Learn Business
by Building a
Real Business.

Future MBAs: Aspire to pursue an MBA — with proof, not promises. Aspiring founders: Aspire to become entrepreneurs, before you graduate. Management track: Explore careers in business and management. Hands-on learners: Want practical experience beyond the classroom. Resume builders: Want a stronger resume through real execution.

Many learn business. Almost no one practises it. In the age of AI, practical skills matter more than ever — whether your goal is MBA admissions, entrepreneurship, management careers, or business leadership, the ability to demonstrate execution now beats simply demonstrating knowledge.

Real experience: Feel what it takes to launch and operate a business. Proof-of-work: Graduate with tangible evidence of execution. Verifiable certificates: Showcase achievements with online verifiable certs. A standout resume: Few can show they’ve actually practised business. Learn. Have fun. Earn: Experience business through action while competing with students from your campus.

You walk away with: ✓ Verifiable certificates ✓ Proof-of-work portfolio ✓ A decision log ✓ A live project report ✓ Business execution experience ✓ Revenue generation experience ✓ A stronger resume.

Yes — and that’s by design. You’ll graduate with a verifiable certificate, a live store as proof-of-work, a 3-page Decision Log documenting your real business decisions, and a personalised project report.

Together, these give you something most resumes lack: tangible evidence you’ve actually built and run something, not just studied it.

This kind of execution-based proof is exactly what recruiters and B-school admissions increasingly look for — the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs research ranks execution and ownership far above theoretical knowledge as a hireable skill.

If you’re applying for an MBA or a business-track internship, having a real venture to talk about in interviews is a meaningfully different story than online certificate courses alone or any random live projects.

Unlike simulations, you build and run a real D2C merchandise business with real customers and real money. The experience, consequences, and outcomes are genuine.

Because merch is the perfect training ground. It acts as a blank canvas where you can build a store around literally any niche, fandom, identity, or interest relevant across the world. The product itself (t-shirts, hoodies, mugs) is simple and universally understood, so you can skip months of product development and go straight to the part that actually teaches you business: understanding your customer, positioning, pricing, and marketing.

GogoPogo (the platform behind your store) handles the printing, fulfilment, and shipping — so you focus entirely on the business decisions that matter.

Nothing bad happens — that’s part of the learning. A store that doesn’t sell teaches you just as much as one that does: about positioning, pricing, or audience targeting.

The Challenge is structured so you can complete meaningful milestones (like the Build milestone) even before you hit your first sale, and you’ll have guided support to help you troubleshoot if customers aren’t converting.

This is exactly the kind of “real consequence, low stakes” environment GP Labs is designed to be — you get to fail safely and learn from it, long before your career or real capital is on the line. Moreover, the initiatives and attempts you make are recorded in your decision log.

A few focused hours per week is sufficient to move through the milestones alongside your existing schedule. Alternatively, one can complete all the milestones within a few hours in binge mode.

You can receive a 3-star certificate after completing the 3rd milestone — Build. However, it is recommended that you complete at least the 4th milestone to experience the full cycle of learning, application, execution, and market validation.

The 5th milestone is the most difficult one in the entire challenge, and can be pursued for a healthy campus ranking, stronger portfolio and a better position during interviews.

Head to labs.gogopogo.app and fill out the registration form with your name, email, phone number, college, and program of interest (UG, PG/MBA, or Professional). You can register individually or as a two-member team.

If you have a discount coupon from a campus coordinator, apply it at checkout for subsidised pricing. Currently, as of July 2026, the discount coupon is open only for UG participants.

Team mode lets two of you build and run one store together as co-founders. Both team members register individually (so you each get your own certificate and dashboard access), but you share one store, one set of milestones, and one breakeven goal — which is set higher for teams than for individuals, since you’re splitting the work and the decision-making between two people.

How you divide responsibilities — who handles design, who handles marketing — is entirely up to you, much like real co-founders would decide. It’s a good option if you want the experience of building something with a partner rather than solo.

The registration fee covers your full challenge access, the learning dashboard, guided resources, and 2 years of GogoPogo platform access. You won’t be charged extra fees by GP Labs or GogoPogo to run your store.

The one thing genuinely up to you is whether you choose to spend on marketing — for example, running paid ads to drive traffic to your store. This is entirely optional and we recommend not to go for it throughout the challenge. This is because many participants get their first sales through organic reach (friends, classmates, social media audience) without spending anything extra, and the Challenge is designed to work either way.

GP Labs is a practical business lab where students learn business by actually building and operating real businesses — using GogoPogo’s merchandise-based commerce platform as the vehicle.

Think of it as the space between “just an idea on paper” and “launching a full business with real risk” — practical enough to feel real, safe enough to experiment in.

GP Labs is an initiative by GogoPogo, which has been incubated at Assam Startup, the IIM Shillong Foundation for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and STPI.

GP Labs runs on a simple framework: Learn → Apply → Build → Score.

You first learn core business concepts, then apply them to plan and strategise your own venture, then build a real, live store, and finally score real-world outcomes — your first revenue and eventually breakeven. Every step is guided, structured, and designed to convert your learnings into result focussed execution.

Because reading about business and doing business are two completely different skills. Research consistently shows that real understanding comes from active practice, not passive content — the same way you can’t learn to swim, cook, or drive from a video alone. Moreover, this has more relevance in today’s AI era.

GP Labs is built on this principle based on Edgar Cole’s research: students remember and apply what they actually do, far more than what they only read or hear.

GP Labs is an initiative from GogoPogo and is designed by IIT, IIM & ISB alumni.

Powered by GogoPogo, which is a social commerce enabler that helps creative entrepreneurs launch a fully functional online merch brand without purchasing stock or handling operations, and is incubated at Assam Startup, IIM Shillong Foundation for Incubation and Enterprises (IIMSFIE) & Software Technology Parks of India — CoE.

Unlike online business courses, simulations or case studies, you build and run a real D2C merchandise business with real customers and real money. The experience, consequences, and outcomes are genuine. Consider this as parallel to driving an actual car during a driving course, instead of theory classes and simulations.

GogoPogo is a social commerce enabler that helps creative entrepreneurs launch a fully functional online merch brand without purchasing stock or handling operations. It takes care of 12 of the 14 steps required to launch a Merchandise business, so that the store owner can focus on the 2 most high impact responsibilities — firstly, arranging designs that resonate with their target audience, and secondly, promoting their online store.

No. You don’t have to store products, manage inventory, or pack anything. GogoPogo and its fulfillment partners handle production, packaging, and delivery to your customers’ doorsteps. You just focus on creating and promoting your designs.

GogoPogo and its fulfillment partners handle printing, packaging, and shipping directly to your customers. Customers receive time to time order updates on every crucial order journey milestone — order confirmation, processing, dispatch (along with courier tracking details), out for delivery etc.

All transactions on GogoPogo are processed through trusted and encrypted payment gateways. We do not store sensitive payment details, ensuring your information stays safe.

We only accept returns or replacements for products that are damaged, misprinted, or defective. Since each product is custom-made after an order is placed, we cannot accept returns for size changes or buyer’s remorse. If an item arrives damaged, customers should contact our support team within 48 hours of delivery.

Yes, your business is yours to keep. Continue growing it as a side hustle or full-fledged venture. Alternatively, you can discontinue too. No long-term obligations or strings attached.