College Entrepeneurship 101: How to Start & Scale ft Jacob, Shot at IIM Bangalore

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]So, so let's take an example. [music] An 18-year-old walks into your office and they want to start something of their own. What is the advice that you would give them to just start something?

[00:00:10]If you like me are 18, 19, 20, you're in college and you're curious about entrepreneurship, you have to watch this podcast. Hi, I'm Aishi and welcome to Chill Chai with Aishi. In this episode, I got a chance to speak to Jacob S who works at I am Bangalore. He's been working there for more than eight years.

[00:00:31]NS SRCL which is the incubation center at IM Bangalore where he helped incubate over 1,500 startups. I got to speak to him about the journey of a student entrepreneur, the challenges that they face, advice for them and the common mistakes that student entrepreneurs tend to make. I also got a chance to speak with him about IM Bangalore's new BBA in digital business and entrepreneurship which is a program that is way ahead of its time.

[00:00:57]If you're even mildly interested in becoming an entrepreneur while being in college, you have to watch this podcast.

[00:01:03]We're not just going to talk about entrepreneurship. We're going to talk about everything that helps us become our dream selves. So yeah, let's begin.

[00:01:10]>> So when did you become interested in the world of entrepreneurship and what exactly drew you to it?

[00:01:17]>> Okay, so very interesting question. um it there was not a single point or anything like that which led me to uh getting interested in the whole area of entrepreneurship. I was interested to find people who were solving problems.

[00:01:34]So uh historically my father and my grandfather are both entrepreneurs although maybe they didn't know it at the time they were just business people >> but what they were really doing was they were finding problems in a market and they were solving it >> and that's something that really attracted me is the fact that the uh impact that they created the drive that they had and the vision >> that they had of solving a particular problem or >> uh creating a particular impact in a space. So that's something that kind of got me interested in this whole idea of entrepreneurship and uh maybe you could say that that lit a small fire and my exposure to the entrepreneurship ecosystem in IM Bangalore has really helped me go that mile and helped me understand entrepreneurship or meet people who have explained to me various factors that have got me just more and more interested in how an entrepreneur really helps with the whole ecosystem of how they solve problems and how they create something from nothing. So that's kind of has really attracted me.

[00:02:46]>> Right. So so you talked about your experience at NSRCL which is the incubation center at IM Bangalore where you have been a part of incubating over 1,500 startups and you worked here for I think over 8 years. So do you by any chance remember the first set of founders you met and what gave you the confidence to support their idea? I definitely remember the first set of entrepreneurs that I worked with. Um, and this was way back in 2017 I think. I was just looking out. I was working in another department within the institute and I just walked into NSR cell which is like you said the startup incubator at IM Bangalore and uh I asked is there anything that I can do over here >> and that got me into the door or the first step into the door and I kind of started speaking to people and understanding and all that and then slowly it landed me a job here I uh worked in the team that was creating India's first notfor-profit incubation program so incubation has always been a for-profit uh enterprise but worked on the first not for-profit incubation program where we incubated uh young entrepreneurs who were doing a lot of what do you say u interesting uh aspects in various fields but who have a social angle to it. So they're not looking at making profit but they were looking at various different >> how to create impact uh metrics essentially and I remember I I worked with about eight of them through the incubation period although we had about 25 in the pre-inccubation period we worked with the pre-inccubation stage for about uh 3 months and then we worked for about a year or year and a half with eight of the ventures who went on to becoming my first incubated cohort. This is with the support of an organization called Michael and Susan Dell Foundation >> and that really helped us that really at least that gave me a what do you say an exposure to various uh entrepreneurs and coincidentally so they were all very young. They were all just out of college maybe a couple of years out of college and all of that. So it it it helped me kind of resonate with them because I was also just out of college, maybe a couple of years just out of college and I was able to kind of understand, >> oh, how are these entrepreneurs born, what got them into this thing, but there were definitely some very young entrepreneurs who were very fascinating in how they approached the way they solved problems and all extremely interesting to work with them. From there we moved on to another few sets of not for-p profofit incubation program and the biggest section of uh organizations or entrepreneurs I worked with was with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 women's program where we incubated close to thousand women entrepreneurs in a span of uh 3 to four years. extremely interesting program where women entrepreneurs actually got uh the support of IM Bangalore in terms of education creating a a program which enabled them to get that gap education to scale their organizations to the next level. So imagine if they were doing X amount of revenue we wanted them to scale their operations to 5x 10x whatever their interest in. So we kept uh giving them mentorship support guidance all of that.

