Vish Sahasranamam

Cofounder & CEO of Forge since 2014, Built Forge with a the vision to create & catalyse innovation powered enterprises that harness the power at the intersection of hardware, software, and computing technologies to solve real-world problems, creating economic gains and delivering social impact.

I serve startups as a Startup coach and consultant offering business advisory, strategic planning and execution support in the areas of Business (strategy, planning & models), Product (vision, strategy & management), Marketing (demand-gen, pricing, channels & branding) and Investments. He also offers planning and execution support to enable startups to transform their technologies and products into truly disruptive innovations by implementing a comprehensive managed innovation process spanning technology, product, business model, go-to-market, market development and business partnerships.

Forge is catalysing national-scale industrial digital transformation by enabling Government and Industry to collaborate with startups as engines of Innovation & transformation. By combining industrial innovation labs, innovation grants, startup seed capital, knowledge resources & program management capabilities, and global partner networks, Forge harnesses entrepreneurial innovation and venture capital to orbit shift India’s tech sector.

India’s urban sector is among the largest public sectors coming only after defence, railways, law & order, healthcare in terms of the budget outlay. The case for this sector gaining strategic importance arises also from its critical role in ensuring that the economic growth of the nation is realised in a planet friendly manner. Additionally from the standpoint of imports, this sector massively relies on solutions from global suppliers and possibly comes right after oil, electronics, military equipment etc. adding to the burden on India’s efforts to achieve self-reliance. In light of the above we believe that the urban sector should be designated as a strategic sector with immense potential to make a massive impact under the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision of PM. To achieve self-reliance in the urban sector it is imperative to develop a robust urban tech sector with indigenous companies commercialising world-class technologies and solutions.

Forge has launched the City Innovation Exchange (CiX) in partnership with Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoUHA) which is concurrently contributing to the vision of Digital India and Startup India by strategically partnering India’s urban public sector with Indian Startups to realise the vision of digitally transformed urban India. This simultaneously catalyses India’s tech sector with hundreds of startups gaining from unlocking massive market potential in India’s urban sector.

The program will implement at national scale the discovery, development, validation, and procurement of solutions from startups through the pathbreaking policy initiative (under consideration for approval) by Smart Cities Mission to realize the vision of Future ready Urban India.