from 11 AM to 4 PM.

The event was targetted to the youth audience as Nepal possesses more than 40% youth population at present. It was aimed to transform their mindset and to inspire them to solve the country’s major problems and challenges through entrepreneurship by adapting the global level of technological and innovative solutions.

Inaugural Phase

The event was inaugurated with lighting of the lamp by Former Minister at Ministry of Industry Nepal Mr. Nabindra Raj Joshi, the chief guest for the event. It was followed by the introductory speech of the young and passionate organizer Rahul Kumar. He mentioned the need for entrepreneurship and briefly explained how and why this event was set up and thanked all attendees, speakers and the chief guest.

Particularly, in regard to the chief guest, he shared the sweet incident of the invitation acceptance which motivated him more to organize this event. The chief guest’s words were, “Rahul, we would like to work with you because you are the future. Don’t worry I will come.”. Wow! Definitely, anyone would have been motivated after listening to such humble lines.

The event was divided into two panel discussions separated by a break.

Panel Discussion One

Image: Panel One

The first panel discussion was moderated by organizer Rahul himself and had the most renowned personalities from the field of entrepreneurship in Nepal which included

1. Mr. Asgar Ali, IT Consultant to PM Office
2. Mr. Narottam Aryal, Executive Director at King's College
3. Mr. Amit Agrawal, Co-Founder/Director at Khalti
4. Mr. Sixit Bhatta, Co-Founder/CEO at Tootle

The theme of the discussion was “Why Entrepreneurship in Nepal?, Connecting Youth to it”. Many interesting points got disclosed during the conversation. Out of which, following were few key takeaways

• No fixed formula. What we do is Entrepreneurship. We have one life and how I would be remembered is important. - Amit
• Earning money is not a priority. How we help in society is important too. - Amit
• Energy is the currency. Youth possess energy and we are exporting our Youth. - Amit
• We plan for one stockholder. We need to plan for others too. - Amit
• Entrepreneurship brings behavioral change in the mass. You come up with something innovative, policies will follow. - Sixit
• Questioning can bring innovation. Get out of the building and collaborate. The number of books you read or the experiences you hear cannot help you develop 21st-century skills. - Narrotam
• Acquire skills, Recognise future and when the future is, and determine how innovation affects inter-connected stakeholder. - Amit
• Let’s focus on doing and learning not reading only. - Narrotam

Panel Discussion Two

Image: Panel Two

The second panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Binay and included the startup’s personalities of the country. Panelist was

1. Mr. Binay Devkota, CEO at Clock b Business Innovations
2. Mr. Rohit Tiwari, Co Founder/CEO at Foodmario
3. Miss. Faija Parween, Founder at Open Space Network
4. Miss. Thryza Dow, CEO at Blinc Ventures

The theme was “Startups; Scaling, Problems, Challenges, Team Building, Execution & More”. All the panel members shared their own startup experiences and challenges throughout the discussion. Following are a few important takeaways from the discussion

• Starting a business is like Dating. It requires a 100% commitment as it leaves you with sleepless nights, tears in your eyes and hole in your pocket. - Thryza
• The best thing about challenges is if you can overcome them, you are going to change how others look at the world. There will always be naysayers, but you are the one who is going to make a path for yourself. - Rohit
• Getting a trusted partner is hard. - Faija
• Getting your best is probably sheer luck. I have the best team now. - Thryza
• Sometimes you need to make the office as home. You need to sleep there. - Rohit

Ending Keynote

Finally, Mr. Prakash Neupane, Co-Founder of Sarathi cab, presented with his keynote speech. Out of his profound experience, he briefed why the problem-solving approach and the spirit of competition is necessary nowadays. He said, “There are a lot of solutions to one problem, but to be a successful entrepreneur you have to think of the most feasible solution. Competition comes in managing feasibility.”

Overall, it was a fruitful event and surely the audience had a wonderful day listening to all the renowned panelists.