Strategy & Experience Plan

Sankalp× Uttar Pradesh

An edition where capital meets craft, and the city becomes the convening. Powered by Creator Hub, Blend Crew, and BlendHack.

Prepared for: Intellecap Leadership · Sankalp Forum
Prepared by: Tessarakt
Edition: Lucknow · November 2026
Status: Confidential

What's in this plan

Ten sections. The vision, the engines, the convening, the experience, the partnership terms.

01The IdeaCity-led convening

02How It WorksSankalp + Blend integration

03The ConveningTwo-day Lucknow edition

04The ExperienceCulture, venues, evenings

05Creator HubMarketing channel

06Blend CrewCohort & field layer

07BlendHackDiscovery & Awards funnel

08Always-On ContentYear-round publishing

09Market ExpansionMP & Odisha

10Roadmap & The AskThree-year arc

01 — The Idea

The City Becomes the Convening

Sankalp's programme architecture, set inside Lucknow's institutions. The architecture stays. The room changes.

Sankalp Forum has convened Where Entrepreneurship Meets Capital for sixteen years. The format has helped entrepreneurs mobilise more than USD 800 million in equity investment and built a global network of 150,000+ ecosystem participants.

This plan doesn't change that architecture. It proposes evolving Sankalp into a city-integrated convening — blending serious sessions with creative entrepreneurship, monument-led venues with hotel-ballroom precision, paid evening experiences with closed-door deal rooms.

Sessions, Tracks, Awards, Deal Rooms, Connect, Dialogues, Knowledge — set inside Lucknow's institutions. The architecture stays Sankalp's. The room changes.

The Editorial Principle

Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state. The Startup Policy 2020 targets ten thousand startups. The ecosystem — AKTU, IIM Lucknow, IIT-BHU, IIIT Allahabad — is already in motion. The plan also closes three gaps Sankalp has named: the marketing-channel gap, the discovery gap, and the regional/vernacular reach gap.

$800M+

Equity investment mobilised

150K+

Global ecosystem participants

Editions across the world

3,500+

Startups showcased to investors

02 — How Sankalp + Blend Works Together

Three Engines, One Summit

Sankalp keeps its brand, editorial direction, and investor curation. Tessarakt plugs in three Blend engines that solve for marketing, cohort production, and grassroots discovery — year-round.

Sankalp Forum

Tessarakt

Sankalp owns the brand & programme · Tessarakt runs three engines

Engine 1 — Breadth

Creator Hub

A verified creator marketplace. Brands post briefs, creators deliver, payments clear inside the platform. Replaces agency-managed social with raw, grounded content from real people.

Sankalp's always-on social + sponsor brand content

Engine 2 — Depth

Blend Crew

5-6 paid creators, three months full-time. They produce 200+ pieces of content, run the Content Corner at the summit, and their finale happens on stage at the convening.

Season-long content team + campus ambassadors

Engine 3 — Infrastructure

BlendHack

A hackathon platform for serious problem statements. Runs district qualifiers to state semi-finals. Feeds directly into the Sankalp Awards pipeline with 10,000+ registrations.

Discovery layer feeding Sankalp Awards

Runs Sankalp's social year-round

Builds the pre-summit content season

Surfaces founders for Awards & Deal Rooms

The Sankalp × Uttar Pradesh summit is where all three converge. Hub creators cover the event. The Crew has its finale on stage. BlendHack finalists pitch in front of capital. One summit, three year-round engines feeding into it.

03 — The Convening

Two Days in Lucknow

Sankalp's standard architecture — with an optional Day 0 of partner workshops and a Day 3 city immersion.

Day	Format	Programme
Day 0	Optional	Partner workshops and pre-summit roundtables. British Asian Trust, Aavishkaar, USAID, Gates programmes anchor Day 0.
Day 1	Plenary + Tracks	Opening plenary with government addresses. Five sector tracks. Sankalp Awards finalist showcase. Connect lunch + Deal Rooms. Connect Dinner.
Day 2	Awards + Capital	Tracks continue. Awards finals — capital on stage with Aavishkaar, SIDBI, UP Seed Fund, ANIC. Closing plenary with funding announcements.
Day 3	Optional	Sankalp Bharat Day. ODOP Marketplace opens to Lucknow citizens. Optional curated Awadhi music evening.

Standing Components

Each travels from edition to edition, inflected with UP-specific framing.

Five Sector Tracks

Climate, Agriculture, Financial Inclusion, Health, Gender & Livelihoods — each with a UP case study.

