Kanwal has always been passionate about mentoring and helping build consumer brands in India, and has been involved as an investor with brands like Paper Boat, ID Fresh, Epigamia, and Licious, before starting Fireside. He has been investing in the early stage ecosystem in India for over 20 years, first as a Director at Carlyle Group, India, and later as a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Helion Venture Partners. Prior to his investing career, Kanwal spent over 13 years in consumer marketing with Hindustan Unilever, and Intel India.

Vinay has a unique perspective on the intersection between consumer brands and technology, across a career of over 15 years at Hindustan Unilever as Marketing Manager for a multi-crore brand, as well as developing expertise in digital marketing at McKinsey & Co., and Bankbazaar.com. He was founder and CEO of Stepni.com, which was later acquired by Quikr. Vinay holds an MBA from IIM Bangalore, and a B Tech from Cochin University.

Kannan has spent over three decades in the field of Sales, Marketing, and Strategy, during which he has been associated with Unilever, both, in India, and overseas. He has also been COO of Dabur India, and CEO of Innovative Foods. His ability to understand the finer nuances of brand-building at different stages of the brand evolution makes him ideally suited to the role of partner and mentor to young entrepreneurs and brand champions.

Dipanjan has spent over two decades in Investing, E-commerce, Consumer brands, M&A and Digital Consulting in addition to his deep expertise in Finance and Operations. At Fireside, he works closely with disruptive brands such as The Sleep Company, Fable Street, Sarva Yoga, and Nat Habit. He is a mentor to several entrepreneurs, and loves jamming with founders on growth hacking. He has been CFO, Myntra, and part of the Flipkart leadership. He has also played different roles in Finance, M&A, Digital Consulting and Corporate Venture at Wipro, where he headed Corporate Finance, and was part of Wipro Ventures.

Adarsh is a seasoned Sales & Marketing professional with over 23 years of experience, across reputed organizations like Flipkart, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Standard Chartered Bank & Zoomcar. Adarsh has a strong track record in taking businesses from 0-to-1, 1-to-10 & 10-to-100. He has rich experience of building strong revenue moats, profit pools, alliances as well as leading M&As. He has successfully built & led large high performing & engaged cross-functional teams, & has mentored & groomed several industry leaders. He enjoys working across varied categories & business opportunities, & solving the numerous complex problems associated with scaling up businesses to positions of dominance in India. He is passionate about leveraging technology & consumer insights to solve problems for India & Indian customers. He lives in Bangalore with his wife Chandini, their 17 year old son Arhaan & 3 year old pet shih-tzu Momo. Adarsh holds an MBA in Marketing & HR from FMS Delhi.

Prayag is passionate about investing and scaling consumer businesses. He has been investing in the early stage ecosystem since 2013, and been involved as an investor with BiryaniByKilo, Bluestone, and Vinculum. He has been a Principal at IvyCap Ventures where he focused on consumer and enterprise technology startups. He has been an Investment Banker with SBI Capital Markets, as well as a software developer for Infosys Technologies. Prayag holds an MBA from XIMB and a BE(Computer) from Pune University.

Ankur has over 15 years of experience in investing & scaling up consumer brands with deep expertise in chalking out and delivering strategic growth. Ankur has focused on value creation through brand building & digital initiatives over the last decade. Prior to Fireside, he was part of consumer markets leadership at KPMG where he worked closely with CXOs in consumer tech, CPG, fashion and consumer healthcare to enable accelerated growth for promoter driven and PE invested companies. Ankur has completed a PGDBM from MDI Gurgaon, BE from MVIT Bangalore, and is a CFA level 3 candidate.

Shuchi has 16+ years of operational and entrepreneurial experience across fashion & home. She started Pipa.Bella, a D2C jewellery brand in 2013, which she later sold to Nykaa in 2021. She worked in Nykaa Fashion’s senior leadership team, where she led the P&L and brand strategy for private labels across western-wear, Indian-wear and accessories. Having been largely an operator for most of her career, Shuchi loves to roll up her sleeves and dive right in to find solutions and works with a strong customer intuition and product instinct.

Shuchi holds a BS, Economics from the NYU Stern School of Business, and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania."

