India, Feb. 21 -- Why would anyone want to set up a communication platform much like the ubiquitous Facebook? However, as Al Reis, the marketing guru, has long argued, success does not always come from being first; it comes from being different. And that is what Bhanupratap Tanwar and Harshvardhan Chhangani, both from IIT Kanpur, set out to do in 2019. Their online platform, Frnd, is designed to help people connect, but it is built on a completely different premise.

Says Bhaupratap, "I come from Kota, where the social structure is very different from big cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru or Delhi. In such small towns, the internet came in 2015, and people are still not very free to express themselves while using it.

"Most conversations happ...