Founder circles
Small peer groups meeting regularly to share progress, blockers and honest feedback.
Startup & incubation · HackWithPune
From prototype to company.
A path for builders who want to turn a project into a business: founder circles, demo days and introductions to incubators and early customers.
01Overview
The hardest step is knowing who to talk to next.
Early founders rarely fail for lack of ideas. They stall because nobody told them what the next step looks like, or who to ask.
Incubation here is unglamorous infrastructure: peers to test ideas with, a stage to demo on, and warm introductions to the people who can help.
02What is on offer
Demo days
Present a working product to mentors, operators and investors, with a clear format and real questions.
Incubator introductions
Warm introductions to incubation and accelerator programmes across Pune and beyond.
First customers
Access to companies in the network willing to pilot early products.
03The path
- 01
Idea
Bring a prototype, a hackathon project or a problem you understand well.
- 02
Validate
Talk to real users with guidance from mentors who have done it.
- 03
Build
Ship an MVP, ideally in the open, with feedback from the circle.
- 04
Demo
Show the product on a demo day and collect introductions.
- 05
Launch
Move into an incubator, a pilot with a first customer, or your own first sales.
04Who it is for
Student founders
Start while you are still studying, with peers instead of alone.
Working builders
Test a side project against the market without quitting anything first.
Mentors & investors
Meet early teams that have already shipped something real.