We are elated to inform you that Ads4Good has won at the ISB iDiya 2009 – National Ideas Challenge. For this we would foremost like to thank you for your unconditional support and we intend to seek your ongoing support as we take our idea to fruition.

The objective of the ISB iDiya Challenge was to encourage the social entrepreneurship paradigm amongst youth in India. It endeavored to bring together entrepreneurs, mentors and investors to help create sustainable and scalable businesses that have a positive social impact.

Objectives of ISB iDiya from their website:

• Stimulate Indian youth to identify the needs within their communities, and come up with practical sustainable solutions to meet those needs.
• Create an online social networking platform to facilitate collaboration amongst individuals interested in the social sector in India.
• Support transition from idea generation to idea commercialisation through the mentorship and entrepreneurial training programme.

The highlight of the competition was a week long bootcamp with an opportunity to interact with industry leaders, venture capitalists and mentors. In addition, we are now also eligible for a 10-weeks mentoring support from a board comprising high-profile businessmen and organisations.

If we look back at the bootcamp it was the knowledge sharing and the late night discussions with invited winners which was the highlight. Considering most of the ideas were in the initial stages there was so much in common that we could share to help eachother. The other winners were as follows – Source Pilani, Green Bag Pune, Surya Kiran, Hole in the Wall and Green Basics. Our best wishes go to all of them.

To top it all, our heart goes out to the team behind iDiya. Their attention to detail and commitment was contagious. Every team was assigned a buddy and our buddy, Kavitha Gorapalli deserves special mention to help us completely restructure our business plan pitch at the last moment. Not to forget to mention, we were totally awed by the architecture and picturesque campus of ISB.

Some pictures from the ISB iDiya 2009 National Social Ideas Challenge