FICCI FLO, under the leadership of 43rd National President, Ms. Puja Garg, in collaboration with Stanford Graduate School Of Business, hosted an informative virtual session, “Building A Company That Scales: Beyond Founder-Driven Growth,” aimed to enable a dialogue on building sustainable women led enterprises in India and helping the entrepreneurs in tackling the challenges.
The session was hosted under the national initiative, FLO Startup Cell, led by Initiative Head Ms. Priya Goutham, and Co-Lead, Ms. Pooja Arambhan. The webinar featured experts who shared insights about the Stanford Seed programs which focuses on training founders, CEOs and early stage and established entrepreneurs.
Speakers from the Webinar:
- Harish Arnezath, Regional Director, Stanford Seed South Asia
- Mohan Loganathan, Manager, Entrepreneurship Network and Partnerships, Stanford Seed
- Purvi Bhavsar, Co-Founder & MD, Pahal Financial Services Pvt Ltd.
FLO President Ms. Puja Garg opened the session with her special address, discussing FLO’s vision for 2026-2027 to empower women by equipping them with leadership, entrepreneurship, strategic thinking, marketing and other crucial skills in order to boost innovation and economic independence. She highlighted that FLO’s mission is to drive structured growth of women led enterprises across India by aligning national priorities with state specific strengths, enabling scale, leadership, and enterprise.
Mr. Harish Arnezath and Mr. Mohan Loganathan from Stanford Seed led an insightful session on training, identifying growth opportunities, and building action plans for FLO members through their innovative programs. These experts talked about Stanford Seed Transformation Program and Stanford Seed Spark Program which aims to foster women entrepreneurship and scaling businesses through mentorship, training, and global network access.
Programs offered at Stanford Graduate School of Business are led by experienced faculty members and seasoned entrepreneurs who provides participants with the access to video lectures, toolkits, activities, mentorship, and peer support groups.
The session concluded with Ms. Purvi Bhavsar shareing her experience with Stanford Seed program. She highlighted benefits of the program, such as enhanced confidence, team involvement, and access to a valuable network of 400+ founders across India.
Key Takeaways
- Women entrepreneurs requires access to mentorship, support groups, resources, and education in order to build sustainable enterprises.
- FICCI FLO is building pathways for women entrepreneurs and startup owners via programs and legacy led initiatives focused on enhancing leadership, and collaborations.
- Stanford Seed Programs help FLO members in creating action plans and helping them in scaling their businesses through high quality business education.
- Stanford Seed South Asia helps women entrepreneurs in turning their ambitious ideas into successful businesses in India by offering them strategic skills, methodologies, and mindsets to transform business and communities.
- Keynote speaker, Mr. Harish Arnezath, highlighted three key shifts for scaling a business: leadership transformation from operator to architect, organizational architecture design, and building trust at an institutional level.
- The application deadline for the program is May 01, 2026 with a competitive selection process. Applicants must have revenue of $300,000 (2.7 crores INR) and a decent leadership team.
- The program offers scholarships up to 60% of the program fee for eligible candidates, particularly women-led businesses from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Impact & Outcome
Around 278 attendees participated in the engaging dialogue on building and scaling a business in India. More than 100 FLO members has already applied for the Stanford Seed programs this year. Unlike traditional classrooms, Stanford Seed allows women entrepreneurs to collaborate with peers, brainstorming ideas, and learning future ready skills.
The session highlighted the long time relationship between FICCI FLO and Stanford Graduate School of Business in empowering women via world class business education, leading to creating an impact in Indian entrepreneurship sector.
About Stanford Seed Spark Program
Stanford Seed Spark Program is a 5 months program for training and certifying early stage entrepreneurs. Business education and training is provided to these entrepreneurs in collaboration with incubators, accelerators, and other organizations.
About Stanford Seed Transformation Program
Stanford Seed Transformation Program is a 10 months program for training CEO’s and founders in order to build their capacity for growth. A transformation plan is created for the participants which helps them in growing and scaling their businesses.