Founders on a second innings: For some, it’s a venture out; for others, a point to prove

Over the past 12-15 months, as the technology and venture investment ecosystem underwent a reset, more than a dozen entrepreneurs stepped down from active roles at their startups and went on to launch new ventures.

Data sourced from Longhouse Consulting showed that such founders emerged from companies in broadly two buckets–first, which achieved a certain scale and the entrepreneurs wanted to build in a different segment, and the second where the original startups were struggling, being restructured or completely shut down. 

Upgrad founder Mayank Kumar, who stepped down from an executive role at the edtech firm in October last year, raised $7 million for his new venture, Borderplus, which operates in the cross-border workforce skilling space. 

“A company may be built doing well but some founders by their nature are entrepreneurial and have a high-risk appetite. Also, because of their tenured success from initial businesses, their capability to incubate new business is comparatively higher than others. This includes capabilities to raise seed capital or angel funding given their network,” said Madhur Nevatia, partner, Longhouse Consulting.