If there’s one question that keeps entrepreneurs like you and me up at night, it’s this: how do I ensure I raise enough funds to grow my business, realise my vision, and scale my startup?
Indeed, fundraising is a crucial aspect of scaling startups and their vision. Still, only a small percentage of the nearly 30,000 registered startups in India have been able to crack it.
In fact, in 2019, over 900 startups raised capital to the tune of $14.5 billion. These 900 startups received funding where thousands of others failed to raise. These 900 or so startup founders were able to successfully convince investors about the growth potential of their business, product, or idea.
So, what did they do right? How did they attract investors to their business? What did they do to persuade investors, both global and domestic, to sign them million-dollar cheques? What were the factors that helped them clinch the deal?
And then there are questions around valuation, control, legal and compliance practices, pitching, types of funding, term sheets, and networking, to name a few – all of which determine the success of your fundraising efforts.
These are the very questions we address for you in YourStory Academy’s Funding Course – a learning programme that takes you through the core fundamentals of fundraising, with real-world, practical examples and learnings from people who have been there and done that. You have investors, entrepreneurs, investment bankers talking directly to you all about funding.
So expect to learn from the best in the Indian startup ecosystem when you sign up for YourStory Academy.
And from one entrepreneur to another, I leave you now with my favourite quote from Steve Jobs on perseverance – the only trait that YourStory Academy cannot teach you, which you must develop yourself :-)
“I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”
Shradha is the Founder & CEO at YourStory. She is amongst the most prominent thought leaders in the Indian startup ecosystem and has earned many accolades which include being featured in LinkedIn’s top 3 online influencers in India& Fortune magazine’s ‘40 under 40’ list of powerful Indians.
Mohandas Pai is the Chairman of Aarin Capital & Manipal Global Education. He is a Padma Shri Awardee and former CFO and Board Member at Infosys. He has emerged as one of India's most prolific angel investors and has helped start over 10 different funds in venture, growth, and public markets.
Kashyap is the Managing Partner at The Rainmaker Group, which is a specialist fundraise advisory firm for Tier 1 VC-backed, technology-driven businesses. Some of his prominent deals include Nearbuy-Little-Paytm, Sale of Via.com to NASDAQ:EBIX & Fundraise for Cardekho.com from Google Capital.
Alok is a Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners which is an early stage, technology-focused venture capital firm. Some of Stellaris' prominent investments include Mfine, Shop101, Vogo & others. Some of Alok's earlier investments include Pipemong & Axtria.
Siddarth is the Founding Partner at 3one4 Capital which is an early-stage venture capital firm that manages a corpus of $100Mil+. Some of his prominent investments include YourStory, Licious, BetterPlace, Bugworks, Faircent, DarwinBox, Pocket Aces, and Tracxn.
Rahul is a Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners which is an early stage, technology-focused venture capital firm. Some of Stellaris' prominent investments include Mfine, Shop101, Vogo & others. Some of Rahul's earlier investments include Bigbasket, Toppr & Livspace.
Aprameya is the Founder of Vokal & Taxiforsure. He is an active angel investor and has invested in more than 20 companies that include Tapchief, Kaarva, DailyNinja, Unacademy & others.
Vatsal Gaur is an Associate Partner at HSA Advocates. He is an experienced transactional lawyer with a focus on M&A, Venture Capital & Private Equity transactions.
Ashish is the Founder & CEO at MyPetrolPump which is a Y Combinator company. MyPetrolPump is also well recognized by the Govt. of India & Govt. of Karnataka and winner of multiple startup excellence awards such as Elevate100, Wharton India Startup Challenge, Echelon100 and more.
Ritesh is a Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners which is an early stage, technology-focused venture capital firm. Some of Stellaris' prominent investments include Mfine, Shop101, Vogo & others. Some of Ritesh's earlier investments include Taxiforsure & Housing.
Hari TN is the HR Head at BigBasket and has earlier been the Head of HR
at Taxiforsure, Virtusa, IBM Daksh & many more. He is an active angel
investor & advisor to numerous startups & institutions. He is also a
Mentor at Techstars, Rocketium, Silicon Road, Unfound & others.
