C-TIDES

“Success is never final, just like failure is never fatal. Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared. Fear failure so much that you get the courage to succeed.”

If you have the courage to stand out and be counted, then Breakthrough 2009 is the way to go. Breakthrough is for those who do not take ‘No’ for an answer. What better a business can be than the one which solves a problem through an innovative solution!

Breakthrough is the annual Business plan competition organized by IIT Madras' Entrepreneurship Cell. It is one of the biggest B-plan competitions in India and has quickly become one of the most popular platforms for budding entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas.

What’s new at Breakthrough 2009:

Technology = Interesting
Entrepreneurship = Risky
Technological entrepreneurship = Sure bucks!

With a mission to bring out the best in the students’ entrepreneurial side while keeping in mind the constant need for newer technologies, we kick off Breakthrough 2009 with a new refreshing format.

With prize money up to 3 lacs for grabs and an opportunity to showcase your prototypes (we mean it, literally) we can simply say, “don’t miss the opportunity”.

• The participating teams should send the executive summaries of their business ideas.
• Ideas pertaining to technical innovations will be preferred.
• All entries to be sent through e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
• The teams will be short-listed based on the executive summaries and they will be informed by November 17th.
• The short-listed teams will be encouraged to build on their technical innovation (prototype, code etc.) and will be required to showcase it during the finals. The C-TIDES team will reimburse the prototyping cost (subject to conditions).
• The short-listed teams may submit their initial draft of business plan by December 6th. Feedback will be provided by mentors so as to help you improve on your b-plan.
• The short-listed teams are required to submit their final business-plans and will be required to give a presentation of their idea to the judge panel during Breakthrough 2009.
• Mentoring support will be provided on a host of topics like marketing, funding options, intellectual protection etc.
• The bplan document will be expected from all the teams by January 3rd and the finals will be held at IIT-Madras on January 10th

Rules:

• The summary should not exceed 1 page.
• Total number of members per team should not exceed 5
• Teams are allowed to send multiple ideas, However only one of the business ideas could be shortlisted as a final entry.
• Incomplete entries shall be disqualified.
• A participant can be in multiple teams.
• The C-TIDES team holds the right to disqualify any team if they are found violating any rules of the competition.
• The judges, mentors and the organizers will take the utmost care in handling the entries, and will guarantee the utmost confidence.
• The decision of the judges is final.
• The organizers hold the right to disqualify a team if the idea is already implemented in the market.
• The ideas should be original and innovative.( an innovative concept provides a solution for a new need, or offers a new way of fulfilling an existing need or makes a clear advancement compared to existing products, services or technologies*)
• The length business-plans is expected to be around 20 pages and the presentation should not exceed 30mins.

Prize money worth 3 lakhs up for grabs of which 10% is paid upfront and the rest will be granted after the actual start of the venture.

Breakthrough 2008 with total prize money of 3 lacs, was one of the flagship events at Shaastra 2008. The competition was one of the 3 events in the track of entrepreneurship organized by C-TIDES.

The format of the event required the participants to send in their B-Plans of which 10 entries were selected for the Breakthrough Finals. The quantity and the quality of entries demanded the whole of C-TIDES team to sit for two nights to hand pick the best of them, the initial selection process focused on the basic aspects of a B-Plan which consist of

• The feasibility of the idea
• The background work the team has put into thinking about the idea
• Originality of the idea
• The marketing and the financial figures shown by the team in their B-Plan and the practicality associated with those numbers

The C-TIDES team rated each plan individually on these parameters with technical ideas receiving a few brownie points and finalized upon a list of 25 entries to be further vetted by the faculty advisers of the C-TIDES to select the final 10 entries that are going to compete in the finals at Shaastra 2008.

The entries for the first phase of the competition included teams from some of the premier institutes like ISB, IIM’s, and many of the sister IIT’s. There has been a marked improvement in the participation from IIT M with it accounting for around 35 entries for the first round of competition.

The final held on 5th October, 2008 was a grand affair with all the teams coming down from different parts of India to showcase their potential by giving a presentation on their idea. The judge panel for the event consisted of a very healthy mix of VC’s and industry experts. The judges panel constituted - Mr. B Ramachandran (GE, Business Leader in R & D division); Mr. M N Ravi Shankar (Director, LANCO Energy Utility): Ms. Anuradha and Mr. Ram Bethmangalkar (Investment Managers with Ventureast).

After 8 hours of presentation, our winners were teams from IT BHU (Ceramites), IIT Madras (Buoyed Windmill) and GRIET (Redivivus) in winning order.

• What is expected in the executive summary?
  The executive summary should contain a brief description of the concept, revenue generation model, and the financial projections of the idea. It generally does not exceed one page.
• How do I send the executive summary?
  Mail the executive summary as a pdf/doc file to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
• What is expected in the Business plan?
  The business plan should clearly explain your business model. Please check the example provided for a general layout.
• What sort of mentoring support can be provided?
  A mentor will be assigned to help you with your business plan.

List of shortlisted teams