Bikalpa – an Alternative jointly organizes the “Last Thursday’s” ( a talk program on entrepreneurship) event at Biratnagar in collaboration with Network for Free Society. The objective of the program is to disseminate the ideas and knowledge about entrepreneurship through the personal sharing of successful entrepreneurs. Also, the program creates an opportunity to do networking and share ideas among the participants.

The 51th Last Thursday with an Entrepreneur was held on April 30 , 2020, Biratnagar through online. The Guest Speaker for the program was Mr. Niral khanal, Chief Executive Officer of Antarprerana.

Backstory and Entrepreneurial journey

Mr. Khanal shared his interesting journey with the audience. He started his career in 2000.  At the time, he was involved in various youth development programs and had worked with different development institutions. “I too was running my own NGO which was related to youth at the time.” he reminiscent. While working in this field, he got an opportunity to visit different parts of the country and realized that development of entrepreneurship was the only sector which would help in future development of Nepal. He recalls, “At that time I was also providing coaching programs to the youth in various disciplines other than in entrepreneurship.”

In 2009, after joining Samriddhi foundations, he got more opportunities to explore himself in the field of entrepreneurship. He also met many private sector entrepreneurs who inspired him to do something of his own.  After that, he joined another Dutch company named “want to watch” where he had his own small investment and he used to facilitate entrepreneur to bring Foreign Direct Investments. From there, he learnt about investing in entrepreneurs. He also came to know about ideas on alternative investment vehicles and how they were operated. While working there, he got interested in entrepreneurial ecosystem and how it worked. He also got familiar with business incubation programs and their working model. He acquired all these knowledge while working with the Dutch company.

The startup Business and Coaching

After 2015 earthquake, he started his own company called Antarprerana Nepal. The objectives of the company is to help early startups. It also helps in promoting Entrepreneurship, providing mentorship programs and equipping their growth with financial support. While talking about the company’s work modality, he said “Right now, we have the concept of SEEN (Strengthening the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in Nepal). Through this we are Launching business incubation Programs in different parts of Nepal such as Nepalgunj, Chitwan, Butwal,Hetuda Birjung and Kathmandu. In order to run these programs, we are partnering with Business Chamber and Local College of that place.  We also provide three months and nine months coaching programs to selected entrepreneurs. While providing mentoring to them, we also help them link with our network of other local entrepreneurs.

Three eye program

Through the first eye program, we provide entrepreneurs an incubation program, link them with experts and provide mentorship. We also teach them through our learning experience on establishing proper network. Also, we help them in refining and tuning their business model into a sustainable one.

In the second phase which is the second eye program, we talk about investments where we sort out the need of investment in the company. We also study their entry and exit model and figure out governance system of the company. After that, we help them match up with the investors. In many companies, I too have invested by myself. We are also involved in building networks of angel investors. We have also build a pool of investors and find other source of funding such as banks and government programs from which we are connecting the budding entrepreneurs.

In the third phase, we have international linkages program where we host a creative business cup annually. We are national partner from Nepal and select the best startup from the country and send them to Denmark where they have to compete with global competitors from more than eighty different countries.  I am also a representative as a senior experts of PUM Netherland. Through this program, we also bring volunteers and business experts here. Overall, we are working towards development of entrepreneurship where we incubate, investment and grow entrepreneurs through national and international linkage program. We are also working with the Bhutan government for development of their entrepreneurship program.

Challenges and Opportunities

Mr. Khanal then brought up some interesting insights which kept the session intriguing for the viewers. He said, “In 2009, the word entrepreneurship didn’t have clear meaning to us. We used to compare it with businesses and business man but right now the perspective of entrepreneurship has changed. In present scenario these two entities are looked upon differently. The startup motion has been developed. Even, small and medium enterprises and Start up are being viewed with different perspectives. I found these difference in my business community where I worked.” He further added,” I see a lot of new innovative business coming into the market and see a lot opportunities in Nepal.” He also said that Nepal is a business mined nation but at certain times, we were restraints at trading only because of the various political instabilities. At that time nobody dared to take high risk and challenges.” After 2014, I began seeing the whole scene of entrepreneurship has changed. There are lots of incubation program, Business Accelerator program and Alternative investment vehicles are coming in the market. We don’t now have to rely only in the banks anymore. We haven’t matured yet but I think the big step has already been taken in context of Nepal.” he said.

Difference between Business and Entrepreneurship.

“I think entrepreneurship also does alternative business but they are proposed driven. They come with a passion to solve the larger problem of the society. While business man has the contribution towards scaling it, if they see profit in scaling, they will go for it efficiently. Their main motto is profit. They both have important roles in the society. Sometimes, entrepreneurs have big ideas but they don’t have large operational strength. In that case, businessman sees through different dimension and thinks of expanding and targets growth. Entrepreneurs always think about scaling up. They have a vision to make company big so there is higher chance of risk involved. In the other hand, businessmen take calculative risk. If there is high risk then they don’t want to enter. Also, there are two things called propose and profit. Entrepreneurs are focused on propose and business man are focused on profit.  I think both are right. Entrepreneurs are focused on innovation and have high risk taking capacity attitude. They worked on their passion hobby and create business through it.”

Government policy or social good 

While talking about government policy he said “If you expect anything from the government, then you will get nothing. In context of Nepal it is to act like a fool when we expect anything from the government. We can’t do anything if we rely on the government. As we know, question are always raised on innovation or policy which comes first. Everywhere in the world, business idea and innovation comes first and role of the government is to facilitate it and make policy.  If we wait for the government to make policies and then begin the work, then that is not entrepreneurship. There will be disruption and loopholes. So, the government should properly monitor to see if that idea is genuinely doing social good for society or not.  It is important to understand whether the Government itself as an institution has the capacity or human resources to recognize the business model and the innovative ideas. In Nepal, we don’t find such type of specialized human resource.”

He also added” We should stop asking what the government will do for us. Instead, we should start working. I hope that one day, they will understand us. There are also challenges here. There is lack of likeminded and critical mass of Entrepreneurs and Startup here. So, until we have bigger mass of ethically proven business community, we will have to suffer. Till then we should also expect less from the government.”

Mr. Khanal concluded by saying that starting up anything is not easy. It takes a lot of guts besides hard work, determination, and going that extra mile. The road to entrepreneurship is not without challenges. By providing examples of his own ups and downs in life, he suggested to remain focused on one thing and work on it. He also said “What matters is to let passion and integrity speak for the work we are doing,” .During the ongoing session, viewers were allowed to put their questions and they were answers by the speaker. The virtual session was watched by more than fifty people through bikalpa page, who made this session successful.  In the last minute of session, Vote of thanks to the guest speaker was shared by Mr Basanta Adhikari, founder of Bikalpa an Alternative, marking the end of the session.

Full Program Record: