Venkat Ramaswamy on startups
From Why Founders Should Prototype Before Pitching | Prof. Venkat · · Prime Venture Partners
“In the old model startups would raise a round of funds and then build the product, but I'm finding more successful startups are building prototypes first because you can very rapidly build prototypes today.”
On , Venkat Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President of International at RESOURCES CONNECTION INC, spoke about startups during Why Founders Should Prototype Before Pitching | Prof. Venkat on Prime Venture Partners.
About Venkat Ramaswamy
Venkat Ramaswamy, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and Senior Vice President of International at Resources Connection, has been active in discussing co-creation, AI, and startup strategy. In a 2025 podcast, he and co-author Krishnan Narayanan promoted their book "The Co-Intelligence Revolution," arguing that organizations and educators should shift from a "knowing it all" mindset to a growth mindset of learning, and that human intelligence is distinct from AI because it is grounded in subjective, lived experience. Ramaswamy also praised the concept of "jugalbandi" between humans and AI systems, citing an example of Indian developers building a WhatsApp-based tool for farmers to access government schemes in local languages. In a separate 2025 appearance, Ramaswamy advised Indian founders building AI startups to show venture capitalists a working prototype rather than just a pitch deck, noting that the process of raising funds and building a product is "getting compressed very fast." He stated that more successful startups are now demonstrating a prototype that investors can interact with, creating a "very different experience for the venture capitalist." Earlier, in 2019, Ramaswamy briefed media alongside Edelweiss chairman Rashesh Shah about asset funds, noting that insurance companies and pension funds, which have long-term horizons, are increasingly investing in India.