NSRCEL Startup: Kohort
Kohort – Towards mobility, upskilling and access to professional jobs
Kohort is a start-up that, according to its founder, strives to include a broader segment of people to experience mobility and access to professional jobs, while upskilling them and exploring a wide array of career pathways.
“The objective of Kohort is to reduce the social mobility gap and ensure more people are mobile; provide high-impact support by teaching hard and soft skills to help people secure professional employment, and teach people that there is always an alternative path. We want people to experience what it is like to be a global citizen, while challenging the status quo of the support system that exists”, says Pavan K Sriram, Founder of Kohort.
Pavan further says that the firm has managed to support 24 students to get Rs 10 crore (1.25 million dollars) worth of scholarships in its pilot support in various fields, fulfilling aspirations and alternative perspectives.
He adds, “We want to build Kohort on the strong ethos of no manipulations such as dropping the price, running a promotion, using fear, peer pressure, aspirational messages, or promising innovation to influence behavior. Even though manipulation works, we do not want to sell dreams as commodities.”
Pavan K Sriram has over 12 years of experience in International Project Management working in India, the USA, the UK and Norway. Moreover, he has more than nine years of extensive experience in higher education, policy, student and alumni engagement. His recent job assignment is as Head of International Projects – DigitalNorway, Oslo, Norway.
Pavan says: “Due to the mentoring from NSRCEL, my idea has turned into a full-fledged product in less than one year. From being part of a rigorous 100-day launchpad program, to getting incubated and now under the velocity program – the journey with NSRCEL has been extremely motivating and helpful. In this short span of time, we have been runners-up in Elevate, the Start-up Karnataka competition, won the European Commission grant and are now awaiting results of NIDHI SSS and SISFS. We are moving from pilot to scaling stage.”
