IIM Calcutta Student Opts out of Final Placements, Starts Own Venture

IIM Calcutta Student Opts out of Final Placements, Starts Own Venture

He has done it yet again. In the B-school parlance, they call it OOPS (Out Of Placement Season) and this year, Ankur Gattani is the only student from the 2006-08 PGDM Batch of Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta to have opted out from the final placements, not taking up a job.

He's set his mind on a venture of his own, and as a first step into his entrepreneurial journey, he has initiated a portal called lifeinlines.com, taking up the position of the Founder and CEO of Onelife Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd..

"In a fast-paced life, we tend to lose out on the little moments and little pleasures of life, tending to lose touch with ourselves and people close to us, as life just whizzes by. Lifeinlines is going to make it really simple to record your autobiography, a collection of little moments from your life as they happen, stored privately or shared with selected people," Ankur says.

Commenting on his choice of name for the company, Ankur puts the idea of 'Onelife' as a core philosophy, as you only live once and must pack all that you want to do into this one life. He also intends to create a platform to simplify knowledge creation by thought leaders from different walks of life, who at the moment do not write too often and, thus, access to their knowledge is limited.

An IIT-B alumnus, Ankur Gattani had earlier opted out from the placements there in 2006 as well as the summer placements of IIM-C during 2007. He interned with Educomp Solutions, where he got initiated into the high action Internet business world and developed a marketing plan for an e-learning website. But why did he decide to opt out from the final placements and start an entrepreneurial venture? Pat comes a smiling reply, "I would have launched lifeinlines before my convocation on April 5. It will give me a fulltime job before most of my friends on the campus join their jobs."

And who's funding this venture of his? "I haven't approached external investors yet, mothers are angels anyway, my mom is my angel investor too! She's loaning me the initial fund."

Concluded.

Contributed by -
External Relations Secretaries,
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

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