Shark Tank's Debt Secret & Founder Wealth | Bhavik Vasa (GetVantage)

How do founders scale without giving away equity? In this episode of the Founder Thesis Podcast, Bhavik Vasa, Founder & CEO of GetVantage, reveals how non-dilutive growth capital is changing the game for Indian startups and D2C brands. If you’ve ever wondered whether debt could actually make you richer as a founder, this candid conversation is a must-watch.

Bhavik Vasa is a fintech veteran who scaled ItzCash into a $150M exit before launching GetVantage in 2019. Today, GetVantage is one of India’s fastest-growing revenue-based financing platforms, backed by marquee investors like Chiratae and Sony Innovation Fund, with an RBI-licensed NBFC arm. In this conversation with host Akshay Datt, Bhavik shares the inside story of building a founder-friendly capital gateway, lessons from scaling in India’s fintech boom, and why debt may be the most underappreciated growth lever. From Shark Tank India’s debt deals to GetVantage’s proprietary “Trust Score” underwriting, this episode is a masterclass in startup funding.

• How Bhavik scaled ItzCash to a $150M exit
• The birth of GetVantage and its founder-friendly funding model
• Why debt can be smarter than equity for growth
• Lessons from building through India’s fintech waves and funding winter
• How data-driven underwriting is reshaping startup financing
• Future of non-dilutive capital and embedded finance in India

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Chapters
00:00 - Bhavik Vasa’s Journey in Fintech
04:30 - Scaling ItzCash to a $150M Exit
10:20 - Demonetization and the Fintech Boom
16:00 - Why India Needs Non-Dilutive Capital
22:45 - The Zero-to-One Story of GetVantage
29:30 - Building a Tech-First Underwriting Platform
37:00 - Revenue-Based Financing Explained Simply
44:10 - Surviving COVID and India’s Funding Winter
51:20 - Competing in India’s Alternative Lending Market
59:00 - Future of Debt, Equity & Founder Funding

Tags
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