Places · 22 July 2026 · 2 min read
How we chose 18 places in East and Northeast India
Every place on our map has a business theme and a reason to be there. These are the five questions we asked before adding one.
Vishwjeet Narayanan
Co-Founder
Our map has 18 places across Bihar, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. People ask why these and not the usual hill stations or beaches. This note explains how we chose them.
Five questions for every place
- Does it have a story that connects to building a company? Vaishali was home to one of the earliest republics, so it suits a retreat on shared decisions. Majuli loses land to the Brahmaputra every year and keeps rebuilding, so it suits a retreat on resilience.
- Is it quiet enough to think? We want places where the busywork falls away, not places where you sit in traffic or in a crowd.
- Are there local businesses worth learning from? Madhubani painters, Bhagalpur silk weavers, Koraput farmer cooperatives and Dooars tea estates all show how people build with far less than a city founder has.
- Can a group of 20–25 travel and stay there safely? Roads, stay, food, medical help and phone network all matter. Some places need an Inner Line Permit, and we plan for that.
- Is it a place most people have not been taken to? If it is already on every travel list, we probably do not need to bring founders there.
A theme for each place
Each place carries one theme for its retreat. A few examples from the map:
- Valmiki Nagar, Bihar: reset and solitude
- Mithila (Darbhanga–Madhubani), Bihar: craft, brand and the creator economy
- Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh: systems and sustainability
- Khonoma, Nagaland: community and collective action
- Koraput, Odisha: cooperatives and agri-value
- Jamshedpur–Dalma, Jharkhand: building institutions
The theme shapes the field visit, the evening conversation and the questions in the sessions. The 90-day plan stays the same everywhere.
One place at a time
We will not open all 18 at once. We run one place, learn from it, and then open the next. Before any place opens, we visit it ourselves and check the stay, the roads, the food and the network.
Valmiki Nagar is first. You can see all the places and their themes on the retreats page.
Come to the first retreat.
Valmiki Nagar, last week of November 2026. 20–25 founders. Join the waitlist and we'll tell you first.