You don't need permission
to build.
Shifu Foundation is building the path — so where you grew up no longer decides what you can build.
How We Work
Two Pillars to turn your vision into reality
Educate.
Go broad. Reach every district.
Screenings, podcasts, documentaries, and founder stories that show every Young Indian what's possible — distributed on-ground and online.
Against All Odds
A documentary by us
Curated courses, toolkits, frameworks, webinars, books. The playbooks for the journey from an idea to a company.
Plug into your district startup ecosystem — founders, incubators, accelerators and open doors to hackathons, events, competitions across India's startup space
Empower.
Go deep. Work fellow-by-fellow.
We offer up to ₹5L grant that lets you focus on building.
We help you raise 25× more funding and unlock perks & credits — cloud, tools, services — that stretch the grant much further.
Bootcamps, workshops, and mentorship that make you product-ready, capital-ready, and market-ready
Ecosystem access, media visibility, and market reach — warm intros, platforms, press coverage, and the rooms that unlock the next customer and the next round.
From Bharat
Founders from places like yours.
Real builders from districts across India who started exactly where you are.
Delhi
Amit Koshal· Photon Legal
Lost his father at 5. Now runs India's top patent firm.
The Ecosystem
Find your district on the map.
Documentary Screenings, meetups, founder visits, seminars — district by district. Find your district. See what's already happening near you.
If nothing's happening in your district yet — that's a sign. Join our network and we'll bring it to you.
Founders
From non-metro districts
- BT
Bhanu Teja
Nellore
- VK
Vikas Kumar
Bokaro
- AL
Atoba Longkumer
Kohima
- NS
Neeraj Singhal
Jaipur
For Shifu Fellows
Are you ready to be a Shifu Fellow?
The program goes deep. We work only with people committed enough to need it.
Criterion 01
You have an idea, a product, or a live MVP.
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 a real company takes years. You're ready for that.
FAQ
Questions you might have.
Everything we do for young Indians — screenings, learning resources, meetups, founder content — is free. Shifu Fellows go further: they receive grant (up to ₹5 lakh to start), mentorship, and perks at no cost.
As a Young Indian, no — you can join just to learn, watch, and explore. To become a Shifu Fellow, yes: you'll need an idea, a product, or an MVP that you're working on full-time.
No. We work with anyone aged 15 to 40 preferably from a Tier-2, Tier-3 + origin — students, working professionals, dropouts, returners. We want to bring opportunities to every corner of Bharat.
There's no fixed timeline. It depends entirely on you — your idea, your conviction, how fast you build. Some founders ship in 18 months; others take 5 years. We move at the pace you do.
Our focus is on founders whose origin is outside the major metros — that's where the gap is widest. If you grew up in a metro, you're welcome to join our network, the Shifu Fellow program prioritize founders from smaller cities and districts but you are welcome to apply
Start by signing up below. The form will ask where you are in your journey — idea, MVP, building full-time. We will reach out to qualified applicants.
Your district is waiting.
Become part of the next decade of district entrepreneurship — join the network or apply for the fellowship.
Tech Founders from every district of India
© 2026 Shifu Foundation. All rights reserved.
Shifu Foundation · Section 8 nonprofit · Building India's first district-level tech startup movement.