Stories
In-depth founder profiles, each independently researched and sourced only from publicly verifiable information.
Or browse by ranked lists, founder collections and topics.
LimeRoad was one of the earliest Indian platforms to merge content and shopping. Its founder, a former eBay and Skype executive, ran it through a decade of capital cycles before V-Mart Retail bought it in a slump sale in October 2022.
She could have left for graduate school abroad. She stayed to teach, and co-built BYJU’S into, for a while, the most valuable startup India had ever produced.
A former Japan Airlines and eBookers executive returned to India to co-found Yatra in 2006. The company went on to list on Nasdaq and later on Indian exchanges.
A former television journalist and ad-sales professional left a comfortable corporate career to write founder stories on a blog. Fifteen years later, YourStory is one of the most cited startup-media brands in India.
Daughter of Zenith Computers’ founder, she launched Vu Technologies in 2006 with a thesis that India would not stay an entry-level TV market forever.
A second-generation entrepreneur after Ocimum Bio-Solutions, Anu Acharya founded Mapmygenome in 2013 to translate the human genome into actionable healthcare for individuals.
Co-founded in 2013 with her husband Rohan, CashKaro put one of the oldest e-commerce mechanics, cashback, at the centre of an Indian shopper’s journey.
Founded in 2011 to serve the next-half-billion online shoppers, ShopClues briefly joined India’s unicorn club. Its later story is one of the most quietly important in Indian e-commerce.
From two sewing machines in Mumbai in 1995 to AND, Global Desi, Anita Dongre couture, the Grassroot crafts label and Pinkcity jewellery, hers is one of Indian fashion’s most layered founder stories.
Trained in art history and museum studies, Ritu Kumar set up a small hand-block-printing boutique in 1969. Five decades later, the label spans couture, prêt and accessories, and she is widely regarded as the architect of modern Indian fashion.
After her father’s sudden death, Priya Paul took the helm of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels in her early twenties. Over three decades she rebuilt the chain into a design-led, IPO-listed hospitality group.
Founded in 2010 with Vivek Prabhakar, Chumbak put a recognisable Indian-design point of view onto fridge magnets, mugs, bags and home goods. Its second decade was harder than its first.
