By Masai School · Invite-only · Cohort 01
Stop preparing to be a founder. Sixty days from now, you'll be one.
You'll build a real company, guided by the people who built Lendingkart, ShareChat, GIVA and Dil Foods. It ends where every founder wants to stand: on a stage, in front of India's top investors.
01 - The Faculty
Not professors. Founders.
They took the leap once, too - left safe careers, built real companies, and now teach it the way they actually did it, at the exact stage you'll be in.
Cohort lead · Every week
Prateek Shukla
Co-founder & CEO, Masai School
Built Masai - 10,000+ careers launched, pay only after you're placed.
Week 1 · How companies are built
Harshvardhan Lunia
Founder & CEO, Lendingkart
Lendingkart has lent ₹18,700 Cr+ to 300,000+ businesses across 4,100 cities.
Week 2 · Customer discovery
Farid Ahsan
Co-founder, ShareChat & General Autonomy
Scaled ShareChat to a $5B valuation; now building robotics startup General Autonomy.
Week 4 · Product-market fit
Ishendra Agarwal
Founder, GIVA
Grew GIVA to ₹518 Cr revenue and 200+ stores; raised a ₹530 Cr Series C.
Week 5 · Go-to-market & growth
Arpita Aditi
Founder, Dil Foods
Building Dil Foods into 10 food brands across 6 cities; raised a ₹72 Cr Series B.
Week 6 · Matched to your sector
One more founder
Chosen for your venture. Revealed in Week 6.
02 - The Method
Courage is not a plan. This is.
Eight weeks, eight milestones, reviewed every week. The leap stops being a jump into the dark and becomes a protocol you execute.
Venture formation
Team, founder mindset, problem selection.
“₹20,000 crore lent to the small businesses banks wouldn't touch.”
Masterclass - Harshvardhan Lunia · Lendingkart
Customer discovery
Validate the problem in real conversations, not in your head.
“From 4,000 users to 400 million - India's largest homegrown social network.”
Masterclass - Farid Ahsan · ShareChat
MVP sprint
Ship the first working version - product, tech and design mentors on call.
Product-market fit
Positioning, brand, business model.
“Started GIVA in a 2BHK. Today - 300+ stores across India.”
Masterclass - Ishendra Agarwal · GIVA
Go-to-market
Acquisition strategy and first traction.
“Left Swiggy, built 8 food brands out of other restaurants' idle kitchens. Four sharks invested.”
Masterclass - Arpita Aditi · Dil Foods
Investment readiness
Venture refinement and mentor reviews.
“Chosen after selection - a founder who has built in your exact industry.”
Masterclass - a founder from your sector
Pitch sprint
Deck, financials, storytelling - intensive mocks.
“Built Masai into 10,000+ careers launched - students pay only after they're placed.”
Led by Prateek Shukla · Masai School
Demo Day
Day 60. A live pitch in Goa, before India's investors.
Every week
Founder community reviews with Prateek Shukla - progress, roadblocks, accountability.
On call
A shared execution pod - product, engineering, design, marketing, finance. No team stays blocked.
Always
A private community of selected builders. Small by design.
A year from now, you'll either have a company - or the same idea.
The difference is sixty days
03 - The Final Pitch
Day 60. The D-Day in Goa.
Not a certificate ceremony over a webcam. Sixty days end in person, on a stage in Goa - a live pitch and real questions. In front of the people most founders only read about.
Madhukar Sinha
Founding Partner · India Quotient
Backed ShareChat and Sugar Cosmetics at seed.
Will Poole
Co-founder & Partner · Capria
Ran Microsoft's $13B Windows client business.
Surya Mantha
Managing Partner · Capria
Ex-CEO of Web18; founding investor at Omidyar Network India.
…and leading angel investors of India.
04 - Your pod of experts
Five experts. Guides, not hands.
One pod around every founder. They've each built it before - so they point you to the door, they don't walk through it for you.
The hands stay yours. The map is theirs.
05 - Selection
Not for everyone. Maybe for you.
We select a small cohort of engineers, hackers and operators - people who have been circling an idea for years, waiting for a sign. Every application is read personally. Most are declined.
If you've read this far, you already know which one you are.
06 - The Fee
Payable only if we choose you.
A first cheque from an angel buys you money. This buys you the sixty days that make the cheque possible - and you don't pay a rupee until you're selected.
₹ 1,50,000
One founder · one venture · sixty days
No placement clause, no equity taken, no small print. If you're not selected, there's nothing to pay - and if you are, this is the entire cost of everything on the right.
The honest math
Roughly ₹2,500 a day to build alongside founders who've raised thousands of crores. Most people spend more on a course they never finish.
What the fee holds
Weekly masterclasses with five founders who've built at scale
A pod of five expert guides - tech, product, analyst, business, marketing
A sixth founder matched to your exact sector
Demo Day - a live pitch in front of India's venture funds and angels
The founder room and alumni network - kept open past Day 60
07 - The Path
Four steps to a seat.
No lottery, no rush queue. We move deliberately - because so should you.
You apply
Five minutes, one honest form. Every word is read by a person, not a filter.
We invite you to talk
Shortlisted founders get a one-on-one conversation - your idea, your why, whether this room is right for you.
You pay & block your seat
Selected? The one-and-a-half-lakh fee confirms one of thirty seats. Nothing changes hands until this moment.
You join the cohort
Day 1 begins. Sixty days later, you're on the Demo Day stage in Goa. The leap is underway.
08 - Questions
Before you ask.
Do I need a co-founder or a team to apply? +
No. Solo founders are welcome. Some of the strongest applications come from one person with an idea they can't put down - you'll find your bench inside the pool.
Is this full-time? Can I keep my job? +
It's built for people who are ready to commit. The program is online and paced across sixty days, but the milestones are real work - most who finish treat it as the thing they're doing, not a thing on the side.
When exactly do I pay the fee? +
Only after you're selected and you've had your one-on-one. Applying costs nothing. The one-and-a-half-lakh fee is what blocks your seat once we've both decided this is right.
Does Masai take equity in my company? +
No equity, ever. The fee is the fee. What you build, and what you raise, is entirely yours.
What happens on Demo Day - is funding guaranteed? +
No one can promise a cheque. What we guarantee is the room: a live pitch, real questions, in front of the venture funds and angels most founders never get to meet. What you do with it is the point of the sixty days.
09 - Request an invitation
The leap starts with a form.
Five minutes. Applications close 27 July - 4 days left. Selected founders are contacted personally.