In April 2025, at Product Genesis, the flagship business event of Vividhotsava 2025 at Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University (CSJMU), Kanpur, our team won 1st prize for BrandHive — a startup concept to empower small businesses through AI-generated content and UGC collaborations. The prize was presented by Prof. Vinay Kumar Pathak, the Vice Chancellor.
This wasn't a hackathon. It was a business pitch
Product Genesis judged market insight, a lean MVP structure, and a revenue model — not just working code. Over two days we refined the pitch itself as much as the product: problem validation, user acquisition plan, and a story a non-technical judge could follow in three minutes.
What I took from pitching to a Vice Chancellor
Authority in the room changes what you emphasise. A room of engineers wants architecture. A Vice Chancellor wants to know who this helps and why it matters at scale. Same product, completely different opening thirty seconds.
This recognition is more than a win — it's validation of the problem we're solving, the market we're reaching, and the solution we're building. This is chapter one.