PUNE: A start-up Club of Deccan Education Society’s (DES) Incubation, Start-up, Training and Placement Cell was inaugurated on Thursday at the Amphitheater of Fergusson College. The event was presided by DES chairman Sharad Kunte, principal of Fergusson College, Ravindrasinh Pardeshi, managing director and CEO of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Satish Mehta were present, said a statement issued by the society.

Official of the start-up club, Adesh Gokhle, gave a brief account of the initiative and purpose of the setting up the club. He mentioned that the objectives of the start-up club was to encourage the culture with special focus on rural area or rural supportive model, have small tangible ideas which would create social impact and focus on microfinancing and mentoring start-ups.

The calendar of the activities for the start-up club was shared by Adesh Gokhale which included ideation and funding workshops, success and failure stories, hackathon, understanding paint points of the industry and providing solutions to them, mentoring activities and writing proposals and project plans.

Kunte stated that this initiative aimed to create employers, instead of employees. He expressed his delight on the enthusiasm of the students, with over 1700 registrations by students from DES units from Pune, Mumbai and Sangli.

Mehta recounted his experiences as an entrepreneur, starting with a small seed capital of three lakh in the 80’s, with current revenue which is expected to be around 5.5 crore, said the statement. He spoke about innovation and a scientific approach coupled with humility as key drivers of differentiation, leading to success in this competitive world. Sharmila Deodhar, creator of BreakfastKaro.com, was invited for an interview session and she shared her challenges while scripting her success in the start-up.