We Pitched to VCs... And It Was Humbling.

Like I mentioned on the latest episode of the podcast, we pitched to VCs. (You can see exactly what I said below.)

But here, I want to break down the real learnings from that experience—what worked, what didn’t, and what I wish I knew before walking into that room.

The Setup: Why This Meeting Mattered

We pitched to a VC that’s already familiar with the diaspora market. Their portfolio includes investments in brands like Aavrani and Popshift—so off the bat, I saw this as a good sign.

To me, this validated one of the core beliefs behind Chai Collective—that diaspora-driven brands are about to break into the global mainstream over the next 3-5 years.

And judging by who they’ve invested in, it seems like they agree.

🚀 If you’re building in this space, keep building. The market is opening up.

How The Meeting Went Down

I came in with:
✅ Our numbers
✅ Our place in the digital marketplace
✅ The fact that we showed profit in year 1 of business

I thought profitability was the flex. So I scraped through our balance sheet to emphasize that.

And while that exercise actually helped me pinpoint what made us money, their feedback told me I was focusing on the wrong thing.

3 Key Takeaways From the Pitch

1️⃣ Growth Over Profit. Always.

They didn’t care that we were profitable. They wanted to see growth.

Their POV:
💡 Show them that the digital presence is increasing.
💡 Prove that your problem isn’t the product—it’s just distribution.

In other words, investors don’t care if you make a little money today—they care if you can make a LOT of money tomorrow.

2️⃣ Know What’s Making You Money Now vs. What Will Make You Money Later

They asked me two questions:

1. Which of your business verticals makes the most money right now?

2. Which of your business verticals will make the most money in the future?

For Chai Collective:

• Right now, our creative services & business consulting bring in the most revenue.

• In 3-5 years, I believe the podcast will be our biggest revenue driver.

🚨 Their advice? Focus on the one that will make the most money and scale.

Now, in my case, I can’t drop the creative services & consulting yet because it pays for the podcast.

But if you’re a founder and you have runway?
🔥 Find the one thing that’s gonna take you to the moon and go all in.
🔥 Test and tinker, but once you find it, step on its throat.

The businesses that scale aren’t the ones that do a little bit of everything.
They’re the ones that figure out the winning formula and double down.

3️⃣ Valuation is a Mind Game.

Valuation = what you can sell your vision for.

As I did my research, I saw some competitors with valuations that made no sense to me.

But they got funded. So clearly, it worked.

What I learned? There are two ways to think about this:

🔨 Option 1: The Brick-by-Brick Approach

• Take in money only when it makes sense

• Scale at a steady pace

• Example: Kolkata Chai (friends & family round → pre-seed → seed round)

• Pros: More control, sustainable growth

• Cons: Slower, harder to break into massive markets fast

💰 Option 2: Raise Big, Move Fast

• Take the biggest valuation you can get and bet on yourself

• Example: Some startups raise $10M before proving anything

• Works IF you’re disciplined and spend the money strategically

• But if you’re blowing investor money on fancy dinners, you’re cooked.

I think most founders go with Option 2 because it seems “easier.”

And in some ways, it is—if you have the discipline.

The moment you raise that money, your only focus has to be execution.

Every dollar, every hire, every move has to push the business forward.

Otherwise, you’re just spending someone else’s money while playing entrepreneur.

Final Thoughts: The Shift in My Mindset

This whole experience opened me up to a different level of business.

In the creative space, we don’t always think about things like investor rounds, valuation, or scale.

But after going through this, I came out with:
✅ A clearer business model
✅ A stronger pitch deck (DM me if you want to see it)
✅ A longer-term perspective on how to build Chai Collective

Most creatives (and startups) operate in survival mode.

They ask: "Will we make it through this year?"

But you can’t build something long-term while thinking short-term.

If you want to play the real game, you have to move like you’re gonna exist in 5 years—

So you can start making 5-year plays, not 5-minute plays.

And that’s where having a war chest (or the right funding strategy) changes everything.

🚀 If you’re pitching to investors, raising money, or building a business—let’s talk.