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Can someone explain their fund raising journey

Founder

Can someone explain their fund raising journey- Grapevine

Can someone here share first hand experience as an founder or as a core member, the experience they had when they approached a venture capitalist/investor to raise funds for their business? I have scanned a lot online but couldn't find any valuable post where people shared their experience trying to raise funds for the first time in India!

Share your experience raising money for the first time for your startup/MSME

Software Engineer

Tentatively JAN third week. ( no runway left for Feb) - Employees could be paid in Esop’s valued at 2.7B $ as per internal disscussions.

CLE, Content, Tech and product teams are going to be sliced. All products are going to KTLO. This is the final round - post this the company Survives and sticks to K12 until 2026 OR it files for bankruptcy.☹️

Guys this is my last post about Byjus. All the best Soldiers ! 👋

Yet Another layoff round at Byjus - Round 7 🥲

I am building a D2C fashion brand and need to raise money (20 Lakhs) to get things off the ground. I am from Tier-I IIT and a single founder. 

I have been trying to approach investors through multiple mediums. Cold mailing / LinkedIn. But things haven't worked. 

College alumni also don't seem to respond, let alone give any warm intro. 

How should I go about the fund raising process?

Best ways to find angel investors

Product Marketing Manager

Write about a time you made someone feel very nice. Hopefully it can be a collection of ideas that others can take forward. If somehow a few people do something nice as a result, that would be powerful.

To start with an example: Bought a laptop for my grandfather because he wanted to continue working post 60. Helped him learn Excel, Gmail, Chrome browsing over many days. He really picked it up, and works as a consultant for new companies in the industry he worked all his life.

Good people of Grapevine: What's the nicest thing you've done for someone? (family/friends/a stranger) 🍀

Corporate Strategist

Acquiring funding for a startup in india has become a hassle. I myself have been doing research on seed funding Vc's and angel investors. All they ask is pitch deck and LinkedIn profile. Which they don't even go through and just reply with an email saying we are not eligible for funding. On the other side US and other countries are getting funding at the ideation stage. I guess we can't even go for crowdfunding. Started building MVP, but halfway through the hurdle and unable to resume the development due to limited resources.

Tired of applying everywhere for funding.

Her bio says "quit my consulting job to start a travel company..."

New fundraise technique

Hello everyone,

I'm Varun, the co-founder of Mesa School of Business. We’re Asia’s first startup focused business school focused on fostering the next generation of startup leaders in India.

Prior to Mesa, I was a Sr. Product Manager at Amazon in Seattle, and did my MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

I'd love to chat with you folks about my journey in building Mesa, my thoughts on higher education, 0-to-1 building, amongst other things.

Ask me anything! :)
I'll be back at 5 pm and start answering.

I'm Varun, Co-Founder at Mesa School of Business. Ask me anything!

𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱.

Investor

A media report revealed that $700 million of the $1 billion will be raised through equity and one of the three Middle East-based sovereign funds is in talks to lead the round.

BYJU’S is raising $1 billion through a mix of equity & structured instruments, claims report  

Byju’s on their way to raise $ 1 billion through Middle East-based sovereign funds.

Senior Product Designer

Hi folks, 

I'm Kashish, the CEO of EquityList and Founder of Cloud Capital which I run as a solo GP.
A little bit about what we do: 

EquityList is a full-stack equity management platform by AngelList India. Companies across India, US and Singapore use EquityList to manage their cap table, stock options (ESOP/SAR), shareholders, and related compliances. Managing equity for 10k+ stakeholders, 250+ companies and ~$1B in stock options.

Cloud Capital has deployed $8M+ in 55+ startups such as Airmeet, Rupifi, Orange Health, DevRev, ZET (OneCode) and others. I've also angel invested in startups such as OSlash, Atlys, Chronicle, Even Healthcare and others.

Excited to do this AMA, and look forward to answering any of your questions about ESOPs, cap table management, investing, entrepreneurship, and more!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashisharma

Live AMA: Hey everyone, I'm Kashish, CEO of EquityList. Ask me anything!

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

This child is battling his life against a rare type of blood cancer - Refractory AML. He has been recommended for Bone Marrow Transplant, but not able to get it due to lack of funds

The annual income of the family is just 50K and they come from poor economic backgrounds in Odisha. Parents had to leave their job to get the treatment in Mumbai, hence they have no source of income currently.

