Ahead of National Youth Day, January 12, NT NETWORK explores how the state’s young entrepreneurs are learning that careful planning, preparation, and persistence matter more than making noise
VINIKA VISWAMBHARAN | NT BUZZ
Goa is often spoken of as a travel destination, not one to build a business from. Yet a growing number of young Goans are starting businesses here across various sectors like technology, education, hospitality, food, travel and events. Their choices are less about scale or disruption and more about necessity, frustration, and the need to work on their own terms. Shaped by small markets, high visibility, limited peer networks and difficult-to-navigate systems, their journeys reveal what it really means to build a business from within the state.
Choosing risk early
Growing up in Panaji and studying at Sharada Mandir School, Dyumna Madan was exposed early to a close-knit environment where reputations travel fast and risk is noticed quickly. Starting Project Clay from Goa meant working where people knew her. “In a small place like Goa, you don’t get to hide behind scale or noise,” she says. “If something doesn’t work, everyone knows. That actually forces you to be honest about whether what you’re building has value.”
Project Clay started modestly. The platform connects students with mentors who have navigated competitive international admissions. “I wanted it to be practical,” she says.
In the beginning, she was speaking to students late into the night. “Most mentorship programmes were priced out of reach,” she says. “Students were paying for information that could be shared more responsibly.”
As demand grew, her decision to drop out of Northeastern University in Boston became unavoidable. “The platform was working,” she says. “Trying to manage both meant doing neither well.” Her choice to drop out was met with mixed reactions. “There was concern,” she admits. “But there was also trust that I wasn’t doing this impulsively, especially after being featured on Shark Tank India.”
The platform’s early focus was sustainability rather than scale. “Profitability mattered to me,” Madan says. “It meant the business could stand on its own.” Project Clay became profitable within its first year and later attracted backing from Ankur Warikoo and Namita Thapar. “The investment wasn’t about validation,” she explains. “It was about learning from people who had built companies before.”
Building the business from Goa offered grounding but also limits. “Goa is calm,” says Madan. “That helps you think clearly.” Plus, she says, it is home and she could be at the beach after a hard day. Building from Goa, however, had limits. “There’s ambition here, but not enough peer networks at scale,” she says. “I eventually had to move to Bengaluru for that exposure.” Madan has joined forces with Shivom Sood for her venture.
Still, she credits Goa for grounding her. “Being here keeps you close to reality,” she says. “You’re not constantly chasing trends.”
Beyond uncertainty
At 20, Amaan Choudhari runs Gatherx Hospitality and Logistics while pursuing civil engineering. His decision to start working independently came early. “I realised quickly that a regular job would limit how much I could experiment,” he says.
Gatherx began by supplying volunteers and support staff for events. “There was no organised system,” says Choudhari. “People were willing to work, but there was no structure.”
The business grew through trial and error. “I’ve handled everything myself,” he says. “There were months when money was tight, and I questioned whether I should stop.”
Despite the uncertainty, he continued. “The pressure doesn’t go away,” he says. “You just learn to carry it better.”
Being careful over flashy
Garv Vohra entered hospitality after noticing how fragmented services were.
“Everyone was doing their own thing,” he says. “There was no accountability.” Villas, décor providers, transport operators and event vendors often function in isolation, with little coordination or accountability. “If something goes wrong, guests don’t see five different vendors,” says Vohra. “They see Goa.” That disconnect pushed him to start GoaGetterr and later DecorGoa, both built around execution rather than listings. “Being on ground matters here,” he says. “You can’t manage this industry remotely.”
Running a hospitality business in Goa, he explains, means working within tight margins and tighter timelines. Seasonality dictates everything. “A good month has to carry the business through quieter periods,” he says. “There’s no escaping that.” Reputation, too, travels fast in a small state. “One mistake circulates quickly,” Vohra says.
“Systems were not optional,” he says. “Without them, you burn out.” For Vohra, Goa is both the market and the constraint. “The state gives you visibility and access,” he says. “But it also leaves very little room to recover from errors. You learn to be careful, not flashy.”
Understanding the system
While private initiative fills some gaps, government support remains underused. Many young entrepreneurs claim that the long period of waiting for the funds tends to discourage them from taking these up.
However, associate faculty and incharge Dr Abdul Razak of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India points out that many young entrepreneurs shy away from schemes simply because they do not understand them. “Many don’t realise that Goa has structured support through schemes like the Chief Minister’s Rojgar Yojana, where first-time entrepreneurs can access loans at subsidised interest rates, or the Mukhyamantri Swayam Rojgar Yojana, which focuses on building entrepreneurial mindset and skills before funding even comes into the picture,” he says.
According to him, misinformation discourages engagement. “There is an assumption that government schemes only exist on paper,” he says. “So people don’t even try.”
He explains that EDII’s training programmes are designed to familiarise participants with both state and central government schemes, including PMEGP and Mudra, which are often misunderstood. “These schemes are not meant to be approached casually,” says Razak. “They require a clear project report, an understanding of cash flow, and realistic borrowing. When these elements are missing, applications fail, and the schemes get blamed instead.”
Razak adds that once young entrepreneurs understand how EDC functions as a facilitation agency, perceptions begin to shift. “Through EDC, applicants are guided on documentation, eligibility and proposal structuring under schemes like CMRY,” he says. “When proposals are routed correctly, approvals and disbursals can happen much faster than people expect. The problem is not the absence of schemes, but the absence of preparation.”
Platforms like BridgeAura complement these efforts by providing practical exposure and mentoring for young Goan entrepreneurs, especially in the IT sector. Co-founder Shawn Kenneth Fernandes explains, “BridgeAura’s Tech Summit allows students to work on real projects across domains like AI, healthcare, blockchain, and digital marketing, while also developing soft skills like public speaking and emotional mastery.” He adds, “More than 50 student groups have created tech products and presented them to panels of mentors and industry experts, and many have gone on to formalise their ideas into actual businesses.”
According to Razak, this combination of government support through EDC and hands-on platforms like BridgeAura gives young entrepreneurs both the guidance and practical experience needed to turn their ideas into viable ventures.
