India’s First 12-Day Draper Founders Program is Underway in Hyderabad
Hyderabad, July 29, 2025 – Draper Startup House, a global entrepreneurial ecosystem committed to enabling one million entrepreneurs by 2030, has launched the first-ever Draper Founders Program in India, hosted at its Hyderabad hub.
This 12-day residential accelerator brings together 14 high-potential founders from across India, offering them immersive learning, mentorship, and global exposure to scale their startups.
And the 14 start-ups and their founders include Medscore–Mannuri Vamshi Krishna; Reoxide–Basil Paulose; Salaah Shots–Astha Darshika (Founder & CEO); Finstone AI–Rushikesh Chavan (Founder); Cumma–Gautham Palaniswamy (CEO); FinStackk–Nithin Reddy (Co-Founder); Macrocosmos Creation–Dr. Abhishek Mani Tripathi; Neuralcraft—Niyas; Brick Pay–Shubham Shah; Xaults–Shubham Sharma; ALGOXIA–Sandeep Yama; Weez.AI–Sayyad, Nisa & team; Lohas Stays Pvt Ltd—Harsha and Spaecs—Karthik Nagapuri
The program is designed for early-stage, bootstrapped founders and aims to equip them with practical tools, global investor access, and the confidence to pitch and scale globally.
Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Chaitanya, Director of Draper Startup House Hyderabad, said,
“India has no shortage of exceptional founders. What they need is structured early-stage support, global visibility, and investor access. The Draper Founders Program addresses this gap — equity-free, community-driven, and high-impact.”
This program is part of the global Draper Startup House network founded by Tim Draper, legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
Tim Draper has backed some of the world’s most successful companies, including: Tesla, Skype, Hotmail, Baidu, Coinbase, Robinhood, SpaceX (indirectly)
These investments helped shape the modern tech ecosystem.
Draper Startup House combines co-working and co-living, making it one of the few platforms in India offering a residential entrepreneurial experience.
The Hyderabad edition marks a strategic move to position the city as a gateway for Indian startups to the global stage, leveraging its vibrant tech and innovation ecosystem.
A highlight of the program is the Draper Startup House Demo Day, to be held on 1st August from 3pm to 8pm where all 14 participating startups will pitch to a curated audience of investors, mentors, and ecosystem leaders.
To further globalize the experience, Nacho from the Draper New York team has flown in to mentor the participants. The Demo Day will be graced by Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, ITE&C, Government of Telangana, as the Chief Guest.
The Investors, Mentors & Ecosystem Leaders Joining on the Demo Day inclue Pras Hanuma – Next Unicorn Fund; Sanjay Nekkanti – Founder, Dhruva Space; Vikranth Varshney – SucSEED Indovation; Dr. Vinod – Infipotential | Life & Business Coach; Ratnakar Samavedham – CEO, Hyderabad Angels; MSR (Mahakali Srinivas Rao) – Ex-CEO, T-Hub; Vishnu Chundi – Founder, AasaanWill; Anish Anthony – Investor, Factoryal; Naveena Reddy – Investor, Lead Invest; Renuka Bodla – Ex–SilverNeedle Ventures; Ekta Bahl – Mediator, Samvad Partners; Meenakshi Baruah – Untangling Labs, Mentor; Mili Kataria – Pandora’s Box, Mentor; Vikas Sukand – Sunjosho Ventures, Mentor; Suryakant – AIC–BIMTECH, Mentor; Dr. Raju – ThinkBio.AI – Head of Partnerships & Sales and Vivek Verma – Advisor, Draper Startup House.