IIM A

intro
Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship was setup by IIM Ahmedabad with support from the
Government of India and Gujarat Government and operates through an autonomous not-for-profit entity.
CIIE comprises of IIMA faculty, alumni and other individuals and partners with like-minded organisations to
foster entrepreneurship through incubation, ecosystem development and academic initiatives.

Our incubation endeavors keep evolving to best meet the gaps of the Indian entrepreneurship landscape and the
needs of the Indian entrepreneurs. We understand that enterprises across different sectors and stages have
different mentoring, infrastructural and investment needs and have therefore developed specialized incubation
initiatives to meet the needs of the ventures. These initiatives are geared towards providing relevant networks,
business advice, mentoring and investment support for diverse startups.
MentorEdge
MentorEdge is Pan India initiative which bridges a very important gap in the entrepreneurial
ecosystem, that of providing hand-holding, mentoring and networking support to aspiring and
established entrepreneurs. It is a structured network of mentors and experts aimed at helping
entrepreneurs get the winning edge through advisory support on various strategic and operational
decisions.
MentorEdge helps create synergistic relationship between mentors and mentees. Initiated by Centre
for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) in October 2009, MentorEdge has received
immense interest from mentors and mentees alike.
The nature of mentoring can vary across startups/mentors and over time. It can potentially
encompass:
Advice on startup related strategic and operational issues across areas like business model/plan,
startup team, funding options, scaling up, handling issues among founding team etc.
Access to contacts for sales, recruitment, tie-ups, PR
Access to funds (debt or equity) through self or through contacts to angel network, lending
agencies, VCs etc.
Access to infrastructure - Hard infrastructure (office spac


Selection Process & Criteria
If you wish to take advantage of Mentoring through MentorEdge, please fill up the online Mentoring
application formhere.
The city evangelist will activate your profile on the website if it fits our basic criteria :
1. The Entrepreneur should have initiated the business at least 6 months prior to applying
2. Aspiring Entrepreneurs will be included only if the idea is path breaking & the team is very
strong
3. Growth stage entrepreneurs can also request special mentoring sessions in their city after
corresponding with the city evangelist
Profile activation will enable you to connect with mentors and interact with them on the website itself.
Please do use this feature.
We will invite you to the City Mentor Rendezvous every two months. Should you wish to not receive
notifications on the same, please do let the city evangelist know.
As and when possible, we will also keep in touch with you to take regular feedback and understand
your growth structure.

Who can be a Mentor?
Anyone with relevant expertise who can add value to a start-up/ entrepreneur by providing:
Advice on startup related strategic and operational issues across areas like business model/plan,
startup team, funding options, scaling up, handling issues among founding team etc.
Access to contacts for sales, recruitment, tie-ups, PR
Access to funds (debt or equity) through self or through contacts to angel networks, lending
agencies, VCs etc.
Access to infrastructure - Hard infrastructure (office space, IT requirements) & Soft infrastructure
(legal services, accounts/payroll, IP, research)
Mentors might differ by:
Objectives of mentoring
Levels of time commitment (2/4/8 hours per month) to the mentees
Types of resource commitments (advice/contacts/ funds/ infrastructure etc) to the mentoring
process




IIMA also encourages its students to take up Entrepreneurship as a career. This is reflected in the kind
of electives offered in the second year as well as the help provided to budding entrepreneurs. There is
an in-house incubation centre that hosts several startups. Currently, students are allowed two year
entre leave to try out their ventures. Should it run into rough weather, they can come back and
participate in the Institute placements through the Placement Holiday program.


Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship was setup at the Indian Institute
of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) with support from Gujarat Government and Department of
Science and Technology (Government of India) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in India.
Experience and expertise at IIMA in the areas of management, innovation, technology networks along
with entrepreneurship provide the necessary impetus and intellectual basis for this initiative.

We comprise of faculty, alumni and students of IIMA, mentors and service providers from the industry
who span a variety of functional areas, sectoral domains and geographies and are passionately
committed to helping disruptive innovations and aspiring entrepreneurs succeed commercially.

We know that it takes more than just early stage risk-capital to get a company off the ground - we
enable most of what may be required by entrepreneurs through seed-funding, incubation, mentoring,
training, knowledge dissemination and best practice research. For details on our initiatives towards
fostering entrepreneurship, please refer to the Initiatives section of the website.

We are a young organization ourselves and keep innovating ourselves on ways to proliferate the spirit
of entrepreneurship across India.