Students without credit cards lose out

KOZHIKODE: “The lack of credit card facilities for students is the  main reason for their inability to get into entrepreneurship as they cannot  buy a server or even equipment, as the companies prefer a credit card,” according to  Sijo Kuruvilla George, founding CEO of Startup Village.

Sijo was speaking to the student developers about the developer and startup ecosystem as part of the Google development fest 2014 organised by Google Developer Group, Kozhikode,  in association with the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, on Saturday on the  NITC campus.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle  about the early stage of investment or funding in the Indian context of entrepreneurship, Sijo said, “There are three ways  this can be sorted out.” 

One is to start a partnership with various banks or pave the way for the bank to relax the credit system for the students. Or our government can take initiative by having a tie-up with various incubation centres and banks through which the initial funding for the students wishing to turn  an entrepreneur can be sorted out.

“But apart from all these sources what I do through Startup Village is to find promoters and the successful entrepreneurs in the state or private individuals who can help in finding a solution to  the issue, as they have gone through the pain and difficulties of initial investment.

Apart from the money, when we approach these successful entrepreneurs, the upcoming students in these areas will get an opportunity to jam with these people and get personal mentorship. This is how I  work with my project of helping entrepreneurs to raise money for initial investment,” Sijo added.

Some of the other prominent speakers  included Anoop Nayak, Backend Developer at Octonius Inc, Amrit Sajeev, Google Developer expert and Aravind Sajeev, who spoke about the things a developer should focus on and the wearable technologies.