New Delhi, May 3 (KNN)  Inspired by the belief that 'one simple idea can change everything' Harvard Business School has honoured various entrepreneurs / start-ups including four Indians who have contributed to making a difference in the world.
 
The Competition has been sponsored by the School's Arthur Rock Centre for Entrepreneurship, the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative, and HBS Alumni Relations.

 “The Grand Prize in the Social Enterprise Track went to Saathi, founded by Amrita Saigal (MBA 2014) and Kristin Kagetsu. It provides affordable and available sanitary pads locally produced from waste banana tree fibre to women in rural India,” official data said.

Currently in operation in two villages, Saathi plans to expand soon to five villages and employ 50 women to make the product. It received the USD 50,000 Peter M. Sacerdote Prize, which was established through the generosity of the Sacerdote family to honor the late Peter Sacerdote (MBA 1964) and enable more HBS students to apply their skills to develop and launch their own social purpose ventures. The audience choice award determined by an electronic crowd vote was also conferred to Saathi.

As for the business track category, Alfred, a concierge service that people can use for their daily and weekly tasks, including dry cleaning, house cleaning, groceries, laundry, etc was the winner with a cash prize of USD 50,000.  The start-up has been launched by Saurabh Mahajan, Marcela Sapone and Jess Beck.

'Tomato Jos' founded by MBA students Mira Mehta and Mike Lawrence received the runner-up prize in the social enterprise track.  'Tomato Jos' is a vertically integrated tomato processing company that helps small farmers in Nigeria grow tomatoes that can then be made into tomato paste.

'Booya Fitness' founded by MBA student Pritar Kumar won the runner-up award and a USD 25,000 cash prize in the business category. The unit is an on-demand video platform featuring workouts created by the industry's best boutique gyms and instructors.

Now in its 18th year, the Harvard Business School New Venture Competition supports both students and alumni launching new business and social impact ventures.
“Entrepreneurs are quirky, unreasonable, and irrational,” Director of the School’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Meredith McPherron adding, “They are the people who are changing the world, changing the fabric of our economic culture.”

The capstone event of the School’s expansive offerings in entrepreneurship, this year’s NVC attracted 150 Harvard MBA candidates as well as students from six other Harvard graduate schools. In addition, HBS graduates from 17 HBS alumni “hub” clubs worldwide participated in 14 regional competitions.

The official voting was done by a panel of distinguished judges, many of them HBS graduates, representing fields such as venture capital, angel investing, consulting, law accounting, life sciences, high technology, venture philanthropy, impact investing, social entrepreneurship, and academia. Over the course of the entire competition, which began last fall, more than 200 judges and mentors took part.

The mission of Harvard Business School is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. All the participants in the New Venture Competition have begun to do that in the early stages of their careers, “turning roadblocks into avenues and hard questions into innovative solutions,” as they attempt to solve problems that will advance both business and society in new ways.  (KNN/ES)