Startup Mentors (SUM) is a free platform for first-time founders and early-stage startups in India. We share what actually works from the people who have done it: founders, investors and operators who have built, scaled and sometimes failed. No jargon, no gatekeeping, no fees. The idea is simple. A startup’s success is the sum of good ideas, honest guidance, the right connections, and hard-won lessons, so we put those in one place for the founders who need them most.
SUM is the brainchild of Dr Aniruddha Malpani and is run by the Malpani Ventures investment team, with inputs from portfolio founders and industry experts. That matters for one reason: the advice here comes from people who write cheques and build companies in India, not from generic playbooks written for Silicon Valley.
Who this is for
You are early. Maybe you have an idea and a co-founder, maybe a product and your first users. You do not have a board of seasoned advisors on speed dial, and most of the mentorship around you is either too expensive or too vague to use on Monday morning. That is the gap we fill. If you are raising your first round, hiring your first ten people, or trying to work out whether to scale or hold, you will find something here you can apply today.
What you get
- Operating lessons by stage. Practical guidance across ideas, building, executing, scaling, hiring, fundraising and failure.
- Teardowns of real Indian companies. We study what Log9, Captain Fresh, Infra.Market and others got right and wrong, with the numbers. Read the startup teardowns.
- Tools you can use now. Start with the runway and default-alive calculator to see how long your cash lasts.
- Talks, podcasts and books. A growing library of resources and podcasts from founders and investors.
The founder community
The fastest way to get unstuck is to ask someone who has been there. Our WhatsApp founder community is where early-stage founders in India trade real answers, not performative advice. It is free to join and built on founders helping each other.
Join the founder WhatsApp community
Why mentorship matters more in India
Indian founders face problems the standard startup canon ignores: vernacular markets, thin early capital, long sales cycles with enterprises and government, and a regulatory layer that changes often. Good mentorship here is specific. It answers how to price for a price-sensitive market, how to read a term sheet written for Indian instruments, and when overestimating digital penetration will quietly kill your growth. That local, grounded guidance is what we aim to give, for free, to as many first-time founders as we can reach.
Common questions
Is this really free?
Yes. The articles, teardowns, tools and community are free. Startup Mentors is run by the Malpani Ventures team as a way to help first-time Indian founders, not as a paid programme.
What is startup mentorship, exactly?
Practical guidance from people who have built and funded companies, aimed at the specific decisions you face early: what to build, how to price, when to raise, who to hire, and when to hold instead of scale. Good mentorship is specific and honest, not motivational.
Do I need to be funded or past a certain stage?
No. This is built for first-time founders and early-stage startups, from the idea stage through your first rounds and first hires. If you are earlier than you think you should be, you are in the right place.