NEXPO 2019: Nikin Tharan Daring to Defy

Gregory Park
Nov 5 · 3 min read

As Global Entrepreneurship Week approaches, students, faculty and the Boston Entrepreneurial community look forward to IDEA’s Annual Venture Showcase: NEXPO 2019. IDEA is Northeastern University’s student-run venture accelerator, and every year it showcases startups within their program. With one of the main themes of this year’s NEXPO being, “Dare to Defy,” Nikin Tharan, one of IDEA’s youngest founders, fits that description perfectly.

Tharan did not follow the traditional route when creating his own company. Growing up in Bangalore, India, Tharan started his career by working for the Indian Department of Defense at 9 years old, specializing in embedded systems and electronics by working on eleven national military projects. Tharan then dropped out of school in 7th grade because the topics he was learning were based on theory and not practicalism. He wanted to learn factual lessons that could be applied in the real world.

Having attended a privileged school, Tharan noticed that some of the less fortunate schools in India did not provide their students with adequate material to be successful. This led him and his friends to co-found a non-profit called WISE. They would go to underprivileged schools and refugee camps in India and provide after school workshops using computers and electronics to help accelerate learning. WISE grew from a team of 5 to over 1200 volunteers in only 18 months. WISE continues to run today, with multiple corporate sponsorships from some major Indian companies.

Tharan attended Northeastern University at the age of 16 as a university scholar. He was attracted to the university because of their commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation. The young entrepreneur wanted to delve deeper into the Northeastern start-up community. Tharan attended an IDEA Hack-a-Thon event which lead him to attend 20 more! He became more involved with IDEA and other MOSAIC organizations leading him to pursue personal projects in his spare time focused on technology. These projects would eventually turn into actual startups. One of them is MedSix, a medical device startup that focuses on revolutionizing patients’ postoperative recovery. MedSix is currently building a redesigned surgical wound drain. It would capture discharge metrics and conduct predictive analytics to alert healthcare providers if any complications occur. This could save the healthcare system an estimated $120M. When asked to give a piece of advice to young entrepreneurs Tharan stated, “to get started, knowing that it’s alright if you think differently…and also having the internal belief and conviction to know if someone else has done it, I can do it too.”

Just like how Tharan shows that daring to defy the odds is possible, NEXPO 2019 will too. The exhibition will showcase alike ventures that seek to innovate and create in a way the world hasn’t seen yet. The ventures range from consumer commercial goods to technology. Nikin will also be attending NEXPO, so make sure to stop by!

NEXPO is open to anyone who is interested in learning what is brewing within the Northeastern entrepreneurial ecosystem. Whether you are a student, faculty member, or just interested in startups, IDEA’s NEXPO is a perfect opportunity to network, learn, and dare to defy the odds!

Register to attend NEXPO 2019 here!

IDEA: Northeastern’s Venture Accelerator

IDEA: Northeastern’s Venture Accelerator

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