The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC

Sankar Bora is the Co-founder & COO, Dealshare, a social ecommerce startup in India, that has raised close to $400M in venture money from marquee investors such as Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global, Matrix India, Alteria Capital and WestBridge Capital. Prior to this, he co-founded Myntra in 2007, which was sold to Flipkart in 2010.

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Episode Notes:

1. Why entrepreneurship? (2:30)
2. What gave Sankar the conviction to embark on the path of entrepreneurship (5:50)
3. Early days of Mantra (10:32)
4. A few mistakes made at Myntra (14:25)
5. How to pick co-founders? (20:34)
6. Learnings from building Myntra (22:50)
7. Validating the thesis around Dealshare (27:50)
8. What did Sankar get right about building Dealshare and early signs of success (33:45)
9. Understanding the diversity of Indian customers
10. Nurturing consistency at Dealshare (43:25)
11. What has entrepreneurship taught Sankar (46:20)

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Social Links:

Dealshare on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dealshareindia

Sankar on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/SankarBora6

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Aloke Bajpai is the Co-founder and CEO of ixigo.com a platform that aggregates and compares real-time travel information, prices and availability for flights, trains, buses, and hotels, and allows ticket booking through its associate websites and apps. Since ixigo's launch in 2007, the company has gone from a bootstrapped startup to India’s leading travel search and planning business, with over 20 million active users every month across mobile and web.

Aloke graduated from IIT Kanpur in 2001 and started his career at Amadeus in Europe where he held key product and technology roles, building and managing large scale web-based products and networks for the first four years of his career. He then went to INSEAD for his MBA, and returned to India to build ixigo.

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Episode Notes:

1. Intro (2:15)
2. Why entrepreneurship (4:11)
3. What frameworks did Aloke decide to take the plunge into entrepreneurship (11:20)
4. Why did Aloke pick travel as an industry to disrupt (14:35)
5. The Aha-moment for Ixigo (17:38)
6. Conversations with VCs in the early-stages (24:15)
7. How did Aloke and team convince their first investors (30:00)
8. Leveraging VCs to grow the company (32:40)
9. Evolution of Aloke’s leadership styles over the Yeats (37:40)
10. How do you build a strong internal company culture (42:15)
11. How did Ixigo navigate the pandemic and the challenges that came with it? (46:50)
12. Overall learnings building Ixigo (55:20)
13. Advice to younger self (59:18)

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Social Links:

ixigo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ixigo

Aloke on Twitter: https://twitter.com/alokebajpai

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Rajat Tandon is the President of IVCA, India's apex body representing the interests of PE/VC industry, Real estate, Infrastructure and Credit funds, Limited Partners, Family offices & Corporate VC's. Rajat leads the planning, development, and implementing IVCA’s regulatory advocacy activities, while also effectively influencing regulatory outcomes in support of the alternate asset class.

Previously, Rajat was part of the leadership team at NASSCOM, where he headed NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups initiative, providing crucial support to technology startups in India.

With his early stint as entrepreneur and extensive corporate experience in the IT & Telecom and GIS/Navigable maps, Rajat competently bridges the gap between boardroom expertise and on-the-ground experience. Over the past 25+ years, he has worked in various positions ranging from technical support, sales leadership, service delivery to strategic initiatives at Siemens, Nortel, and Nokia.

Rajat also brings with him his extensive network in the startups space, having worked closely with most of the eminent industry leaders. His knowledge of the startup ecosystem, its constituents, successes, opportunities, and challenges run deep. He is also a member of CII National Start-up Council.

