Stanford Graduate School of Business has officially called for applications from India’s brightest entrepreneurs and innovators to attend its Stanford Ignite-Bangalore certificate program. Now recruiting its fifth cohort of participants in four years in India, the 10-week part-time program attracts aspiring leaders from diverse industries, including science, technology, engineering, finance, and law.The programme, which runs from January – March 2017, will be taught by the same Stanford professors who teach at the school’s world-renowned MBA programme. These faculty will deliver instruction in person, and by live video link at the programme’s location at the Infosys headquarters in Bangalore. Students from the 2016 cohort include entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs from startups such as DataGlen, Flipkart, and Letsride as well as from larger companies including Infosys, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Goldman Sachs, Cisco, Wells Fargo, and IBM India.
In 2013, Stanford Graduate School of Business selected Bangalore as the first city outside the U.S. to offer the Stanford Ignite programme. Since that time, the programme has delivered highly personal and immersive instruction to nearly 200 innovators who came to Bangalore from cities across India. The Stanford Ignite-Bangalore program is aimed at technical professionals, innovators, and entrepreneurs with no previous graduate management education. Up to 60 high-potential individuals will be admitted to the program.“Entrepreneurs need to do a lot of things; coming up with an idea that has the potential to create a new market (or disrupt an existing one) is just one of them. This programme has the potential to benefit not only those who are interested in launching a startup, but also ‘intrapreneurs’ who want to play roles as innovators inside large companies,” said faculty director James M. Lattin, the Robert A. Magowan Professor of Marketing. “Participants will learn core business skills and work in teams to get the experience of evaluating and developing ideas into a viable business ventures.”Past participants attest to the impact of the program.
“Stanford Ignite-Bangalore was a life-changing experience. It helped me better understand how to identify a good venture idea, structure it well and execute it. Getting something like this done in a short span of nine weeks is truly phenomenal. It is an exceptional program that will provide you the right tools to go and conquer the world”, said participant Lokesh Bevara, Co-founder and CEO Send Thru Me.SendThruMe is a free p2p shipping platform wherein any person who is travelling from one place to other (Out of country & Inter-city) can make money by renting his empty baggage space, people who are willing to send goods to their family and friends can book that space and can save at least 80% on the shipping cost and time.“sCoolMeal FoodVentures Pvt Ltd is a one-year old startup that was incubated at the Stanford Ignite - Bangalore programme in 2015. The purpose of the company is to solve one of the major problems that urban working parents face in not being able to provide nutritious food to their school-going children," said Kishore Acharya, cofounder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based foodtech startup. “I think the Stanford GSB Ignite program is the perfect place to meet like-minded people and learn the art of business planning that leads to successful execution of an idea”.More than 1,200 participants have completed the Stanford Ignite program worldwide. In aggregate, they have started more than 100 successful companies since the program was first introduced at Stanford University in 2006.
Financial support
Accepted applicants will be eligible to apply for a 50% scholarship. The scholarships will be awarded to up to four exceptional self-sponsored participants. Applicants must first be accepted into the programme before applying for the fellowship. Tuition fee of US$8,500 includes course materials, programme events, and lunch and dinner for evening and Saturday sessions
About Stanford Ignite
Stanford Ignite is a selective, rigorous, hands-on programme offered by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, bringing its distinctive approach to teaching entrepreneurship and management to change agents throughout the world. The programme brings together participants from a broad range of industries and gives them the knowledge and direction they need to innovate and take their ideas to the next level. Globally, Stanford Ignite is offered annually in Bangalore, India; Santiago, Chile; Sao Paulo, Brazil; London and Beijing, China. The programme is offered at Stanford in winter and summer.