Analysis · Professional & Local Services

Startup founders urged to plan estates after deaths

By Startup Enthusiast · 10 September 2026

What they do

Yellow helps founders create digital estate plans

Recent founder deaths highlight need for succession and share vesting clarity

Investors may buy family's stake in secondary sales to provide liquidity

Recent untimely deaths of founders like Samir Bodas, Amit Banerji, Rohan Mirchandani, Regan Mithani, and Khadim Batti have raised urgent questions about ownership and succession.
When a founder dies, issues around unvested shares, ownership transfer, and business continuity become critical.
Estate and succession planning protects the founder's family financially and gives the company a clear path forward.
Founder shares are subject to vesting clauses; if agreements are not clearly worded, the family may not recover the full stake.
After a founder's death, investors give the family time to adjust and cannot enforce documents immediately.
Investors often assess a secondary transaction (existing shareholders sell their shares) to create liquidity for the family.
Conversations about a secondary sale typically take 2–3 months, and the immediate focus is to ensure shares are bought at a certain price to ease the family's financial burden.
The company's senior leadership team is often prepared to step in and take over operations.

Recent tragedies in the Indian startup ecosystem show that estate and succession planning is essential.
Estate planning is also important for divorce, separation, and cofounder disputes.
Bluegreen Ventures plans to include succession planning provisions in all its deals going forward.
VCs play an active role from early funding to ensure founders plan for risks and the future.

Yellow is a digital estate planning startup founded by Nikhil Varghese.
The company helps founders create estate plans to protect their families and businesses.
Yellow's services include making wills and setting up trusts to ringfence liabilities.
The startup addresses the gap in estate and succession planning for Indian startup founders.

Bluegreen Ventures plans to include succession planning provisions in all its deals going forward.
Founders are advised to ensure shareholding agreement terms match their needs from the first round onward.

Ashwini Thulsaram (existing) — Principal at 3one4 Capital, leads governance function.
Anup Jain (existing) — Founding partner at Bluegreen Ventures.
Sandeep Nerlekar (existing) — Founder of Terentia Consultants, an advisory firm for estate and succession planning.