Paramendo

From Vision to Ex*****on: Redefining Waste Management at the Startup Entrepreneurship Symposium 2026

The Startup Entrepreneurship Symposium 2026 was a transformative experience that pushed us beyond conceptualization into high-speed ex*****on. Organized by Lalitpur Metropolitan City in collaboration with Gyeongsang National University (GNU), the program challenged us to integrate Gemini AI Pro into our core development process.

Rather than focusing on theory, we spent two intensive days utilizing AI to stress-test our assumptions, simulate complex user personas, and map out friction points across the customer journey. This hands-on approach allowed us to refine our problem statements and build a concrete 90-day ex*****on roadmap for our MVP with unprecedented speed.

The Pitch: Introducing पुन्ह (Punah)
We were proud to present our solution, Punah, during the final pitch session of the symposium in Lalitpur. Punah is a decentralized waste management and recycling model designed to transform schools from "waste generators" into Micro-Manufacturers.
How it works:

Bridging the Gap: While students learn the "3 Rs" in theory, the reality is often permanent litter in landfills or rivers. Punah addresses this by processing low-value plastics like noodle wrappers on-site.

The Journey: We take plastic waste (LDPE/PP), shred it into flakes, and use rental molds to inject it into new products like high-quality math rulers and stationery.

Hardware-as-a-Service: To remove financial barriers, schools rent the high-cost machinery only when enough raw material is collected—renting the capability, not the liability.

The Internal Economy: This creates a circular loop where student waste becomes a tool, reducing procurement costs for school administrations and providing real-world education in circular economics.

A special thank you to the organizers at Lalitpur Metropolitan City, the professors from GNU, and the jury members for their invaluable feedback as we move Punah toward its next phase of impact.