Inc42 And Galgotias Host CampusX To Help Student Founders Shape Their Dreams

Entrepreneurship is no longer just another career option, it has transcended to be a mindset, and the startup ecosystem has thrown open the perfect launchpad for India’s next-gen entrepreneurs to unleash their ideas.

This trend has made it vital to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world exposure for a seamless transition. This is where Inc42 has come up with Galgotias University to launch CampusX, a dynamic initiative designed to nurture student founders, operators, and product thinkers right on campus.

“At Galgotias, we’re not just encouraging entrepreneurship — we’re embedding it into the student DNA. CampusX with Inc42 is a bold step toward building India’s next generation of founders, right from the classroom.” said Dr Dhruv Galgotia the CEO at Galgotias University.

The trend can be assessed from a 2023 NASSCOM report that showed a 40% surge in student-founded startups over the past five years. This spike highlights a growing entrepreneurial spirit among college students, driven by increased access to incubators, mentorship programmes, and funding opportunities on campuses.

CampusX is designed not as a typical entrepreneurship programme. It goes beyond lectures and discussions on business plans. It will offer students direct access to the startup ecosystem through fireside chats, panel discussions, and on-ground mentoring. The aim is simple: turn students into startup-ready professionals who would understand the journey from zero to one.

At the first chapter of the event, held on June 19, the students participated in a series of sessions that offered a raw, behind-the-scenes look at the startup world. A panel of successful founders looked back into their entrepreneurial journey, spoke of their mistakes, reasoned their strategic pivots, and talked of their relentless pursuit of product-market fit.

This was followed by conversations that explored what truly matters in startup hiring, the nuances of building consumer-first brands, and the role of cultural insight and operational discipline in scaling ventures.

The event wrapped up with a discussion on transforming personal passion into a thriving business, dwelling on the impact of everyday choices, customer focus, and commitment to quality.

From Idea To Impact: Founders Decode Validation, Grit, Growth Hacks

In a panel discussion on entrepreneurship and early-stage challenges, moderator Renu Bisht, of Commercify360, steered a candid conversation with a diverse group of startup founders. The session unpacked real-world strategies to test, validate, and scale startup ideas, offering the attendees a practical lens into the unpredictable but rewarding founder journey.

The panel featured TrulyMadly cofounder and CEO Snehil Khanor, Yatra Online chief architect and data scientist Dr Shakti Goel, HYPD cofounder Ashwarya Garg, and Freecultr founder and CEO Harshit Vij.

The discussion began with focus on one of the biggest mistakes the founders often make – building products without truly understanding the market demand. This led to a compelling exchange on how early validation, customer insight, and iterative testing could help them build confidence and reduce risks.

“Every idea feels like worth a billion dollars in your head, but real validation starts when someone is ready to pay, even a little, for it,” Garg said. “Don’t start building yet. Start by talking to real users, even strangers, and check if they’re willing to exchange value for your solution,” he advised.

Goel echoed this approach, citing travel industry trends and publicly available datasets as powerful tools for generating and refining business ideas without writing a single line of code.

How does the day one of a startup look like? “It’s like falling in love – infatuation mixed with delusion,” Khanor said. “That fantasy is what fuels your patience when things don’t go your way. But the real work starts when excitement meets disappointment.”

On execution in crowded markets, Vij of Freecultr explained how branding trumps product tweaks. “People don’t wear products anymore, they wear brands. We’ve tried to give our customers a feeling of freedom, not just underwear.”

Is AI just an enhancer, or is it a necessity? Yatra’s Goel gave real-world examples of how the travel platform uses LLMs (large language models) for receipt processing and fraud detection, reducing human effort and increasing accuracy.

“Telegram runs with a team of 10–12 engineers globally because they’ve mastered GenAI. That’s the power startups need to survive and scale.”

Garg, who built Hype to help creators monetise their work, spoke about solving the chicken-and-egg problem of getting both brands and creators on board.

“At the beginning, we just asked brands to let us try helping them generate sales using micro creators. No upfront fee, just performance.” He said early pivots are inevitable but must be based on hard truths, not hopes.

TrulyMadly’s Khanor talked about dating startups. “Dating is still a taboo word, but love marriage has always been aspirational,” he said. TrulyMadly positioned itself between casual hookup apps and traditional matrimonial platforms, giving users a serious alternative focussed on compatibility and long-term intent.

Going it alone on a startup journey is not a weakness.

“Having a cofounder is like being married, you compromise, share decisions. It’s not always necessary. A strong team can be just as effective,” affirmed Vij whose Freecultr sells premium innerwear.

Garg pointed out that many enduring cofounder relationships begin in college and encouraged students to look around for collaborators who resonate their thoughts.

The conversation repeatedly circled back to one core insight: validate fast, fail early, and stay relentlessly curious. Whether through data, conversation, or no-code experiments, founders must figure out if real people care about what they’re building, before building it.

