CIIE.CO at IIM-Ahmedabad announced that it has launched a first-of-its-kind People and Culture Accelerator to accelerate 30 startups. The 3-month program will include startups across pre-series A – series B and will include an intensive bootcamp on IIM Ahmedabad campus, bespoke mentoring and various other benefits for startups to overcome a variety of HR-related challenges including hiring, performance management, attrition, formalisation etc.
The 3-month accelerator program will involve an immersive in-person bootcamp held on the IIM Ahmedabad campus. It will also feature bespoke consulting clinics, weekly collaborative problem-solving sessions, and numerous other advantages. Notably, this is an open enrollment accelerator, implying that participating startups will pay a fee to be a part of this cohort. During the program, startups will focus on various challenges, including but not limited to hiring, attrition, founder’s leadership abilities, culture-building, compensation and benefits, and performance management and appraisals.
“When an average person thinks of a startup, she thinks of a young, recently graduated, group of friends. This is hardly true. Building a startup is serious work and people are at the centre of everything that startups do. We designed this accelerator to help address a variety of people related challenges that every other startup faces. Over our 20 year journey, we have intentionally built people and culture capacities in our supported startups. We are now opening this to the entire startup ecosystem, hoping to aid startups with tools that can enable them to build bigger and better.”, said Supriya Sharma, Partner, CIIE.CO. People and culture problems are the third leading cause of startups failure. People related problems are severe for startups mainly because of startups’ hyper dynamic environments, fluctuating finances and limited leadership experience.
Startups in early stages especially struggle with an inability to graduate from a hustle-oriented, reaction-led, fast-responding team to a more formalised albeit agile, efficient and well-oiled organisation. CIIE.CO, built at IIM Ahmedabad, is the foremost and largest startup platform in India. Over its 20 year history, CIIE.CO has mentored over 5000 startups, invested in over 700 startups and trained more than 2000 startups as part of its incubation and acceleration programs. CIIE.CO is the pioneer of acceleration programs in India and has run some of the largest and most innovative accelerator programs including The Power of Ideas, India Innovation Growth Program, Financial Inclusion Lab and Accenture Sustainability Accelerator. With the upcoming People and Culture Accelerator, CIIE.CO aims to empower founders with foundational knowledge, tools, frameworks and first principles to safely scale to the next stage