How Akash Secured His First Angel Investor Through Networking
Networking Nirvana: How Akash Landed His First Angel
Stepping into the Unknown
Akash didn’t have an uncle in venture capital or a cofounder with a Stanford degree. He had an idea, an overclocked laptop, and a relentless curiosity about how new tools could shape education. What he didn’t have, starting out, was a network—or the faintest clue how to raise capital. The TechCrunch headlines and Y Combinator demo days seemed galaxies away.
This is a story about how a founder grew from hacking away in his bedroom to landing his first angel investor, not through a slick pitch deck, but via the messy, surprising reality of networking at the earliest stages.
From Nightly Hackathons to First Pitch
The idea came slowly. Akash was working as a part-time teaching assistant during remote semester lockdowns. He saw firsthand how students struggled to keep up over Zoom and asynchronous Slack channels. He would test simple tools—an interactive poll here, a document co-edit feature there—throwing them together with open-source widgets.
Every week he’d call three friends to test the latest version. Every month, the product completely changed shape. At one point he called it “ClassBoost,” and another month it was just a slide plugin. Each time it failed to click, he’d tweak again. Money was tight and finding technical support even harder. Akash faced rejections, ghosted emails, and the ever-present temptation to abandon the project altogether.
“Some nights I’d stare at a blank Figma screen and quietly wonder if anyone would ever actually use this thing. My only promise to myself was to keep showing up the next day.”
When Networking Isn’t (Yet) Natural
Early on, Akash avoided pitching at events—not out of strategy, but self-consciousness. But the project’s growing codebase had finally attracted a handful of users outside his circle, and feedback started trickling in via Twitter DMs. That encouragement pushed him to sign up for a small local founder meetup in Bangalore. He practiced his pitch twice on the auto ride over, palms sweaty, heart pounding like a bass drum.
The meetup itself felt awkward. No one wore badges. Everyone seemed to know each other already. Akash overcompensated by asking questions, keeping the focus on other founders and their projects. He got a few LinkedIn connections, nothing more. Still—when a second invite came two weeks later, he went anyway.
At that follow-up event, Akash met Priya, a startup advisor just back from a stint in the Valley. Priya’s advice was practical, not preacherly. She poked holes in his go-to-market, but offered to make email introductions to a few angels she knew.
“It wasn’t that I dazzled Priya with my pitch. I think she just saw that I made progress between our first and second conversation, even if it was messy progress.”
First Angel, First Yes
The most promising introduction was to Sudeep, a second-time founder who had become an angel investor in edtech. Akash thought the meeting would be a formal pitch, but Sudeep preferred to keep it casual—an early morning chai at a nondescript café.
Instead of slides, they talked about how education had changed since their own college days. Akash described his tool, owned up to every feature that broke, and shared honestly what he thought still needed work. Sudeep asked, “What would you build if you had twice the time and resources?” Akash’s answer, he later realized, mattered more than his actual MVP.
A week later, his phone vibrated at midnight. An email from Sudeep: “Let’s do this. I’ll wire the first check—INR 7 lakhs. Call me tomorrow and let’s talk how you’ll use it.”
- First angel secured: INR 7 lakhs
- First official revenue arrived shortly after from a pilot deal with an upskilling bootcamp
- Pitched twice at a local demo day, securing three more customer introductions
Lessons Learned from the First Check
- Networking isn’t about instant deals—it’s about momentum.The first meetup led nowhere, but the follow-up seeded a key introduction. Momentum comes from being present repeatedly, not one-off luck.
- Vulnerability builds trust faster than polished pitches.Admitting what’s broken and your real worries can make you more investable, not less. Sudeep saw humility as a sign Akash would listen and adapt.
- Every ask is easier after you deliver progress.Akash started each new relationship by sharing what had changed since the last conversation. Genuine updates made people invested in his journey.
“The biggest shock was that networking isn’t this transactional exchange. It’s a series of bets people place on whether you’ll keep moving, even in the fog. The ‘yes’ only comes after a string of honest, small updates.”
Where Akash Is Now
With that first funding, Akash hired a contract developer to polish the product, shipped a working integration for a bootcamp pilot, and slowly grew recurring revenue. His biggest lesson? To keep showing up, sharing progress, and seeking out those rare allies willing to bet on founders before the rest of the world believes.
What is your biggest takeaway from this journey? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
