I am Ajeet Khurana, angel investor, mentor, former CEO of SINE and more! Ask Me Anything!

Howdy TIA Community,

I’ve been in the startup scene in India since 1993. With two stints as an entrepreneur, both mysteriously lasting exactly 6.5 years, I have seen quite a bit of the ups and downs of starting up. Among other things, this has seen me raising money for my own startup, and eventually raising money for several other startups. I have sold my first company in a cash-only deal, and helped some founders exit their startup. Some noteworthy episodes of my startup life: being CEO of IIT Bombay’s business incubator (SINE), an angel investor, mentor, member of Mumbai Angels, and more. All of those give you ideas of what you could ask me.

Some of the startups I have been associated with are as follows:
As a shareholder:

• 10kya (ecommerce for Sports, Adventure,…)
• Avaz (app for autistic care)
• Ballistic Ads (data science for optimizing online ad spends)
• Carve Niche Technologies (edu tech)
• GodCast (messenger)
• Holamed Healthcare Technologies (medical diagnostics marketplace)
• Karmic Lifesciences (clinical research)
• Koonk Technologies (cloud server provider for SMEs)
• Leaf Innovation (smart jewelry)
• Maximojo (hospitality tech)
• Omnikart (industrial ecommerce)
• PickMe eServices (on demand service)
• PlanMyTour (validated itinerary generator for travel agents)
• RainCan (subscription grocery)
• Rolocule Games (gaming)
• Shephertz (cloud ecosystem for apps)
• SnackExperts (subscription based health snacks)
• StitchWood (configurable furniture)
• United Mobile Apps (4G telecom)
• Urjas (gasifiers)
• VeloVan (Uber for small truck rental)

As Part of SINE, IIT Bombay:

• Atomberg (industrial sensors, DC motor ceiling fans)
• Coin (payment device and service)
• Drona Aviation (drone services)
• Flipgames (mobile games)
• HealthEra (low-priced sanitary napkins)
• Igrenenergi (solar power optimizers)
• InOpen Technologies (computer science education)
• Knit App (educational messenger)
• kWatt Solutions (solar power plant installations)
• Lucideus (web security)
• Nanosniff (nanotechnology cardiac markers and explosives detectors)
• Purple Squirrel (educational tourism)
• Sensibol (audio technologies)
• Sweep Enviro (clean water)
• Tutelez (school ERP)
• Wegilant (mobile app security)
• Y-Point Analytics (data analytics)

Disclaimer: Some of the names above are official company names, others are the most popular brand name used by the startup. At least in one case, I know that the startup has changed its name. At least 2 of these have shut shop. Of course, the number of startups I have peripherally engaged with is a 100x the size of the list above.

If you do not want to ask questions, but would like to see a couple of my videos here are a few URLs:

• Interviewing the 3 big shot Bansals of Indian Ecommerce
• TEDx talk on entrepreneurship
• Best sectors to startup
• Basics of venture investing in India

And you are welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

This is my first AMA, and I would, obviously, like it to be a roaring success! So, ask away, and I will respond to all questions where I feel I am in a position to respond. While most AMAs last an hour or two, I am going to keep this going for a continuous 12-hour period. Naturally, I will be away for some brief periods during this time. I would love this page to become a repository of everything I know about starting up. But that depends upon you asking me questions. So, please ask away. Also feel free to question my responses. Nothing quite like a healthy discussion 🙂

Note from Daniel, TIA’s community manager:
The host may choose at his preference to not answer particular questions. The AMA is moderated by the community managers, so let’s keep the questions friendly. 🙂