The past decade has been a celebration of India’s move towards self-reliance. In this movement, startups played a pivotal role. It is on the back of these new-age innovators that India is building its own software and hardware, designing its tech and manufacturing its medicines. The 7th episode of Starting up with Shradha Sharma saw five founders who embody the very spirit of atmanibharta.Be it space, education, or even solutions for the everyday problems of people, these founders—Apurwa Masook, Co-founder of SpaceFields; Anant Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of Tweek Labs; Tanya Eldred Bhat, Founder of XO Curls; CA Raj K Agrawal & Tripti Verma, Co-founder & CEO of Study At Home—have solved for the pain points of customers in imaginative and audacious ways.G20, under India's presidency, has instituted Startups20 to catalyse the country's prominence as a global startup hub. And it is these founders who will help India realise this dream. India recognises over 84,000 ventures as startups, and the nation’s story has just begun. At YourStory, we wanted to identify the mavericks behind some of these breakout entrepreneurial ventures in their early and mid stages.The young founders we spoke to are working in diverse fields. But they are tied by their passion for their work to have a reaching impact, something that will change the way the world sees India. Starting up with Shradha Sharma was started to ensure these stories get told. These stories, these impactpreneurs matter. So, let’s begin.Discovering the gaps As a young engineering student, Apurwa saw that India wasn’t making its own rocket propulsion systems. The country had a ~9.5% share in global defence imports and also heavily imported space technology, which made India reliant on the terms and conditions of international suppliers. He saw an opportunity to initiate a change.He had dabbled with building satellites since 2016, so knew the pros and cons of the market. “I started building a CanSAT or a can-sized satellite with a few of my like-minded friends. Through testing and multiple failures, I discovered what works and what does not,” he said in an interaction with YourStory.In 2021, Apurwa co-founded SpaceFields, a space-tech startup that custom designs and builds dual-use rocket propulsion systems for commercial spaceflight and national security.Ultimately, Apurwa saw a massive gap that needed filling and began working on something that would fulfil India’s space ambitions. Similarly, Anant who co-founded sports-tech startup Tweek Labs knew India had tremendous unrealised potential in sports. While smartwatches and fitness trackers are useful, they cannot monitor an athlete's full-body performance. He knew he could offer something that would help enhance the performance of the athletes and change the game.The case of Raj Agarwal was a little different. Raj always knew what he was going to do. He was a teacher who regularly noticed the absence of students from low-income households in his test preparation classes because the courses were expensive. He decided to lead by example.Finding a pathway It is often said that an idea is only as good as its execution. If you don’t have a roadmap for the thing you want to build, your great idea will have no worth. These founders knew what and how to build.Take Tweek Labs, for instance. Anant’s startup created motion capture suits to gauge inefficiencies in athletic performance. Its current go-to-market channel is cricket. It has tied up with local cricket academies to monitor the performance of budding cricketers. One-on-one sessions with coaches help bridge the performance gaps. Tweek’s next goal? Breaking into the Indian Premier League (IPL) and developing suits for players.While Anant is preparing to enter the big leagues, Apurwa too is ready for the next phase of his venture. He started small by building can-sized satellites to capture the level of sedimentation on the Hirakud Dam in Odisha. But now he has made the commercial pivot to propel India’s space mission to greater heights.Every founder YourStory spoke to came with their unique understanding of the problems they were looking to solve for. They all had one thing in common: they are the first movers in their respective spaces. Take Tanya of XO Curls, for example. With a dearth of styling products for curly and wavy hair, she partnered with curly-haired influencers to try her products. Sometimes the feedback was negative, but she took it in her stride. Today her XO Curls products are sold across the world.Here for goodThe future looks promising for this young crop. As India expands its Chandrayaan mission, Apurwa is working on a series of strategic applications to scale his space ambitions. For Anant, the ultimate goal is the Olympics. Just a few miles away in Bengaluru, Tanya’s busy scaling XO and building her brand via word-of-mouth in salons. And about 1,800 kilometres away in Varanasi, Raj and Tripti are adding on to their content repository to build a Netflix of learning.Apurwa, Anant, Tanya, Raj, and Tripti are the new-age founders who are ready to make change happen. And the India of today has numerous platforms to offer.