Kolkata, India: Rishav Sadhu, Co-Founder & CEO of Webingo Infotech Solutions LLP, recently joined the judging panel for Idea Ignition 2.0 – Startup & Business Idea Pitch Competition, organised by Futurepreneurs – E-Cell, Department of Management, Techno India University, West Bengal, as part of the National Entrepreneurship Challenge (NEC) 2026 by E-Cell, IIT Bombay. The event was conducted in celebration of World Entrepreneurship Day and brought together aspiring student entrepreneurs to present and defend their startup and business ideas.
The event provided a platform for student founders to move beyond classroom learning and experience the realities of presenting a business idea before an experienced jury. Teams presented their concepts, explained the problems they aimed to solve, and responded to questions around their business models, target markets, revenue opportunities, and future scalability.
Rishav Sadhu Joins Jury to Evaluate Emerging Student Entrepreneurs
As a member of the judging panel, Rishav Sadhu evaluated participating startup and business ideas across multiple dimensions, including the problem statement, proposed solution, value proposition, target market, business model, revenue model, market opportunity, and future scope. Each participating team was given three minutes to pitch, followed by a two-minute jury question-and-answer session.
The judging experience gave Rishav an opportunity to interact directly with young entrepreneurs and understand the ideas, ambitions, and challenges being explored by the next generation of student founders.
Rather than evaluating ideas purely from a theoretical perspective, he brought his experience as an entrepreneur and startup mentor into the discussion, focusing on practical questions around customer problems, market validation, execution, scalability, and commercial viability.
The organisers had specifically invited Rishav Sadhu based on his entrepreneurial experience and journey as a founder, expressing that his insights would be valuable to the participating students.
From Building Businesses to Guiding Emerging Founders
For Rishav Sadhu, participating as a jury member represents another step in his broader involvement with India’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Also being the curator of Startup Like A Pro, Rishav has spent years building businesses and working closely with entrepreneurs. His approach to entrepreneurship is centred around practical execution—understanding what works in the real market, learning from failures, and helping founders identify strategies that can move their businesses forward.
During his interaction with the student entrepreneurs, the emphasis remained on turning ideas into actionable businesses rather than simply presenting ideas that sound innovative.
A strong startup idea, according to this approach, needs to answer fundamental questions: What problem are you solving? Who has this problem? Why will they pay for your solution? How will you acquire customers? And can the business realistically scale?
These practical questions can often help young founders identify gaps in their thinking at an early stage—before they invest significant time and resources into building the wrong solution.
Encouraging Practical Entrepreneurship Among Students
The interaction between the jury and participating teams also highlighted the importance of creating more opportunities for students to experience entrepreneurship beyond traditional academic environments.
Pitching a business idea within a limited timeframe requires founders to communicate clearly, understand their numbers, defend their assumptions, and respond to challenging questions. These are skills that become increasingly important as entrepreneurs move from an idea stage towards customers, investors, partners, and the wider market.
Idea Ignition 2.0 created such an environment by combining startup pitching with direct jury interaction and feedback. The organisers also facilitated interaction between judges and aspiring student entrepreneurs, along with formal felicitation and certificates of appreciation for the judging panel.
Strengthening the Student Startup Ecosystem
The event forms part of the broader National Entrepreneurship Challenge 2026 by E-Cell, IIT Bombay, connecting student entrepreneurship initiatives with a wider national entrepreneurship ecosystem.
For emerging founders, such platforms provide an opportunity to test their business ideas in front of experienced professionals, receive direct feedback, and gain a better understanding of what it takes to transform an idea into a viable business.
Rishav Sadhu’s participation as a jury member also reflects his growing involvement in mentoring and engaging with young entrepreneurs.
Beyond his work at Webingo, he has mentored 500+ startups and aspiring entrepreneursand continues to share practical entrepreneurship and business strategies through StartupLike A Pro, a growing platform focused on helping founders understand the realities of building and scaling businesses.
Rishav Sadhu’s Message to the Next Generation
For Rishav, the experience reinforced a belief that has shaped his own entrepreneurial journey: entrepreneurship begins with taking action.
Many aspiring founders wait for the perfect idea, perfect resources, or perfect timing. However, businesses are ultimately built by testing ideas, speaking to customers, learning from mistakes, and continuously improving.
The role of mentors, jury members, educational institutions, and entrepreneurship cells is therefore not simply to tell students what to do, but to challenge their assumptions and help them discover better answers themselves.
The interaction at Idea Ignition 2.0 provided an opportunity to do exactly that—encourage young founders to think more deeply, execute more confidently, and approach entrepreneurship with a practical mindset.
A Step Forward in Rishav Sadhu’s Entrepreneurship Journey
Rishav Sadhu’s participation as a jury member at Idea Ignition 2.0 under the National Entrepreneurship Challenge 2026 by E-Cell, IIT Bombay, adds another dimension to his growing contribution to India’s startup ecosystem.
From building businesses and mentoring founders to speaking with young entrepreneurs and now evaluating student startup ideas, his journey increasingly reflects a broader mission: to help create more informed, resilient, and execution-focused entrepreneurs.
As India’s student startup ecosystem continues to expand, platforms that connect young founders with experienced entrepreneurs can play an important role in turning promising ideas into meaningful businesses.
For Rishav Sadhu, the objective remains simple—build, learn, share, and help the next entrepreneur build better.
About Rishav Sadhu
Rishav Sadhu is the Co-Founder & CEO of Webingo and Curator of Startup Like A Pro,an entrepreneur, startup mentor, technology professional, and public speaker. He works with businesses and entrepreneurs on technology, digital transformation, business strategy, and growth.
He has mentored 500+ startups and aspiring entrepreneurs and runs Startup Like A Pro, an entrepreneurial education platform through which he shares practical startup strategies, business insights, and execution-focused lessons with founders and aspiring entrepreneurs.
His recent participation as a jury member at Idea Ignition 2.0, conducted as part of the National Entrepreneurship Challenge 2026 by E-Cell, IIT Bombay, further strengthens his engagement with India’s student entrepreneurship ecosystem.