Every startup stage breaks in a different place. Mohammed Amaan has watched it happen up close at a hyperlocal e-pharmacy, a doctor-focused edtech app and Unacademy, before moving to the investing side at Ankur Capital.
In this Builders Club conversation he shares how each company solved its cold-start problem, and what his team looks for when deciding how VCs back startups at pre-seed.
How do VCs decide which early-stage startups to back? Mohammed Amaan’s view
Amaan’s answer is that an early-stage investment is a bet on people and strategy more than on numbers. At pre-seed there is no revenue to judge, so his team looks at the founders, their vision, their go-to-market plan and what makes the company different.
His operating experience shapes that view. He saw the same pattern at three startups: a good product still has to solve a cold-start problem, and the approach that works depends on who the customer is.
- Team first. Founders, vision, go-to-market and differentiator are the four things Ankur Capital looks at.
- Experience beats pedigree. Demonstrated work in the industry matters more than a famous degree.
- Cold start is solvable. Each startup he worked at cracked it with a tactic fitted to its customer.
- Fit the mandate. Pitching a fund outside its focus rarely goes anywhere.
What did Mohammed Amaan learn from working at startups of different sizes?
Amaan got hooked on startups through his college entrepreneurship cell and a stint in investment banking that convinced him he wanted to build, not advise. He then worked at Myra Medicines, Daily Rounds and Unacademy, which he describes as moving from zero-to-one to a much later stage of growth.
The common thread was that problems repeat in form but not in how you solve them. A great idea still has to reach its first customers.
- Myra Medicines: a hyperlocal e-pharmacy promising delivery in about 90 minutes.
- Daily Rounds: a community and then an exam-prep product for doctors.
- Unacademy: a later-stage team that needed to build a new test-prep category.
How did Myra Medicines get customers to move from phone orders to the app?
Myra’s core buyers were older customers managing chronic conditions, who were more comfortable ordering by phone than through an app. The team did not fight that habit head-on.
Instead it priced the behaviour it wanted. A phone order earned a discount, while an app order earned a bigger one, nudging people gradually toward the app.
How did Daily Rounds solve the cold-start problem for medical students?
The product competed with legacy weekend coaching that students travelled to attend. Students depend on their parents for money, and parents trusted the existing institutions.
The team found the top students in each college and gave them free subscriptions. When those toppers did well in the exam, they recommended the app to juniors, who listen to seniors more than anyone.
Because it was a software product, the team could also improve it every month based on student feedback.
What problems did Unacademy face when starting a new category?
Unacademy had a strong brand, but a new category still had to prove itself against an incumbent. Budgets came in stages tied to milestones, and educators sometimes assumed the company could pay anything.
Amaan says roughly twenty-five approaches were tried and seven or eight worked.
What worked
Letting students pick different teachers for different chapters, introducing batches, and combining a competitor’s product after an acquisition all helped the team reach the top few in its category.
- Multiple educators per subject.
- Batch-based learning.
- Educator development over time.
What do early-stage VCs look at when evaluating a founder?
Amaan says degrees are only a positive signal. What matters more is whether the founder has worked on the problem for years and shows demonstrated experience, which gives a venture capital investor confidence they can execute.
He values breadth of visibility too. A chief of staff with a year and a half of exposure across the business may understand the industry better than someone stuck in one narrow function for three years.
- Market size large enough to support a big exit.
- Relevant experience or a real personal connection to the problem.
- A clear plan for the next six to twelve months.
- A founding team with a track record of working together and sensible equity splits.
How should co-founders split equity, according to a VC?
Amaan warns against giving a co-founder a very small stake. His rule of thumb was that a co-founder holding under about 20 percent risks losing motivation, and investors may not treat them as a true co-founder.
He also notes that most Indian founders are first-timers, so investors lean on prior work history and honest self-assessment to judge what help the team needs.
Is there too much money chasing too few startups in India?
Amaan disagrees. He points to strong exits, global investors turning to India and senior operators from earlier startups starting their own companies. More capital and more founders are arriving together.
He adds that getting funded has become more founder-friendly, and that later-stage funds now invest earlier.
Further reading and sources
Frequently asked questions
What do VCs look for in a pre-seed startup?
According to Mohammed Amaan, there is no revenue at pre-seed, so investors weigh the team, vision, go-to-market plan and differentiator. They also check market size and whether the founder has demonstrated experience in the industry.
Does a founder need an elite degree to raise venture capital?
Not necessarily. Amaan says a strong degree is a positive signal, but real industry experience and a deep understanding of the problem count for more at his fund.
How do I pitch investors who fit my startup?
Check each fund’s mandate before reaching out, since a good business outside a fund’s focus will usually be referred elsewhere. Amaan also described a pitch event where early-stage startups can present to several funds in one place.
Conclusion
Amaan’s stories show that the cold-start problem has no single fix. Pricing nudges, seeded power users and multiple-teacher models each worked because they fitted the customer.
If you are raising soon, focus on your founding team, your go-to-market plan and your industry depth, and approach funds whose mandate matches your startup.
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