Namastey,

We are a small culture in India called Preseed. We are a result of our founder’s words expressed on his blog, this website - www.preseed.in and all its associated links. His haters call him an objective asshole. You may too, if you can’t back your gut or ego with intelligent reasoning and facts. Even your belief in god needs to be addressed with that level of reasoning, just in case you wanted to touch that topic with him. For you are allowed to touch absolutely any topic in the universe with him. When he dives deep with you in realms that look subjective to you, he will still be being objective. He will have deep rooted reasons, and you will have to stretch your imagination to see those reasons. It’s on you fellows, like it is on us, his team. Only if he sugarquoted and had filters, our lives would have been less intense, and he wouldn’t have been called an objective asshole. If you are looking for lesser intensity and sugarquoting. This is a wrong place. If you are looking to build some meaningful company or build Preseed further, this is THE PLACE.

Disclaimer: We will be timeless in our results, but not in our objective conduct towards action. The result of which will be your great company. This blog must be read well and to great lengths, however, it will never be perfect or complete. It’s chronicling our reality, as it moves forward, by the day.

To us Nishchal is not an objective asshole. He is an all seeing eye, on a mission. And in that journey he cares about no one more than the mission itself. For it is in this mission he can actually take better care of one and all.

He recognizes there is something fundamentally amiss in the way most people perceive the world, the way our minds are conditioned to operate, and hence something amiss in the way the relationships between people are, the way the worldly institutions are designed, the way we relate to each other — basically the very way we live. I had started seeing that this faulty perception was at the root of human suffering. He was deeply disturbed by man’s ignorance and cultivated inferiority, the evils of poverty, the evils of consumption, violence and misunderstandings towards each other, animals and environment, and exploitation based on narrow ideology and self-interest. His entire being was raring to challenge the all-pervasive suffering, by encouraging and empowering those who had the will to solve real problems of society as against the perceived ones.

This writeup is on our home page so you could know us from the point of our origin. A lot has changed since then. However, our core is still what it was in 2011, when we were just a thought:

It was 2006. I was 20 then, preparing to drop out of college. I had wished to build a status quo changing business in India. A business that could be spoken about in the same breath as Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Apple. I had the idea, the plan, the undying will, the passion, plenty in funding too but, I yet could not build it. Actually there is nothing new about this story, it may have happened to a lot of us in India and elsewhere. I couldn’t build my idea, my social media platform (2007), for 5 reasons -

1. Culture (2008)- : Delayed funding — I got funded 2 years after I originally had the idea and the UI design on chart papers. 2 years because there was barely any culture of funding an Idea, its thinker/doer and its design so that it could be made into a business. India just didn’t think businesses could be built straight out of ideas, designs and plans listed on some sheet of papers by some weirdo.

2. Culture (2009) -: Team — Most of the people I found on this journey were actually not ready for a startup as their ideas about life beyond college was something else. For most of them it was a job that paid a handsome salary. Great startups never lay their foundation with such teams. My team was a team of great people in a misplaced job. Probably, that is why my startup could never be great. I blew up over Rs. 20,00,000/- in salaries in the first 5 months of my first company. It was bound to fail.

3. Culture (2000–2006) — My teenhood — All the people who called the shots for me (my parents and their peers) did not have the ability to understand what such whims are made of. They did not have the ability to understand crazy. They only understood good scores in schools which I got, then beautifully celebrated educational degrees, which I never got. And that meant, domestic rebelion. That’s never easy.

4. Culture (2009) -: Hence, no one to go to to talk about whims. It kind of made me a bit lonely but at the same time it revealed me to myself, or at least I had hoped so.

5. Culture (2010–11) -: And its true that even if I had managed to build the prototype for my social network in 2006, I would have not been able to scale it up like the way they scale up companies in Silicon Valley. I would have failed anyway in not being able to compete or collaborate with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google like companies. The reason for that would also have been the CULTURE in India.