Sankalp Awards Bharat

Five categories. Application-driven, jury-reviewed. Finalists pitch Day 2. Capital commitments at closing plenary.

Deal Rooms

Closed-door, sector-themed, pre-matched investor conversations across both days.

Sankalp Connect

Curated lunches and dinners at Safed Baradari. Fifty covers, off-record, by invitation.

04 — The Experience

Where Lucknow Meets the Agenda

Delegates leave the lanyard at the door and stay out in the city.

Elegant dinner setting with warm lighting

Dawat-e-Awadh

Gharana cook curated by Blend. Galouti, kakori, sheermal, kulfi-faluda — the standing menu. Safed Baradari Connect Dinners get the formal expression.

Kathak & Sarod Interludes

Eight-minute palate-cleansers between sessions. Bhatkhande Music University performers.

Sankalp Bazaar

Forty stalls. Indie brands, micro-roasters, climate startups. Open to delegates and citizens alike.

Hazratganj Walking Trail

Eight curated stops — heritage cafe, gallery, bookshop. Each stop a themed networking salon.

Live music concert with atmospheric lighting

Sankalp After Hours

Headline music evening. Classical opener, contemporary headliner. 1,200 capacity. Bar and food trucks alongside.

Connect Dinners

Safed Baradari heritage hall. White-tablecloth. Off-record. Fifty covers, by invitation.

Bara Imambara

Opening + Closing Plenary

600 seated. Outdoor courtyard.

Safed Baradari

Connect Dinners

Heritage hall. 50 × 2 nights.

Hyatt Regency

Awards + Deal Rooms

200-cover. Closed-door.

La Martiniere

Tracks + Music Night

10-acre lawn. Five rooms.

IIM Lucknow

Day 0 Workshops

Campus venue. Hybrid.

Bhatkhande Music

Evening Programming

Classical & Kathak.

Mahotsav Ground

ODOP Marketplace

75 district stalls. Day 3.

Hazratganj

Walking Trail + Bazaar

Eight curated venues.

05 — Creator Hub for Sankalp

The Always-On Marketing Channel

Sankalp's social, sponsor-brand testing, vernacular and regional reach — all through one verified creator marketplace.

Sankalp's Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube move from monthly agency drops to a weekly cadence of briefs posted on Creator Hub. Verified creators apply, deliver, and get paid per project.

A small editorial board sets briefs aligned to the year's programme: founder spotlights, sector explainers, post-event recaps. Raw, authentic, on-camera-by-actual-young-people content.

Tier-2 and Tier-3 founders surface through cohort stories before they surface through pitch decks. The Hub is the discovery layer for the Awards funnel and the Knowledge Report.

Sankalp's Own Social

Weekly briefs — founder spotlights, sector explainers, recaps. Creators apply, deliver, get paid per project.

Sponsor Brand Testing Ground

Each anchor partner gets a six-month creator-content allocation. Fresh, audience-targeted creative.

Vernacular & Regional Reach

Hindi, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bundeli tracks. Farmer-creators, weaver-creators, artisan-creators from across districts.

Discovery Side-Effect

Founders surface through stories before pitch decks. The Hub feeds the Awards funnel and Knowledge Report.

06 — Blend Crew for Lucknow

The Deep Cohort

Five paid creators full-time for three months. Plus a campus ambassador network and a field layer that brings the districts in.

5-6

Creators per Crew

3 Mo

Full-time rotation

₹15K

Stipend / month

200+

Content pieces / cohort

Inner Ring

The Lucknow Crew

Strategist, designer, animator, on-camera talent. They own Founders of Awadh, ODOP Stories, On the Lucknow Yatra. Crew finale happens inside the summit.

Middle Ring

Campus Ambassadors

50-100 students across AKTU, IIM Lucknow, IIT-BHU, IIIT Allahabad. Drive applications, host screenings, lead campus delegations.

Outer Ring

The Field Layer

25-40 rural creators from Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Bundeli districts. Farmer-creators, weaver-creators, artisan-creators recruited through the Lucknow Yatra.

07 — BlendHack for Sankalp Awards

The Discovery Engine

A grassroots pipeline for SHGs, FPOs, women's collectives, and tier-2 founders who would never see the inside of a Bengaluru pitch event.

