{E SCHOOL} THE RURAL SCHOOL OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Photo credit: Studio Ek Saat
WE LAUNCH AND SCALE SOCIAL VENTURES THAT CREATE LASTING IMPACT
KNOW MOREAZAD FOUNDATION & SAKHA CONSULTING WINGS PVT LTD
Livelihoods with dignity for urban poor women
Photo credit: Azad Foundation
WE LAUNCH AND SCALE SOCIAL VENTURES THAT CREATE LASTING IMPACT
KNOW MOREITIHAAS
Indian traditions and heritage initiative
Photo credit: Itihaas
WE LAUNCH AND SCALE SOCIAL VENTURES THAT CREATE LASTING IMPACT
KNOW MOREAIACA
Policy, entrepreneurship training and marketing for small craft producers
Photo credit: AIACA
WE LAUNCH AND SCALE SOCIAL VENTURES THAT CREATE LASTING IMPACT
KNOW MORE
BASIC HEALTHCARE SERVICES (BRAND: AMRIT CLINICS)
Photo Credits: Leah Grossman
ABOUT US
START UP! IS AN ANGEL INVESTOR, INCUBATOR AND CONSULTANT TO SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS.
We offer incubation, impact acceleration and management consulting services to social ventures at different stages in their lifecycle – early, growth and mature.
As ANGEL INVESTORS, we invest our time, expertise and networks to make growth-stage ventures scale and capital ready. We engage with social entrepreneurs for up to two years, and work in the field with their teams, to build out their models.
As IMPACT INCUBATORS, we offer an exhaustive range of business incubation, coaching and trainings to early-stage social ventures. Our incubation offerings are designed to launch practical change models that balance social impact with financial sustainability. We also incubate incubators!
AS CONSULTANTS, we work with mature-stage social ventures. We get excited about:
- Scaling social change models
- Research and knowledge generation for the field
- Conducting impact assessments
- Managing outreach and due diligence for
awards and fellowships
OUR WORKING PRINCIPLES
Privilege the entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs excite us more than ideas. Our partners and clients bring strong domain expertise and business lessons from previous entrepreneurial/ intrapreneurial journeys. We learn continuously from them, even as we co-create their business models.
Match passion with process
We match the entrepreneur's energy and passion with process, plans and the discipline for executing ideas. For us, execution, not ideas, is game changing.
Stay frugal, stay in the field
We work with our investees in their fields. We immerse in the markets of the models we shape. By being in the field, we get a 360 degree view of the eco-system of the ventures we create. This enables us to predict volatilities. We therefore launch ventures that are true to the DNA of our partners and the needs of the markets they serve.
Iterate to succeed
We coach our investees to listen to customers, re-iterate assumptions and stay focused on metrics. We constantly adapt business plans to keep them real and sharp. Our questioning of assumptions and reality checks at every turn minimizes trial and error. This ensures that ventures launch with a higher degree of success.
Get the chemistry right
We succeed more with entrepreneurs who are listeners, learners and collaborators. We work with social entrepreneurs who actively seek feedback and are open to applying them in their ventures.
Cross pollinate
We pollinate learnings and connections between early-stage ventures (that we launch) and mature-stage models (that we accelerate). This opens up rich collaborations between the two. Our investees and clients constantly feed new information, networks and linkages into our own eco-system. This growing viral enables us to become better linkers and connectors for social entrepreneurs.
Image source: Leah Grossman
OUR MISSION
- Launch social ventures in a way that
they can scale - Scale social ventures in a way that they
generate impact - Seed first-generation social entrepreneurs in last-mile communities
- Catalyze the influence and resources of business, government and media towards fostering many more social ventures
HOW WE WORK
PROJECTS
OUR INVESTEES
OUR INCUBATEES
OUR CONSULTING PROJECTS SEE ALL
-
SCALING UP
-
RESEARCH & KNOWLEDGE GENERATION
-
TRAINING & FACILITATION
-
DUE DILIGENCE FOR FELLOWSHIP & AWARDS
SCALING UP
OUR SERVICES
- Mapping creative routes for scaling models
- Strategic planning
- Business plan development
- Building robust operations and people resources
- Developing replication toolkits
CLIENTS
- Anjali – Mental Health and Human Rights Initiative
- Arthink South Asia
- Azad Foundation & Sakha Consulting Wings Pvt. Ltd.
- Childline India Foundation
- Itihaas
- Khoj International Artists Association
- The Tata Trust
- Study Hall Education Foundation
- Swayam
- Swayam Shikshan Prayog
- Shri Jagdamba Samiti
- Talaash
SMITA VATS | Founder-Director
"Start Up! partnered with Itihaas to translate our work, vision and values into a viable and balanced five-year business plan. Over a year of intense engagement, they helped define areas which we had not recognized as strategic levers. Often their understanding of our model was better than ours, therefore adding value far beyond what we had envisaged.
RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE GENERATION
OUR SERVICES
- Conducting market research for new products and services
- Conducting impact assessments
- Building standards for the field
VIVEK MANSUKHANI | Director, Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program India
"Start Up! carried out an impressive quantitative and qualitative evaluation project to assess the impact of our unique fellowship program in India over the last decade. We found the Start Up! team to be dynamic, sharply focused, committed, full of ideas and good energies. They were highly effective in studying and capturing the story of our program and our fellows with great clarity, insight and enthusiasm. Collaborating with Start Up! has been a hugely pleasant and rewarding experience."