A Post-Graduate in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management Technology (IIMT), Ghaziabad, Rajat also has a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Pune University. When not busy with the VC-PE and startup communities, you will find him spending quality time with family or enjoying a game of Golf.​

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Episode Notes:

1. Introduction (2:00)
2. The evolution of the Indian VC ecosystem in the past decade (3:20)
3. IVCA's pivotal role in the advancement of the Indian VC ecosystem (5:06)
4. Rajat's career path (7:45)
5. IVCA's remarkable milestones and contributions (17:55)
6. Envisioning a thriving startup ecosystem (26:04)
7. Inspiring success stories from India's vibrant startup landscape (42:20)
8. Rajat's lasting legacy: Shaping the future of Venture Capital (51:29)

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Social Links:

IVCA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/indianvca

Rajat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rajattandy

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash 

Rohit Sood is the Partner at Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), an investment firm that invests in companies in the digital, education, media, and services sectors. The firm also focuses on early-stage, as well as growth-stage investments. Rohit was the founding team member and has been part of Bertelsmann from Day 0 having seen the growth of the fund over the last decade as well played an instrumental part in shaping India’s startup ecosystem. Prior to Bertelsmann, he spent some time at Deutche Bank and holds an MBA from IIM-Kohzikode with a Bachelors from IIT Delhi.

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Episode Notes:

1. Intro (1:50)
2. Why did Rohit pick a career in venture (3:42)
3. Trading vs venture capital (7:30)
4. Indian growth story: 2010-present (10:37)
5. Learnings from backing companies that haven’t scaled as per expectations (16:10)
6. How does Berterslman conduct its post mortem on startups (20:40)
7. How does one build a great working relationship with their portfolio founders and guide them (28:06)
8. How and what do investors mean when they talk about market? (32:42)
9. Can the market be manipulated (35:42)
10. Thoughts on investing in the ‘Valley of death’ (41:15)
11. Exits for VCs (50:10)
12. Insights from investing in winners (54:50)
13. What can we expect from India in the coming years (1:03:01)
14. How has Rohit evolved as an investor over the years (1:07:30)

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Social Links:

BII on Twitter: https://twitter.com/biifund

Rohit on Twitter: https://twitter.com/doostihor

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash 

Saurabh Saxena is a serial edtech entrepreneur who has co-founded Lakshya, Vedantu and Power Club (previously known as Uable). He has been an educator and Edtech entrepreneur for 15 years now. After graduating from IIT Roorkee in 2005 he started Lakshya, a chain of offline learning centres. After a successful exit, Saurabh then co-founded Vedantu in 2012 which then went on to become one of the leading online test prep companies. Shortly after becoming a parent himself, Saurabh realised that our current education system does not prepare our children with real-world life skills required to lead a happy and successful life. That led him to found his third edtech venture, Power Club, aimed at preserving and nurturing our children’s creative intelligence and preparing them for an uncertain future.

Links to topics discussed: Poistive Intelligence and Letter to younger self by Salman Khan (Khan Academy)

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Episode Notes:

1. Intro (1:43)
2. Why entrepreneurship? (2:32)
3. Why is Saurabh passionate about education (6:32)
4. Takeways from building three companies in edtech (9:35)
5. Aha-moments while building Vedantu and Lakshya (22:00)
6. How should founders think about scale (27:50)
7. How has Saurabh matured and evolved as a founder (31:50)
8. How to build mission-driven businesses (39:50)
9. Frameworks for decision-making and navigating tough days as a founder (43:35)
10. How does Saurabh leverage his success to motivate him further (51:52)
11. Advice to his younger self (55:55)

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Social Links:

Powerclub on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/join.power.club/

Saurabh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/saurabh_learn

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Saurabh Pandey, co-founder and CEO of EloElo. EloElo is an app that enables live-social experiences through games and entertainment. It is currently among the top 10 Apps on the Google Play Store in India with over 10M downloads. It accommodates 34,000 creators and offers a staggering 400 million minutes of live content. The company has raised $15M from Kalaari Capital, KB Investment, Lumikai, WaterBridge Ventures and Better Capital.

Before Eloelo, he accumulated a decade of experience in various domains such as marketing, product and growth at Flipkart and P&G.

