Sayantan Mukherjee, founder of The Innovators’ Garage, began his career as a design engineer in the R&D division of a leading Indian automotive company. Passionate about engineering, he worked on creating technically robust products for off-road vehicles. However, he often found himself curious about the seemingly ‘absurd’ customer requirements shared by the customer-facing teams for designing future vehicles. Realizing the need to understand the thought process behind these requirements, he decided to pursue an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from one of India’s top business schools. This experience shaped his understanding of business and emphasized the importance of designing solutions for the right customer.

He went on to co-found a startup focused on senior citizens and successfully raised initial funding for it. However, after two years, the venture could not sustain. Sayantan returned to his previous organization and took on the role of Innovation Lead, where he helped various business verticals design valuable products and achieve profitability.

After nearly nine years, he decided to leave his corporate role to follow his passion for teaching the process of innovation in product development to students and professionals across the country. He founded The Innovators’ Garage, aligning it with his Ikigai—to help people create impactful and valuable products by sharing his knowledge and expertise in innovation, gained through hands-on experience. Sayantan’s vision is to build a community of innovators who strive to make meaningful innovations happen.