Business Showers are a new trend in the entrepreneurial industry. The idea started when Elon Musk’s tweet went viral, “Instead of baby showers, let's host business showers. When a friend starts a business, we all come together, congratulate them and bring resources for the business.” And just like everything else he talks about, this too became popular. Everyone was either writing or posting about it. But are people really adopting this? In India, where Godh Bharai is a common custom, can business showers be too?
We haven’t seen Business Showers being put into action in India up until now when Entrepreneurship Drive, a specialized business consultancy led by Aditi Jaiswal hosted one. Entrepreneurship Drive helps both new-age start-ups and traditional businesses, with the support and guidance they need to grow. They also provide customised investment solutions for investors by showcasing asset markets with high emerging potential growth. They recently curated their first-ever Business Shower at Radisson Hotel, Delhi on the 27th of August, 2021. The objective was to celebrate their client, Sanjay Pawah’s milestone achievement and build a business community. Sanjay Pawah, Owner of A.P. Engineering and an entrepreneur mentored by Entrepreneurship Drive achieved double sales in his SME business in the last 5 months and 5 times the sales in his coaching venture. He also launched his book, ‘Businesses - Tradition to Innovation’ at this event.
Business Showers are a great way of showing support to entrepreneurs who are starting or are stuck at crossroads. Entrepreneurs live highly stressful lives, filled with uncertainty and exhaustion, followed by the constant fear of failure which in turn calls for increased caution. The ecosystem is not always invigorating. In such a situation, Business Showers can provide the required emotional and mental support. In most cases financial too. The business shower organised by Entrepreneurship Drive was attended by HNIs, investors, mentors, consultants, seasoned entrepreneurs and promoters. Investors with the likes of Modular Capital, Fluid VC, Agility Ventures and so forth attended the event.
In such a setting not only do the entrepreneurs benefit but so do the investors. Investors get a chance to fund carefully vetted businesses or make notes for future investments. Entrepreneurship Drive represents businesses that are comparatively safer to invest in, with higher than market average returns, these businesses are backed by a strong safety net. Investors are introduced with the most opportune moment to invest in a business, along with a complete risk profile analysis and B2B SaaS. The process is monitored from deal identification to exit.
According to Aditi Jaiswal, Founder, Entrepreneurship Drive, “When a community thrives, the business and industry thrives. Our mission is to build and support enterprise business, businesses that create value while solving a problem. We help entrepreneurs, consultants and investors to make informed decisions, through a series of proprietary simple matrices. We build things that last.”
While business showers do sound flowery, people in India are still not very keen on organising them. In India, until and unless you come from a business class family, society tends to have certain prejudice towards new businesses. A 9 to 5 job is considered a haven. In such a scenario, new businesses should approach incubators, accelerators or grants for the assistance they need. If businesses require more specific action plans, mentoring or guidance, they should approach companies that support new businesses with end to end enterprise solutions.
Companies like Entrepreneurship Drive have a vast range of expertise and knowledge of newer trends to catalyse businesses. Apart from Business Showers, which they are planning to make a regular thing. They have monthly pitch calls with resident Investors in specific spaces like B2B SAAS, commercial real estate, agritech, crypto, voice marketplace and they come across startups that are promising but not within their space for investments or ticket size and recommend them to relevant networks and friends. They have also previously helped entrepreneurs get into premium international incubators. It is safe to say that one can rely on such organisations as they pivot new businesses into bigger enterprises.