Amit Gupta

YC has done a good job supporting ambitious deeptech projects. Seeds sowed over many years are starting to sprout in meaningful ways. Biggest support to founders (esp those building in the physical world) isn’t money - it’s the right advice, network, and peer support.

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Long overdue: I’m excited to finally publicly share what we’ve been building at Fundra. We’ve built the FundOps™ stack we always wished existed. What started as a side project during my time at Creandum – something I hacked on internally to scratch our own itch – has since grown into a proper product and a company. As investors, we love backing data-driven founders. I’ve been in countless board meetings discussing automated KPI dashboards and streamlined reporting – and I’ve built those data stacks myself while working at Monese. But the irony? The venture capital industry rarely practices what it preaches. Fund operations are still riddled with manual workflows, fragmented tools, spreadsheet gymnastics, and tedious manual document cataloguing. Existing vendors are still in the spreadsheet-digitization phase, essentially putting lipstick on a pig. They lack a real understanding of how fund managers actually operate – which is exactly why we had to build in-house in the first place. A recent quote that really stuck with me: “𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑟. 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑛𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ𝑒𝑟-𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑠 – 𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟: 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟.” (Garry Tan) Fast forward, after talking to many more funds, the pain points clearly resonated, and hence – Fundra was born. 🎯 We’re here to solve two core problems: 1️⃣ 𝗨𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 – VCs have access to incredibly rich, intimate company data (far more than public market investors), but don’t have the time or tools to make use of it properly for follow-on decisions, fund planning, reporting, etc. 2️⃣ 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 – The venture ecosystem at large – startups, investors, LPs – is a constellation of bespoke “APIs” that don’t talk to each other. This adds unnecessary overhead to each party in the stack (startups with a diverse pool of investors take the biggest hit), and prevents meaningful future progress in the industry. If you’re a fund manager frustrated by fund ops, let’s connect — I’d love to show you what we’re building. #VC #venturecapital #datadrivenvc #startups

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I've had clients recently who want to work with us because I can build their product in public. They ask, "Hey Jay, can Casper Studios build this, and then you can share what you’re learning along the way to gather early feedback and attract users?" If I'm aligned philosophically with the founders/creators and I believe in the value of their product, this is a no-brainer. It's a win for both parties. I haven't done this yet but expect more of it coming soon. It’s a benefit of working with established creators who want to build software products. Our goal is to increase the chances of success for them both in product design AND distribution. This also helps build live case studies in terms of our work. Feels like a win-win for everyone. If you're an established creator (i.e., >$500k ARR) let's jam. Have a ton of insights to help you monetize through AI software development.

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Six years of building digital products taught me this: Speed and clarity aren't opposing forces, but they're partners. Here's a reality check on product development that we were thinking over the last few months: Speed does matter. But not the kind where you're racing to push features without direction. I'm talking about the velocity that comes from crystal-clear understanding. From scaling Fcode Labs projects across multiple regions, I've noticed a pattern: • Teams that invest in clarity move faster naturally. (Knowing "why" and "what" they are buidling) • Clear requirements = fewer "back-and-forth" cycles • Aligned teams make decisions quicker • Well-defined problems attract better solutions We are now investing a lot to develop the mindset for developers to understand "why" and "what" they are building. It's a long term plan. Think about construction. You wouldn't start building a house faster by skipping the blueprint. You will have a blueprint.. and aligning everyone to the blueprint is what enables speed. In today's AI-driven landscape, this becomes even more critical. When you're integrating cutting-edge tech, unclear requirements can slow you down. Do you have proven practices that's helped your team maintain both speed and clarity in development? #ProductDevelopment #EngineeringLeadership #FcodeLabs

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💯 to this quote from Rob Snyder: "Serious founders don’t rely on discovery interviews. Serious founders don’t just whiteboard, brainstorm, theorize. They become their potential customer. Do you really think you can build a product people actually want, and actually value, that fits into their world so perfectly they rip it out of your hands… just by interviewing them? No! Go in-person. Do the work yourself. Get a firsthand view. If you’re not willing to do that, look in the mirror: Are you really serious about building something that serves customers? Or are you just in this to serve yourself?" #startups #entrepreneur

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