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Akash Anand
Cofounder, CEO @ Clueso (YC W23) | IIT Madras '23
Akash Anand is the Co-founder and CEO of Clueso, a startup he founded in February 2023.13 Here are some key details about Akash:
Background and Education
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Akash graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in 2023 with a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) and Master of Technology (MTech) in Engineering Design, achieving a CGPA of 9.60.3
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He previously attended National Public School in Bangalore from 8th to 11th grade, scoring a perfect 10 CGPA in 9th and 10th grades.3
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For his 12th grade, Akash studied at Bangalore International Academy, scoring 98.4% in the CBSE Class 12 Board Examination and securing the 2nd rank in Karnataka in the Science stream.3
Professional Experience
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Prior to Clueso, Akash co-founded Desklamp, a PDF reader designed for academic use, which he worked on from September 2020 to March 2023.3
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He has experience in product development, having worked on projects like Smart Agricopter and at UrbanMatrix Technologies.3
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At IIT Madras, Akash was involved with the Centre For Innovation (CFI), serving as the Head of The Product Design Club and as a Project Lead for Agricopter.13
Clueso
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Clueso is an AI-powered tool that generates user guides for SaaS applications from screen recordings.4
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The company was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch (YC W23).3
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In April 2024, Akash announced that Clueso had raised $1.4 million in seed funding.25
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Akash has been actively involved in sharing Clueso's journey, including how they acquired their first customers and raised their seed round.56
Akash's LinkedIn username is indeed theakashanand.3
Highlights
How we raised our $1.4M seed round (and a step-by-step guide to help you raise yours) 👇
1️⃣ 👼 Get your round moving with angels
The bulk of your seed round (80%+) will come from 1-3 institutional VCs. VCs, however, will rarely be your first check. The more traction your round has, the more confident a VC will be to invest.
To find angels, tap into friends, family, and your network. We leveraged the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras alumni network in SF to collect several $10k-$30k checks, totalling over $100k. We got our first VC investment only after raising from angels.
2️⃣ 🗓 Get meetings with VCs booked
Now that your round has traction, talk to VCs. NEVER send cold emails. That makes you look desperate, and VCs only invest in ‘hot’ companies.
The BEST way to get investor meetings is through intros from their portfolio companies. Many of our Y Combinator batch companies introduced us to their investors! We also got our angels to introduce us to funds.
Now’s also a good time to reach back out to investors who reached out when you weren’t raising.
Usually, never ask an investor who has passed on you for intros. Only accept intros if the investor can't possibly invest in your company even if they wanted to, eg: they only do Series B+ rounds, they don’t invest in your space, etc.
3️⃣👩💼 Pitch!
Make your pitch conversational. It should NOT be a one-sided presentation. Your slide deck should be <15 mins.
Communicate that your market is large. Sometimes tweaks in positioning can make a big difference. For eg, expanding our target audience from just customer success to an all-in-one video & docs tool for CS, Product Marketing and L&D led to much more interest.
At the end of the pitch, there should be clear next steps. Ask them straight up: “Are you going to invest?” If they say no, ask them why and answer their concerns.
After the pitch meeting, follow up regularly. Send updates on new customers you’ve closed and new money you’ve raised. Build a sense of FOMO amongst VCs.
4️⃣ 🤝 Take money from whoever offers it to you
Do NOT act smart and wait to hear back from the ‘top’ VCs before accepting offers on the table. Don’t try to schedule the meetings such that the “best” funds are first and the “worse” ones are later.
Take money from whoever gives it to you. You want to wrap this up quickly and get back to the things that matter - building and closing customers.
That said, a VC is going to be a long-term partner in your startup. If you want to learn more about their working style, you can ask them for referrals to portcos.
5️⃣ 🏃♂️ Keep at it
As technical founders, we love building and talking to users. Running behind investors can be the least enjoyable part of your startup. Still, stick to it. If you can wrap this up now, you won’t have to come back for an extension round later. Even if it takes 2-3 months, get the job done.
I'm happy to take any comments or questions on this strategy below!
#funding #startups
Today, we're thrilled to announce Clueso (YC W23)'s $1.4M seed round led by f7 Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator!
At Clueso, we’re building the fastest way for companies to create studio-quality product videos and visual documentation for customer education and employee training. Our AI-powered product turns ordinary screen recordings into highly engaging videos and step-by-step articles with screenshots and GIFs.
At our last startup, my co-founders Prajwal Prakash, Neel Balar, and I used to spend 2 weeks creating each product video. Over the course of an entire year, we made just 5. Today, with Clueso, some of our customers create 100+ videos every month!
A huge thanks to all our amazing investors for believing in us:
- Our YC partners Brad Flora, Puneet Kumar. YC changed our lives forever ✨
- Kelly Graziadei, Joanna Lee Shevelenko, Francisca Gilmore-Yulee from f7 Ventures. Y'all are the most supportive bunch of collaborators we could have asked for.
- Our first investor Jason Marmon, took a bet on us before anyone else did ❤️
- Our amazing angels Srihari, Jasen, Ravin, Yohann, Avinash, Aditya
- Our incredible fellow alumni from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras : Venkatesh Krishnaswamy, Venky Karnam, Akhilesh Koppineni, Srinivasan Seshadri, who are also angel investors.
Of course, a huge shoutout also to our earliest customers, many of whom are also angels! They've seen the product grow from its earliest days to where it is today.
- Jasen Lew from Glowing.io
- Vibhu Jain from CloudEagle.ai
- Swabhi Gupta, Gabrial Fancon from vidyo.ai
This is just the beginning, and we’re incredibly excited to build more together🚀
Read more on our Axios article: https://lnkd.in/gBgmyrDP Check out the full story on our company blog: https://lnkd.in/gDxb3VnK
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Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
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Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
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