November 22, 2022: Much has been said and continues to be said about the start-up ecosystem in India. Amongst the various counsels of the few rights and the many wrongs, what really gets lost is the role mentorship and access to an authentic panel of advisors plays in creating a sound value-generating business. Shantanu Deshpande’s popular podcast, ‘The BarberShop with Shantanu’, comes back with a truly game-changing season 2.
Taking a step back: In Season 1 – ‘The BarberShop with Shantanu’ humanized entrepreneurship. Shantanu’s intimate conversations with the likes of Aman Batra, Ankur Warikoo, Vineeta Singh, Rohit Bansal, and several other celebrated entrepreneurs brought audiences closer than ever before to a founder’s and start-up’s journey and myriad shades. Over 1.5 Cr people tuned in to watch season 1. A community of over 200,000 start-up content enthusiasts has been created in just 3 months.
Now, in Season 2, co-powered by Bombay Shaving Company and Bombay, The BarberShop with Shantanu – Raiser’s Edge is raising the bar by becoming an enabler for budding start-ups and their founders. The season brings together a corpus of 50+ equity seekers looking to partner in early-stage, post-revenue, start-ups, in a journey toward discovering value together.
Over the course of 4 episodes every month, which drops every Friday – Several Founders will showcase their business & story, and be invited to access mentorship, advice, capital, and capabilities they need to build successful businesses in India. Founders only need to write to tbwsraisersedge.com to start the process.
The first episode of The BarberShop with Shantanu – Raiser’s Edge was released last Friday and within 48 hours, 400 startups have already applied to be part of the programme. The episode featured passionate Bhopal-based Prateek Vats and Deepesh Shrivastava, founders of Wanderloom. While the humor quotient in this episode was through the roof, they also narrated the tale of how they built a formidable business through Covid. In addition to Shantanu Deshpande, Mandar Vaidya, CEO of OYO Europe, and Meghana Narayan, Founder of Slurrp Farm were also part of the episode and sought equity worth 50 lakhs in Wanderloom.
Shantanu Deshpande, Founder and CEO, Bombay Shaving Company & Bombae, host and creator of The BarberShop with Shantanu said, “India is a service driven country. The fundamental thesis and intent of The BarberShop with Shantanu is to play a role in bridging the entrepreneurship gap in the country. I’m excited about how we’ve started. With Season 2 we want to turn the concept of ‘pitch meetings’ and ‘funding meetings’ on its head. We intend to be ‘founder-first’ in approach and language. Why shouldn’t it be an honest conversation between 2 equals and not a founder standing and investor on a throne?! We are not creating your typical funding-for-equity ecosystem; This is about true value creation that stands the test of the market, and in a format that’s open for everyone to witness and learn from. Authentic, and sans the drama of course.”
The year-long series will witness 50+ founders/CEOs coming together to invest 30 lakhs to 2 crores per company, depending upon the stage of the company and the valuation. Each episode will feature curious equity seekers and emerging founders sharing their visions to pursue rewarding outcomes.
