A ‘Cinematic Start’: Sugavignesh and Trovo at Bower

At 20, most students are still figuring out what they want to become. Sugavignesh VS has already abandoned three futures.

First, he was supposed to become a doctor. Then a pilot. Then perhaps a conventional business graduate joining the family enterprise. Instead, somewhere between failed plans, airport dreams, fintech ideas, barefoot footwear research, and a random conversation on campus, he ended up building Trovo — a footwear venture now experimenting in the emerging barefoot sneaker segment and already earning him recognition in the March 2026 edition of Asia Inc. 500.

What makes Sugavignesh’s story remarkable is not just that he is building a company while still pursuing his undergraduate degree at Bower. It is the unusual way the business itself has evolved — through conversations in classrooms, late-night brainstorming sessions, chance meetings on campus, peers turning into collaborators, and an ecosystem where learning often happens outside formal lectures.

“I always knew I’m going to win,” he says matter-of-factly. “I was never scared of changing paths. I was only thinking about what made sense.”

The Making of an Entrepreneur

Sugavignesh grew up in Tamil Nadu in a family already familiar with entrepreneurship. His father ran ventures in the fintech space, and from an early age, business discussions were part of everyday life.

But the first plan for him was medicine.

“My parents wanted me to become a doctor,” he recalls. “I was in integrated NEET coaching from sixth grade till twelfth.”

After scoring 530 in NEET in 2023, he had the option of pursuing a private medical seat. He refused.

“I told my father this investment won’t give me ROI,” he says, laughing. “He was ready to pay for the seat. I said no.”

The next dream was aviation. He cleared examinations, secured a student pilot license, and nearly began training for it before visa complications and medical concerns interrupted the plan.

“A doctor told me my eye cornea would become a problem later for piloting,” he says. “Again, investing close to one crore into training stopped making sense.”

By the time he returned home, many of his school friends had already entered IITs, NITs, and established universities. Sugavignesh, meanwhile, was again searching for direction.

His father then prompted him to join his family business but Sugavignesh’s heart wanted something bigger: “I wanted to build something myself, maybe an NBFC or something around credit systems.”

He began validating ideas through industry conversations and eventually discussed one of them with a senior banking professional connected through his father’s network. The feedback, while encouraging, was also realistic.

“He told me fintech is a heavily regulated space and very difficult to enter at a young age without scale, experience, or deep operational understanding,” Sugavignesh recalls. 

That conversation forced him to reassess where he could realistically begin building.

“There was a point where I thought that doctor didn’t happen, pilot didn’t happen, fintech didn’t happen. What exactly am I an expert in?”

The answer, unexpectedly, came through Bower.

Why Bower Felt Different

Before joining Bower, Sugavignesh explored several newer-age business schools across India, including stints visiting campuses and interacting with students elsewhere. But something about Bower’s smaller cohort model and entrepreneurial culture stood out immediately.

“At one place, 250 students were fighting for the same opportunities, at the other, there were 100,” he says. “At Bower, there were around 30 people. I felt I could actually build here.”

What convinced him further was not infrastructure or branding, but Bower founder Pavan Allena’s journey.

“When I talked to the founders of other new-age bschools, I realised most of them were coming from cushioned backgrounds and prior knowledge of the industry. For them, building something in this space was not a big deal. But with Pavan, it was different. He already had a failed venture and a massively successful one before Bower happened. If you look at someone who has already failed, rebuilt, and seen entrepreneurship closely, the conversations are very different,” he says. “That was important for me.”

Within months of arriving on campus, Sugavignesh found himself surrounded by peers who were not just classmates, but collaborators, sounding boards, and early contributors to his venture.

“I was the only Tamil student initially,” he says. “But over time, the cohort became like a very unique ecosystem. Everyone is different. Everyone brings something.”

That ecosystem would become central to Trovo’s story.

Building Trovo, One Conversation at a Time

Even after joining Bower, Sugavignesh was still struggling to land the perfect idea. Trovo began in October 2025 with a simple observation: India had very few homegrown sneaker brands with a strong identity.

