Gold Life Solutions

Sharad Ashani is Season 1's oldest and most career-deferred founder — a 66-year-old Mumbai-based engineer who spent over three decades in corporate careers before retirement, was moved to action by the 2004 death by suicide of model Nafisa Joseph, spent years researching the NCRB data on hanging-related suicides in India, won a ₹4 lakh Mahindra Spark The Rise grant in 2011 for his anti-suicide rod prototype, saved that grant without launching immediately, formally retired in 2017, and then dedicated his post-retirement years to manufacturing and distributing the device that had been waiting in his head for over a decade. Sharad Ashani is not your typical entrepreneur. The 66-year-old Mumbai-based founder of Safe Solutions had an over three decade-long career behind him before he decided to start up. Except, he was looking to make a difference after his retirement in 2017. Shocked by the number of suicides by hanging in India.

Gold Life's Smart Fan Rod is a patented, retrofittable ceiling fan down-rod safety device — a specially designed pipe that replaces the standard ceiling fan down-rod, looks identical to a conventional rod, uses a proprietary internal spring mechanism that releases the fan from its mounting when a load exceeding 22 kilograms is applied — preventing hanging suicides by ensuring that the fan physically cannot support the weight required for such an attempt, without any visible modification to the fan's appearance or functionality during normal use.