--- title: "Startup Advisory Firm in India | DM & Associates" description: "Strategy advisory for seed-stage founders across India: go-to-market, pricing, fundraising strategy and governance. We advise and prepare; we do not file." url: "https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/" --- Advisory for seed-stage founders # Senior strategy for the two years after your first round. For deep tech, SaaS and consumer founders who have raised and now have to deliver. We work across India, and we are a strategy firm rather than a compliance one: we do not register companies, file returns or sign legal documents. Every engagement is led by our founder, Dineshwara Manideepu. [Request a Strategic Diagnostic](https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/diagnostic/) See how it works Who it is for ## Built for teams that have raised, and now have to deliver. ### This is for you if - You have raised pre-seed or seed funding, or you have early revenue. - You build in deep tech, SaaS, or consumer and lifestyle. - You need go-to-market, pricing, fundraising strategy or governance expertise you do not have in-house. - You want someone who works on the problem with your team, not a report delivered at the end. ### Probably not yet if - You are still testing an idea and have not raised. Start with the readiness check to see where you stand. [Founder readiness check](https://dmassociates.xyz/check/founder/) - You run a programme for founders. Our programme offer fits you better. [For programmes and partners](https://dmassociates.xyz/partners/) Where our work stops ## We hold one mandate, and it is strategy. Search for a startup advisory firm in India and most of what you find is incorporation, registrations, filings and bookkeeping. Those are real services and every company needs them. They are not what we sell, and the difference is not a matter of emphasis — for several of them, the work is reserved by law to someone else. - **Filings, returns and bookkeeping** — Your chartered accountant. We work alongside them, and we tell you when a decision has a tax consequence we are not qualified to price. - **Legal drafting and signature** — An enrolled advocate. The Advocates Act, 1961 reserves the practice of law to enrolled advocates, and we are not one. We prepare the commercial substance; your counsel drafts and signs. - **Statutory valuation** — A registered valuer. Valuations required under the Companies Act, 2013 must be done by one, appointed by your board. - **Investment advice** — A SEBI-registered investment adviser. We are not registered with SEBI in any capacity, so nothing we give you is advice on buying, selling or holding securities. This is not modesty, and it is not a list of things we are too small to do. It is the only arrangement in which the person advising you on strategy has strategy as their whole mandate, while the filing, the signature and the valuation sit with the people the law assigns them to. Areas of work ## Four areas of work, one plan. We do not sell a menu. The diagnostic finds which of these areas matter most for you now, and the engagement works on those. 01 ### Product-market fit and pricing Find the growth motion that repeats before you scale anything. - Sharpening the customer segment and ideal customer - Pricing and revenue model - Competitive positioning - Weekly sprints with measurable outcomes 02 ### Go-to-market Strategy is a document until someone builds the engine. - Channel choice and acquisition playbooks - Sales process and pipeline design - Partnerships - Messaging and positioning [How we work on go-to-market](https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/go-to-market/) 03 ### Fundraising strategy Decide how much to raise, in what form, and what the plan must prove. - The capital plan: equity, debt or grants, and in what order - Narrative and financial model review - Preparing the data room - Reading term sheets alongside your lawyer 04 ### Governance The foundations that let a company grow without losing control. - Cap table discipline and shareholder agreements (with your counsel) - Board and advisory structure - Financial controls and reporting By industry ## We work in deep tech, SaaS and consumer. Each has its own page. - [Deep Tech](https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/deep-tech/) - [SaaS](https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/saas/) - [Consumer & Lifestyle](https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/consumer-lifestyle/) How it starts ## It starts with a two-week Strategic Diagnostic. Out of everything you could do next quarter, a few things carry the result. The diagnostic is two weeks spent finding which ones, and what the evidence says. Fixed scope, a written result, and you keep it whether or not you continue. 1. ### Week 1 You share your plan, model, deck and metrics. Dineshwara interviews the founders and key team members. 2. ### Week 2 We test the plan using our four forcing functions: structured checks that score each claim against what supports it. Then we write up the findings. 