This IIM-Ahmedabad grad and Let’s Enterprise team have launched India’s first ‘working degree’, hoping it inspires many more

Pune-based Let's Enterprise, founded in 2018 by Aditya Jhunjhunwala, Yusuf Hakim, Palak Krishnamurthy and Nisha Chawla, is a pioneering social enterprise that focuses on empowering youth to be changemakers with an entrepreneurial mindset toward being work and life ready through their cutting-edge experiential learning processes.

They believe that anyone who can read and understand a sentence should be a job creator, not just a job consumer. Their vision is to bring the entrepreneurial mindset into the curriculum and program design of Indian schools and colleges, ensuring that future generations have the confidence, skills, and network necessary to thrive in the business world.

Aditya Jhunjhunwala, the lead founder of Let's Enterprise, is an Education Entrepreneur, Inner work coach, and advocate for bridging the academia-industry gap. 

He holds a degree from IIM, Ahmedabad, and comes with nine years of experience in training and coaching business family students and young entrepreneurs, Aditya brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and a human-centred coaching instinct to the table. 

Prior to starting Let's Enterprise, he built and ran a design-based home decor brand, worked with IBM, co-founded a couple of tech companies, and facilitated personal development workshops for over 800 young people. Aditya's close association with college students has given him deep insights into their aspirations and the need for a transformative educational experience.

The entrepreneurial and mentoring industry in India has been experiencing significant growth over the years. With the country's vibrant startup ecosystem and a surge in young entrepreneurs, there is a growing demand for programs that can bridge the gap between academia and the industry. 

Let's Enterprise has emerged as a key player in this industry, redefining the way students develop.

To prototype experiential learning curricula and processes for addressing the gap between academic curriculum and industry reality, Let’s Enterprise launched the Enterprise India Fellowship (EIF) program in 2018. This innovative initiative offers an experiential curriculum that enables students to engage with industry leaders under the guidance of mentors. Through a combination of in-house projects, personal endeavours, and strategic consulting engagements with diverse industries, fellows spend over 380 hours gaining practical skills and knowledge.

Over the last 5 years, through the EIF program, Let’s Enterprise has worked with 74 students from 11 cities and 17 different streams and done projects with 30+ clients (across industries- from drone to construction, mental health to manufacturing, social sector to tech). The program’s success is evident in the achievements of its alumni, who have developed competencies such as teamwork, clear communication, and self-awareness.

By providing value-added services and an immersive learning experience, Let's Enterprise ensures that students are willing to invest in their personal and professional growth. Let's Enterprise has primarily relied on bootstrapping and self-funding to fuel its growth. 

Let's Enterprise generates revenue primarily through participant fees for the different human-centred programs that are customizable to the participants. The fees cover the costs of weekly workshops, mentoring sessions, facilitating consulting projects with MSMEs, and other program-related expenses.

Building the brand involved a multi-faceted strategy, including online and offline marketing efforts. Let's Enterprise leveraged digital platforms to create awareness and attract aspiring entrepreneurs. They also organized events, workshops, and collaborations with industry experts to establish credibility and expand their reach.

As Let’s Enterprise continues to refine its core components and methodologies, it aims to make experiential learning accessible to a larger number of students. Alongside the EIF program, Let’s Enterprise is pioneering the UnderGrad Program in Multidisciplinary Entrepreneurial Development (UG-M.E.D.) in collaboration with a university’s three-year BBA degree. This “working degree” approach emphasizes project-based learning, with students dedicating 80% of their course time to practical experiences and 20% to academic learning.

Read more about the working degree here – www.ugmed.in

Let's Enterprise boasts a talented and passionate team and a diverse partner community of entrepreneurs, CXOs, and coaches. They are united by their shared vision of transforming the way young entrepreneurs are groomed in India.

In an effort to bridge the gap between academic curriculum and industry reality, Let’s Enterprise has a community of industry leaders who are ready to support individually as well as through their organization. 

Leaders from 38 organizations across different industries like Monginis, Budhani Waferwala, ADVIK, and Pride Builders are Let’s Enterprise Industry Partners who students will have the opportunity to do projects and apprenticeships with, and 31 enterprising mentors across different industries as Lighthouse Mentors who will support the student journeys by engaging through different components of the program.

The passionate and dynamic team includes- 

Aditya Jhunjhunwala (Co-Lead), Yusuf Hakim (Co-Lead), Ankita Parashar (Co-Lead), Palak Krishnamurthy (Co-Lead), Trupti Shirole (Business Development Manager), Urmila Samson (Alternative Education Innovator & Facilitator), Sharjeel Shaikh (Associate Program Director), Nikita Juneja (Psychologist & Sr Program Facilitator), Bhupender Singh (Program Facilitator), Rohini Mistari (Program Coordinator) Rhythm Joshi (Associate Brand Manager), Dariya Budhani (Outreach & Community Manager), Tarun Mehta (Design Catalyst)

In a conversation with Startup Pedia, Aditya Jhunjhunwala remarks, "We believe in empowering young minds to become job creators, equipped with the skills, network, and confidence to shape the future of entrepreneurship in India and beyond."

Let's Enterprise has experienced significant growth since its inception. The increasing demand for experiential learning and the effectiveness of their Enterprise India Fellowship program have been key drivers of their success. 

Aditya Jhunjhunwala and the Let’s Enterprise team envision a future where the academic narrative expands beyond mere academic progress. By partnering with employers, educational institutions, NGOs, and government bodies, they aim to advocate for the integration of experiential learning into academic curricula. Additionally, they encourage stakeholders to support students in building a holistic body of work through co-curricular activities, sports, volunteering, and internships.

With visionary leadership and an entrepreneurial team, Let’s Enterprise is pioneering a new era of higher education in India. Through their experiential learning programs, they are equipping young individuals with the skills, mindset, and network needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world. 

By empowering students with confidence, 21st-century skills, and a global network of mentors and peers, Let’s Enterprise is empowering a generation of changemakers who will contribute positively to organizations and society and create purposeful, secure, and abundant livelihoods for themselves and others, and exploring how it can support more organizations in doing so.

With their innovative experiential learning approach, Let’s Enterprise aims to inspire other institutions to adopt similar “working degree” programs and reshape the future of higher education in India and beyond.