From Pedigree To Proof: Skills That Actually Matter Today

In a fireside chat, Nitin Jain, cofounder and chief business officer at OfBusiness, unpacked what separates high-potential candidates from the rest in today’s startup ecosystem. With startup roles becoming more competitive and market expectations evolving fast, he broke down the core skills that matter most and argued why a degree was no longer a differentiator.

The conversation began with the growing disconnect between what students learn and what startups demand. Traditional education, Jain noted, equips students with theoretical insight. The modern startup-ready candidate, he said, is someone who can operate in chaos, adapt quickly, and solve unstructured problems.

“Your job is to bring things to equilibrium because in a startup, they deviate every single day,” Jain said. “The ability to take ownership, work at velocity (not just speed), and think with clarity even under pressure is what sets top performers apart.”

He also emphasised how pedigree has been replaced by proof of work. In a market where everyone has similar resumes, real-world projects, side hustles, and deep observation stand out. Candidates who can walk into an interview with insights from shadowing a supply chain, visiting a factory, or deconstructing a business model are far more compelling than those with textbook answers.

“Insight beats intent, always,” Jain stated. He encouraged students to cold-email founders, visit shopfloors, and come back with one actionable idea that improves efficiency, experience, or margins. Even a 1% delta, he said, can speak louder than a certification.

In this age of AI, market volatility, and intense competition, Jain’s advice was grounded, yet forward-looking. For those hoping to enter or build startups in 2025, the message was clear: build signal, not noise.

Inside Astrotalk’s Journey To INR 1,400 Cr Revenue

During a candid conversation with Puneet Gupta, the founder and chief executive of Astrotalk, audiences got a ringside view of how a deeply personal belief became one of India’s most successful consumer internet businesses with over INR 1,400 Cr in revenue.

The discussion touched on multiple pillars of building a breakout consumer brand in India: customer insight, product iteration, team culture, and marketing innovation.

Gupta shared how Astrotalk’s earliest version focussed on video consultations, but real user feedback pushed the platform in an unexpected direction.

“To my surprise, 93% of the customers shifted to audio.” After realising that users preferred privacy and convenience over face-to-face calls. Later, the company introduced chat-based sessions leading to 60% of the business shifting to that format. Each pivot was based on what customers wanted, not what the team originally thought.

Beyond the product, Puneet stressed on the cultural reset that powered the scale. Drawing from hard lessons at his earlier company, he focussed on defining the right hiring practices and fostering a team-first attitude from day one.

“We wanted a culture where people help each other, no one loses their temper, and everyone has the space to fail and learn,” he said.

One of the most striking parts of the conversation was around Astrotalk’s marketing strategy. The company designed ads to appear as organic content. This approach, paired with relatable storytelling, helped the company dominate platforms like Instagram and reach users where they spend the most time.

On raising capital, Gupta shared that their INR 160 Cr round was more strategic than financial.

“After we raised from investors, suddenly we got a huge amount of respect,” he said.

It was a reflection of brand perception among users, candidates, and the ecosystem. It often changes with external validation.

From product-market fit to narrative control, the conversation underscored what it really takes to build a consumer startup that doesn’t just grow fast but lasts, too.

How Blue Tokai Brewed An INR 500 Cr Coffee Revolution

During the fireside chat between Shivam Shahi, cofounder and COO of Blue Tokai Coffee, and Vaibhav Vardhan, cofounder and CEO of Inc42, the spotlight stayed firmly on turning personal passion into scalable business value. The session traced Blue Tokai’s evolution from a passion project born out of a coffee habit to an INR 500 Cr premium brand redefining India’s café culture.

The conversation opened with the origin of Blue Tokai. Shivam recalled how his exposure to café culture in Canada shaped his early fascination with coffee. Back in India, he saw a clear gap in the market for quality coffee.

“Once coffee becomes a habit, people keep coming back. You don’t have to push-sell it,” he noted, highlighting the power of creating a product that pulls customers organically.

The discussion explored the brand’s journey through its early struggles. None of the three cofounders had a F&B background. From packing ecommerce orders to managing cafés themselves – they built the business from ground up, learning operations hands-on. This experience laid the foundation for scaling a complex and capital-intensive operation without compromising on quality.

Another key area was India’s coffee consumption landscape. Despite being the fifth-largest coffee producer, India lacked a premium, homegrown brand, an insight that shaped Blue Tokai’s market thesis. The brand has since led the speciality coffee movement, inspiring more than 60 similar entrants.

On fundraising, Shahi offered a grounded perspective: “Fundraising shouldn’t be glorified… You’re taking someone’s money, and you have to return it.” He cautioned founders of chasing capital without a clear intent.

The chat closed on a note of clarity, of vision, of execution, and of market understanding as the cornerstone for turning a personal passion into a sustainable, multi-million-dollar business.

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