Finale Episode Highlights Key Enabler of India's Startup Momentum
The third season of "Crafting Bharat," presented by AWS Startups in partnership with NewsReach and HT Smartcast, has released its season finale episode featuring Sriram Santhanam, Head of Startups at AWS India. Hosted by Gautam Srinivasan, consulting editor at CNBC India, CNN-News18, Forbes India, and The Economic Times, the series explores founder resilience, agility, and the drive to build super startups. In the finale, Santhanam offers insights into how AWS is powering innovation through cloud infrastructure, AI capabilities, and a robust partner ecosystem.
AWS Activate: Beyond Credits to Community and Mentorship
According to Santhanam, the AWS Activate program provides more than just credits. In 2026, intangible mentorship involves three key elements: access to experts, peer networks, and go-to-market acceleration. Founders receive direct guidance from AWS solution architects and AI specialists via the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center. Cohort-based communities like the AWS AI Native Builders community enable peer learning. Additionally, AWS facilitates co-sell pathways, marketplace listings, and introductions to enterprise buyers, turning credits into meaningful customer conversations.
Cybersecurity Partners Help Startups Navigate Funding Winter
Santhanam highlighted the role of AWS partners in cybersecurity, noting that recent cohorts have supported dozens of companies building AI-native threat defense solutions. Partners help reduce infrastructure overhead through managed security services and co-selling. Instead of hiring large in-house teams, startups rely on AWS security partners for enterprise-grade protection at lower cost. Through AWS Marketplace and the ISV Accelerate program, partners shorten sales cycles and open doors to enterprise customers in India and globally. The funding slowdown has increased the importance of such partnerships, as lean startups cannot build everything themselves.
Upskilling Through Peer Networks and Structured Learning
Addressing the upskilling challenge, Santhanam emphasized that uncertainty drives the need for continuous learning. The AWS AI Native Builders Community is a peer-to-peer network where technology leaders learn from each other's experiences with agentic AI and other emerging technologies. This is supplemented by structured learning pathways such as AWS certifications and hands-on labs at AWS Summits. Notably, NASSCOM and AWS have a strategic collaboration to skill 250,000 learners in AI and cloud by 2027. Santhanam stressed that in times of rapid change, founders benefit more from trusted peer networks than standalone courses, ensuring practical and relevant learning.
Quote from Sriram Santhanam: "In today's ecosystem, success belongs to startups that combine lean execution with powerful data-driven intelligence."
