In India, 83% of engineering students and up to 46% of B-school graduates remain unemployed without job offers or internships.
Alarmingly, this points to a structural failure in the higher-education system rather than a talent deficit. Most colleges and institutes seem to have failed at delivering incentives and curriculum design that is aligned with what the real market demands.
Theoretical instruction continues to supersede experiential learning and outcome-based training.
The result? Employability that keeps dipping.
“When Indian students graduate from a college, the system suddenly asks them for real skills and experience in return for a high-impact job. This comes as a jolt, not because they are unwilling, but because their institutes, the ones they spent lakhs on, simply didn’t equip them with either. They are left struggling, scouting for jobs, settling for something lesser than they deserve, and barely making it through. With our venture, we aim to flip this picture,” Mano Venkatesh, co-founder of Institute of Venture Building, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview.
Founded in August 2024, Institute of Venture Building is a Chennai-based college that grooms students to become entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, with skills, network, co-founders, network, and mentorship. Additionally, it gives Rs 1 lakh as seed fund to every student, no questions asked, to help build their startup from scratch.
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THE BACKGROUND
Born and brought up in Chennai, Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer have been friends since childhood.
“We went to the same school and even had consecutive roll numbers,” Mano laughs.
After school, Mano pursued electrical engineering while Amer took up civil engineering.
In 2017, they both secured a position at IIM Calcutta for their MBA.
“Something interesting happened to me while I was in engineering college. I had gone there expecting a full science fiction movie. But that didn’t happen. There was barely anything practical or experiential. But going to IIM was a lovely experience. Got a great community of students and faculty,” startup founder Mano Venkatesh tells Startup Pedia.
After graduating from IIM Calcutta in 2019, Mano Venkatesh secured a job as an area manager in Johnson and Johnson.
Mohammed Amer, on the other hand, entered the field of venture capital.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mano came home due to a personal emergency. He quit his previous job and eventually started working with a US-based startup. As for Amer, he had joined his family’s construction business.
Everything was going smoothly, but the childhood friends kept discussing the gap in the Indian education system.
“We were lucky to get into a prestigious college like IIM. But we could see students from other colleges struggle to get placed in well-paying jobs. They simply didn’t get the adequate educational infrastructure that would’ve trained them in market-ready skills,” startup founder Mohammed Amer says.
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THE SYSTEMIC CRACKS IN THE INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM
On deeper probing, Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer realized that top colleges do offer a strong ecosystem, but 99% of students never get access to it in the first place.
“However, when these students make it to Tier II and Tier III colleges, they are still expected to pay lakhs in fees, while the institutes continually fail to make them job-ready,” entrepreneur Mano mentions.
On the topic of companies offering minimum salaries, the founders shared a perspective:
Since students come out of colleges untrained, most companies have to spend money on training them from scratch.
“Hence the “low” salaries. They can’t help it, honestly. And we do agree, it’s not an ideal solution. The only solution is a system-level upgrade, right from the time a student enters a college,” entrepreneur Mohammed Amer shares.
THE IVB JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES
By February 2024, entrepreneurs Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer decided to build something that went beyond degrees and credentials and instead focused on:
- Grooming students for real skills that the market needs
- Democratizing access to entrepreneurship
- Offering a thriving ecosystem where students directly learn from business founders, operators, and industry leaders
This was the beginning of the Institute of Venture Building (IVB). The young startup founders, under 30 years of age at the time, pooled Rs 9 crore from family funds and savings to bootstrap their education startup.
The idea was simple: build a new-gen college for entrepreneurship.
Since Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer started with the UG program, they had to navigate certain challenges:
- Firstly, the UG (undergraduate) market is primarily parent-driven, where students are not the real decision-makers.
“Even if a student wants to pursue entrepreneurship professionally, nothing can happen unless the parents are convinced to explore what we are offering. So there was some resistance that we had to deal with,” startup founder Mano Venkatesh says.
- Secondly, many students felt hesitant towards pursuing entrepreneurship from IVB without “a real degree.”
“We increased awareness by offering regulatory context. From 2022, the UGC allows online degrees to be treated at par with offline degrees. So now we encourage students to pursue an online degree, say a BBA from IIM Bangalore, while learning how to build startups at IVB. It’s the perfect blend,” entrepreneur Mohammed Amer explains.
