STARTUPS WITH A PURPOSE
STARTUPS WITH A PURPOSE
This post is not about entrepreneurship, unlike my earlier ones. It is about a few highly disturbing trends I am seeing in students across colleges — suicidal tendencies, revolting against management, increased stress, career problems. While we can blame the system, I would like to suggest a few ideas to create startups with a purpose.
BUDDY SYSTEM
Every student depends on a special friend inside or outside college — the buddy. A venture can be started to connect online a student with a buddy. On one side will be people who want buddies and on other side, people who want to be buddies. People can discuss and share experiences on forums, blogs, etc. Offline programs can be conducted to bring buddies together, and monitor progress.
FRIENDSHIP CLUB
While there are numerous clubs in colleges like robotics, ecell, etc, there is a need for a friendship club to bring people together face to face rather than Facebook.
TOLL-FREE NUMBER
The more friends you have on Facebook, the lonelier you are in your real life. If there is a toll free number, where students can express their concerns, it gives them an outlet. College can pay to collect feedback and address concerns before things go bad.
ALUMNI PORTAL
I have rarely come across colleges engaging with alumni actively. Even IITs and IIMs are not up to the same standards as Harvard or Wharton when it comes to alumni management.
Current students can benefit a lot with alumni mentoring and a startup handling the system is need of the hour.
PARENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
Every school has a regular parent-teacher meeting, but no such system exists in colleges! When young people leave school and join college, even an online Parent Information System will be good enough. Hope a few more startups with a purpose will take shape in India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Originally Published in New Indian Express:
http://newindianexpress.com/education/edex/article1284099.ece