I finally found a problem I truly want to attempt to solve in India for many — The culture in India (2011)

It was this problem that was not helping me pander to my whim even when I had the right idea and the right design at the right time, to build a status quo changing business in India. Although in this context what I had is not as important as what I didn’t have. I didn’t have the right team of vendors, nobody to advise and not the right team of colleagues either for the given idea in case. The problem was that these are not the resources you could find in India with the kind of ease you could find them in at Silicon Valley. In Silicon Valley, you could find your first co-founder or investor in the same coffee shop across another table where you were casually discussing your idea with a friend. They just overheard you and liked what you said. In India that could take sometimes years. In most cases what you will find in India will lead you to mediocrity. Why? Because people here are satisfied with it. Their cart is still moving. And that is not the cart I want to be on.

Having said that, I’d like to admit that India is changing. I have been very actively observing the new wave of startup ecosystem development through out the world and NOW India seems to be playing a key role from within its geographical boundaries. In 2006 when I started I was getting to read only about Silicon Valley California because that was all there was to read about on startups. Today I am reading as much about Silicon Valley as I am reading about India. I know India is changing anyway, I just want to help catalyse that change leading to a smarter culture and hence, smarter actions.

The last 3 years I have spent about the Indian equivalent of $120,000 in doing all that it could take me to position myself right with the right set of imagination, ideas, ideologies, knowledge, experience and finally people, to be able to start my journey of impacting the culture in India to enable great creations right from bedrooms, bathrooms, dorms and garages so that one day we could also innovate like they do. And, while on that journey I hope I could collaborate with these teams of extraordinary doers to realise my dream of giving India its very own company with anyone such group of doers, a company that could be spoken in the same breath as Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Google.

Or at least I hope so. Only time will tell. Whether that happens or not, what has already happened is that I am convinced I could not have seeded a better idea for an environment where an idea of mine can be put into such an inspired mechanism that it may translate the idea into a company. To tell you the truth, that has been my key inspiration for building Preseed; because I have too many ideas that are worth an effort, the root of each has been a problem I have experienced and the solution to it has the potential to improve at least my own life if not the whole world’s. Each such idea has ‘simplicity’ at their heart giving them a fair chance to scale up fast making relatively larger impact felt. Simplicity in terms of its entire experience; from its value proposition, visuals to its complete model of operation on ideas from web-enabled products to rural supply chains. There can be no better system for me than preseed to preserve those ideas. It’s in these ideas that feed my soul. And it is in this ‘’organized mechanism’ that I find people to work with me on what feeds my soul.

I call this organised mechanism — Preseed.

A traditional startup incubator — A startup incubator that incubates a startup company of 2 to more people that has achieved some real traction in their product. This means that a traditional incubator invests about Rs. X lakhs in that startup and houses that startup for 3 months under their own roof to open an environment of co-learning among all entrepreneurs with its other portfolio startups under that same roof.

How it works — It takes 5–10% ownership in that startup for doing so. Such incubators are basically, funds. They take investments from other investors and invest their money per batch of 10 or more such companies.

We are outside of this scene - For we build upon our own startups from scratch as we have already corroborated by building startups indicated on Preseeded. We think the idea ourselves and then, we inspire our fellow beings to join us as entrepreneurs on our idea, we give them our own mind made up of years of conscious research and imagination. We don’t invest money, design or code. We, however, put in the maximum hustle on connecting the dots of tech and design. They say ideas are dime a dozen. Good ideas are rare. Good ideas are ideas that truly have the potential to drive people towards freedom, every other idea is not a good idea. So we didn’t channel our energy into becoming a fund. We instead decided to be the company that is the creator of a web product which in turn nurtures and not merely an incubator.
There are no restrictions. There may be challenges. But there are no restrictions. The mind is boundless. And so are we. We don't consider your idea for incubation unless it is a thought that solves our own itch in an original new found way.
I would like to redefine the geek as someone who is on an obsessive intellectual pursuit. The new age geek however, needs to be, in both intellectual and spiritual pursuit. That is the kind of geek we are developing at Preseed. We have only just gotten started.

We nurture dot makers
We love the fact that you are writing codes and designing upon your ideas right from your bedrooms and dormitories. We also love that not having the money or other resources to build upon your dream doesn’t stop you from doing so. We love it all so much that we decided to help you.