Episode notes:

1. Introduction (2:05)
2. Rationale behind entrepreneurship: Saurabh's motivation for founding EloElo (2:59)
3. Resilience and conviction: Saurabh's renewed pursuit of entrepreneurship following a prior setback (10:25)
4. Early Validation of EloElo (18:03)
5. Standing out in a competitive landscape: EloElo's approach to capturing attention in the content and entertainment industry (26:16)
6. Building alongside ICPs (34:14)
7. The significance of timing in the company's growth trajectory (41:12)
8. Insights gained as a CEO: Key lessons learned by Saurabh (49:18)
9. Saurabh's framework for decision making (59:42)
10. Non-negotiable principles: Saurabh's core values and beliefs (1:10:26)
11. Saurabh's reflections – advice to the younger self (1:16:55)

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Social Links:

EloElo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eloeloapp

Saurabh on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Saurabh65616912

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Karan Desai is the Founder and Managing Partner at Interface Ventures, an early-stage venture fund based out of Mumbai, India. He’s an operator turned investor who brings a diverse skill set that encompasses extensive experience in operations, investment banking, and financial consulting.

Prior to Interface, he was the Joint Managing Director at Trucap Finance Ltd., a rapidly expanding NBFC listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange which specializes in providing finance to MSME businesses in India.

In addition to this, Karan founded exerFIT, a globally recognized lifestyle nutrition and supplementation brand endorsed by top athletes and Bollywood stars.

Throughout his career, Karan has held key roles at distinguished brands such as Bank of America, PwC, Centrum Capital, and the HEAL Institute. His academic credentials include a Masters from the University of Westminster, London, and a Bachelors from Narsee Monjee College, Mumbai, where he graduated with distinction.

Episode Notes:

1. Intro (2:28)
2. Journey into venture capital (3:53)
3. How is Interface Ventures structured? (11:20)
4. Looking back at Karan's founder stint: ExerFit (17:55)
5. How to keep things lean and bootstrap (25:06)
6. How does Karan invest, knowing what he knows today as a former founder? (29:25)
7. How has venture impacted Karan as a person? (36:11)
8. Learning from founders that Karan has invested in and worked with (40:56)
9. Advice to a younger self (45:49)

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Social links:

Interface Ventures on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/interfaceven/

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Yohei Nakajima is the General Partner at Untapped Capital, a pre-seed and seed-stage focused fund investing in under-represented founders in the US. At Untapped Capital, the sweet spot is investing $100k-$250k checks into startups based raising at $3-7m in valuation.

Yohei has been supporting early-stage startups for 15 years, originally starting on the community side organizing events and educational courses for founders out of coworking spaces. He has spent the last 7 on the investing side, initially at Techstars where he helped spin up the Disney Accelerator alongside The Walt Disney Company, followed by his role as Director of Pipeline, supporting all 30+ Techstars accelerator programs in recruiting the best startups worldwide. Prior to Untapped, he was at Scrum Ventures, where he led the development of Scrum Studio, designing, leading, and overseeing our partner programs with Nintendo, Dentsu, Panasonic.

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Episode Notes:

1. Intro (2:38)
2. Why venture? (3:52)
3. Thesis origin and resonance with founders (8:04)
4. Yohei's builder persona and its influence on his investor persona (16:03)
5. Sourcing through outbound (23:40)
6. Non-negotiables as an investor (28:40)
7. Knowledge sharing as a fund manager (33:34)
8. Future of Untapped Capital (35:15)
9. LP's learnings from Yohei (36:26)
10. Advice for emerging fund managers (39:26)
11. Fundraising surprises as a fund manager (42:05)
12. Learnings from portfolio founders in early stages (44:52)
13. Yohei's decision-making process and framework (48:48)
14. Advice for his younger self (50:30)

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Social Links:

Untapped Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/UntappedVC

Yohei on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yoheinakajima

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Prateek Agarwal is the Investment lead at First Cheque, a micro VC fund based out of Bangalore that invests $100K in pre-seed startups in India. Prior to this role, Prateek worked with the India Business Head at Dr. Reddy's where he was responsible for tracking business metrics, identifying areas of improvement, and leading strategic projects.

