Pranav Kumar Suresh was passionate about technology and entrepreneurship even before these words were known to most people in Kerala. In his role as Chief Executive Officer of Startup Village, India’s first public private partnership incubator, he was able to make a difference in the state. He took it to such heights that it was on the verge of a startup revolution. During his tenure as Chief Operating Officer, he was able to help and motivate over 1,000 start-ups in Kerala. He is truly a game-changer in terms of start-ups in the Kerala, a state that is not widely regarded as the most business-friendly state. This has not only helped more and more young entrepreneurs come out with their ideas, it has also effectively helped more investment flow into a sector that most people considered amateur or not worth investing in.
The moment of change for this 31-year-old native of Thiruvananthapuram, also an alumnus from IIM Calcutta, was when he was asked to join the team of Startup Village, Kochi. “I was leading business transformation projects as part of the business planning division of Ashok Leyland (Hinduja Group Company) in Chennai. When I was asked to help out with Startup Village, I was about to go to London to join the Hinduja Group headquarters there. But I was so passionate about the idea of startups that I decided to go to Kochi instead of London and ended up joining Startup Village as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2013.
The vision of Startup Village was to create 1,000 product start-ups over ten years and begin the search for a billion dollar start up from college campuses by the turn of this decade. It is a not-for-profit organisation focused on developing a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing support to budding entrepreneurs in the form of physical infrastructure, technology and service infrastructure and mentor capital. We have succeeded in doing so even before the stipulated time period,” says Pranav. Initially he was responsible for operations, strategy and alliances at Startup Village and helped define the way forward for the country’s first PPP model incubator. Pranav became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Startup Village in July 2014. Under his leadership, the village has won the award for the best incubator in India in 2015 from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. After Pranav took over charge as CEO, Startup Village has geared up for a number of operational targets and structural changes. Major changes include recruitment, establishment of the Fab Labs in participation with the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, Boston, implementation of the Raspberry Pi programme for school children, execution of the seed fund programme, rolling out the Startup Village App and setting up Boot camps in 500 colleges.
And they’ve come quite a long way. “I am very happy that Startup Village has set the benchmark for incubators across the country. With my professional experience and support from team the SV, we could be able to achieve all targets set for the incubator. From my school days onwards I was curious about start-ups and entrepreneurship. As CEO of Startup Village, I was able to help and motivate over 1,000 start-ups in the state,” says Pranav, who left a high-flying career mid-way to pursue his passion.
Pranav has done his schooling at Loyola School in Thiruvanathapuram. His merits do not end in the leadership role alone. He is also the co-founder of Torque Technology Solutions and MobME Wireless Private Limited, the early bird start-ups in Kerala.