Underdog
Scholarship
for applicants who feel
they lack a big-brand
university or employer
12 months
Full-time
Bangalore
Forge exists because the fastest way to learn business
is to build one. Too many young people spend years
preparing for the startup world without ever entering it.
Forge is our answer to that gap. It’s designed for
freshers with hunger and agency—people who want
real customers, real revenue, and real pressure early in
their careers. This program doesn’t simulate
entrepreneurship. It puts you inside it, from day one.”
Forge is built for a specific kind of fresher—someone who is
restless, impatient with theory, and eager to do real work.
We’ve stripped away everything that slows learning down
and replaced it with structured building, founder access,
and accountability to outcomes. If you want to spend your
early twenties shipping products, talking to customers,
and learning by doing —Forge was designed for you.”
| Rounds | Deadlines | Course Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Early Bird | 27th September | ₹ 15,35,000 |
| Round 1 | 7th November | ₹ 17,35,000 |
| Round 2 | 19th December | ₹ 17,85,000 |
| Round 3 | 20th January | ₹ 17,85,000 |
The Mesa cohort comprises exceptional & diverse candidates. We are committed to eliminating all financial barriers for these outstanding candidates, guaranteeing an unparalleled peer learning experience.
for applicants who feel
they lack a big-brand
university or employer
Sherdil Scholarship for veterans (<10 years of
experience) who are keen to transition into
startup leadership
for applicants with
exceptional academic
performance, test scores,
or professional
accomplishments
for ex-founders who want to continue
building in startups
for women who have
demonstrated
leadership abilities
or founded their
own venture
for applicants who
have built at
grassroot levels in
non-profit or impact
organizations
Mesa treats entrepreneurship as a muscle, not a buzzword: instead of lectures, you go through high-intensity sprints to find ideas, test demand, build MVPs, win customers and practise fundraising.
by Jivraj Singh Sachar
Founder & General Partner at Indian Silicon Valley Capital
OVERVIEW
Learn how to find the right sector and problem
statement to build your first startup from scratch
by Keshav Jain
Lead investor at Earth Fund, India's only
UrbanTech & Sustainability-focused VC fund.
OVERVIEW
Learn to build and take your MVP to market in
just 2 weeks, gather feedback, and refine your
product for the market
by Rishabh Ladha
Learn how to refine your sales pitch, engage clients,
and convert more B2B leads for your business.
OVERVIEW
Learn to build and take your MVP to market
in just 2 weeks, gather feedback, and
refine your product for the market
by Anirban Ghosh
AVP E-commerce and D2C at SUGAR Cosmetics,
leading the online sales and marketing strategy
for the brand’s beauty and skincare products.
OVERVIEW
Learn how to take your product to platforms like
Amazon and Flipkart, and boost your sales.
by Muskaan Sancheti
Co-Founder, The State Plate — scaled to $1M+ ARR;
raised institutional funding from Antler India and Peyush
Bansal (Lenskart, Shark Tank India).
OVERVIEW
Learn why co-founders matter and how to build the
right founding team as you scale.
by Shivam Arora
Head, Investments & Operations at AngelList India, leading
investment strategies and operations for the platform.
OVERVIEW
Learn how VCs evaluate a pitch, structure your pitch deck,
and master the art of storytelling to impress investors.
by Hari Shankar
Partner at Mad Hauz Media, building brands
through content. Previously, EIR at Kommune India.
OVERVIEW
Learn how great content can drive sales, build your
brand, and strengthen your content strategy for 2025.
by Nish Bhutani
Founder at Indiginus, specializing in investor
marketing for asset managers and financial services..
OVERVIEW
Learn how to run, analyze, and optimize ads on Google
& Meta platforms for maximum impact and ROI.
by Chirag Pugalia
Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Matar Media
OVERVIEW
Dive deep into the art of crafting visual ads that
resonate, build brand recall, and drive conversions.
by Meghana Srinivas
Founder & CEO at TrustIn, specializing in strategy &
program development to drive growth and innovation.
OVERVIEW
Master term sheets, unit economics, and
startup finance for sustainable growth.
Running Ads That Convert
How Startups Actually Make Money
Operating the Business: From Order to Delivery
Selling Your First Product Online
Running Ads That Convert
How Startups Actually Make Money
Operating the Business: From Order to Delivery
Selling Your First Product Online
Finding Problems Worth Solving
Talking to Users (and Listening Properly)
Building Your First Version Fast
Getting Your Product in Front of People
Getting Your First 100 Customers
Why Users Stay (or Leave)
Using Data Without Overthinking It
What to Build Next (and What to Kill)
What Product-Market Fit Actually Feels Like
Managing Money Without Running Out
Scaling What's Working
Hiring Your First Team
Where This Company Can Go
Telling Your Story to Investors
Raising Money (If You Need To)
Staying Focused as Things Get Bigger
No classes. Full execution mode.
