The Startup Masterclass (SMC) 2019 which was held in the city on Sunday offered entrepreneurs with one-on-one mentorship sessions with experts. One of the experts speaking at the event was Akshay Mehrotra, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), EarlySalary, a Pune-based fintech company. Mehrotra’s speech functioned as a crash course in ‘selling yourself’ and highlighted the need to stand out from the crowd.
EarlySalary is building the country’s “largest mobile-first consumer lending platform for salaried individuals. In the space of four short years, EarlySalary has amassed ₹1,000 crore in gross disbursements by the end of the financial year 2018-19 and is hoping to attain the unicorn status in the coming years.
In recognising the vitality of differentiators, Mehrotra offered local entrepreneurs an alternative blueprint for building a successful business without resorting to elaborate marketing plans.
“Understand the math in your company,” cautioned Mehrotra. While external marketing campaigns may not be his secret sauce, Mehrotra doubled down on the need for entrepreneurs to have an intimate knowledge of their business to cogently sell a business idea to investors.
Mehrotra offered five simple tricks to the audience to achieve the perfect investor pitch. “Most important among them is the leadership potential of the startup idea and the demonstrated growth of the company, “ he said.
“Add to that the all-important differentiators and the potential for future growth and entrepreneurs will have a winning presentation on their hands,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Add to that the all-important differentiators and the potential for future growth and entrepreneurs will have a winning presentation on their hands,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Mehrotra emphasised the key role played by the core team of a new startup. With a background as a top marketing executive for corporations such as Policy Bazaar, Big Bazaar and Bajaj Allianz, he recounted his own experiences with receiving funding during the early stages of his startup. “The calibre of the EarlySalary leadership is what drew the initial round of funding before they had a successful track record in place,” said Mehrotra.
What convinced investors to fund EarlySalary in the initial stages? “Investors saw two guys with amazing careers who had decided to start something new,” said Mehrotra. And the rest, as they say, is history.