Anshul Khare’s Post

How not to repeat the mistake 90% startups do in this 1st year?. 4 solid plans you can watch for... 1. Having a solid business plan 2. Build an MVP 3. Know your market inside out 4. Perfect your pitch!" Remember, Flipkart, Ola, and Zomato all started with seed funding. Let's guess - Who knows you can be the next! Grab this opportunity with the right mindset and methodology😉 Drop a comment if you are an amazing startup founder who is looking to scale their dream business. Let's get that seed money flowing! #startupbusiness

Want to know more about seed funding for your business? Connect with us to talk about possibilities. #seedfunding #business #startup #smallbusiness

A new mafia of startup founders is emerging. From 2015 to 2018, VCs were excited about backing senior execs emerging from Flipkart-Myntra, leading to the birth of Unicorns like Groww, Udaan, and Curefit, alongside a bunch of other soonicorns. Now, founders emerging from Meesho and Swiggy are becoming favorites among VCs. What's interesting here is the pattern of deals For example, Elevation and Accel have backed Aaritya, the options trading platform started by former Swiggy CTO Dale Vaz. Both Elevation and Accel were also early backers of Swiggy. This usually ends up happening because top partners at these VC firms are already deeply familiar with how these operators work and have interacted with them. So, when they leave to start up, they become the first port of call. This is happening in more deals right now: - Blume, an early investor in Unacademy, is in talks to back a senior exec’s startup. - A Meesho exec is in talks to raise from Elevation, Meesho’s series-A investor. Most of the time, you will also see founders or senior execs of these companies investing in those leaving to start up. This is also seen as an important point of validation for investors considering backing these companies. For instance, Ankit Nagori and Mukesh Bansal were the first backers of Groww, launched by former Flipkart execs. There are a lot of exceptions to this as well. Sometimes, other VC firms may offer a better valuation to the founder, and there may not be space in the round for angels. Alternatively, there could be a better fit with another VC firm. But coming back to the new mafia, do read this The Arc article by Aditi Shrivastava on the latest set of founders who are building the next Unicorns https://lnkd.in/g9C-6TXj

Starting a business is like playing Jenga. One wrong move and it can all come crashing down Says Khadim the co-founder of Whatfix, a startup that could become India’s next unicorn It’s exactly what happened to them with search enabler, Khadim and Vara’s first startup. They had to make a move that could have been their last Search enabler had one small feature called fix-it which allowed small businesses to improve their website and social media visibility So after 3 days of intense discussions the duo decided to pivot to focus on fix-it. It could have been the wrong move that ended their busiess It was a risk but it paid-off. Within a week, the soonicorn Whatfix was born Their journey leading up to the week that changed their lives started well before search enabler Khadim and Vara were colleagues. They spent years working together building the BI product line for Huawei The stint helped them get comfortable with taking risks. They experimented a lot and so when the time came to quit and startup the fear of failure was gone It took a decade of building confidence and trust in themselves and each other for Whatfix to become an overnight success Join us on this week’s episode as I talk to Vara and Khadim, the co-founders of Whatfix. It’s an incredible story of a business that is built to last Amid the decline in SaaS valuations since the peak in 2021, this softbank vision-fund company is in talks with Warbur Pincus to double their earlier valuation due to their astonishing growth in an stagnating Industry https://lnkd.in/ggRumhhg

From Three Failed Ventures To A Multimillion-Dollar Startup We’ve all been there – signing up online and waiting for that OTP to verify our phone number. It’s a routine, almost mundane task. But have you ever paused to ponder the tech magic behind it? Enter Venky B , the genius behind Plivo, the company that powers these notifications for giants like Zomato India and BYJU'S. ✨ The Backstory: In 2011, what began as an open-source GitHub project for Venky evolved into Plivo, a multimillion-dollar SaaS startup. Today, Plivo boasts annual revenues between $50 and $100 million. But Venky’s entrepreneurial flame was kindled much earlier. 🚀 The Early Ventures: In 1999, as a 10th grader, Venky launched ‘ES4i’ in Noida, earning a staggering six lakh rupees. By his college years, he was innovating with Amibo, a humanoid robot, and later pivoted to hardware kits for students, netting a 25 lakh rupee profit. His third venture, ‘Hunger Break,’ a pioneering cloud kitchen for momos, was ahead of its time but faced operational challenges that led to its closure. 🔗 The Plivo Journey: In 2011, Venky teamed up with Michael Ricordeau, whom he met on GitHub, to create Plivo—a communications framework. Despite early setbacks, including a rejection from Y Combinator, Venky’s resilience paid off when Plivo joined Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch, alongside heavyweights like Coinbase and Zapier. 📈 Onward and Upward: Plivo’s growth has been nothing short of remarkable. By opting for venture debt in 2017, they maintained their equity and avoided common pitfalls. Today, with a team of 300 working remotely across the USA and India, Plivo continues to innovate, launching new products like ‘Contacto’ and ‘Sellular.’ 🔥 Venky’s journey is a powerful reminder of what’s possible with perseverance, innovation, and unwavering belief in your vision. 💡 What do you think? Can a single idea really change the world? How do you turn failures into stepping stones for success? #trackbes #TechieBipin #BipinSharma #founder #venky #plivo #otp #startup #founder #otp #unicorn #enterpreneur Trackbes Technology