CLIENTS
- Aajeevika Bureau
- Childline India Foundation
- Ford Foundation's International Fellowships Program
- Gray Matters Capital
- International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW)
- PRADAN
- Toxics Link
TRAINING AND FACILITATION
OUR SERVICES
- Strategic planning trainings
- Team building trainings
- Curating and facilitating retreats and networking events
CLIENTS
- Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
- ArtThink South Asia
- British Council
- National Association of Social Enterprises (NASE)
DUE DILIGENCE FOR FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
OUR SERVICES
- Designing and conducting marketing and outreach
- Managing end-to-end due diligence processes
- Anchoring communication with all stakeholders
- Ensuring high quality jury presentations
- Managing media relations
Image source: Web - http://goo.gl/o2Rpd8
AJAY KHANNA | President – Strategy & Public Affairs, Jubilant Bhartia Group
"We cherish our engagement with Start Up! With their support, we have been able to generate a robust pipeline of applicants and ensure high quality due diligence for the Jubilant-Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award in India, year-on-year."
CLIENTS
- India Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award – hosted by Jubilant Bhartia Foundation and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
- Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
18
Social ventures incubated and scaled
30
Mature stage social entrepreneurs consulted
175+
Social entrepreneurs and leaders from cultural sectors trained
6
Years of managing the India Social Entrepreneur of the Year (SEOY) Award
6
Research and impact assessment reports published
70%
Repeat clients
OUR TEAM
Taveesh Pandey
Director (non-executive)
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Taveesh has more than 20 years of experience in the Indian financial and business sector. He has played a leading role in institutions such as IFC, CRISIL and the SUN GROUP. Taveesh is the Founder-Director of Black Diamond PE Advisors; a New Delhi based corporate venture and financial advisory firm that advises early-stage, small and mid-size companies. He offers hands-on CXO services to entrepreneurs and provides an array of services to HNIs.
Taveesh is now playing an increasing role in mentoring social entrepreneurs and shaping institutions of the future within the field of social entrepreneurship.
Manisha Gupta
Founder and Director
Manisha has 20 years of experience in the social entrepreneurship sector of India. She joined Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, in 1994, where she served for nine years in key leadership positions, including the India Country Representative and International Director for Ashoka's youth programmes. During her tenure at Ashoka, Manisha launched new initiatives to build a collaborative community of social entrepreneurs in India. She also launched Ashoka India's marketing, communication and brand building programmes.
After her departure from Ashoka, Manisha advised several high-impact social ventures in strategic planning and successful fundraising. She has consulted with international funders and co-authored two books: 1098 - Childline Calling, and Opening Doors – Ten Years of Ford Foundation's International Fellowships Program in India.
Manisha launched Start Up! in 2007. After a two-year test-run, she set up the business, formally, in 2009.
Nayantara
Senior Manager
With training in hotel management, Nayantara has straddled the business and social entrepreneurship sectors with ease. She brings to Start Up! 12 years of professional experience in operations and customer service across the hospitality, telecom and banking industries.
Before joining Start Up! Nayantara spent six years as the Chief Operations Officer of Sakha Consulting Wings Private Ltd – a womens’ chauffeur and cab service that trains women from resource poor communities to compete professionally in the male dominated public transport sector. Her experience at Sakha gave Nayantara critical insights into developing livelihoods with dignity for underserved communities. Nayantara leads Start Up’s Bangalore operations.
Saloni Gupta
Senior Manager
With a post-graduate degree in rural management from KIIT, Bhubaneshwar, Saloni has worked for more than 7 years in the social entrepreneurship sector of India. She brings to Start Up! a wide range of experiences - from supply chain management to craft retail to managing social security products and building rural livelihoods initiatives. Before joining Start Up, Saloni worked at leading social enterprises, such as Naandi Foundation, Mother Earth and Spandana Spoorthy Financial Ltd. She has coached several micro and small enterprises across India and her expertise lies in financial modelling and operations consulting.
Sumona Chakravarty
Manager
Sumona has trained in design thinking from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology (Bangalore).She is also the Founder-Director of Hamdasti, a non-profit art organization in Kolkata. Hamdasti brings neighbourhood groups, urban local bodies and the police to develop shared cultural projects.
At Start Up, Sumona combines her training and expertise in collaborative design processes to build new programmes for social entrepreneurs of Kolkata.
We are recruiting, to know more, click here
FELLOWSHIP
WE RUN AN ACTIVE THREE TO SIX MONTH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME FOR INDIAN AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND YOUNG PROFESSIONALS WHO ARE KEEN TO WORK WITH LEADING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS OF INDIA
Our Fellows, quickly become part of projects that take them to the field,
and enable them to problem solve actively with our clients. Fellows also build out new initiatives and processes for Start Up!
Start Up! has hosted Fellows from leading academic institutions of Europe and the US. These include Booth School of
Business (University of Chicago); Stephen M. Ross School of Business (University of Michigan); Fletcher School (Tufts University); Princeton University;
School of International & Public Affairs (Columbia University); University of California, Berkley; HEC School of Management, Paris; and ESSEC, Paris. We recruit Fellows through the year, on a rolling basis.
Click on the arrow to view our fellows
CONTACT US
ADDRESS:
E-89, Top Floor, Kalkaji, New Delhi, 110019
CALL US ON: 011 40540722
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"Start Up! conducted a process evaluation in the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) across Uttar Pradesh. They were quick to develop a sound understanding of our program and devise a long-term scale strategy for us. The Start Up! team is thorough and goes the extra mile to ensure the highest quality output. Most importantly, they continue to extend their support after the closure of the project and do not lose any opportunity to add value. We look forward to working with them in the future."