Independence Day Breakfast Meet in Dehradun: Where Freedom Met Founders

15 August 2026 | Address One, Malsi

The Independence Day Breakfast Meet in Dehradun began the way the day is meant to begin — under the tricolour. Founders from across the Unhu community gathered at Address One, Malsi, on the morning of 15 August for the flag hoisting, stood together for the Jana Gana Mana, and marked the moment the old-fashioned way: sweets passed around, wishes exchanged, no agenda beyond being present.

It was a simple start, and that was the point. Before the sessions and the strategy, there was a room full of people who had chosen to spend a national holiday with each other.

From the flag to the breakfast table

The group moved on to T'qila, where the morning settled into something slower. Introductions went around the table. Founders spoke about what they were building, what was working, what was not — and, eventually, about the things that have nothing to do with business at all.

Some of the most useful conversations in a founder's month happen exactly like this: good food on the table, nobody watching the clock, no pitch deck in sight.

The session: can your Instagram explain you in five seconds?

The community then headed to the Unhu Startup Emporium for a curated session led by Kshitij Doval, founder of Unhu.

This was not another talk about posting consistently. The question Kshitij put to the room was sharper: when someone lands on your Instagram profile, do they immediately understand who you are, what you do, and why they should remember you?

To answer it, he went through founders' profiles one by one, live, showing where attention was being lost and how small structural changes could make a brand easier to discover and harder to forget.

One example came from Monika Sharma of Mona's Kitchen. Her username was reworked to Mona's Biryani — biryani being the dish the kitchen is best known for — on a straightforward premise: if someone is searching for biryani, the brand should turn up. Her bio was rewritten alongside it, so that what separates Mona's Biryani from everything else in the category is clear within a single line.

From there, the session went deeper into four areas:

Instagram Highlights — treating them as a proof section rather than an afterthought. Behind-the-scenes footage, customer reviews, product ranges: the material that builds trust before a single message is exchanged.

Content Pillars — moving away from repetitive, AI-generated posts towards content that carries a human signature. Cooking videos, ASMR, unpolished behind-the-scenes moments, the actual story of how the brand came to exist.

Pinned Reels — using the top three slots deliberately, placing the content that best represents the brand and has already earned engagement where every new visitor will see it first.

The Sales Funnel — understanding how content carries someone through the full distance: from discovering a brand, to remembering it, to trusting it, to buying from it.

Nobody left with only theory

Every founder in the room had their profile reviewed. Observations were shared openly, and each person walked out with a specific list of changes to make on their own account.

The assignment attached to it was equally specific: make the changes, then tag Kshitij on Instagram. A public, low-friction way of finding out who executes and who does not.

That distinction matters here. In this community, ideas are common currency — action is the thing worth celebrating.

And then, the celebration

With the audits done, the morning loosened up again. Photographs were taken, the brands on display at the Emporium were explored properly, and the group spent the rest of the time doing what the day had been for all along: laughing, catching up, enjoying being in the same room.

Independence Day has always been about freedom, possibility, and building the future you believe in. For entrepreneurs, that spirit takes a particular shape — the freedom to build something of your own, the courage to start, the willingness to keep learning, and the responsibility to turn ideas into action.

This Independence Day, the Unhu community celebrated exactly that. A morning of flags, food, founders, learning, action, and a whole lot of community. 🇮🇳

~Editor Shobhit Mehandiratta