What do the founders of Stripe, OpenAI, Uber, and LinkedIn have in common? They started those companies right after selling their previous startup. These were not big acquisitions. The founders made little money, and investors considered them failures at the time. Patrick and John Collison ran and sold a little known startup called Auctomatic in 2008 before founding Stripe. Sam Altman’s first company, Loopt, raised $30M from investors only to sell for a “modest” $40M. Socialnet was a startup that got acquired in 2002. Despite that, it's founder, Reid Hoffman, considered it failure. Before Uber, Travis Kalanick ran a struggling startup called Red Swoosh. At one point his entire team had quit after going months without pay. He had to move in with his parents. Red Swoosh finally sold in 2007, and Travis walked away with $2mm after 6 years of hard work. Most startup exits are like this. They aren't flashy, and they don't make the news. Sometimes, the best thing to do with a floundering company is to sell it, so the founders can move on to bigger and better things.

DoorDash went from $2M in revenue in 2014 to $550M in 2019 and became one of our biggest customers at Segment. 🔥 The surprising thing to note here was that DoorDash was founded in 2013, just 6 years earlier! As most Startup Programs accept companies that are several years old, DoorDash went from qualifying for free product to being the #1 customer in 4 years. 🚀 It’s back in 2019 when the Segment #StartupProgram was created for this very reason. Fast forward end of 2023 we had 20,000+ startups and millions in ARR. A team of two! 🎯 Over the next 30 days, I'll be sharing little nuggets on how to design, launch, and run a successful corporate Startup Program. It's a proven way to unlock explosive growth. If you want to learn more on "Selling to Startups", join me at the link in the comments 👇 #StartupPrograms #StartupGrowth #B2BSaaS #StartupProgramHQ #SellingToStartups

In 1999, Webvan, an online grocery delivery startup (us zamane ka zepto), was scaling at a breakneck pace. Backed by millions in venture capital, they expanded to multiple cities in the US, built massive warehouses, and hired hundreds of employees, aiming to dominate the market. But by 2001, Webvan was bankrupt. What happened? They scaled too fast, too soon. Instead of refining their business model and understanding local markets, they overextended themselves. Customer demand wasn’t growing as quickly as they had predicted, and operational costs skyrocketed. Ultimately, they couldn’t sustain the rapid growth. Lesson? Stay small, at least in the beginning. 1. Focus on perfecting your product or service. 2. Understand your customer base. 3. Create a solid foundation before chasing rapid expansion. Scaling too fast can lead to cash burn, operational chaos, and eventual collapse. Growth is exciting, but growing at the right pace is what sustains businesses in the long run. #WebvanLesson #StartupMistakes #ScalingTooFast #BusinessGrowth #EntrepreneurTips #MarketStrategy #OperationalEfficiency #VentureCapital #CustomerDemand #BusinessModel #GrowthPains #StartupAdvice #BusinessFailure #SustainableGrowth #LeanStartup #ScalingSmart

This week in India’s startup ecosystem: Swiggy’s IPO oversubscribed, Spinny’s revenue jumps, and PhysicsWallah scales up with 2.6X growth. From funding rounds to financial highlights, here’s your weekly roundup of top startup news! 🚀 #StartupUpdates #SwiggyIPO #BusinessGrowth #Innovation #EnlightenedPost

A lot of founders come to me frustrated, complaining that they have a better traction & product but still their competitors are able to raise funds more easily because they are ex-CXOs, serial entrepreneurs and obvious founders. It can be very frustrating and demotivating for these non-obvious founders. They fail to get the attention from VCs that they deserve. On the other hand, a competitor raises a huge round because they are a repeat founder or have a relevant history behind them. I tell this to all the non-obvious founders out there, don’t lose hope. 100 VCs may turn you down and it’s natural to feel demotivated at times. If you’re solving a real problem at the right time with conviction, the same VCs who turn you down will come back to you with much bigger checks. One such company is NEWME. It was started by 4 non obvious founders. They raised $1.5M in their pre-seed round. On the other hand their biggest competitor Virgio, started by the ex-CEO of Myntra, raised ~$37M within a year co-led by Accel, Prosus & Alpha Wave Global. Virgio shut down its operations after a year of the launch. NEWME kept building, kept growing and is now clocking $1M in monthly sales. They recently raised $18M in series B led by none other than the investors of Virgio (Accel). My advice to all is hang in there, make good execution your biggest moat. It will differentiate you from everyone else. Trust me, we were among the first investors at NEWME. We love backing non obvious founders. If you feel you are one, reach out and we’ll have a chat. Picture is from the day we backed them. #founders #startup #funding