Student Life
“I thought college would be like a Karan Johar movie.” Instead, founding-batch students spent their first semester running real businesses, consulting real companies, and shipping apps with AI. Here’s what actually happens at NEXIS.
Most first-year students expect lectures, attendance and exams. At NEXIS School of Business, the founding batch got something very different — a first semester packed with real ventures, live consulting projects, national competitions and AI tools. “It was too much for first-year students,” one student laughs, “but we learned a lot.” Here’s the unfiltered version, in their words.
Building a real business in semester one
One of the first things NEXIS students do isn’t read a marketing textbook — it’s launch a business. Through the dropshipping project, students source products, sell to customers and manage the margin in between. One team, “Shashi Craft,” ran a personalised gifting line — soft toys with names embroidered on them — and generated over ₹50,000 in revenue, setting up stalls at schools, the campus, and a dropshipping mela at a city market.
The learning wasn’t just the money. Explaining a product to a stranger, handling rejection, pricing, and building an actual app to take orders — that’s the curriculum. As one student put it, “coming to NEXIS and starting my own business in the first semester really feels like a dream.”
Consulting real companies (LBC)
The first-semester Local Business Consulting (LBC) course drops students into real companies to solve real problems. One team worked with Voyage Hotels & Resorts, building a chatbot, a full app and a loyalty-points programme. Another consulted a financial-advisory firm on internal efficiency and digital expansion — developing software for their team and growing their social presence over a five-to-six-month engagement.
“The LBC project was my first-ever exposure to industry. We helped a real business build something and solve something real. We even won the LBC Excellence Award.”
— NEXIS founding-batch student
It’s a hands-on version of what a 3-year Business Management curriculum should be: theory you immediately execute.
Learning to build with AI
Perhaps the biggest surprise for students was AI. NEXIS teaches practical AI tools that most people — students estimate 98% — simply don’t know exist yet. In one exam, students didn’t write on paper; they built automation workflows that send email replies to customers. In class, they built full websites and apps with tools like Lovable (“it takes just 15 minutes to build one”), created order-taking apps for their own dropshipping stores, and generated polished presentations with Gamma AI in seconds instead of hours.
Why it matters“Every day they teach something new about AI. I didn’t even know these tools existed.” Learning to prompt, automate and ship with AI is fast becoming the single most transferable business skill — and NEXIS bakes it into everyday learning.
▶ Watch the full story on the NEXIS YouTube channel.
Events, sports and campus life
NEXIS is, as students say, “all about events.” The first semester alone included a Finance hackathon (a live market-simulation game where the highest portfolio wins), a Business Fest with 150+ participants from schools across Siliguri, a Fresher’s party (one student came dressed as Virat Kohli, jersey number 18 and all), Diwali and Saraswati Puja celebrations, and a picnic that doubled as a treasure hunt.
Sports run every Tuesday — pickleball, basketball, badminton and more than ten sports played as friendly tournaments — plus table-tennis and carrom breaks between classes. For students who arrived shy, hosting and winning events changed everything. “I went from speaking lower to being a part of a podcast,” one said. See more in life at NEXIS.
- Students launch real businesses (like a ₹50,000 dropshipping venture) in the first semester.
- The LBC course has them consult real companies — building apps, chatbots and growth strategies.
- Practical AI (automation, app-building, AI presentations) is part of everyday learning.
- Events, 10+ sports and industry visits build confidence and communication fast.
Internships in the first year
All of this adds up to something rare: internships in the first year. Founding-batch students completed roles at an IT consultancy (as a founder’s-office intern), an EV-space startup that has raised around $2 million, and a marketing engagement with a local brand — while third- and fourth-year students at traditional colleges were still waiting for their first taste of corporate work. Read the full story in 100% first-year internships at NEXIS, or explore career outcomes.
Want a first semester like this?
Come see the campus, or talk to our team about the 3-year Undergraduate Programme in Business Management.
Frequently asked questions
Do NEXIS students really run a business in the first semester?
Yes. Through the dropshipping project, first-semester students source and sell real products. One founding-batch team generated over ₹50,000 in revenue with a personalised gifting line.
What is the LBC course at NEXIS?
LBC (Local Business Consulting) is a first-semester course where students consult real companies and solve real problems — building apps, chatbots, software and growth strategies.
Does NEXIS teach AI?
Yes. Students learn practical AI tools for automation, app and website building, and AI-generated presentations, and even complete assessments by building automation workflows.
Are there exams at NEXIS?
Assessments focus on execution rather than rote memorisation. For example, instead of a written paper, students may build a working automation workflow as their exam.
Based on NEXIS podcasts with founding-batch students of the first cohort.
