Inc42 F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup: Building The Startup Community Through Positivity

Inc42 organised the seventh edition of its F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup in Delhi on June 20 and it was a rousing evening with some great anecdotes and inspiration for over 30 founders who joined our guest speaker. Founders from stealth, early stage and growth stage ventures talked about their individual challenges, the way they overcame them and opened up about what they are hoping to achieve.

The F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup is a bimonthly event hosted by Inc42 to bring together startup founders and stakeholders from the Indian startup ecosystem on one floor for a fun evening. Goibibo and INDWealth founder Ashish Kashyap was the guest speaker at the meetup, and through his Q&A session set the theme of the evening. Cowrks and Innov8 were the community partners for the latest leg of The F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup.

The primary objective of the meetup is to introduce founders to other entrepreneurs who might just help them in their startup journey at some point in the future. When people meet up and open up about their ventures, their network and breadth of knowledge expands, allowing them the opportunity to learn from other entrepreneurs. The F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup is where friendships are forged and ideas come to the fore as the conversation flows.

The event started with a fun ice breaker session where the host probed founders on questions ranging from their favourite school lessons to superheroes they are most inspired by. Since Kashyap was the guest speaker of the evening, he fielded most of the questions from the audience, however, the INDWealth founder stressed on keeping the flow interactive.

One of the most interesting questions was about the process of letting go of an employee. Kashyap was clear on when is the right timing. “When your employee starts looking at things from a negative lens – can’t be done rather than can be done – it’s time to let them go. Negativity or employees who are ‘energy vampires’ are the biggest reason for a startup’s failure,” Kashyap told the audience at the F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup.

Besides talking about his management mantras and his philosophy of dealing with personnel issues, Kashyap relayed his experiences in building up customer success teams and about the timing element in fundraising. “It’s about identifying the right investors for you at the right time. You need to understand that sometimes you just need something in your bank account to get started, and often that can be the difference.” Kashyap added that too often founders spend too much time thinking about whether a particular investor is a right fit for the company, but in fact, they just need some funding to gain momentum and take on the market.

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. Stay tuned for our next F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup.

Relive the May 2019 edition of F.O.U.N.D.E.R.S. Meetup here.