[00:06:05]>> Mhm. Right. And sir, the fact that you took the initiative to go to NSRCL, I think that shows the fact that you have that entrepreneurial entrepreneurial spirit within you, which then you can identify in other young people. So you talked about how these entrepreneurs were really young and a lot of students, especially college students feel like they need to wait till they're older, they have more educational experience, and they've done more things to actually start something of their own. So what is your take on that? Should you wait to have more experience or if you have an idea, should you just go for it? Okay.

[00:06:35]So, um waiting generally comes from an area of a little bit of a social conditioning or a little fear, >> right? So, that essentially makes it a little difficult to um so so waiting comes from this area of fear >> and social conditioning. Okay. So actually college is somewhat the perfect time I think to experiment >> and students have this opportunity to to work on something that they're really interested in >> but without giving up a lot of other uh what do you say uh ambitions or without giving up on their requirements. So if you see college time students don't have a lot of financial responsibilities they have extra time they have actually resources that they can tap into whether it be college professors or their peers or guidance from various other external factors and that is like essentially the perfect time and you're not fully formed in terms of inhibitions. You are completely okay to go ahead and meet somebody and just ask them hey can you help me with this? you're open to uh what do you say feedback to a large extent. So that gives us that that that time is essentially the best time to kind of experiment and it's very important that you do experiment those times because you might not get that time again and uh this is essentially why I feel that if you start up earlier it helps you in your long-term journey.

[00:08:11]>> So so let's take an example. an 18-year-old walks into your office and they're just in just entered college and they want to start something of their own. What is the advice that you would give them to just start something and they already have an idea?

[00:08:24]>> Okay. So, first if it's just some random person or random 18year-old >> who is looking for some guidance and saying, "Hey, I want to do something but I don't know what to do." The first thing I would tell them is pause and think about is there anything that is troubling you or anybody that you know is there something that you can solve?

[00:08:46]>> Is there some area which you can kind of get into with the skills that you have and maybe the skills that you can acquire >> uh that can really solve a problem. The next thing I would ask them to do is investigate on this. Do a little research. see if this problem is only there for you or if it there for multiple people.

[00:09:06]>> So kind of do a sort of a customer validation in terms of identifying if this is a problem that is worth solving and if it is then focus a little bit more time and figure out how it is that you can add value and create a solution to this problem. Mhm.

[00:09:22]>> One more thing I would if the solution is there and if you have a startup idea already the most important factor that I would tell them to do is validate because today's day and age there's a lot of validation that is possible.

[00:09:33]There's a lot of forums that you can go and put up your idea and say hey I have this idea um would you give me feedback on this? uh NSAL I remember long time back had uh something called for startups or some events like this which essentially enabled people to kind of just bring up an idea and it it was a little bit like a uh what do you say stress interview where they would ask you questions and they will bounce stuff off you and say hey why didn't you think of that why didn't you think of this so those kinds of uh what do you say stress stress testers give you a sense of >> am I going in the right path and it's not to and sometimes you need to change but in order to validate that it's very important to get customer feedback.

[00:10:16]>> Mhm. So, so let's say uh somebody passes all of these stress tests and they finally started something of their own.

[00:10:22]What are some commonalities among those who actually succeed?

[00:10:26]>> One of the most basic stuff that I've seen people or that I've seen in entrepreneurs from what I've at least noticed is it's not a quick journey. So it's not like you start something today and you get a response within the next one week, one month, maybe 6 months, maybe one year down the line, you still have not got a response.

