Friends First, Founders Next: How Friendship Built These Startups

Every startup story usually begins with an idea. But for these founders, it began with a friendship, one that was tested, trusted and eventually turned into a business.

This Friendship's Day, we invited founder-friends to share how their bond became a boardroom. From childhood friends to college roommates, colleagues who became co-founders, and even a friendship that turned into a marriage, here are twelve stories of businesses built on trust that came first, and strategy that followed.

MiniMines Cleantech Solutions: Anupam Kumar and Arvind Bhardwaj

Anupam Kumar and Arvind Bhardwaj's story did not begin with a business plan. It began with two colleagues who met while working together, both bringing deep expertise in lithium-ion battery R&D.

Talking shop came easily, and the more they talked, the more they recognised a growing problem. As battery adoption increased, so did the waste, with valuable critical materials lost once batteries reached the end of their life.

That professional chemistry grew into genuine friendship, and eventually into a shared conviction that they could build something meaningful together. Both left their jobs and pooled their savings to get started. In 2021, MiniMines was born.

Based in Bengaluru, MiniMines recovers critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries using its patented Hybrid-Hydrometallurgy™ process, helping India reduce its dependence on imported critical and rare earth minerals.

Jain Ankit and Co (JAC): CA Ankit Jain and CA Shefali Patwal

Ankit Jain and Shefali Patwal met as articled assistants at the same CA firm, two trainees sharing long audit seasons, impossible deadlines and endless chai. The friendship came easily, and so did the realisation that they thought about clients the same way.

Somewhere between those audits, they made a pact: once they both cleared CA, they would build something of their own. In 2015, Ankit began as a sole proprietor. A year later, Shefali joined, and they reconstituted the practice into a partnership, Jain Ankit and Co. In February 2022, they extended that partnership to their personal lives and married.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered on Racecourse Road, Dehradun, with a branch in Gurugram, JAC offers auditing and assurance, domestic and international tax, corporate law, consultancy and bookkeeping to clients across retail, pharmaceuticals, automotive, real estate, media and the not-for-profit sector. From a two-member team, the firm has grown to 50+ professionals.

Attrangi Designs: Vidushi Jain and Saloni Shah

Some partnerships are built in boardrooms. This one began around the family table.

When Vidushi Jain married Saloni Shah's brother, they became family. What brought them closer, though, was a shared passion for jewellery, creativity and the dream of building something of their own. Their conversations soon turned into ideas, and in 2017, those ideas became Attrangi Designs.

With Saloni's expertise in jewellery design and Vidushi's background in marketing and branding, they set out to reimagine fashion jewellery in India, creating bold, high-quality and accessible statement pieces. Starting from home with a modest investment, they showcased their collections at exhibitions before growing into an omnichannel brand with retail stores and a strong online presence.

Today, Attrangi Designs reflects two women who turned a family connection into a lasting friendship and a business built on creativity and shared dreams.

Praruh Technologies Ltd: Rahul Sharma, Amardeep Sharma and Vishal Prakash

The journey began years ago at HCL Technologies, where Amar and Rahul worked in different verticals. Back then, it was little more than an occasional hello. Over nearly three years, those casual interactions turned into a strong friendship. Around the same time, both met Vishal, who was working at AGC.

Frequent family dinners at Vishal's home, weekend catch-ups and a family trip to Nainital brought the three closer. Despite working at different organisations, they kept meeting every weekend, exchanging ideas and discussing industry trends. Eventually, they decided to build a company that combined Rahul's expertise in sales, Amar's technical capabilities and Vishal's business acumen. That vision became Praruh Technologies Ltd in 2019.

Praruh is a BSE-listed ICT and system integration company delivering technology solutions across data centres, enterprise networking, cybersecurity, unified communications, surveillance and managed services, serving clients including DMRC, RailTel, DFCCIL, ONGC, AAI and BEL. In FY 2025-26, the company crossed the ₹100 crore revenue mark.

Seekho: Rohit Choudhary, Keertay Agarwal and Yash Banwani

Rohit Choudhary (CEO), Keertay Agarwal (COO) and Yash Banwani (CTO)'s story began at IIT Kanpur, where the three met as students and became close friends long before they became entrepreneurs. They spent hours discussing ideas, solving problems and dreaming about building something meaningful together. Even after graduation, those conversations continued.

Whenever they visited their hometowns in Rajasthan and interacted with young people from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, they noticed a common challenge: talent and ambition were everywhere, but access to practical, everyday learning was not. That shared observation became their shared mission.

In 2020, they founded Seekho, an edutainment platform that makes learning simple and accessible through short, expert-led videos. The journey was not always easy; in 2022, they were down to less than a month of runway, but their friendship helped them make difficult decisions and rebuild the business around a subscription-first model. Seekho now serves millions of learners across business, careers, communication and finance.

The Pittch: Sunil Nazare, Sonny Sharma and Vishal Garg

In 2015, at Wizcraft, Sunil Nazare, then Head of Client Servicing, interviewed Sonny Sharma for a client servicing role. Sonny joined as an executive and later moved into operations, where he found his strength. Around the same time, Sonny's childhood friend Vishal Garg also joined Wizcraft, first as a freelancer, then full-time.

