De-risk your startup journey. Learn what truly moves the needle.

Masterclasses by IIMA Ventures are high-impact virtual learning sessions designed to equip startup founders with the right tools, insights, and frameworks to navigate their entrepreneurial journey. Grounded in real-world knowledge and experience by founders, investors and industry experts, these sessions aim to reduce the risk of failure and accelerate the growth of startups.

This is a series that follows a holistic pedagogy, uses research-validated approaches to identify risks for founders in the early stages of their journey

Figure: Research from conversations with portfolio managers, founders

The masterclass pedagogy thus takes a curriculum based approach for the following stages in way that addresses the needs, risks and gaps identified by research, for the following pre-seed and seed stages:

• Ideation – evaluating their idea in the context of the sector and validating the market gap,
• Product-market fit – for founders who are working with the early product iterations, market testing, and trying to achieve product-market fit, and
• Scale – for founders who have achieved PMF and are now working towards scaling revenue, deepening market presence, building moats, and strengthening their product, team, and operational capabilities

We bring the right experts (founders, investors, practitioners) for each session identified under a crucial “thematic gap”, and also build proprietary ‘reflection and action’ toolkits that founders can use to reflect on the session’s contents with their teams. These are accessible only to participants of each session.

Note: The masterclasses topics are shared 1-2 weeks in advance. We strongly suggest to the portfolio and program companies to bookmark this link and watch this space to not miss any sessions.

Thematic Gaps and Session Schedules

GTM, Sales and Partnerships

Startups in their early revenue to even scale up stages struggle with a couple of scale blocking challenges.

The first is a 10,000 feet view of what the ideal GTM should be, given their business model and operational strategy, and the other, on how networking, selling and building relationships should be successfully conducted through a mindset shift.

To take these challenges on, the sessions we curated were: 

1. Sales & Communication by Gaurav Rastogi, DoLoop Digital on July 9, 2025

The session will focus on creating impactful sales relationships and strategic partnerships by mastering the art of connection and compelling narrative. The founders will explore techniques for building genuine rapport, effectively sharing their unique story to build trust and differentiate their venture, and cultivating long-term, mutually beneficial “Haathi aur Saathi” collaborations. This session is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and leaders in the Fintech and Livelihood cohort, aiming to accelerate growth through robust client and partner ecosystems.

Gaurav Rastogi is the founder of DoLoop Digital, which helps companies develop their growth engine through sales transformation. He is an AI startup founder (acquired 2020), a former Infosys executive responsible for driving their 10x sales transformation and growth to $7.5 Bn, an author with books published with the Oxford University Press and Penguin Books, and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, where he also heads the North American alumni association.

2. Founders’ GTM Strategy by Kulin Shah, Onsurity on July 10, 2025

Kulin brings to this session the diagnostic and prescriptive go-to-market(GTM) strategies and frameworks. These frameworks, anchored to his experience of what worked and what did not, are designed to help the early-stage founders identify leakages and problems with their current scale-up plans and ideate the GTM that fits better with the startup’s goals. Do not miss this session to ensure you get a plug-and-play toolkit on selling effectively in the early stages of a startup’s lifecycle.

Kulin Shah is the founder of Onsurity, a healthcare platform serving over 2,000 SMEs with wellness, telehealth, and insurance solutions. He has over 18+ years of experience in launching and driving business P&L, category management, product management, brand partnerships, growth and business development. Additionally, he has worked closely with multiple startups as an angel investor, mentor and advisor.

Storytelling, Branding and Marketing

One of the critical obstacles for startups is constructively translating the startup’s vision to attract the right stakeholders – from investors, to partners, customers and (at the scale up stage) the right employees – using the right platforms.

Often, founders may invest in crafting the right pitch deck only for investors or B2B customers, but will neglect using founders’ insights on their journey on the right social platforms, in a simplified way to bring about trust building and as a measure of pull-marketing. This is suggested not just for D2C startups, but has been found to be a success amplifier even for B2B startups.

3. Founders’ Journey by Bipin Preet Singh, MobiKwik on July 23, 2025

Attend this session to hear about and learn from Bipin’s journey of building a now public fintech company that has diversified into multiple verticals, from payments, to loans and other financial services. Hear about his journey to get insights about Mobikwik and building trust and scaling.

Bipin Preet Singh is the co-founder and CEO of MobiKwik, one of India’s leading fintech platforms, serving over 140 million users and 3.7 million merchants. With a background in engineering from IIT Delhi, he has over 15 years of experience in building consumer technology, product strategy, and digital financial services. Under his leadership, MobiKwik has grown from a mobile wallet into a full-stack fintech player. Bipin is also a strong advocate for financial inclusion and has navigated multiple growth phases and regulatory environments while scaling a mission-driven company.

4. Customised Messaging and Storytelling, by Chirantan Bhabhra on July 24, 2025

This session with storytelling aficionado and expert Chirantan, will help founders identify their diverse stakeholders (customers, investors, employees and others) and craft simple, clear and compelling messages customised for each identified stakeholder.

Chirantan Bhabhra is a renowned storytelling coach and corporate trainer who helps individuals and organizations communicate with clarity, purpose, and impact. A graduate of IIM Ahmedabad, Chirantan has held leadership roles at Procter & Gamble, Snapbizz, and Udaan, before dedicating himself to coaching full-time. He conducts workshops on business storytelling, data storytelling, and effective communication for a wide range of audiences from CXOs and startup founders to educators and grassroots teams.

5. Digital Marketing by Aarti Boriya, upliance.ai on July 25, 2025

The session will focus on leveraging the startup’s platform to increase its appeal and amplify its message to the identified stakeholders.

Aarti Boriya currently serves as the Head of Content & Community at Upliance AI, India’s pioneering AI cooking assistant company. She leads content strategy initiatives and develops community engagement platforms, bringing together users, experts, and partners around the evolving AI-powered food ecosystem. Before her role at Upliance AI, Aarti worked as a Radio Jockey and Media Consultant, demonstrating strong skills in storytelling, content creation, and audience engagement.

Fundraising and Capital

Startups are often unaware of the landscape of funding instruments and pools of capital that reduce their ability to secure the right kind of capital.

Session details to be announced soon.

Management of Money

Startups frequently struggle to maintain and establish a robust financial standing that deters stakeholders’ confidence.

Session details to be announced soon.

Leveraging Technology and Artificial Intelligence

To have a competitive edge over others, startups must be aware of how to employ technology and AI for growth.

Session details to be announced soon.

People Strategies

Growing startups often lack strategies to maintain and deploy human capital for sustainable business development. Building a strong team and intentionally embedding culture suited to the vision and objectives of the organisation is a tangible amplifier of growth.

Session details to be announced soon.