The vocational skill development programme by Salaam Bombay Foundation has had a profound impact on a specific group of beneficiaries–adolescents from urban slums, enrolled in government and government-aided schools. Through this program, many have found opportunities for income generation, while others have shown great potential in establishing and scaling their own businesses, contributing to community employment.
Recognized as a youth-centric solution by Yuwaah India at UNICEF and 10to19 Dasra Adolescents Collaborative, Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Incubator, Dolphin Tanki, has become a key player in transforming resource-poor adolescents into job creators. By creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem, these adolescents no longer see themselves solely as job seekers, but as self-reliant, financially independent risk-takers ready to establish scalable businesses and provide employment within their communities.
In this exclusive interview with TheCSRUniverse, Gaurav Arora, Chief Growth Officer and Sr. VP Skills & Sports, Salaam Bombay Foundation, shares that with nearly 150 entrepreneurs benefiting from these programs, Salaam Bombay Foundation aims to further expand this impactful initiative and contribute to the government’s vision of fostering innovation and employment through entrepreneurship.
Scroll down to read the full interview:
Q. How did the idea for the Dolphin Tanki (the flagship platform of Salaam Bombay Foundation’s entrepreneurship incubator for grassroots adolescents) come about, and what was the inspiration behind its creation?
A. Most beneficiaries (adolescents hailing from urban slums and studying in government and government-aided schools) trained via Salaam Bombay Foundation’s (SBF) vocational skill development programme pursue income generation while some display potential for settingup and scaling businesses and providing community employment.
Government programmes and the larger entrepreneurship ecosystem focus on youth aged 18 years and over. SBF’s beneficiaries lack skill sets and opportunities to establish and scale their businesses (home-based Beauty salons, Bakeries, Mobile Repair shops). Converting these gaps to opportunity, SBF recognised our beneficiaries (16-20 years) as untapped talent and launched the ‘Entrepreneurship Incubator’ (July 2021) to provide these promising entrepreneurs with mentorship, business acumen, and market linkages. To date, over 150 adolescent entrepreneurs have been nurtured via the Entrepreneurship Incubator since its launch in July 2021.
Post receiving training from the Incubator, some alumni showcased a great understanding of entrepreneurial concepts, while displaying a passion for earning a higher income through the expansion of their businesses. These entrepreneurs now wanted to scale and structure their businesses from a home-based set-up to a beauty parlor, a mobile repair shop, or conduct Zumba classes. However, this would require further capital. Given their age, they would not be able to access the necessary funding within a formal structure. Keen to support these budding entrepreneurs and not wanting to hamper their vision for growth SBF launched Dolphin Tankito provide capital access to these deserving adolescent entrepreneurs.
Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Incubator and Dolphin Tanki have been recognised as a youth-centric solution by Yuwaah India at UNICEF and 10to19 Dasra Adolescents Collaborative as part of their Joint Call For Solutions Initiative.
Q. Could you share some key learnings and experiences of your journey since the launch of the Entrepreneurship Incubator in July 2021?
A. The Incubator team at SBF closely tracks the journey of each adolescent entrepreneur through handholding guidance and support, including regular monitoring of financials and in-person audits. In this way, we have been able to record challenges and devise necessary learnings to ensure the program's success. Some of the key learnings include:
- Adolescent entrepreneurs could face resistance from their parents to pursue entrepreneurship as a career
Parents were concerned over the adolescents losing interest in their academics, not contributing to household chores, or facing societal stigma within their communities especially in the case of female entrepreneurs. This resulted in parents being reluctant to support the adolescent’s entrepreneurial journey. To overcome this, the SBF team held routine and active dialogue with family members, providing awareness of the advantages of encouraging the adolescent to be self-reliant and financially independent. Today, as part of the process, parent’s active involvement in and support of the adolescents’ entrepreneurial journey is a required prerequisite for the adolescent to be selected into the Incubator.
- Providing entrepreneurs access to seed funding opportunities besides Dolphin Tanki
In the case of adolescent entrepreneurs not being able to access seed funding through Dolphin Tanki, SBF understands that this could hamper the progress of their business. To counter this, SBF actively provides information to adolescent entrepreneurs on funding options that are available through various government and private schemes. This information also includes details on loans such as the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), Social Stock Exchange (SSE), and Social Venture Capital. SBF arms the students with necessary financial information so that as soon as they turn 18 years of age they will be able to access the various funding options.
Additionally, this information is also critical to adolescent entrepreneurs who win at Dolphin Tanki, as they too can access this funding as the next level scale-up of their businesses approaches. For example, under the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) bank, loans above Rs 50,000 and up to Rs 5 Lakh are sanctioned as a part of the ‘Kishor’ scheme, and loans of above Rs 5 Lakh and up to Rs 10 Lakh are sanctioned as part of the ‘Tarun’ scheme (Government of India, 2023).
