Welcome To 18startup

A platform for 0–1 founders to become investor-ready.

Through our programs, we guide founders in building venture-investable MVPs and empower them to thrive throughout their startup journey.

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Four young adults sitting and standing around a laptop in a modern library, discussing and smiling.
Young woman in red sweater writing in a notebook at a library or study area.
Young man wearing headphones and a pink sweatshirt writing with a pencil in a notebook in a library setting, with another person working on a laptop in the background.
Three young adults gathered around a laptop, discussing and pointing at the screen in a well-lit room.
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Four young adults gathered around a laptop in a library, collaborating and smiling while sitting at a table with books and coffee cups.
Sad young man with a backpack looking down while two blurred teenagers talk in the background.
Four young adults sitting and standing around a laptop in a modern library, discussing and smiling.
Young woman wearing glasses and a plaid shirt holding a pencil while sitting at a table with an open book in a library or study space.
Young woman in red sweater writing in a notebook at a library or study area.
Young man wearing headphones and a pink sweatshirt writing with a pencil in a notebook in a library setting, with another person working on a laptop in the background.
Three young adults gathered around a laptop, discussing and pointing at the screen in a well-lit room.
Young man placing blue sticky notes on a whiteboard while three colleagues work and discuss in a modern office with shelves full of books.
Four young adults gathered around a laptop in a library, collaborating and smiling while sitting at a table with books and coffee cups.
Sad young man with a backpack looking down while two blurred teenagers talk in the background.

#doingiseverything

You don’t need to know everything to start. You just need to start doing the right things.

We simply feel,
Ideas don’t change lives.
Execution does.

And that’s why, at 18startup, we live by one simple belief:

Doing is Everything.

Our Vision

To become a leading institution for entrepreneurship education that develops execution-oriented entrepreneurs capable of creating sustainable businesses, generating employment, and solving meaningful societal problems. We believe that entrepreneurial success should not depend solely on prior experience or access to exceptional mentors, but on access to high-quality entrepreneurship education that can be delivered consistently and at scale.

Our Mission

18startup exists to make entrepreneurial execution a teachable discipline. Our mission is to equip aspiring and early-stage founders with the knowledge, skills, and mindset required to build commercially viable and venture-investable businesses through structured, experiential entrepreneurship education.

Commitment to Entrepreneurship Education

At 18startup, entrepreneurship education is centered on learning by building. Rather than teaching entrepreneurship as a collection of business functions, we teach founders how to make better entrepreneurial decisions through experimentation, customer discovery, commercial validation, and disciplined execution.

Co-curricular Learning

We believe that entrepreneurship should emerge from a foundation of personal fulfillment and purpose. Founders are encouraged to approach venture creation not merely as a pursuit of business success, but as an opportunity to contribute the best version of themselves to the world and create value through meaningful service to society. To support this journey, we incorporate reflective exercises and use the Ikigai framework to help founders explore the intersection of their strengths, passions, values, and the needs of the world. We also encourage entrepreneurs to build ventures that are socially responsible, relevant, and capable of creating lasting impact. Beyond their individual ventures, we foster a community of doers, encouraging founders to actively engage with their peers, share knowledge and experiences, support one another's entrepreneurial journeys, and contribute to the continued growth and strength of the 18startup alumni community.

Mentors & Faculty

Our programs are delivered by experienced entrepreneurs, startup operators, and subject-matter experts who bring practical insights from building and scaling ventures. We have developed standardized delivery frameworks and mentor training processes to ensure consistency while allowing mentors to contribute their own entrepreneurial experiences and perspectives. As we grow, we continue to expand and strengthen this practitioner-led faculty model.

The Team

Prakash Balasubramanian

Co-Founder & CEO

Teja Surishetti

Co-Founder & COO

Zeeshan Mohammed

Co-Founder & CBO

Bhanupratap Singh

Head of Growth

Raja Vamshi Dasu

Business Development Executive

Suhani Muglani

Intern - Social Media Manager

Sai Revanth Reddy

Intern - Technical Operations

Anjli J

Operations Manager

Research and Continuous Learning

Our commitment to research is practice-oriented. Through every cohort, workshop, mentor interaction, and founder engagement, we continuously study the challenges faced by early-stage entrepreneurs and refine our curriculum based on observed learning outcomes. We are also building AI-enabled tools to capture learning patterns and mentor-founder interactions, enabling us to continuously improve our pedagogy and contribute evidence-based insights into entrepreneurship education.

Young woman in a white shirt with blue trim concentrating while flipping through pages of a notebook at a table with a purple patterned cup nearby.

500+

Startups

100+

Funded & Incubated

100 cr+

Combined Valuation

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India's most vibrant curated community of 5000+ startup founders building together nationwide.

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