Ever been thrown into the deep end with no playbook, no step-by-step guidance, and barely a moment to catch your breath? It’s frustrating. It’s stressful. At times, it feels like you’re drowning.
But here’s the thing—somehow, you learn to swim.
That’s exactly how I felt when I was asked to lead a few key initiatives for the SaaSBoomi Annual’25—VCBridge, IndustryBridge, and MindMixer. Until then, my understanding of these initiatives came only from observing them from afar, or more from a logistical point of view. That was about it.
But here’s the magic of working with Avinash Raghava. He believes in empowering people to execute in their own way. He’s the kind of coach who pushes you into the deep end and encourages you to figure out your own strokes. He’ll keep an eye on you to make sure you’re okay, but he won’t hold your hand.
And here I was, not alone, I had several lifelines. If anything, the volunteers kept me afloat. They led the way forward—sharing past experiences, shortlisting the right founders, VCs ,and leaders for VCBridge and IndustryBridge, knowing what topics to choose for MindMixer and which coaches to approach, and ensuring we curated everything in the best possible way.
One year into SaaSBoomi and it still doesn’t cease to amaze me how much they are willing to pay-it-forward to the community.
VCBridge: A Massive Collaboration
VCBridge is an exclusive, invite-only 1:1 matchmaking initiative designed to connect startups with VCs and investors through curated, high-value meetings. These interactions at Annual were set up based on mutual opt-in, ensuring meaningful conversations that align with both parties’ interests.
Founders were selected based on key criteria such as team size, ARR, ACV, customer segment, and funding history, and they received guidance on how to pitch their product effectively. This year, we had 90 founders and 30 VCs, facilitating 315 curated meetings over a span of 3 hours. This wouldn’t have been possible without the great team behind it.
A special shoutout to Swathi, who—despite being unsure on whether she would be able to attend the Annual or not—gave 120%. She ensured smooth workflows, spent hours on getting the meeting matrices ready, coordinated the scoring and founder-VC matching, and because of her background was able to give the VC perspectives. For any details that I wanted more clarity on, she would have an excel sheet ready.
Founders like Anand K and Srinivasan helped shape the initiative by shortlisting the founders and sharing what founders truly need – how to prepare, and how to make the most of these meetings. Srini also ensured that he shared his on-ground execution experience from last year so that those roadblocks could be avoided this year.
Sehar and Madhumita were on top of the comms that went out to the VCs, SaaSBoomi’s ecosystem partners, and Investors who were attending the Annual ’25 to ensure their participation, and getting them to shortlist their preferences.
Then there was Soumya, who joined just 2-3 weeks before execution and did a fantastic job working with the team for the double opt-in workflows, and reaching out to companies. He and Raghu stepped up to handle one aspect of VCBridge when Swathi couldn’t make it, and they did it seamlessly.
Hanuj, knowing he wouldn’t be able to attend Annual ’25, still went all in because he wanted to contribute. He worked with Buvanesh, Venkatesh, and Soumya to refine booking options and see how best to keep it seamless and easy for founders to book their meetings with VCs. He completely owned that aspect of VCBridge with some fantastic guidance from Nivedha and Suren, and was constantly available for any follow-ups.
And a special mention to the amazing army of on-ground volunteers who started with taking up the responsibilities of coor-dinating with specific VC’s then came in directly from the airport, train station, or from Chennai itself and ensured that we had enough people – 28 people to be precise, on ground to ensure a smooth experience for the founders and the VC’s. They managed the gate-keeping, smooth transitions between meetings, and coordination between the two rooms where founders were attending VCBridge. Manasij, Sundeep, Maansi, Ranga, Anil George, Dhanyal, Dharma, Gayatri, Harshit, Jay, Millusha, Prashanth, Raghu Kashyap, Ramya, Shivangi, Sradha, Sridhar; we are extremely grateful to your support, suggestions and spirit.
IndustryBridge: Creating Powerful Connections
IndustryBridge is a platform enabling SaaS and AI startups to connect with industry leaders. Founders gain direct access to CXOs, CIOs, and senior VPs, gaining strategic insights and partnership opportunities. Industry leaders get early exposure to innovative solutions, curated connections with high-potential startups, and tailored engagements to address industry challenges.
