Part 2/12:
A core theme emerged from the conversation: different founders have varied motivations and strategies regarding funding. The panel discussed three distinct approaches:
Kawa’s Perspective: Seeks funding primarily to scale operations, emphasizing the need for substantial capital to compete with giants like Cisco in the enterprise networking space.
Arpit’s Journey: Initially sought initial funding but shifted towards bootstrapping after experiencing the challenges of product-market fit, demonstrating confidence in revenue generation and profitability.
Kalyan’s Approach: Fully bootstrapped and believes in organic growth, raising funds only later to expand foundational models and infrastructure, aiming to preserve equity and ownership.