Yarn Wonders – Weaving Dreams, One Stitch at a Time

Sowmya’s dream is to make amigurumi a household word. Read about how she’s bringing crochet into everyday life and giving employment to homemakers, skein by skein.

Anglo Aunty’s Kitchen – Reviving Anglo-Indian Nostalgia

Naveen and Dinesh are on a mission to revive the rich flavours of Anglo-Indian cuisine with their innovative condiment, Devil’s Chutney! 🌶️ Read more about the creation of this versatile sauce – a game-changer for foodies looking to spice up their meals.

Gusteau Foods – A Farm to Colour Initiative

Karthick Shanmuga Sundaram, the founder of Gusteau Foods, talks about his entry into the food industry and supplying to the B2B sector.

The Wedding Experience – Crafting Stories into Celebrations

Charannya Seetharam is a dentist-turned-wedding planner, making the leap from being in the medical field to planning events out of sheer passion. She had the opportunity to plan an important event before even starting the brand…

Lammy’s Academy and Salon – Styling a lifestyle

Lammy, as Lamuel Raj is known professionally and by his friends, is watching his dreams turn real with as much gratitude as with anticipation. A drop out from Fashion tech, Lammy found himself gravitating towards hair and makeup. Then makeup took a backseat, while Lammy stepped into the world of hair dressing.

Ladi – Handcrafted Jewelry of the Narikuravars

The necklaces and chains are made of colorful beads and laid out neatly on white pieces of cloth. In the shade of a banyan tree or the pavement of a bus stand or on the temple steps, the Narikuravars sell their wares. Often ignored, many a time swatted away in annoyance, and sometimes avoided, this community is part of our urban landscape.

Farm to Table – Chennai’s Home for Honest Harvests

In 2019, Jayadevi Cholayil decided to sell the mangoes from their 81-acre farm in Vengal near Red Hills. The main idea was to prevent waste. Her daughter, Susmera Cholayil, gave a helping hand at the shop in Anna Nagar, Chennai.

Slow, Clean, Conscious: Terasu’s Skincare

Slow living, mindful consumption, self-love, and taking care of yourself. These concepts are Terasu’s core. Made with locally sourced ingredients and designed with good intentions, Anusha Santosh creates skincare for individuals who want to reclaim the ritual of treating their skin with kindness.

A Coconut-Based Brand, Built from the Ground Up-HandS Agro

Sadhak Thaika’s HandS Agro is a coconut-based food brand from Kilakarai, Ramanathapuram, that uses locally sourced ingredients to make healthy, preservative-free products for conscious consumers.

Step into healthy style – Diabetic footwear

High blood sugar can cause severe nerve damage, otherwise known as neuropathy, leaving the feet vulnerable to foot injury, slowing down healing, and leading to infection.

Raatai – Weaving as a Calming Tool

With humble beginnings in Erode, Kalaiyarasi’s Raatai Handloom blends mental health, tradition, and sustainability—empowering neurodiverse kids, seniors, and corporate employees through weaving.

Marutham Village Resorts – Rural Hospitality Closer to the City

Marutham Village Resorts, set amidst lush paddy fields and soothing greenery, lies about 5 kms from Mahabalipuram near Chennai. Created by architect couple Vadivelan and Priya, it attracts families and friends who would like to getaway to a quiet rural lifestyle. ….

Daily Farmer- Making Everyday Foods Gourmet

A childhood diet of Discovery Channel’s Food Factories impressed an eight-year-old to such an extent that he began to dream, then worked towards the dream, and today has taken his first steps to live the dream. His own food factory. Despite an entrepreneur father and forefathers who owned and operated textile and spinning mills in Tiruppur …..

Siam Computing – Leveraging Al for Healthcare

Siam Computing, founded and led by Khuze Siam, is using AI-driven technology to ease and enrich the lives of the four Ps in healthcare – patients, providers, pharma companies and payers. Siam Computing’s responsiveness to market changes and its ability to build capacity is impressive, given that Khuze had a humble beginning …..

Elbow Engineers – Of Eco-Bricks, Atmospheric Water and Mosquito Traps

In 2015, as Chennai was drowning in the chaos of one of its worst floods, Kumar Loganathan stood in disbelief – not because of the water, but because of the irony. “There was water everywhere,” he recalls, “and yet people couldn’t drink a single drop.” That visual haunted him for years and eventually became the spark behind one of Elbow Engineers’ …..

