Forge- An Incubator Helping build Products For The Next Billion People

Deepak Srinivasan
Nov 3 · 3 min read

If asked to explain what Forge does as an open innovation incubator in simple words I would say — “Helping build products for the next billion people’’.Why So? At Forge every Startup, Entrepreneur in Resident or the Fellows are working with a maniacal focus to solve the problems faced by our country in various aspects of everyday life. So, both directly and indirectly Forge as an incubator is acting as a guide, mentor and coach to these change makers who are building for the next billion.

Forge — Forging a new school of thought

So, Forge is many things for me, on one hand, it is a startup School promoting a new school of thought and on the other a next-generation technology incubator India needs and deserves to help solve its unique problems such as- feeding the next billions, making our cities liveable, water issues and creating a quality skilled future workforce. For me, Forge encompasses within itself several multi-million-dollar ideas — Lambda School for Hardware Engineering(It conducts a 6 month full-fledged Hardware Engineering hands-on course called ProtoSem which has a very high standard of education), Byju’s for Edutainment(The ProtoSem course can also be tailored to High Schools), We-Work for the Next Gen maker oriented co-working spaces( One of the best Makers Space facility for a Co-Working Space I have visited), Mckinsey of innovation (As on date helped more than 1500+ Startups on Product Innovation)and more, all these just though the work in Coimbatore facility. The expansion to other cities that are in its pipeline is only going to result in the expansion of the Forge Universe. Through the strong alumni network from Forge’s flagship incubation and other programs where it brings together the future change-makers, it has high chances of building our very own Hardware Startup Mafia of India.

After just spending a couple of days at Forge with a very less of a guided tour and more of open interaction with almost everyone there,I have been exposed to a new world of processes that de-risk innovative experiments, a school of thought, an ecosystem and a way of life where people take pride in their work. This is an impact which is hard to be undone. I would suggest anyone in their early stages of Startup pay a visit to Forge’s facility and if you are a hardware startup I would say it is a must, thank me later.

Acrylic Laser Cutting Workshop Session

In the conversations, I have had with Vish Forge’s CEO when asked about what drives him every day at Forge he was honest and confident to say that he truly believes that he is the only person who can solve this problem, which is very important and needs to be solved. This just makes me re-iterate the fact that this a world-class team with a capable leader at the forefront who considers their mission greater than their work. I could also sense a culture of strong Intrapreneurship in Forge, every member here is running their program/project like a micro-CEO.

I am seeing this blogpost of mine as my way of thanking the entire team Forge and especially its CEO, Vish for making me have this experience. I got some great clarity and also felt bad for not having been their much earlier as it could have helped me avoid some mistakes in the past. You can check more about Forge by following below links.

PS — This article is an outsider view of Forge based on personal observations and interpretations.

Deepak Srinivasan

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Just another curious human

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