1. Startup Experience Ankur Gupta Egurucool (1999-2000) Campus Sales Representative (Temp Summer Job while at college) Learned about startups, VC etc … Vegayan Systems (2006-2008) TiE Canaan Entrepreneurial Winner 2006 Intel India Pioneer Challenge Winner 2007 Funded by DFJ and Angel Investor RakeshMathur Thinklabs (2008-2010) Funded By SeedFund On verge of raising Series A for 3-5 Million USD. Startup Ecosystem (2006-2011) Helped organize Proto.in Mumbai Edition, Organized CodeCamp Mumbai, Organized Barcamp Mumbai 2. Reading blogs with focus on Indian Startup Ecosystem since college days.

2. Different Things Motivate Different People At Different Points in Time

3. What Matters to you ? 1. $$$, 2. Public praise or recognition, 3. Impact of your work on society, 4. Respect from your friends, family for where you are employed ?, 5. Working on a difficult problem / domain, 6. Respect as viable part of organization, 7. Amazing Mentor whom you admire or an awesome team to work with, 8. Comfortable surroundings aka office space and perks provided, 9. Large role / responsibility, 10. Your weird thoughts here …………

4. Who or What is a Startup ? Is every new business a startup? Do service companies qualify as startups ? Do new business with low entry level barrier qualify as startup ? My Definition A recently (2-3 years) founded business with 1-100 employees that intrinsically excites you and can have a positive impact on lives of millions or potentially change the market dynamics is a startup.

5. Stages of a Startup Execution Investment / VC Rounds $$$ Employee Headcount

6. Execution Idea Stage aka Business plan in place Business Registration or Legal entity in place End Product Ready Early Customer Execution Sustainable growth quarter on quarter

7. Investment / VC Rounds Seed Investment Early Stage Investment Series A, B, C, D IPO

8. $$$ Burn Rate > Revenue Burn Rate == Revenue Burn Rate < Revenue

9. Employee Headcount 1-10 10-30 30-100 100-300 300+

10. Must Ask Questions Salary Do you have any revenue at this point of time ? Are you break even ? (If answer to the above two questions are in negative. ) Your funding would last for how many months ? Can I expect to get salary on time ? ESOPs Does your ESOP Plan meet Regulatory compliance ? What’s the size of the ESOP Pool ? How much am I getting and when will it be fully vested ? Founders Why did you start this company ? What do you want to achieve ?

11. Heart vs. Mind Follow you heart but apply your mind to understand what it’s that you are in for ? Passion doesn’t understand logic sometimes, In most startups success doesn’t come despite the best of intentions, hard work and efforts, They say it takes approx 10 years for a Indian startup to really make it BIG. Keeping your Heart and Mind aligned to hang into the ride.

12. Startups Can be Rewarding Fun Thrilling Learning experience Do your research before else it can be Pain Regret Lost Time

13. Questions ?