Building From a Garage : ft. Tarun Mehta of Ather Energy | Story | Funding | EV |

Founders Unfiltered Ep40: Tarun took the aspirational middle-class education route. Being a good student in high school, he prepared for Engineering Entrance and got a decent rank to get into IIT. Growing up, he had no exposure to how businesses worked. This changed when out of curiosity he joined his institute’s entrepreneurship cell and gradually developed an interest in building products. But it was not something he imagined he would do in the near future. A few months later, he got in touch with his batchmate Swapnil who shared a similar experience. In college, the two would often have long discussions around sustainable energy and had worked on many projects together. Brainstorming business ideas and analyzing the worst-case scenario, the two developed the conviction to quit their jobs and build something they were passionate about. Tarun had been fascinated by the Electric vehicle space and figured as the sector grows there would be a dire need for good charging infrastructure. Thus, Ather Energy was born. Inside a student hostel in Madras, far away from the Indian startup hub, by 2 graduates who had no knowledge of Electronics. For more details visit: https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/ About the Hosts : Aviral Bhatnagar is a VC at Venture Highway and is the Founder of A Junior VC. He started the A Junior VC Newsletter in 2018 after observing whitespace in conversations in the Indian Venture ecosystem. He completed his B. Tech from IIT Bombay and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Mazin Biviji is a Product Owner at Agoda and a founding member of A Junior VC. He previously worked at Deloitte as a Senior Consultant. He completed his MSE and BSE from the University of Michigan and his MBA from INSEAD. Join us at https://ajuniorvc.com/community/ to be a part of an exclusive community and grab the opportunity to question and hear our guests live every Sunday. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:48 - Early Days 07:25 - How Ather Energy Came Into Being 11:20 - Early Days In The Department 15:16 - Initial Struggles & Pivots 19:13 - Now That's How You Raise Funds :D 26:27 - Dealing With Launch Delays 30:10 - Building The Supply Chain 33:57 - Learnings from Product to Launch 35:31 - The Game Changer 38:33 - Future of EV 41:54 - Unfiltered Feedback 43:44 - Outro