SeedToScale | Curated by Accel

In this episode of PitchCraft Season 2, Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, Founder and CEO of BlueStone and Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, revisit the 33-page idea-stage deck that launched one of India’s most enduring jewelry brands. Back in 2011, BlueStone didn’t even have a website or sales to show. It only had a conviction that India’s jewelry market was ripe for disruption. Gaurav reflects on the choices that shaped the pitch: why jewelry was one of the few categories resistant to horizontal marketplaces, how consumer behavior was shifting from family jewelers to brands, and why design had to be the company’s moat. Prashanth recalls why Accel took the leap at such an early stage: the scale of the opportunity, but more importantly, Gaurav’s clarity of thought and first-principles approach. From 3D renders that changed how jewelry was visualized online to home try-on that built trust, BlueStone redefined how Indians bought jewelry long before omnichannel became the norm. Together, they unpack the original deck, the debates it sparked, and how its early insights on design, differentiation, and consumer trust, still anchor the company as it stepped into the public markets in 2025.

In this episode of PitchCraft Season 2, Chandra Srikanth sits down with Harshil Mathur, Co-founder and CEO of Razorpay, and Vikram Vaidyanathan of Z47 to unpack the pitch deck that launched one of India’s most iconic fintech companies. Harshil looks back on Razorpay’s early days in 2014, when he and Co-founder Shashank Kumar were just two engineers trying to accept payments for a side project, only to realise how broken and outdated India’s digital payment infrastructure really was. Their first deck didn’t have polish or even a founder slide. But it had something better: clarity of problem, product conviction, and deep insight into why existing gateways weren’t working. Vikram shares why he invested in Razorpay when many others passed on the opportunity, thinking the space was crowded. What stood out wasn’t just the market; it was the mindset. Harshil and Shashank approached payments as a product and tech problem, not a financial one. That product-first thinking, combined with early proof of execution, became Razorpay’s differentiator. Together, they deconstruct how the original pitch came together, what mattered more than the slides, and how Razorpay’s core values—customer obsession, product depth, and technical rigor—have remained constant from their seed to scale.

In the debut episode of PitchCraft's Season 2, Chandra Srikanth speaks to Sriharsha Majety, Co-Founder and CEO of Swiggy, and Accel's Anand Daniel as they deconstruct the company's first pitch deck that laid the foundation for one of India's most iconic consumer tech companies. Harsha reflects on Swiggy’s early days in 2014, when the team put together a function-first deck built on a single insight: existing platforms didn’t solve the real consumer problem—getting food from your favourite restaurant delivered quickly. From day one, Swiggy differentiated itself by building its own delivery fleet and prioritizing reliability and speed over scale or polish. Anand shares why Accel backed Swiggy in 2015, even in a crowded market: the clarity of thought, deep consumer insight, and a relentless focus on experience. The founders didn’t pitch a marketplace—they pitched a logistics company with a sharp product lens. Swiggy launched with just a few handpicked restaurants, high-velocity dishes, and an app-first approach that showed early, real traction. Together, they break down how the pitch came together, what stood out in the deck, and how Swiggy’s founding principles—customer obsession, clarity, and operational discipline—have stayed intact from the seed round to the stock market.

Contracts are the backbone of every business, every dollar in or out is tied to one. Yet, they remain one of the most antiquated, slow, and expensive parts of how companies operate. Legal workflows still rely on copy-paste, track changes, and armies of lawyers billing by the hour. SpotDraft is rewriting this story. By treating contracts as the hardest language problem for AI, one that demands accuracy, trust, and reliability, the company has built a Contract Lifecycle Management platform purpose-built for the AI era. From creating dummy datasets to designing proprietary editors, workflows, and repositories, SpotDraft has reimagined how businesses negotiate, execute, and manage contracts at scale. In this episode, Co-founder & CEO Shashank Bijapur, along with Goutam Kurumella, Head of Startup Solutions Architecture at AWS, takes us inside the journey: why contracts are a unique challenge for AI, how SpotDraft combines general-purpose LLMs with its own specialized layers to cut through hallucinations, and the tough trade-offs of prioritizing long-term product over short-term revenue.

