From Quora meetups to 125+ deals: How Aditya Arora is approaching early-stage investing in India differently

At 28, Aditya Arora has backed more than 125 startups across India. But unlike many investors who started in banks or consulting firms, his route into venture capital began in classroom corners, comedy rooms, and community meetups.

A decade ago, Aditya was teaching underprivileged children, designing campaigns around the idea that “talent is universal, opportunity is not.”

He experimented with stand-up comedy, organised Quora meetups, wrote content, and conducted interviews – building communities long before he built portfolios.

In college, he didn’t wait for permission. He ran small projects, campus initiatives, and early experiments with friends. Some ideas worked briefly, others failed outright, but each cycle sharpened his understanding of how people organise around problems.

That instinct to convene led to the birth of FAAD – initially as a community for founders, professionals, and students to meet, learn, and collaborate. The word “faad” itself, rooted in youth slang, signalled energy and intent.

FAAD’s pivot into a fundraising platform wasn’t scripted. It emerged from repeated questions at its events: how do we actually raise money? The team started experimenting with pitching-focused sessions, where startups could present to curated investors in one room, compressing weeks of outreach into a single evening. Early successes came with companies like ClearDekho and Stylework, and soon FAAD’s role as a bridge between startups and investors solidified.

Over time, Aditya’s lens deepened from community builder to capital allocator. FAAD today operates as an investment platform backing early-stage founders, with Aditya at the centre of its dealflow and founder engagement.

What stands out in his approach is an emphasis on people over spreadsheets. Finance can be learned; reading people takes time. Having assessed nearly 10,000 founders, Aditya pays close attention to how they respond to rejection, handle feedback, and behave when the room isn’t in their favour. For him, those moments reveal more about long-term potential than any single metric on a slide.

How does someone who started with chalk and whiteboard, not Excel, think about portfolio construction and risk today? What have 125+ investments taught him about the difference between a good story and a durable business?

The full chronicle of Aditya’s journey – from education campaigns to FAAD’s evolution as an investment platform – is captured in The Indian Dream – 3rd Edition under The Investimonial section.

You can read the complete piece on IndianDream.club