Headstart is one of India's oldest and largest startup ecosystem development organizations. We have been chasing the vision 'changing the world with entrepreneurship' ever since.
It is a not-for-profit organization, almost entirely volunteer driven! We are all in it for the love of building and sustaining communities. Our volunteers are a passionate bunch - entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship enthusiasts, with a fervent desire and commitment to being change agents.
OUR JOURNEY SO FAR
Since 2007, Headstart has helped numerous startups showcase their offerings and get feedback on their products.
It has facilitated tens of thousands of connections to potential co-founders, customers, vendors, mentors, investors and employees.
Companies that have demoed at Headstart have collectively added over 30,000 Crores to the Indian economy and created 4 Lakh jobs.
OUR INITIATIVES
Headstart is committed to building a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country through its many initiatives, which include:
- Startup Saturday, Our flagship initiative, that happens across multiple Indian cities on the 2nd Saturday of every month. It is based on a particular theme every month. The format typically includes expert talks on a focused subject, panel discussions, startup pitches and demos
- Headstart Higher is our hiring initiative, with a speed dating format of match making amazing startups with incredible candidates.
- WE@Headstart is our initiative focused on supporting women entrepreneurs with resources, guidance and mentorship. More than women only sessions, we are more geared up towards getting more women entrepreneurs into the ecosystem and building them up.
- Kickstart - It is a closed-door pitching session where pre-selected start-ups will be invited to pitch in front of a panel of investors.
- Mentor - This is a group mentoring session on a particular topic with 4 mentees and 1 expert mentor who is an established expert on that topic.
VOLUNTEER WITH US
We are Headstart. You can be, too! Check out why you should volunteer with Headstart.
Come, be a part of us. Apply here.
ADITYA MISHRA
Aditya Mishra is Co-founder & Director of Headstart Net
He is also the CEO and Founder of SwitchMe, an online service that makes it easy to save money by switching services. Aditya is very passionate about startups and entrepreneurship and has been mentoring, advising several early stage startups in the areas of: ideation, product/service development, business planning and sales and marketing.
His past work includes: Starting new businesses as an Entrepreneur in Residence at TCS Co-founding Computation Research Lab Ltd– Tata’s foray in High Performance Computing Starting & managing TCS’ initiative of working with VCs and Startups worldwide. This has now evolved into TCS’ award winning Co-innovation Network (COINTM) TCS’ Strategic investments into startups and Mergers & Acquisition Aditya holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and has served as the President of Mumbai chapter of IIM Bangalore Alumni Association.
AMIT SINGH
Amit Singh is Co-founder and Director of Headstart Network
Amit Singh is Co-founder and Director of Headstart Network Foundation and Founder of Wow Labz, a turnkey mobile and web app Development Company based out of Bangalore, India. Amit is the recipient of the Paragon Fellowship by FYSE, China which recognizes 100 young social change makers in Asia Pacific for his work at Headstart.
Amit started his career with Subex and moved on as Executive Director with Vinfinet Technologies. His past ventures, also include Progressive Politics, a new age branding company that provided powerful branding solutions to political parties and canvassing solutions to political leaders over TV, Mobile and the Internet, before he founded the WOW Group. Amit is a BE from CMR Institute of Technology, Bangalore and is passionate about encouraging people to believe in their dreams and making them happen.
Arpit Agarwal
Arpit Agarwal is Co-founder and Director of Headstart Network Foundation and Principal at Blume Ventures.
Arpit’s career spans stints with T Labs, Computational Research Laboratories (now a part of TCS) and Ittiam Systems. He has also been an entrepreneur and founded Academic Ventures, a Technology Commercialization company. His strength lies in running accelerator programs and in consulting them along with mentoring Startups and in driving various community outreach initiatives over the years.
Arpit has been deeply engaged with the Indian startup ecosystem through Headstart Network Foundation, where as volunteer for more than 5 years, he planned 8 Barcamps and conducted 50+ startup community events in Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. Arpit holds a B.Tech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NIT Trichy and a MBA from SJMSOM, IIT Bombay.
NETRA PARIKH
Netra Parikh is Co-founder and CFO of Headstart Network
Netra Parikh is Co-founder and CFO of Headstart Network Foundation and is presently the Head Administration, Logistics and HR at Pinstorm Technologies. Netra is an avid networker and social media enthusiast and passionate about entrepreneurship. Her past experiences include, stints with Xing.com as Business Head India and with Digital Marketing Institute. Netra, has been part of organizing community events such as Barcamps, Blogcamps etc in India.