Too Young to Be This Powerful? Shanil Shah Is Reengineering the World’s Market in His 20s

What do you do when you spot a gap, not just in a market, but in how young people are seen by that market? If you’re Shanil Shah, you build something that connects the dots: between early-stage startups and big-money investors, between overlooked founders and real funding, between the classroom and the boardroom.

In this exclusive interview with Inside Success CEO David Sonowo, Shanil breaks down how he went from founding a student society at Warwick to launching Kaiku, a global data insights platform trusted by venture capitalists, corporations, and even governments. 

David: So, quick intro, we’re  Inside Success CIC. We’ve got a publication in Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK. What we do is we teach young people what it really takes to start a business or become a VC themselves.

I’d love to hear more about you, how you got started, and how you built things up. You seem really young, probably the youngest VC I’ve spoken to so far!

Shanil: Well, I’m turning 30 in January, so I’m hitting a slightly different stage now. But yeah, we started really young, straight out of uni. Launched the business then, and it’s just been evolving ever since. 

 David: Okay. Cool. So quickly, hi. My name is David. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you? What’s your name? What do you do?

Shanil: Yes, great. I’m Shanil, cofounder of a business called Kaiku. I studied Hispanic Studies with Economics at Warwick about seven or eight years ago, and that’s where I met my cofounder.

Kaiku provides data insights to investors, mainly in venture capital, but also big corporations and governments. We’ve built a global database of early-stage companies, and we help investors use that data to find new prospects.

David: Amazing. What got you into that? And how did you develop that data-driven approach? Was there something specific that sparked the idea?

Shanil: Absolutely. At Warwick, there were tons of societies: finance, law, politics, economics, but nothing that brought them all together for students with overlapping interests. So we started one: Warwick Congress. It combined those disciplines and brought in companies to run mock assessment centers for students heading into the industry.

We built a team of 50 to 60 people and, within a year, grew to around 70. The conference was a success. And from there, we thought, why not take it further?

Since we had this network of big companies and talented students, we started matchmaking. Warwick also had an incubator, so we began connecting early-stage student founders with the companies we’d brought in. It grew organically into helping young entrepreneurs take those first steps, getting their ideas off the ground and connecting with real industry experts.

David: How would you describe yourself in three words?

Shanil: Great question. I’d say I’m very calm, that’s helped a lot in high-pressure moments. I’m also quite creative, which makes it easier to adapt and think outside the box when needed.

And I’m definitely driven. That hunger and passion are key. When things get tough, the motivation has to come from within, because it won’t always come from the outside.

David: That’s amazing. What’s been your most successful match-up to date?

Shanil: That’s a good one. We used to have a model where, if we made a successful match and an investor backed a startup, we’d take a small commission. It was a great way to measure our success and reinvest in our growth.

One standout example was a biotech startup working on sleep tech; tracking and improving sleep quality. We matched them with one of our closest investor networks from university. They made a significant investment, and since then, the company has scaled through multiple funding rounds. They now employ over 100 people, all from that one match.

David:  What’s the company worth now at the moment?

Shanil:  I couldn’t tell you their exact valuation, but their funding journey says a lot. They started with a few hundred thousand pounds and eventually raised £10 to £20 million in later rounds.

David: What’s been your biggest lesson that you’ve learned so far? 

Shanil:  Biggest lesson? Mistakes matter. They’re lessons in themselves. Honestly, you learn more from a mistake than from a person or even from your wins. Every misstep teaches you something as you move forward.

David:  I totally agree.

Shanil: So one of the things we did, a few years in, we tried expanding into multiple markets, beyond the UK into Europe, Asia, the US, even South America. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake.

It did leave us with a global network we can tap into now, which is a plus. But we also wasted a lot of time and money, flying to the Middle East or exploring markets that just didn’t pan out.

It taught us to be more selective. Not every opportunity is worth chasing, and doing proper research before diving in is key.

David: Amazing. If you were to give advice to a young person trying to pitch their business to a VC, what would you say? And how would you guide them to get in the right rooms and position themselves properly?

Shanil: Mhmm. I’d say the first step is research. Validate your idea, make sure there’s actually space for it in the market, and that you’re not just duplicating what’s already out there.