A typical week at Mesa blends classroom learning, hands-on building and intense exposure to founders – by design.
Forge is a venture-building track, but you are not isolated. You live inside the same campus, same founder access, same sessions, and the same infra as the Startup Leadership PGP.
Forge students can audit selected classes from the PGP in Startup Leadership and Entrepreneurship to deepen interests in strategy operations leadership or finance based on venture needs without increasing academic load
Forge students have full access to Mesa Startup Lab including the ₹5Cr incubator fund structured venture reviews founder mentorship expert guidance and post program incubation for high potential teams
While Forge is venture first students exploring startup roles post program are supported by Mesa’s Career Prep team with resume building interview prep and access to early stage startup opportunities where hands on experience matters
Forge students are fully integrated into the Mesa campus community learning alongside PGP Startup Leadership peers mentors and alumni while building strong cross cohort relationships across the startup ecosystem
Founders and operators visiting campus for PGP and UG programs are equally accessible to Forge students, creating frequent informal touchpoints that help students learn directly from people building and scaling companies.
Forge students have full access to Mesa’s AI curriculum and tools, learning to use AI and no-code to build MVPs, automate workflows, run growth experiments, and improve operations through hands-on application.
The two programs are designed for very different career stages and learning needs.
The PGP in Startup Leadership & Entrepreneurship is built for mid-career professionals with 2+ years of work experience. Less than 10% of the cohort has under two years of experience, and close to 80% of students use the program to transition into leadership and high-impact operator roles in startups.
The PGP in Venture Building is designed for freshers who want to learn the art of 0–1 building by actually going through the process of creating a startup from scratch. The program is intentionally less academic, gives students significantly more time to build, and is structured around venture milestones rather than classroom intensity. Fees are lower to make the program accessible to early-career builders, and students receive 1:1 guidance from senior startup operators from Day One.
Not building a venture does not mean the program has failed.
The experience of attempting to build a startup—talking to customers, selling, running experiments, making decisions under uncertainty—is deeply valuable and highly regarded by early-stage startups. Many companies see this as strong proof of ownership, execution ability, and learning speed.
If a student chooses to pursue a role after the program, Mesa’s Career Prep and sourcing team (from the PGP in Startup Leadership & Entrepreneurship) supports them end to end—preparing them for interviews, helping source entry-level operator roles, and continuing support during the first year on the job. These roles often come with significant responsibility and fast growth.
Building independently is always an option. Forge exists to compress learning and reduce avoidable mistakes.
At Mesa, students get repeated access to over 100 founders, real-time feedback from experienced operators, and a peer group that functions like a high-accountability residency. Students learn modern business-building skills hands-on—performance marketing, no-code and AI tools, rapid prototyping, early sales, and customer acquisition—while they are actively building.
Access to VCs, immersion in Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem, and structured demo days significantly accelerate exposure and learning. What might take years of trial-and-error alone is often compressed into a single, focused year.
Forge is agnostic to the type of business students choose to build.
Students have built and explored:
Marketplaces and aggregators
What matters is not the category, but the fundamentals: a real problem, a clear customer, a differentiated solution, and customers willing to pay. Forge is built around these common principles of business building, regardless of industry or model.
Yes. Mesa's PGP in Venture Building (Forge) is built exclusively for freshers who want to learn 0-to-1 business building by actually creating a startup, across a 75-seat cohort.
Mesa's PGP in Venture Building (Forge) runs for 12 months, full-time and in-person, at Mesa's Bangalore campus — structured across 6 terms with 6 checkpoints.
Forge is venture-first, so the primary outcome is a working business, not a job offer. Students who choose to pursue a role afterward get end-to-end support from Mesa's Career Prep team — resume building, interview prep, and sourcing of entry-level operator roles.
Yes. Forge's Business Founder (D2C-powered) track lets students build a consumer or D2C brand, targeting ₹25L+ in real revenue before graduating; a Tech Builder (AI-powered) track is available for students building software or AI-led products instead.
Forge's tuition is ₹17,35,000 in Round 1 and ₹17,85,000 in Rounds 2 and 3, exclusive of 18% GST and accommodation, which costs an additional ₹2.5–4.5 lakh per year.
