India, Oct. 15 -- Let's face it, having a brilliant idea or even a promising product isn't enough anymore. In India's startup scene, fundraising has quietly become the real make-or-break moment for most ventures. You could be sitting on the next Flipkart or Zerodha in your head, but without capital, scaling up is like trying to sprint in knee-deep water.

The rules of the game have also changed. There was a time when all you needed were bold projections and a slick pitch deck to get a term sheet. Those days are gone.

Today, investors want proof, early traction, customer love, solid economics, or at the very least, a business model that doesn't crumble at the first stress test.

And yet, despite all the noise about "funding winters," Indi...