When I moved back to Chennai from the US, I was a single founder and did not know anyone from the local ecosystem. I happened to meet Dorai Thodla (one of the mentors associated with The Startup Centre) at an open coffee club meet and then he introduced me to Vijay Anand.
We've gained tremendous value from TSC's resident program and since entrepreneurs care about specifics, I'll keep this post as concise and to the point as possible.Here's how the resident program helped us:Prototyping and feedback: The first version of our product was built at the first in50hrs event (a weekend hackathon) organized by TSC. We then made multiple iterations based on input from folks at TSC as well as others that they connected us to. We were also connected to pretty much anyone we wanted to meet to get feedback and these meetings really helped us refine our product.Networking: TSC has sort of become the de-facto place for startup related events in the city and you get to meet a number of entrepreneurs, designers and hackers from Chennai as well as others dropping by from other citries. You also have investors (angels, VCs) dropping by occasionally and giving you feedback. In my personal case, majority of the connections I have in the Indian startup ecosystem started with an intro either by Vijay or someone else associated with TSC.Team building: I was a single founder until recently and I now have two co-founders who were both introduced to me via TSC. One of them was actually a resident in my batch who later came on-board. I also have a long list of potential team members that I can approach as and when we need to grow the team thanks to the network that I mentioned earlier.Mentoring: In my case, I knew most of the mentors even before TSC formally existed. I've reached out to each mentor multiple times and they've always been generous with their time and feedback. You do get brutally honest feedback which I really appreciated. That said, I think it really comes down to the individual team to proactively reach out to the mentors and ask for advice. Don't expect hand holding or for them to keep pinging you for that may not happen. Find out who the mentors are and don't hesitate to reach out to them.Other benefits: Like the Mirraw team mentioned in a separate post, the conversations you have with fellow residents are extremely useful. Also, someone said that most startups die because founders give up and I actually believe that. Working along with other teams really helped me stay focused especially during the lows. Finally, the office space is work friendly, is accessible 24X7 and there are several places to eat nearby.We've gained a ton from the resident program and I certainly would encourage you to consider it. Feel free to contact me at krishna@theschoolofskills.com if you have further questions and I will be happy to help.
Back then, The Startup Centre did not exist but we had informal meets where a group of entrepreneurs got together a couple of times every quarter and exchanged updates and experiences. That is when I got to know about TSC and I've known Vijay since then.
The TSC Perspective [ Written by Vijay Anand ]
We've known Krishna for a while. To be honest, he was one of the reasons why the concept of TSC was conceived in the first place. (The Team behind Interviewstreet was the other reason). When we run a team through the resident programme, we are hoping to achieve two things - Focus and Model. If you walk away with clarity on those two, then you find direction and everything else becomes much easier.
Education is a particularly hard sector, but we've seen the team pivot rigorously to find a product market fit and keep trying - for a while that was a single founder, but they have a rather kickass team behind them now, and I'm glad we were able to help.
The Resident Grant by TSC and Lightspeed, awarded should also help in taking things forward for this team, and we wish them the very best.