ExperientialLearning
Learning entrepreneurship through experience.
Building the Next Generation of Visionaries
At WISE Tech, we believe entrepreneurship is best learnt through experience; by engaging with real founders, solving real business challenges, and making decisions in environments where uncertainty is the norm.
Our experiential learning ecosystem bridges management education with venture building by enabling students to work closely with emerging technology startups, applying management frameworks to live business problems across customer discovery, product strategy, market validation, growth, and venture capital evaluation. Rather than analysing case studies, students contribute to live ventures that are being built and scaled.
Our experiential learning model has been intentionally designed to create value for both students and startups, with startups benefiting from structured management thinking, rigorous analysis, and practical recommendations that support their venture-building journey.
The WISE Tech experiential learning model combines live startup projects, specialised electives, and participation in the Institute's entrepreneurship ecosystem through ADMAP to provide students with a rich and multidimensional understanding of venture creation.
As a result, students graduate not only with a strong foundation in management, but also with practical experience of evaluating investment opportunities, validating business opportunities, and building innovation-led businesses.
Whether they choose careers in entrepreneurship, venture capital, consulting, product management, corporate innovation, or high-growth startups, they enter the workforce with experiences that extend well beyond the traditional management classroom.
Collectively, the following experiences enable PGDM students to develop strong problem-framing skills, identify and validate assumptions, navigate ambiguity, understand strategic trade-offs, and appreciate the realities and constraints of building a company.
The First Year Startup Project is a flagship experiential learning initiative that enables every PGDM student to work directly with a real startup, applying the knowledge and management frameworks acquired during the first year of the programme to live entrepreneurial challenges.
- Integrates concepts from strategy, marketing, finance, operations, organisational behaviour, and product management.
- Students deliver practical, evidence-based recommendations that create real value for startups.
- The project culminates the first-year learning journey by translating theory into impact.
Hands-on electives in the fourth and sixth semesters that provide dual exposure to both the investor and founder perspectives.
Venture Evaluation (Term 4)
- Simulates the VC investment process.
- Students evaluate startups, conduct due diligence, and prepare an Investment Committee (IC) Memo, with top teams presenting to a jury of VCs.
Customer Discovery & Venture Building (Term 6)
- Students work with founders on customer discovery, market validation, and opportunity shaping.
- Use frameworks like Jobs-to-be-Done, First Principles, and Ecosystem Mapping.
- Gain exposure through accelerator workshops on fundraising, go-to-market, scaling, and more.
Through the ADMAP Committee, students collaborate with the WISE Tech team to design and deliver flagship startup initiatives.
- Engage with founders, investors, mentors, industry leaders, and ecosystem partners.
- Support programmes like India Pitchathon, bootcamps, workshops, conferences, and founder engagement.
- Selected students serve as Student Analysts in the WISE Tech Startup Evaluation Team.
- Gain first-hand experience in startup screening, founder interviews, business model analysis, and venture evaluation using WISE Tech's proprietary methodology.