Before betting the next few decades on co-building, we took a bus across India, district after district, meeting thousands of aspiring founders and hundreds who'd already made it. We came back with answers: what to build, who for, why now.
A traditional IP law firm: hourly billing, paper-heavy work, selling to everyone. We went into the trenches with founders Amit and Prayank to rebuild it as an AI-native legal tech company.
From a 10,000 km bus ride across India to our first company growing 8×, here is how Shifu has come together so far.
Culture is the foundation of everything we build at Shifu. We're intentionally small, 10 to 15 people at most: long-term thinkers who care about craft, character and sustainable company-building.
There is only one life, and it is short and unpredictable. Nothing is worth pursuing if the journey isn't fun.
A fit body, a calm mind and a home filled with love. When our people have all three, the company wins in the long run.
Don't fight for a bigger slice of the pie. Make the pie bigger, and aim for a win-win that lasts.
Massive ambitions on an uncharted path. A strong bias for action and quick iterations keep us building in the right direction.
Use AI to 10× our efficacy in every function, and build a strong audience online. These are our two biggest levers.
We’re founders and operators who’ve scaled companies to $10M ARR: empathetic, execution-first partners obsessed with building sustainably.
Sri Maneru
Prateek Sethi
Prateek Panda
Amit Nahata
Sri Maneru
Managing Partner & CEO
Co-founded Almabase and scaled it profitably to $10M+ ARR.
Prateek Sethi
General Partner & COO
Scaled Photon Legal 8× in 18 months. Ex Almabase.
Prateek Panda
General Partner & CMO
Founded Appknox. Led GTM that scaled multiple companies past $50M ARR.
Amit Nahata
General Partner & CFO
Co-founded Phyllo. Raised ₹500+ Cr for multiple startups.
Photon Legal
