City youth part of start-up that made it to UN’s top 50 list

The company that was formed along with friends from Pune and Nagpur when all of them were in college was incubated at IIM Bengaluru for a year and a half before moving to its own premises. 

Today, nearly five years on, the team who are all in their early 20s, run a fledgling start-up, Climber, under which their project ‘MyCaptain’ has been recognised by the United Nations SDSN as one of the top 50 youth-led solutions in the world. 

For over four years, they have been working on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals such as quality education, decent work, and economic growth and partnership. 

“The concept is simple. MyCaptain comprises over 20 online interactive workshops in the domains of business, technology and creatives and humanities that run every month, mentored and guided by our ‘Captains’, who are young achievers in their respective fields,” explains Ruhan Madni Naqash, the Chief Marketing Officer. Besides him, CEO Mohammed Zeeshan, Rahul Varma, Sameer Ramesh, Fatema Hussain and Asad Damani form the executive board. 

Journalism and media, spoken word poetry, race car tech, model United Nations and graphic design are some of the many varied topics mentored by the achievers. 

“The biggest difference between out platform and others is that the mentors are ‘live’ and have real-time interaction with people,” adds Ruhan.

The enterprising gang is also involving college and school students with their Climber student organisation. Terming it a ‘passion revolution’, Ruhan says that students across India sign up to hold youth conclaves, literary events, and entrepreneurial forums for their peers. “We have influencers, technologists, artists and experts in several field come and address students to follow their passion. The idea is to inspire them when they are teenagers,” the team conclude.