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Swayam

Swayam's mission is to remove the financial barrier to education.

Startup type: Competition Entry
Status: Active
Stage: Prototyping
Publicity: Stealth mode. No media please.
Industries: Education, Financial
Location: Stanford University, CA, USA

OUR NEWS

Long ago

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23 May 2009

Swayam now has 50 followers!

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12 May 2009

Swayam now has 50 followers!

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10 January 2009

Swayam updated their description

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10 January 2009

Swayam says: What's new at Swayam?

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30 June 2008

Swayam now has 20 followers!

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26 April 2008

Somik Raha joined the team.

Pursuing Ph.d. in Decision & Risk Analysis, Co-founder of Swayam
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03 April 2008

Deepti Chatti joined the team.

Environmental engineer, education startup co-founder. Education for all and protecting the environment are key to a sustainable life on the planet. Interested in using microfinance as a tool to effect positive change in society.
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26 March 2008

Ashni Mohnot joined the team.

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19 February 2008

Thomas Seyller created the startup

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19 February 2008

Thomas Seyller joined the team.

ABOUT US

Swayam is a pioneer in peer-to-peer social investing. We offer ordinary people the opportunity to become angel investors in the education of talented students, in exchange for a share of their future income. Under the terms of the Swayam Fellowship offered to students, they return a pre-specified percentage of their income over a fixed number of years to Swayam, upon graduating and entering the job market. Swayam channels these funds back to the Angels who invested in these students’ education, as returns on their investment.

Update:
Greetings! The news from our end is that after running into legal issues and time commitment pressures, two of the founders (Somik Raha and Thomas Seyller) have decided to bow out, while the other two founders (Ashni Mohnot and Deepti Chatti) will continue the legal research on future income contracts where we left off, as a new team. They will also go by another name (to be decided) instead of Swayam.

Ashni and Deepti would love to continue the relationship with all the amazing people who have encouraged us and helped us in so many ways. Please feel free to connect with them (ashni.mohnot@gmail.com or deepti.chatti@gmail.com) if you are interested in their work.

On a personal note, we want to thank you for taking the time and trusting us this far. The legal issues notwithstanding, the US is more in need than ever before of a viable educational finance organization.

THINGS WE NEED

COMMENTS (8)

  • Somik Raha Somik Raha wrote (1 year ago):

    Greetings! I am writing to give you an update on Swayam. The news from our end is that after running into legal issues and time commitment pressures, two of the founders (myself and Thomas Seyller) have decided to bow out, while the other two founders (Ashni Mohnot and Deepti Chatti) will continue the legal research on future income contracts where we left off, as a new team. They will also go by another name (to be decided) instead of Swayam.

    Ashni and Deepti would love to continue the relationship with all the amazing people who have encouraged us and helped us in so many ways. Please feel free to connect with them (ashni.mohnot@gmail.com or deepti.chatti@gmail.com) if you are interested in their work.

    On a personal note, I want to thank you for taking the time and trusting us this far. The legal issues notwithstanding, the US is more in need than ever before of a viable educational finance organization.

  • Somik Raha Somik Raha wrote (1 year ago):

    We have just found funding for our first student. We are now looking for funds for the second student from India who has just been admitted to the Electrical Engineering department at Stanford. He won't be able to make it without this help - if you'd like to be a part of Swayam's beginning and help a student get an education, please drop a note to pilot@swayam.org.

    For details, see http://www.swayam.org/letter.html

  • Somik Raha Somik Raha wrote (1 year ago):

    Our website is up @ http://www.swayam.org
    Investors can see http://www.swayam.org/letter.html

  • Amit Garg Amit Garg wrote (1 year ago):

    Cheering for Swayam for Bases and Srijan!

  • Felix Mathew Felix Mathew wrote (1 year ago):

    This is great stuff guys. good job

Team (4)

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  • Deepti Chatti

    Environmental engineer, education startup co-founder. Education for all and protecting the environment are key to a sustainable life on the planet. Interested in using microfinance as a tool to effect positive change in society.

  • Somik Raha

    Pursuing Ph.d. in Decision & Risk Analysis, Co-founder of Swayam

Followers (54)

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  • Scott Bradley

    I make do with what I have and do more and more with less and less. Three sheets is all I need to launch and build a wildly successful business.

  • Rajesh Patil

    An inspiring technical leader and IT manager with extensive experience in software development, quality assurance and high-tech operations with more than 9 years of experience building state of art IT solutions facilitating corporate growth.

  • Michael Staton

    Into education and entrepreneurship.

  • Kapeesh Saraf

    21, Graduate Student in Management Science at Stanford, Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from India.