3. ### End A 90-minute readout with your leadership team. ### What you receive - The three to five areas that will move the business most, ranked, with the evidence behind each - A 90-day roadmap: milestones, owners and success measures - The assumptions your plan depends on, rated by evidence and risk - A clear recommendation on whether to continue with us, and in what form **Fee.** Fixed, and quoted after a first call. It is credited in full if you continue with us. **What it is not:** an introduction to investors, a valuation, or legal or tax advice. [Request a Strategic Diagnostic](https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/diagnostic/) What you get ## What a diagnostic finding looks like. One page from a diagnostic report, so you can see the format before you ask for one. Illustrative example. Not a client engagement. The company and figures are invented to show the format. Finding 2 of 4 · Priority: high ### Pilots are not turning into purchases, because no buyer owns the budget. - **Evidence** — Three of four live pilots are sponsored by innovation teams. None has a named purchasing owner or written success criteria. The longest has run seven months. - **Assumption at risk** — The plan assumes two paid conversions next quarter. Evidence for it: weak. - **90-day action** — Re-scope the two strongest pilots as paid, ten-week agreements with written success criteria and a named budget owner. Pause the third. Stop taking unpaid pilots. - **How we will know** — Signed conversion terms on both pilots by day 60. Every finding in a diagnostic follows this shape: the finding, the evidence, the assumption it puts at risk, the action and the measure. [See outcomes from past work](https://dmassociates.xyz/#proof) After the diagnostic ## Two ways to continue. The diagnostic tells us which model fits, and both are scoped after it. The Advisory Retainer runs month to month. The Embedded Partnership has a 90-day minimum. ### Advisory Retainer Teams that need senior input without full-time support - **Cadence** — A monthly strategy session, with support between sessions - **Includes** — Document and deck review Async support by email or your team's messaging tool - **Term** — Monthly [Book a call](https://bookings.dmassociates.xyz/#/362591000000049559) ### Embedded Partnership Teams that want an outsourced strategy function - **Cadence** — Weekly working sprints, and a leadership call every two weeks - **Includes** — All four areas of work, in the order the diagnostic sets OKR tracking Access through your team's messaging tool - **Term** — 90 days minimum [Book a call](https://bookings.dmassociates.xyz/#/362591000000049559) Questions ## Questions about working with us. How is this different from hiring a fractional executive? A fractional executive runs one function. We work across all four areas with a written method, and hand the work back to your team. Do you take equity? We are normally paid in fees. Occasionally, part of the fee can be taken as a small advisory equity grant, agreed in writing and disclosed. It is never tied to a fundraise. How long until we see results? The roadmap names what should change in the first 90 days, and how we will measure it. What if the diagnostic shows we are not a fit? We say so plainly. The findings and roadmap are yours to use either way. Do you work with our existing board and advisers? Yes. We work alongside them, and we can present findings to your board. Which time zones do you cover? Europe, the UK, India and the Middle East. Sessions are scheduled in your working hours. Are you chartered accountants? No. We are a strategy advisory firm. We work alongside your CA and your counsel rather than replacing either, and we say so on every engagement. Can you register our company, or handle DPIIT recognition and the startup tax exemption? No — a chartered accountant or company secretary does that. One distinction is worth knowing, because it is routinely conflated: DPIIT recognition is not the tax holiday. The deduction under section 80-IAC needs a separate certificate from the Inter-Ministerial Board, and the government reported cumulative approvals passing 3,700 as of its 80th board meeting in April 2025. A company can be fully recognised and listed on the Startup India portal with no entitlement at all. We do not advise on tax; ask your CA what you qualify for. We have been quoted for angel tax protection. Do you do that? No, and it is worth checking what you are being asked to pay for. Angel tax was abolished for all classes of investors in the Union Budget of 23 July 2024, and the provision ceased to apply from assessment year 2025-26. We do not advise on tax, so take the specifics to your chartered accountant. Do you only work with companies in Hyderabad? No. We are based in Hyderabad and work with founders across India, and in Europe. Sessions are scheduled in your working hours. ## Request a diagnostic, or talk first. A 45-minute call with Dineshwara is the other way in. [Request a Strategic Diagnostic](https://dmassociates.xyz/advisory/diagnostic/) [Book a call](https://bookings.dmassociates.xyz/#/362591000000049559)