Written for founders raising their first or second round in India. Specific where specifics exist, and clear about the parts that are judgement calls.
Ten steps from an idea to money in the bank, in the order they actually happen. Open a step for what it has to prove.
Validate the idea
Find ten people with the problem who will talk to you, and one who will pay before you have built anything. Validation is evidence of demand, not agreement that the idea sounds good.
Build an MVP
The smallest thing that lets someone get the outcome they wanted. Scope it to what you can put in front of a user in weeks, not quarters — the point is to learn what you were wrong about.
Get initial traction
Usage that repeats without you pushing it. Retention, revenue and referral are the three that survive scrutiny; downloads, signups and waitlist size do not.
Read guidePrepare your financials
Know your burn, your runway, your unit economics and your cap table to the rupee. You will be asked all four in the first meeting.
Read guideBuild the pitch deck
Ten to twelve slides that make the argument in order: problem, insight, product, evidence, market, plan, team, ask.
Read guideIdentify the right investors
Stage, sector and cheque size have to match before anything else matters. A brilliant pitch to a fund that does not write your cheque is a wasted month.
Read guideStart outreach
Warm introductions convert several times better than cold email. Build the list, find the paths, and run the process in parallel rather than one fund at a time.
Read guideRun due diligence
Diligence is a document exercise you can be ready for months early. Being ready is itself a signal.
Read guideNegotiate the terms
Valuation is the number founders watch and rarely the term that costs them most. Read the preference, the pool and the control rights first.
Read guideClose the round
Signed documents, money received, filings made. In India that includes the Companies Act paperwork and, for a foreign investor, the FEMA reporting — none of which is optional.
Read guideTen to twelve slides, in the order that makes the argument. What each one has to prove, and the three that decide whether the rest get read.
7 min readStep 04Size the round to the milestone, not to the market. How runway, burn and the next round's bar decide the number.
6 min readStep 06What each stage is actually buying, what has to be true to raise it, and the cheque sizes these labels tend to mean in India.
6 min readStep 07Warm paths, the first email, and what an angel is actually deciding in the twenty minutes they give you.
6 min readStep 06Building a target list that matches on stage, sector and cheque size — and the three filters that remove most of it.
6 min readStep 03The four things being assessed underneath every question, and the metrics that survive scrutiny.
6 min readStep 09Where an early-stage number actually comes from, why pre- and post-money is not a detail, and the terms that cost more than the price.
7 min readStep 08What gets checked, what usually goes wrong, and why being ready is itself a signal.
6 min readStep 10The ten that cost the most time, most of which are process errors rather than pitch errors.
6 min readStep 08The folder structure, what belongs in each, and what to keep out until diligence is signed.
5 min read