कर्मThe Work

Twenty years of building businesses. Now pointed at yours.

An agency network across eight cities, a programme that carries up to a crore of a startup's operating cost for a minority holding, and fourteen ventures of my own in four directions. Everything taught here is something operated here.

• siliconindia

  Cover story · October 2021

• Consultants Review

  Cover story · February 2019

• Truecaller

  Ex-brand ambassador

What is carried

Nothing here is a discount. It is simply not billed.

A startup does not fail for want of advice. It fails in the gap between deciding and doing, and that gap is usually paid for in cash it does not have.

Carried for twelve months

₹1cr

Not a cheque. Fifteen operating verticals a company pays for anyway, absorbed by the programme and supplied by companies we already run.

The fifteen

• Brand
• Identity
• Website
• Product
• Performance marketing
• Content
• PR
• Legal
• Finance
• Compliance
• Hiring
• Office space
• Wellness
• Travel
• Technology

Nothing here is priced, because nothing here is sold separately. One operator, personally, for twelve months, and furnished space in Jaipur, Gurugram and Pune for the length of the term.

The twelve months

What the year actually looks like.

The order is not a preference. A company cannot run acquisition before the site exists, or raise before the books are clean.

1. Months 1–3

   Diagnosis

   Founder terms written down. The brand and the site rebuilt from the position, not the other way round.

2. Months 4–6

   Acquisition

   Search, social and shopping switched on across the channels the venture can actually win in.

3. Months 7–9

   Governance

   Books, filings and compliance brought to the standard an investor will open without flinching.

4. Months 10–12

   The decision

   The raise, or the decision not to raise. Either one is a result, and only one of them is a surprise.

The architecture

Where a crore of operating cost comes from.

The programme can absorb up to a crore of operating cost because it is not buying it. Every vertical it carries is supplied by a company already running, with its own clients and its own margin.

• Fabulous.MediaEIGHT CITIES
• GoCommerciallySCOPE ON THE TIN
• CommunitiesFOUR VERTICALS
• VibenceBOOKS AND FILINGS

The record

Scale, and what the backing produced.

In twenty years I have worked with 850+ brands across 35 nations and built an agency network in 8 cities. Our Google campaigns alone have served 100 crore ad impressions, one billion, since 2009. The programme carries up to a crore of running cost for every startup it selects.

What the backing produced

• Top 3In Shopping Ads, nationally

  One venture taken from launch to the top three in India inside eighteen months, against Amazon and Flipkart, profitable from the first month. Then lost to a founders’ dispute, not to the market. That ending is why month one of the programme is founder terms, in writing. The Google Ads auction record for its Shopping campaigns shows a 48.65% impression share, second only to Amazon.in and ahead of Flipkart.

• ₹100 crSeed valuation, a venture I co-founded

  A wellness venture I co-founded, priced at a hundred crore in its seed round. Minority shareholding, on the company record and the investment papers.

• ₹400 crInside eighteen months, as reported

  One venture backed through GoCommercially, as reported in siliconindia’s October 2021 cover story. A press report, not a priced round, and labelled as one.

Excluding ventures whose figures are not mine to publish, these are the three with paper behind them — a priced round, an ad-account record, or a report in the press, each labelled for what it is. No portfolio company is named.

पाठशाला Pathshala · The Founder Library

Two numbers every founder should be able to touch.

How many months the money really lasts, and what the founders keep after three rounds. Move a slider; the argument moves with it. Both figures are lessons in the Founder Library.

From the lesson Runway: how many months you really have · धन Money

From the lesson Dilution: a cap table you can touch · धन Money

Trusted by 850+ brands across 35 nations

Served through the Fabulous.Media agency network.

In the business of happiness

Through better business, better wellness, better travel and better skills. Four doorways out of one promise, each with its own brands behind it.

सोच·What I am thinking about

Essays, columns and sutras, published under सामरिक Saamrik, the imprint. The essays close on dated wagers, scored in public on the ledger.

What people ask

Nikhil Sharma is an Indian entrepreneur, startup mentor and digital evangelist based in Gurugram. He founded Fabulous Media in 2008 and runs NS Transform, a startup incubator. His companies have served more than 850 brands across 35 nations, and he was Community Brand Ambassador for Truecaller in India.

NS Transform is a startup incubator in India that carries up to ₹1 crore of a selected startup’s operating cost for twelve months. Rather than writing a cheque, it absorbs fifteen operating verticals a company would otherwise pay for — brand, performance marketing, web and product, content, PR, legal, finance, hiring, office space, wellness, travel and technology — supplied by companies Nikhil Sharma already runs.

NS Transform provides fully furnished office space at premium addresses in Jaipur, Gurugram and Pune, included for the length of the programme. The programme itself is run from Gurugram.

Applications are open for the 2027 intake and a small number of startups are selected each cycle. There is no programme fee: terms are agreed before a startup begins, and a founder who is not the right fit is told quickly rather than left waiting.

Most accelerators supply advice, a cohort and a demo day. NS Transform supplies the operating work itself, run by the operators who do it for paying clients, with one-to-one mentorship from Nikhil Sharma and eight mentors on the board rather than a rotating roster of guest speakers.

Alongside Fabulous Media and NS Transform, Nikhil Sharma runs AnandBodh and Wellpro in wellness, WakeUp.Life, the travel lines Elevated India and Vanishing India, the agencies Infabio and The Bad Company, and Saving.Careers. He is also visiting faculty at business schools and a fine artist.

कर्म·The Work

You are building something

A small number selected each intake. The programme carries up to a crore of operating cost for twelve months and takes a minority holding, not a fee.

सोच·The Thoughts

You want to know how I think

Long essays on statecraft, enterprise and the economy, published under सामरिक Saamrik, the imprint. Each one that can be scored closes on a dated wager, kept on the ledger.