Dhaka:Around 60 university students and aspiring entrepreneurs participated in a daylong programme at Dhaka International University (DIU) on Tuesday, learning essential skills for testing business ideas and navigating policy and regulatory challenges.
According to United News of Bangladesh, the event, part of StartKoro Season 5, was organized by Preneur Lab Youth and Innovation Trust with support from Atlas Network. The programme aimed to help participants identify significant problems, test customer needs for proposed solutions, and understand the business environment.
Mentorship was provided by Alamin Pranto, director of Start2Scaleup, and M. Ashraful Tanvir, head of operations and administration at Preneur Lab. University faculty members also contributed as guest speakers. The participants engaged in ideation, market research, customer needs assessment, product validation, and minimum viable product development.
During the Smart Policy Reform Lab segment, attendees discussed the policy and regulatory landscape impacting startups and small businesses, making recommendations to address potential barriers.
StartKoro's initiative supports young entrepreneurs from idea inception to business establishment. The fifth season has engaged over 365 entrepreneurs, leading to the creation of more than 60 new businesses and approximately 200 new jobs, according to Preneur Lab estimates.
Organisers highlighted that entrepreneurship training needs to be complemented by improvements in licensing, taxation, and finance access for young businesses. Over five Smart Policy Reform Labs, participants submitted more than 260 recommendations for policy research on business registration, licence validity, and SME finance.
In July, the StartKoro AI Hub was launched, providing AI-powered guidance on business registration, licences, taxation, and planning within the Bangladeshi context. By September, 100 entrepreneurs had utilized the platform.
Plans are underway to expand the incubation programme from five to ten cities and to publish policy research, aiming to decentralize the startup ecosystem from Dhaka and promote policy engagement among young entrepreneurs.