Ep 27 - Ankur Arora - Co-founder of Montro

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Ankur Arora, Co-Founder of Montro.io. Ankur shares the story behind Montro.io, a Dublin-based, EU-native AI and SaaS governance platform that helps mid-sized companies discover every tool and AI application in use across their organisation and map it against frameworks like the EU AI Act, DORA, NIS2, and GDPR.

He talks about bootstrapping the business to date through founder sweat equity, why he and his co-founder deliberately built a live product with design partners before raising a pre-seed round, and how their combined fifteen years of industry experience has shaped investor trust. They also discuss why founders should focus on emitting the right signals rather than chasing investors directly, and why proving traction always beats pitching a vision.