Student entrepreneurship in Kerala-an interview report

Student entrepreneurship is gaining traction in the state of Kerala with an unprecedented focused emphasis. A rigorous entrepreneurship vigour is instilled in the economy through various activities, start-up cells, student entrepreneurship policies, entrepreneurship education etc. Many youth have already taken the major step and started their own start-up ventures parallel to education or immediately after completion of course. In order to identify the salient nature of student entrepreneurships who are the torch bearers of start-up culture in Kerala, a set of 18 start-up firms operating in Kerala were visited and an interview was conducted among their founders using an interview schedule. This report summarises the results of interviews conducted with these student entrepreneurs in Kerala. All interviewees were those who ideated their business during their studentship itself. However their reasons for entrepreneurial intention were varied, with factors like passion, interest in self-mastery and lack of satisfactory campus placement opportunities. Most of them bank on the financial support from family for business and they shared their sentiments on the difficulty to avail funding from other publicised sources.