People these days are not trusting crowdfunding links even though there's an option of directly contributing to hospital account and getting 80G

CSR of companies not responding on mail. Foundations aren't working or so great. Can someone please guide me on how I can raise this child? Thoda child is really needy and needs support as much as possible

Can you support a 9 year old child fighting cancer

Do VCs also have this underdog spirit? The early-stage VC, take a lot of risk in investing at a pre-revenue startup. How do they scout such founders? What are the key attributes they look for in the early-stage team, which are pre-revenue and have an MVP?

Navigating our fundraise journey

Generalist

We are from trying to raise Funds for our startup, can anyone guide step by step.

Trying to raise funds for startup.

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Hey All

I graduated in 2021 out of DU and parallely converted my internship with a preseries A fintech startup for a full-time role, pay was less that what I would've got in campus placements, but I prioritised steep learning curve or a 15k per month salary difference.

After spending 15 months reporting directly to the ceo in a 150 member team, I resigned. Initially the pace was enjoyable, later on it became toxic.

Moved to Bangalore and joined another start-up, didn't take a huge hike since I just wanted to start somewhere. After working here for 7 months, now I have much for focussed idea on what my strengths are and I'm working with experienced folks (avg 8+ years). I'm a 22 year old working in the founding team of pretty good product startup (funded by Kunal and bunch of other angels).

Currently I'm at 6LPA, and would reach a 12LPA in thr next 3-4 months subject to fundraise, what I would like an opinion on is if after completing an year and we don't raise a round, do I stay? Or do I go back home and prepare for Gmat or CAT, then do aan expensive MBA by taking a loan? Or do I find another startup asking for a 12LPA? or do I try for a established company role in program management or partnerships or something?

I don't have any family money or business to fall back on, but fortunately I didn't take a loan for my education yet, and my parents would be okay to give me another 2 more years to figure things out.

Would appreciate help from anyone who've been in a similar journey or just any piece of advice.

Thanks!

Started off career in startups

Program Manager

Something I've found very frustrating while pitching to investors, platforms and funds is that so many of them actually just bait and switch.

They pose like gyani people earnestly looking for investments or helping entrepreneurs, but when you speak to them they start selling you their services.

Fundraise is apparently just a step away, need to signup here first, or create xyz report first, or do outreach to xyz number of people, or do market research and fresh pitch deck creation, or hire xyz consultant/agency to get to the "next level" - basically a bunch of barriers you need to pay to clear despite having a profitable business with paying customers. 

Fact of the matter is there are plenty of people raising money based off of pitch decks with no MVP , or even just the right conversations with the right people. But they are rare and hard to find organically. Requires lots of networking and connecting dots over months and years.

The point is, this selling in the guise of securing investment is tiresome and a waste of time for most entrepreneurs. They probably do get a few suckers occasionally which helps them stay afloat I guess.

Some of them might even take your ideas and start building something of their own or back someone to build it under them. Once you start pitching, the deck starts floating around in VC groups and networks mostly beyond the reach of the average entrepreneur.

Considering all this, just keeping one's head down and bootstrapping forever in peace seems like a better approach.

Disingenuous behaviour in startup ecosystem

Product Owner

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

I used to work at a product-based company, joined as a fresher worked for 2 years, it was a perfect job, in the sense that there was little to no work related stress, decent pay, and all the perks you get at a typical big product company as an SDE.

I decided to move out of my comfort zone and joined a bootstrapped startup. It sounded stupid when I left but I just wanted to experiment with working in a high-paced environment.

3 months in and I am very frustrated there is no sense of urgency even in a highly competitive space, all 3 co-founders are busy fundraising and rarely talk to us except for standups(which are also skipped regularly) most other team members(a total of 11) work like govt employees, no hunger, passion or curiosity. 

I joined because I love the problem they are solving and I am genuinely passionate about the industry and problem space but I don't even see 10% of the same passion in any of my other teammates they come in at 10 and leave by 4.

Sorry for the long rant but need genuine advice, will things change after the fundraise and as an employee how do I raise my issues with company culture with co-founders without sounding too bossy and pissing off my other teammates.

Can someone explain their fund raising journey

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