A term sheet does not always mean yes. At Silicon Jeri, a coworking campus in Manjeri built around Sabeer Nelli’s ZilCubator network, some founders have had funding within reach and turned it down anyway. They are not rejecting money out of pride. They are...
A founder who sold his last company writes a small, quiet check into the startup two doors down. No pitch deck event, no term sheet lawyer flown in, no press release. Just one person who has been in the room before, deciding to back someone who is in it now. That is...
Most tech-hub hiring talk starts and ends with engineering degrees. But at Silicon Jeri in Manjeri, a smaller and quieter channel exists too: ITI and polytechnic graduates who know how to wire a panel, fix a router, or debug a machine on the shop floor. Here is what...
A mentor flies in from Dubai on a Friday night. He loses a day of work, pays for his own ticket, and spends Saturday morning in a small room in Manjeri giving feedback on a pitch deck. No fee. No invoice. He does this three or four times a year. So why does he keep...
A college fest in Manjeri used to mean three things: a dance stage, a music night, and a sports ground. Walk through a fest today and you may find a fourth thing tucked into a corner, a small stage or a table where students pitch an idea to a panel. Key takeaways Some...
