Hi, I'm Sudharsan (Sudu) Ananth
I've helped 10+ startups build the right product and get them to revenue. Many of them have raised pre-seed to Series A.
Founders, listen up — if you're building and raising money the traditional way, you've already lost the game. I've raised over $100K in pre-seed funding, and if you want higher valuations and better deals, the next few minutes are all you need.
Investors are looking for safe investments. AI has democratized product building. The real differentiators aren't building right now — they're shipping value. Here are the 3 things that matter most:
- Know your target market
- Build product with potential customers (not users)
- Know your numbers
If you're building AI products, be extra careful. There are 2 big threats: First, bigger players can implement something similar as a feature. Second, your pricing and development costs are directly dependent on foundational models and AI API vendors. Ensure you're model agnostic!
Identify a painful problem worth solving
- Talk to 20+ potential users
- Find recurring pain points
- Validate willingness to pay
Define your total addressable market
Build your Ideal Customer Profile
Define minimum features to test core value
- One core feature
- Solve one problem well
- Ship in weeks, not months
Build fast, iterate faster
Ship early, get real feedback
Acquire your first 100 paying customers
- Direct outreach
- Community building
- Content marketing
When users love your product and tell others
First $10K MRR milestone
Build your core team
Automate and systematize growth
- Repeatable sales process
- Automated onboarding
- Scalable infrastructure
AI Can Accelerate Every Phase
Use AI tools for market research, code generation, content creation, and customer insights. But remember: AI assists the journey, human judgment drives the decisions.
What's Your Next Step?
Whether you're validating an idea or scaling to Series A, there's a clear path forward.
I help founders cut through the noise and focus on what actually moves the needle. Let's figure out your next move together.
- Clarity on product-market fit
- Fundraising strategy & pitch prep
- Technical roadmap & architecture