eChai SF: Fund Raising for Startups - VCs Panel
San Francisco

eChai SF: Fund Raising for Startups - VCs Panel

Happened

Thursday, 2 October 2025, 5 pm - 7 pm PDT

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 150 E San Fernando St, San Jose, CA 95112, United States.Directions
San Francisco
About

Raising capital is one of the most crucial — and often misunderstood — parts of the startup journey. Founders face questions every day: What do VCs look for? How should you structure your pitch? When is the right time to raise, and how much is too much? ​At this eChai session, we’ll flip the perspective and explore fundraising through the lens of venture capitalists and ecosystem leaders. This is not just theory—it’s a chance to understand the inside playbook, straight from those who see hundreds of startups and deals each year. ​🎙 Featured Speakers ​🔹 Vinit Bhansali - Takshil Ventures ​3× founder and Partner at Takshil Ventures(a $30M concentrated early-stage technology investment firm), where he unpacks how early-stage venture investing is evolving in a world shaped by AI, fast followers, and rising product-led expectations. ​🔹 Fady Barsoum - Baird Augustine ​As a key voice in bridging startups with local and international ecosystems, Fady focuses on enabling founders to access resources, capital, and partnerships. He brings a broader economic and ecosystem lens, helping entrepreneurs understand how macro trends, policy, and global shifts shape investor decisions and startup opportunities. ​🔹 Jordan Wahbeh - SV Ventures Group ​Jordan Wahbeh is Managing Partner at SV Venture Group, a syndicate investing in companies that improve the human condition. SVVG backs B2B and B2B2C startups at Series A, Pre-A, and late seed with a focus on deep tech, AI, health, fintech, logistics, space, and climate. Their typical check size ranges from $150K–$500K, supporting founders building technology that shapes a better future. ​💡 What You’ll Learn • ​How VCs assess founder–market fit, timing, and scale potential. • ​The nuances of fundraising in today’s climate—what has changed and what hasn’t. • ​How ecosystem partnerships and macro trends influence startup success. • ​Practical tips for crafting pitches and investor updates that resonate. ​🌐 Why Attend? ​This event is designed for: • ​Founders raising or planning to raise capital. • ​Operators & builders curious about what VCs look for. • ​Students & aspiring entrepreneurs who want to peek behind the curtain of venture investing. ​Beyond insights, you’ll connect with fellow founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders in a candid, interactive session.

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Founders here come to know a few brands well.

Those are eChai’s partner brands. Over a year, founders across the network learn their names and their work, and when somebody asks around for what they do, theirs is the name that comes up.

Partner brand founders together at Zestard HQ, Ahmedabad

What a year inside eChai does for your brand.

Each partnership comes with presence across eChai, introductions to the right founders, and a team that stays involved through the year. And each one is shaped around what the brand wants out of it.

Who you meet

  • Founders learn your name, then your work.

    Over the year they keep running into you: at the gatherings, in the series, on the pages they read through the week. So when one of them needs what you do, they come straight to you.

  • We introduce you to the people you want to reach.

    After seventeen years of gatherings we know who has built what, and who works with whom. Tell us who you are after, or we come to you when the right person shows up, with your story and why you two should talk.

  • You are invited to the gatherings that fit.

    Open houses, Demo Days, the AI sessions, FailCode, the curated socials and the smaller dinners, some of them by invitation. When one fits what you do and who you want to meet, you are on the list.

What we do with you

  • We sit down with you on your story, your brand and your business.

    One to one, more than once in the year. We have heard a few thousand founders, so you hear fairly quickly what is working, what is not, and what we would change first.

  • We take your team through what AI changed for us.

    Almost everything eChai builds now has AI in the workflow. We go through what we tried, what worked and what wasted our time, and then connect you to founders further along than us.

  • You can ask us anything, whenever it comes up.

    Every week we hear what founders are building, what they recommend to each other and what they have moved on from. Twice a year we go through what it means for your category. In between we answer, or find a founder who can.

Where your name runs

  • Your mark comes round under every page on eChai.

    The wall of partner brands under the site's pages draws a different ten each time, so yours comes round on the city pages, the event pages and the notes founders read, all year. Your page on echai.ventures stays up after it, and your name runs through our LinkedIn, Instagram and X.

  • The blue tick puts you first wherever founders are listed.

    The tick and your company's mark sit beside your name across eChai, and lists of founders put the blue ticks first: your city's people, the directory, and the roster of every gathering you go to, after its hosts and speakers.

  • Your company carries its mark on the Startup Grid.

    Where your company is on a city's map of its startups, it is drawn by your mark rather than a dot, opens on your own words and pictures, and is a stop on the tour the map offers of its partner brands.

  • You write and speak here under your own name.

    You come into the series we run online (How Founders Use AI, the founder conversations, the long reads) where you have something real to say, and you write in Founder Notes, where founders across our cities write about what they are building.

The brands working with us.

How it works.

A partnership is for growth stage founders who want to come in as a partner brand, and it runs one year at a time. The brand fee for the year is paid to eChai. An affiliate share runs alongside it, linked to the outcomes we drive together. Both carry GST.

Everything a partnership comes with

To come in as a partner brand, write to me at [email protected] and tell me what you want the year to do for your brand.

Jatin ChaudharyCo-founder, eChai Ventures

eChai in other cities.

India

North America

Global

Every city on eChai

Founders who came to their first meetup years ago are still turning up, in cities they hadn’t moved to yet.

Joining is a profile: a photograph, your name and a way to reach you. With it, registering for a gathering takes one tap.

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