कोलम.studio
The Designers
We’re ex-founders, investors, operators, and believers in the next wave of Indian innovation — led not just from towers in Bangalore, but from tea stalls in Bareilly, cloud kitchens in Nagpur, and WhatsApp groups in Surat.
Kolam is an ecosystem where each design weaves into the other, complementing the overarching view. We are a community built around not only support, but also your first customers, your first investors, and your first partners.
Jasminder Singh Gulati
Founder
A second-time founder, product strategist, and early-stage investor, Jas has spent two decades building at the edges of India’s most complex systems — from SaaS to public infrastructure.
He co-founded NowFloats, which scaled to 300K+ SMEs and was acquired by Reliance Jio. He later helped architect policy platforms like CitizenStack and Digital Desh, which continue to power India’s public digital rails.
With Kolam, he’s putting structure to the way he mentors — scaling his support to back Bharat’s next billion founders, and the ventures that will serve its next billion citizens.
Nalin Jayaswal
Founding Team
Nalin is a builder, VC fellow, and student of stories — from UCLA lecture halls to the backrooms of early-stage pitch decks.
He has worked across venture capital (Faad, LvlUp, UTVC), sustainability fellowships (UC Carbon Action), and grassroots startups across India and the US. As President of Bruin Finance Society, he led UCLA’s largest open-access business community.
With Kolam, he’s reimagining what early-stage support looks like — not as polished pitch-prep, but as gritty, focused sprinting. He believes the best ventures start with a dot: a hometown insight, a personal frustration, a whispered ‘what if.’ to go global.
The Inspiration behind our Thesis
Behind the Design
Dots as Ideas
Every Kolam starts with a dot — just like every startup begins with a raw, unshaped insight. We celebrate the spark, not just the flame.
Patterns as Strategy
Just as each Kolam forms a balanced, symmetrical whole, we believe successful startups follow a repeatable, teachable pattern — GTM, user testing, storytelling, and more.
Sustainability in Design
Traditionally, Kolams are drawn with rice flour — not ink — so ants, birds, and insects feed off them. We believe every company should serve more than just customers or VCs. Founders should build for planet, profit, and purpose.
Everyday Ritual
Kolams are drawn fresh each morning — a reminder that building is a habit, not a one-off. Ship daily. Reflect often. Start again.
Lakshmi at the Core
Kolams are drawn at the entrance of homes to welcome Lakshmi — the goddess of prosperity. For us, that means every founder should build with intention. Make something worth inviting the world into with real traction.
Community Weave
Individual Kolams look great — but side-by-side, they become something far richer. We’re building an ecosystem of founders whose growth strengthens the whole.
The Metaphor
What is a Kolam?
Every Kolam begins with a single dot.
Drawn by hand, repeated each morning at the doorstep, it's a ritual of structure, symmetry, and storytelling. A system passed from grandmothers to daughters — now passed into the future.
Kolam Studio is built in the same spirit.
We are a venture sprint studio that helps early-stage founders in Bharat — India beyond the metros — build from idea to investable startup in 4 weeks.
We teach, we build, and we invest. No fluff. Just first-principles product thinking, storytelling, traction, and community.
