Creative enterprises started by the youth

A summit for college students to employment for ostracised women, students are solving all kinds of problems

University students have been making a name for themselves in the startup world. Metrolife looks at a few student-led businesses that have made a change.

Under 25, Shreyans Jain and Anto Philip

Shreyans Jain and Anto Philip are CHRIST (Deemed to be University) alumnus and graduated in 2015 from the same BBA class. Under 25 is a media and entertainment company that chiefly focuses on creating content synonymous with the youth of the country. The under 25 media team is active on many platforms through a variety of content such as Under 25 Dictionary, Under 25 News, Under 25 Confessions, Under 25 Comics and other top notable media platforms. These two students together scaled the festival from 80 people in 2015 to over 15000+ people in 2019 across a span of only 6 years. Much of their team is made up of student volunteers who then became permanent employees.

Meaww, Nirnay Chowdhary

With over one billion page views a month and over 150 million registered users, Meaww is among the top 500 websites of the world. Nirnay’s first undertaking into the content tech sphere started with the MEAWW personalized quizzes that have cultivated 400 million unique users and 4 billion quizzes taken. The product implemented one of the most successful viral loops on top of Facebook distribution channel. Post that, the company started a content influencer marketing platform. At its peak, over 300 influencers joined the program with monthly traffic of 80 million users.

Phirki, Disha Pai

Disha is a final year student at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. She collects or buys pre-owned clothes and creates something completely new from them using easily available products such as dyes and a pair of scissors. She built her growing enterprise entirely on social media and aims to take it forward. “I have always loved messing around and playing with clothes, and lockdown was the perfect time for me to explore my hobbies and turn them into something more lucrative,” she says. Thrift stores are quickly transforming the fashion sphere, with more and more people making beneficial choices towards sustainable fashion.

Abhilasha, Aarushi, Anushree, Priyasha and Simrah

Abhilasha (stylised as अbhilasha) is an organisation seeking to create a brighter future for women by providing them with skill development classes. Established in 2020, it is driven by progressive ideas, bold actions, and a strong foundation of support.

“We have around 50 women associated with us, 10 among which are working on the Indian Prints collection. We aim to facilitate the creation of a safe space for women in order to provide them with the opportunity to interact with each other, with a specific focus on women who are excluded from their communities that includes widows, divorcees, survivors of exploitation and abuse and more,” says co-founder Aarushi Panday who is currently pursuing BA programme from Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi.