Annual Recurring Revenue
We co-build AI-native B2B
companies to $10M ARR - profitably.
From strategy to execution - we co-build across GTM, Product, and Fundraising from day one until you reach $10M ARR in 4-5 years.
We do it the Shifu way.
Hands-on, in the trenches, building alongside founders. Co-building is our primary value-add.
Hands-on, in the trenches, building alongside founders. Co-building is our primary value-add.
We are not traditional accelerators
Who just focus on high-level guidance, cohorts, and advisory-led support.
Who just focus on high-level guidance, cohorts, and advisory-led support.
Our Mission
Co-building 100 companies in our lifetime, each profitable, founder-owned, and scaled to $10M+ ARR.
We only take on a new company when an existing one scales and a slot opens. No cohorts, no batches - just deep, focused co-building.
Fractional
CMO
Prateek PandaGeneral Partner, Shifu
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Looking for Co-Founders
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Looking for Co-Founders
Fractional
CPO
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Looking for Co-Founders
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Looking for Co-Founders
SaurabhCo-Founder
Fractional
CFO
Amit NahataGeneral Partner, Shifu
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Looking for Co-Founders
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Looking for Co-Founders
Fractional
CRO
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Looking for Co-Founders
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Looking for Co-Founders
Fractional
CHRO
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Looking for Co-Founders
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Looking for Co-Founders
+93
Others to come
*Fractional companies power all 100 Shifu companies from within, while scaling to $10M ARR themselves. Two are led by Shifu’s own GPs.
Our First Success Story
How we took Photon Legal from
Visit Photon Legal
How we took Photon Legal from
$700K to $2.5M in 18 months.
Repositioning
Traditional Law Firm
Hourly-billed, paper-heavy IP & patent work.
AI-native IP Tech Company
Launched an AI-native patent management platform that helps their customers identify, track, and file patents - from idea capture to filing.
Biggest deal closed
$1M
We helped them find their right ICP - avg ACV jumped from $10K to $100K, unlocking enterprise-size global customers!
We do it the Shifu way - a hands-on venture studio
Hands-on, in the trenches, building alongside founders.
Not the Oogway way - we are not a traditional accelerator.
Who just focus on high-level guidance, cohorts, and advisory-led support.
We co-build with a handful of companies at a time - deeply involved with every one.
They onboard 100+ companies a cohort with limited, surface-level involvement.
$10M+ ARR business that's profitable, founder-owned. A life-changing outcome for most founders we work with.
They're built to chase unicorns by design. A $1B outcome for the 1% - and mostly nothing for the rest.
We focus only on AI-native B2B companies, building from India for the world - where we have the deepest expertise.
They work across every business type, every category, every geography - breadth over depth.
We co-execute with founders across every critical function - from day one.
They offer guidance - but the execution is always on you.
On a mission to co-build 100 Companies in lifetime.
We cap intake at 4-5 companies a year and expand only after existing companies are scaled. We’re more of quality than quantity.
Onboarding in 2026*
Fractional
CMO
Closed
Fractional
CRO
Fractional
CPO
Closed
Fractional
CHRO
Fractional
CFO
Closed
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How we co-build with our Portfolio Companies.
First things first. We help you solidify your ICP. Through direct conversations with buyers across your market, we uncover what to build, how to sell, and where higher ACV truly exists.
40+ in-person ICP research meetings conducted alongside the Photon Legal founder.
₹50K→ $100K ACV ICP change drove the ACV jump - fewer customers, larger deal sizes.
We help you translate ICP clarity into sharp customer positioning. That positioning becomes the foundation for decks, website copy, sales reach-outs, etc.
Before
After
Before
After
Most founders struggle to build a repeatable demand engine. We specialise ACE in designing and executing GTM motions that scale beyond founder-led sales.
~2→ 50 MQLs/mo
built repeatable ABM motion to get 50 MQLs, all with a potential of being $100K ACV customers
$4M
pipeline generated over a course of 15 months from homogenous $100K ACV customers.
~2→ 50 MQLs/mo
built repeatable ABM motion to get 50 MQLs, all with a potential of being $100K ACV customers
$4M
pipeline generated over a course of 15 months from homogenous $100K ACV customers.
~2→ 50 MQLs/mo
built repeatable ABM motion to get 50 MQLs, all with a potential of being $100K ACV customers
$4M
pipeline generated over a course of 15 months from homogenous $100K ACV customers.
We’re co-building Outcome-as-a-Service companies - delivery-led, product-powered. Companies own outcomes while Product creates leverage to reach 80% gross and 20% net margins.
Traditional Agency
Scales by hiring more people -output grows linearly with headcount. Operations stay heavy, leaving limited leverage and ~5-10% net margins.
AI-First Agency
AI automates a large chunk of work, including ops and delivery, creating real operating leverage. Fewer people, better output - enabling ~20% net margins.
We built Photon Pulse - an AI-powered operating system for patent programs: submit ideas, score them, and manage execution end-to-end. Built for $500M+ revenue companies to track their patent pipeline, see what matters, and take action - all in one place.
5+
clients added within 30 days of launch.
$500K
revenue influenced.
30+
patent ideas submissions in a month.
Fundraising isn’t just raising money - it’s raising at the right time, from the right people. We help founders plan the round and close it faster through sharp narrative + warm intros.
Strategy
1. When to raise: validate momentum (repeatable GTM, clear ICP, improving margins, predictable pipeline).
2. How much to raise: align runway with milestones (team plan + GTM plan + product roadmap), not vanity dilution.
3. From whom to raise: angels vs micro-VCs vs VCs vs family offices - based on stage, pace, and risk profile.
Warm Intros
1. Shifu Angels: warm intros to 200+ angels aligned to your stage and category.
2. Partner VCs: intros to VCs and micro-VCs who already track Shifu-built companies.
3. Process support: intro sequencing, follow-ups, and data-room readiness to shorten the fundraise cycle.
We help our companies build the operational foundation required to scale. Customer Success, Finance, and Legal - set up early, so growth doesn’t break later.
