Team Aakash
Vellore Institute of Technology
About half of the current internet downtimes are preventable, say current reports. Yet, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are largely focused on reactive maintenance rather than proactive monitoring. This is what inspired Team Aakash from Vellore Institute of Technology to work on their idea to strengthen the internet backbone, one monitoring solution at a time.
“We assumed the ISPs needed a perfect monitoring solution, so we began working on our tool which proactively detects internet downtime thereby ensuring flawless connectivity,” said Rehan Fauzi Ansari, one of the Entrepreneur Leads from the Team while presenting their learnings at the FINALE of I-NCUBATE Cohort 17. “We came into the program at this stage and started our Customer Discovery journey.”
While the team was focused on finding out the flaws in the existing tools being used in the market, there was a bigger surprise awaiting them. The team realized that large-scale ISPs were not having a problem. They had funding and technology at their disposal. They did not need a solution. After discussions with GDC mentors and instructors, the Team decided to explore its options with medium-sized ISPs.
Interviews and stakeholder discussions indicated that there was a need for a solution in this sub-segment. Enthused by this learning, the team left the program determined to continue their Customer Discovery exercise in the new sub-segment. “The skills we have learnt during the I-NCUBATE program will be useful as we continue our startup journey,” said Dr. SP Meenakshi, the Faculty Lead of Team Aakash.
