Prof. Surya is by all habits and prejudices, an "IITian"... having spent almost all his adult life in them. He has done his BTech & MTech (Dual Degree) from IIT Madras and PhD from IIT Bombay, soon after which he joined IIT Hyderabad as faculty in 2010.
Beyond his current focus on Additive Manufacturing, Prof. Surya shares a broad passion for the manufacturing/fabrication domain and considers the success of the manufacturing sector to be pivotal for the sustained economic growth of India. So he is also looking forward to engaging with Incubation Cell and hope to facilitate the transformation of ideas into successful commercial ventures.
Dhruv Gupta is a researcher turned entrepreneur and now Head Of Operations at iTIC Incubator, IIT Hyderabad. He is a computer scientist by certificate, a mathematician by hobby, a design thinker by training and a strong believer in an empathy-driven approach.
Dhruv did his first startup at the age of 18 and had built 3 (three) tech startups by now, with successes and failures. He has a stronghold in technology domains like Machine Intelligence and Web 3.0 and is well versed in designing user-experience, business models and revenue models. He had been part of the journey for many startups as a consultant, mentor and investor.
Dhruv was bestowed with the Gandhian Young Technology Innovator Award 2016 by Dr R. A. Mashelkar at Rashtrapati Bhavan and was hosted for evening tea and dinner by Hon’ble President of India Shri Pranab Mukharjee. His interpersonal skills had made him gain a huge network of people and organizations whom he always tries to help in any way possible with his belief in the concept of CoRise. With all the learnings and experiences he had gained with his successes and failures, Dhruv is designing next-generation products and helping companies to grow to the next level.
Keyur Punjani is a Mechanical Engineer by education and has started his career with General air conditioners as a trainee. In a short span of time, he was looking after B2B and B2C segments across 7 cities of Gujarat.
To pursue his passion for 3D printing technology, he founded Stardust, a 3D printer manufacturing and printing services company. Stardust catered to more than 300 odd customers from multiple domains, received grants from GoG and GoI, startup awards, and many more accolades. After collaborating Stardust with another engineering services company, he moved into the startup ecosystem to help other entrepreneurs.
Keyur is also a Rajeev Circle Fellow, which is run by Asha Jadeja Motwani (wife of late Rajeev Motwani - mentor and early investor at Google). With a total work experience of 7 plus years, he has founded a startup, worked on establishing the iTIC accelerator and incubation programs, managed events and outreach for the GUSEC incubator. During his spare time, Keyur chooses to meditate, read books, and travel
Sagar is an experienced business and marketing professional who brings diverse & creative skill sets to drive business & communication. He has hands-on experience in managing operations, programs, and communication at Incubators, Accelerators, Startups & Student-focused programs. His career interests are working in enabling ecosystems and contributing to startups and entrepreneurship development. He has been trained under the nexus innovation hub at the IC2 Institute and the University of Texas at Austin for Incubator Management. Previously, he worked with a-IDEA, Technology Business Incubator of ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad, one of India’s leading and emerging Agritech incubator/accelerator and worked with all the stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem in India including government, industry, startups, and academia.
Prior to this Mr. Sagar Panchal worked on a few ideas and did his first startups at the age of 19 and experienced an entrepreneurial journey. He has a Postgraduate Diploma in International Business Management from Carlton Business School and Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Electronic Technology from Osmania University.
Sajjad has more than 9 years of professional experience in multiple domains. Before joining the iTIC Incubator, he served in various positions under Technical (R & D), Administration, and Project Management domains with teams associated with both Private and Government aided organisations.
Venu Rathore is an MBA from Gujarat Technological University. He is a soul entrepreneur. His journey started with a Startup named GoWofee as a Co-founder he learned all his ground lessons along with the growth and success of this start-up into a fully established company. He, later on, started working on the start-up idea of surprise travel. With the adamant vision of transforming the travel sector to the next level with help of automated, personalized and intelligent services. He established Anywhera which instantly got funded by various incubation centres like Manipal University (Jaipur) & LJ Incubation centre (Ahmedabad). His entrepreneurship skills have been acclaimed as he was awarded runner up at the Global Students Entrepreneur Awards.
Venu is also a Gym enthusiast and a hodophile at heart. His love for football can be made out from the number of tournaments he has won at the school level as well as at the college level like T20 Soccer Gujarat Cup, LJ Cup, LJ IMBA Cup and many more.
Shubham Mishra is a Finance enthusiast and has in-depth knowledge of Budgeting and Forecasting. He has completed his CMA from The Certified Institute of Management Accountant and also holds a Bachelor degree in Commerce.
Shubham Mishra has work experience in grant accounting and government accounts. He has worked in Institutes with national importance. He was a core team member in his previous employment’s accounts section. His analytical and forecasting mindset has always helped the institute to manage its cash flow. He is an astute learner as he has gone through various finance training for government accounts handling.