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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.

13/10/2026

Bringing the local to the global 🌏

At and Climate Week in New York, Start Up! represented by Manisha Gupta participated in a session curated by Sidebar. The session focused on the urgent need to center grassroots stories and community storytellers in advancing equity, climate action, and community-led change.

We were joined by three incredible panelists -
✨Amber Lucero-Dwyer - Director of Marketing & Communications, World Connect, Inc.
✨ Prachur Goel - CEO, Momentum Shifts
✨ Travis Randall - Director, USA, Ubuntu Pathways
✨ Gabriel Diamond - Filmmaker, Skoll Foundation

In a packed and interactive session, which included several leading nonprofit leaders from India, the audience joined the speakers to discuss the following ideas:

🔹 Storytelling is more than a tool for visibility and fundraising - We know that when stories are owned by communities, they become a medium of empowerment, enabling individuals to see themselves and shape how the world sees them.

🔹 Stories can heal and strengthen solidarities - In hotbeds of polycrisis, people come together around shared stories to recognize their collective strength and surface new ways to create change.

🔹 Storytelling can open avenues for action - As a methodology of empowerment, stories can help communities access resources, build networks, influence public narratives, and create opportunities on their own terms.

Thank you to The Sidebar and the insightful speakers for enabling this space for this conversation. It was so energizing to focus on the power of the local, in a global gathering at UNGA!

08/10/2026

Okay, so you have a strategy plan that puts people first, thinks beyond services, and brings evidence and lived experience together! But we want you to pause and ask yourselves a few more questions:

Is your strategy helping you learn and adapt, or are you simply tracking indicators?

Is your ambition grounded in an honest understanding of your organisation’s culture, capabilities, resources and risks?

A strong strategy helps organisations look beyond delivery, learn from what is working and what is not, and build the self-awareness needed to turn ambition into meaningful and lasting impact.

In a two-part series, we share 10 ‘kinda chic’ rules for building meaningful, immersive impact strategies. These are insights that we have gained from co-creating strategies with 125+ high-impact non-profits.

Take a look at the next five ‘kinda chic’ lessons for effective strategic planning!

Social Entrepreneurship, Strategies for Nonprofits, Start Up!

06/10/2026

Okay, so you are an impact-first organization with a strategy plan! But we want you to pause and ask yourselves a few questions:

Is your strategy merely keeping you busy, or is it following excellence and results?

Is your strategy creating value and meaning, or is it focussed merely on delivery?

A strong strategy asks teams to make simple yet decisive choices about what matters, what doesn’t, where to focus, what to let go of, and how to stay rooted in the people and communities they exist to serve.

In a two-part series, we share 10 ‘kinda chic’ rules for building meaningful, immersive impact strategies. These are insights that we have gained from co-creating strategies with 125+ high-impact non-profits.

Take a look at our first five ‘kinda chic’ lessons for effective strategic planning!

SocialEntrepreneurship

02/10/2026

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Mahatma Gandhi

In a time marked by growing unrest, crisis and conflict, Gandhi’s reminder feels especially relevant: change begins with the alignment of our thoughts, words and actions.

On and the International Day of Non-Violence, we reflect on the everyday choices that can build understanding, dignity and a culture of peace.

22/09/2026

Last week, we travelled to Dehradun with Nutgraph: Social Data Lab to facilitate Inward Bound—its organizational retreat.

Nutgraph is a community-centred social enterprise working at the intersection of data, storytelling, and policy. Founded and led by ORA India Fellow Kumar Sambhav, it works to center the wisdom, knowledge, and lived realities of grassroots communities.

Over three days of silence, reflection, imagination, and connection, we paused to take stock of Nutgraph’s journey: its innovations, growth, learning, and the possibilities ahead.

Together, we unpacked the team’s leadership style through the practice of seeing, doing, and being—the everyday work of curating innovation, enabling communities, amplifying stories, and carrying community-generated data into conversations on law and policy. We also reflected on what it takes to hold space for one another while staying attentive to daily wins, challenges, and moments of learning.

