Skip 7 months of investor outreach.Pitch 20 of them in 5 minutes.
If you're raising ₹2–10Cr in 2026, this is the cheapest, fastest, highest-signal pitch room in India. Full stop.
If you're raising from outside Bangalore or Mumbai, you're bleeding months.
Here's the math nobody puts on a deck slide.
Five concrete outcomes. No participation trophies.
Every founder who pitches gets these — whether or not a cheque clears.
A 5-minute pitch to 20 named investors
Not a panel. Not a demo day. A focused, scored, in-person room.
Written feedback from 3 investors in 7 days
Specific, non-fluff. What worked, what didn't, what to fix before Series A.
Warm intros to investors who match your sector
We pattern-match thesis, stage and cheque size. You skip 90 days of cold DMs.
A spot in the 600-founder WhatsApp room
Where deals, hires, and intros actually happen. Curated. Active. Lifetime access.
Top 10% advance to Capital Connect Mumbai
A second pitch room — 50+ growth-stage funds, family offices, sovereign-pool LPs.
Compared to the ~₹200/cold-DM cost of running your own outbound. Math should be obvious.
Why founders choose Marathon over demo days and DMs.
| RecommendedMarathon 3.0 | Demo Day | Cold Outreach | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face time with investors | 5 min × 20 | 3 min × 1 | 0 min |
| Investors pre-committed | Yes, contractual | No | No |
| Sector-match intros | 3.2 average | ~0 | Manual |
| Written feedback | From 3 investors | None | Mostly ghosted |
| Cost to founder | ₹2,000 if selected | Free or ₹5k+ | Time + opportunity |
| Median time to term sheet | ~23 days | Rarely | 7+ months |
Four cities. 125 dots each. Filled dots are gone.
Mumbai filled in 4 days last edition. We don't expand capacity.
Eight of twenty. Named. With cheque sizes.
No mystery faces. Every investor below has confirmed attendance and pre-committed to reviewing every shortlisted deck.
+ 12 angels & fund partners revealed 14 days before the event. Confirmed attendance is contractual.
The room works because both sides are pre-qualified.
I write ~14 cheques a year. Half come from rooms like Marathon. The signal-to-noise ratio is what makes it worth blocking a Saturday for.
I see 200 decks a quarter. At Marathon I see 30 — but they're curated to my thesis. I've invested in 3 founders from prior editions.
Tier-2 and Tier-3 founders rarely make it onto my radar. This is the most efficient way I've found to source outside the Bangalore-Mumbai bubble.
Hear it from them, not us.
Marathon 2.0 alumni who closed rounds.
A partial list. Most raises happen 30–90 days after the event — we measure conservatively.
Four steps. Two minutes to start.
Apply in 2 minutes
Free form. We review every application personally — no bots, no auto-rejects.
Hear back in 7 days
If selected, pay ₹2,000 to lock your offline slot. If rejected, you get specific reasons.
Pitch in your city
5-min pitch + Q&A. Scored on clarity, team, sector fit, funding readiness.
Top 10% advance
Capital Connect Mumbai. 50+ growth funds. Closed-door. Invitation-only.
If fewer than 18 investors show up on the day, we refund the full ₹2,000 — no questions, no forms.
We commit on paper. 20 investors are confirmed; we factor in two no-shows and still guarantee a quorum of 18. If we don't deliver, you're refunded by close of business that day. Zero refunds issued across two prior editions.
We charge less to attract hungry founders, not capital-rich ones.
This is not for everyone.
Save us both the time.
Marathon is built for founders who are ready. Check which side you fall on.
Apply if
- Annual revenue ₹1Cr+ (startups) OR ₹5Cr+ (MSMEs)
- Indian-registered entity, founder is full-time
- Raising ₹1Cr–₹15Cr in next 6 months
- Have a deck, P&L, and 1 customer reference ready
Do not apply if
- Pre-revenue or "idea stage" — we are not an accelerator
- F&B / restaurants / QSR / FMCG food / RTE
- Alcohol, tobacco, vaping, nicotine
- Gambling, betting, fantasy gaming, casinos
- Adult content, recreational drugs
- Looking for grants, debt, or "non-equity" capital
The questions every founder asks before applying.
You apply for free. The ₹2,000 is paid only if we shortlist you, and it covers venue, food, and the cost of getting 20 investors in one room for 4 hours. It also filters tire-kickers — every founder who pays shows up prepared, which is why our conversion is 10× a free demo day. We refund it if fewer than 18 investors are in the room on the day.
Apply, but be transparent in the form. We make exceptions for sub-₹1Cr startups with extraordinary growth (10× YoY, marquee customers, or unique IP). About 1 in 12 sub-threshold applications get through.
You get a specific written reason within 7 days. Most "no"s are stage-fit or sector-fit, not quality. We re-evaluate in 6 months. You also get added to the 600-founder community at no cost.
Demo days are 3-minute pitches to a generalist crowd. Marathon is 5 minutes per founder, with named investors who have pre-committed to actively reviewing your deck. We don't do "winners" — we do warm intros.
No, and any event promising guaranteed funding is lying. What is guaranteed: 5 min of pitch time, written feedback from 3 investors, and intros to sector-fit funds. 7 of 350 founders closed rounds in 2025 — about 1 in 50 — better odds than cold outreach (industry avg: 1 in 200+).
Yes — Marathon is heavily weighted toward post-revenue, profitable or near-profitable founders. About 40% of our 2025 cohort was bootstrapped. Investors at this room are specifically looking for capital-efficient teams.
23 slots remaining. 4 cities. One deadline.
If you have ₹1Cr+ traction and you're raising in the next 6 months, you should already be in the form.
Our partners.
