Founder @lvxventures & MyPragati | General Partner at SamVed | Angel Investor All views personal.
Bangalore
Joined May 2009
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Should you raise money at all?
I spend much of my professional life around fundraising, so perhaps the most useful place for me to start this series is by saying something that sounds counterintuitive: you do not have to raise venture capital.
I have spent a decade sitting across the table from founders raising their first round. Most arrive with a pitch deck, a financial model and a number they want to raise. There is no shortage of information online to help them prepare. In fact, with AI, increasingly every founder can arrive with a polished model, an exit scenario and a deck that looks investor-ready.
But fundraising is rarely about the deck and the numbers.
Read the detailed post on shantimohan.com
#TheFirstRaise #Fundraising #StartupIndia @lvxventures
Thank you Hon’ble PM @narendramodi for your recognition and encouragement of #startups and #founders who are building for #bharat.
When we backed @GalaxEye at @lvxventures, we believed India’s private space sector was ready to write its own chapter. Mission Drishti — the world’s first OptoSAR satellite and India’s largest privately-built satellite — is proof that the chapter has begun.
Congratulations to the entire @GalaxEye team. This one belongs to the builders.
@startupindia #LVXPortfolio @iitmadras @thesuyashsingh @ThePranitMehta @rakshitbhatt98
Mission Drishti by GalaxEye marks a major achievement in our space journey. The successful launch of the world’s first OptoSAR satellite and the largest privately-built satellite in India is a testament to our youth’s passion for innovation and nation-building.
Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to the founders and the entire team of GalaxEye.
@GalaxEye
Most founders don’t fail because they couldn’t build. They fail because they started with an idea, not a problem.
Excited to start a series for #founders.
Starting up always looks cleaner from the outside than it actually is. When I started @lvxventures, I did not have a clear plan.
I get asked often about how we built LetsVenture. Building a marketplace is far harder than it looks — at the core, it has been first-principles thinking, a lot of conversations, some wrong turns, and a few right ones.
For #founders, there is no shortage of frameworks today. But very little tells you what it actually feels like when you are in the middle of it. So I decided I will start sharing a few notes from my own journey.
Not frameworks. Just what I saw, what did not work, and what stayed.
Over time, I have realised this — building a startup is a masterclass about understanding people (and yourself) as it is about building a business.
Starting today with this on my substack:
How I found the problem I wanted to work on.
Read along.
shantimohan.substack.com/p/s…
@startupindia #entrepreneurship #india #marketplaces
Been a while since I’ve posted on X.
2026 does promise to be an interesting year! Hope to stay more active.
Wishing all of us a peaceful, stable and fun year ahead!
In this post, I write about why venture investing, at its core, is a people business — it’s always about betting on the smartest minds.
To simplify this idea, I’ve created a 6-lens framework that helps look beyond numbers and understand founders better.
shantimohan.substack.com/p/s…
Shanti Mohan retweeted
How are U.S. policy shifts reshaping the Indian startup landscape?
@shantimohan breaks it down — from her LVX journey to her mission of democratising angel investing, and her insights on choosing co-founders and delivering a pitch that lands.
Connect the dots between geopolitics, founder dynamics, and founder readiness with @shantimohan as she highlights how U.S. economic shifts affect Indian startups and why co-founder alignment and clear storytelling remain critical advantages.
Watch the entire episode of Ask The Expert with Shanti Mohan now at youtu.be/lQA8EmiwIqI?si=VK5Z…
@IDFCFIRSTBank @indiqube @TheLeelaHotels @Tracxn @EconomicTimes
A 10cr TAM and 10x return? Possible?
Early-stage investing is full of paradoxes. We talk about market size, scalability, and “unicorn potential” — but sometimes, the biggest outcomes come from the smallest beginnings.
I also want to say that often our bets in early stage are also good timing - meeting the right people and making the decision to invest. This is a case study from my own portfolio.
Read the full post here - shantimohan.substack.com/p/s…
Enter the Pitch Room - chat.whatsapp.com/JDnJ9AKT3O…
Dear Growth-Stage Founder,
We know how tough it is to start up — you have been through the grind yourself. The journey doesn’t get easier as you scale; competition increases, expectations rise, and decisions get harder.
Let’s build an ecosystem where deals are fair, intentions are clear, and conversations honour the effort behind every startup.
How do we ensure we get there — together?