Vishal and Sonny had been friends since childhood, while Sunil joined the circle after meeting Sonny at Wizcraft. In April 2024, the three had their first discussion about starting an event company of their own, and by September 2024, The Pittch was operational.

The Pittch specialises in the conceptualisation, planning and execution of corporate events, conferences, exhibitions, product launches, brand experiences and employee engagement programmes, offering end-to-end event solutions from creative ideation to on-ground execution.

Probox Media: Yashi Malviya and Sukriti Roy

Yashi Malviya and Sukriti Roy met in college in 2013 and became friends around 2015, during their internship days in Delhi. In 2016, after college, they joined the same media newspaper, and their friendship grew stronger as they connected over a shared idea: they both wanted to build a startup.

Their first venture together did not work out, but in 2019, they built Probox Media, a PR, branding and marketing agency that helps entrepreneurs, startups, professionals, and businesses build visibility and credibility through media coverage and brand storytelling.

Today, Yashi and Sukriti stand together as friends and business partners, having built a strong understanding of each other over the years.

Culture Circle: Devansh Jain Nawal and Ackshay Jain

Some friendships are built on shared memories. This one was built on a shared obsession with sneakers.

Childhood friends Devansh Jain Nawal and Ackshay Jain have been friends for over 14 years, bonded by their love for sneakers, streetwear and fashion. In 2016, when Ackshay struggled to find authentic sneakers in India amid counterfeits and inflated prices, they realised the market lacked trust and transparency.

What began as a 48-hour college experiment comparing prices across verified sellers attracted over 30,000 organic visitors, validating the need for a reliable platform. That early response encouraged them to turn their shared passion into a business.

In 2023, they founded Culture Circle, India's authenticated marketplace for sneakers, streetwear and luxury fashion, now valued at ₹100 crore, connecting consumers with verified sellers and authentic products.

Trackier and Apptrove: Faizan Ayubi and Udit Verma

Faizan Ayubi (CEO) and Udit Verma (CMO) met in college, in different engineering streams but chasing the same ambition. Each was already running a student-focused venture to help peers land internships. Competition brought them into the same room, and a shared reading of the same gap kept them there.

Together they built vNative, an attribution engine for advertisers who needed to prove the worth of their spend. As it matured, an early meeting with a demanding client showed them that solving known problems only takes you so far. That gap became their brief.

The result is Trackier, a partner-attribution platform, alongside Apptrove, their mobile measurement partner tracking installs, engagement and returns for app-first brands. Bootstrapped throughout, the company is now valued at $20 million.

PHURR: Rahul, Aashish and Noor

Aashish and Noor have been childhood friends and neighbours for over 30 years. Rahul completed the trio that would go on to build restaurants together.

The idea was born over cups of coffee at Bengaluru's Airlines Hotel, where Aashish and Noor would often say, "ek din restaurant kholna hai" (one day, we'll open a restaurant). That dream became a reality with The Bangalore Cafe in 2018. Encouraged by its success, the three came together to build PHURR, an elevated vegetarian restaurant concept designed to scale across India.

What sets their partnership apart is how they lead. They do not believe in titles or hierarchies, choosing instead to operate as equals, with one rule: do everything together. Every decision is shared, and every milestone belongs to all three.

Today, PHURR is on track to become a ₹150 crore business, with the brand preparing to expand beyond Bengaluru into Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Ignosis: Nirav Prajapati and Chintan Sheth

Nirav Prajapati (Founder and CEO) and Chintan Sheth (Co-Founder) met in January 2020, when Chintan joined Nirav's previous venture, Pirimid Fintech. They quickly bonded over global fintech trends and Indian market opportunities, finding a strong rapport in product thinking.

While working with a UK-based open banking client, they recognised a significant opportunity in India's early-stage Account Aggregator and consent-based data ecosystems. Driven by this shared vision, they decided to partner and build an India-focused fintech infrastructure.

In 2022, they founded Ignosis, a financial data intelligence and agentic AI platform that acts as the intelligence layer for over 150 banks, NBFCs and financial institutions, automating and optimising lending, collections and credit workflows.

Dapr.: Swaroop Sarkar and Yatin Mehra

Swaroop Sarkar and Yatin Mehra met in California while pursuing their master's degrees at USC. It was 2013, and what struck them most was not the coursework, but the culture around men's grooming they saw there: dedicated men's salons, thoughtful products, a whole ecosystem built specifically for men. Back home in India, the options were cheap hair gels and imported products that had no idea what Indian hair, skin or climate actually needed.

That gap stayed with them long after graduation. In 2018, the two friends decided to build Dapr., a grooming brand designed for Indian men from the ground up, not imported or copied from Western shelves. Every product, from India's first pomade to Beard Butter, a combined beard oil and balm, was built with attention to detail often missing in the category.

Eight years on, Dapr. is one of India's trusted men's grooming brands, built entirely bootstrapped with no outside funding. What started as two friends noticing a gap abroad became a business rooted in solving it at home.

The Common Thread

Twelve different businesses, twelve different beginnings, but the same thread running through each one: friendship came first, and the business grew out of it.

From cups of chai during audit season to late-night sneaker debates, none of these founders set out to build a company together. They set out to stay close, and the company happened along the way.

That, perhaps, is the real takeaway this Friendship's Day: the best co-founders were often just good friends who refused to let a shared idea go unbuilt.