Notes from Startup Exits and M&A Forum

It’s important for both the companies - the company being acquired and the acquirer - to evaluate not just products, services and financials but also whether there is culture fit between the leadership and the team at large.

⁠Due Diligence can bring to light compliance issues as well some times and it is ok. As long as it does not show gross negligence or mis-representation in data, Due Diligence typically goes through.

Diligence at the time of acquisition and diligence at the time of fund-raising are quite different. At the time of acquisition, it is much more focused on team, technology, GTM channels and financials while diligence at the time of fund raising is mostly legal and financial with some attention to other aspects.

It’s difficult for startups to plan for an exit. The plan should be created to become valuable for customers - everything else typically follows.

Things to keep in mind during fundraising for early stage founders.

There are no permanent ‘No’s. When an investor passed on your deal, ask for permission to keep them updated every quarter and then enrol them into a list to which you send out a quarterly update across your product, team and growth. You never know when interest in your startup might peak.

Fundraising is a full-time activity for 1 founder. Pitch to as many people as you can. Pitch, Ask for feedback, improve, repeat.

At early stages, valuation is more of an art than a science. Ultimately, when you are at the negotiating table - everything falls back to how desperate you are to raise and how convinced they are to invest in you.

It takes a village to raise a child.

Synup completed it's acquisition of Clientjoy | Operating System for Agencies yesterday.

Anupama and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the folks who've been our village while we raised Clientjoy.

So, here it goes.

Thank you.

Thanks Ashit Doshi for giving us our first office and thank you Tanvi Shah Rangwala for being the first believer in us and writing us our first cheque.

Thanks Jatin Chaudhary and eChai Ventures for a lot of things - but most of all, for giving us the first platform where we spoke about Clientjoy and thank you tapan kacheria for being our first paid customer. We still have the INR 1800 invoice.

Thanks Gaurav Zutshi for enabling us to get our first enterprise customer and thank you Rohit K. for being the pillar of support you've been through out our journey.

Thanks Anunay Gupta for pushing us - we know we were not the most ideal founders and thank you Sunder Nookala for asking the right questions with the intent to help, always.

Thanks Anil Roy and Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology for giving us access to talent and thank you Pankaj Bhimani for teaching that sales is not a skill, but an approach - polished language can only take us so far and that ultimately, selling happens between people.

Thanks Shrijay Sheth [keeper of all secrets] for always having the right legal advice and thank you Umesh Uttamchandani for being selflessly available to answer any funding related questions.

Thanks Vikas Mundhra for asking me questions that I wouldn't have asked myself and thank you Bhavin S Bhagat for being kind - always.

Thanks Udit Goenka for launching us on your marketplace and thank you Mihir Joshi and GVFL Limited for your trust.

Thanks Ritam Bhatnagar for giving us shelter while we were 30 and office-less and thank you Mitesh Shethwala for helping us acquire our first solutioning client.

Thanks Abhi Ballabh & Vengat Krishnaraj for bringing clarity into everything we were doing and thank you Mrigank Tripathi and Sachin Bhatia for agreeing to support us when chips were down.

Thank you Dveep, Hirvi, Keyur, Nirav and Faizan for believing in us while we navigated through some of the most difficult stages of our company.

Thank you Stripe, PayPal, Payoneer and Razorpay for partnering with a small firm like us. And thank you IIMA Ventures, SaaSBoomi and NSRCEL for your role in building the ecosystem that supported founders like us.

There are so many more people including our team members, family members, friends, stakeholders and customers who have played a pivotal role in our journey.

Founding and running a company is lonely. As first time founders, we did not always know the right way to do things. You people made the ride easier. You people made the journey better. You people made us.

We hope to enjoy your company in the future 😇

Final thank you to Ashwin Ramesh for seeing the value in what we had built.

 

Last week, I got an opportunity to Co-host eChai Demo Day with Viraj Rajani of Digipple.

Heatmaphero and SarvDhan shared their story and the problem they are trying to fix followed by insightful questions from the audience.

Later, we discussed fundamentals of starting a company from team building to finding co-founders and from fund raising to identifying the ideal clients.

Another interesting thing I witnessed was that a lot of students from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology and L.D. College of Engineering had also joined in. These folks were early in their education journey and were present to explore the startup ecosystem.

Thank you eChai Ventures for the opportunity and IIMA Ventures for the venue.

If you are interested in joining interesting meet ups in your city, consider following eChai Ventures and Jatin Chaudhary. 

They are free and a great use of your time.

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