The founder promise
No listing fees, no pay-to-pitch, no premium founder tier, no equity taken for membership. The platform, community, Starter Boost, schemes and templates stay at no cost, forever. Founders are the liquidity every other side comes for; charging them to be here would shrink the very asset our partners pay to reach, so we never will. Our own optional services are a separate, clearly disclosed choice, never a condition.
The scalability rule
Revenue must never hinder scalability. Every stream below exists only because it complements and reinforces growth: verification builds trust, trust grows the network, and a bigger network makes every membership more valuable.
Plans
Signing up costs nothing, for any side. Providers, investors and programs join free, build a profile and take part like everyone else. The tiers below are optional upgrades for those who want more reach, and only ever after you have seen the value. Prices are in INR and exclude applicable taxes. Global providers and investors are welcome; international billing is available on request.
Verified Provider
- Hand-reviewed Verified badge after our quality check, renewed yearly
- Priority placement in your category across the directory
- Access to live founder requests in the Starter Boost feed
- Host a quarterly webinar for the community under your name
- For CAs, lawyers, IP attorneys, agencies, studios and consultants
Joining as a provider is free, and volunteering in the Starter Boost stays open to everyone at no cost. Verification is an optional upgrade for providers who want standing, never a paywall on being here.
Join free as a providerInvestor Access
- Full deal-flow filters by stage, sector, state and journey progress
- Direct intro requests to founders who opt in
- The reverse pitch desk: tell founders what you want to fund
- Verified investor badge and demo day priority
- For angels, syndicates, micro VCs and family offices
Signing up as an investor is free; this seat is an optional upgrade for deal-flow tooling. We open it only when the founder base makes the filters genuinely valuable, and we will show you the numbers before you pay.
Join free as an investorEcosystem Programs
- Run challenges, cohorts and scheme drives on our rails
- Reach founders by stage, sector, state and journey progress
- Application workflows, shortlisting and impact reporting built in
- Ideal for state startup missions, CSR programs and corporate innovation
- Your brand in front of the founders you exist to serve
If you run a public program, we would rather be your infrastructure than your applicant.
Talk to usEvery rupee passes the scalability test
Before any monetization ships, it answers one question: does charging here make the network grow faster, or does it add friction to growth? A future expert marketplace will keep a modest platform share only on paid consultations booked through the hub, and only once session volume exists; the volunteer Starter Boost stays untouched and unpaid forever.
Passes the test
- Provider verification: trust grows the network
- Investor seats: curated access deepens founder supply
- Program hosting: brings founders resources at scale
- Anonymised, privacy-safe ecosystem insights, later
Fails, forever
- Founder fees of any kind: they shrink the liquidity
- Per-message tolls: they tax the value-creating interactions
- Pay-to-pitch in any disguise
- Anything that trades growth for a quick invoice
What we refuse on principle
Selling founder contact details. Guaranteed introductions. Success fees on fundraising. Pay-to-pitch in any disguise. Advertising that pretends to be a recommendation. If a partner asks for any of these, the answer is no, and the founder finds out we said no.
Our own services, same rules
Dave Groups also runs a small in-house services team, IT support, servers and hosting, accounting, business compliance and legal, available to founders in cash or a small equity stake with hard written guardrails. Full disclosure everywhere they appear via the "In-house by Dave Groups" badge, no ranking preference over the providers on this page, ever, and founders may always buy from anyone else. If we cannot win the work on merit next to you, we should not win it at all. Read the full terms, guardrails and pledge →
Questions partners ask
Why would I pay when volunteering is open at no cost?
Volunteering earns goodwill; verification earns standing. The badge, the priority placement and the request feed put you first in line when a founder is ready to hire, and the quarterly webinar puts your expertise in front of the whole community.
Do you take a cut of work I win through the hub?
Not today. Off-platform engagements you win from directory visibility are entirely yours. When paid consultations are booked and paid through the platform in future, a 10 to 15 percent platform share will apply to those bookings only, and we will say so clearly before it ships.
I am outside India. Can I still partner?
Yes. Founders, experts and investors from anywhere are welcome, and several of our founders build for global markets from day one. Pricing is shown in INR; write to us for international billing.
What does verification actually check?
Identity, credentials, track record and references, reviewed by a human. We decline applications that do not clear the bar, and we remove badges if member feedback shows a pattern. The badge means something because it can be lost.
Grow with the founders, not off them.
Join a marketplace designed so that the more you help founders win, the more the network sends you. That is the whole business model.