In a recent sit-down interview, we had the pleasure of speaking with Vikram Bharati, founder of Draper Startup House and partner at Accelerating Asia. Draper Startup House has become a hub for homegrown startups and a valuable resource for entrepreneurs seeking networking opportunities. With over 20 locations across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, including Penang and Bali, Draper Startup House offers affordable accommodation and workspace to help founders grow and succeed.
At the core of Draper Startup House's mission is the desire to gather the startup ecosystem in one home, a vision that aligns perfectly with Accelerating Asia's mission to support and nurture innovative startups in Southeast Asia and South Asia. Together, through our powerful partnership, we're able to offer founders access to mentorship, funding, and a global network of entrepreneurs and investors.
Join us in celebrating this partnership and the positive impact it's making on the startup ecosystem in Southeast Asia and South Asia.
Draper Startup House is a global network of physical spaces with the mission to help build a million new businesses in the world, and the way we achieve that is through education, physical networks, investments, and lots of business services to support the people who are in our community.
I decided to start Draper Startup House because I thought it would be fun. I thought it would be a good experiment to see if there was room in the marketplace for this type of idea and I also felt compelled because most of the things I do today are things that I really enjoy doing so I felt that this would be a really good fit for something that I would be good at doing and I also felt compelled that I think there was a real need in the market for a business like this
We partner with Accelerating Asia because they're awesome and fun; we've built a relationship with the team over the last couple of years. I think there's a lot of complementary -- both teams complement each other really well, and we have a lot of overlap synergies that we could collaborate on globally, so I feel that they're a good fit for the culture as well as the business.
I think Accelerating Asia is doing a really good job of focusing on a certain segment of companies that have a product, service, customer, and revenue, but they’re still very early. I think that’s a very good segmentation because you can validate a lot of their ideas, just based on the data that they currently have, but yet they’re still early so they still need a lot of help to get to, sort of like, next phase. So I think it’s a very good space that they have carved out for themselves and I feel that a lot more people need to be doing that kind of things.
Startups should work with Accelerating Asia because I think there's a lot of value in the network they bring, and collectively, they have gained a lot of insights and knowledge that they can share with the companies. At this stage of the company that Accelerating Asia works with, you want a lot of help in terms of knowledge, information, investments, and networks. So if you're a company in this stage that is looking to sort of get to the next stage and needs help, I think they're a very good partner.
I think the investors work with Accelerating Asia because the company provides access to an investment asset class which as an individual or as an individual organization, would be very difficult to do on your own, so over the years they've built the ability and the skill set to actually really target and find the types of companies that would make a really good portfolio, and so by being an investor in them, you get access to an investment opportunity that's not only regional but also very diversified in terms of industry.
This latest batch of investments seems really fun, and I look forward to getting to know them more and learning a little bit more about their business, but it seems like they're a very diverse and interesting group of people.
Be helpful. I think the ecosystem is very open-minded, and we're always looking for partners and people to work with, so if you can tangibly provide some value, then I think that's probably the best way to get involved.
Accelerating Asia invests in startups with scalable technology solutions and revenue generating business models that combine purpose with profit.
In making an investment decision, investors must rely on their own examination of startups and the terms of the investment including the merits and risks involved. Prospective investors should not construe this content as legal, tax, investment, financial or accounting advice.
