Ankit Gupta, founder, TBS Initiatives P Ltd

I joined Nurture primarily to work out a proper Go-To-Market strategy. Not only did I get a grip on that but I also got myself a co-founder in the process. TBS aims to help people with issues related to the mind. While your body has several tests that can tell you your blood sugar, cholesterol, etc, how do you measure a person’s anger, focus, sleep quality, etc? These are intangible. I have published a paper on this which shows how sound waves can be used to improve mind-related issues. Earlier we worked with individuals and were focussed locally. But my mentors Ritwik Garg and Patanjali Somaiyaji gave me a whole new perspective. They explained how I should take a global view of my business. Earlier I was only hiring people, but my mentors showed me that getting on people who shared the same vision to join as a co-founder would be immensely helpful. And it has. I was hesitant to invest big bucks in acquiring the software and hardware for my business. But I understood how my business could grow with this investment and I bought the software (licensed version) and the MEG headsets that are required. And most of all, I am now focussing on corporate clients helping them improve efficiencies of the workforce using sound therapy. We launch on Aug 15th!

Kanan Tandi, co-founder, CogniCue

We are a services company that uses facial expressions to deliver cues to anyone who is interested in them. Be it recruiters or marketers interested in gaining insight into their employees or customers. We started on a good note and my co-founder, Fasih and I were keen on learning more. But unfortunately, we got disqualified. The reason was that we both had a severe cash crunch and only one of us could attend the mandatory boot camp at Lonavala. TiE’s Charter members did offer to pay for our expenses but we didn’t think it was right, so I did not attend.  However, I must add that Devendra Deshmukh, our mentor, was very helpful. He was clear in his advice and even gave us bullet points to understand better. He even offered to let us try our product with his company.

Priti Sheth, founder, Maiora Diamonds

I joined Nurture so that I could learn how to get fund-ready. We are into lab-grown diamonds that are sustainable and also affordable. My business needs Rs. 10 Cr so that I can set up my e-commerce site, have multiple stores, be able to offer franchises, IT resources and so on. However, I had some other issues because of which I had to drop off mid-way. But there were some learnings. I understood the importance of multiple revenue models and business hygiene that comes in handy when you are raising funds. I plan to follow through and aim to join the TiE Women’s global competition which will also be helpful.

Anand Shah, co-founder, Doodl Space

We are a subscription-based graphic design company. We joined because we wanted to streamline our operations, polish our offering and build our GTM. We got a lot of valuable advice that we are already executing. Our mentors Ajay Hiraskar and Jignesh Shah helped us refine a broad vision statement for our company. From this came our business model. They helped us streamline our operations by asking us to build our SOPs and also narrow down our buyer persona. Earlier we were planning to get global customers but our mentors showed us how we should first hook up to the Indian market, set a threshold, and then look global. Our operational SOPs helped streamline our business and reduce the quality churn from 10-15% down to zero now!