GSF India

Choosing the right route

• Consumer founders at pre-product-market fit: GSF Takeoff is the cohort built for that stage.
• Founders seeking a first cheque from GSF directly: use the Get Funding route, which covers pre-seed and seed rounds.
• Individuals who want to invest in early-stage startups: the SuperAngels Academy teaches the method, and the Good Soul Fellas Capital fund invests on your behalf.

How applications work

• GSF Takeoff applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and invited startups are announced on a rolling basis.
• The Get Funding team says it responds to all enquiries within a week.
• The SuperAngels Academy asks for an application, followed by one or two rounds of interviews.

What reviewers look for

• Passionate, enthusiastic founding teams with strong chemistry and a serious wish to make an impact. Solo founders are welcome.
• For the consumer cohort, founders who are building across the consumer segments the programme names.
• Check the programme page for the current intake before applying, because its start dates differ from one part of the page to another.

GSF is an early-stage investor in Indian technology startups, founded in 2012. It writes the first cheque to founders at the pre-seed and seed stage, often leads the round, and says it works on a founders-for-founders basis. Alongside its direct investing it runs three programmes: an online consumer cohort for founders, an online course in angel investing, and an angel fund that individual investors can join. Its website does not publish a registered office address.

What they support

GSF invests at the pre-seed and seed rounds, usually as the first cheque in a startup, and says it can follow on in later rounds. It backs founders who are solving a real problem, typically between the MVP and product-market fit stages, and it welcomes solo founders. It is sector-agnostic. Its pages list investments across Enterprise and SaaS, consumer tech, B2B commerce, generative AI, fintech, deeptech, D2C brands, edtech, healthtech, agritech and robotics. Good Soul Fellas Capital, its angel fund, does not focus on D2C.

Programmes

GSF Takeoff is an eight-week, zero-equity cohort for pre-product-market-fit founders building consumer businesses. It is run online, with two mentoring sessions on weekdays each week, mentors who are operator-founders, VCs and CXOs, and peer learning in small pods. The programme covers user research, MVP building, distribution, unit economics and fundraising, and it ends with an online demo day and a closed offline demo day in February 2027. Participation carries a fee and there is no equity stake.

GSF SuperAngels Academy is an online course in angel investing for working professionals. Its page describes masterclasses from angel investors, live startup pitches and case studies, and sessions on term sheets, valuation, round construction and exits. Participants can invest alongside GSF in early-stage startups. The course charges a non-refundable fee. Its page describes a ten-week programme, and the dates it gives refer to an earlier intake.

Good Soul Fellas Capital is a rolling angel fund scheme. GSF sources and diligences the deals and invests in 10 to 12 early-stage technology startups over 12 to 18 months. Investors are invited to monthly screening calls, get one-to-one time with GSF partners, and receive a pass to the annual Founders-Investors Retreat in Goa. The fund is routed through a SEBI-regulated Category I angel fund.

Facilities and support

GSF's support is mentoring, introductions and events rather than physical space. Takeoff participants get one-on-one guidance with the leadership team, a coordinator for the programme, mock pitch sessions before demo day, and support at both demo days. GSF also runs a founders and investors retreat each year in Goa, a conference in Bangalore (July 2024, held at Shangri-La), and spring mixers. Its network includes more than 200 founders, industry experts and seasoned mentors.

Scale

GSF reports 110+ companies invested in, on its homepage, and describes the same figure as 110+ investments on its thesis page. Its pages give different counts elsewhere: one partner's biography says 135+ investments in tech startups in India, and the Good Soul Fellas page says over 140 investments. The founder network is 200+ on the homepage and over 300 on the angel fund page. Read these as orders of magnitude, not audited totals. Its portfolio page lists 100 companies, with status labels that include active, acquired and exited. Named companies include Whatfix, MediBuddy, Pratilipi and Drivio.

Who runs it

Rajesh Sawhney founded GSF in 2012 and is its Founder and General Partner. Nirmal Shah is a Partner, and two analysts source and evaluate deals. The team page describes Rajesh as a serial entrepreneur who has made 135+ investments in tech startups in India, a count that differs from the homepage figure above.

Locations

GSF Takeoff and SuperAngels Academy are online. The Founders-Investors Retreat is held in Goa; its 2025 edition on 26 June 2025 gathered 150+ participants, including 100 investors and 50+ founders. Its July 2024 conference was held in Bangalore at Shangri-La. The site gives no office address.

How to apply

Founders can apply to GSF Takeoff through the application form on its programme page, or ask about direct investment through the form on the Get Funding page or by writing to the team inbox. Individuals who want to learn angel investing can register for the SuperAngels Academy through its form. Investors who want to join the angel fund apply through its page for an initial call with the team.