KSUM holds exclusive sessions on leadership capabilities and entrepreneurial resilience among women founders

Kochi / June 23, 2026

Kochi, June 23: Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), as part of its WE Start Pre-Incubation Programme – Cohort 3, organised two exclusive capacity-building sessions at KSUM, Kochi, aimed at strengthening leadership capabilities and entrepreneurial resilience among women founders.

The Founder Development Programme (FDP) featured a session on Personality-Based Leadership Development, led by Amar Rajan, CEO, Mindcarter. The session enables women founders to understand how personality influences leadership, communication, decision-making, and team management. Through psychometric assessments and personality mapping supported by Agentic AI techniques, participants gained valuable insights into their strengths, leadership styles, and areas for growth.

Another session, “Distress to Direction: A Crisis Management Workshop for Women Founders,” was led by Sandhya Vasudevan, Independent Director – Corporates to Startups and former Managing Director of Thomson Reuters and Deutsche Bank.

The session explored practical strategies to navigate startup challenges and uncertainties.

Through interactive discussions, group activities and decision-making exercises, participants explored critical startup scenarios including the solo founder trap, building without a technical co-founder, no-code solutions or technology partners, managing capital crunch as well as handling team and market crises such as key employee exits, customer validation and pivot decisions.

As part of the workshop, participants underwent a Personality Assessment activity with individual Score Cards which made them understand the strength and areas to improve to be a competing founder.

One of the notable moments of the event was the participation of a woman founder who attended the programme with her four-month-old baby, symbolizing the determination and resilience of women entrepreneurs.

The workshop aimed to empower founders with practical decision-making frameworks and a resilient mindset to navigate challenges and build sustainable ventures.

The initiative also provided participants an opportunity to engage with a wider community of women entrepreneurs supported by Kerala Startup Mission.

ENDS

 

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