Varun’s journey began at Bloomberg, where working across Mumbai and Singapore gave him a strong foundation in finance, technology, and global collaboration. As part of the founding team at Avanti Learning Centers, he learned what it takes to build from the ground up—developing empathy for the 0-1 startup journey and deep insights into selling to the Bharat consumer. His hands-on experience in building and angel investing led him to Lightbox, where over 8 years he honed his ability to support founders operationally across fundraising, storytelling and brand building, engage with limited partners, and identify emerging investment themes.

Varun graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with as a BSc in Computer Science Engineering.

With over eight years’ experience in statutory audit and corporate finance, Amit has worked with a variety of clients, including listed IT companies, startups, and retail majors. He has gained extensive knowledge in financial accounting/ reporting at EY Statutory Audit. As AGM, Corporate Finance, at Manipal Health Enterprises, in addition to his Corporate Finance responsibilities, he participated in Project Dhrishti, focusing on finance automation. Amit is also a Chartered Accountant.

Nandika has a deep passion for building organizations while keeping the soul and vision of the founder at the center. Her expertise lies in translating organizational aspirations into execution realities, connecting people, strategy and execution.
In her 13+ years of experience, Nandika has played various roles starting from being a consultant at Aon Hewitt for organizational development, to leading multiple functional areas within HR globally at InMobi, to eventually working alongside the founders driving business strategy, growth and operational excellence as part of InMobi's leadership team.
Nandika holds an MBA from ISB Hyderabad and a BA Honours.(Economics) from LSR, Delhi University.

Swati is a seasoned investment banking professional with over 16 years of experience in consumer and retail. She has a long track record of working with large, iconic consumer companies such as Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Tata Consumer, Godrej Consumer Products and DMart, as well as emerging brands such as Fogg, Paperboat, iD Fresh, Epigamia and Manyavar, amongst others. Swati's expertise extends to advising clients on a wide range of transactions, including M&A, IPOs, fund raises, and strategic alliances. She has successfully executed 30+ advisory and capital market transactions, spanning both listed and unlisted space, totaling over US$ 10 billion. Prior to joining Fireside, Swati was a Director at Kotak Investment Banking. In the past, she has worked with KPMG and PwC. Swati has completed her MBA in Finance from Mumbai University and cleared CFA Level 2.

Reemsha with her experience in social impact consulting, brings with her a deep understanding of organization development, portfolio management and public policy. Prior to Fireside, Reemsha was at Dasra, where she managed the portfolio of Gates Foundation, Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiative, Forbes Foundation, and the Nilekanis. She provided strategic and operational support across areas of fundraising, talent management, impact evaluation, and internal governance processes to Founders and CXOs of leading social enterprises. Reemsha has a Masters in Local Economic Development from LSE UK and a BA in Economics from Mumbai University.

As a VP in the Investment team, Ankita works closely with 6 Fireside portfolio companies including Pilgrim, Kapiva, and Frubon. She previously invested in multiple consumer tech companies during her stint at Venture Highway (General catalyst India). Before embarking on her investing journey, Ankita spent 5+ years in consulting - helping clients in consumer tech, telecom, real-estate and healthcare space at Bain & Co and Strategy & (Erstwhile Booz&Co.). Ankita graduated from IIT Delhi, majoring in Computer Science and did her MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad.

With five years’ experience in M&A, Siddharth has worked across sectors on clients including listed IT companies, startups, and retail businesses. He has been at Ernst & Young LLP, where he advised corporates on M&A, and corporate development with a focus on tax and regulatory considerations particularly relevant in the context of inbound investments, acquisitions, divestitures and cross border reorganisations. Siddharth is a CA, and has also cleared two levels of CFA (US).

Ipsita is a Chartered Accountant with eight years of experience in transaction advisory across varied sectors, working with global and Indian private equity funds and corporates. Prior to Fireside, Ipsita was part of the financial due diligence team at Ernst & Young and Alvarez and Marsal, where she gained extensive experience across multiple marquee transactions in consumer, IT and financial services.

Aashish started his career with White Whale Partners where he was instrumental in setting up the private and public markets verticals for the firm. During his ~4-year stint there, he covered consumer, retail, auto and IT space across public markets, and led VC investments in companies like Blue Tokai, Vahdam, NOTO, Furlenco, among others.
He is a finance graduate from H.R. College and has cleared level I of the CFA program.

