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HYDERABAD, Telangana:
Business learning usually happens through presentations, case studies and formal discussions. Stranger Founders set out to offer something more participatory with “The Funding Game”, held at Anthill Ventures in Hyderabad on Friday, 9 October 2026. More than 60 people attended the gathering, which was organised around a simple theme: “Meet Strangers. Build Legacies.”
Organised by Stranger Founders in association with Anthill Ventures, the event was designed for founders, aspiring entrepreneurs, professionals and anyone curious about business, placing interaction and peer exchange at the centre of the experience rather than at its edges.
Turning Business Concepts into Interactive Challenges
The Funding Game was conceived as a gamified business experience rather than a conventional conference. Instead of a sequence of talks, the format invited participants to work through questions built around recognisable companies, founder journeys, valuations and business decisions, making quick judgments and explaining the reasoning behind them.
The programme’s rounds were built around concrete challenges: identifying consumer businesses from clues, estimating the revenue and market valuation of leading liquor businesses, and a rapid-fire segment on the journeys of ten notable founders. The line-up also featured a closer look at Razorpay’s funding and valuation journey and a discussion of how Uber recognises revenue within its business model.
A lightning round, a final match and a Business Wheel activity rounded out the format. Together, these elements combined business knowledge with audience participation and friendly competition, giving attendees several ways to engage with the subject rather than simply listening to speakers.
A Cross-Section of Entrepreneurial Experience
Stranger Founders was founded by Ram Prayaga, Founder of Finance Box. A qualified Chartered Accountant and CA Gold Medalist, Ram has more than seven years of experience in financial management, strategic planning and business operations, a background well suited to an event centred on valuations and funding.
The evening was hosted by Kiran Kumar Yerriboyina (YVK), Co-founder of Vaayu, and welcomed a group of guests from across the ecosystem.
Among them was Sailesh Sigatapu, General Partner at Anthill Ventures. Over more than two decades across industries and countries, Sailesh has built expertise in sustainability and green-building technology, investor relationships and business expansion. He has run a technology services company in the United States, was an early investor in Hyderabad-based space-tech company Dhruva Space, and has backed Concu, an urban lifestyle café and restaurant chain. He also mentors an aerospace company on its strategic development within the aerospace manufacturing ecosystem. At Anthill Ventures, he manages fundraising and investor relations with Indian family offices and overseas investors for the firm’s climate vertical and accelerator programmes.
The guests also included Rahul Tamada, Founder and CEO of Tamada Media, who works in digital content and creator-led entertainment, and Smitesh Kothapally, an entrepreneur in the consumer and nutrition space.
Together, the host and guests brought perspectives from finance, venture investment, media and consumer businesses, the kind of cross-industry mix that gives a founder-focused event its depth.
Networking with a Shared Point of Reference
The schedule set aside time for registration, introductions and informal networking before the main programme, with a further networking session afterwards. By giving everyone in the room a common set of business challenges, the format was designed to create more natural openings for conversation than a simple exchange of contact details.
For people building or exploring businesses, a game-based setting can make it easier to compare approaches and explain how they read a business situation, whether that is a valuation, a revenue model or a growth decision. Hearing how someone from a different industry reasons through the same question is often where the most useful conversations begin.
The Idea Behind ‘Meet Strangers. Build Legacies.’
The philosophy behind Stranger Founders is captured in its tagline. Its premise is that some of the most valuable relationships in a founder’s journey begin with people they have not yet met, and its experiences are designed to turn first introductions into an exchange of ideas, lasting professional relationships and, over time, collaborations.
The gathering also saw the launch of Stranger Founders: The Story, a comic that captures the journey behind Stranger Founders and the idea at its heart.
Within the wider Stranger Founders journey, The Funding Game serves as the introduction to the community. From there, the pathway is designed to lead into Bootcamps focused on business growth and the founder mindset; Camp with Strangers, a two-day residential experience; and the Stranger Founders Show. At the top sits The Inner Circle, the ultimate Stranger Founders community, open to selected members by invitation only.
With The Funding Game, Stranger Founders brought its core idea into a business-focused setting in Hyderabad, and more than 60 people came to take part. Founders and builders interested in upcoming Stranger Founders experiences can apply through the organisation’s website.