What are dots?

To convey a meaning when you write the first word, you put a dot first. Then you run your pen to grow that dot into a word that has some meaning. And all these different words together form a story. Every time an author nurtures that dot, he ends up with a story, that may sell. So, dot is the point of initiation where a word, a story, a line or an organisation, everything originates from. Pen Dot:Word :: Preseed Dot:Startup

Our Name — When a tree was a seed it looked like a dot! And before a seed, it was, a Preseed.

Who are dot makers?

Everyone is willing to put the dot forth. Everyone who has a ‘pure will’ to start. You may or may not have an idea to start with, but if you strongly believe you want to start someday, then you are the dot maker we are looking for.

Our Mission

To nurture dot makers, or simply put, to empower those who wish to ‘create’ rather than just follow. I refined this line later to say ‘those who have the will to do something out of the ordinary’ and then yet again, ‘those who have the will to do something truthful.

What will we really do?

And we intend to do all of this through the PreseedApp+Chattodo

The key modus operandi of Preseed Ecell is - a  passionate conversations between Nishchal, his team and soulful humans like you, who stand for real good. To say the least - here we discuss how an organization should be built tastefully, slowly and consciously keeping contemporary technology, communication and design sensibilities right at the top. You should rather dig this essay well for we are assuring you that nowhere in India would you find the kind of environment of education and truth you will experience in Preseed Ecell

All the work at Preseed Ecell is aimed at, covering the evolution of an idea through all the stages, into a successful organization, so long as you are standing for genuine good for humanity and not some facade in the name of problem-solving and money.

Read about startup stages in this essay. Expect us to help you, systematically, across all stages, one stage at a time.

Note-: The goal of Preseed Ecell is not just to steer you to success. The goal is to empower you to believe that you could ‘DO’ before you thought you could. The success may or may not be the reward. The journey is the definite reward. As a by-product of this journey you get a chance to experience the power of ‘imagination and freedom’.

Expect to have the Preseed Ecell touch across all the stages mentioned in the link above, over a long period of time. Everything we think, do and say, is with long term as the space in which our collective business will be built.

We have noticed, that most of what is being done in the startup ecosystem in India and largely is aimed at those with business plans and not necessarily at people with great minds, interested in solving very real fundamental problems. And rightly so, if you have a great mind, write a book, but if you have a great plan, build an enterprise, be an entrepreneur, be the change and then make that change with daily hustle. Our work will encourage you to dive in as a philosopher and come out as a social entrepreneur.

If you have a MVP with some traction and are now looking to raise money in upwards of Rs 20 Lakhs or $20,000 up to $ 100,000, you could go and find an angel investor yourself. All you got to do is pitch a slide deck to an investor of repute. You don’t really need Preseed Ecell if you are fully ready to be backed by the monies of thoughtful, deeply experienced, well achieved, and connected investors!

However, if you wish to have someone who you could now discuss the plan in greater detail with to have a clearer perspective into the game you are in, for in the very short future monies of other very smart people are going to get involved. We may be happy to help if we like your team, MVP and current slide deck.

Nishchal will:

         1. Mentor all founders in life skills, spirituality, business building, simplicity, faith, company culture, technology, leadership, growth etc.
         2. If you have felt him deeply, you may have felt the boundless intelligence and creativity he dwells in. That itself will be the solution to many of your problems in
         the long run, so long as you can execute upon his words. That is enough said.

Note-: Your journey with him has to be a long term one, only then can you fully bear the fruits of what we sow together.

We accept one startup at a time when it is are a mere prototype and at least 2 people strong.

Without going through unnecessary number crunching and slide decks. We are going to be about logic upon intuition and gut at first, in the matter of finding an early-stage startup like yours that has not reached the market well yet. We will take a leap of knowledge and faith to hold your hand.

We will closely monitor your startup to advise you proactively, by taking our own initiatives to actually help you translate your startup into an extraordinary business. As we progress over the next 3 months and some milestones well, I will do whatever we can for, as if my own.