Dr Kaustubh Dhargalkar is an entrepreneur-turned-academician, innovation evangelist and startup mentor. He founded three companies from 1990 to 2005 in the domain of productivity-enhancement technologies for manufacturing. Exited all his companies in 2005, took a year off to learn the science of Yoga. He holds a PhD in corporate innovation and design thinking. Currently, Kaustubh works with large corporates (HP, Daimler India, Citibank, Mahindra Group, Capgemini, Honeywell, Eaton, etc.) on ‘how to enhance the innovation quotient’. He trains executives in design thinking and breakthrough concept creation. His views on innovation and strategy are sought by publications such as Knowledge@Wharton, Springer, Engineering & Technology (E&T) Europe, etc.
Kaustubh has been recognized as the top seven global innovators at the Smart City Expo World Congress, Barcelona 2015, for his paper titled, ‘A collaborative business model for reducing the REAL carbon footprint of electric vehicles’.
He has been ‘a runner-up at the Wharton School’s prestigious Global Innovation Tournament’ in 2010. He has two TEDx talks to his credit. He has trained more than 5,500 individuals over 50,000 plus hours of training in the space of design thinking, creative problem-solving, breakthrough ideation, disruptive business models for emerging technologies, etc.
A teacher at heart, Kaustubh is a sought-after visiting faculty at IIT Bombay, ICT Mumbai (formerly known as University Department of Chemical Technology [UDCT]), IIM Sirmaur, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), WE School, etc. He has been a mentor at various startup incubators across the country, notable among them are the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise at IIM Ahmedabad, Wadhwani Foundation-National Entrepreneurship Network (WF-NEN), Catalyst at IIT Mandi, Zone Startups, etc., and has mentored more than 150 startups over the last decade, helping them scale by building robust business models.
He is the recipient of the Entrepreneurship Educator and Mentor Award by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship―Government of India―jointly with Intel, British Council, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) and NEN in March 2015.
He has been featured as a ‘changemaker’ on the Dr Subhash Chandra Show (Zee Business) in June 2017. He is a trained yoga instructor too. His sessions on meditation and pranayama are highly sought after at AMI Yoga (Chembur, Mumbai).
