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November 16, 2022 @ 9:30 am - 11:30 am PST
FreeFrom $0 in Revenue to a $200M Acquisition in 6 Months with Ankit Mehrotra
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the restaurant industry. Restaurants, on average, laid off 91 percent of their hourly workforce and 70 percent of salaried employees due to COVID-19 related closures. Estimates indicate the restaurant industry as a whole lost as much as $240 billion in 2020.
Among those hit by the pandemic were restaurant apps like Dineout, India’s largest dining out and restaurant tech platform.
“COVID and the whole crisis was obviously a big challenge for us,” says Dineout Co-Founder and CEO Ankit Mehrotra. “Never before had restaurants completely shut down all across the world. Everything we do depends on consumers visiting restaurants. Two years ago, our revenue was at zero and we laid off one third of the team. We had to regroup and refocus to make our business stronger.”
In a global keynote on November 16, 2022, Mehrotra will share how he helped Dineout recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and come back stronger. He’ll also detail how he took his startup from $0 revenue to a $200 million acquisition in just six months.
In his keynote, Mehrotra will also cover:
- His founders journey with Dineout
- The impact of COVID and dropping to $0 in revenue overnight
- How his team went back to the basics to fix the business during COVID
- How he strengthened a business for stronger recovery
Opening Remarks & Chapter Launch @ 9:30am PT
Join us for opening remarks with Kevin Holmes, Founder & CEO @ Founders Network, to get the latest updates from the Network and opportunities for getting involved.
Keynote Speaker @ 9:40am PT
Ankit Mehrotra is the Co-Founder and CEO of Dineout. He started Dineout in early 2012 and through multiple acquisitions over the last eight years, has grown Dineout’s portfolio to include both B2C & B2B services and has been successful in positioning it as the largest dining out and restaurant rech platform in India.
Before starting Dineout, he lived in London for 10 years and worked for 7 years with BNP Paribas in London in various divisions including Investment Banking & Wealth Management, managing a portfolio of UHNWI while also studying for the CFA charter, which he obtained in 2011.
A startup and tech enthusiast, he loves understanding customer behavior across the web and mobile. His specialties include e-commerce strategy, scaling up a startup, understanding and interpreting online customer behavior, launching new product lines, and forging mutually beneficial alliances across networks.
He also believes in giving back to the startup community, is a mentor at multiple startups and is also an avid angel investor.
Stage-Based Roundtables @ 10:30 am PT
Community Partners:
Dec’13 Cohort Blake Caldwell is the CEO & Founder of FoundersBoost. He has 350 alumni, 100 new startups a year, 8k newsletter readers. He’s driven by his passions to create and build community. He’s also the founder of 2332 Collective (music production & festivals with the goal of bringing music to West LA) & The MoGuard (consumer product cup attachment protecting glorious mustaches).
FoundersBoost is a free pre-seed & seed stage mentorship driven pre-accelerator helping promising tech-startups with accelerators, investment, and revenue.
Max Shapiro founded PeopleConnect in 2000 to help early-stage high-tech companies find the talent they need to succeed. PeopleConnect’s clients are in technology, biotech, cleantech, apps, services, medical devices, and consumer products.
Their team of outstanding recruiters finds C-level executives, talented managers and experienced leaders who will bring their client companies to the next level. They provide traditional contingency searches as well as their one-of-a-kind ‘Employees Without Paychecks’ program, which he created after the dotcom bust to help promising companies find top-level talent willing to work for equity only until the company gets their funding.
As you can tell by the name of his company, Max likes to connect people and would love to know if there is any way that he and his team can help you add some fantastic, startup experienced people to your team, like PeopleConnect has been doing for 20 years.
Jeff leads the Partnerships Team at Forecastr — a leading FP&A software company that helps startups create kick-butt financial models to impress investors, confidently raise capital, and effectively run their businesses better.
Jeff serves on the advisory boards of several startup companies and is an active angel investor. He’s passionate about startups and enjoys working with founders and mentoring entrepreneurs.
Jeff is an experienced entrepreneur and was the founder and CEO of a successful consumer goods company that he rapidly grew from $1M in sales its first year to over $40M in annual revenue in its fourth year of operations and was ranked #138 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.
Prior to founding his own company, Jeff was a partner at Beanstalk Partners where he led the sales and business development activities. He also served as the National Sales Director for a venture-backed tech startup where he generated over $45M in client contracts and developed the company’s channel partner program.
Jeff has a degree in accounting and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah. After receiving his MBA in Finance from the University of Utah he served as the Vice President of Investments for Sentry Financial Corporation.
Cathy is the Managing Partner at FullScope Growth, a global consortium of elite Fractional Executives and Business Acceleration Partners that provide the exact combination of experts that organizations require.
She has cross-functional experience in sales, management, marketing and business planning, client services, network development and operations. Delivers strong results within highly competitive markets.
Complimentary Ticket:
Are you a full-time tech founder? Be our guest! During COVID, we’re making our events available to tech founders everywhere. Enjoy a complimentary ticket to come learn from fellow tech founders, partners and investors. Already used your complimentary guest pass? Request an invite to see if you qualify for membership.
About Founders Network:
Founded in 2011, Founders Network offers lifelong peer mentorship to over 600 tech startup founders globally. Our platform, programs and high-touch service facilitate authentic experience sharing, warm introductions and long-term professional relationships. Additional benefits include over $500k in startup discounts and promotion to 2,000 newsletter readers. Members are located in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, London and other tech hubs. Each month our Membership Committee admits a new cohort of full-time tech founders who are nominated by an existing member. Learn more about us here
Confidentiality Policy
All information shared within Founders Network is strictly confidential. We are built on a foundation of trust, and the community takes confidentiality seriously. Investors, members, and staff all share experiences and opinions off the record. In this roundtable forum, we continue to model our fnValues of Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity and Inclusivity. Read more about our Privacy Policy here.
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