Soar high with Lufthansa’s Runway to Success. Register today and win big!

This article is brought to you by Lufthansa.

For four straight years, Lufthansa Runway to Success has provided India’s entrepreneurs the best mentorship and the most amazing stage on which to showcase their talent and business potential. The number of applications for the programme doubled to 50,000 in Season 4 last year, clearly reflecting its reputation as a platform that accelerates and enriches an entrepreneur’s journey to success. Over 1.5 lakh young entrepreneurs have benefited from various aspects of the initiative in the last four years.

[Apply today to be part of Lufthansa Runway to Success – Season 5. Entries close August 31]

This unique, multi-staged programme is jointly organised by Lufthansa, TiE, and India’s premiere business TV channel, ET NOW. In the past four years, Runway to Success has attracted some of the country’s most innovative entrepreneurs, who have gone head-to-head in a fierce competition that rewards exceptional ideas and execution.

How it works

You start off by taking just a minute to apply to Lufthansa Runway to Success – Season 5, right here.

From there, a jury will shortlist the 21 most promising applicants to appear on the power-packed TV series to be broadcast on ET NOW. Each of the first seven episodes will feature a business icon who will evaluate three entrepreneurs that will feature on the episode – one entrepreneur from each of these episodes will move to the semi-final. The semi-finalists will then fight it out for three spots in a thrilling Grand Finale that will be telecast live. The winner this year will walk away with the Grand Prize that includes:

1. Sponsorship to a business programme at Cambridge University
2. A business class ticket to Europe
3. Much-coveted mentorship from TiE

Winner of Season 4, Rashi Sanon Narang, described her experience on Lufthansa Runway to Success as “invaluable”, adding, “It’s been extremely enriching and I’ve learnt a lot. It helped me reflect as to what I was doing and what I could do better…I had access to some of the best mentors that we had on the show. It’s been a huge learning.”

Earlier this year, Rashi’s pet products company, Heads Up For Tails, raised $2 million in a Pre-Series A round from a group of high net worth individuals.

Winner of Season 3, Mandeep Manocha (Co-founder and CEO, ReGlobe) summed up his experience saying, “Lufthansa Runway to Success has been an enriching experience, which will continue to inspire me ahead on the journey of entrepreneurship like never before. To have discussed my business ideas with such proficient minds has given me a reason to gear up all the more for an exponential growth at ReGlobe.”

[Don’t miss your chance. Register with Lufthansa Runway to Success – Season 5]

Long before the TV series starts, the programme provides a host of other benefits to entrepreneurs through its series of mentorship camp hosted by TiE.

Mentorship on the runway to success

Successful entrepreneurs often attribute their success to skilled mentors, and the Mentorship Camps organised by TiE provide young entrepreneurs with access to experts from the industry who will interact with participants, both individually as well as in a group.

Sangeeta Sharma, Senior Manager, Marketing & Communications, Lufthansa Group, says, “Entrepreneurs are a very important target group for Lufthansa in India. And Runway to Success brings alive for this audience our philosophy of Nonstop You and our promise of striving to be More Indian Than You Think. This season, we are excited to further expand our outreach with mentorship camps at new start-up hubs across the country.”

The camps are being conducted both in the metros and regional hubs, taking the expertise on offer to as many places in India as possible. And these are the places where a whole generation of entrepreneurs is using innovation to create new solutions that have the potential to make an impact on millions of lives all over the country. Lufthansa is thus taking this Runway to Success right to doorstep of India’s entrepreneurs, giving them an opportunity to meet industry icons and get the mentorship they need and deserve from business experts, investors and industry experts, among others.

“Lufthansa and TiE Delhi-NCR have been working closely together for the past 5 years to build Lufthansa Runway to Success as a platform to nurture future business leaders in India“, shared Geetika Dayal, Executive Director, TiE Delhi-NCR. “Guru Sessions at Lufthansa Runway to Success Mentorship camps held by TiE Chapters across the country provide a platform for experts to pass on valuable insights and business lessons that they have learned through experience. We hope that the participants get a better understanding of entrepreneurship for their entrepreneurial journey” added Geetika.

Click here for a schedule of mentorship camps.

Paurus Nekoo, General Manager – Sale, at Lufthansa Group, says, “This is not a simple sponsorship programme. We are there, hand-in-hand, right from conceptualising, to planning and implementation. Since last year we have extended (the camps) to Tier 2 cities, and this year we have entered Pune as well.”

The series of mentorship camps will culminate at the Startup Expo to be held in NCR on August 23. This is where they can showcase their businesses, find customers, partnership opportunities, mentors and investors. It’s an action-packed day where the entire ecosystem converges to provide entrepreneurs everything they need to achieve their goals and realise their dreams.

Last year’s Startup Expo saw 180 startups from across the country, not to mention 200 exhibits by entrepreneurs, as well as 30 investors. This year’s expo promises even more. Watch this space for more.

[Read more about the 2016 Startup Expo here.]

The time is now! Hop on

Lufthansa Runway to Success promises to be a learning experience of a lifetime! If you’re looking for an opportunity that will give your venture wings, then fill out the application and embark on a journey like no other.

Get ready for the learning experience of a lifetime and step onto the Runway to Success!

Applications close on August 31, 2017. Register now.