Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamith and entrepreneur Kishore Biyani of Future Enterprise and Pantaloon Retail fame have launched The Foundry, a first-of-its-kind enterprise launchpad constructed to find, mentor and co-develop the subsequent era of Indian entrepreneurs.
Conceived as a co-founder manufacturing unit, The Foundry is an element college, half accelerator, and half enterprise studio, compressing the early-stage startup journey right into a 90-day program. Individuals transfer from idea to investable enterprise with the steering of seasoned mentors, buyers, and executives.
“Most of what we name schooling was created for a world that not exists. Training teaches individuals to adapt when progress comes from those that do not. MBAs create managers. We want individuals who can construct, destroy, fail, and rebuild. Foundry is for them. Individuals who need to forge their very own path quite than comply with another person’s path,” mentioned Nikhil Kamath.
“This isn’t a classroom or an incubator,” Kishore Biyani added. “It is a residing business-building setting the place entrepreneurs study by creating, testing, failing and evolving. We practice founders by means of expertise, not principle,” he mentioned.
At The Foundry, members work with the Foundry crew and mentors to show their concepts into investable ventures. Chosen members will retain as much as 25% fairness within the companies they assist launch, and profitable ventures can be supplied with seed funding of as much as Rs 400 crore together with continued strategic assist after commencement.
Foundry invitations bold entrepreneurs, mid-career professionals, and early-stage founders who want to mix creativity and perception.
The choice course of is designed to establish potential quite than polish, with candidates going by means of an thought clarification spherical, a problem-solving problem, and an interview that assesses creativity, resilience, and founder mindset. This course of is constructed to seek out not solely founders who can pitch, however founders who can develop.
“We’re searching for people who find themselves imaginative and purposeful – individuals who can assume in another way and act decisively,” mentioned Santosh Desai, who helped conceptualize Foundry.
Mentors embody Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder and Operator, Paytm), Kunal Bahl (Founder and Investor, Snapdeal and Titan Capital), Aakash Chaudhry (Training Entrepreneur, Aakash), Mithun Sacheti (Client Model Builder, CaratLane), Varun Berry (FMCG Operator, Britannia), and Haresh Chawla (Media and Client Investor, True). North and Viacom18), Aditya Sehgal (World Operator, former FTSE 20 COO), Garima Deveshwar Bahl (Management and Tradition Coach), Jacob Mathew (Design and Innovation Thinker), Ireena Vittal (Board Advisor), Rama Bijapurkar (Client Strategist and Writer), and Aakrit Vaish (AI Entrepreneur and Investor).
They information founders all through the design, validation, execution, and scaling of alternatives.
Every cohort culminates in a Demo Day, the place members pitch their enterprise to a rigorously chosen community of buyers. Chosen corporations will obtain seed funding and achieve entry to The Foundery’s broader ecosystem.