India today stands at the cusp of a new wave in advanced manufacturing. With global supply chains shifting, demand for cost-effective innovation rising, and deep scientific talent at home, the country has a chance to create the building blocks of tomorrow’s industries. Specialty chemicals, critical to pharmaceuticals, agro, electronics, and more, are one such frontier. Scimplify is leading this shift. The company acts as a full-stack platform for specialty chemical development and manufacturing, bringing enterprise-grade R&D into India’s underutilized factories. In this episode, Co-founder Sachin Santhosh takes us inside their model: how technology and data are being used to map facilities, why India’s scientist pool is its true edge, and how Scimplify is bridging the gap between lab-scale innovation and commercial-scale delivery. Sachin also shares the hard realities of building in this space, from hiring world-class scientists to balancing reliability with cost, and his bold vision to make Scimplify a mark of trust across global industries. This conversation is a window into how advanced manufacturing in chemicals could be India’s next big leap, powering not just growth, but global leadership.

India today stands at a once-in-a-generation moment to establish itself as a global leader in advanced manufacturing. With deep-tech innovation, shifting global supply chains, and a rising domestic market that demands scale and affordability, the country has the chance to build world-class products, not just for India but for the world. Aerospace, EVs, semiconductors, and clean energy are just a few sectors where this ambition is becoming real. Sarla Aviation is one such story. The company is building India’s first mass-market flying taxis, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed to tackle the unique challenges of Indian cities. In this episode, Co-founder and CEO Adrian Schmidt takes us inside their journey: why India’s density makes it the perfect market for aerial mobility, how simplicity in design unlocks affordability, and why creating an indigenous aerospace supply chain is critical for success. Adrian also talks about the hard trade-offs, range versus payload, cost versus complexity, and the bold vision to make flying taxis not a luxury for the elite but a true mass-mobility solution. This conversation is a glimpse into the audacious bets shaping India’s future of transportation, and how advanced manufacturing can propel the nation into the skies.

Every economic superpower has been built on the backbone of manufacturing. Today, with global supply chains being rewritten and the world moving from cost to precision, resilience, and IP, India stands at a rare window of opportunity. Advanced manufacturing is no longer our quiet revolution. Decoding Manufacturing brings you the voices of India’s boldest builders, decoding what it takes to reimagine manufacturing on the global stage and shape the country’s future. #founders #startup #startupindia #indianstartup #manufacturing #advancedmanufacturing #precisionengineering #precisionmanufacturing #sarlaaviation #airtaxis #flyingtaxi #haber #fabheads #scimplify #entrepreneurship #atherenergy #agnikul #sattelite

AI is rewriting the rules of education, turning personalized tutoring from a privilege of the few into a possibility for every student, regardless of where they live or what they can afford. For millions of students in India’s tier-2 and tier-3 towns, the barrier to quality learning has long been financial and geographic. Arivihan is breaking that barrier. In this episode of Decoding AI, Accel’s Anagh Prasad sits down with Ritesh Singh, Co-founder and CEO of Arivihan, to unpack how his journey from Indore to IIT, and his own struggles with access to coaching, which inspired the mission to democratize education. The conversation dives into how Arivihan is solving deep challenges in edtech: building trust in AI tutors, ensuring accuracy and engagement, and keeping costs low while serving students in Bharat. Ritesh also shares why he believes AI tutors will soon transform the coaching industry and make quality learning universally accessible.

It’s almost a consensus view that India can’t build its AI future on borrowed code. It needs infrastructure rooted in Indian languages, accents, and real-world use cases. At the heart of this mission is AI4Bharat, an open-source initiative building cutting-edge AI models for all 22 official Indian languages. In this episode of Decoding AI, Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, sits down with Professor Mitesh Khapra, one of the key architects of India’s Indic and open-source AI movement and co-lead of the AI4Bharat initiative at IIT Madras. A former researcher at IBM and now a faculty member at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras, Mitesh has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for India’s AI stack. The conversation traces the journey of AI4Bharat, from early experiments mapping real-world problems to a focused effort on building foundational language technologies that power applications across sectors. Mitesh shares how the team is bridging data gaps, enabling synthetic data generation, and competing with global benchmarks, all while staying open-source. This episode unpacks why India needs its own AI infrastructure, what makes AI for Bharat technically and culturally distinct, and how startups and developers can plug into this growing ecosystem to build truly inclusive AI solutions.

In this engaging discussion, Harsh Sahai, Co-founder and CEO of Bridgetown Research, shares insights from his journey working at Amazon and McKinsey. He delves into how AI transforms board-level decision-making by autonomously gathering insights and enhancing research depth. Harsh highlights the contrast between consulting firms and tech companies regarding automation hesitations. Additionally, he discusses innovative hiring strategies at Bridgetown, focusing on adaptability over formal qualifications, and the vital role of strategic partnerships in niche AI markets.