Fund India

Reality of Startup Events : Pitch. Smile. Pray. Repeat.

💸 “Everyone’s a VC until it’s time to wire.” 🎭 “Welcome to Startup Events.”

 🥴 Another Mixer. Another Ghosting.

"Networking Events: 90% Vibes, 10% Burn Rate Anxiety."

A fund manager (handling ₹1,600 Cr) vented over terrible airport coffee:

He said he flew to Singapore. Business class. 5-star hotel.

total spend: ₹6.6 lakhs.

 (I’d do the same 5-day trip under ₹2 lakhs, flights, stay, meetings, all in. What’s the ₹4.6L for? Startup cosplay tax?)

Met 8 ‘allocators’:

✅ A few asked if we do deeptech NFTs and “idea-stage” allocations (???)

❌ 3 were consultants “exploring capital deployment strategies”

✅ 5 were startups delusional decks, 0 revenue, 0 traction, 10x valuation

👻 The rest? Straight-up ghosted.

And yes ,he was on the main panel.

What Startup Events Have Really Become in 2025:

🎪 The Great Capital Circus

 You expected LPs with mandates.

 You got influencers with media passes and “maybe we’ll co-invest” energy.

→ One guy’s “just here to learn”

→ Another is “launching a fund” (no LPs, just vibes)

→ One lady genuinely asked if convertible notes are printed on paper

🏁 Founder Olympics: Fake It While You Make It

→ Founders smiling like they’re not 60 days from shutdown

→ “Soft commits” stacking higher than the hotel buffet

→ Pitch decks flung like startup confetti

→ Everyone claiming “oversubscribed” while silently praying for a bridge round

🧊 “Investor Access” = LinkedIn Limbo

→ No pre-qualified LPs

→ No decision-makers

→ No follow-ups, just that one guy asking if your deck has a watermark

It’s not capital. It’s cosplay.

 In a WeWork-branded lanyard.

You call it “pipeline”

Let’s be real: it’s just expensive drift.

Event Checklist in 2025:

✅ Who’s actually deploying capital in that room?

✅ What % of meetings led to wires , not “let’s sync post-Q3”?

✅ Are you here to close, or just collect tote bags?

💬 Your turn:

 What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen at a startup event?

 Who ghosted you hardest?

 Who actually wired?

 Drop your real stories. Let's build an honest thread. 👇