Lemon Ideas is an eco-system to sustain the idea in new-new forms. Since 2013, it has been a journey of madness, passion and a single driving thought of converting the huge potential of ideas, talent and aspirations into a meaningful outcome in the form of innovations, ventures and job creation opportunities. We are among very few truly entrepreneurial ecosystems for entrepreneurship development and startups support in the form of being financially viable in generating our own fuel and preaching lessons of entrepreneurship to others based on our own experience, challenges and learnings at Lemon. Over the years we had all good, bad, ugly experiences and experimentation outcomes which have given shape to a much evolved, transformed & matured form of organization. Whether it is launching a non-conventional education academy or creating a platform for challenges, contests or building frameworks, pedagogies of learning models or spinning off a focused accelerator, efforts at Lemon Ideas have challenged the status quo, push the agenda of innovation and do what is said. It has certainly been a journey of reflections and purpose towards a better and sustainable world. Nurturing Job creators (entrepreneurs) also propel the vision of making India a Self-reliant country and we are glad to be part of it. Today, Lemon is an enabling and self-sustaining ecosystem for the creation, nurture and growth of entrepreneurial ventures through various initiatives propelling innovation, self-reliance and job creation for Bharat. A major contribution of Lemon includes awareness building, training, mentoring as well as venture creation and acceleration. Lemon Ideas deeply engages a selective cohort of ventures every year for acceleration driven by conscious business principles with a major focus on the Education and sustainability domain. I thank all entrepreneurs, startup founders, innovators and change-makers who have been part of Journey at Lemon Ideas and have added to our learnings and experiences. We feel blessed to have been able to make a small contribution to their journey. Lemon Ideas has been a story of co-creation and all mentors, trainers, partners, team members and advisors have contributed to arrive at where we stand today. We believe ‘When life gives you a lemon, make it lemonade.’ And we never got disappointed.
Now we are working at 3 verticals.
- Lemon Ideas(Startup Incubation, Mentoring, Consultancy)
- Lemon School Of Entrepreneurship(New Age Entrepreneurship Gurukul)
- Innopreneurs(Nationwide Recognized Competition Platform)
Lemon Ideas is working with a motto that is not going to be distorted in its core. We’re living in the age of startups. Youth that was attracted to job securities earlier, is taking a risk and doing startups. He is thinking about the job of others too. Lemon Ideas is just a helping hand to those helping hands. A strong youth force is a country’s greatest asset. And luckily, India is known to have quite a huge number to leverage it for igniting bright minds and boosting innovation. The concern of unemployment can be tackled if as a nation we start focusing on producing jobs rather than merely applying for jobs. So we need to have jobs and ‘Who will create jobs?’ was a question that we thought about and that needs to be answered. Nothing could be better than our own youth creating jobs for many while they hone up their innovative skills and creativity. The major missing component here to showcase the innovation was the lack of proper guidance and encouragement. So there were a few seeding thoughts that went into a kind of a mixer and the mixing element finally came out as Lemon Ideas. The need of the hour is to channelize the energy of people in a meaningful direction. Carvi ng a path out for innovations out of conventional business models and churning out fresh ideas from young minds were amongst the major challenges that demanded positive reorientation in the ways people are trained or the way they are educated. So, Lemon Ideas came into existence to rethink the solutions to the mentioned challenges. It took its baby steps into the un -seeming world of innovations, training workshops and shaping mere ideas into successful ventures. We constantly strived towards helping people pursue their ideas and innovations. So a year apart, we slowly gained recognition as a start-up and venture space from a pure innovation space. Lemon Ideas is on a mission ‘ Innovation By Everyone’ and is striving towards empowering talented individuals to convert their ideas into reality. In more informal words, we are helping them in their Business Ventures. With hundreds of ventures being incubated-mentored and supported, and thousands of entrepreneurs nurtured and trained, Lemon Ideas has become a known name in the startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem over the years. At Lemon Ideas, we believe and follow a unique pedagogy and experimentation approach for real-life entrepreneurs. Lemon offers acceleration and various mentoring programs for startups and seasoned entrepreneurs with innovation and technology as key drivers. Lemon is on a mission to ignite, nurture and support 10K innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers in 10 years of contribution with a greater focus on building the ecosystem in tier 2 and 3 cities. As we started in 2013 so our statistical target is completing in 2023. We went for a profit model, where the idea was to make everyone a stakeholder in the complete co-creation effort, trainers & team members were stakeholders in the entire organization and the spirit was clear to co-create it.
