Headstart Network Foundation is one of India’s oldest and largest startup ecosystem development organizations. Established in 2007, they have been chasing the vision ‘changing the world with entrepreneurship’ ever since.
A not-for-profit organization, almost entirely volunteer-driven, they have helped numerous startups showcase their offerings and get feedback on their products, facilitated tens of thousands of connections to potential co-founders, customers, vendors, mentors, investors, and employees. They are all in it for the love of building and sustaining communities. Headstart volunteers are a passionate bunch – entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship enthusiasts, with a fervent desire and commitment to being change agents.
On 18th May, Delhi Chapter of Headstart Network Foundation celebrated 125th edition of Startup Saturday, their flagship initiative, that happens across multiple Indian cities on the 2nd Saturday of every month, on a particular theme which typically includes expert talks on a focused subject, panel discussions, startup pitches and demos.
While Delhi Chapter has been in existence for more than a decade now fostering entrepreneurship, but there was a different energy at India Islamic Cultural Center last Saturday. 20+ volunteers of Headstart Delhi and Headstart Gurgaon worked tirelessly to bring the best of startup ecosystem in Delhi/NCR under one roof with 400+ young aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, 30+ partners supporting the initiative, a power-packed agenda and a stellar line-up of 30+ speakers, jury and investors including, Dinesh Agarwal (Founder and CEO, IndiaMART), Abhiraj Bahl (Co-Founder, UrbanClap), Sairee Chahal (Founder, and CEO, SHEROES), Upasana Taku (Co-Founder, MobiKwik), Syna Dehnugara (Features Editor at CNBC-TV18 & Co-author of Young Turks), Padmaja Ruparel (Co-Founder at Indian Angel Network & Founding Partner of IAN Fund) and others sharing their entrepreneurial journey.
And this is not all, top 10 startups from Delhi/NCR battled to find the spot among top 3 startups at Kickstart – a closed-door pitching session where pre-selected start-ups selected from 200+ applications were invited to pitch in front of a panel of investors. Top Kickstart finalists include – Asha Didi, Funnearn, Gigzo, Secondhandkart.com (in no particular order).
Journey for Headstart continues, with the grand success of their Delhi Chapter the entire organization is now getting themselves ready for Headstart X – a celebration of the spirit of #PayingItForward as NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP CONCLAVE happening on 8th June at IIIT Hyderabad with more excitement, representation from 20+ cities across India, power speakers/talks, mentor sessions, startups pitches, investors, hands-on workshops.