Prateek spent 2 years working in analytics consulting, consumer insights and process automation for the FMCG practice at Fractal.AI post which he spent 2 years evaluating early-stage startups in Fintech and Insurtech at Orios Venture Partners. He has an engineering degree in Computers from VIT, Vellore and an MBA from ISB.

Ankit has over 2 years of Investment Banking experience, working on multiple M&A and fundraise transactions at Incred Capital. Combining financial acumen with forward thinking, he brings an insightful perspective to the table.
Ankit is a Chartered Accountant, CFA 3 candidate and has a Masters degree from Mumbai University

Urvashi started her career in management consulting at Bain & Company before transitioning to early-stage investing at Kae Capital, where she spent two years focusing on consumer tech and consumer brands.  

She studied Economics at Lady Shri Ram College and completed her Masters from the London School of Economics.

Satwik has over two years of global experience in Management Consulting, working on Organisation Structure, Operating Model Redesign, Post Merger Integration and M&A Capability Assessment on over 150+ cases at Bain prior to Fireside. Satwik is a Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies Graduate, and a CFA level 2 candidate.

Aman has over 4 years of experience in the Financial Services industry. He was previously with Carpediem Capital, a growth-stage Private Equity fund where he overlooked investment evaluation across Consumer Brands and Services along with portfolio management for Flipspaces and Fornax Corporate Services. Prior to which he was part of the dedicated FinTech practice with Ernst and Young, where he focused on devising digital strategies and providing financial advisory services across the globe.

Aman has a B.S.B.A from Boston University, concentrating in Finance, Operations & Technology Management and Strategy & Innovation.

With 16+ years at large MNCs like LeEco, Mercedes-Benz R&D India, P&G, and HP, Ramya has supported global and national leadership teams in Administration, HR, Project Management, Procurement, Events and Budget functions in diverse cross-cultural environments. Passionate, self-driven, process oriented and creative, she is an exceptional organiser. Ramya has a BSc in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

With over 20 years of experience in the Private Equity sector, Andrea has managed offices and assisted Senior Management in companies like The Carlyle Group, Och-Ziff Capital Management, Omidyar Network and LGT Lightstone. During this span she has used her organisational skills to set up many offices, put systems and processes in place, and host events with seamless precision. Andrea has a Bachelor of Science degree from Mount Carmel College Bangalore.

Kritika has over 7 years of experience in administration support and vendor management. She has worked with companies like Writer Relocations, Nissei Pastic I Pvt. Ltd. and Johnson & Johnson in sectors like logistics, retail and manufacturing.  Kirtika is a graduate in Philosphy (H) from Delhi University.  She has completed N5 certification in Japanese which empowers her with basic communication skills in the language.

With 14 years of experience in executive assistant roles, Neha has honed skills in diverse sectors including digital marketing (Akarmax Tech PVT Ltd), automobile (Hype Luxury ), manufacturing (Shyam Textile), and the food industry (Elior India). Her expertise lies in efficient management, creative problem-solving, and adept communication. With a knack for strategic thinking and meticulous organization, she has successfully navigated complex environments and facilitated smooth operations. Neha is a BA Graduate and a professional Fashion Designer.

With 5 years of experience in front office and administration, Sharon has worked across diverse industries, including recruiting, manufacturing, and retail. She is skilled in efficient coordination, effective communication, and ensuring seamless operations and service delivery. Her expertise combines professionalism with strategic thinking to foster a well-organized and welcoming environment for both clients and teams.

Sharon is also a professional music tutor, bringing creativity and dedication to inspire and guide students in their musical journey.

With over 20 years of experience, Sumy Sara Mathew is a seasoned Senior Executive Assistant and Office Manager, recognized for supporting C-suite leaders and working with prestigious organizations, including diplomatic offices, the Prime Minister’s Office, and global brands like Vodafone, Diageo, Levi’s, and InMobi Technology.

She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics, Dual Master’s degrees in Philosophy and Journalism from Rai University, and a Strategic Management certification from IIM Bangalore. A trained classical Western vocalist specializing in opera, Sumy blends creativity, professionalism, and a global perspective in all her endeavors.