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Start Up! is an impact accelerator, ecosystem builder and leadership springboard for social entrepreneurs. We have also incubated incubators!

We launch, strengthen, and scale social ventures that create lasting impact. What We Do
We enable social entrepreneurs and their organizations to thrive through strategy, innovations and design. We strengthen the strategy, sustainability and leadership quotient of social entrepreneurs’ and their grassroots communities at different stages in their lifecycle - seed, growth and maturity. Our services

are geared to build out balanced social change models that focus on innovation, impact and sustainability. Over 12 years, we have seeded, strengthened and scaled 100 social ventures and delivered 175 change projects in 15 states. We have trained 350 leaders of grassroots and small social ventures in strategic planning, business plan development and leadership building. As eco-system builders for the field of social entrepreneurship, we have designed and rolled out high-impact Awards and Fellowship programs that build national and global visibility for changemakers with bold ideas.

14/08/2026

✨ Joy. Care. Collective power. Solidarity.

These words shaped our as Start Up! partnered with The YP Foundation to co-curate and facilitate YouVaani.

YouVaani is a space for collective imagination and scenario-building for thriving youth futures.

✨ Seventy-three actors from across India’s youth ecosystem came together to surface emerging narratives from young people, including voices too often unseen or unheard.

🦋 What we heard: India’s youth are left holding multiple paradoxes. On the one hand, they are navigating climate uncertainty, inequities in education and work, isolation and wellbeing concerns, even as AI’s growing presence marks their everyday life.

On the other, they are asserting their right to participate, create, lead, and hold systems accountable.

🦋 What we asked: Can we move beyond treating uncertainty, confusion, and chaos as obstacles—and instead recognize them as generative conditions for learning, adaptation, imagination, and innovation?

🦋 What we explored: What new institutional practices, frameworks, and forms of adult allyship does this moment demand?

Across eight intergenerational and interdisciplinary tables, participants mapped future-facing directions across technology, environment, equity, and wellbeing.

We closed with a shared map of change and the beginnings of a longer-term cross-sectoral allyship.

Thank you, The YP Foundation, for inviting Start Up! to be the knowledge and facilitation partner for YouVaani.

Stay tuned for more insights from the convening.

28/07/2026

On , we are asking a vital question: How do indigenous stories shape the culture, ethos and impact of conservation action?

This question lies at the heart of ORA India Fellow, Raza Kazmi’s quest – to train forest guards and indigenous forest communities of India into storytellers, memory keepers, and forest historians.

An independent conservationist, author, and forest historian, Raza has worked in forest tracts affected by armed left-wing insurgency for over 15 years. He remains steadfast in his belief that India’s forest histories will remain incomplete until forest communities are recognized not just as stakeholders, but as knowledge bearers and narrative builders of forest systems.

Raza now hopes to publish a first-of-its-kind anthology of writings by forest guards in India – an effort to center ground-up voices in conservation discourse.

Tune in to a beautiful story that Raza shared at the ORA Ideas Festival on the vital role of community stories and indigenous storytellers in shaping enduring nature conservation efforts.

[IndigenousVoices]

21/07/2026

Curiosity + celebration = honouring wins and making room for many more to come.

Have you ever noticed how this simple arithmetic can make strategic planning feel joyful?

Catch a glimpse of how The YP Foundation wove curiosity and wins into a bold roadmap for impact with us — a strategic planning process that was reflective, energizing, and full of possibility.

15/07/2026

On , we are turning our attention to the skills youth leaders need to build a shared future.

We are drawing insights from our experience of ACT Indore – a consortium that accelerated adolescent and youth leadership at the intersection of urban well‑being and climate governance.

Over the last 18 months, ACT Indore adolescents and youth leaders designed and led the Indore Climate League (ICL), engaging in data generation, narrative building, urban analysis, and problem‑solving. They demonstrated the new‑world skills that move youth from being beneficiaries of city systems to partners in city governance.

We are delighted that the Indore Municipal Corporation has expressed its intent to adopt and implement the ACT Indore framework – a youth‑responsive climate policy framework that has emerged from the youth-led ICL.

Based on the consortium’s collective reflections, we are happy to share 10 skills for youth to build responsive, climate‑resilient cities.

Swipe to read more. ☝️

ACT Indore is a partnership between Youth Ki Awaaz, AAS, SHEDO, NIUA, and Start Up!

Start Up! serves as the Learning Partner of ACT Indore.

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14/07/2026

Strategy sessions are more than roadmaps and plans. They are spaces for organizations to deepen their commitment to their core principles and strategic pillars.

We held an energy-packed strategic envisioning workshop with The YP Foundation, exploring how shifting youth realities are strengthening YP’s core pillars of feminist youth leadership.

Here are a few powerful guiding principles of youth leadership that they surfaced:

💫 Sharing power and making decisions
When youth move beyond “inclusion” and “participation” to influencing priorities, strategies, and knowledge production.

💫 Intersectionality
The recognition of young people’s diversity. Caste, class, gender, disability, and geography shape diverse youth experiences. A youth-leadership lens asks: whose realities define the agenda, whose stories go untold, and who gets left behind.

