Ideastudio Season 3 Gala Event was held on March 24, 2019 at Hotel Yak and Yeti (Durbar hall). Idea Studio completed three seasons successfully and it helped foster social entrepreneurs and ignite social change in Nepal.The approach is based on core values: social innovation, investment, knowledge creation, social justice and promoting human dignity.
Incubation period for Season 3 with 30 finalists commenced from September 28, 2018 onwards. It lasted for a month. From thereon ideators did not look back because they constantly learnt from the mentors. With the end of airing the last episode of Season 3 we wanted to gather to witness the growth of these social entrepreneurs at the Gala Event.
Idea Studio Nepalis a not-for-profit company that provides encouragement, resources, space, and network to the entire ecosystem for socially conscious business ideas of Nepal. The approach is based on Social Innovation, Investment, Social Justice, Knowledge Creation,and to promote Human Dignity. Idea Studio works in close collaboration with academic institutions like Kathmandu University, nine commercial banks, Confederation of Nepalese Industries, the Government of Nepal, media houses and many institutions to foster entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nepal. Idea Studio is also a popular reality television show, broadcast from the two national televisions of Nepal. Idea Studio runs the ‘College Idea Hunt’ to encourage entrepreneurship amongst students. And ‘Idea Talk’ is another channel through which successful entrepreneurs share their stories giving valuable lessons to aspiring youths and academicians. We are constantly exploring and creating the best platform for the start-ups, scale-ups and for the link up for the innovative ideas and businesses.
The event commenced with emcee of the event, Malvika Subba, welcoming everyone and with Anil Basnet, CEO of Metrotarkari.com and former ideator speech on biggest challenges while growing his business, its initial and present turnover, and three lessons learnt while scaling the start up. Metrotarkari’s business model is to become the sole agent to transfer goods from farmers to consumers. Due to single commission they are able to reduce up to 60 per cent margin levied on goods. The initial turnover was around Rs 50,000-Rs 60,000 a month and within four years of operations the company has grown by 600 to 700 per cent.
Followed by this Sumitra Poudel gave an inspirational speech on her incredible journey as a garment manufacturing entrepreneur. Under the mentorship of Idea Studio she made her business plan in Season 2 and registered her company Sunsari Collection Pvt Ltd. Poudel’s never give up attitude led her to where she is today. However, it has not been easy. She says it is 75 per cent more difficult for women to establish their business compared to men, because women have additional burden of unpaid care work. This doesn’t deter her from achieving her goal of being a successful entrepreneur. Apart from her work she aspires to write due to her interest in literature and at the age of 58 she completed her +2. Her mantra is one should move forward no matter what and age should never be a barrier to achieving anything in life.
It was a learning experience for those present at the event. Panel discussion from Season 1, 2, and 3 shared their leanings on establishing a startup business idea to utilise the under-utilised resource of maintenance workforce, finance as an important aspect for any enterprise to function, and on scaling up the business. Keynote speakers and also business gurus – CEO of National Banking Institute, Sanjib Subba, and Veteran Comedian/ActorMadan Krishna Shrestha boosted their confidence to move forward with their vision and dreams.
The event continued with various announcements on Idea Studio Season 3 ‘I have an Idea’ event winners. After the welcome speech by Dr Tshering Lama, Executive Chairperson, Co-founder of Idea Studio he welcomed three new board members and introduced new international board of advisors of Idea Studio. Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM) and Meeting Point were also welcomed as institutional members of Idea Studio. Along with this Co Founder of Idea Studio and Assistant Professor of KUSOM Rupesh Krishna Shrestha launched Idea Studio entrepreneurship curriculum.
The event neared with end with Pema Lama’s live performance on his new release Dherai Dheria Maya. The song left everyone smiling and mesmerised. The event concluded on a high note with announcement of three winners of seed investments who were presented with Rs 5,00,000 each and thank you note by Rupesh.