Intervue founder Rahul Arora shared how he secured seed funding from Cred founder Kunal Shah. He reflected on the early days of the startup which were crucial moments for the company. It was during this time that he approached FreeCharge founder for investment in his startup and said that Kunal Shah ‘came in as an angel’.
The post on Instagram opens with the text overlay, “First 3 months of being a Founder, people around said why reach-out to KunalShah, why would he reply to you..”
Notably, Intervue is a platform that provides SaaS solution designed to streamline technical hiring through collaborative, live coding and video-based interview environments. In an email addressed to Kunal Shah, he requested for his thoughts on his ideas and pitch. The response, he received was a game changer.
Rahul Arora said, “Emailed him anyway, because why not? What is there to lose?” In a LinkedIn post, he described the happenings in comprehensive detail. During those days, he was “short on angels, short on warm intros, short on options” but decided to give a shot. The day he sent the mail about what they were “building and where it would go”, he was at his cousin’s wedding.
In a reply dated 29 January 2021, Kunal Shah wrote, “Would be keen. Send me round details.” The , who appeared as contestant on Shark Tank India Season 3 shared an article titled, “Intervue Secures Seed Funding From Titan Capital, Kunal Shah And 2AM VC” published in India Entrepreneur. This article suggested that Intervue raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Titan Capital, Kunal Shah, Brendan Rogers and Hershel Mehta which would be used to “scale the product and strengthen the core team.”
“He replied! Round closed He is one of our investors,” said Rahul Arora, who featured in Forbes few months ago. Recounting his , he wrote on LinkedIn. “That was it. He (Kunal Shah) came in as an angel. I think about this every time someone tells me to wait for the right intro, the right room, the right timing. The cold email works more often than you’d think. You just have to send it.”
This post comes at a time is in the limelight after Meta appointed him as WhatsApp global CEO. This development came on the heels of Meta’s massive $900 million investment into Indian fintech platform CRED.
Social media reaction
A user wrote, “People said, “He won’t reply.” You sent the email anyway. That’s what happens when you take the shot. The rest is history.”
Another user remarked, “Maybe I was wrong to pitch him directly instead of asking his thoughts on it like you do.”
A third comment read, “Would love to know the content of the email.”
A fourth user stated, “Less ego takes a long way.”
A fifth user remarked, “What Zerodha did for equity, someone needs to do for real estate — bring data, kill the noise.”
A sixth user replied, “That’s how I’m approaching @ananyabirla ‘s team for Birla AI Collaboration for Design.”