On Friday, November 21st, Indiahikes Co-founder Sandhya UC was invited to speak at SummitUp, a flagship event hosted by NSRCEL, the startup incubator at IIM Bangalore. NSRCEL has been the launchpad for several well-known brands in India, and they frequently bring in experienced entrepreneurs to guide and inspire the next generation. This year was special, as it was their 25th year anniversary.

Sandhya was part of a lively panel discussion alongside Taniya Biswas, founder of Suta, moderated by Vinod Chandramouli from Mycelium Ecology.

The panel explored how founders move from that early spark to building real, functioning businesses: setting up operations, creating processes, finding people aligned with the vision, and eventually learning to scale. All of this while keeping their passion alive and letting their values steer them.

The session was beautifully received by the audience. Many in the hall were Indiahikes trekkers themselves, and they came with questions about growing their own ventures, about staying aligned to purpose, and about what they’ve learned from Indiahikes over the years.

For those of us who attended from Indiahikes, the session became a moment of re-learning. Hearing Sandhya articulate the journey reminded us what it truly takes to build a pan-India organization: that it’s the values that allow an organisation to scale, and that it is the constant pursuit of a larger vision, something far bigger than individual passion, that moves an organisation forward.