Rahul Nainwal is the Chief Executive Officer of the Runway Incubator. He is also the co-founder of iVolunteer and has been involved with the India Fellow program, UnLtd Delhi startup Incubator, and Cashrelief.

Runway is an incubation initiative by the UPES (The University of Petroleum & Energy Studies) Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UCIE). UCIE has been recognised by the Government of Uttarakhand as a business incubator. UCIE is also a member of the University Business Incubator (UBI) Global platform.

Rahul is a TED Fellow, an alumnus of Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Oxford University, and THNK (The Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership). He is also an angel investor and mentor to early-stage Startups.

[This article is part of Startup Hatch, a series launched in 2013 by YourStory featuring incubators, accelerators, makerspaces, and coworking spaces in the startup ecosystem. See profiles of initiatives at IIT Bombay, IIM Bangalore, BITS Pilani, NID, IIIT-Bangalore, NetApp Excellerator, Sandbox Startups, Brigade REAP, Target India Accelerator, Maersk, Afthonia Lab, IISC-SID, and Ashoka Innovators.]

Rahul joins us in this extended interview on the role of Runway, opportunities for entrepreneurs, pandemic resilience, and plans for the future. Edited excerpts below:

YourStory (YS): What was the founding vision of your incubator, and how is it supported?

Rahul Nainwal (RN): In his many addresses to the nation, the Prime Minister has urged the youth to think out of the box, rely on indigenous solutions, and play a more proactive role in shaping the economy.

Aligning with the call of being ‘vocal for local’, Runway was launched to work with startups within and outside of UPES on their ideas and help them transition into strong, scalable and successful businesses.

Runway seeks to support budding entrepreneurs through the early stages of building a startup. It will provide mentoring, financial, as well as legal support until they’ve built something impressive enough to raise capital. At UPES, we just don’t want to prepare our students as job seekers, but we also want them to be job creators. The presence of an incubator in campus will give students exposure to disruptive thinking and innovative technology.

Our goal is to help brilliant innovators get through the early stages of setting up a startup and reach the point where they have made a product/service impressive enough to raise money. This will be done through a mix of mentorship, grants and investments, legal and incorporation support, and allocation of space to work.

In April this year, Runway initiated its first pre-incubation cohort in a two-day event hosted at UPES, with 82 startup ideas selected from over 400 applications. In the first round of pitching, eight startups out of the selected 82 raised more than Rs 70 lakh from a group of investors.

UPES School of Business and Runway incubator came together to organise ‘Take Off’ in May this year, a startup competition held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi earlier this year. The event provided a perfect platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas, engage, deliberate, and learn to grow their business with seasoned investors and experts.

‘Take Off’ had invited startup ideas from around India and received an overwhelming response of close to 400 applications, of which 16 were shortlisted. Two winning startup ideas--GoFresh by Mrityunjay Baksh Singh and Metaskate by Anupam Tomar--were handed cash prizes.

Similarly, Runway plans on organising more events and supporting startups and aspiring entrepreneurs through its various initiatives.

YS: Which startups have graduated from your incubator so far?

RN: Homversity, founded by Saurav Sinha, provides a one-stop solution for the student accommodation problem in India. Backed by the Government of Gujarat, Homversity recently closed a funding at more than Rs 80 crore valuation and are currently operational in over 25 cities.

Pension Box, founded by Kuldeep Parashar, is a digital pension platform for the private workforce. It has been funded by100x.VC & Angel Investors with $160,000 to build the product and hire a team. Their team grew from two to ten in February 2022. They are expected to cross 500,000 users by year-end and 50+ team members.

Mulya Creation, founded by Alisha Maindoliya, is a homegrown clothing brand from the Himalayas, in the valley of Uttarakhand. They produce 100% eco-dyed fabrics with discarded flowers and fruit peels. Mulya is also actively involved in training women artisans to gain skills for financial independence. They have been granted around Rs 10 lakh from the Government of Uttarakhand.

