 I don't have a lot of time. I'm actually gonna run through my presentation as quickly as possible. I'm actually gonna move in the floor up to a lot more questions a little later. So before we go into the basics of raising capital, I think it's important to understand the current situation of startups as it is. So what most people believe startup, starting up is actually something like this. This is a playbook that we talk to a normal person. You start up, you cash in, you sell out, and after that you grow down. Because what happens is when the media actually covers startups throughout, everybody covers the success stories. They cover the flip cards, they cover the OEOs, they cover the rest of them. But nobody covers the thousands and thousands of companies who actually failed in these particular systems. So where most people, while the lay person actually believes startups, starting up is like this, what is actually like for an entrepreneur is something closer to this. Where everything's always on fire, everyone's always running around. You're basically just setting out fire the entire time you possibly can. I wonder reasons that actually contributes to this is a lack of capital. India as a nation has traditionally been capital star. So for Indians, raising capital becomes one of the biggest determinants of success. Because access to credit is something that's not easily available in the country and most of the people actually end up raising capital for their operations. In fact, the value of debt for a number of startups. Raising the lack, the inability to raise capital is actually the number one reason why a number of startups actually shut down. And all these startups always usually happen in the pre-series A. This when they start to get some amount of revenue, they start investing into growth but it becomes harder for them. Hopefully these particular points would help you actually navigate these waters. So the best option for this in terms of the basics of raising capital is to actually approach this from your first principles. So for this, the simplest way to understand this are the three Ws and H. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. So I'm gonna take you through this as quickly as possible in closer presentation. The first question you need to ask yourself is why should I raise? The answer to this is actually extremely simple. Because for the first time in India, you possibly can. So not many of us understand this, but in the early 90s, in the 70s and 80s, it was impossible to raise capital because the economy was still closed. Ever since the 90s, entrepreneurs' ships started actually coming out. We started seeing the first wave of tech entrepreneurs, your mind trees, your cognizance come out, my enforces, and all of them as well. A number of them were actually unable to raise external funding. All these companies were actually bootstrapped. So the ability to raise capital as of now from various sources actually becomes an incentive for you to do so. That being said, equally, there are very small group of people, entrepreneurs, who've actually categorically stated they don't wanna raise external capital. Paragu is actually mentioning the founder of Zoho, Mr. Bemboot, is one of them. When you raise capital, you need to also understand that with that particular capital, so with that particular capital comes great responsibilities. In India as well, the capital-raising ecosystem has actually grown to a large extent. India absorbs close to 12 to $14 billion of capital into the startup ecosystem alone every year. We're actually third behind the US and behind China as well. Since 2014, we have raised about $50 billion of capital excluding the Flipkart exit that actually happened earlier last year. We have 250 plus accelerators incubators, 500 plus institutional investors, 2,000 active investors, and 450 acquisitions. For the first time in India's history, we actually have a very wide network of people from human-generated capital, be it angels, be it accelerators, be it government grants, be it micro-VCs, seed funds, et cetera. So what you need to understand up here is why you raise capital, because with great raises come great responsibility. As the previous speaker also mentioned the fact that moment you get money from your investors, this money isn't free. This money comes with strings attached where there's a premise that the money will be repaid back to them with a far greater multiple than the actual money they actually put in. So great raises comes great responsibility. Bootstrapping is still a very viable option for startups. Not many investors actually talk about it because this money... Bootstrapping actually strikes at the very heart of an investor's business, but bootstrapping is still a viable alternative. It's an honorable way of actually growing a business where you start reinvesting all your cash flows back into the business. So while bootstrapping requires pensions, venture demands performance. It's a quarter on quarter ordeal for every single company you actually go through. Your investors are gonna grill your quarter on quarter, what is your growth? I did 2x in last quarter, we needed 3x in this, I needed 4x in this one. Because the pressure that you actually face is similar to the pressure that the investor faces from his investors as well. Every VC is not the master of his own faith. He's actually just a middleman between someone who has a larger pool of capital and a company that actually requires. So whenever VCs go a little harder on you in terms of escalating growth, understand that their investor is actually 10 times as hard on them, if not more. And the last thing is always raise with the intention to actually pay it back. This particular money isn't free. I've seen a number of early stage entrepreneurs, especially in the seed stage. Come on and say, if I actually raise my money, a raise who re-grows my life is actually made, I don't think I ever have