The team travelled into the future with vital questions:

✨ How can community knowledge and data become the foundation for forest, water, land, and environmental governance?

✨ How can technology enable stakeholders—from communities to government institutions—to identify patterns and translate micro-level field data into evidence that informs policy?

✨ How can we equip more students, journalists, and researchers to work with social data and evidence in service of ground-up change?

Yet Inward Bound was also a space for laughter, music, meditation, and movement—because teams that play, pause, and learn together are better equipped to thrive together.

Thank you, Team Nutgraph, for inviting Start Up! to be part of your journey.

18/09/2026

🌎 Start Up! will be in New York for the UNGA & Climate Week 2026.

Manisha from our team will be part of multiple dialogues and convenings with changemakers from across the world!

Start Up! will be joining the conversation, “Who Owns the Story? – Moving from Storytelling About Communities to Storytelling by Them,” organized by Sidebar.

This dialogue will unpack how we can create the platforms, spaces and safety for communities to tell their own stories.

As part of this dialogue, Manisha will join a stellar line of speakers:

✨ Amber Lucero-Dwyer — Director of Marketing & Communications, World Connect
✨ Prachur Goel — CEO, Momentum Shifts
✨ Travis Randall — Director, USA, Ubuntu Pathways
✨ Gabriel Diamond — Filmmaker, Skoll Foundation

Please join us if you are free!

🗓️ September 21, 2026
🕝 2:30–4:00 PM
📍 134 West 29th Street, 2nd Floor, New York, USA
🎟️ Register here: Link in bio 👆

Thank you, Seth Cochran and The Sidebar, for bringing people together around ideas, experiences and perspectives that can shape a more equitable future.

Equity Justice StartUp

17/09/2026

We met as a community of practice for youth urban well-being.

We experienced how creativity and conversations drive a circle of people to strengthen their commitments to youth urban well-being.

We learnt that the power of a Community of Practice lies not only in meetings, but in designing for friendships and relationships to foster.

Thank you, , for the opportunity. Cheers to for the excellent design and facilitation. Hurrah to for being the incredible venue!

UrbanWellbeing InclusiveCities TechnologyForGood CivilSociety Istanbul

11/09/2026

How can Communities of Practice (CoP) accelerate ideas, models, and frameworks for making youth-responsive cities, that are fit for the future?

Last week, in Istanbul’s historic neighborhood of Galata, we joined six civil-society organizations from India, Ghana, Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia to embrace this question.

The convening was facilitated by New Silk Road and supported by Fondation Botnar.

Start Up! and Safetipin were representing the Cities for Youth program.

Here are a few highlights:

✨ We exchanged frameworks, mapped patterns, and articulated insights emerging from the Global South on how systems can share power with the youth in shaping the future.

✨ From safety, mobility, youth innovation, urban wellbeing, and technology – our conversations were intersectional and interdisciplinary.

✨ We defined the shared values and culture we wish to nurture as a Community of Practice: trust, curiosity, openness, mutual learning, solidarity, and a commitment to sharing power with young people.

✨ Our conversations were hosted at Postane, a restored historic post office in Galata. In its current avatar Postane is an independent and dynamic social hub for civil society, social enterprises, activists, artists, and urban change-makers.

✨ What brought life to this meshwork of community was the shared food, hot drinks, stories from our regions, laughter, and long walks through Galata- forging friendships that are often the life force of a community.

Thank you New Silk Road Forum The New Silk Road Forum for your seamless and skillful facilitation.

Here’s to learning across borders - and to cities where young people can participate, influence, belong, and thrive.

UrbanWellbeing InclusiveCities TechnologyForGood CivilSociety Istanbul

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E 109, Second Floor, Kalkaji
New Delhi
110019

Website

http://www.startup-india.org/

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