EWE - Mr Manjunath Peddakotla

The Entrepreneurs Club successfully hosted its Evening with Entrepreneurs (EWE) session of the year 2026 on 7th January, featuring Mr. Manjunath Peddakotla, Director and CEO of Gannet Engineering, and Director at Kaura Infra Pvt. Ltd. and Kshatri Solutions Pvt. Ltd. The session offered participants a refreshing, hands-on perspective on entrepreneurship, with a strong focus on practical learning and real-world startup thinking.

Centered around the theme “From Ideas to Impact: Product Thinking for Real-World Startup Problems,” the session began on an interactive note. Participants were divided into teams and challenged to identify pressing issues within the campus ecosystem and come up with innovative business solutions. Ideas ranged from digitalizing payments in the college canteen to creating the college’s own industrial visit–organizing service, highlighting the participants’ creativity and awareness of everyday challenges.

As the discussion progressed, Mr. Manjunath emphasized the importance of product thinking over idea thinking. He shared an anecdote about a product idea proposed by a group of students he had previously interacted with—an idea that failed not because it lacked creativity, but because it was designed for the wrong target audience. Through this example, he reinforced a crucial lesson: an idea’s success is defined not by how innovative it sounds, but by the impact it creates. Even a good idea can fail if it does not solve the right problem for the right people.

He encouraged students to critically analyze their concepts by asking whether the idea was worth investing in and what value it truly delivered—whether in terms of saving cost, time, or improving quality. This helped participants shift their focus from surface-level solutions to deeper, impact-driven thinking. Mr. Manjunath then introduced a structured way to evaluate ideas using the IDEA approach: identify the problem, diagnose its root cause, and evaluate whether the solution creates meaningful impact.

The session concluded with a brief Q&A, where Mr. Manjunath shared insights from his professional journey, offering honest perspectives on entrepreneurship, decision-making, and learning from failure. His experiences resonated strongly with the audience, leaving them inspired to think more critically and purposefully about innovation.

A sincere thank-you to Mr. Manjunath Peddakotla for starting the year with such an insightful and engaging session. The event stood as a reminder that impactful entrepreneurship begins with deeply understanding the problem and designing solutions that make a real difference.