11 Promising Startups Graduate from Founders Institute, Chennai to change the world!

The Chennai chapter of the Founders Institute, a systematic program to launch a company, saw its second batch of 11 promising entrepreneurs graduating in December 2016.

Founders Institute is rooted in the philosophy of ‘learning by doing’. In line with this, it offers a rigorous 4-month long curriculum comprising training courses and business building assignments that are curated and evaluated by successful entrepreneurs, forming one of the strongest mentor networks supporting an incubator like setup.

“From idea development to the nuisances of hiring a team and developing a product to the fundamentals of bootstrapping and funding, the course covers every aspect of entrepreneurship to ensure our entrepreneurs graduate as founders of successful companies,” elaborates Gopi Mattel, CEO, CellarStone Inc and Founder Institute, Director.

The training program is part-time and sessions are held at night, helping applicants continue with their regular jobs. The 4-month structured course is aimed at reducing the number of failed startups by honing young entrepreneurs to successfully find and lead companies on sound methodology, acquainting them with obstacles they are likely to face and schooling them on how to overcome these challenges via planned activities and mentoring.

Helping founders understand and tackle these common challenges, Kumaran Mani, Co-Director of the Chennai Founder Institute points out that “the Founder Institute will address all these challenges for young startups in Chennai, and help our city become the next great startup hub in India.”

Committed to globalize Silicon Valley in India, the world-renowned entrepreneur training and startup launch program has launched 1,017 successful companies across 55 countries since 2009. In April 2016, the first batch of 11 entrepreneurs graduated from the Chennai chapter of the institute. With all the companies faring exceptionally well, most people in the startup world would recognize WATSAN Envirotech from the first batch of graduates, pioneering electricity-free water filters using a new nano-clay particle filtration technique. The young company received a grant from India’s Millennium Alliance Fund for their innovative technology and has produced over 90,000 personal filters to date.

“It is globally proven that 90% of the startups fail. At the same time, 86% of the startups that Founder Institute has created have been successful. Right mindset, coupled with proper feedback with executable action items from expert mentors can make a big difference and make your business idea successful. When this gets added with the structured curriculum and the Founder Institute partner network, it creates the ideal environment for success,” explains Founder Institute Director Sanal Sankar (Director of Technology, CellarStone India). He is quite certain that the second batch of graduates will recreate and forge many new success stories. “None of the participants will graduate from the institute unless they set up their own firm,” he adds.
The graduation ceremony held on 10 December 2016 was well attended by entrepreneurs, investors and journalists alike. Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute, rightly remarked that “Entrepreneurs should be nurtured even before their idea stage and this Institute caters to the essentials of entrepreneurship.”

Founder Institute’s goal is to create 1000 more companies every year and its Chennai branch has already added 21 companies to that goal in just over a year. The Second Batch of Founders Institute has 11 promising graduates profiled below:

1. Akash K. Agarwal – Swasthaadhaar is a platform for aggregation of health records linked to aadhaar and tech enablement of healthcare providers in tier-2 and 3 cities.
2. Amit Bansal – Hungreeminds.com is a Social Commerce Platform connecting Hobbyist, Academies & Masters for learning, sharing and promoting their Talent Online in Dance, Music, Instrumental & Singing in Chennai.
3. Dhiraj Kumar K – Learnize is a cloud-based Hybrid learning platform combining doubt clearing system, online & offline training with detailed analytics for the institution /management to make informed learning & development decisions.
4. Dilipan Bose – Cityrene, a company that builds smart untethered homes with Australian technology (GFRG), powered by solar, Eco-friendly, naturally cool and efficient recycling of its own waste.
5. Kaushik Sridharan – Desert on Wheels offering Fresh Vegetarian Ice-Cream Customized and Delivered at your doorstep.
6. M Krishna Kumar – ServiceTree is an ultra-convenient home service booking app. Using this app, users can book services from trusted brands in no time.
7. Mohammed Taukheer – KIDSIFU is a cloud based app that enables daycare and preschools organize and communicate to parents at a fingers’ touch.
8. Neminathan B – NaamCare is a single window Eldercare service provider, offering both medical and Non-medical services to cater to the needs of healthcare, community engagements and foster independence by providing companion services to eliminate the pain areas of dependability and loneliness for the elderly.
9. Prasanth – Oontime is a platform which is Uber share for trucks, transporting goods through vehicles running n the same direction.
10. Santhosh Kumar  – Gamiac Studios is an interactive entertainment software company. We develop games for personal computers, mobile phones and tablets.
11. Visalakshy Loganathan – Onpaper Publishing Solutions provides content-related solutions to publishers, authors and typesetters by bringing together a very large number of talented editors and writers on a common web platform to work and share their knowledge.