{"id":4547,"date":"2026-09-11T17:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/?p=4547"},"modified":"2026-09-11T17:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T11:53:21","slug":"ive-always-been-an-incredibly-delusional-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/ive-always-been-an-incredibly-delusional-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve always been an incredibly delusional kid\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dyumna Madan was just 15 when she launched her first company. Six years on, the 21-year-old entrepreneur has built multiple ventures, appeared on Shark Tank India, and is considered one of the country\u2019s most promising young entrepreneurs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MARIA FERNANDES | NT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Dyumna Madan, entrepreneurship did not begin with a grand business plan but with a simple desire to solve a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in a fifth-generation business family, building something of her own felt almost inevitable. \u201cMy father runs his own factory, so did his father. My mother is a fashion designer running a successful store in Panaji. My brother is a chef who started building his own venture at 14. It\u2019s in my blood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was this mindset that led to Brooks Brainery. At 14, while searching for summer schools, she realised most programmes were unaffordable. \u201cSo I thought, \u2018Why not build my own?\u2019 I\u2019ve always been an incredibly delusional kid,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning the idea into reality, however, proved far from easy. Madan had to persuade instructors from leading universities around the world to join a programme that had no established reputation. \u201cI must\u2019ve easily sent more than 1,000 cold emails and DMs,\u201d she recalls. At the time, she was studying at a boarding school and would wake up at 5 a.m. to take meetings before breakfast. Her persistence eventually began to pay off. \u201cEvery 50 emails I sent, I got one response. I was fascinated by that. It\u2019s almost impossible not to get a yes if you send enough emails.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Students from Ivy League universities agreed to teach. However, not every class was a success. While some sessions attracted 200 students, others barely had two. \u201cMy co-founder and I would change our names on Zoom and join as ‘students’,\u201d she says, laughing. The experience taught her a lesson that has endured, \u2018that everything is possible\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This belief inspired her next venture, Project Clay, a mentorship platform connecting students with seniors studying at universities they aspired to join. This enabled mentors to guide the students through applications, essays, extracurricular activities, and college decisions. \u201cThe thought was that young people don\u2019t think our parents completely understand us,\u201d she says. \u201cIf my parents tell me something, I might ignore it. But if a senior I respect says the exact same thing, I\u2019ll take their word as gospel.\u201d Project Clay not only helped students get into Ivy League universities but also aided some to build startups and podcasts, write books, and build robots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appearing on Shark Tank India<\/em> became another milestone, not because of the spotlight but because of what it did for her self-belief. \u201cIt gave me enough confidence to drop out of college,\u201d she says. Indeed, after spending four months at Northeastern University, Madan chose to return to India. \u201cEducation is tremendous. It’s a great leveller for so many Indians,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019d already worked at a couple of ed-tech startups during my gap year and knew I wanted to build for the rest of my life from India, for India.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining The Foundery further shaped her entrepreneurial outlook. Under the mentorship of Nikhil Kamath, Kishore Biyani, and Ronnie Screwvala, she says she learned to think beyond rapid growth. \u201cI have fundamentally changed as a person. I now build patiently for the long term and understand the importance of having a strong team, product and values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her latest venture has raised Rs. 4 crore, which she is investing in branding, packaging and talent. But Madan does not see funding as a measure of success. \u201cThat depends on execution,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her advice to young founders is simple: \u201cThere will be people who won\u2019t take you seriously, but all it takes is one yes. Keep taking asymmetric risks. Send that cold email, post that content, apply for that job. Who knows what can happen?\u201d For Madan, success is less about waiting for opportunities and more about creating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On leadership, she says honestly, \u201cI think it starts with accepting what you don\u2019t know and encouraging smarter people in your company to lead alongside you.\u201d Her mentors, she adds, taught her the value of adaptability, strong fundamentals, customer focus, and respect for the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sees being young as an advantage. \u201cI had four years of experimenting and failing, which is a privilege most people don\u2019t have,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At present, she hopes to build one of India\u2019s finest consumer companies, while eventually creating football academies and subsidised schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dyumna Madan was just 15 when she launched her first company. Six years on, the 21-year-old entrepreneur has built multiple ventures, appeared on Shark Tank India, and is considered one of the country\u2019s most promising young entrepreneurs MARIA FERNANDES | NT For Dyumna Madan, entrepreneurship did not begin with a grand business plan but with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aspire-inspire","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4550,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547\/revisions\/4550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navhindtimes.in\/kuriocity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}