Having invested in multiple startups, I looked back and thought how I decided to invest in the startups.
Thats where I listed down some areas I felt that startups should look at
1. The Problem worth solving
The founder was 24, first-time, no deck polish to speak of, which is rare. He opened with:
"I'm not going to tell you what my product does. I'm going to tell you what it broke."
That was it. That was the hook. Can the founder describe the problem without mentioning their own solution?
I've sat through several pitches by now, not hundreds. Most start with a market size slide covering Global market, target market etc. This one started with a story about a broken process the founder had lived through personally. I leaned in, not because the idea was perfect, but because I believed he had seen the problem up close. That is rarer than good slides.
I also evaluate if I have heard of similar problem or solution elsewhere. Are there any competitors or its innovative idea cum solution? Is it scalable?
2. Why I Invest in Founders Before Products
Products change. Sometimes, even domain change. Markets shift under everyone's feet, sometimes twice in a single funding cycle. What doesn't change is the person sitting across the table, and that is what I am actually underwriting.
Also, founders from prominent institutions has higher chance of getting my funding as they are definitely elite but more important, they will have backing of alumni, who will back them to the maximum extent possible.
I have backed founders whose first product failed and but second one is flying or one who realised that first original idea is not flying and he quickly pivoted to new vertical, domain or product. Often, I have also passed on "perfect" products because something about the founder's answers felt rehearsed rather than reasoned. Twenty-nine years in BFSI and boardrooms taught me one thing: systems fail, and people either adapt or they don't & I bet on the ones who adapt.
3. When Traction Starts Speaking
Numbers don't lie, but they mislead you if you're not asking the right questions.
I have seen founders proudly present 40% month-on-month growth off a base of 26 users. I have also seen founders undersell flat revenue that was masking genuinely sticky retention.
What I actually listen for isn't the headline number, it's whether the founder understands why the number moved. Can they explain the dip in March? Do they know which channel is actually working and which one just looks good on a slide?
Traction that comes with a narrative is real but not with shrug.
4. The Red Flags That Kill Deals
A few patterns I have learned to take seriously, the hard way:
Founders who can't say "I don't know." Confidence is good. Manufactured certainty on questions they clearly haven't thought through is a warning sign.
Co-founder dynamics that feel off in the room. If they are finishing each other's sentences awkwardly rather than naturally, there is usually a conversation they haven't had yet, and it tends to surface later and affect the business.
Vanity metrics presented as business metrics. Downloads aren't revenue. Followers aren't customers.
No clarity on unit economics. If a founder can't tell me roughly what it costs to acquire and serve a customer, I start to worry they have run a demo, not a business.
If they don’t have quarterly numbers, again something is amiss.
None of these are automatic disqualifiers on their own. Two or three together, and I start writing my exit from the conversation.
5. Why Good Startups Still Get Rejected
This is the part founders find hardest to hear: sometimes a genuinely good startup gets a no, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the business.
· Stage mismatch. I am not the right check size for what they actually need. Timing. I have just deployed my angel allocation for the quarter.
· Sector fatigue. I have seen four fintech decks this month, and my pattern-matching gets tired even when the fifth one is good.
I try to tell founders this directly when it is true, because a rejection about fit is not a verdict on their business. Too many founders internalize every no as "the idea is bad," when often it is simply "not from me, not right now."
6. The Moment I Decide to Invest
There is rarely a single lightning-bolt moment. It is more like a threshold I quietly cross somewhere in the second or third conversation.
Usually it is a specific exchange, a founder answering a hard question about a past failure with more clarity than defensiveness, or catching an inconsistency in their own numbers before I do and owning it unprompted.
That is the moment I stop evaluating the pitch and start imagining the partnership. Once I am picturing board calls two years from now instead of scrutinizing the deck in front of me, I already know where this is headed.
7. Past investors and due diligence
One thing I always like to check - are there any prominent investors in past rounds? Is there any due diligence report available? Who all are advisors on the board? How much salary founders are drawing when you are still burning cash? How quickly can you scale down if market scenario turns worst (like covid)?
Final Thoughts: Building a Company Investors Can't Ignore
If there is one thing I would want every founder reading this to walk away with, it is this: investors aren't looking for perfect. We are looking for clarity, about the problem, about yourself, about what you don't yet know.
The best pitches I have backed weren't the most polished. They were the most honest. Build the kind of company where your worst quarter is still explainable in one sentence, and your best quarter isn't a fluke you can't repeat. Do that, and you won't need to chase investors. We will be chasing for the follow-up call.