IIMA Ventures (formerly IIMA-CIIE) launched the second cohort of People and Culture Accelerator to solve people & culture challenges of rapidly growing teams. This year, 8 startups were handpicked for the 3-month accelerator which included companies like Third Wave Coffee, Toprankers, Riskcovry, Roopya among others. 

The program is designed for startups across seed – Series A stages with the singular aim of helping founders, team leaders and people leaders proactively address gaps in their people strategy and culture. It is a carefully designed learning program with tested interventions across the spectrum of challenges faced by growing startups, such as hiring, performance management, formalisation, building culture, being a leader and more. 

Featuring an intensive 3-day bootcamp on the IIM Ahmedabad campus which concluded on August 2, 2024, the coming 3 months will see founders, team & people leaders deploy insights from the bootcamp to solve their current challenges and build more stable teams for the future growth of the startup. 

The People and Culture Accelerator is a first-of-its-kind initiative, launched last year, aimed at helping organisations navigate the complexities of people management in the dynamic context of rapidly scaling startups. The first cohort included companies like Hoopr.ai, Satsure, Heelium, Proeon, Nusocia, ScrapUncle and others. As startups increasingly recognize the importance of effective people practices in driving business success, this accelerator offers a unique opportunity for participants to learn from IIM-Ahmedabad professors, industry experts, seasoned HR professionals, and leading founders who have navigated growth with sound people practices in place, and investors who have helped founders do the same.

“Across the world and in India, issues around people and teams often rank among top three reasons underlying a startup’s failure. And yet, founders have and continue to hustle around this. We’ve designed the People and Culture Accelerator as a structured, rigorous and application oriented intervention to aid founders build better people systems and hence scale big and fast, with confidence. Our first cohort has presented strong proof of the impact of this accelerator. Over the next few months, we will work with the second cohort to help them build people systems for growth.” said Supriya Sharma from IIMA Ventures.

The program includes a comprehensive curriculum that covers critical aspects of people and culture management, including talent acquisition and retention, leadership development, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement, and organisational change management. Participants will also receive tailored mentoring and coaching to address their specific challenges and goals, ensuring that they leave the program with actionable strategies and tools.