“International brands dominate the market,” Sugavignesh explains. “But there weren’t many Indian sneaker brands people could emotionally connect with.”

Initially, he explored traditional sneaker designs before realising that aesthetics alone would not differentiate the company.

“If you’re building in the premium segment, people don’t just buy shoes,” he says. “They buy the story.”

The search for that story eventually pushed the brand toward barefoot footwear — a segment focused on natural foot movement, flexibility, lightweight construction, and long-term foot wellness.

By December 2025, he had already developed his prototypes. By April 2026, improved next-generation prototypes followed, with refinements in comfort, material quality, and functional performance.

But what stands out most is how heavily the venture was shaped by Bower’s peer-driven culture.

One of his classmates, Sunay, initially approached him, simply wanting to help with research.

“He submitted a 70-page research document,” Sugavignesh says. “That’s when I realised this could become something serious.”

Sunay eventually joined as an intern. Another collaborator, from the Bower network of students, came onboard to support marketing. A senior student from LEAD Venture Building Cohort, Abhiram Sadineni, with prior experience in the sneaker business, became an informal mentor, helping Sugavignesh understand supply chains and market positioning.

“We would just sit and brainstorm for hours,” he says. “Me and Sunay would read articles, magazines, research reports — anything we could find.”

The learning was rarely linear. At one point, the team launched a fast-moving experimental vertical called FlashMarket to better understand digital commerce, pricing psychology, and online customer acquisition.

The experiment generated nearly ₹25,000 in revenue before being shut down due to operational losses.

But for Sugavignesh, the failure became a classroom of its own.

“We learned how to run Meta campaigns, build websites, work with influencers, integrate payments — everything,” he says. “We lost money, but we gained experience.”

The Magazine Feature That Started With a Random Walk-In

In January 2026, during a campus holiday, Sugavignesh casually walked into Bower’s WeWork space simply because he did not want to spend the day in his room.

That decision unexpectedly led to one of the biggest milestones in his journey.

The office floor was nearly empty except for a few people, including Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi, associated with Asia Inc. 500. A conversation about spirituality, entrepreneurship, and footwear followed.

Days later, Sugavignesh received a message asking him to send material for a possible feature.

“I had never written a magazine story in my life,” he says.

Once again, the Bower ecosystem stepped in. A fellow student, Keerthi, sat with him at a café to help shape the narrative before they submitted it together.

By March 2026, Sugavignesh and Trovo were featured in the magazine.

“No one in my school or family had ever been featured in a magazine before,” he says. “If you told the version of me from a year ago that this would happen, he would never believe it.”

“My First Year Has Been Cinematic”

When asked to describe his first year at Bower, Sugavignesh answers instantly with one word: “Cinematic.”

And perhaps that is the most accurate way to describe the past year of his life.

A teenager from Tamil Nadu who once felt stuck between unfinished ambitions is now signing documents as the managing director of his own startup, building prototypes with international manufacturing partners, attending investor meetings, assembling a team, and getting featured in a business magazine — all before completing his first undergraduate year.

“Who thought this 19-year-old guy from Tamil Nadu would come to Hyderabad, build a company, have his own team, and get featured in a magazine?” he says. “If you told me this one year ago, I would have laughed.”

Looking Ahead

Trovo’s next phase involves refining its barefoot footwear line, strengthening design IP, building pilot manufacturing systems, and expanding research into functional footwear innovation.

Long term, Sugavignesh sees himself eventually moving into venture capital or investment banking, combining operational experience with investing.

But for now, his focus remains singular: building.

“By the time I graduate, I’ll be fully working in my company,” he says. “There’s still a lot more to do.”

There is a contradiction that best defines Sugavignesh. He is intensely ambitious, yet unusually relaxed about uncertainty. He speaks casually about setbacks that would discourage most people his age, and treats failed experiments almost as necessary checkpoints rather than losses.

In just one year, a student who once felt directionless after abandoning medicine and aviation has built prototypes, assembled a team, experimented with revenue models, entered the niche footwear innovation space, and earned national recognition — all while still figuring things out in real time.