How to do good and make money out of it – TiE Pune’s Nurture Accelerator Program sees 29 out of 63 start-ups graduate successfully

Pune, 25th September 2021: Perhaps it’s the maturity or just plain benevolence of entrepreneurs today. More and more young men and women are starting a business that goes beyond profits and works at bringing a greater good to society at large.

Vaibhav Gholap, an engineer, gave up his job in Mumbai to start a business that would be a source of livelihood and prevent migration to cities for the tribals in his village Jawhar.

Finding a clean toilet is a huge problem for women. Sushma Patel determined on finding a solution, developed a portable bag that women can use instead of filthy and unhygienic public loos.

Ever tried to get a nurse or ayah for a bedridden patient at home? The shortage of people and trained ones at that is traumatic. Understanding the problems faced by caregivers of patients, Amol Deshmukh started Med Rabbits to solve this problem. At affordable rates! These are just a few names.

Every year TiE Pune takes under its wings start-up founders to groom them to become successful entrepreneurs. This is done under its proprietary TiE Nurture Accelerator Program. While the rate of success for a new business is 10% worldwide, this year TiE Pune’s Nurture program success rate is 46%. Marking the end of the Ninth Nurture Accelerator Program with a graduation ceremony on Sunday Sept 19, Pune saw 29 out of 63 companies firmly on the path to success. 

What is it that results in such stupendous success? Says Jitendra Tanna, TiE Charter Member and lead of the Nurture Committee, also mentor and founder Eternus Solutions, “We do not have professors who teach entrepreneurship but successful entrepreneurs who have gone through the cycles of business to show our mentees how to become successful. Besides this we also at the very start of our program clearly define the goals for each company. With one-on-one mentorship, success is just a consequence of this.”

Says Madhavi Jadhav, founder That Mate, an app (and an ecosystem) that helps teens make informed choices about their mental and sexual health, “I think the best advice I got was to start selling immediately even if it was at a 90% discount!

Shravani Pawar who set up Safe Hands to bridge the gender gap in the security business says, “Nurture helped me see things about my business that I would not have been able to otherwise. I learnt how to diversify, improve and add more verticals, and do more value addition. For example, we now train our members to monitor surveillance systems. Our women force is 60% of our total security guard force. They earlier earned money by working at four to five households but now they work less and earn thrice the amount.”

“This means that they managed to carve out the path that they needed to reach from the start of their business that is Point A to where they want to be which is Point B.” says Jitendra Tanna.

Another interesting trend was noted by Hemant Jalan, mentor and founder Indigo Paints, “Over the years I’ve noticed that the companies signing up for our Nurture Program are from different sectors unlike earlier when they were mostly from IT and tech industry.”

Be that as it may, what has stayed true with the Program is its success rate. Until last year it was 39% but this year that number has grown to 46%. TiE Pune will soon announce its next Nurture Accelerator Program where success remains a constant.