Who is a founder ?

Who is a founder?

One day in 8th grade, a little girl was on her bike, on her way to school. She waded through a rivulet, to bring a big bunch of water hyacinths for her biology class project. While the others had drawings and photos, the whole class was stunned that she had a water-dripping plant in her bag. But soon enough, everyone enjoyed the  process of hands-on discovery of cutting and feeling how the inflated petiole caused the plant's buoyancy. The school had very limited resources for labs and hands-on activities and what little resources there were, were saved for the mandatory experiments needed for "board exam" students aka the certification exams given at the of 10th grade.

A few days later, inspired by the hyacinths, the girl came up with the idea that perhaps the school should have a science club- a place where students can hang out and do more hands-on experiments. She built a case for it and started talking about it to a few classmates. She found a willing sponsor in her Social Studies teacher (yes, ironically the teacher was an advocate for expanding Math and Science literacy levels of all students) who helped her form a committee of more students across grades to expand the idea. After weeks of lunch hour gatherings, they built a solid proposal and took it to the principal who approved it but the plan needed the blessings of the school's management committee chair. They got to be excused from classes one afternoon to go present this idea to the leaders. Not only did they succeed in starting a science club, they also started a new annual event, a science fair. In the typical Indian sensibility of Jugaad, she even got to add a flower show (flower arrangement competition) to the fair! Who doesn't like to see fresh flowers with science experiments of soap making with coconut oil and cardboard cut out slides for rolling cricket balls? The science fair is now mentioned in the school website as an annual event and it makes that little girl today very proud to see that thousands of students have been part of this creation since the mid 80s.

To me, the little girl in this story is very much ‘a founder’. But, what do we usually think of when asked the question: ‘What makes a founder?”

It is often someone who is passionate about being a problem solver because they face many. Popular opinion includes ideas that founders need to be charismatic, execution oriented, coachable and laser focused. But how we judge who holds this capacity is clouded by popular narratives and often limited a to narrow group of people.

I would say founders include that small town girl who picked up water hyacinths as a science project and got inspired to found a school science club that still goes on even after 30+ years.

3 decades ago, I brought that water hyacinth to my class.

About a year ago, I started an experimental project Superbloom Studios , with my amazing friends Aruna and Vani - reminiscent of the day I brought the hyacinth to class. The larger science club and annual fair is in the making- stay tuned.

We are founders, imagining a future that doesn't exist yet.

#superbloom #smalltowngirl #founder #techfounder #srirangam

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