Most founders are told to bring in an outside CFO and a credentialed leadership layer before they list. ideaForge did the opposite and pulled off a deep tech IPO India rarely sees, taking the company public in under nine months while turning shop-floor staff into shareholders.Ankit Mehta co-founded ideaForge in 2007 out of an IIT Bombay project and spent eight years bootstrapping a hardware company in a country that wasn't building hardware, let alone defence drones. Today ideaForge commands roughly half of India's unmanned aircraft systems market, supplies the armed forces, and saw its platforms deployed during Operation Sindoor, with FY26 revenue of about ₹226 crore. In this conversation powered by Hissa Fund with host Satish Mugulavalli, Ankit explains why he promoted a co-founder to CFO rather than hiring an IPO veteran, how the company designed startup ESOP design around tenure so logistics and shop-floor employees built real wealth, and why he argues Silicon Valley's four-year vesting model breaks for deep tech. With Indian defence procurement surging post Operation Sindoor, his take on employee stock options India and outcome-first hiring lands at exactly the right moment.👉How ideaForge took a defence tech startup public in under nine months while restating its financials mid-process👉Why Ankit Mehta promoted co-founder Vipul Joshi to CFO instead of hiring an experienced outside finance chief for the IPO👉How granting employee stock options India by vintage, not job title, let logistics and shop-floor staff catch disproportionate wealth at the 93% listing premium👉Why back-loaded vesting beats the standard four-year schedule for deep tech, and how to think about startup ESOP design from your first 25 hires👉What Ankit means by hiring for the outcome instead of pedigree, and why ideaForge cherry-picks talent when no peers exist👉How ideaForge sold drones to the government with demonstrations as its only weapon, and why Operation Sindoor reshaped demand. Subscribe to Built to Share for weekly founder conversations and follow Satish Mugulavalli on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/satishmugulavalli/] for daily insights.00:00 - Why a Deep Tech IPO Is Brutal 02:19 - Proving Every Word in the Prospectus 03:05 - The Defence Tech Startup Trifecta 05:50 - Are You Ready for Public Scrutiny 06:45 - Why a Co-Founder Became CFO11:34 - Employee Stock Options and Real Wealth 13:30 - Granting ESOPs by Vintage Not Title 15:48 - Net Value Versus Share Price 20:31 - New Products After Operation Sindoor 24:43 - Hiring for Outcome Not Pedigree#ideaForge #AnkitMehta #BuiltToShare #SatishMugulavalli #DeepTechIndia #IndiaStartups #DroneStartup #DefenceTech #StartupIPO #ESOP #EmployeeStockOptions #IndianStartupFounders #StartupEquity #DroneTechnology #OperationSindoor #IPOIndia #UAV #StartupHiring #FounderPodcast #DeepTechIPO