Headstart Network Foundation

Choose the programme that fits your stage

• Very early stage: Take Off, a quarterly pre-incubation programme.
• Early-stage direct-to-consumer brand: D2C Blaze, but its listed cohort is past, so confirm whether a new intake is planned.
• Need guidance: Headstart Mentor, which runs monthly.
• First investor pitch: Kickstart, for early-stage founders.
• Pitching in a city round: Bharat Pitchathon.
• Taking a business abroad: Beyond.
• Woman-owned startup at product-market fit or with revenue: the Women Entrepreneurs Club.
• Investing rather than applying: Investor Circle, a paid annual membership.

How applications work

• Bharat Pitchathon applications are edition-specific and close on each city's last date.
• Investor Circle takes investors as paid annual members. Startups are not charged equity or transaction fees at present.
• Startup Coach is for experts, not founders, and asks for at least four hours every month.

How selection works

• Kickstart shortlists startups and mentors them on pitching before 10 to 15 of them pitch to an investor panel.

What to plan for

• Startups bear their own travel and accommodation costs at Bharat Pitchathon events.
• Bharat Pitchathon's pitch months differ between its pages, so confirm your city's dates before planning travel.

Headstart Network Foundation is a volunteer-led organisation based in HSR Layout, Bengaluru, that says it supports startups and entrepreneurship across India. It runs a set of standing initiatives covering pre-incubation, mentoring, pitch events, an investor network, a community for women-owned startups and international expansion.

How its programmes work

Headstart runs separate initiatives rather than one cohort, and each has its own terms. Take Off is a pre-incubation programme that runs once every quarter. Headstart Mentor runs once every month. Kickstart is a pitch initiative for early-stage founders, and its website says more than 30 Kickstarts have been organised. Bharat Pitchathon is a pan-India pitch competition, and its 5.0 edition has applications open.

D2C Blaze, a 12-week accelerator for direct-to-consumer startups, is a past cohort. Its timeline ends with a Demo Day on 6 January 2024, and no later cohort appears on its website. Startup Coach is different from the rest: it is for experts who want to mentor startups, not for founders applying.

The India-Finland Startup Hub is a collaboration with Business Finland. It started in April 2021 to connect the Indian and Finnish startup ecosystems.

Who can apply

Take Off is for very early-stage startups and entrepreneurs. Headstart Mentor is for startups that want guidance from senior entrepreneurs and experts. Kickstart is for early-stage founders making a first pitch to investors. Beyond is for Indian startups that want to take their business global.

The Women Entrepreneurs Club is for registered startups in India that are woman or women owned, with active participation in the business, at product-market fit or generating revenue, and seeking growth through investment. Bharat Pitchathon runs pitch events city by city, and applications for each city close on that city's own last date.

Investor Circle is for individuals who want to start investing in startups, and members commit a minimum amount per startup and a minimum total over one year. Startup Coach is for experts willing to give at least four hours every month.

Costs and equity

Startups bear their own travel and accommodation costs at Bharat Pitchathon events. At present, Investor Circle does not charge startups any equity or transaction fee, and investors pay an annual membership fee to join it. Its website states fee and equity terms for few of its initiatives, so none are given for the rest.

Scale

Headstart's website makes several impact claims. They are its own figures, not audited, and most carry no date. It says it has impacted more than 15,000 startups and has a pipeline of over 4,000 startups through its investor network. Its mentoring initiative reports 150+ startups impacted across more than 40 initiatives. Kickstart reports 60+ startups funded from 300+ shortlisted. Take Off reports 15 startups graduated. Bharat Pitchathon reports over 4,000 applications across its last four editions, and says 28+ startups received funds after taking part. It also lists more than 450 partners, and its Boosters offer partner credits at different phases of growth.

Locations

Its registered address is L-148, 5th Main Road, Sector 6, HSR Layout, Bengaluru. Its pages do not agree on how far its reach goes. The Investor Circle page says it has access to startups from 50+ cities in India. Its chapters page says it is present in 30+ cities in India and four countries. Its Beyond page gives 25+ cities and names Germany, Finland and the UAE.

Who runs it

Its home page says it began in 2007, while other pages give durations that imply a later start, so its founding year is stated differently across the site. Some directory listings call it HeadStart Ventures; its website does not use that name.