Solinas Integrity -Experts of the Underground

Solinas Integrity, founded by Divanshu Kumar and Moinak Banerjee, has been working tirelessly to inspect, maintain and digitise underground assets such as water & sewer pipelines, septic tanks and other hidden infrastructure, using state-of-the-art technology. We bring their story to light.

Vaayusastra – Aeronautical Dreams and Paper Planes

“When 108 kids signed up for my workshop, I was overwhelmed,” Jagadeesh Kanna smiles, recalling that moment of unexpected success. “I only had a box of paper planes and stories. There was no big budget or fancy tools – just passion and an idea that science can be fun and magical.

Bversity – Four Friends Reimagining Biotech Education

In 2022, four friends from SRM – Sudharsan V, Raghul Jagannathan, Godwin Immanuel, and Saiganesh V decided to fix what biotech education kept getting wrong. They set out to build something that didn’t exist yet – a proper college for biosciences that actually helped students build a career.

Callidai Motor Works: Shifting Gears From Speed To Service

Bhargav Sundaram and wife Priya, turned a tough situation into an opportunity to manufacture specialised wheelchairs, stair lifts and more for the differently abled in India.

Chitra’m: The Indian Chocolate That Feels Like Home

Chitra’m, a bean-to-bar artisanal chocolate brand from Coimbatore, is holding its ground on a global stage. Sweeping the Silver at the International Chocolate Awards, 2023 in Italy, Chitra’m’s Masala Chaas flavoured chocolate is an international hit!

Cronica Media – Changing the Way India Listens

It’s very easy to say, ‘Follow your passion’ – but passion doesn’t pay for your rice and routine.” That’s what Sangeetha Saranathan, founder of Cronica Media, learned early on when she decided to strike out on her own.

Wired up! The Koodai Come-Back Story

The once ubiquitous wire koodai that served faithfully as a lunch bag, grocery bag, hospital bag has made a quiet comeback in a chic, new avatar. Mirnalini Venkatraman, shares how she’s helping bring the colourful plastic wire back into the mainstream.

Hew and Frost: Where Art Meets Cake

Baking wasn’t part of Mridula Ganesan’s childhood. In fact, her family didn’t even own an oven until she was in her late teens. But when they finally got one, she found herself completely fascinated by the process and became baker extraordinaire creating exotic cakes under her brand Hew & Frost.

Be Well Hospitals – Reaching Healthcare to Tamil Nadu’s Heartland.

Healthcare can be a very expensive proposition in India, even for those who are insured. Usually the cover can only provide limited protection. Dr. C.J.Vetrievel was inspired to create an affordable model of secondary care hospitals for people in Tamil Nadu to access world-class healthcare.

Performance Doctor – Staying ahead with Prehab, Rehab and Psychology

Sports psychology is actually not a new concept in India, yet in terms of acceptance it is probably still in its nascent stage. Among the front runners in this field in Chennai, is a team of very young professionals driven by passion and a will to make a difference, one performer at a time.

The Fruit Shop on Greams Road – Juicing it up for generations

At the heart of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, there’s a name that has been refreshing the thirsty for over 25 years – Fruit Shop on Greams Road (Fruit Shop). Behind this beloved juice shop is a story of two young entrepreneurs, Harris Abdulla and Mohammad Salim, who dared to do something different.

The Good Doll – From the Blue Mountains to Shark Tank

Suhas Ramegowda and his wife Sunita’s dream of living off the grid in the Nilgiris resulted in them creating a sustainable livelihood for the local community through The Good Doll, a range of sustainable fabric dolls.

Untangle – Cracking the Code for a Puzzle Lounge

Stepping into Untangle, Teynampet is like entering a world of make-believe. Walls stacked with rows upon rows of board games and puzzles greet us.

Last Forest – A Wild Story from the Nilgiris

‘Pioneering sustainable living choices by connecting communities and markets’. That’s the mission of Last Forest as they work with the Adivasi communities in the Nilgiris to help process, brand and market their produce of wild honey, essential oils, and beeswax products.

Ishwaryam Goodness : Breaking Beauty Stereotypes

Why not create a product that celebrates all skin tones, for women and men?” It was this simple, yet egalatarian idea that sparked the birth of Ishwaryam Goodness.

Heritage Inspired – Connecting the Dots through Time Travel

Anand Rajarathinam’s thirst to understand Thanjavur temple history started as a simple quest and resulted in him curating historical, cultural and ecological tours with his team, through Heritage Inspired

ecoLogin – It’s about the people, not the products.

