SeedToScale | Curated by Accel

Anand Daniel
  • 5.0 (9)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Accel launched SeedToScale in August 2020 to remove information asymmetry in the startup ecosystem and make a founder's path to success as frictionless as possible. We aim to achieve this by providing the best source of knowledge and actionable insights for company building. In the three years since, we have created over 300 knowledge pieces covering all stages of building a company. We collaborated with 80+ industry experts, successful founders, and mentors to create thematic series, reports, blogs, guest articles, podcasts, and other forms of content. Overall, we have reached 500K knowledge seekers.

  1. FEB 10

    Lessons for founders from an early backer of Figma, CRED, Curefit, Airtable, and Postman | SeedToScale Specials

    Founders today are building in an environment shaped by constant technological shifts and evolving team dynamics. In this episode, Gokul Rajaram, Partner at Marathon Management Partners and early backer of companies like CRED, Figma, Curefit, and Postman, shares how he thinks about building startups that endure. Drawing on his experience as a product leader, investor, and board member, Gokul reflects on the patterns he’s seen across hundreds of companies. The conversation explores how founders navigate inflection points, scale teams responsibly, make irreversible decisions, and earn trust over time—with customers, teams, and investors. Gokul also speaks candidly about what tends to break early companies, and what quietly compounds when founders get the fundamentals right.

    50 min

  2. FEB 2

    How investors evaluate startups: Insights from India's leading VCs | SeedToScale Specials

    Behind every funding decision lies hours of evaluation founders never get to witness. This episode of SeedToScale offers a rare backstage pass into the room where ideas are dissected, and where a simple yes or no is anything but simple. Seasoned investors, Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner at Elevation Capital, and Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV, sit for a discussion with Anand Daniel, Partner, Accel, to unpack what really happens, from the first cold email to the final investment committe vote. The conversation goes beyond the cliches and gets brutally honest about how thousands of startups get filtered.

    1h 12m

  3. JAN 29

    A Founder’s Guide to the Ultimate Pitch Memo ft. Accel’s Pratik Agarwal | PitchCraft Season 2

    “Founders need to stop assuming VCs are Excel junkies.” In this episode of PitchCraft, Pratik Agarwal, Partner at Accel, breaks down how investors really evaluate startups today. We’re no longer in a copy-paste playbook era. Founders are building unfamiliar ideas across AI, consumer, SaaS, fintech, and deep tech and investors are comparing radically different businesses side by side. In that world, numbers alone don’t create conviction. Pratik introduces the CORE framework, a universal pitch memo designed to help founders communicate what truly matters: • Change: What has shifted in the world that makes this idea inevitable now • Opportunity: Why this is a real, urgent problem with undeniable pull • Resilience: How the business can compound, defend itself, and become a default • Edge: The founder’s unique perspective and right to win In this episode. Pratik walks through how this framework is already being used, and why it works across geographies, stages, and sectors. If you’re a founder raising capital, refining your pitch deck, or struggling to get investors to really get your idea, this episode is your playbook.

    37 min
  4. How August Is Building the 'World’s Largest Consumer Health AI' | Decoding AI Episode 12

    JAN 23

    How August Is Building the 'World’s Largest Consumer Health AI' | Decoding AI Episode 12

    Doctor visits are short. Health journeys are long. In this episode, Anuruddh Mishra, Founder & CEO of August AI, talks about building an AI-led health companion designed to support patients beyond brief clinical interactions. He shares how August is built to retain personal health context over time, stay available when questions come up, and help people make sense of scattered medical information across their journey. Watch the full episode for the complete conversation. Chapters: 0:09 - Intro 0:33 - What is an AI health companion 3:06 - As an engineer, why did you choose to get into this field related to health? 8:04 - Did you worry about ChatGPT being a competition? 10:15 - How do you look at benchmarks? 14:31 - How is it performing versus human doctors? 15:40 - Why are you a horizontal health AI platform? 17:53 - Where does August AI stand in terms of memory? 21:37 - Is August’s memory different from general purpose memory? 21:53 - Are there any general purpose memory tools or do you have to build everything in-house? 23:00 - How much did you spend on marketing? 24:15 - What did you do in the early days to get this magical market pull? 27:30 - How did you go about fundraising & was it challenging? 33:30 - Aren’t you worried about Google & ChatGPT coming at August with full force once they take notice? 36:00 - Can you help us walk through your version of the world filled with an abundance of clinical knowledge? 38:54 - How do you ensure that AI never crosses regulatory guardrails? 42:36 - In 10 years what will be inevitable with AI in healthcare? 44:36 - Outro Follow Anuruddh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuruddhmishra/?originalSubdomain=in Follow Anagh Prasad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anaghprasad/?originalSubdomain=in Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale/ #DecodingAI #SeedToScale #Accel #Healthcare #Tech #Medical #Startup #Funding #Digital

