Towards a bright future

Nouman Khan, a 24-year-old and graduate from Presidency College, is an inspiration to all. At the tender age of 21, he set up an internship portal, ‘www.LetsIntern.com’, a marketing agency.

“We have provided internships to over two million students across India in the past four years. We always believed when one starts young, they always stay ahead,” says Nouman, the senior manager at the portal. He adds that it’s not unusual to sometimes feel lost when it comes to managing our careers. He believes that there are many opportunities but sometimes students need to be pushed a little.

“Students are usually clueless as to how they should choose their career and in which direction they should head. I always made myself available through ‘Letsintern’ to deliver great opportunities to them,” he says.

Nouman has been a TEDx speaker at Christ University and the chief guest at Mount Carmel College and Manipal University in Mangaluru for ‘Start Up Day’.

Having delivered 20 guest lectures across various colleges in the city and having judged business fests, he seems to have it all figured out. “I have helped several students from various backgrounds to understand what they want to do in life. They should find their passion. Once they know what they want, they should run behind it and not stop till they get it.”

Harman Singh also had a similar mindset. While Nouman Khan set up a marketing agency, Harman set up a convention, ‘Grade Up’, for budding entrepreneurs.

“At ‘Grade Up’, we look at bringing out talented individuals who have the ability to think out-of-the-box, enforce the idea of change. We want to develop in them the essence of looking out and the passion to build and achieve the goal of a start up.”
    He has a vision to have a million startups by the year 2025. He believes that it’s the young minds who possess the ability to take the entire world by surprise.

‘Grade Up’ came up with the concept of ‘Starpreneur’ – a startup entrepreneurship challenge for the budding entrepreneurs. Groups of four students were asked to create and conceptualise an idea that was functional, Google proof, and that could be turned into a Startup. Speakers from various industries including Sridhar, Advisor at BHive Workspace and Rannvijay Singh, actor, host and performer, gave valued inputs about startups and career enhancement.

“‘Grade Up’ has a bigger picture in mind, where it sees the nation booming with various startups. The thought of a student working on their own startup ideas whilst pursuing academics, is breath-taking. We carry a vision that enables us to see an incubation centre leading to startups, which in turn would lead to employment and hence which would lead to a better economy. The vision of a million startups by 2025 is fascinating and yet achievable. Our vision is to inculcate financial independence," says Priyanka Shah, who helped him set up this convention. “‘Grade Up 2016’ is a mere direction provider, a platform-giver, where we thrive to give clarity to students’ decisions and choices,” Harman concludes.