We often get this question from founders raising their maiden round from institutional investors – What should be the size of the ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plan) Pool to be created in seed stage? Before we answer that, let’s quickly understand, why are ESOPs even required in the first place? Great tech companies are built by great teams, not just founders. Startups are usually hard pressed for money and therefore attracting high quality talent solely with cash compensation

One of the biggest mistakes founders make is telling investors, “We’re raising because our competitors are raising.” Fundraising should always be rooted in the actual needs of the business. You raise what your own business model demands. But this does not mean that founders should raise all at once. Fund requirement should be broken down in phases, where each round is aligned with the next set of tangible milestones. For example, if you plan to build a SaaS platform that will

You’ve closed the round. The wire hits. Now what? Before the first big hire or campaign, the smartest founders make one decision that quietly extends runway: where to park the cash . We handpicked 10 Unicorns which were flushed with accumulated funds of $1.8 Billion as on 31st March’24 and studied their strategy of dealing with idle funds. Here’s what it boils down to: Source: Startup Indian analysis based on Financial Statements published by the 10 Indian unicorns for FY23-2

Today’s ecosystem is getting crowded - angels, angel networks, micro-VCs, sector VCs, family offices, corporates, venture debt, grants, incubators - and almost all of them say they “fund startups.” That’s why many founders burn months chasing the wrong investors: the cheque size doesn’t fit, the stage is off, the sector thesis isn’t aligned, or the geography/ownership targets don’t match. The real work is matching your  company to the right capital for your stage and story -