Step 01

District Qualifiers

Online hackathons across AKTU's 600 colleges, SHGs, FPOs

10K+

Registered ideas

Step 02

State Semi-Finals

Hybrid events filtering the strongest ventures from UP

Top 100

Awards cohort

Step 03

Pre-Summit Prep

Eight weeks at AKTU Innovation Hub with the Awards cohort

8 Wks

Incubation sprint

Step 04

Awards Finals

Top 10 pitch live. Aavishkaar, SIDBI, UP Seed Fund, ANIC

Top 10

Bharat shortlist

Beyond the Awards — Year-Round Asset

Once live under the Sankalp brand, BlendHack becomes a year-round discovery platform. Invest UP runs state hackathons. Multilaterals run climate challenges. Every run feeds back into the Sankalp Awards funnel.

08 — Always-On Content

Content That Outlasts the Summit

Six recurring IPs running year-round, all converging at the summit. Crew-produced, Hub-distributed.

Founders of Awadh

Long-form video portraits. Twelve UP-based impact founders profiled over the year. Featured in Awards and Connect dinners.

ODOP Stories

75 districts × 75 products as short-form reels. Each artisan anchors a stall in the ODOP Marketplace.

The Track Series

Five webinar formats, one per sector. Pre-summit previews, post-summit Knowledge Report chapters.

On the Yatra

Real-time creator content from the Lucknow Yatra across UP's key districts. Mobile-first, vernacular.

Sankalp Spotlights

Monthly portrait of one impact entrepreneur. Cross-published on LinkedIn and YouTube.

The Sankalp Salon

Quarterly hosted conversation in Lucknow with IIM-L, AKTU, or Aavishkaar. Ticketed and recorded.

The Operating Calendar

MoU to Knowledge Report in seven months

Jun 2026

MoU Signed

Campus Ambassador applications open. Editorial calendar published. Creator Hub social goes live.

Jul 2026

Crew Applications Open

Founders of Awadh IP launches. Sankalp Spotlights monthly series begins.

Aug 2026

Lucknow Crew Onboarded

Track Series webinars begin. BlendHack platform goes live. Pre-summit social ramps up.

Sep 2026

Lucknow Yatra Begins

On the Lucknow Yatra IP launches. ODOP Stories begin shipping. Field Layer creators activated.

Oct 2026

Full Distribution

District melas. BlendHack qualifiers. Sankalp Awards cohort selection.

8–10 Nov 2026

The Convening — Sankalp × Uttar Pradesh

Content Corner runs live. Blend Crew Finale on Day 2. BlendHack finalists pitch for capital.

Dec 2026

Year-1 Wraps

Knowledge Report published. Post-summit content runs through January. Year-2 recruitment opens.

09 — Market Expansion

Beyond Lucknow

A successful Lucknow flagship lets the same architecture run in MP and Odisha without rebuilding from scratch.

Nov 2026

Lucknow

The flagship. City-integrated. ~1,200 delegates. Heritage venues. Three engines converge.

Mar 2027

Bhopal / Ujjain

MP edition. Tribal arts + tech entrepreneurs. IIM-Indore as academic co-anchor.

Oct 2027

Bhubaneswar / Puri

Odisha edition. Crafts (Pattachitra, Pipili) + climate-resilient livelihoods. Coastal venues.

10 — The Roadmap & The Ask

Three-Year Arc

Pre-Diwali production for the Lucknow flagship. A scoped, co-branded partnership across all five layers.

Edition	City	What It Proves
Nov 2026	Lucknow	The flagship. City-integrated edition. ~1,200 delegates.
Mar 2027	Bhopal / Ujjain	MP edition. Tribal arts + tech. IIM-Indore co-anchor.
Oct 2027	Bhubaneswar / Puri	Odisha edition. Crafts + climate-resilient livelihoods.
2028	Three Cities	Three Bharat editions per year, rotating. International delegations begin.
From 2029	Four-City Circuit	Annual circuit with multi-city patron passes.

Co-Branded Partnership

Sankalp retains brand, editorial, investor curation. Tessarakt runs production, cohorts, discovery platform, and partner-adoption stack.

Skin in the Game

Tessarakt invests its own capital in the first edition. Revenue share on ticket sales, sponsorship, and content monetisation.

Pre-Diwali Timeline

MoU signed within 30 days. Crew by August. Lucknow Yatra Sep-Oct. Summit 8–10 November 2026.

If even one engine is right, the partnership is worth signing. If all three are right, Sankalp Forum becomes the brand that operates the way the next decade of impact actually needs it to — multi-city, year-round, capital-serious, regionally rooted.

— Tessarakt

May 2026

Confidential · Tessarakt 2026