How These Startups are Selling their Ideas Differently This year, in Franchise India's 15th Opportunity India Summit, three innovative startups presented their ideas in front of esteemed investors

Finding the right investor who would also benefit from your idea through equity is quite a herculean task.

However, presenting an idea to sell, in front of a big audience and experienced investors is another ball game altogether. This year, in the 15th Opportunity India Summit, organized by Franchise India, three innovative startups presented their ideas in front of the esteemed set of investors who could help them scale up their enterprise.

There were startups with supply chain perspective, who were into retailing and one of them was automation based. Each of them was given three minutes to present their ideas; the teams tried to convince the curious investors in the most articulate way possible.

Following this, the mentors asked the contenders few questions to understand the products better.

The esteemed panel of judges included Vimal Kumar, Co-founder and COO, Mentor & Entrepreneur, Finovista; Abhijeet Malhotra , Chapter-head, Delhi & North India region, Lead Angels; Muthu Singaram, CEO Incubation at Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC); Tejasvi Mohanram, Founder, RupeePower; Amit Singal, CEO, Startup Buddy; Girish Shivani, Executive Director and Fund Manager, Co-Founder, YourNest; Sameer Gupta, CEO, Ah! Gyan Guru; Sachin Gaur, Director, Innovation Curls; Pankaj Thakar, Founder and Chief Mentor, PadUp Ventures-A tech incubator, Angel Investor; Nidhi Saraf, Founder and CEO, Key Vebnture; Vishal Gandhi, Founder and CEO, BIORx Venture Advisors. Where not many investors were impressed with the ideas, Tejasvi Mohanram, Founder, RupeePower, did commend the entrepreneurs by saying "It takes guts to stand in front of so many people and explain your idea."

By the end of the session, the Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur and Franchise India, Ritu Marya asked investors to give a success mantra each. The meticulous pitching came to an end when Ritu Marya announced the winner as Nelf, founded by Rakesh Bansal and Nishant Jalan.

Nailing The Top Spot

Nelf was started by Rakesh Bansal and Nishant Jalan in 2014 with a capital investment of INR1 crore. With 200 of beauty advisors, eight modern trade outlets, Nelf has its presence in approx 2,000 general stores across 20 cities.

Rakesh was mesmerized as he heard his name being announced as the winner. What worked for him was the fact that everyone was trying to prove that they were "different'. However, Nelf just talked about the real business aspect and how they are going to use the fund.

He says, "We never claimed to be different. We just explained what we aspire to become. To be announced as the winners at such a grand event was a big boost to our self-confidence."

(This article was first published in the December issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)