Top founders and stakesholders in the Indian startup ecosystem have launched a non-profit Artha School of Entrepreneurship to help new-age entrepreneurs scale their ventures.
The initative will be spearheaded by TN Hari, former HR head at BigBasket and ex-Lenskart CHRO Suruchi Maitra.
“India’s quest for equitable growth will never be fulfilled unless founders from all socioeconomic backgrounds realize their full potential. The Artha Scale Program has been carefully designed to create impact on a bigger canvas,” said Hari.
Meanwhile, Maitra added, “In the decades to come, India’s quest for prosperity and inclusive development will be addressed at the confluence of technology, entrepreneurial energy, and patient capital. In the process, many large companies would take shape.”
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The other members of the founding team include, Helion Ventures co-founder Ashish Gupta, entrepreneur and angel investor Pavan Vaish, ISB founding dean and Ashoka University founder Pramath Raj Sinha, Helion Ventures and the Fundamentum Partnership founder Sanjeev Aggarwal. “Eighty percent or more of the scaling problems entrepreneurs grapple with everyday have been solved before. Reinventing the wheel through trial and error slows down, and often derails, the journey,” commented Aggarwal.
As per a statement, the founding team has a track record of scaling startups and have participated in creating 12 unicorns and 10 successful exits including 3 IPOs.
The program has been designed for founders of early-stage startups that have achieved some level of product-market fit and are poised for scale. The objective is to make the art and science of scaling accessible to these founders, the statement added.
As part of the program, the participants will have access to online content, in multiple formats, relating to all elements of scaling and get mentorship from a set of successful founders and startup executives.
“Starting-up is not easily coachable but Scaling-up certainly is. Entrepreneurs have an unmistakable bias for learning from individuals who have been through their journeys successfully, and a program like this can enable India become not just a land of Unicorns but a land of high growth and sustainable companies,” said Vaish.
The non-profit will also partner with startup incubator T-Hub in Hyderabad and KSN Global in Kochi. As per the company, discussions are also underway to partner with ecosystem enablers in other states.
The firm added that the first set of workshops have already taken place in Kochi and more have been scheduled in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, and would soon be extended to Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai.
