National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)

National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is undoubtedly India's leader in entrepreneurship education. Today, NEN works with over 380 top tier academic institutes, has created a pool of over 700 entrepreneurship faculty, and reaches over 300,000 young people across 30 cities in India.
Along with TiE and Nasscom, NEN is a really great catalyst point for the Indian entrepreneur.
Thanks to companies like Tata, Wipro and Infosys – there has been a real change regarding the way the Indian entrepreneur is viewed at the professional level.

What the introduction NEN does is bring that startup component and the high-growth entrepreneur another catalyst so that India isn’t simply perceived as an outsourcing nation at the global level but a nation that is not only embracing but should be defining what it means to have 21st Century mindset.

NEN's support for new and future entrepreneurs includes:
  Practical, contemporary advice and information on company-building from experts
  Access to funds, incubation, mentoring and other startup assistance
  Networking and community, through activities and events nationwide and NEN Online.
Bringing together academia, industry, and international experts to deliver knowledge, advice, and resources, NEN creates a powerful support system for new entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial leaders.

 

NEN is a non-profit organisation co-founded by the Wadhwani Foundation, IIT-Mumbai, IIM-Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani, SP Jain and Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (Ibab), to support and groom young entrepreneur wannabes.

NEN has benefited greatly from its group of eminent Advisors, all of whom are active in NEN activities. The NEN Advisors are Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon; Naina Lal Kidwai, HSBC; Prof. Howard Stevenson, Harvard University; Randy Komisar, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers; George Gendron, Founder, Inc. magazine, Arun Seth, British Telecom, Prof. Sadgopan, IIIT Bangalore and Romesh Wadhwani, Symphony Technology Group.

New entrepreneurs face diverse challenges. When the questions pile up- How do I get started? How do I raise money? Where do I meet the right people? NEN is here to help.
www.nenonline.org is India's best resource for entrepreneurs. Through NEN Online, you can access a world of beneficial information, including: expert advice, practical knowledge for venture creation, updates on networking events, skill-building activities, and how to get in touch with people from the entrepreneurial community.


Startup Track :

• Apply for incubation at top business incubators and understand the support criteria
• Gain access to India's largest network of Angel investors and apply for funding online
• Ask the Expert: amateur questions met with Expert advice
• Peer advice: share your thoughts and see the thoughts of others in the Q&A forum
• Recruit freshers from top-tier NEN institutes through Startup Jobs

Knowledge Bank :

• Articles, analyses, and straight talk on venture capital, angel investing, opportunity evaluation, getting started, and so much more
• Contact lists of VCs, Angels, Incubators, and recruiters available to help budding startups
• The largest number of Indian startups: The Weekly Startup profiles entrepreneurs of your generation
• Download over 100 peer-reviewed materials, including courses/syllabi, exercises, cases, audio/video clips, slide presentations, and more

 NEN’s model for advancing entrepreneurship rests firmly on its partnership approach, making it both scalable and effective. Rather than deliver support directly, NEN partners with academic institutes to help them build an effective and a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem on campus to develop and support entrepreneurs. Institutes that NEN partners with are those that are already motivated to provide entrepreneurship programmes to their students, and appreciate the investment NEN makes to enhance their ability to do so.
In addition, NEN uses a group-purchasing model to aggregate support for institutes, members and entrepreneurs. Support includes a bank of volunteers for speaking and mentoring opportunities; corporations eager to support innovation; fast-track access to funding and incubation; learning tools and materials.

IBM recently announced a tie up with the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) for a series of IBM-NEN Mentor Melas to provide growing entrepreneurs in India the knowledge, support and connections to achieve their greatest impact. This is the first community initiative in a series that IBM will be engaging in as it gears to celebrate its Centennial on June 16.
To be held across six cities in the country - Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and NCR - the IBM-NEN Mentor Melas will comprise 12 mentoring sessions, in which nearly 400 volunteer IBM experts will mentor over 300 innovation-driven young entrepreneurs from a range of sectors, helping them overcome critical challenges.  
Tata Group also teamed up with NEN recently to groom young wannabe entrepreneur. Christened as ‘Tata First Dot- powered by NEN’, the new initiative will kick off with intense grooming workshop in Kolkata on Saturday and then it will move to other cities like Pune, Chennai, Delhi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Indore and Mumbai. These workshops are designed to help students refine their business models, connect with peers and interact with experts.
Over the past two years, a rapidly increasing number of NEN graduates have been starting their own ventures; gratifyingly, many of them have been addressing India’s core challenges in healthcare, sanitation, education, and power. It’s for anyone to find out. NEN has responded by establishing new programmes to support these young entrepreneurs, including NEN E Club and a National Mentor Platform. At present, NEN has more than 540 top academic institutional members, over 400 student and alumni entrepreneurship clubs, and more than 80,000 individual members across India. NEN therefore represents Asia’s largest and most dynamic community of young and future entrepreneurs.