The first cheque for BioCompute came from gradCapital (gC). In fact it’s the promise of that cheque that enabled me to take the leap and build the company full time (yup my parents had to see that someone was crazy enough to fund my idea to give me their blessings xD).
And as a lot of student entrepreneurs are exploring VC funding, and (perhaps) looking to apply to gC, I thought it would be helpful to pitch in and share some insights on the journey so far with them.
In 2022-23, I was a part of the gC team of VC associates (handpicked team of 15 odd folks from colleges across India) scouting for student founders, setting up calls with them and writing summary notes for the investment committee if any of the founders pass the initial screening. This gave me a lot of insight into the VC ecosystem, how capital flows and what kind of companies (and founders) gC usually backs.
I also saw how gC barely talks to you for 10-15 minutes over the first call to make a decision - they ask some very fundamental questions that enables them to get an insight. I understand that this often comes off as weird to folks who are used to elaborate pitches (with well-designed slides) with other VCs. But this is a unique card that Abhishek and Prateek have up their sleeves to pull out the founders they want to fund. And as far as I understand, this isn’t meant to be rude or demeaning.
I did drop out of the associate program midway through (because I was bored xD) and the team was fairly respectful of the decision.
The associate exposure enabled me to build a rapport with the partners Abhishek and Prateek, and more importantly understand how invested they are in the journeys of the founders they back. I also figured out that Abhishek is also someone who understands science and philosophy at a fundamental level and spends a lot of time thinking about it. That motivated me to get back and brainstorm an anti-microbial resistance (AMR) startup idea with him a few months after I had quit the associate program.
I decided to go to IISER Bhopal to work on a related project, but soon figured out that I hated it. I started thinking about BioCompute and started figuring out how I could build it (read more about that here).
gradCapital has a $5000 grant for cool science projects, this is what I initially applied to, because I was not sure whether I wanted to build a company. But I gradually figured it out (with a lot of handholding from Abhishek) and decided to pitch to the Investment Committe.
The best part about gC is that they don’t care about fancy decks and random business jargon, because they know you are too early for these metrics and they want to back you regardless. So the focus is on personal story, demonstrations of your skill to figure things out, why you care about what you are building and how big the market potentially is.
My IC day was fairly annoying because my laptop decided to glitch, I had to keep them waiting while I tried to fix my network, and ultimately ended up connecting through my phone (adding to the anxiety).
It was a nearly 25 minute presentation + Q&A, including Tarun Mehta (founder, Ather energy), Alagu Periyannan (serial entrepreneur whose last venture was Blue Jeans) and Vipul Patel (Partner, IIMA Ventures).
The decision came through within a few minutes post the call. And of course, I was on cloud nine. Also $40k for 4% is a $1 million valuation, that’s crazy for such an early stage company. The speed at which gC went from an expression of interest to IC and the term sheet is incredible - this is what students founders need.
A big part of the gC founder experience is the cohort of fellow founders - folks building very different things but sharing core traits like obsession (with the company of course), radical optimism and curiosity about the world. While gradCapital selects for some of the best founders in terms of the product, the market (and the usual jazz) they are also very particular about the ‘vibes’ of the founders; they go out of their way to ensure that their founders become friends with each other (beyond just being cohort-mates) and a community like that is critical for a founder.
The cohort weekend is an insane part of the experience - founders sit together sharing their biggest wins and roadblocks, learning from each other over a game of billiards or tabletop soccer, and picking the brains of the (often unfortunate) entrepreneurs and investors that gC picks to come and talk to us.
While these sessions with external folks are useful in terms of the insights, the best part is that you fall into their radar and can reach out to them for support later. Abhishek and Prateek often tap into their networks to open doors for big and (seemingly) small things - for instance one of their advisors ended up being of help to me when I was looking to rent out a space near CCAMP.
The latest addition to the cohort experience is the scenic three-storey house that gradCapital has rented out in Indiranagar - which doubles down as their office, as well as a hostel-room equivalent (with better food, of course) for founders to chill and crash for a few nights. The doors are always open, and it almost feels like a second home now.
More importantly, Abhishek and Prateek are the first people that most founders call up when they are having the worst days of their life, and they sit down to troubleshoot (and actually help you resolve it) as if it is the biggest problem in the universe, and drilling into you that you have all the capabilities to solve it. There are very few people in the world who would do that for you, while also being cognizant of how the VC world operates. We often joke about how gC at its core is a CAAS startup - co-founder as a service (sorry Sethi, we love you).
That’s also why one of gC’s earlier cohort founders has now returned as a principal (post his exit) to help expand the scope of the fund. That’s how much gradCapital means to its founders. And it’s a crazy experience to be a part of such a community.
Of course, there are challenges with how gradCapital operates - the ratio of women founders is abysmally low (they have now hired the awesome awesome Debamita full time in the founders office to help bridge this gap), they don’t necessarily have sector experts on board (which can always be accessed through other more sector specific institutions, in my case CCAMP and folks at deep tech funds), and they are often fairly spontaneous and sometimes annoyingly disorganised in terms of their approach (which they are now streamlining by off-loading a lot of responsibilities from the partners to newer hires).
That’s what the gradCapital journey has looked like so far. I have written it with as much nuance as possible (while being super biased). Happy to take more questions about gradCapital in the comments section (P.S. Please avoid reaching out on Linkedin/email/other channels for these questions, I will ignore them).
