Meet Pune-based Janhavi Joshi and Nupura Kirloskar who not only turned a college assignment into a startup idea but also managed to raise Rs. 70 lakh in funding. What got them thinking was a performance by deaf dancers who followed visual cues from a teacher. “We wondered how there could be dance without music,” Janhavi Joshi says.

   The two classically trained artistes set about exploring ways in which hearing-impaired dancers could sense music with an aid. They began working on a way to convert sound to vibration, and created Blee Watch, which vibrates to alert the user to a sound. It has four main features, listen, talk, dance and help, but users can also record a baby’s cry or a dog’s bark as independent sounds with their own vibrations. The two friends entered a series of competitions to raise funds from Tata Trust, NASSCOM among others.

Introduction

   Imagine yourself not being able to....