CS
1. CS playbook: onboarding, QBRs, renewals, and escalation processes.
2. Retention metrics: health scores, churn drivers, and expansion pipeline.
3. CS hiring: define roles, interview scorecards, and hire the first CS leader.
Finance
1. Financial hygiene: MIS, burn tracking, and monthly reporting cadence.
2. Unit economics: CAC, payback, gross margin, and pricing implications.
3. Fundraise readiness: clean books, runway planning, and investor-grade metrics.
Legal
1. Contracts: MSA/SOW templates, pricing clauses, and negotiation guardrails.
2. Compliance: entity setup, basic governance, and data/privacy hygiene.
3. IP protection: assignments, NDAs, and product/IP structure as you scale.
Hiring is the highest-leverage work founders do. We help our companies design the org, hire the right leaders, and retain top talent as they scale.
Strategy
1. Org design: roles, ownership, and team structure for the next 12-18 months.
2. Hiring plan: priority roles, sequencing, and compensation benchmarks.
3. Performance system: goals, KPIs, and operating cadence for leaders.
Hiring
1. Role clarity: scorecards, JDs, and interview loops that reduce bad hires.
2. Sourcing engine: outbound sourcing, referrals, and high-signal channels.
3. Closing candidates: selling the mission, offer structuring, and decision velocity.
People Ops
1. Onboarding: 30/60/90 plans, expectations, and early momentum.
2. Culture + feedback: 1:1s, performance reviews, and growth plans.
3. Retention levers: manager quality, compensation, ESOP clarity, and career paths.
We’re backed by a diverse ecosystem of investors across regions, industries, and expertise. The network includes founders, top 1%tile operators, and top-tier investors with deep experience across product, engineering, AI, service, and operations.
40
Angel Investors
15+
Referrals made for our companies.
100+
hours spent with our companies.
Our Investors
A carefully selected tribe of successful founders and operators - here to help you succeed!
We've been deliberate about who's on our cap table. Successful founders who've exited, operators who've built at top global companies - all actively engaged, making intros and advising across GTM, product, hiring, and beyond.
Frequently Asked Questions
Clear answers on fit, focus, and what co-building actually means.
Why we’re building Outcome-as-a-Service companies?
Traditional agencies have always been hard to scale.
Low margins, manual execution, and growth tied directly to headcount.
AI changes that equation.
For the first time, services can be delivered with software-like leverage - where the work is powered by AI, not people.
Instead of selling tools to help customers do the work, companies can use AI internally to deliver the outcome end-to-end - and charge accordingly.
Think:
- a design firm producing finished creative before a contract is signed
- an ad agency generating studio-quality video without a physical shoot
- a legal firm drafting documents in minutes, not weeks
These businesses won’t look like agencies.
They’ll look like software companies - with software margins.
That’s the future we’re building toward:
AI-native, Outcome-as-a-Service companies that scale to $10M ARR sustainably.
If you’re building in this direction, we’d love to talk.
Which verticals are we focusing on?
We work with only 4-5 companies a year - because we go deep, and only onboard new companies once we have scaled the existing ones
In 2026, we’re building a foundational layer of AI-native fractional leadership companies, each designed to scale to $10M+ ARR with software-like margins.
These include:
- Fractional CMO - AI-powered demand generation and growth execution
- Fractional CRO - Revenue operations and sales infrastructure at scale
- Fractional CPO - Product strategy and AI-driven product development
- Fractional CHRO - Talent, hiring systems, and org design powered by automation
- Fractional CFO - Finance, compliance, and capital efficiency with AI leverage
Each of these verticals sits in a large, fragmented market where outcomes are expensive, manual, and inefficient today.
AI changes that.
What once required large teams and decades to scale can now be built in 5-7 years with:
- 80%+ gross margins
- 20%+ net margins
- Durable recurring revenue
These companies are designed not just to scale independently - but to strengthen the Shifu ecosystem by serving portfolio companies from day one.
What types of companies do we work with?
We partner exclusively with B2B, AI-native companies.
We understand complex sales cycles, higher ACVs, and enterprise buying behavior deeply.
We look for founders who:
- Are building AI systems internally and externally
- Want to sell globally - from India, to the world
- Are focused full-time on their company
- Have early revenue traction (typically $25K-$100K in revenue)
- Are ambitious about building toward $10M ARR and beyond
Are you funding along with co-building?
Yes - in most cases, we invest alongside co-building.
Shifu typically leads the first round and helps founders close it with the right angels and early believers.
We also have an ecosystem of **100+ angel investors** who get early access to the companies we co-build.
That said - capital is not the primary value add.
Founders shouldn’t work with Shifu just for fundraising.
If you’re only looking for a check, a traditional VC is likely a better fit.
Shifu is for founders who want a deeply embedded partner to help scale to $10M ARR faster - through execution, focus, and real company-building.
What will be the selection process?
We work with only 4-5 companies a year, so selection is highly intentional.
Most of the founders we partner with come through referrals - from operators, angels, or other founders in our ecosystem.
Because this is a high-conviction bet on both sides, we typically start with:
1. Deep founder conversations
2. A short working pilot for 3 months
3. Alignment on ambition, incentives, and long-term vision
If there’s mutual conviction, we move forward.
We don’t run cohorts. We don’t operate on batches or demo days.
We onboard companies at any time of the year - so feel free to reach out to us if you’re building something interesting.