[00:10:46]But that consistency of you performing and the consist you showing up every day is very important because I think today's day and age successes comes very quick in what you see online and in TV and all of that, right? So uh >> that's not always the case. So sometimes you have to be persistent. So that consistency is very important. The second one, second thing like I said before is clarity. You have to have that clarity of what you are solving because you will get a lot of feedback from different areas that saying hey why don't you do just a slightly different track why don't you move to B2B instead of B2C why don't you do uh something that is uh uh vertical integration like reverse why don't you do something like so there's a lot of feedback that you and all of them we all sounds good as well some people say okay I'll give you money why don't you do this but that not might not be your core area of where you're going to be uh what do you say focusing on. So clarity of idea what you're working on is very important. Not to say that you should not pivot when the time comes but uh if you are confident in your what do you say solution and that you're confident that this is a problem that needs solving then stick to it for a long term. That's very important. The other thing is uh that along with that is also the adaptability to learn fast >> because you need to be able to kind of solve things on the go >> because sometimes when you just when you get into the problem is when you realize okay I need to solve five other things in order to solve this main aspect. So you need to be able to learn those five things. So what I've seen successful entrepreneurs do >> uh is that they are able to learn fast.

[00:12:28]they are able to resolve things very quickly in see entrepreneurship is extremely in a in a journey it's always firefighting cuz the because nobody else is responsible for solving this problem other than the entrepreneur so it's very it's something that I've noticed that people do is that they adapt very quickly if they don't know a skill they will learn the skill overnight if possible or spend some time on that and they're not in a hurry there's no there's no like oh I have to be successful within in a year. There's no mile marker like that. It depends on you. It depends on how much time you have >> and how much time you're able to dedicate. So, it's it's a long journey.

[00:13:08]>> Right. So, clarity, consistency, adaptability, and what I've inferred is also being patient.

[00:13:14]>> That's very important.

[00:13:16]>> Definitely.

[00:13:16]>> And you also talked about how we glorify these overnight successes because that's all we see on TV on Shark Tank. So what are some of the challenges that go unseen that uh student entrepreneurs especially face young entrepreneurs?

[00:13:31]>> So one of the biggest challenges that I've noticed and like you said is with the glorification of entrepreneurship >> is the fact that people don't understand the grit or the hard work that goes behind something becoming successful because they just see the like the tip of the iceberg to to the end result. So they don't see the all the years and years and years of effort that somebody has to put in in order to get that little bit of success that you see. So that is something that misalignment is something that is there >> that I've noticed very very strongly. Uh the other >> the other thing is uh this leads to a lack of patience among the entrepreneurs. I mean maybe they have well intention, maybe they are extremely uh what do you say uh want to do something >> passionate >> passionate but maybe they don't have that consistency or that they don't have the patience to stick to it for a long time. They will try it for maybe a month 2 months they don't see a lot of traction and they leave and go which is not essentially what you should be doing. If you're if you're feeling confident, if it's just an experiment, fine, move on. Uh you tried it didn't work, move on. No issues with that. But if you're confident and you have worked on it for some time and you want to see it succeed, you have to knock on 99 other doors before you say that it's >> it's not for me, that journey is not for me. So that's very important uh factor to consider. Um >> the other point is maybe comparison. So a lot of people compare okay I am not I'm not driving around in that car or I'm not sitting in this big office my address is not as what do you say prominent as somebody else's so I don't have the most branded t-shirts or the most so that's not something that you should be really concerned about at that point of time because you're building something and success usually comes after some time I mean some people get successful quickly some people need to strive for it and what I've noticed is that that is that is important for you to consistently be patient and wait till you get that level of what do you say uh >> till you're confident that you can go outside and you have a firm product.

[00:15:50]Sometimes there's a lot of reworking that is required whenever you pitch to clients and all of that. They will ask you to kind of what do you say modify whatever you've been working on and sometimes that's the case. You need to do that for individual clients and for individual uh what do you say organizations but you still need to have a firm grasp of what you've been doing.

[00:16:09]>> So that's what I think is very important.

[00:16:11]>> Right. And so how do you think new programs like IM Bangalore's BBA in digital business and entrepreneurship can facilitate young entrepreneurs in starting their own ventures and actually being su successful at them?

