By Kv Kurmanath

Copyright thehindubusinessline

Gundala Nagaraju, who heads IIT-Kharagpur’s Hyderabad Alumni Chapter, is eloquently addressing a small group of start-up enthusiasts on the importance of AI/GenAI governance. His extempore speech is not taking place in a hall, but in the sprawling Botanical Garden, a green lung in the backyard of Madhapur and Gachibowli’s IT hubs, on a breezy Sunday morning. This discussion highlights a growing trend in Hyderabad, where start-up enthusiasts meet up in parks and share their experiences while taking a walk.

Start-up conversations are now regularly spilling over to places such as KBR Park in Banjara Hills, where people from the ecosystem huddle over the weekends to chat about everything from AI/ML to talent crunch. Now, after two months, about 1,300 enthusiasts are hooked to the TG10x WhatsApp community groups, organised across parks in the city and towns of Telangana, from where casual exchange of ideas to purposeful mentoring happens. TG10x aims at boosting the start-up ecosystem in the State to grow 10 times.

“The idea is to have meaningful conversations over ‘Millionaire by Health (MBH) morning walks. Start-up founders, mentors, investors and other ecosystem players, are joining the walks in groups of 8-10,” serial entrepreneur Chennapaneni Naidu Darapuneni told businessline. What starts off offline during the walks often carries over into the community’s WhatsApp groups.

Health and Wealth

When a member posted in one of the groups, “an investor is looking to invest in start-ups in the seed stage or later. Excellent pre-seed start-ups can reach out. Though chances are really less for investment,” pat came a response from serial entrepreneur Aditya Vuchi, demanding clarity on who the investors are and their intent.

“Having a sense of their cheque size, who the investors are, website is really important before founders send in their decks. Otherwise, it will be a wild goose chase or too blind an effort. Founders’ time has to be protected fiercely,” he said. Vuchi, whose MediaMint was acquired by Singapore-based Everstone Capital and US-based Recognize for a reported $100 million two years ago, started an early-stage venture capital fund.

“The idea behind starting this morning walk initiative is to facilitate the start-up ecosystem, an informal knowledge-sharing mechanism over a healthy routine. Start-ups can have friendly conversations with mentors, investors and entrepreneurs,” said Naidu.

He said a website and an app are on the anvil to take this initiative across the IT hubs in the country. “We set up a not-for-profit organisation to manage this campaign,” he said. They roped in Sateesh Andra, MD of VC firm Endiya Partners; Phani Sama, founder of RedBus; Srinivas Kollipara, founder of venture studio Biome; and Millets Bank CEO Vishala Reddy on its advisory board.

Published on September 16, 2025