Championing Save Mom: Turning a Rejected Deal into a Platform Listing
Persuaded a skeptical investment team to back a pre-revenue health tech startup by building the case from pipeline, orders, and government support
Ishita Kansal
Investment Banking Analyst at Soonicorn Ventures
From their time as
Investment Banking Analyst
Soonicorn Ventures • 2024 - 2026
Overview
Ishita identified Save Mom, a pre-revenue health tech startup, as a strong investment candidate at Soonicorn Ventures. The firm had already reviewed and passed on the company once, and the team held a relatively orthodox thesis: startups without revenue were difficult to back with conviction.
The Story
Ishita identified Save Mom, a pre-revenue health tech startup, as a strong investment candidate at Soonicorn Ventures. The firm had already reviewed and passed on the company once, and the team held a relatively orthodox thesis: startups without revenue were difficult to back with conviction.
She chose to push back on that initial rejection. She built the case from the ground up, walking the team through the quality of the founding team, the orders already in place, the sales pipeline, and the forward revenue projections the startup had developed.
The turning point came when she surfaced the government backing. State-level support for Save Mom shifted the risk calculus for both her manager and the broader team, providing the institutional validation that the pipeline and projections alone had not.
Her advocacy moved the deal from rejected to listed on the platform, giving Save Mom access to Soonicorn's network of angel investors and VCs.