Everybody dreams of making it big. However, only a select few actually work towards it. Face it, we have all dreamt of a world-changing-money-making-out-of-the-blue idea that never really got any further from being discussed over our tiffin (yes day-scholars, I’m looking at you).

However, there are a few people who decided to turn their dreams into reality. And, believe it or not, these are the same people who were having their tiffin beside you in your college canteen.

So, here is a list of organisations that were started by Delhi University alumni. Before y’all start pin pointing, they are all pretty successful, so don’t say that college didn’t teach you anything.

1.Metvy

 ‘Do you know that the person sitting next to you is the one you’re looking for?’ This is how the promotional message for Metvy started. Intriguing, isn’t it? Metvy is an app in which you fill out your interests, and it helps you connect to people around you having similar interests for a face-to-face interaction. Say good bye to awkward “Do you watch GoT?” conversation starters or the loneliness that you go through when you move to a new place. You can meet up with a person who watches Game of Thrones by just swiping right and then you both can talk about how much you hate Cersei over a cup of coffee (I know you do, don’t deny it).

The founder, Shawrya Mehrotra, is a second year B. Com (Hons) student at Kirori Mal College. He had always been interested in the field of business and had interned with leading companies like SproutBox and Ogilvy, gaining experience. Always into start-ups, Shawrya started an organisation called ‘Charkha’, which aimed to promote Khadi clothing in India. However, it’s never all roses and no thorns. Leading clothing company ‘Raymonds’ also launched a similar project during that time and Shawrya realised that he had to do something different and out of the box.

Having been inspired by the biography of Mukesh Ambani, Shawrya came up with the idea of Metvy. “Being an extrovert, it was easy for me to talk to people and start conversations. However, I knew that not everyone was like that. A lot of people are too shy to make the first move when it comes to making friends.” In January 2018, Shawrya approached a few investors regarding the idea. Mr Alok Jain, founder of CareerCo, who also had experience as Head of Design and Development and NIIT Delhi and as Vice President at Wipro Technologies agreed to be the Chief Mentor of Metvy in March 2018. In April 2018, Shawrya approached Rajan Luthra, a fellow senior at KMC regarding the idea and Rajan agreed to be the co-founder.

It all kickstarted in April 2018 when Metvy started hiring interns and the app went live on the Google Play Store in the last week of August 2018. The app received almost four thousand downloads within two weeks of it’s launch and will soon be released on the Apple App Store as well.

The founders are currently focusing on improving the application and are also looking at strategies to generate revenue, though the main focus in on establishing a market.

2. We – Convert

 Ever wanted to start an organisation that helps out the environment? That’s exactly what Ashutosh Srivastava and Pranav Manocha of Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences aimed to do.

During their first two years of engineering, they barely talked to each other. Then, one day, they happened to sit together at a lecture. Ashutosh was a tech fanatic and Pranav helped his father out in his business. Soon, they found themselves talking about technology and business and decided to do something new, meaningful and of their own. The next day, they met up at Starbucks and decide to take this idea of theirs a little further. They discussed the most prominent problems in India and decided to work towards waste management.

One day, while brainstorming in the metro, they noticed some vending machines at the station, and that’s how the idea of Smart Bins came to them. They decided to make an ‘E-Collector’ that would accept waste material and in return give the user rewards like vouchers, discount coupons etc. The idea was fantastic, however, what made them hesitant was what makes all of us stop from our master plans – funding. They participated in business events and ended up winning a bunch of them, and used the prize money as their funds.

They developed their first machine at DTU campus and finally set it up in August 2015. So basically, you put your plastic, aluminium and glass scrap in the machine, it generates a code and you can redeem that code as a reward. We-Convert has set up in numerous machines across Delhi and now across India and will soon be launching in the European market. As for revenue, they sell their waste to recycling organisations and also display advertisements on their Smart Bins.

So far, We-Convert has recycled more than ten thousand kilograms of waste across thirty locations in India. It was also featured in Forbes under 30 Asia 2018.

3. Smapsters

 Remember when we were kids and our squad decided to start a company together? Well, ours must have stayed a dream only, but not for the students of Bal Bharti Public School, Pitampura. All the seven founders of Smapsters were from the same school and also worked for the same Non-Profit organisation. Out of these, three belong to Delhi University. All of them shared their common love for travelling and decided to launch Smapsters.

Smapsters is basically a travel organisation that organises offbeat trips at affordable prices. Want to have an adventure like Naina did in YJHD? Smapsters will give you exactly that.  Their aim is to start off as strangers and end as a family. Though their core market comprises of college students, they are people aged from sixteen to fifty six years who travel together!

Smapsters has conducted more than eighty trips so far and has a family of more than twenty-five hundred travellers. So, the next time you feel like going on a trip, sure give this a look!

4. 3Dexter

 When one start-up is not enough, you come up with another one. Yes, I’m talking about Smapsters! Once Smapsters took off, the founders wanted to work in another field and they opted for education as not a lot of innovation had been done in that line. Well, we all remember when smart classrooms made school worth attending (I meant, classes not worth bunking) in 2005, it was time to launch 3D printing almost a decade later! So, the founders of Smapsters opened up another organisation named 3Dexter.

Finally, January 2016, they had their first client and were ready to introduce 3D printing in schools. However, the first year wasn’t all roses. They managed to get only five schools as their clients and things were kind of topsy-turvy. However, soon, 3D printing started becoming popular in India and the name of 3Dexter spread around. Soon, things started looking good again and by the time academic year 2017 started, 3Dexter had thirty schools as clients. Come September 2018, they are close to working with more than one hundred and twenty schools. They started off with seven, and now have more than forty employees.

The main aim of 3Dexter is to revolutionise the Indian education system. Their target audience is schools and colleges.

I wonder if the idea of printing a 3D printer using a 3D printer ever struck them, will save up on capital.

5. Hello Meal

 Alright, so we have reached the last one on the list. All my college peeps reading this, I’m sure those Instagram stories you put of expensive restaurants are usually at the start of the month. We all become a bunch of chindis right after the end of the first week.

So, what do you do when you crave that amazing paneer curry when you’re busy finishing off those assignments? You, of course, get food delivered home so that you can have a little PJ party at home. However, are you willing to shell off money when the only ‘aesthetic’ Instagram photos than you can post are of plastic containers in your messy room? (We all know it is, ignoring the fact won’t do you any good) I definitely wouldn’t.

Introducing to you Hello Meal! An app that gives you instant food delivery at affordable prices. Operating through Zomato, this venture was started off by Tushar Kanti Das, Amandeep Singh and Saraswat Mishra, all from Swami Shraddhanand college. Simply search for Hello Meal on Zomato and get affordable, tasty food at your doorstep!

Also, they have cool pop culture references and has its own merch. How cool is that? You can also pre-book your meals a night before in case you know next day will be tiring. And as for my Monica Gellers here, they give wet wipes instead of tissues. What else do you want.

So those were a few start-ups by our very own DU kids! Inspired to start your own organisation? I surely am!

You’ll soon see a cosplay universe!

Or not.

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