to pay them back. Everybody invests with the premise that the money comes back. It sounds like a very facetious statement, very simple statement as of now, but this actually becomes a core when you actually go and raise funds. The second question you need to ask is, who do I raise from and where do you actually raise? Raise all this money from. So from this, this becomes a handy graph for you to understand which are the places in which you can actually raise money from. What's important to understand from an entrepreneur's perspective is that you have a wide variety of options, but the options you actually choose, you need to be a palatable investment for them as well. A number of people try approaching your soft banks, your B funds, just when they're in the seed stage itself. They have particular metrics. They have a minimum check size that they also have as well, but the startup needs to be able to absorb. And simultaneously, I've actually seen people who are in the series B and series C actually reach out to angel investors, looking for a check of five to 10 lakh cents and actually try to fractionalize the entire race because they find it hard to raise. So what happens is from the point of inception, the best way to actually start off your entire fundraising journey is to reach out to friends, families, and fools, as Paragu also mentioned. This becomes a foundational capital for your entire business. Institutional investors and larger investors will only come in when there's a proven concept. The days of investors actually subsidizing an entrepreneur's ability to experiment are actually long gone. Nowadays, unless you have some amount of traction, you have a minimal viable product that's actually out in the market. You have some customers with you. Those are the facets that are going to decide whether you will get invested in or not. So for this, the dose to knock on is a fairly standard list that everyone comes up with. Friends, families, and fools are first. They're a number of entrepreneurship cells. So in various colleges, the governments are actually, governments and corporates are giving grants to various entrepreneurs in order for them to start seeding ventures. So if you are a college student or you have a co-founder, who's a college student? This becomes one of the easiest sources of capital for you to actually raise it. And these aren't just for the IITs and IIMs. A number of other colleges actually do offer this on with these things. Please reach out to your entrepreneurship cell within your college to find out. Grants, angel groups, and crowdfunding. Along with this, as you start scaling up your business, that's when you start approaching venture capital firms. You start going for credit and debt, private equity, and hopefully the public markets. I'm going to concentrate more on the venture capital aspect that we hear as of now. For all your venture, for all the VCs you actually approach, do your own due diligence on them the same way they would do it on you. So figure out what their average check sizes are. Figure out what areas they actually concentrate upon. Go mind through the entire portfolio. See whether you're a conflict with any of the existing portfolio companies. If you are, there's a very high chance they won't actually invest. If you're complementary to any of their portfolio companies, you usually start building your pitch along those particular lines as well. So with this, raise funds as per your risk profile and stage. For a C-stage fund, raise adequate amount of money from sources who are known to be in the particular C-stage. Don't go to your data stage funds because the next time you have to raise money from them at a later point in time, they're going to actually remember your first deck and nobody's first deck is as good as their latest deck. Now along with this, skin in the game is one of the most important factors in this because what all investors actually look in, how much money has the entrepreneur put into the company by himself? A number of people genuinely believe that they can actually run the entire business by just putting in money at base value and running around someone else's money. It's important for you to actually show that your trousers are nailed to the mast as much as your investor in order for the investor to take you a lot more seriously. Even though there is a lot of money floating around, the expect for money is still paramount in this particular company. It's important for the entrepreneur also to be able to answer the question, how much money have I invested? Not just a matter of time. It's a matter of money that you invest in a company as well. The last point is going to be tailor your pitch to the investor. One size doesn't fit all. I've actually seen companies send out an email blaster with all the investors in either in BCC or sometimes even in CCC. Saying that dear sir or madam, please, this is my idea, please invest in me. You need to have a personal touch when you approach investors as well. Because investing, getting invested in is actually a lot like marriage. Nobody actually sends out, nobody actually sends out marriage proposal in dear sir or madam if this particular profile fits you. Let's actually get finished. It doesn't work that way. So nobody should actually think of investing the same way as well. Tailor your pitch directly to the investor, figure out what are the co-philosophies the investors stand for. What do they look for in their companies and their numerous interviews, their numerous blog posts, and even on their website as well, there's a goldmine of information around these particular things. So you need to do your homework as well as you start reaching out to those people. The second thing is what should I raise and the third question is going to be what should I raise and how much? For this, I actually want to borrow from a quote from Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes, Minister, pitch