VentureNursery readies for acceleration program Season-3 in May ‘13

 Start up applications to be evaluated using
tech platform from VentureNursery

Mumbai :

Up to eight differentiated ideas of passionate start-ups, from Media and Entertainment, Retail, e-Commerce, Consumer Technology, Education and CleanTech sectors, will get an opportunity to be mentored and groomed by the team at VentureNursery. The Season-3 of the acceleration program by VentureNursery, India’s first angel-backed startup accelerator begins May 2013 in Mumbai.

Four start-ups participating in the Season-2 of the acceleration program--InterviewMaster, Klip, Smart Sample and The Venturator--graduated last week.

The first two acceleration boot camps of VentureNursery attracted over 300 applicants from 27 cities. One of the portfolio companies at Venture Nursery, Oravel, an online value stays portal, secured seed funding from VentureNursery angels in September 2012.

For the convenience of startups from distant locations like Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chandigarh, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nasik, Patna among other, VentureNursery will use a technology platform from InterviewMaster to seek responses from the shortlisted startups from the comfort of their work places, asynchronously.

InterviewMaster platform will help VentureNursery to get to know the applicants, understand the team's clarity on the concept and gauge their passion and commitment.

In addition, it will allow the team to evaluate the lot of applicants via video rather than a text-based application.

Inviting new applicants, Ravi Kiran, Co-founder, VentureNursery said, “Enabling fledgling ideas to bloom into business opportunities is a wonderful experience.  Transferring the experience of VentureNursery’s 50 angels, experts and mentors to the start-ups will help us create many such opportunities.”

VentureNursery helps in five broad areas: active mentoring by successful entrepreneurs and senior executives, access to good quality business support partners at a competitive price or gratis, business connections, opportunity to learn from other start-ups and an opportunity to raise seed funding.

Shravan Shroff, Co-founder, VentureNursery added, “VentureNursery’s active acceleration approach helps budding start-ups to work on their weak areas in a focused manner. More and more start-ups are approaching us to bridge their business gaps.”

Entrepreneurs whose ideas have been in the making for 6 to 9 months can apply online (http://www.venturenursery.com) this month.

VentureNursery team will review and shortlist start-ups for interview using InterviewMaster. Up to eight start ups will be selected for the Season 3 and announced in May 2013.

VentureNursery set up by well known entrepreneur Shravan Sarnoff (who founded Fame Cinemas) and eminent marketing and management expert Ravi Kiran (former CEO, South East and South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group) in March, 2012 was joined by 10 Individual angel investors and two Institutional investors as the country’s first Charter Angel group dedicated to an accelerator.

VentureNursery Executive VP, Apoorv Ranjan Sharma says, “VentureNursery will offer a customised mentoring program for 13 weeks. The program begins with identification of the key gaps and challenge areas in each participating start-up by the Angels-in-Residence.”

“These challenge areas are then addressed through multiple mentoring sessions by experienced serial entrepreneurs, Charter Angels, VCs, technologists and senior corporate managers. The feedback given by each advisor and investor is then collated and incorporated into the business plan of the participating start-up,” adds Sharma.

VentureNursery leverages its strong network and introduces startups to potential co-founders, if needed. On successful completion of the program, each start-up is given an opportunity to present its business idea to Charter Angels and Angels-in-Residence for feedback and potential seed-funding. VentureNursery continues to support start-ups even after the acceleration program is over.