FitBread India, founded by Aditya Kashyap, makes fitness breads in different flavours like Indian masala, herbs and garlic. Their raw materials are sourced from Himalaya villages. They are ‘committed to be connected’ to these communities.

YS: Which startups are currently being incubated?

RN: Agrijoy, founded by Priyanshu Jain, is a hydroponics solution provider, starting from a four-planter setup to 44,000+ plants. It provides all-round support to the grower from seed to plate. Agrijoy has projects in various states and has a global audience of 15,000+. They operate the biggest hydroponics farm in Uttarakhand.

PDA, founded by Smita Taneja, is a motion functional fashion brand that works on various segments from dance and performance wear to yoga and swimwear. It offers customised activewear solutions by size and height.

Pieux, founded by Pratyush Kumar, uses cutting-edge 3D printing technology to build and design eyewear. The eyewear can be upgraded by modularity and interchangeability of parts, as in Lego.

Indian Hemp Store, founded by Siddharth Gupta, is an ecommerce platform and marketplace for hemp products. More than 10 leading companies have been onboarded, such as Boheco and India Hemp and Co.

AAGYO, founded by Mukul Mehta, is a delivery app for groceries, food, medicines, makeup, and fashion shopping.

YS: What is the profile of the managers of your incubator?

RN: Senior Manager Mohit Nagpal is a post graduate engineer, mentor, and guide to many startups. He also executes operational and engagement strategies for the entire ecosystem community, including startups, investors, corporates, mentors, advisors, and subject matter experts.

Incubation Manager Dr Manjari Chaturvedi is an academician and a mentor. A Fulbright alumnus, she manages the incubation program at UPES. She has worked with startups in branding, marketing, and building social media presence, and is passionate about creating a market-ready startup ecosystem driven by innovation.

Incubation Manager Khushboo Jogani is a design professional, educator, and mentor. She has also been an active member for TiE Women Entrepreneurs Surat, and initiatives like Fuckup Nights and PechaKucha in various cities of Gujarat. She has 18 years of industry experience in product innovation, brand identity creation, and brand equity building.

Incubation Manager Vikash Kumar is an entrepreneur and consultant. He is the co-founder of Outdoors for Learning and Development, an experiential learning startup. A Naropa Fellow, Vikash co-founded Skillgram during the pandemic with incubation support from IIT Mandi. In 2018, Vikash bicycled 2,200 km across Jammu and Ladakh to raise funds for a non-profit that supports early education. 

YS: What would you say are the top three opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs?

RN: The rapidly expanding domestic market promises opportunities in e-commerce, logistics, health-tech, web technologies, and digital entertainment.

However, at Runway, we believe that problems that need ideas to solve them are sector agnostic. An idea may work and be grown into a successful startup even if it isn’t unique or in the top growing sectors.

YS: What are the key challenges faced by startups in India, and how can you help bridge the gap?

RN: Poor revenue generation is one of the challenges. Runway ensures that startups are able to focus on and leverage their competitive advantages by enabling them to grow, sustain and generate capital.

Building a pan-Indian startup is also difficult because of market diversity and digital divides. Runway helps in regional market understanding and connects for the startups.

There is a lack of appropriate strategies to counter competition. Runway provides understanding and skills to analyse the market and devise suitable branding strategies and contingency plans.

Startups also need to find market niches. Runway, with its university research scholarship, enables startups with market research to enable reaching out to the right segmentation for their products.

YS: What are the unique challenges for social entrepreneurs as compared to tech or profit-led enterprises?

RN: Lack of funding or, lack of information about the existing funding opportunities, are the prominent challenges.

In addition, poor impact management due to decentralised data, lack of a business strategy due to insufficient understanding about goals and feasibility, as well as inability to scale up are other factors challenges for social entrepreneurs.

YS: What is the selection criteria for startups in your incubator?

RN: We look for founders with intuitive problem solving, ideas that provide value to the masses, ideas with lesser competition or that can have the first mover’s advantage, ideas that solve existing problems more efficiently or have an innovative approach to a competitive area, sustainability of the idea, and disruptive founders.