We co-build AI-first B2B
companies to $10M ARR - faster.

Our expert team of Operators co-execute alongside you, on everything right from GTM to Fundraising to product to hiring to improve your odds of success.

Let’s talk

Shifu Ventures

Animated panda jumping towards a crane holding a staff on a grassy platform with rocky formations in the background.

We do it the Shifu way. 
Hands-on, in the trenches, building alongside founders. Co-building is our primary value-add.

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Traditional Accelerators

Animated panda holding a stick and a crab, standing near a monkey holding a lantern under pink cherry blossom tree at night.

We are not traditional accelerators
who just focus on high-level guidance, cohorts, and advisory-led support.

White uppercase letter Y on an orange square background with rounded corners.

Red square with rounded corners featuring a white upward-pointing caret symbol.

Black number 500 on a white background with rounded corners.

We co-build only with 4-5
startups a year with deep involvement.

Six orange dots arranged in a circle on a white background.

They onboard 100+ companies in a year with limited, surface-level involvement.

Grid of evenly spaced light gray dots on a white background forming multiple rows and columns.

We build capital-efficient businesses to $10M ARR -profitable, and founder-controlled.

Orange vertical lines topped with round icons and dollar amounts ranging from $2M to $10M.

They follow a power-law model: chasing unicorns by design - not the right fit for every founder.

Black unicorn icon above a vertical black line labeled $1B, with many small gray circles at the bottom.

We’re a focused venture studio, doubling down where we have deep expertise.

Repeated gray words with highlighted orange business terms including $100K ACV, AI-FIRST, B2B, INDIA to WORLD, and EARLY-REVENUE.

They invest across the entire spectrum, optimizing for breadth rather than depth.

Repetitive large bold text showing various business acronyms like B2B2C, D2C, B2C, ENTERPRISE, and financial figures like $10M ACV, $100K ACV, $10K ACV, and startup phases like SEED, PRE-SEED, PRE-REVENUE.

We co-build only with 4-5 startups a year with deep involvement.

They onboard 100+ companies in a year with limited, surface-level involvement.

On a mission to co-build 100 Companies in lifetime.

We cap intake at 4–5 companies a year and expand only after existing PortCos are scaled. We’re more of quality than quantity.

Onboarding in 2026*

Fractional

CMO

Fractional

CRO

Fractional

CPO

Fractional

CHRO

Fractional

CFO

...

100

How we help our Portfolio Companies?

We speak directly with a diverse set of buyers across your target market.
Those conversations help us finalise the ICP to build, sell, and price for mid-market outcomes.

Three men smiling at the camera, with the man in the center highlighted with an orange outline.

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.

Core IP Solutions with three main services: 1 Patent including search, mining, drafting, and design; 2 Trademark including assessment, filing, and enforcement; 3 Legal Advisory including M&A analytics, portfolio management, and competitor intel. Sector expertise includes Enterprise Tech, HealthTech, Retail Tech, FMCG & CPG, Deep Tech & AI, Fintech, Emerging Tech, Agri Tech, Climate Tech, and Mobility Tech.

Before

Diagram showing Photon Legal converting ideas into IP assets globally, connected to patent, trademark, and legal advisory icons.

After

Website homepage showing 'You Create We Protect' text with a person holding a light bulb above laptop, illustrating IP protection services.

Before

Website homepage of Photon Legal showing a woman smiling at a laptop with text offering a patent consultation and a button to book a free call.

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.

Collage of four screenshots showing video calls with multiple people and an agenda document titled 'Agenda' discussing product meetings and tasks.

~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.

Collage of video call screenshots featuring host Amit Koshal with different guests on the podcast Brilliant IP Minds, highlighting its success in booking over 150 MQLs in 2 months.

~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.

Line drawing of ten human figures with shovels digging a large hole.

Traditional Agency

Scales by hiring more people -output grows linearly with headcount. Operations stay heavy, leaving limited leverage and ~5-10% net margins.

Line drawing of a smiling person using a jackhammer labeled 'AI' to break the ground.

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.

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 PortCos 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 PortCos 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.

World map with clusters of diverse people's headshots concentrated in North America, Europe, South Asia, and Australia, labeled 'Split by GEO'.

Investors onboarded.

12+

referrals made.

100+

hours spent

Here’s how we helped Photon Legal to achieve 300% Growth in just 15 months.

Watch Now

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Photon Legal’s Testimonial

Frequently Asked Questions

Answering some FAQs here, but we are always open to talking to B2B founders. Please feel free to reach out!

What kind of companies we are looking for?

In 2026, we’re backing a new class of companies: Outcome-as-a-Service. The days of manpower-heavy agencies are ending. With AI as leverage, what once required 1,000 people can now be achieved by 20. These are not service shops; they’re AI-first agencies — collapsing the gap between services and products, delivering outcomes directly, and building proprietary IP along the way.

Which verticals are we betting on within Outcome-as-a-Service?

We’re backing six AI-first agencies that deliver outcomes directly.

- AI Tooling Agency → Automates workflows and builds custom AI systems as internal IP.
‍
- AI Finance Agency → Streamlines bookkeeping, FP&A, compliance, and tax with AI.

- AI Hiring Agency → Sources, screens, and assesses top talent 70% faster.

- AI Outbound Agency → Personalizes and automates outbound sales at scale.

- AI Marketing Agency → Runs full-stack marketing optimized by AI.

- AI Engineering Services Agency → Delivers end-to-end AI product development.

Are you funding, along with co-building?

Yes. We fund through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), where we invest alongside our global network of investors, founders, and operators. We lead these SPVs to back the startups we co-build, bringing both capital and context. Because we are deeply involved day-to-day, we make high-conviction bets($100K - $1M), and we also do follow-on funding for companies that show strong traction.

Who might not be a good fit for Shifu?

- B2C, D2C, or B2B2C. We don’t specialise in either of them.

- You serve SMBs, and your ACV is less than $5,000. We don't specialised in PLG either.

- You are moonlighting on an idea or pre-revenue.

- You are selling from India to India. One of our key value-adds is GTM to the USA.

What will be the selection process?

Since we only pick 4-5 startups a year, we have to be super picky. If there is sufficient interest on both sides, we take 3 months and do a pilot with you so that we can both make a confident decision. We don't have any structured selection process, and we don’t run cohorts like traditional accelerators, so you can reach out to us anytime during the year.

We co-build AI-first B2B
companies to $10M ARR - faster.

We co-build only with 4-5
startups a year with deep involvement.

They onboard 100+ companies in a year with limited, surface-level involvement.

We build capital-efficient businesses to $10M ARR -profitable, and founder-controlled.

They follow a power-law model: chasing unicorns by design - not the right fit for every founder.

We’re a focused venture studio, doubling down where we have deep expertise.

They invest across the entire spectrum, optimizing for breadth rather than depth.

We co-build only with 4-5 startups a year with deep involvement.

They onboard 100+ companies in a year with limited, surface-level involvement.

On a mission to co-build 100 Companies in lifetime.

How we help our Portfolio Companies?

We speak directly with a diverse set of buyers across your target market.
Those conversations help us finalise the ICP to build, sell, and price for mid-market outcomes.

We help you translate ICP clarity into sharp customer positioning. That positioning becomes the foundation for decks, website copy, sales reach-outs, etc.

Most founders struggle to build a repeatable demand engine. We specialise ACE in designing and executing GTM motions that scale beyond founder-led sales.