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The Ahmedabad University has launched VentureStudio, a new Centre for Innovative Business Design here, in collaboration with the Center for Design Research at Stanford University (CDR), with the aim to bring together local and international resources to develop an ecosystem for innovative start-up ventures.
The new center will work with multidisciplinary teams of visionaries to create products and services that meet felt needs of individuals and communities. VentureStudio expects to launch 2-3 new ventures per year. Participants will work together in teams, prototype and test their ideas, and learn from seasoned mentors with a track record of launching successful ventures, Ahmedabad University President Sanjay Lalbhai said.
Other network partners include Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands , Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, and the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
Silicon Valley, a former agricultural region in California, illustrates the potential of bringing together researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and investors. Over the last few decades, the area around Stanford University has given rise to some of the world's most innovative businesses, including Cisco Systems, HP, Sun Microsystems, Google, Yahoo, and Apple.
These businesses built on the availability of talent created by several educational institutions in the area, including Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley and Foothill-De Anza community college.
In addition to creating immense employment these businesses also led to wealth creation. Of the top 150 companies in the Silicon Valley, 50 companies whose founders were affiliated with Stanford had a total market capitalization of over $400 billion in 2009, according to the Wellspring of Innovation database.
Ahmedabad University also felt that similar potential existed in the environment created by a cluster of leading national institutions based in Ahmedabad. VentureStudio aims to unlock the value of the talent at these institutions to create innovative new businesses that build on the entrepreneurial spirit of Gujarat, business-friendly environment, the availability of financial resources, and the experience of existing high-growth industry nearby.
VentureStudio would be a catalyst to sparks a culture of innovation and commercialization of new ideas in Ahmedabad. It will admit its first batch of entrepreneurs in the third quarter of 2011, he added.
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