[00:16:24]>> Okay. So uh the BBA in digital business and entrepreneurship which is recently launched by IM Bangalore is a very unique and interesting program. It uh helps students and young entrepreneurs and people who actually want to just uh learn a little bit more about entrepreneurship and digital businesses get a strong foundation. So it essentially fuses top-notch education from faculty of IM Bangalore, >> digital innovation, uh one-to-one guidance and mentorship through various initiatives that we have and at the end of the day practical knowledge through projects. Uh so all of this combines to give a very young student, somebody who's just waiting to build up a foundation, a very strong uh basic knowledge about entrepreneurship and digital businesses. And this is something that they can use tomorrow to do multiple things. Maybe start up an entrepreneur venture, maybe work in an organization that uh what do you say uh are looking for entrepreneurs that are looking for people with digital skills that help them move forward in their career faster because they are valued by these corporates. They are learning the most latest technologies. They are uh working on real world projects. some very interesting subjects being taught by some very interesting faculty are able to really give students the education and so one of the interesting factors that I've noticed in the first batch is we have students from almost every corner of this country almost 350 different pin codes are represented in this program and it's from the topmost part of India to the uh the southernmost and students from all over the country from every different from all different backgrounds uh economical, financial, all of them is all considered. So it's all it's something very interesting to see. It's a what do you say a huge pool of what do you say homogeneous group of or heterogeneous group of individuals that are coming together to learn about entrepreneurship and it's very inspiring to see them how they do various things. So sir are there any individual inspiring stories you would like to share that will serve as a testament to IM Bangalore achieving its mission with BB in the first batch.

[00:18:42]>> Okay so so we just started maybe September of last year so we've not had too much interaction but of this small 6 months I've been fortunate fortunate enough to see a lot of young >> kids take up a lot of responsibilities within the program itself. So I'll give you a few examples. One of the things that was really inspiring to me was the fact that uh one particular kid I I'm not sure about his name. I think his name is Harsh Jane. He had a very interesting uh story to share with us. So we have this uh program or this course called rupees 250 venture and another course called rupees zero venture. So for one of these uh courses, one of the projects that he submitted uh was that he reached out to an organization, a manufacturer of telescopes and he told them that hey I'm studying in this particular course I have this particular subject I have to do a particular project and my idea is to put up a telescope in a public park and charge people uh 10 rupees or 20 rupees to view the sky. Okay. And uh I want to do this. can you help me or can you enable me to do this? Would you how can you help me? And you won't believe it. The the manufacturer or the organizer wrote back to him and told him, "Hey, great initiative. Thanks for reaching out. We happy to give you this 15,000 rupee telescope free of charge."

[00:20:11]>> So he was able to reach out and get this and started his venture. And it was a very interesting story. Mhm.

[00:20:17]>> One of the things that he told me while he was telling the story is the reason he did this is because of another session which he attended >> which uh in which he learned that networking is very important and ask people what you need. Don't worry about the no. So >> drawing inspiration from that is how he was able to do this. So that's a very interesting story. Another interesting story that we got to know is during the time of examinations a couple of our students actually created a website or and I I believe that is another part of the program. We have another course on website development and this was also a part of the project where they created a website to help students keep track of their projects assignment due dates and all of that. So it's very interesting that they created something that would help the rest of the students. They're not charging anything for it. It's completely free. It's completely open and uh these kinds of stories are very interesting to me because it was not designed as part of the program. It came very what do you say uh >> naturally >> naturally and and organically and these kinds of things give me a little bit more confidence that we should do more of such initiatives. We should uh recognize these kinds of initiatives and we should really encourage these students to do more. Fail is not a problem. Failing is not a problem. It's just a it's a what do you say? It's a pathway to success or a pathway to entrepreneurship. You can't I mean I don't think you can call yourself an entrepreneur till you fail at least once.

[00:21:40]>> Mhm. And I think sir this also shows that IM Bangalore has captured the right kind of students the perfect students for the program if they're coming up with things like >> we also want have a different thought of that we want to make the students perfect.

[00:21:54]>> So it doesn't matter who comes through this program. We believe that through our courses and our touch points and our uh what do you say initiatives we are creating a next pool of young entrepreneurs. So it doesn't matter where you're coming from. It doesn't matter what you're doing but this course will help you become a little bit more stronger in all different aspects or arenas.

