Reetik Agarwal’s Post

Having been a part of Antler's last cohort, I will try to share my perspective on who all should apply and why: - Anyone with an idea and thinking about entrepreneurship (yes they do invest pre-revenue and pre-product) - Anyone looking for a kickass co-founder (how else would you connect with talented folks from diverse backgrounds who want to startup NOW) - Folks who are confused between building VC backed vs bootstrap (understand directly from a VC and take your call)

Last 2 days to apply to Antler India Residency #5 for Individual Founders - Applications are due Aug 2nd 2024 (Friday) Over the past few months, we have had over ~10,000 individuals and early teams apply to the Residency. Of these, a few exceptional founders have been selected to join the Residency. We’re super stoked to help them get initiated on their building journey - the cohort starts on Aug 20th (Tuesday). We are finalising the last ~30 folks for this cohort over the coming days. If you’re an individual/solo founder considering applying to the Residency, here’s a glimpse of the exceptional cohort of founders you could potentially build alongside - * Domain experts from a variety of sectors, including Legal Tech, FinTech, Edutainment, B2B SaaS, Consumer Tech, Health Tech etc.; there's also a good mix of founders building in innovative spaces, including SpaceTech, Robotics, BioTech, Pet Care, Compliance Tech, and more * Many have held leadership positions (across Tech/Business roles) at the best unicorns and soonicorns of India; we also have a good number of technology builders from some of the top tech companies including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Oracle * The cohort also includes repeat founders and serial entrepreneurs with a track record of raising institutional capital from marquee investors in their previous ventures Application link in the first comment! (P.S: if you are a team, applications are rolling through the year at the same link) With Nandini Vishwanath Nitin Sharma

ONE more day to go for applying to Antler Residency. The link to apply for the Residency is in the first comment

Counting down to our next Antler India residency! Less than 4 weeks until it’s go time... We’re closing applications in the next 2 days, but a few spots remain. Our cohort is shaping up to be diverse, truly stellar in their respective fields, highly experienced and super energized. If you’re a solo founder considering applying, here are a few details on the group of fantastic founders you could potentially build alongside: (1) Domain experts from a variety of sectors, including Legal Tech, FinTech, Edutainment, B2B SaaS, Consumer Tech, Health Tech etc.; there’s also a good mix of founders building in innovative spaces, including SpaceTech, Robotics, BioTech, Pet Care, Compliance Tech, and more (2) Many have held leadership positions (across Tech/Business roles) at the best unicorns and soonicorns of India; we also have a good number of technology builders from some of the top tech companies including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Oracle (3) The cohort also includes repeat founders and serial entrepreneurs with a track record of raising institutional capital from marquee investors in their previous ventures Link to apply is in the first comment. We can't wait to hear more about you + what you're building! (For teams, our intake continues to be on a rolling basis). Nandini Vishwanath Karan Prasad Himank A. Sankalp Sharma

You probably won’t get accepted into Antler's 13th Residency in Australia. AUS13 applications officially open in two weeks, on the 8th October (link in comments to apply early, btw). We’ll likely see upwards of 2,000 founders apply in the hopes of joining the cohort come February 3rd, and with AUS12 having an acceptance rate of 2.8%, the reality is that we’re going to have to say no to a lot of incredible founders (and startups). 90% of the time, we reject founders/teams for one of these five reasons: 🧓Business too old. Antler is a day-zero investor, often coming in before anything has been built or sold. If you’ve been working on the business for a while (12 months or more) without meaningful traction, that’s a red flag. We operate best with founders that’re pre-idea, pre-build, or pre-team. ⛔No right to play. The Residency isn’t for someone fresh out of university, or someone that wants to ‘get a job in startups’. We are looking for founders with a demonstrable ‘spike’ in a problem space. Software engineers with ten years building SaaS? Definitely interested. Fresh business undergraduate who wants to build in medtech? Probably not. 👼Aiming too low. Venture capital funds are often made or broken by their outliers, and Antler is no exception. One or two big exits/acquisitions could return the whole fund, and to have the highest chance of that happening, you need to be playing in a space where you have a realistic proposition of $100M annual revenue. Businesses below this number are fine - but they’re probably not VC scale. 💸Personal constraints. The Residency is a full-time commitment, and the expectation is that you’ll attend largely in-person for the first six weeks. We do offer a stipend to founders, but the expectation is that you’ll be going without an income for the duration. If you lack the personal and financial safety net to do so, the Residency is unfortunately not for you. 🧍♂️Doesn’t play well with others. Antler believes strongly in complementary co-founding teams. It reduces key person risk, allows for people to play to their strengths, and improves the velocity at which initial build and sell take place. If you’re a solo founder who wants to remain that way, it’s likely that you won’t be offered a place in the Residency. That said - if you’ve read the above, and still think you’ve got what it takes… you probably do. Check out the link in the comments, learn more about what we do, and apply. You never know until you try. Leila Oliveira Rani Heraputeri

Antler India has recently kicked off applications for AIR 5 (the flagship Residency program). If you are already building, working on validating / invalidating a hypothesis, looking for a co-founder or looking to turbocharge momentum on an idea you have, will recommend you apply: https://lnkd.in/d_Uta7VN Unsuit Legal Technologies took shape during AIR 3 between Jul and Oct '24. The team at Antler have been extended arms for Unsuit - warm intros, talent access, product and GTM - I have personally got help on each of these. So it is a lot more than just capital. And it brings momentum to your idea in the early days when building momentum is a founder's biggest challenge. Beyond, deep involvement, I have personally benefited from the global community of Antler startups. Beyond the Residency, you get multiple platforms on your journey to raising a Seed round. Forward: Helps set sky high metrics and go all out to chase and track it Spotlight: Puts you in front of hundred's of investors ARC: Invest $500K in idea stage companies in 2 tranches; details: https://lnkd.in/d49e8eVt Happy to chat 1-on-1 if you'd like to know more! Rajiv Srivatsa, Nitin Sharma, Gowri Shankar Nagarajan, Nandini Vishwanath, Sakshi Jain

I had the privilege of attending an enlightening session with Saurabh Jain Sir, esteemed ex-Vice President of Paytm and visionary founder of Fun2Do Labs, as part of JECRC University's Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP). His remarkable journey from a Chartered Accountant (CA) to a tech leader and startup founder epitomizes the power of curiosity, adaptability, and continuous learning. Sir's career trajectory is a testament to innovation: Started as a CA, pivoted to tech, and authored India's first book on mobile app programming (2003). Led Paytm's "Build for India" initiative, empowering developers and startups. Founded Fun2Do Labs (2021), an EdTech startup revolutionizing education Key takeaways from the session: 1. Embrace technology and evolve continuously. 2.Focus on creating value in every step of the entrepreneurial journey. 3.Stay curious, never shy away from new challenges. JECRC University

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18 months into building scale.jobs | Techstars'24! At scale.jobs, we're on a mission to train students as executive assistants for US professionals. So far, we've helped over 1,000 students polish their professional etiquette. But here's the twist: Our first round of screening process includes a simple 1-minute video where applicants introduce themselves. We expected basic speaking skills, but the results have been eye-opening: 4,583 submissions received 58% rejected Despite clear expectations, it's disheartening to see so many students struggle with this fundamental step. Question for my network: How can we address this steep learning curve? #ProfessionalDevelopment #Education #Startups #CareerGrowth