Depending upon who do you ask the question, the answer to “Indian Startup ecosystem has a shortage of good quality?” would oscillate between kick-ass investors and great customers. While the presence of both is crucial to validate the success of the startup, founders always seem to be cut-off from both of kick-ass investors. With India poised towards climbing up the entrepreneurial ladders, no wonder we would see more first generation product startups coming out of unheard Indian towns and cities.
With this in mind, the recent edition of #ReversePitch took place at 91SpringBoard. The premise is simple, at any conventional networking/demo event the startups are the ones pitching their ideas and its potential to a room full of investors. But by turning the tables in favor of the startups the idea of reverse pitch was born. Investors now make their pitches to a room full of potential startups as to why they are the best bet.
For those of you wondering whether this was another bout of “networking” and “gyaan” session by investors making tall claims for their funds haven’t seen Mukund Mohan in action. Seeing that the founders were taking time to warm up that too in a room full of people having the exact same question in mind. Mukund brought everybody at ease and what followed were interesting rounds of presentation by VCs and subsequent Q&A by the audience.
A handy list of the VCs who presented at #ReversePitch in no particular order of their likeliness to fund your venture:
- Pankaj Jain – 500Startups
- Mukund Mohan – Microsoft
- Gaurav Kachru – 5Ideas
- Abhishek Gupta – Tlabs
- Mukul Arora – SAIF Partners
- Shailesh Vickram Singh – Seedfund
- Sanjay Nath – Blume Ventures
- Dhruv – Helion Venture Capital
- Maninder Gulati – Lightspeed Ventures
- Gagan – Indian Angel Network
The pitch sessions was followed by networking with the investors and the community had an amazing time. Thanks to Subhendu(ReversePitch), Mukund, Mukul(Saif Partners), Apurv & for the 91Springboard team for putting together an amazing show. Stay tuned for some more excitement in the next few months!
A 15 minute series of 10 videos, with VCs making their pitch is also on course to make its way here, very soon!!
P.S: Special thanks to Avinash Raghava for putting this piece together. Taken from ProductNation’s blog where it was originally posted.
Disclaimer: Pushpendra Thakur is one of the Partners at 91springboard.
