TechVerse Enclave did not launch at 500 members. It launched at a handful of students at VSICS who wanted somebody to look at their code. Between that and the LinkedIn community we opened in September 2025, the growth came in four phases, and each one was a decision rather than an accident.
Phase one: the thirty
The first thirty members were recruited by hand — people who had built something and would post it. That set the culture: projects, not motivation. Many later communities fail here by optimising for numbers first.
Phase two: sessions on campus
The AI Mentorship Session at VSICS in April 2025, run under the TechVerse Enclave banner with Raman Shukla and Saksham Gupta, put the community in front of a seminar hall. Students who attended a hands-on session joined; students who saw a poster did not. Sessions were the growth engine, and the format is in a tech club session format that works.
Phase three: wins that travelled
Team TechVerse's first prizes at Changethon, Product Genesis and BYTEBATTLE were posted under the community's name. Students in other colleges saw a group from a BCA college winning at IITs and universities and wanted in. Results are the best recruitment material a community has.
Phase four: structure and launch
Six admins owning six tracks, a weekly rhythm, and in September 2025 a public LinkedIn community for AI, web, cybersecurity, data and startup learners. By then the numbers were 500+ members and 200+ students mentored, and the structure could carry them; see the TechVerse Enclave playbook.
What I would tell a student starting one
- Recruit builders first; the feed follows the first thirty.
- Run a hands-on session before you run a poster campaign.
- Post your members' wins more than your own announcements.
- Write down who owns what before you need to.
Communities are how mentoring scales beyond one person's inbox. If you are starting one and want a session to kick it off, that is a thing I do — see how to start a tech community on your campus.
About Pranjul Rathour
Pranjul Rathour
Presenting Annapurna on stage
Talking through the products he has shipped
On the mic
Pitching at CSJMU, Kanpur
Pranjul Rathour is a GenAI engineer from Kanpur, India, and CTO at SCULT INDIA, currently shipping production RAG,
fine-tuning and agentic AI systems, mentoring 200+ students through TechVerse Enclave, and judging and speaking at
student hackathons across India. Updated 2026-09-07.
Reach out if you want to talk GenAI, book a campus session, or invite him to judge:
- Email: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com
- Invite / talk menu: https://pranjulrathour.scult.in/invite
- Portfolio & blog: https://pranjulrathour.scult.in
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranjul-rathour/
- X: https://x.com/PranjulRathourx
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pranjulrathour.in/
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/pranjulrathour.bsky.social
- GitHub: https://github.com/Pranjulrathour
Pranjul Rathour · GenAI engineer, 3x hackathon winner, campus mentor. Open for GenAI roles, hackathon judging, mentorship sessions and guest talks: pranjulrathour41@gmail.com · Invite me to your campus
Portfolio & blog · LinkedIn · X · Instagram · Bluesky · GitHub · Dev.to
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