We're a small team with massive ambitions to help India become a AI Nation
Helping India become an AI Nation
Hey everyone,
In November 2020, Prateek and I quit our jobs to work on something exciting. We had a faint idea of what we wanted to work on —but before diving deep into it, we wanted to explore, learn, and find what would drive us for the next decade to come.
What did we decide to do? Travel across India to meet hundreds of founders in the B2B space. Sounds crazy. right? But we were up for leaving the comfort of our homes, to look out what’s in it for us ;)
Hell yes, the last two years were definitely exciting, but it couldn’t have been more chaotic. We were all over the place — in our minds and literally, as we traveled all across India!
Looking back— we’re really glad we persisted and took the time to explore! Over the last two years, we’ve engaged with hundreds of founders—from solo-preneurs to unicorn builders, and thousands of students. It gave us the clarity and conviction to take big, bold steps!
So, what did we find? B2B AI is a massive opportunity for India, and we want to spend the next few decades helping India become an AI nation!
Our efforts are channeled through two entities—Shifu Studio and Shifu Foundation.
Shifu Studio is a venture studio, where we envision co-building 100 profitable B2B AI companies from India in our lifetime. We’re already working with three companies!
Shifu Foundation is a non-profit media firm. Through storytelling, we aim to inspire and support innovators across India to pursue B2B AI.
While they seem very distinct and different in their approach, what ties them together is the focus: India + B2B + AI and the vision to help India become a global AI powerhouse.
It’s day zero!
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Sri Maneru
Co-Founder & CEO
Prateek Sethi
Co-Founder & COO
Why both Studio and Foundation
We didn't want to start our philanthropy when are in the 60's. And we wanted to tackle the problem both from top-down (Shifu Studio) and bottoms-up (Shifu Foundation) approach!
| Shifu Studio | Shifu Foundation | |
|---|---|---|
| One-liner | A for-profit venture studio to co-build B2B AI companies from India | A non-profit media firm to inspire and support young Indians pursue B2B AI |
| North Star Metrics | Combined ARR & PAT of port co's, AUM, RoI to Stakeholders | Number of soloprenuers from Jammu, AI Engineers from Arunachal, B2B founded from Jharkhand |
| Entities | Delaware C corp with wholly owned Indian Subsidiary | Section 25 company |
| Lifetime Goal | Co-build 100 B2B AI Companies to $10M ARR in a profitable & capital efficient way | Inspire and support millions of Young Indians to leverage the massive B2B AI opportunity! |
| ICP | A 26 year-old B2B Indian founder, at ~400K revenue, pre PMF, mostly in top 4 metros | A 20 year old college going student from Bundelkhand or Bikaner |
| Revenue | Royalty from port-cos, Exit Proceeds from Port Co’s | Donations and Sponsorships |
| Focus | India + B2B + AI | India + B2B + AI |
The team behind SHIFU
Our team is a mix of entrepreneurs, B2B Operators and Creators! We are fun to work with, and have deep passion for startups and our craft! .
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Let's create wealth and make an impact, together!
If you are ambitious, have strong sense of ownership, obsessed about start-ups and your craft, are fun to work with, then we we would love to talk!