This year at Annual, we brought together 36 industry leaders and 50 founders, facilitating 750 meaningful connections and 150 roundtable meetings.
This year, SaaSBoomi partnered with SPJIMR (SP Jain Institute of Management and Research,) which was a game-changer and helped us reach out to industry leaders from various industries. Santosh from SPJIMR—who had been on the industry side last year—had critical insights on how the founders can be first exposed to a session of enterprise readiness before they started their interactions with the industry leaders, and that definitely worked well to their advantage. His fireside discussion with Arvind Parthiban and Joseph Abraham on “How to Sell a One Million Dollar Deal from India’ helped set the stage for IndustryBridge.
Arvind always has a fantastic way of knowing the pulse of the crowd, and being a founder himself, he knew the specifics of what would be extremely helpful and relevant for the attending founders.
The other member of SPJIMR, Aishwarya Simon was the queen of coordination, always on top of all the correspondences with the Industry Leaders and ensuring their participation.
The initiative wouldn’t have been as smooth without our lead volunteers Nabyendu and Anubhav, who did a fantastic job coordinating everything—from shortlisting the founders to communications and matching. They were the sounding board that helped us refine and execute the program.
A special mention to Joseph, who put together an insightful panel of industry experts along with Santosh so that the participants could interact and get industry insights from a varied group, and of course our on-ground team, Ranga Raj, Ashwin Ramaswamy (Ramas), Deepti, Mayank, Navaneet, and Nikhil who helped with the founder reachouts and also ensured that all founders and industry leaders had sufficient relevant meetings.
MindMixer: Making It Bigger and Better
MindMixer is the official peer-to-peer networking initiative that we use at Annual, connecting founders through one-on-one meetings, topic-based discussions, and expert-led roundtables led by coaches specializing in AI, GTM, Fundraising, PLG, and more.
This year, we had 36 coaches conducting 96 curated sessions on topics like Product-Led Growth, the Rise of Vertical AI SaaS, Scaling Strategies and so on, which engaged over 750 attendees. Founders could also initiate one-on-one meetings or lead discussions on key topics like scaling in the US and marketing strategies.
This year, we also wanted MindMixer to be bigger and better, and the team led by Neeraj owned it. At the beginning of the year, Neeraj had promised Avinash that he would ensure that we take MindMixer up double the notch from last year, and boy, did he and the team deliver.
Deepti was an absolute hustler—she leveraged her SGx Khandaan network to bring in the maximum number of top-tier coaches. She roped in fantastic coaches like Abhishek, Pallav, Shruti, Varun, and many more, which actually created so much demand that we had to do vigilant gatekeeping to avoid any gatecrashers (and there were quite a few). This put the pressure on Harshit, our on-ground lead, who did a phenomenal job ensuring that workflows were smooth and everything ran seamlessly.
Sri also ensured that we had some fantastic coaches like Khadim and supported on-ground execution along with our stellar volunteers Soumya and Dhanya,l who helped ensure every interaction was valuable and well-executed.
Amidst all of this, I had a proud mom moment—my 16-year-old son, Veer Angad Arya, volunteered for SaaSBoomi and worked on the ground for MindMixer. Watching him navigate the chaos, adapt, and find his own way reminded me of something—he was learning to swim, just like I did with Annual ‘25.
We’re all thrown into the deep end at some point. Whether it’s volunteering, leading an initiative, or stepping into an unfamiliar challenge, we all start from a place of uncertainty. But with the right people around us, we figure it out. And at SaaSBoomi, we honestly have the most amazing people within the volunteers who support and guide us.
Looking back, jumping into the deep end was the best way to learn. I picked things up faster, developed a stronger sense of ownership, and adapted more quickly than I ever would have with a step-by-step guide.
So, the next time you find yourself in uncharted waters, take a moment. Yes, it’s tough. Yes, it’s overwhelming. But maybe—just maybe—you’re in the middle of learning something invaluable.