Lemon School of Entrepreneurship (LSE) is a unique, new age Gurukul with a vision to support, mentor and train budding as well as early-stage entrepreneurs. The pedagogy being ‘Learning by Doing’, Learn through reflections and real-life experimentation, LSE is neither affiliated to any University / Governing Body nor provides any recognized degree or diploma. We believe that the creation of a work portfolio through experiential learning and pre-incubation training is vital for entrepreneurship. We offer
an entrepreneurship training program and business training workshops. We also work with colleges and universities to build robust ‘Innovation and entrepreneurship’ ecosystem (includes pre-Incubation consulting and experiential workshops). Lemon Gurukul is a social initiative by Lemon where we provide mentoring to budding and needy Entrepreneurs. Lemon conducts the ‘Lemon Gurukul Mentoring Sessions’ with the aim to serve aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage as well as seasoned start-ups. These sessions are open and free for anybody who wants to take benefit of expertise and support from Lemon mentors. Under this program, we conduct a group mentoring session on a regular basis where budding entrepreneurs can come with their queries and our experienced mentors guide them and help them. Entrepreneurs who are facing challenges, who are confused, want to diversify their existing venture or are on look out to bring on innovation through technology would be benefited through the ‘Gurukul’. Lemon Ideas in association with Vidarbha Industries Association (VIA) conducts ‘Lemon Gurukul Helpdesk’ sessions at the Udyog Bhawan in Nagpur every month where mentoring is provided by the best in the field to needy participants. The entire exercise is free of cost as the aim is to promote entrepreneurship. Financial assistance is extended to needy entrepreneurs, exceptional talent and woman entrepreneurs through Scholarships and grants under Gurukul program at LEMON. This financial assistance is towards training, mentoring, incubation as well as taking care of living expenses for entrepreneurs during their initial struggle period.
Innopreneurs is a platform, where we promote and give recognition to the budding and substantial ideas nationwide. India is a country with a huge number of like-minded people to make a change. India has emerged as one the largest developing economies of the world, still, it lacks somewhere in taking the disruptive ideas or concepts to a colossal extent. To bridge this gap, the need of this hour is to promote and support the start-ups for collaboratively rectifying the issues which hinder them from becoming a giant. The immediate need is to hunt for core problems and hunt for right solutions for better tomorrow. INNOPRENEURS is a yearly startup contest hosted by Lemon Ideas. It is much more than a conventional B-plan contest. It is a national level platform that encourages individuals/students/ professionals to bring ideas, innovations to the platter for others to devour and earn mentoring, funding and network support. Since 2014, Innopreneurs has become a prominent platform for entrepreneurs with over 250 registrations received every year.
Now our global footprints are in 9 countries. South Korea, Dubai, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, Sri Lanka are some countries showing interest in working with us. Young and budding entrepreneurs from these countries are eager to do something for the nation and for the world as well. We also signed 2 MOUs with universities in Uganda. Krishnakant C, the main face of Innopreneurs, told about pre-finale interventions. It is in 6 steps.
- Mentoring
- Training
- Pitching
- Investment
- Incubation
- Power Talks
- Experiential Collaboration Activity
Krishnakant told us about the journey of Lemon Ideas with all its verticals and then invited everyone in the panel for talk. Deepak Menaria, the CEO of Lemon Ideas, remembered the journey from 2013. He told that please fall in love with the problem that you’re trying to solve. Ms. Shanti Mohan, the co-founder and CEO of Let’s Venture talked about the journey from startups to Investors. She told us that you are standing up because of your product and not because of your connection to investors, you made. And at the central point, it’s always a team. She also told that the advice you get, when you’re asking for money to invest is very different from the advice when you go for the advice. Dr. Charvi Mehta, technical expert and lead analyst at GIZ told that private players are creating environment shift. We’re living in an era of a cultural shift. The shift is from job to entrepreneurship. Mr. Amit Joshi, the managing director of Unicorn India Ventures told us that there is no age for entrepreneurship. He told us about the cultural shift with a very practical example. He told us that when I was in college, there used to be only cultural programs but now there are a lot of portals for entrepreneurial programs. It’s a key part of the annual function, where CEOs meet students and practice ‘give and take’. He told us that nothing can stop you. Funding is just a mean. The need of the hour is to make the product required, and people will buy it. Mr. Anil Alex, the sales leader at Portescap told that validation of the idea in the marketplace is the must and most important. Testing the idea and launching a prototype can be proved golden-egg in long term. He is observing the pitching round in close and told that well-invested situation is good before asking people to invest in your venture. And in the end passion and resilience and the tools that keep kicking the idea into reality. This is how the 6th edition of Centurion Startup Stage got kick-started in a formal way.
By
Vaibhav Singh
Hindu College. University of Delhi
New Delhi – 110007
Phone. +91-9455599489
