CAREC University Startup Generator: Mentorship Session with Startup Experts from Silicon Valley

On 4th June 2022, the CAREC Secretariat organized a mentorship session for the 100+ student participants (who belong to 70+ universities from eight CAREC member countries) of the #CARECStartupChallenge. The two-hour long session featured leading startup experts from Silicon Valley. Kal Deutsch, founder and CEO of DealEngine, and Jeff Wallace, founder of Global Kinetics, spoke about how founders can turn a startup idea into a key business process, provided examples of various successful approaches, and also shared negative experiences of startups which fail to scale. The speakers shared how Silicon Valley has served as a hub for technology focused innovators and industry disruptors. The discussions covered the distinctive culture in the Valley which accepts failure as a part of the startup process, the benefits it has derived from having proximity to industry and academia, and the importance of diversity and multi-culturalism. Participants at the session also received feedback on their startup ideas and on the challenges they were facing on key issues such as monetising their business and reaching potential customers successfully. The #CARECStartupChallenge initiative is being implemented as part of the CAREC Digital Strategy 2030’s focus on promoting innovation and startup ecosystems in the CAREC region.