for as much as you think you can get away with and then actually do and then actually figure out how we're going to use the money. A lot of entrepreneurs actually believe that this actually becomes one of the ways of doing it. They don't actually try on planning out the entire business, trying to jot down what do I need the money for? Is this particular amount of money enough? Do I need to do more? The homework that you actually put in in this particular regard becomes paramount. Because understand, when you go to investors, a number of them are actually finance companies. They will take, they will look at your tech, they will nod your head on everything. Everyone comes with the same details. India is one of the largest growing economies in the world. We have a dam of so much, our SAM is so much. Here's how we can address the market. Within one year, I'll be X. Within two years, I'll be 5X. After that, I'll be 25X. Everyone's seen those graphs. But when they start looking at your business plan and traction, that's when all the skeletons in your cupboard actually start coming. So during your business plan, as much as important such a place on your tech, your tech is essentially a piece of it. Your business plan is a translation of all the operations, your entire business, into money. And that's exactly what all your investors are actually looking for. Regardless of what an investor may tell you, saying that I believe in team, I believe in this, I believe in that. At the end of the day, capitalists is an integral part of venture capital. So for that particular reason, they will scrutinize your business plan to a large extent. And if they find any holes, if they do find any raccoon in those particular business plan, that will actually become a talking point more than the potential of the entire business. So for this particular plan, the moment you raise your funds as well, do your homework and always raise, as per your plan, I raise for one quarter extra. Because nothing, because no plan ever survives across the reality. I've seen numerous entrepreneurs actually go through this entire thing. They believe they require a span of about 10 crows. They actually do my raising aid. I think it will become a lot easier. Taking that they may actually hit their metrics and then they can start raising. But do understand one thing. As much as your metrics are important to you, the macro factors also affect the entire venture capital industry. If there is a global slowdown, investing actually reduces to a large extent. Investing actually stops. Even in India as of now, in most of the, in most of the lending start-ups, your fintech start-ups you actually lend, then credit out. There's been a massive slowdown that's actually hit the entire industry. All those companies that actually manage to raise millions and millions of dollars over the past two years are actually finding it impossibly hard to raise as of now. Because from the aisle of this crisis, this was a macro issue that affected the listed space, it's been a slowdown and credit to you all. So also be cognizant of the macro factors that actually affect your particular startup or industry before you start raising as well, as important as your own plans. The second thing in, when you are raising, always keeps the metrics of your next raise in mind. This becomes important. This becomes imperative actually. Because while you may have your, you may manage to raise a certain amount of money with these particular metrics, what is the multiple on those metrics that you need to hit in order to attract the next investor coming in? The third part is, get investors who can capitalize you over multiple reasons. An imperative part is, the entire journey of having an investor with you is a long journey. It's not a one-off event where he actually gives you some amount of money and then he's gonna sit silent after. So when you choose your investors, and there are a large number of investors in the country as of now, make sure you choose investors who can actually keep investing in you over multiple reasons. Find out what are the metrics they actually want you to hit, whether you can hit those metrics or not, as important. If you can, take their money and also get a commitment from them saying that if I hit this particular metrics, I want you to either lead my next round of fundraising or I want you to become an active participant in that particular round. Because for any investor, any new investor coming into a company, your first question, one of the first questions they ask you when they come, when it comes to the actual investment is how much money are your existing investors putting in? Because none of your existing investors actually gonna support you in that particular race, it becomes a red line. The company is doing as well as you put it out to be, why are the other people actually not participating in this particular business? So figure out what those metrics are. And lastly, I would say this is as important for entrepreneurs as you start growing older. All races are balancing acts between dollars and dilution. If you notice a case of Flipkart, for example, everyone looks at the fact that Flipkart managed to raise, I think about $7 billion overall or toward his entire lifetime. But during that particular race, the $7 billion overall, the founders actually held single-digit stakes in their own company. The founders had a smaller stake than the entire e-soft world. While raising money, raising money seems attractive to a number of people. Also understand if your business does really well at the end of five, six years, you wanna make sure a healthy person did that. It's not a rounding off error on your own captive. Well, everyone keeps incident-wise going to go and actually raise, run that math in your own headers, buddy. If I raise, keep raising this amount of money at the end of this particular period when I do exit. All part of that exit will actually come onto me.