Software product think tank iSPIRT has designed a programme where Stanford and Duke University researchers would help founders of 200 founders of India's hypergrowth startups, helping them to plan ahead and implement the learnings in their organisations. The aim of this course programme is to inspire Indian startups to be global category leaders.
"We want them to become category leaders by making them think about future problems today," said Sharad Sharma, cofounder of iSpirt. "Because for a category leader, conversion rates are much higher than the number 2 or 3 players."
The three-day retreat and conference would start this January at the Infosys campus in Mysuru where the 200 founders would begin their day with yoga and end it late night with brainstorming on strategies to supercharge their companies.
The researchers are funding this programme through grants amounting to $57,000 (about Rs 37 lakh) endowed by their universities.
With this 3-day course, iSPIRT is doing a much needed initiative that India's early-stage companies need. While there are accelerators and incubators that nurture early-stage startups, there is little support for rapidly growing firms. Microsoft Ventures accelerator most recently shifted its strategy to cater to late-stage firms.
"Anyone who sees the technology sector sees that the best pool of technical talent comes from India. But they are all working for American companies," said Sharique Hasan, associate professor of organisational behaviour at Stanford University.
Blogvault, a WordPress backup service, Albumizer, an album designer, Uninstall.io, an app analytics provider, and Zenatix, an energy hardware startup, are a few startups that have been selected to enter the programme. The founders will also be taught to replicate and implement these learnings in their organisations.
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