- From April 2024 to July 2024, the IVB campus was under construction. Marketing a college that wasn’t ready at the time was a major challenge. There was some skepticism regarding Mano’s and Amer’s young age as well.
“Eventually, we onboarded Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin as the brand ambassador for Institute of Venture Building. We also scaled our faculty visibility, and created and released introductory content with them on social media,” Mano says.
In August 2024, the first batch of the Institute of Venture Building went live with 37 students joining in from across India.
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INSTITUTE OF VENTURE BUILDING: NEXT-GEN COLLEGE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
The Chennai-based Institute of Venture Building is located inside the Express Avenue Mall, and operates as a single-floor campus spread across 12,000 square feet.
Startup founders Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer chose to locate the college campus inside the Express Avenue Mall, so students can, quite literally, learn and perform in and around a business environment.
“Every facility from a food court to a pickleball court is easily accessible to our students,” Mano smiles.
Institute of Venture Building (IVB) currently offers a three-year undergraduate programme:
- Year 1 is dedicated to classes and experiential learning. Students choose their specialization or core area of interest across the subjects of HR, marketing, sales, finance, buyer-seller dynamics, technology, and coding basics.
“Our faculty are industry professionals, business owners, and startup founders themselves. We believe there is nothing better than learning from someone who has already pulled off what you aim to do,” entrepreneur Mohammed Amer explains.
- Year 2 is all about each student undertaking four internships spread across three months each.
“Students give us their preferences as to what industries they would like to experience – jewellery, health, food, fashion, tech, you name it. We then bring the internships to them. They aren’t abandoned to scout for one themselves. Our students are currently interning at companies like Zomato, Atlys, Wow! Momo, and Groww,” entrepreneur Mano Venkatesh says.
These internships are serious, outcome-driven roles that require students to attend the office and absorb working culture in every sense. They are also paid, varying from a stipend of Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000.
- Year 3 is a venture-building phase. Each student, now equipped with real-world skills owing to their internships, comes back to the college. They are given Rs 1 lakh each as seed funding for their own startup and are encouraged to create prototypes and MVPs.
“We offer this seed fund, no questions asked. Students usually create groups of 4, so one startup has at least Rs 4 lakh to start with. Now, the same way colleges bring companies for placements, we bring real investors and VCs to our campus. Students demonstrate their ideas, prototypes, and MVPs in front of the VCs, and either raise more funds or get valuable mentorship,” Mano Venkatesh mentions.
At the end of Year 3, students either continue building their startups or sit for placements in high-impact jobs.
“A fresher at IVB is not a typical fresher with just theoretical knowledge. This student is equipped with industry experience and a founder mindset, perfect for companies looking for tangible talent,” Mohammed Amer notes.
THE IVB GROWTH AND MOMENTUM
In 2025, entrepreneurs Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer raised Rs 4.5 crore from friends and family.
The current fee structure for the three-year UG programme at Institute of Venture Building is Rs 13,25,000.
“For accommodation, if needed by the student, we charge an extra Rs 17,000 every month,” Mohammed Amer notes.
In August 2024, 37 students joined IVB. The number surged to 60 students in 2025. The Chennai-based college is looking at more than 100 new students for 2026.
The long-term goal for Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer is to scale the Institute of Venture Building into a center of excellence for entrepreneurship in India.
“In the near future, probably by next year, we will also start our post-graduate programme as well as ancillary programmes for people who currently have a job, but want to explore entrepreneurship, or housewives who want to build something tangible from their households. The ultimate goal is to enable wider access to entrepreneurship, real skills, and hands-on experience that translate into meaningful careers. These are the same outcomes that traditional education has failed to deliver at scale,” Mano Venkatesh concludes.
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FAQ
When was the Institute of Venture Building founded?
Institute of Venture Building was founded in 2024.
Who is the founder of the Institute of Venture Building?
IIM graduates Mano Venkatesh and Mohammed Amer are the founders of Institute of Venture Building.
What does the Institute of Venture Building offer?
Institute of Venture Building is a Chennai-based college that grooms students to become entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, with skills, network, co-founders, and mentorship.
How many students are studying at the Institute of Venture Building?
Currently, 100+ students are studying at IVB, while a 100 more are expected to join this year.
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