    45 min

  5. 11/11/2025

    Haber: Building Smarter, More Efficient Factories with AI-Driven Automation | Decoding Manufacturing

    Everyone’s talking about generative AI. Few talk about industrial AI: where the data meets the factory floor. In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Vipin Raghavan, Co-founder & CEO, Haber, explains how Haber is using AI to close the loop between lab and line, turning process data into real-time chemistry control and measurable profit impact. From automating dosing systems to building trust through prediction accuracy, Vipin breaks down what it takes to bring AI into legacy plants, why Haber prices by production output instead of licenses, and how vertical depth and reliability built a zero-churn business. He also talks about India’s manufacturing readiness, cultural differences in adoption, and what the road to autonomous factories really looks like. Chapters 00:00 – Intro: AI that augments, not replaces operators 02:57 – The three universal manufacturing challenges 07:25 – Why now: Connected factories and cheaper edge compute 09:59 – Trust before autonomy: Building accuracy first 13:52 – The pacemaker product and Haber’s zero churn 17:37 – Pricing by the tonne, not by the seat 21:46 – India vs West: Cultural adoption of industrial AI 24:36 – Building T-shaped talent 27:33 – The long road to near-autonomous factories Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale Follow Vipin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vipin-raghavan-6142986/?originalSubdomain=in #AI #Manufacturing #Automation #Innovation #Technology #Sustainability #Industry #Data #DecodingManufacturing

    31 min

  6. 11/08/2025

    Mastering Data: How Turing Is Powering the Next Leap in Artificial Superintelligence | Decoding AI Episode 11

    Everyone’s talking about AI models. Few talk about the data that moves them forward. In this episode of Decoding AI, Jonathan Siddharth, Founder & CEO, Turing, explains how Turing evolved from a global developer platform into a research accelerator, fueling the world’s top labs and enterprises with bespoke, interdisciplinary training data. From RL gyms to post-training pipelines, Turing is engineering the human-in-the-loop systems that are quietly pushing us toward ASI. Chapters 00:00 – Intro: The Future of Intelligence 01:11 – From Stanford to Rover: Jonathan’s Founder Journey 07:05 – The Idea Behind Turing 09:28 – Why Post-Training Is the Real Edge in AI 12:49 – How the World’s Smartest Humans Move Models Forward 19:10 – Inside Alan: Turing’s Data Engine & Talent Network 21:17 – How Enterprises Build Their AI Advantage 25:28 – The 100× Productivity Shift Ahead 29:59 – Closing Thoughts: The Future of Work & Intelligence Follow Anand Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananddaniel/ Follow Jonathan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsid/ Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more updates: linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale #startup #ai #artificialintelligence #turing #data #ASI #artificialsuperintelligence #intelligence #aimodels

    35 min

  7. 11/07/2025

    Building AI-First Products: Lessons from Microsoft on the Next Era of Productivity | Decoding AI Episode 10