Sridhar Lakshmanan, is the founder of ecoLogin, a company that strives to work with and for tribal and marginalized communities in Tamil Nadu

Wasted 360 Solutions – An Eco-Warrior’s Approach to Waste

Ann Alexia Anra saw potential where others saw problems. ‘Wasted 360 Solutions’, a hidden gem just a few minutes from the hustle and bustle of Pondy Bazaar, is quietly flipping the script through holistic waste management.

Cavasa Chocolates: Chef Turns Chocolatier

It’s wild what can happen when you’re held up at home with a kitchen full of ingredients and way too much time on your hands. For Harshaa Jain, what started as a little lockdown boredom quickly spiralled into a full-on chocolate obsession.

Bibha Crochet: Creativity, Courses and Community building

The idea of working for someone else never sat well with me. I wanted to be the one making decisions, creating jobs, and inspiring others through my journey,” says Bharathi Priya, founder of Bibha Crochet, describing her evolution from uncertainty to entrepreneurship.

Thozhuvam : Herding for a green economy

Kabilan, the award-winning founder of Thozhuvam in Madurai, is working ceaselessly to restore the ‘Geedhari’ or pastoral community of Tamil Nadu to its respectful place while helping generate new sources of income for them.

Kaelir: Going Bananas in the Textile World!

Kaelir is where fashion meets eco consciousness, where passion to make a difference meets cool, where fiber from the discarded banana tree is transformed into clothes, home furnishings, and even sanitary pads.

Kreeda: Passion for the Games People Played

“Imagine balancing a coconut on a stick while dancing around a circle, trying not to drop it!” This playful story is just one of many that inspired Vinita Sidhartha to create Kreeda.

Comorin Coconuts – A Classy Collection from Kanyakumari

Jennith Churchill, the founder of Comorin Coconuts has come a long way from fielding questions like “You expect me to pay so much for a coconut shell?!” to making Kanyakumari proud of its stylish homegrown brand of elegant lifestyle products.

BOCS Pizza – A Growing Chain of Square Pizzas

“We don’t cut corners,” says Arun Kumar Vishveshwaran, the founder of the BOCS Pizza chain, that serves square and rectangular pizzas. Walk into any of their franchisee outlets in South India and you’ll get 22% more pizza than a round one.

auLinen: Love Story with Linen

Fashion designer Preethi’s romance with the fabric has brought to life au Linen, a fresh brand that embodies the essence of a coastal lifestyle

Thaariniya – Earth’s Goodness For Your Skin

This is the story of how Dr. Mangala Vadivu, a Chennai-based academic with a PhD in media studies and head of a visual communications department, turned her quest for safe skincare for her newborn daughter into Thaarinya ,a brand blending safety, tradition, and personal care into a blossoming startup.

Frelish Foods – A Smooth, Refreshing Take on Cool Beverages

Four committed founders with one common purpose – to offer tasty, cafe-style beverages to grab and go.

Iniya Organics – Flavouring Curries with Natural Nutrition

A gritty tale of how a failing student from a penurious background found a toehold in the business world, delivering health benefits of local, indigenous greens in convenient powder packs.

Thy Chocolates – Indulgence fit for the gods

Artisanal chocolates for the conscious consumer from a Chennai business founded by an engineer Archana Vijayaraman, whose vision is to put Indian cacao on the world map

Plantegg – The tasty protein supplement that’s not an egg

Plantegg is a vegan food product created by Harini Rangarajan, a food technologist, after extensive research. This protein supplement in the familiar form of an egg is garnering attention and awards for innovation

Q49 Flavours: Wholesome Curries in a Jiffy for Busy Dreamchasers

Q49 Flavours, curated and managed by Renu Kurian from Chennai with ample support from her family, is a story of how a mother’s love has been packaged into convenience curries with the taste of home food. A boon for busy families looking for quick, nutritious meals.

Miracletree – Marketing the Moringa

Saravanakumaran from Miracletree is popularising the amazing properties of the humble Moringa, a tree common in south Indian states, through a range of diverse products.

Juicy Chemistry – Personal Care and Cosmetics Range with the Lush Goodness of Nature.

Presenting Juicy Chemistry, co-founded by the dynamic duo Pritesh and Megha Asher. They started by formulating soaps in a makeshift kitchen lab and went on to create certified products with the right market fit, attracting marquee investors.

Madurai Eco Tourism & Arola Bamboo – A Call for Sustainability from the Nilgiris

Presenting two enterprises that draw attention to Nilgiri’s rich ecosystem – Madurai Eco Tourism focusing on biodiversity & native culture and Arola Bamboo promoting sustainability. Both ventures were founded by the indomitable Suthagar Selvaraj from Madurai.

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