Kathmandu Supports Entrepreneurs through Startup Huddle
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Global Entrepreneurship Network is excited to announce the opening of Startup Huddle in Kathmandu, Nepal, to help local entrepreneurs hone their pitch skills and discover solutions to the challenges they face.
Startup Huddle is a program designed to educate, engage and connect entrepreneurs. As an experiential learning opportunity, the Startup Huddle format is consistent in each location: on a given morning, one or two early-stage startup founders give a six-minute presentation of their companies to a diverse audience of peers, mentors, educators and advisers. Each presentation is followed by a 20-minute question and answer session.
Binay Devkota, CEO of Clock b Business Innovations and Startup Huddle organizer, said over the last four years significant strides have been made to bring Kathmandu’s startup ecosystem together. For instance, Devkota pointed to the more than 200 business events organized by Clock b Business Innovations that brought together more than 4,000 people in Nepal. These events have fostered more than 50 business partnerships, facilitated more than 100 investments and allowed Clock b Business Innovations to consult on 25 different projects.
More importantly, Devkota said these events have helped energize the ecosystem. His hope is that Start Huddle will continue to build on this energy.
“We are very excited to play a critical role in introducing yet another interesting community-engaging event, Startup Huddle, to Nepal,” said Devkota.
The culture surrounding Startup Huddle is that of a supportive, neutral space, welcoming entrepreneurs to be open and honest about their businesses and the challenges they face. Each event is organized by local entrepreneurs and community builders who volunteer their time to secure a venue, vet and select presenters and publicize the event.
As opposed to a traditional “pitch” environment, Startup Huddle was not created to be critical of entrepreneurs, but rather for the presenters to learn from shared experiences and find ways to support one another as a community.
For Devkota, the Startup Huddle community extends beyond Nepal. And he hopes that by participating in the program, Nepalese entrepreneurs and ecosystem supporters will be able to tap into GEN’s global network.
“As Nepalese startups continue to innovate and design global solutions, it is now important to give them global exposure and connect them to a global network,” said Devkota. “We believe that GEN and its events can be the needed catalyst to take these startups to a global level.”
Startup Huddle is an educational experience for both the audience and the presenters. Presenters are given resources and support to prepare for their presentation and surveyed after their presentation to see what they’ve learned.
Source: https://www.genglobal.org/startup-huddle-nepal/kathmandu-supports-entrepreneurs-through-startup-huddle?fbclid=IwAR3HEfPwI75Cg9x6HlnHFmB5z2WGB0KGnA6imWkUVOxFlg1LQueqNboE_Ek
