By Daily Touch Insights Editorial Team
Editorial Team
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BUSINESS & EDUCATION — Skyroot Aerospace CEO Pawan Chandana is encouraging Gen Z and Gen Alpha to rethink the traditional path from school to university to employment.
His message is direct: young people should be willing to take meaningful risks, start building companies while they are still in school and focus on solving difficult problems rather than waiting until they have collected every traditional qualification.
But there is an important detail behind the headline. Chandana is not simply arguing that education is useless. His own career includes engineering degrees from IIT Kharagpur and years of experience at the Indian Space Research Organisation before he founded Skyroot.
Chandana Wants Young People to Start Earlier
In a recent interview, Chandana urged students to consider building companies even while they are still in school.
He suggested that students around Class 10 or 11 can begin experimenting with technology, building products and tackling problems instead of waiting until graduation before trying to create something of their own.
The idea is simple: experience comes from doing.
A student who spends years building projects may learn things that cannot easily be gained from textbooks alone.
His Message on Degrees Is More Complicated
Chandana has argued that traditional degrees are becoming less important in an innovation-driven economy, particularly as artificial intelligence changes how people learn and work. 3
But saying “degrees don't matter” without context would be misleading.
Chandana himself studied Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, earning both bachelor's and master's qualifications, before spending about six years working at ISRO.
His own story therefore suggests a more useful lesson:
A degree can be valuable, but a degree alone is not enough.
For highly technical fields such as aerospace, medicine and some areas of engineering, formal education can provide essential foundations.
The advantage comes when education is combined with practical work.
He Learned by Building at ISRO
Before becoming an entrepreneur, Chandana worked at ISRO and gained experience in rocket development.
His experience included work connected with India's launch-vehicle programme, including the GSLV Mk III. 5
That experience became part of the technical foundation on which he later built Skyroot.
This makes his advice particularly interesting for students.
He is not presenting entrepreneurship as a substitute for learning. He is arguing for learning through real-world creation alongside formal education.
Skyroot Started With a High-Risk Decision
Chandana and co-founder Naga Bharath Daka left established careers to create Skyroot Aerospace in 2018.
At the time, India's private space industry was far less developed than it is today, and the country's policy environment for private space companies was still emerging.
Leaving secure technical careers to build rockets was therefore a substantial risk.
But the founders believed there was a larger opportunity in India's space economy.
Skyroot Has Now Shown What That Risk Can Produce
In July 2026, Skyroot's Vikram-1 successfully reached orbit, becoming India's first privately developed orbital rocket to do so.
The achievement transformed Skyroot from an ambitious startup into one of the most closely watched companies in India's emerging private space sector.
Skyroot has also become India's first space-tech unicorn, with a valuation of more than $1 billion following a $60 million funding round in May 2026.
But Taking Risks Does Not Mean Taking Stupid Risks
This is where young entrepreneurs should be careful with the message.
“Take high risks” should not mean borrowing money you cannot repay, abandoning school without a plan or investing everything into an idea that has never been tested.
The useful version of risk-taking is different.
Start small. Build something. Test it. Get feedback. Learn what is wrong. Improve it. Then increase the commitment when the evidence becomes stronger.
Real entrepreneurship is not gambling. It is calculated uncertainty.
Why Starting While in School Can Be Powerful
Students often have one advantage that older entrepreneurs may not have: time to experiment.
A student can build a website, launch an app, sell a product, create a YouTube channel, learn programming or develop a small technology project without immediately needing to turn it into a massive company.
Some projects will fail.
That is acceptable.
The objective is to build skills before the stakes become much higher.
AI Is Making Experimentation Easier
Chandana's comments arrive at a time when artificial intelligence is dramatically lowering the cost of experimentation.
Students can now use AI tools to research ideas, write software, design interfaces, analyse information and create prototypes much faster than before.
That does not mean AI can replace expertise.
It means the distance between having an idea and testing it is becoming smaller.
Deep Tech Is the Bigger Opportunity
Chandana has particularly encouraged young people to consider difficult technical problems rather than focusing only on easy-to-copy consumer businesses.
Areas such as aerospace, robotics, energy, advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence can take years of work, but they can also create companies with significant technological advantages.
The barrier to entry is higher.
So is the potential impact.
Skyroot Is Building Beyond One Rocket
Following Vikram-1's success, Skyroot is focused on increasing launch frequency and developing larger vehicles, including the Vikram-2 rocket, which is intended to carry nearly one tonne to orbit. The company is also exploring reusable launch technology. 10
This is important because one successful launch does not make a sustainable space business.
The difficult challenge is building launch systems that can operate repeatedly, reliably and economically.
The Real Test Comes After the First Success
Vikram-1's successful orbital mission was historic, but the next phase may be harder.
Space companies must turn technological achievements into repeatable operations.
That requires manufacturing, supply chains, testing, financing, customers and a reliable launch schedule.
In other words, building the first successful rocket is only one part of building a space company.
Students Should Not Misunderstand the Message
The biggest mistake would be to read Chandana's comments as “school does not matter.”
That is too simplistic.
A better interpretation is that education should not become an excuse for postponing action indefinitely.
A student can study mathematics while building an app.
A student can study engineering while experimenting with hardware.
A student can study business while testing a small product.
The two paths can reinforce each other.
Build Before You Feel Ready
Many aspiring entrepreneurs wait for the perfect moment.
They want more money, more knowledge, more confidence or another qualification.
Sometimes those things are genuinely necessary.
But sometimes waiting simply becomes a form of procrastination.
Building something small can reveal what knowledge you actually need.
What Young Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Skyroot
- Start early: Do not assume entrepreneurship has to wait until graduation.
- Choose difficult problems: Large opportunities often hide behind difficult technical challenges.
- Learn by building: Projects turn theoretical knowledge into practical ability.
- Take calculated risks: Risk should be measured, not reckless.
- Expect failure: Early experiments are supposed to expose weaknesses.
- Build a strong team: Complex companies cannot be built by one person alone.
- Keep learning: Starting a company does not remove the need for education.
Our Perspective
Chandana's strongest message is not really about degrees.
It is about action.
A qualification can open doors, but it cannot prove that someone can build a product, solve a difficult problem or lead a team.
At the same time, rejecting education simply because successful entrepreneurs sometimes did so would be equally foolish.
Chandana's own career demonstrates why.
He combined formal engineering education, experience at ISRO and years of technical work with the willingness to leave a secure career and build something uncertain.
That combination—knowledge plus execution plus calculated risk—is far more useful than either “degrees are everything” or “degrees are useless.”
Conclusion
Skyroot Aerospace CEO Pawan Chandana is encouraging young people to start building companies earlier, take meaningful risks and focus on solving major problems rather than waiting for a perfect career path.
His advice is especially notable because Skyroot itself was born from a risky decision by two former ISRO engineers to leave established careers and enter India's then-emerging private space industry.
Today, after Vikram-1 successfully reached orbit, the company has become a major example of India's growing private space sector.
For students, however, the lesson should not be to abandon education.
The better lesson is to stop waiting for education to end before starting to build.
Reporting note: This article is based on recent interviews and reporting on Pawan Chandana's advice to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, alongside reporting on Skyroot Aerospace's development and Vikram-1 orbital mission.
