EP#56 Mayank Banerjee – Building Even Healthcare, choosing the right co-founders and understanding the investor perspective when fundraising as a founder

In this episode, Mayank Banerjee (Co-Founder & CEO, Even Healthcare), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Even, choosing the right co-founders, the problem statement that Even is solving for, challenges faced in the 0 to 1 journey, attracting quality talent at the earliest stages of a startup, straddling between the short term & long term vision, the importance of understanding the VC perspective when fundraising as a founder and having a thesis about the kind of investors you’d like to have on your cap table.

Founded in 2020, Even is a healthtech company that partners directly with top hospitals to provide completely cashless, quality healthcare to its members. The startup aims to rid India of out-of-pocket healthcare expenses and mitigate illnesses early on with appropriate medical interventions with its partner hospitals. Even is backed by marquee investors like Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund (led by Peter Thiel) and operator investors like Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, Cred CEO Kunal Shah, Zerodha Founder Nithin Kamath and DST Global partner Tom Stafford. Prior to Even, Mayank co-founded Compass News, an AI based journalism platform with offices in London and New York & later worked with Entrepreneur First in Bangalore. Mayank studied at the Oxford University where he was the President of the Oxford Union. You can connect with him here on Linkedin or Twitter. 

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Show notes – 

1. (01:37) Mayank’s background & path leading up to Even 
2. (05:20) Meeting his co-founders; What should one over-index on when choosing their co-founders? 
3. (09:47) The genesis phase & the problem statement that Even is solving for 
4. (17:07) Challenges faced in the 0 to 1 journey 
5. (19:12) Attracting quality talent at the early stages of a startup 
6. (20:49) North star metric for Even today 
7. (22:09) Straddling between the short term & long term vision 
8. (23:17) Fundraising experience at Even; Importance of understanding the VC perspective when fundraising as a founder 
9. (26:37) Having a thesis about the kind of investors you want to have on your cap table 
10. (29:20) Rapid fire and closing remarks 

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