[00:22:16]>> Right?

[00:22:17]>> You talked about how networking helped hers. So what are some other soft skills as well as hard skills that are critical for an entrepreneur to have?

[00:22:25]>> Okay. So uh one of the other skills that uh I think is very important is uh empathy to know what the others around you are feeling, thinking, doing. It's very important that you have that sense of empathy. Another important factor is uh resourcefulness. So see you can always be reserved and shy and all of that but when it comes to solving a problem or when it comes to doing something that is uh impactful >> that resourcefulness is very important.

[00:22:55]You have to have that sense of okay I I will solve this problem no matter what how many ever things I have to do how many other people or how many other doors I have to knock how many ever nos I have to get is not a problem but I will be what do you say resourceful enough to complete the assignment or complete the project or complete whatever I'm working on right now the other thing is right now in today's day and age it's extremely important to be digital fluency is very important I think >> you have to be uh >> active on a lot of different uh media platforms. You have to be able to kind of connect with people. Uh shamelessly though, you have to kind of reach out to people and these were some things that some of our mentors have said throughout the uh the program. And a little bit of storytelling is also very important because it's important to get people to understand your story and where you're coming from and all of that. So all of this really helps you as an entrepreneur and adds on different different what do you say areas making you a whole entrepreneur.

[00:23:57]>> Mhm.

[00:23:57]>> So you talked about resourcefulness. I think it's really important to be able to use whatever you have available at hand and for that you require a little bit of critical thinking. So how do you think people can develop critical thinking as a skill in real time?

[00:24:11]>> Okay. So uh critical thinking must be what do you say trained. It's not something that you're born with.

[00:24:19]It's something that you are you practice and you develop. Okay. One of the first things that I feel that something some somebody should be uh wellversed with is to essentially ask the right questions.

[00:24:32]and asking the right questions is is probably the first step towards identifying what you need to do in order at particular situations to resolve the problem. So if you don't ask the right questions then you might not be able to kind of get the right answers in order to be able to create a solution to a particular problem. So uh within our program itself we have a lot of different areas that we uh kind of kind of create or simulate. We have uh what do you say opportunities where students are actually uh given tasks particularly time limited tasks in order to ensure that they manage their time effectively.

[00:25:11]We create opportunities for students to kind of compete with themselves. So that we have an event called Noah which is an uh what do you say annual test that we have where students actually compete on various in various areas. We also do have simulations, projects that students are asked to do and submit in a particular time and all of these are real world stuff. So they really have to go out and do it. And all of these factors together will enable you to become a better critical thinker.

[00:25:42]>> So you talked about asking the right questions. So for someone who's a shy person or who doesn't consider themselves like a networking person, how do they develop this skill?

[00:25:51]>> I mean you have to work at it. I there's I don't think there's any other way.

[00:25:54]There is no uh medicine that you can take or there is no movie that you can watch or there is no podcast that you can hear that suddenly just makes you the same. You have to decide >> Mhm.

[00:26:05]>> that okay I'm tired of being shy. I'm tired of seeing opportunities go past me. I have to stand up and ask for it.

[00:26:12]That's I mean uh the crying baby gets the milk, right? So that's the same concept. You have to just >> go out there, put yourself out there.

[00:26:19]One of the things that I feel is very important is forget about the number of nos. So something that I was taught during my sales class and with my experiences in sales is essentially that >> you should not worry about the number of nos that you get. You might get hundreds of them but it really doesn't matter.

[00:26:37]>> So don't worry about the numbers but modify it so that you reduce the number of nos that you get. Modify your ask or your change your attitude. Don't worry about the number of nos but just look forward to the yeses.

[00:26:48]>> Right? So sir in a situation like this uh I feel like it's important to hear a lot of nos before you start hearing the yeses. It's critical to fail first. What is your opinion on that?

[00:27:00]>> Absolutely. I mean if you put it like that yes it is I I wouldn't say it's important to fail. I I just think that uh no journey is no journey of an entrepreneur is actually completed. I mean it's very rare that people just what do you say directly go out and succeed in at the first attempt in everything that they do.

