Fund India

🚨 Give me 30 minutes with a founder, I’ll tell you if they’re going to make money or burn through capital.

No pitch decks. No FOMO. Just straight-up pattern recognition.

Here’s the exact framework I use to run first-level due diligence on early-stage founders 👇

🔎 STEP 1: WHO ARE YOU?

Q1: So... what exactly are you building?

If it takes more than 3 sentences to explain, you’re not ready for a VC.

You're still figuring it out. And that’s fine, but you should be talking to:

-Incubators 🏗️

-Angels 👼

-Advisors 🧠

Not institutional investors managing LP capital.

Early-stage ≠ early excuses. Your clarity on positioning, customer, and PMF must show up in how you talk.

Q2: What’s your past founder story? Anything shipped? Any exits, pivots, or hard learnings?

-I’m not looking for a perfect resume, I’m looking for:

-Real scars

-Tangible lessons

-Shipped product

VCs aren’t here to “give you a shot.”

We’re fiduciaries, not fairy godmothers. 🧚‍♂️

🟥 If you’ve never shipped and now you’re pitching a protocol, DEX, or infra layer ,you’re asking us to fund your education.

Harsh? Yes.Unfair? No.

Returns come from proven momentum, not potential alone.

Q3: What’s your earned edge in this market?

 Crypto, AI, fintech ,these aren’t amateur hours anymore.

📉 Narratives die in 90 days. If you don’t know the game, you can’t play it well.

So if you’ve never worked in payments, you probably shouldn’t start with a full-stack DeFi bank.

Start with something closer to your skillset or build the right team around you before raising.

🧠 STEP 2: HOW DO YOU THINK?

Q4: If I give you $1M, how do you get to $100M in the next 3–5 years?

The best founders aren’t “just following a playbook.”

They’re redesigning it. Then stress-testing it. Then breaking it again.

💡 Ask yourself:

Do you have unfair distribution?

Are you tapping into a network effect or community flywheel?

Have you designed better economic incentives?

Or is it all just... “We’ll execute better than others”?

🚩 If it’s the last one ,that’s a bet too many VCs already lost.

Q5: Let me challenge a part of your pitch ,how do you respond?

 This is the moment.

 Not for your idea, but for you.

🧠 If feedback gets you defensive instead of curious ,you’re not ready for scale.

 If you're protecting your ego more than refining your thesis, that's a red flag.

Ego has killed more promising startups than bad market timing ever did. 💀

🧑‍💼 To my fellow VCs & Investors

What are your go-to questions when vetting early-stage founders?

Let’s collaborate on pipeline, share notes, and help raise the bar for founder quality

📩 Reach us on pitch@tdventures.in

 We don’t invest in hype. We invest when the founder, market, and model align with our thesis, nothing less.