In a landmark Startup Jharkhand Saksham session, founders from across Jharkhand gained rare, ground-level exposure to what it truly takes to build a startup for Bharat from veteran operator Kamaldeep Singh, former CEO of Big Bazaar – Future Retail and now CEO & Board Member of unicorn startup DealShare. The closed-room conversation moved beyond typical startup hype and focused on resilience, market depth, and the realities of scaling in India’s diverse markets.

Kamaldeep Singh began by reframing how founders should look at the country: India is not a single market, it behaves like a continent. For early-stage Jharkhand startups, this means resisting the temptation to target “everyone” and instead going deep into one category, one micro-market, and one clear use case. Founders were encouraged to make the problem smaller, solve that one unit exceptionally well, and use that depth as a foundation for sustainable scale.

Throughout the session, the Saksham cohort heard real stories from the ground—spanning large-format retail and building a Bharat-first e-commerce unicorn. Rather than frameworks filled with jargon, Kamaldeep sir shared what actually works when building in Tier-2, Tier-3 and Tier-4 India: understanding local behaviour, iterating close to the customer, and staying disciplined when the market gets tough. The message was clear: scale does not start globally; it starts by winning with conviction in your immediate market.

What made this Startup Jharkhand event special was the quality of access. Founders asked direct, unfiltered questions about mistakes, pivots, unit economics, and team building. In return, they received honest, experience-backed answers—free from buzzwords and hype. For many in the Saksham cohort, it was the first time they felt truly seen and taken seriously as founders building from Jharkhand, rather than from traditional metro hubs.

This session captures exactly why the Saksham Program by I-Hub Startup Jharkhand Foundation exists: to bring experience to ambition and context to execution. By connecting Jharkhand’s founders with seasoned operators who have built through cycles, downturns, and transitions, Startup Jharkhand is ensuring that geography no longer decides exposure. The learnings from this conversation on focus, resilience, and building for real India will stay with the cohort as they design products, choose markets, and grow their startups from Jharkhand to the rest of Bharat.