CAPITAL
Funds to build and grow.
Unlock grants, follow-on funding and connections to the right funding opportunities.
Become a Shifu Fellow.
Great founders exist across Bharat, not just metro cities.
We back early-stage founders with capital, mentorship, and a network. Learn from mentors who have built and scaled startups.
Apply for Shifu Fellowship
We review applications every month.
What you get.
Five pillars that take you from building to revenue.
CREDITS
Tools that make building easier.
Cloud, AI and other credits, tools, and frameworks. Everything you need to ship without burning runway.
CAPABILITY
Mentors who've built and scaled.
Workshops, bootcamps and one-on-one mentoring sessions. Experts that brainstorm with you.
COVERAGE
Storytelling that travels.
Your startup journey and founder story distributed across your state, district and beyond.
COMMUNITY
Warm intros. Real rooms.
A network of peers, mentors, investors and ecosystem partners - connects for next customer or next round.
From Bharat
Founders from places like yours.
Real builders from districts across India who started exactly where you are.
Atoba Longkumer
Tabernacle Technologies
Quit during the pandemic to prove SaaS could come from Nagaland.
Kohima1 / 7
Ready to be a Shifu Fellow?
We're looking for builders, not browsers. Three things we look for in every applicant.
Criterion 01
You have an idea, MVP, or a live product.
Something concrete you're working on - not just a notion.
Criterion 02
You're working on it full-time.
Not as a side project. Not on weekends. This is the thing you're doing.
Criterion 03
You're in this for the long haul.
Building takes years. We back people who are willing to put them in.
Not building full-time, or just exploring? Join the Shifu Builder Community - district screenings, founder seminars, and meetups happening near you. No application bar.
FAQ
Things you might be wondering.
Early-stage driven founders with a well-formed idea, a product, a business plan working full-time. We specially focus on founders from non metro cities.
Yes. Always. We don't take a stake, we don't take a board seat, we don't take any portion of your company. Everything the Fellowship gives you is yours to keep.
There are no fixed graduation dates. Once a Shifu Fellow always a Shifu Fellow. You will always have access to the benefits.
The structured sessions runs alongside your build. Mentorship and bootcamps continue for as long as you need them.
Mostly remote, with periodic in-person bootcamps and meetups in different cities. Wherever you are in India, you can apply.
Shifu Fellowship is for full-time founders. If you're earlier in your journey - curious, learning, exploring - join the Shifu Builder Community.
Applications are reviewed every month. Apply anytime - we'll get back within 14 days.
Your district is waiting.
Become part of the next decade of district entrepreneurship — apply for the fellowship.
Apply for Shifu Fellowship
Not ready to be a Shifu Fellow yet?
Founders from every district of India
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Shifu Foundation · Section 8 nonprofit · Building India's first district-level startup movement.