At a recent IIT Madras event, Tarun heard a staggering stat:
115 startups incubated last year — almost all in deep tech, hardware, or AI.
But this culture didn’t appear overnight.
Back in 2007, a group of alumni created the CFI — Center for Innovation — a massive lab filled with tools, equipment, and total creative freedom.
Weekends suddenly meant:
“What are you doing?”
“I’m in CFI, building something.”
By 2009, directors began modelling the research culture on Stanford.
More dominoes fell: a junior started attempting startups at scale, and the Engineering Design department (Tarun’s batch) became a quiet catalyst — with nearly two-thirds of students attempting a startup at some point.
What emerged was a generational shift:
not just an institute that taught engineering,
but an institute that built entrepreneurs, deep-tech products, and a culture of doing.
In this episode of The Blume Podcast, the team dives into how IIT Madras became the birthplace of some of India’s most ambitious hardware and AI companies — including Ather.
🎧 Watch the full episode now — a story of culture, community, and creation.