Start Up! Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd

Start Up! (www.startup-india.org) is an angel investor, incubator and consultant to social entrepreneurs. We launch, strengthen, and scale social ventures that create lasting impact in underserved communities.

Who We Are

A registered, private limited company, Start Up! works with social ventures at different stages of their lifecycle –i.e. early, growth and scale stages. Our clients and investees include social businesses, not-for-profit companies, non-profit trust and societies as well as hybrid models. Headquartered in New Delhi, we angel invest and incubate social ventures in North and East India. However, our consulting clients are based across the country.

Our Vision

An ecosystem where multiple social entrepreneurs launch their ideas, solve compelling problems and generate impact, wealth and agency in under-served communities.

Our Mission

• To demystify the business of ‘starting up’ social change ventures;
• To scale social enterprises in a way that they generate impact;
• To seed first-generation social entrepreneurs in last-mile communities;
• To catalyze the influence and resources of business, government and media towards fostering many more social enterprises.

What We Do

As angel investors, we invest non-financial resources to launch and scale social enterprises. Our investments of time and expertise are geared to put ventures quickly on their feet and make them scale and capital ready. We engage with investees for over 2-3 years and work in the field, with the social entrepreneur and her team to build out their ventures.

Though our investments are purely non-financial, Start Up! raises funds with the social entrepreneur to launch or scale her idea. We receive the return on our investment and exit after the model has acquired appropriate funding.

Our investees include:

• Azad Foundation and Sakha Consulting Wings Pvt Ltd : A chauffeur placement and cabs-on rent venture – for women, by women – with trained women drivers from resource-constrained communities of Delhi;
• Swayam Shikshan Prayog /Sakhi Udyogini Kendra : A rural school of entrepreneurship for women micro-entrepreneurs in Maharashtra and;
• Rajasthan Shram Sarathi Association (RSSA): A financial inclusion and wealth management company for seasonal migrant labour of Rajasthan.

As an incubator, we offer affordable and customized consulting, coaching and trainingservices for young or early-stage social entrepreneurs. We also incubate incubators!

Our incubation offerings are designed to

• Build the resilience of entrepreneurs;
• Strengthen the impact quotient of early-stage social ventures;
• Forge enduring community relationships and trust for the entrepreneur and her team and;
• Develop robust strategic, people, finance and execution capabilities in change models.

Our engagement with our incubatees range from 30 days to 9 months, depending on the bandwidth and appetite of the social entrepreneur. Incubatees receive access to sector specialists, functional experts and additional mentoring by leading social entrepreneurs.

The social ventures incubated by us include:

• ARUNIM : A national market aggregator and ‘brand’ for products made by persons with disabilities;
• Bombay Connect (previously Bombay Hub) : A business centre and incubation space for young social entrepreneurs in Mumbai;
• Basic Healthcare Service (Amrit Clinics) : A nurse-led, technology-driven primary rural health program for migrants and tribals in southern Rajasthan;
• Home in the Himalayas : A community-based, ‘green’, tourism venture in the Himalayas – in partnership with marginal hill village communities and;
• The Economic Entrepreneurship Empowerment Challenge (E3 Challenge) : A six-month incubation program for NSDC designed for rural organizations in the field of disability with the best ideas for transitioning into a venture.
• Talaash: A leadership training and behaviour change program that is defining the field of personal safety and other decision-making processes that allow adolescent and young girls to pre-empt, prevent and address sexual violence.

As consultants, we get excited about:

• Scaling social change models
• Developing the next generation of innovations for social enterprises and CSOs
• Assessing the impact of social change ideas and processes
• Putting change models on sustainability paths
• Engaging with social entrepreneurs through due diligence processes

Some of our consulting projects have included:

• Outreach, due diligence, candidate shortlisting and jury presentation for the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, India – An initiative of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Jubilant Bhartia Foundation;
• Scaling a Delhi-based education enterprise, Itihaas, that conducts heritage and culture walks for students of private, government and government-aided schools of the city;
• Facilitating strategic planning and business plan development trainings for arts and culture entrepreneurs i.e. Khoj International Artists Association and ArtsThink South Asia (the first arts management program in Asia).
• Conducting market research and feasibility studies for the transition of an internationally-renowned non-profit in the waste management field, Toxics Link, into a social business.
• Ten-year impact study for the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowships Program (IFP) etc and PRADAN.