About ScaleMe

The rooms stopped being accessible. So we built one.

ScaleMe is India's private, application-only network for founders running ₹25–100 crore businesses — built by an operator, guided by institution builders.

Sanjay Enishetty, Founder of ScaleMe
Sanjay Enishetty · Founder, ScaleMe
Who built this
I've lived the ₹25–100 crore struggle. You've solved the hard parts — but somewhere along the way, the right rooms stopped being accessible. ScaleMe is my attempt to fix that for an entire generation of founders.
Sanjay Enishetty
Founder, ScaleMe
  • Former CEO, Naturals — India's largest salon chain (800+ outlets, 150+ cities)
  • Former CEO, 50K Ventures
  • Operator, investor, and ecosystem builder across two decades
  • Trusted by first and second-generation business owners across India
Guided by an advisor network

Operators and institution builders who've been there.

The ScaleMe advisory board isn't a list of honorary names. These are operators, investors, and ecosystem builders actively guiding how the network is built — from selection standards to what happens inside the room.

Prof. Rajendra Srivastava
Prof. Rajendra Srivastava
Executive Director, Centre for Business Innovation — ISB
Dr. Raj P Narayanam
Dr. Raj P Narayanam
Founder & Executive Chairman, Zaggle
CK Kumaravel
CK Kumaravel
Co-Founder & CEO, Naturals Salons
Murali Bukkapatnam
Murali Bukkapatnam
Former Chairman, TiE Global
Mahankali Srinivas Rao
Mahankali Srinivas Rao
Former CEO, T-Hub
Srinivas Kollipara
Srinivas Kollipara
Co-Founder, T-Hub

Every standard inside ScaleMe — who gets in, what's shared, how members engage — is shaped with this board, so the room stays worth sitting in.

The story

Why this network exists.

ScaleMe started with a problem its founder lived, not researched. Over two decades of operating — scaling Naturals to India's largest salon chain with 800+ outlets across 150+ cities, then backing founders as an investor — Sanjay kept seeing the same pattern: the founders doing the hardest work in Indian business had the fewest rooms built for them.

Cross ₹25 crores and the startup ecosystem stops being useful. Stay under ₹100 crores and the institutional world doesn't see you yet. In between sits India's real growth engine — thousands of operators making high-stakes decisions alone, with no peers at their scale and no honest room to walk into.

ScaleMe was started to build that room: a private, application-only network where serious SME operators share honestly, learn from each other, and access what scale requires — clarity, connections, and capital — with zero membership fees, so the room is chosen for what people bring, never for what they pay.

The network is being built deliberately, not fast: a handful of founders admitted each week, every application read personally, and an advisory board of operators and institution builders shaping the standards as it grows.

₹25–100 CrThe band ScaleMe is built for — India's missing middle
ZeroMembership fees. Selection by judgment, not payment
Two decadesOf operating and investing behind the network's design
WeeklyA handful of founders admitted each week — quietly
In the press
The Economic Times

"Building the missing middle: Sanjay Enishetty wants to build the institutional infrastructure for India's SMEs."

In an interview with The Economic Times, Sanjay lays out the thesis behind ScaleMe — why India's ₹25–100 crore operators are structurally underserved, and what institutional infrastructure for this segment should look like.

Read the full interview on ET →

"India does not have a pipeline problem. It has a scaling problem."

— Sanjay Enishetty, in The Economic Times

Why the ₹25–100 crore band?

The band isn't arbitrary. Below ₹25 crore, businesses are still finding product-market fit and need foundational hand-holding. Above ₹100 crore, institutional advisors and investment banks take notice. In between sit profitable, tax-paying, employment-generating operators — proven models that haven't made the leap to institutional scale. Sanjay calls it the most critical yet least supported segment of the Indian economy.

Why has the missing middle persisted?

Because the system was designed to protect small businesses, not grow them. Compliance costs jump at revenue thresholds, so founders rationally stay below the radar. Beyond regulation, three gaps go ignored: mid-market founders have no advisory access (corporates have boards, startups have VCs — this band has neither), capital products that don't match their growth, and no visible pathway from ₹50 crore to ₹500 crore.

What breaks first — capital or leadership?

Leadership capability, almost always. Having seen the pattern from both the VC side and the operating side, Sanjay argues capital without strategic clarity accelerates mistakes. The right sequence: get strategic clarity first, build leadership depth so the business survives the founder taking a holiday, and only then raise — from a position of strength, not desperation.

Isn't a curated network just an exclusive club?

Curation is relevance, not exclusion. Put a ₹5 crore business and an ₹80 crore business in the same room and neither benefits — mixed rooms create networking without depth, and India has enough of that. When everyone in the room is an operator at a similar stage facing similar challenges, peer learning becomes genuine. As the network matures, more cohorts by stage, sector, and geography will follow.

What does success look like in ten years?

Three measurable outcomes: more Indian SMEs making the transition from ₹50 crore to ₹500 crore, each one creating hundreds of direct jobs; a far deeper pipeline of governance-ready companies entering India's SME public markets; and — most important — a shift in founder aspiration, so no operator at ₹50 crore accepts that as their ceiling.

If you're building in the missing middle, this room was built for you.

Applications reviewed personally. Zero membership fees. A handful of founders admitted each week.

Join the Network
Join the Network