The F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup is a series of get-togethers held at the Inc42 office
30 startup founders came together to share ideas and talk about their startup journeys
Dineout cofounders Ankit Mehrotra and Sahil Jain were the guest speakers
Inc42 organised the sixth edition of its F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup in Delhi on March 28th. With lovely spring evening setting, about 30 startup founders from stealth to growth stage ventures reminisced about their individual hustles, networked over revenue models, and above all found a sense of camaraderie in each other.
The F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup is a bimonthly event hosted by Inc42 to bring together startup founders and hustlers from the Indian startup ecosystem on one floor for a fun evening.
The meetup is built on the premise that you haven’t met everyone who will be important in your startup journey yet. When people meet up, they plan new ventures together, expand their business networks, or learn from other entrepreneurs. Friendships are made. Companies and ideas are crystallised. Opportunities emerge.
The event started with a fun ice breaker where founders had to define their startup journeys with a movie or a song title. Dineout founder Ankit Mehrotra related his hustle with the Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi blockbuster ‘Inception’, as he believes doing a startup is like multiple layers that keep revealing itself. While his cofounder Sahil Jain related his journey to the song ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’.
The baton was then passed on to Chirag Mehta from a financial consultancy platform Clip Financial, who related his journey with the famous lines from a Robert Frost poem –
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”
Another attendee Sakshi Talwar, cofounder of an ecommerce platform Rugs & Beyond, connected her journey to navigating the male-dominated home decor industry with Lady Gaga’s breakout film ‘A star is born’.
The Journey of Four School Friends
The ice broken, the Dineout founders addressed the gathering. The startup, which was launched in 2012 by Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Nikhil Bakshi and Sahil Jain currently serves across 15K restaurants in India and abroad.
Dineout cofounders have known each other since their school days. Even in school, they used to discuss business ideas and at that time education sector used to be the group’s favourite. But eventually, US-based OpenTable was the inspiration behind the launch of Dineout.
Talking about the challenges, Sahil shared that once Ankit got married the greatest struggle for the rest three cofounders was to battle the family pressure of getting married. Interestingly, all the three cofounders got married in the span of one year from Ankit’s marriage and that was when the family gave them the free ticket to fly with their dream of starting a venture.
Moving on to the challenges of running a successful business, the founders talked about the challenge of hiring the right talent who would work with you and have a passion for the company.
If you missed this event, have no worries. Inc42 hosts numerous events throughout the year where you can learn how to better navigate the Indian startup ecosystem from people who have been there and done that. You’ll have the opportunity to meet local founders and investors, exchange ideas with experts, get feedback on your idea and more. So, stay tuned for our next F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. meetup.
You can read about the January edition of F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. meetup, here.
