From Strive to Thrive: Way forward at LIVE

Case Objectives and Use The case is developed to enable readers: (i) appreciate the challenges in setting up a business incubator (ii) assess the impact of business incubator located in an academic institute on the parent institution as well as the larger entrepreneurial ecosystem (iii) provide an opportunity to vision the growth of the incubator and chart a growth plan. The case could be used in a session dealing with- “Managing a Business Incubator” - for incubator managers or academicians or administrators in educational institutions or regulatory authorities or in a session on “Incubation of a Business Idea” - in an elective course on “Entrepreneurship” or in a post-graduate management/ entrepreneurship program to familiarize participants with the ecosystem for supporting start-ups. Case Synopsis The case is about the setting up of “LIVE”- a business incubator at Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode over a three-and-a-half-year period. Purani had been Executive Director of the business incubator LIVE from its inception in June 2016. The goal of the incubator was to (i) evangelize entrepreneurship – both among the community on campus and the greater community through relevant initiatives and attract entrepreneurs who could leverage the incubator support to grow their start up ideas and (ii) organize funding and generate revenues and develop a sustainable business model to provide infrastructural, mentoring and seed support to firms in the incubator. Within three and a half years of its inception, IIMK LIVE had many achievements to its credit. Fifty six startups joined the incubator; 21 incubatee start-ups got seed funds to take their ideas forward; 15 startups started generating revenues and are in the process of scaling up; eighteen (32%) out of fifty six firms were IIMK Alumni. It had generated Rs75MM seed funds and has provided seed support to 29 startups apart from the mentoring, training and the infrastructural support. As the Executive Director was presenting the progress report of IIMK LIVE in the Board meeting on Dec 20, 2019, Debashis Chatterjee – Director of IIM K and Chairman of IIMK LIVE Board of Governors, appreciated the efforts in successfully setting up the incubator. He further, raised some issues to be considered by the board and the Executive Director in planning for the future: • What should LIVE strive to attain in 3- 5 years’ timeframe? • What are the key areas that LIVE should pay attention to in developing a sustainable plan? • How could we integrate IIMK LIVE activities with different academic programs, student activities and faculty research? Executive Director of the incubator had to address these concerns in charting the growth plan for the incubator.