Harsh Jain pitched Dream11 for 3 years, was turned down by 150 investors

The path to becoming a unicorn wasn’t always smooth sailing for fantasy sports platform Dream11. In its early days before they rose Series A funding, the company struggled to attract funding.

Investors were wary of backing a gaming platform that was dealing with regulatory uncertainty and issues of legality. “I pitched for two-and-a-half, three years and maybe 150 (investors) said no to me,” Jain recalled at a recent conclave.

But those rejections taught Jain a very important lesson – the value of pitching an idea to people who heard ideas for a living. “I would say this to any entrepreneur: Please share your idea, meet the smart people who are looking at all the ideas. Meet investors before you need to. They will help you chisel your idea,” he said.


According to Jain, each meeting with an investor taught him something new about his business.

“Each meeting taught me something that I could improve on. And not just improve to get funding but actual improvement in understanding my business better.”

Idea vs. Execution
For those who believe that sharing their ideas might lead to their ideas getting stolen, Jain advises meeting prospective investors anyway.

“Please don’t keep your idea to yourself. I can’t think of the last original idea that succeeded, especially in India. There’s not a single original idea (because) it’s not about ideas. It’s about execution, it always has been.”