Q. What are the selection criteria for Dolphin Tanki participants, and does the program consider offering financial literacy training or micro-loans to those who may not be ready to pitch for investment?
A. As and when the adolescent entrepreneurs who are part of the Incubator are ready to scale their micro-businesses, they are put through a rigorous interview round. Entrepreneurs showcasing a clear understanding and application of entrepreneurial concepts learned through the Incubator while displaying a potential to scale their businesses are then selected for Dolphin Tanki.
As mentioned above, we provide important financial information to all our entrepreneurs so that they maybe able to access the necessary funding once they have turned 18. The requirement of the funding could be in the case of either not receiving funding through Dolphin Tanki or seeking out more funding in the event of a next-level scale-up of their business.
Q. How do SBM, and NMIMS students contribute to mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs, and can alumni mentors from previous Dolphin Tanki cohorts offer peer-to-peer guidance to new participants?
A. When our adolescent entrepreneurs are ready to scale their businesses, while being part of Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Incubator, they are mentored and groomed by faculty and students from the School of Business Management, NMIMS via the ‘We Care – Civic Engagement Internship’ program. As part of this, the adolescent entrepreneurs also receive guidance on developing their business plans that are pitched to an expert jury. The business plans include details such as market size, new customer acquisition, marketing and branding plans including promotional offers, and financials including profitability, giving these young entrepreneurs an actual sense of the fundraising ecosystem. The entrepreneurs are then ready to pitch at ‘Dolphin Tanki.’ Post-winning, the entrepreneurs continue to receive handholding guidance and support from the Salaam Bombay Foundation.
Q. How has Dolphin Tanki empowered the lives and livelihoods of participating adolescents, and can you share success stories or achievements that illustrate this impact?
A. The three editions of 'Dolphin Tanki' conducted in 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively, have witnessed a total of 49 adolescent entrepreneurs across the cities of Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata pitching their business ideas to an eminent jury. For the winning entrepreneurs of 'Dolphin Tanki,' their average monthly income has increased from INR 1,860/- to INR 6,102/-. The data suggests that Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Incubator and the 'Dolphin Tanki' platform have helped these entrepreneurs achieve a threefold increase in their monthly incomes.
While there are multiple examples of our students doing exceedingly well, we can share the example of Pooja Gupta who won the top prize in the first edition of our Dolphin Tanki event.
Pooja Gupta was enrolled in Salaam Bombay Foundation’s vocational skill development program in Beauty & Wellness in class IX (Batch of 2018-2019) where she acquired industry-related skills. Pooja was sincere and diligent, and despite her disadvantaged background, she remained motivated to achieve more. Pooja's father was a fruit seller and also ran a television repair business. He was predominantly the sole breadwinner for the family of seven until recently earning INR 10,000 per month.
At the age of 18, she developed the skills and confidence to manage her home-based beauty business-' Pooja Home Beauty Parlour' while pursuing her Bachelor of Commerce Degree. Pooja completed her entrepreneurship training through the Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Incubator for Grassroots Adolescents (2021-2022). She described this experience as a door full of opportunities that she believed she could not have otherwise easily opened. She is also a beneficiary of a starter kit awarded to students at Salaam Bombay Foundation who showcase an entrepreneurial bent of mind with the potential to earn. This kit contained materials necessary to run a home-based business with ease. During this time, Pooja was able to earn up to INR 40,000 through her micro business. She was able to pay INR28,000 towards her college fees and save the remainder of the amount for any future requirements or investments.
Some of Pooja's most important learnings from her entrepreneurship training were utilizing digital marketing like Google Reviews (Pooja's business on Google Reviews has received 60 reviews and a rating of 4.8. Her microsite was also listed on Google) and Instagram to increase her customer base; as well as digital payments using platforms like Paytm to validate cashflows.
Post her entrepreneurship training, Pooja began showcasing a need to scale her home-based business. She was selected to present her business plan at the First edition of 'Dolphin Tanki.' For this, she was groomed and mentored by SBF along with NMIMS staff and students. Pooja's business pitch to expand her beauty parlor impressed the judges and she was awarded INR 40,000/. The amount was disbursed as in-kind support and Pooja was given the opportunity to invest the money as per her business requirements which included completing basic and advanced courses in makeup offered by Ajay Shelar (celebrity makeup artist). Pooja began applying her upgraded beauty skills with customers as soon as she started the makeup program. This helped boost her income and enabled her to earn an additional INR 44,000 in four months (INR 16,000 being earned from providing makeup services alone). Makeup became an added profile to Pooja's business. She offers makeup services for pre-wedding photoshoots, marriages (bridal makeup), and baby shower ceremonies.