💫 Reflection, learning, and political clarity
Youth-centric leadership is rooted in continuous reflection, unlearning, and meaning-making. Practices of feedback, dialogue, accountability, and treating mistakes as opportunities enrich youth leadership.

💫 Care and solidarity
Care is structural, not just an individual coping mechanism. Joy, creativity, and celebration create space for rest and repair, sustaining youth leaders over time.
Our sessions on strategic youth leadership were animated by stories of organizational wins, movement, music, colour—and a deep gratitude for the youth leaders of The YP Foundation, who are constantly pushing boundaries and reimagining what youth leadership can be.

10/07/2026

Strategy is a space where leaders and teams confront complexity, moments of “stuckness,” the pull of innovation, and the work of building growth mindsets.

At Start Up!, we often draw on literature from across genres to build agreement, name what’s holding us back, and walk together with an innovation DNA. And, we are always surprised by the creativity with which teams navigate the slippery slopes by turning to the arts and literature for breakthroughs.

One of our favorites is Alice in Wonderland—an ever-relevant literary masterpiece that reminds us that curiosity, courage, and a willingness to step into the unknown are at the heart of any transformative strategy journey.

Here are a few of our favourite lines from Alice in Wonderland that often find their way into our strategy workshops.

What other forms of literature would you suggest we explore for impact strategies?

03/07/2026

We are continuing our celebration of ACT Indore Fellows!

ACT Indore is a teen and youth movement in Indore – a youth-centric approach to making cities climate-responsive and healthy for its young citizens.

Over 18 months, as 50 young Fellows of ACT Indore led neighbourhood projects and campaigns to drive local climate action, they demonstrated a core principle: Putting adolescents and young changemakers at the center of citymaking is not a risk — it’s an opportunity.

Reaching hundreds of peers across 84 wards of the city, our ACT Indore Fellows created the Indore Climate League (ICL). They went on to partner with Urban Systems.

✍️ They are co-creating a framework of urban youth action with the Indore Municipal Corporation
🤝 The ACT Indore Fellows partnered with Jal Ganga Samvardhan Abhiyan – a massive water conservation and river rejuvenation mission launched by the Government of Madhya Pradesh- to create community awareness on water stress in the city.
🙌 They made films to highlight community ideas and stewardship for reviving local water bodies.
👋 They walked hand-in-hand with ASHA workers in spreading malaria awareness.
👉 They played a significant role in a heat mapping exercise, steered by Mahila Housing Trust.
☝️ They engaged in consultations with the Indore School of Social Work, IIT Indore, and other educational institutions on how youth efforts can drive work at the intersections of climate, health and urban governance.

Our ICL stars are showing us that real climate action is hyperlocal and rooted in the intelligence, practical action and commitment of communities.

Swipe through the photos to experience the energy and agency of our ICL Fellows.

ACT Indore is anchored by Youth Ki Awaaz, with leadership from AAS and SHEDO and advocacy thrust by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). Start Up! serves as the Learning Partner.

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02/07/2026

What happens when you put adolescents and young changemakers in charge of cities?

For Start Up!, this was not a question—but an invitation to join Youth Ki Awaaz, AAS, SHEDO, and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) as Learning Partners of ACT Indore.

ACT Indore is an initiative in which teens and youth reimagine what a healthier, climate‑resilient city can look like.
Over 18 months, 50 adolescent and youth Fellows in Indore moved from the margins of city priorities to shape their very own Indore Climate League (ICL)—a springboard for 10 teen‑ and youth‑led collaborative neighbourhood campaigns.

These local campaigns addressed urban issues such as water stress, waste management, extreme heat, public health, and civic participation through an adolescent and youth lens.

The ICL led to multiple wins:
✨Our Fellows led the city’s first youth‑led data collection.
🔍They conducted heat‑mapping exercises and water audits across wards.
🎭They initiated cultural and artistic expressions of climate stress
🤝The ICL Fellows partnered with the Indore Municipal Corporation and institutions such as IIT Indore to drive a local narrative for climate‑resilient cities that prioritize adolescent and youth needs, aspirations, and well‑being.

In June, we met in Indore to celebrate the wins and learnings of these youth leaders. We also raised a toast to rich experiences of partnership and friendship among the consortium partners.

But this wasn’t “project closure” event — it marked the beginning of a long‑term, sustainable city intervention, for young leaders and urban systems continue to collaborate on local action and narratives for healthier, climate‑resilient cities for adolescents and youth.

Swipe on the pictures to experience the joy and solidarity of ACT Indore!

26/06/2026

When non-profits craft their organizational and programmatic strategies, they focus on the building blocks: Theory of Change, goals and objectives, results frameworks, outcomes, and outputs.

But what lens do they bring to these strategy frameworks?

A gender‑transformative lens moves organizations to go beyond inclusion and representation, to actively challenge the root causes of inequality, drive systems shifts, and enable norm change—so that outcomes are lasting and just.

At Start Up!, we have partnered with non-profits across different life‑cycle stages to co‑create strategies from a gender‑transformative lens. Along the way, we’ve learned how to navigate the many do’s and don’ts, the nuanced “how‑tos”, and the common slips that organizations tend to make on this path.

In the squares, we are sharing some of these learnings.

If you are considering shaping gender‑transformative strategies, we would love to partner with you. Please write to us at [email protected].

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