    The next big shift in AI isn’t about models getting smarter, it’s about how we work. In this episode of Decoding AI, Aparna Chennapragada, Chief Product Officer for AI Experiences at Microsoft, shares how AI is transforming the workplace from tools that assist us to teammates that collaborate with us. Aparna draws from over two decades of product building. From Akamai’s internet backbone to Google’s AI-first products, like Lens, and now leading Microsoft’s AI strategy. Her insights go beyond features and hype, focusing instead on what it takes to build AI products that last. Here’s what we explore in this episode: • Why “adding AI” isn’t enough and what “AI-first” really means • How Microsoft is reimagining productivity for the AI era • What happens when the model starts to “eat the product” • Why trust, timing, and design are key to durable AI • Where founders can find the next big opportunities in AI, from context engineering to workflow intelligence If you’re a founder, builder, or product leader trying to understand where AI is headed next, this conversation is a roadmap. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 01:32 – Aparna’s journey: From Akamai to Google to Microsoft 05:20 – Lessons from building early AI products at Google 08:15 – Why the timing of AI adoption matters more than novelty 11:40 – The speed of AI change 15:05 – The shift from tools to teammates at Microsoft 19:30 – How AI is transforming productivity inside organisations 23:10 – The danger of “adding AI” vs. building AI-first 28:20 – What happens when the model eats the product 33:05 – Building moats: data, context, and trust 37:25 – AI products that last beyond hype 41:00 – Where founders can build next in AI 45:12 – Closing reflections Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale/ Follow Anand Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananddaniel/ Follow Aparna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aparnacd/ Follow SeedToScale on X: https://x.com/Seed2Scale #DecodingAI #SeedToScale #Microsoft #Accel #AI #ProductDesign #FutureOfWork #startup #aistartups #artificialintelligence #copilot #accel

    38 min

  8. 10/28/2025

    Fabheads: Building Advanced Composites for the World’s Most Demanding Industries | Decoding Manufacturing

    Every metal behaves predictably, but carbon fiber doesn’t. Its strength depends on how every fiber is laid, making it one of the hardest materials to automate. That’s where Dhinesh Kanagaraj, Founder & CEO, Fabheads, comes in. Their breakthrough “adaptive tow placement” technology lets machines think like craftsmen, achieving fiber-level control at industrial speed. With software-driven automation and smarter material handling, Fabheads is achieving 3-10X productivity, up to 40% fewer rejections, and reduced waste. Watch this episode of Decoding Manufacturing to see how Fabheads is transforming carbon fiber manufacturing. Chapters: 0:24 - Intro 0:28 - Revolutionizing the carbon fiber industry 1:05 - Misconception about automating carbon fiber manufacturing 1:32 - The single most important breakthrough in tech stack 2:07 - Brief explanation of what Fabheds does 2:50 - Misconception about automating carbon fiber manufacturing 3:27 - The single most important breakthrough in tech stack 4:00 - Solving the gap in India’s composite manufacturing ecosystem 5:15 - Carbon fiber 3D printing for aerospace 7:41 - Demand for robotic composite system in a manual manufacturing led industry 8:21 - Elaborate on the tech stack 9:33 - The hardest technical milestone 10:17 - Comparison of robotic automation to traditional manual work 11:05 - The best yet underappreciated tech stack 12:13 - Reasons behind building end-to-end approach 13:52 - What keeps high profile clients engaged to Fabheads 10:39 - The economic structure of Fabheads 15:21 - Biggest growth challenge 16:43 - Operational challenges with expansion 17:58 - Building talent in a niche ecosystem 19:10 - Failures and early lessons 20:36 - Vertical vs horizontal Industries 22:17 - One belief that needed unlearning 23:22 - Success for Fabheads in 5 years down the line 24:06 - Outro Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://in.linkedin.com/company/seedt... Follow Dhinesh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhineshrk/?originalSubdomain=in #DecodingManufacturing #CarbonFiber #Automation #Engineering #Innovation #DeepTech #Composites #SeedToScale

    23 min
See All (120)

Trailer

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Accel launched SeedToScale in August 2020 to remove information asymmetry in the startup ecosystem and make a founder's path to success as frictionless as possible. We aim to achieve this by providing the best source of knowledge and actionable insights for company building. In the three years since, we have created over 300 knowledge pieces covering all stages of building a company. We collaborated with 80+ industry experts, successful founders, and mentors to create thematic series, reports, blogs, guest articles, podcasts, and other forms of content. Overall, we have reached 500K knowledge seekers.

Information