Today, the demand for Pooja’s services has grown manifold and she has even hired two assistants to support her. Through the income earned Pooja can pay for her education, look after all personal expenses, contribute to household income, and be self-sufficient. Her cumulative earnings since winning 'Dolphin Tanki' in 2022 have been INR 1,77,780. She has so far been able to contribute approximately INR 30,000 (17%) to her family for household expenses.
This experience has inspired Pooja to dream big. She wants to open a Makeup Studio in the future while being a successful makeup artist in the film industry. She believes she is only one step away from achieving her dreams of being a successful entrepreneur while being able to take her entire family forward and break the vicious cycle of poverty.
Q. What initiatives and strategies are in place to foster collaboration and learning among the participants, ensuring that boundaries are transcended?
A. As part of the training at the Incubator, adolescent entrepreneurs are taught to be collaborative and encouraged to build partnerships amongst themselves. As a result of this, we have found that in the case of our entrepreneurs not being able to take on work due to time or location constraints, they tend to refer a fellow entrepreneur from the incubator to potential clients.
Q. How can partnerships with business schools or corporations be leveraged to provide industry-specific expertise to young entrepreneurs?
A. For all three editions of Dolphin Tanki, students and faculty from SBM, and NMIMS have groomed and mentored entrepreneurs, supporting them in creating business plans that can eventually be pitched to an expert jury. The business plans include details such as market size, new customer acquisition, marketing and branding plans including promotional offers, and financials including profitability. The students further support the adolescent entrepreneurs in developing pitches and help them sharpen their presentation skills. This experience gives these young entrepreneurs a macro understanding of the markets in that they have set up their micro-businesses and an idea of how to scalewithin these markets while also providing an actual sense of the fundraising ecosystem.
Corporations can contribute in three main ways– volunteer engagement programs where employees will have the opportunity to groom and mentor the entrepreneurs within their specific industries, partnering with Salaam Bombay Foundation through funding of the winning amount for Dolphin Tanki or also contributing their brand name and be a part of the eminent jury.
Q. Looking ahead, what is the long-term vision and strategy of Salaam Bombay Foundation in empowering more resource-challenged adolescents?
A. -Transforming resource-poor adolescents from Job Seekers to Job Creators:
Salaam Bombay Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Incubator and subsequently Dolphin Tanki has taught us that it is imperative to cultivate an entrepreneurial ecosystem amongst resource-poor adolescents that transforms them into job creators. These adolescents are no longer job seekers then and instead metamorphosize into self-reliant, financially independent risk-takers willing to establish scalable businesses and even provide employment within their communities. Over the last three years, we have witnessed nearly 150 entrepreneurs benefit from these programs and are eager to keep expanding this impactful initiative. We hope to ultimately aid the government in its aim to boost entrepreneurship as a key to nurturing innovation and employment in the country.
- Scale-up through integration with NEP 2020 implementation
As part of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Government of India aims to promote the ‘Vocationalisation of Education’ under the ‘Samagra Shiksha Scheme,’ where secondary school students across the country are expected to train in vocational subjects as part of their school curriculum. SBF believes this could be a great scale-up opportunity where its entrepreneurship program can be offered to interested secondary school students who have already been trained in vocational skills under NEP 2020. Additionally, SBF believes it necessary to establish positive reinforcement mechanisms to motivate secondary schools and their students to take up entrepreneurship. For this, SBF plans to showcase the successful SBF entrepreneurs (from similar socioeconomic strata) during an orientation at the NEP schools with the hope that it will inspire NEP school students to take up entrepreneurship.
- Seek out partnerships with the Government of India and funding ecosystem
The Government of India has recognised entrepreneurship as key to promoting self-employment, reducing unemployment, and generating job opportunities at the state and national levels. Many schemes, initiatives, and campaigns like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and institutions like the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Maharashtra State Innovation Society, etc have been established, however, the focus remains predominantly on the formal sector and youth above 18 years of age. The ecosystem must make the shift and recognise the adolescent entrepreneur demography as a pool of untapped opportunity. This demography must be embraced by the ecosystem through training, mentorship, and funding opportunities and initiatives. Building such aspirations amongst a young demographic has the potential to mold their fledgling micro businesses into opportunities for scaling, which in turn may create jobs and contribute to the local economy in the future.
Therefore, SBF is keen to seek out partnerships with the government and funding ecosystem to add credibility on a national scale while convincing the larger ecosystem to invest in under-18 entrepreneurs.
