“Be honest with yourself, your team, stakeholders, customers, and everyone you are dealing with or working with. Building business is a long journey done with patience” – Devang Raja.
Devang Raja is the founder of Venture Wolf and brings more than 20 years of expertise in the financial services sector. He is also a well-known speaker and participant of the start-up jury panels at various events across the country. He mentors various businesses and guides them from “idea to IPO (Initial Public Offering).”
Devang is well-versed in the difficulties that entrepreneurs face because of his perspective as an entrepreneur. Devang and his journey have been featured in numerous e-magazines, which inspires many young people. He shared his entrepreneurial journey along with the challenges with Business Upside and his new dream project Wolf Den. Here’s the edited excerpt from the interview:
Edited excerpt from the interview
Business Upside [BU]: Congratulations for “Venture Wolf – The 30 Most Trusted Brands of 2023”.
Devang Raja [DR]: Thank You. Its all cos of hard work, dedication, patience, and persistence over last 6 years we have been able to achieve this. I owe this to the entire Venture Wolf team and Wolf Den Team.
Business Upside [BU]: While we have heard about Venture Wolf and know of all the good work it has done over last few years and how it has helped budding entrepreneurs raise funds, please help us understand what Wolf Den is?
Devang Raja [DR]: I am a firm believer that as a founder you should be able to set your business on auto pilot in 5 years. That is what I did with Venture Wolf. Venture Wolf team led by Manav Machal – Managing Partner is now capable of doing business themselves and do not need too much of my time. Anyone looking to raise funding for their startup OR growth stage company can send their details to [email protected] .
It was important for me to pick up another challenge and take Venture Wolf forward. Hence, with an intention of “Connecting Entrepreneurs” to investors in a pitch format – Wolf Den was born. Atif Quazi who comes with more than 20 years of experience in events and marketing has joined us as the CEO of WOLF DEN and is leading the team.
Business Upside [BU]: What is the intention behind starting Wolf Den? What will be its format?
Devang Raja [DR]: The main intention behind Wolf Den is to get startups to pitch in front of 100+ investors and get them funded. Wolf Den will be held in 7 cities across India starting with Mumbai. Rest of the cities are Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.
Wolf Den will follow 2 formats of pitching.
- Open Stage Pitching: Early-Stage Startups will pitch on open stage where 100+ angel investors, HNIs and micro investors, mentors and advisors will be willing to fund the startups. The pitch will be for 5 mins without Q&A. Interested investors will be connected with the startups post the pitching session.
- Closed Door Pitching: We will have Fund Houses, Micro VCs, Family Offices and Ultra HNIs present in this action-packed room who will listen to the pitches for 30 minutes including Q&A and will be willing to fund them.
We can pitch in 3 methods:
- Live pitching: Founders can come on stage and pitch themselves in person
- Incase if they are not able to come over in person and pitch, then they can pitch online
- We have also kept Video Pitch as a third option where startups can pre-record their pitch or showcase their product/services on a video and we will play it in front of the investors.
Business Upside [BU]: Who all will be participating in the event and what can one expect apart from funding at Wolf Den?
Devang Raja [DR]: We are expecting a total of 500+ offline and online attendance including startups, angel investors, HNIs, Private Investors, Banks, NBFCs, Family Offices, Micro VCs, Fund Houses, CSR, Impact Funds, Mentors and Advisors, Eco System Players and like-minded professionals to be a part of this summit. It will be a great fund raising and networking event for all.
There will also be best startups awards in following categories HealthTech, AgriTech, SaaS, FinTech, CleanTech, FoodTech; Gaming and Impact Category.
All startups would be getting a “Certificate of Participation” from WOLF DEN.
20 selected startups get to record their podcast with our podcast partner.
Business Upside [BU]: How does one participate in the event?
Contact:
Manav Machal – 8708084940 / Atif Quazi – 7208786212
Business Upside [BU]: Are there any charges for participation? As you know startups do not have money, can you waive off the participation fees?
Devang Raja [DR]: The participation charges are as below:
Open Stage Pitch – Rs 10,000/-
Closed Door Pitch – Rs 25,000/-
Delegate Pass – Rs 7,500/-
The above charges are inclusive of all taxes.
Above ticket charges include venue fees, morning breakfast, lunch and evening Hi-Tea. You will agree that all this is a cost of us.
We have kept our charges very nominal so as for us to cover our days’ expense. Also, we want to ensure that only serious startups are participating and hence the small participation fees.
We have only limited entries in both pitching formats and they are getting filled fast.
Business Upside [BU]: Would it be possible for you to open up on a few investors who will be attending the event?
Devang Raja [DR]: Yes Of course.
Some of the eminent guests and panelist attending the event are Mr.Kapil Hingorani (Credence Family Office), Mr. Ankur Shah (Patni Family Office), Mr. Shashank Randev (100X VC), Mr. Mayuresh Raut (Sea Fund), Ms Sama Jashnani (Disruptors Capital), Ms Harsha Mundhada (Parampara Early Stage Opportunities Fund Series 1), Ms Sipika Nigam (Artha Venture Fund), Mr. Abhijeet Kumar (Ah Ventures Fund), Mr. Mahavir Sharma (TIE India Angels / RAIN), Mr. Mitin Jain (India SME Investments), Mr. Deepak Agrawal (Rebel Foods) and many many more….
Business Upside [BU]: Thank you for your time and we wish you all the best for Wolf Den. See you at the event in Mumbai on 20th May 2023.
Also Read: Motivational Entrepreneurial Journey of Kunika Rathore, Founder of The Unknowns
