Keeping in min𒐪d the aim of helpi💖ng startups acquire customers, capital, publicity, and scalability, Sachin Karnik, Founder and CEO of Kofounderz Team elaborated the context of The Great Unicorn Hunt.
With 50% of the portfolio of most VCs being ripe for Co-investment or next ꦓrounds and more than 80% o🌞f the portfolio companies of most VCs and Angel Investors not having secured a second round of funding in the last 24 months, the Startups are realizing that current mechanisms of securing next rounds or delivering exits are too linear and too inefficient. Enter The Great Unicorn Hunt.
Keeping in mind the aim of helping startups acquire customers, capital, publicity, and scalability, Sachin Karnik, Founder and CEO of Kofounderz Team elaborated the con🔴text of The Great Unicorn Hunt. He saiꦚd, “It is clear that there is a huge disparity in the way capital is getting distributed and even promising, well-funded Startups are not ending up on the right doorsteps. Any mechanism that could compress the discovery time of potential unicorns and make it easy for VCs and Investors to spot potential unicorns is going to be welcome, going by the reaction and welcome extended by some of the most prominent players of the Ecosystem.”
No simple Solutions and no💙 Short Cuts for theಞ Startup ecosystem
In keeping with the MVP or Minimum Viable Proposition approach that's so common in the Startup Ecosystem, Kofounderz Team conducted not just a poll but also conducted four detailed, closed-door , by-invitation only s🔜ymposiums and round tables to get an insight from the leading players of the ecosystem who have been on the forefront in terms of identifying, investing and nurturing winni🗹ng propositions before they got noticed by the world.
The objectives of the Virtual Symposiums and Round Table sessions were very specific:
Some of the prominent leaders that attended the First VC Symposium include
Sumit Keshan ( Wipro Consumer Ventures), Anoop N ( Chiratae), Pankaj Karna ( Maple Advisory), Bhavesh Jatania ( IDFC First Bank), Sachin Tagra ( JSW Ventures), Sanjay Mehta, ( 100x.VC), Rajesh Sehgal ( Equanamity), Sarvesh Agrawal ( Transparent Capital), Dhianu Das ( Agility Ventures), Ameya Prabhu ( Nafa Capital), Kishore Ganji ( Astir Ventures), Rachana Bhusari( NSE), Ajay Thakur( BSE), Anil Joshi ( Unicorn Ventures), Priyanka Thakkar ( Unilever Ventures).
There are many more who have joined the Hunt and their profiles and detai﷽ls can be seen on
Angel Investor round table attendees
Shashank Ranadev ( 100X.VC), Anubhav Tiwari ( IIIT), Dr. Manish Di✤wan ( BIRAC), Dr. Rupesh Ghyar ( BETIC), Konark Rai ( SASTRA), Kartheek ( MiraiNxT),Mathew Mattam ( CYDA India), Vikash( Runway Incubator). Angel Investors who attended include : Rajeev Arora, Pranay💫 Desai, Anand Shiralkar, Puru Modani, Ashish Agarwal, Vijay Hede, Sandhya Chaudhary, K.S.Raghunandan, Lalit Gupta, Neha Patil.
Corporate conference attendees included
Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini ( Aditya Birla Group), GovindaRaj A ( Vodafone Idea), Amarjeet Khanuja ( Star Health Insurance), Bhavesh Jatania ( IDFC First Bank), Dr.Dhirendra Kumar ( Tata Steel), Smriti ( Shell), Jaikrishan( Preferred Consumer), Vipul Mathur ( Udaan), Parthiv Gandhi ( HDFC Bank), Aditi Khu💦rana ( Softbank KK), Parimal Sheth ( Kennis Global), Sudhir Madh🔴ugiri ( Gartner)
There are many more VCs, Angel Investors, Family Offices, Corpora🍒tes and Mentors who have joined the Hunt and their profiles aꦯnd details can be seen on www.thegreatunicornhunt.com
Some of the sentiments, observations and supporting and welcoming views💖 expressed during the symposiums include, “ much needed initiative”, ‘” thi🍰s is like a script of a block buster”
Inviting startup founders, angel investors, VCs, family offices, corporates and mentors
The portal is basically a free to registe▨r portal where each stakeholder could register, declare his or her role and participate in the Hunt. The VCs appear in the Hunters sections and the Angel Investors, Incubators, Accelerators, Mentors appear in the Spotters꧙ section.
Founders could ping the Unic🌸orn Hunters and Spotters and vice versa to have offline connects and conversations.
The Startups that have been nominated by their investors could choose the Investor or VC and appear in the Nominated Startups section since the emphasis is also on making it easier for💜 VCs and Angel Investors to secure exits for their portfolio companies. Those who haven’t been nominated can appear in the Self Nominated Startups gallery.
The simplicity of the modelღ is that Hunters and Spotters could choosꦡe to convey their reactions via three emojis, Clapping, Thumbs up or Neutral face.
Celebrating startup say every month: Intentions are not enough if the rigor is missing
Some of the best intentions can take a back seat in terms of execution if the rigor is missing. The hunt cannot afford to lose steam mid journey. The drum beating, sound clanging, macchan building will be an ongoing ♎part of The Great Unicorn Hunt. Hoꦺwever, to ensure the rigor is visible in letter and spirit, KoFounderz Team has decided to support the Startup Day announced by The PM on 16th of Jan by taking it one step forward by celebrating the Startup Day not just once a year but by celebrating it on 16th of every month. To add to the discipline of the rigor, Sachin Karnik, Founder and CEO, KoFounderzTeam even creates a Video letter to 'report' to the PM Modi and Industry Minister, Shri Piyush Goel about the progress made every month.
The Great Unicorn Hunt is an open invitation to all Founders who believe their Startups are potential Unicorns and want to get Spotted and Hunted by veteran Hunters and Spotters speedily and efficiently without being judged, stopped and rejected by Gatekeepers. Founders who🐽 believe they need help in polishing their narrative and getting their actꦿ also have built-in support system in the form of paid services that founders can avail if required. The Great Unicorn Hunt is proving to be a boon to the high fractionalized Startup Ecosystem.
A Startup founder, with a decent and correctly uploaded Startup can be in front of the Top Most VCs and Investors and Corporates in few minutes.