[00:27:22]>> You always do fail. You learn and that's how we all learn, right? We all learn from >> failing at different things. I mean even if you take a toddler learning how to walk, they always fall. I don't think there's any toddler ever in the world that has just started walking without falling. Right? So you have to fail.

[00:27:39]Mhm.

[00:27:39]>> The only thing is if you fail also, even if you fall down, you have to get up.

[00:27:44]You can't just stay down. You can't just stay down and think that okay, I failed so I'm not going to do it anymore.

[00:27:49]>> And so that's something that I have I mean I strongly tell entrepreneurs, okay, you didn't do that. Why didn't you do that? Kind of investigate why you didn't do that. whether it's uh young entrepreneurs or older uh women who are doing various things from the conversations that I've had with them.

[00:28:08]>> One of the things that you have to be able to kind of do is always be able to kind of pivot a little bit, not be stuck to your stance. Always pivot and be able to kind of modify >> to the market or modify to the requirements or modify yourself so that you can have a better solution something like that. I mean it's it's it's important. So failing is important but it's not mandatory. I mean I'm just saying that.

[00:28:30]>> So I think this has been really really inspiring. So let's get to some rapid fire questions to end the podcast. Uh the first question is what is one underrated startup founder trait? Just one word.

[00:28:44]>> Persistence. I have to say it's persistence. You have to >> stay at it for as much time as you need to. There is no particular end date. There is no date that okay I will succeed within 36 56 days. I will succeed uh within two years. There there's no time frame like that.

[00:29:05]>> You have to be persistent at it however long you need to be persistent at it.

[00:29:10]>> Uh what is one book, podcast or movie or any piece of content you watch that you would recommend to every student entrepreneur?

[00:29:18]Okay, there are a few such and I'll talk about movies because uh movies is something that was really interesting to me. I definitely did watch The Founder which is the whole McDonald's story. It kind of >> it's I think that's been spoken about in multiple areas but recently I watched another movie which resonated a little bit uh better with me.

[00:29:41]>> Uh it is Ford versus Ferrari. It's been it's come out for some time but I ended up watching it recently and uh one lesson that I learned or one uh what do you say uh perspective that I got from that movie is so Ford versus Ferrari talks about one of the races and how Ford being the huge organization in America that it is is more concerned about mass producing and creating a huge number of cars. On the other hand, Ferrari is a Italian uh car manufacturer that is not looking at creating mass products or mass-produced cars, but they want to have a product that has the best driving quality. And uh this the the movie is about them competing with each other in a particular uh what do you say uh race a European race and how Ford came out on top after uh persistently working on their product to make so to show the world that they're not only good at this but they're also good at creating the best product also and they have all the requirements for that as well.

[00:30:48]>> Okay. So one last rapid fire question because it's begun to rain. Um, this one's very personal. What is one lesson that you've learned the hard way in life?

[00:30:58]>> U, so yeah, very interesting question.

[00:31:00]One lesson that I've learned the hard way is that everything takes time.

[00:31:05]Nothing is overnight. I I think we did cover it in the in during the interview.

[00:31:10]Uh, overnight success is just a dream.

[00:31:14]Maybe you have to work consistently at whatever you're working at doing. uh even when we started this program, it took 3 plus years to actually get the first batch out. So it's not something that we did overnight and said okay let's we have the building, we have the faculty, we have everything ready but let's just start and get uh students in and we had to iterate various uh permutations and combinations of how students would learn what are those interventions what are those initiatives that we have to uh build into the program so it's valuable to the students. So it's not something that you can just do overnight. So something that I learned the hard way is to be patient and wait for things and to to kind of overnight successes are not really true.

[00:31:59]You have to wait.

[00:32:01]>> Right. So I think a key lesson from this interview has been patience, perseverance and persistence is very very important in entrepreneurship.

[00:32:10]>> Adaptability to change.

[00:32:12]>> Yes. And I hope this reaches every single entrepreneur out there, every single student entrepreneur. Thank you.

[00:32:16]Thank you so much for your time, sir. I had a great time talking to you.