Hello - I’m Juhi, founder of Forj Capital.

‍Letters from Forj is where my long-form notes will live. Honest reflections on entrepreneurship, capital markets, PMF, fundraising, liquidity, building an army and the emotional weight behind crafting something enduring.

Today, I want to share the personal story behind why Forj exists.

When I decided to build something ground up, it wasn’t to add another fund to the ecosystem. I’ve spent my life inside the India growth story - scaling billion‑dollar companies, building from scratch, backing breakout founders, and staying deeply embedded in the engine room of Indian entrepreneurship.

Over time, one earns a point of view that only comes with vintage, time and scars.

Founders live inside contradictions every day.

Move fast but don’t break things. Dream big but manage cash. Scale aggressively but stay frugal. Hire leaders but carry full accountability. Lead visibly but disappear when credit is due.

The world wants black and white. Founders have to thrive in grey.

You expect life to get easier after product‑market fit. In reality, that’s when the paradoxes intensify. Stability brings sharper pressure. Confidence carries deeper responsibility. Growth demands aggression while the org demands caution.

More employees. More customers. More investors. More support. Yet lonelier than ever. 

Across hundreds of conversations with founders we had backed personally over the last 10 years, a pattern emerged at the Series B+ Growth stage (typically at $100M+ val).

The ecosystem was focused on the company, but kept forgetting the founder - especially when it came to their own liquidity.

These are best-in-class founders building category-defining companies at their breakout moment. And yet, the idea of liquidity at breakout has been treated as taboo. Another paradox.

Conventional wisdom says: why would a founder ask for liquidity just when the company is finally taking off? This is supposed to be the “all-in, no de-risking” phase.

Reality taught us the opposite. This is exactly when liquidity matters most.

For years, founders carried invisible risk, mortgages, liabilities, family responsibilities, emotional fatigue. The market never gave them structured, well-timed liquidity windows. Processes dragged. Optics got messy. And large funds often pushed individual needs to the bottom of the priority list.

At the same time, early investors needed partial exits. Employees needed a way to convert belief into actual cash. Good founders always took care of them first and kept themselves last.

So even as they were scaling iconic companies, they were still operating in survival mode.

A thoughtfully engineered liquidity window doesn’t dilute ambition. It strengthens it. It clears the mind, sharpens judgment, extends time horizons, and shifts a founder from survival mode into execution mode.

Liquidity at breakout isn’t cashing out. It’s levelling up.

And that’s where Forj Comes In

Forj exists to solve this - singularly and unapologetically.

We are a neutral third party whose only value proposition is to provide small, fast, fair secondaries to the individuals behind best‑in‑class growth‑stage companies.

A people‑first point of view. A liquidity‑first point of view. Everything we do stems from one principle: Focus on the individuals behind the company.

We have been founders and operators ourselves. Our investors are India’s top founders - “so we get it”

We begin with liquidity because removing invisible personal risk unlocks clearer thinking. But we don’t stop there.

We will be the most founder‑first fund to ever exist.

Founders who reach PMF are already exceptional - they’ve built products people love, retained strong teams, broken categories, and attracted tier‑1 investors. We aim to be their first call. White‑glove. High‑trust. Concierge‑level support. Partners at every pivotal moment. Our role is to help them go from great to iconic.

Our role and north star for the fund : Reduce founder anxiety, amplify founder power, and help exceptional founders go from great to iconic.

We operate like a white-glove concierge for the top 1%. Founders call us when the stakes are high and the trust bar is higher.

Today we start with liquidity. But we aim to do much more.

1. Liquidity That Actually Works for Founders

Forj gives founders and early believers quick, clean access to capital without the signalling. It’s fast, fair, private, and built for real founder-life.

Example :  

• Small, well-timed liquidity windows for founders
• Liquidity options for early believers
• A neutral third party so no politics or pressure
• Capital on standby, deals done in under 72 hours when needed
• Help with ESOPs, tenders and paperwork

2. Founder Stability: More Clarity, Less Stress

Forj acts like a trusted “founder desk”, part CFO, part strategist, part calm voice in the room.

Example :

• Support to reduce financial and emotional pressure
• A personal CFO-style desk for major decisions
• Guidance on personal finances and long-term planning
• A safe room for tough calls - term sheets, boards, GTM resets
• Real-time advice during high-pressure situations
• Expert operators available on demand
• Introductions to the right CXOs
• Rapid tactical help during crunch moments (hiring, retention, expansion)

3. Insight, Network, and Community - Built Around India’s Top Founders

Founders get the collective advantage of India’s strongest operator–founder network: real insights, real connections, and long-term alignment.

Example :

• Practical benchmarks and market intelligence
• Playbooks for pricing, GTM, retention and growth
• Early-signal spotting to stay ahead of the market
• A private founder-only circle for honest conversations
• A strategic capital network for distribution, supply chain, global connects
• High-trust intros across India’s top operators and founders
• Support in planning multi-venture paths and personal wealth architecture
• Help shaping personal brand, narrative, and long-term legacy

Even our brand reflects this philosophy.

Forj comes from forging metal - strength created under heat and pressure. When metal is forged, it glows orange and blue. Fire and ice. Ambition and discipline. Chaos and control.

The emotional palette of a founder’s life. Too much fire burns the engine. Too much ice freezes momentum. The best founders learn to hold both.

That duality became the inspiration behind Forj - not just philosophically, but visually. Our brand is orange and blue because that is what forged metal looks like under pressure.

Forj was born from lived understanding - not theory, not observation, but experience.

Paradox isn’t abstract to us; it has shaped our entire careers. Thriving in contradiction is the rhythm of my life: building while breaking, stabilising while scaling, carrying pressure while projecting calm.

Fire and ice. Intensity and restraint. Chaos and control. This is the world Forj was built for. Elite founders deserve an elite experience - capital‑on‑call and long‑term partners who help them go from great to iconic.

We’re here to help founders embrace the paradox, and build extraordinary companies because of it, not despite it.