His background as both a consultant and operator at firms like Dr. Reddy's and EY has allowed him to develop skills in strategic planning, project management, and data analysis across multiple industries. Prateek's ability to shift between the big picture and details has also been strengthened through his diverse experiences.

First Cheque was originally conceived by India Quotient but is now an independent firm with its own brand. During its first fund, First Cheque worked with more than 20 venture partners and added over 100 startups to its portfolio, which includes well-known ventures such as Fashinza, Giva, Rocketlane, Fleetx, Wint Wealth, Plaza/Rigi, Global Fair, Drink Prime, and Bellatrix Aerospace.

Nitin Jain is a well-known name in the Indian startup ecosystem as the co-founder and Chief Business Officer of OfBusiness, a tech-enabled platform that provides raw material procurement and credit solutions to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. With a strong background in structured solutions trading, Nitin has played a key role in OfBusiness' success, helping the company raise over $875M from top investors like Tiger Global, SoftBank Vision Fund, and Matrix Partners, among others. Today, OfBusiness is valued at around $5B and has become a leading player in the Indian SME ecosystem. Nitin Jain is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and has had a successful career prior to his entrepreneurial journey.

Episode Notes:

1. Nitin Jain discusses his journey into entrepreneurship (2:10)
2. Discovering Co-Founders and Creating the OfBusiness Idea (3:55)
3. Nitin Jain shares his perspective on what's more critical: the team or the idea (6:30)
4. The Early Days of OfBusiness: A Look Back at the "Aha Moment" (9:15)
5. Coping with the Struggles and Insecurities of Being a Founder (12:30)
6. Understanding the Composition of Winning Founding Teams (16:30)
7. Nitin Jain's Unique Leadership Style and Approach (23:10)
8. Fostering a People-First Culture at OfBusiness (27:10)
9. Developing a Strong Company Culture as Companies Grow (29:18)
10. How to Maximize the Benefits of Your Investors (32:22)
11. Overcoming the Toughest Days as a Founder (39:20)
12. Nitin Jain's Biggest Lesson as an Entrepreneur (41:57)
13. Advice to His Younger Self: What Nitin Jain Would Have Done Differently (46:03)

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Social Links:

OfBusiness on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ofbusiness_com

Abhishek Goyal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/njain351

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Beerud Sheth is the co-founder and CEO of Gupshup, the world's leading platform for cloud messaging and conversational experiences. It is used by over 30K+ developers and handles over 4.5 billion messages per month. The company has raised more than $480M from marquee investors such as Helion Venture Partners, Tiger Global, CRV, White Oak among many others.

He was previously the co-founder of Elance (now Upwork), the world's largest online services marketplace, which went public in 2018. Prior to founding Elance, he worked in the financial services industry – modeling, structuring, and trading fixed income securities and derivatives at Merrill Lynch and before that at Citicorp Securities. His graduate research, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, involved developing autonomous learning software agents for personalized news filtering.

Beerud earned an M.S. in computer science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology & a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Bombay.

Episode Notes:

1. What made Beerud an entrepreneur? (3:48)
2. A Retrospective on the entrepreneurial journey (13:13)
3. Unpacking the drive of serial entrepreneurs (20:15)
4. The evolution of Beerud's entrepreneurial career (23:23)
5. Navigating the pressures of entrepreneurship (28:30)
6. Insights and guidance for first-time founders (32:40)
7. The distinctive traits of exceptional founders (40:52)
8. The founder's role in business pivots (43:50)
9. Words of wisdom for his younger self (51:11)

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Social Links:

Gupshup on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gupshup

Beerud Sheth on Twitter: https://twitter.com/beerud

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Abhishek Goyal is the Co-founder, Vice Chairman, and Executive Director of Tracxn, a leading research firm that provides market intelligence data on private companies. Since its founding in 2012, Tracxn has secured funding from top investors like 3one4 Capital, Elevation Capital, Prime Venture Partners, and angel investors including Sachin and Binny Bansal, and has grown to become a highly profitable business.

After much success, Tracxn debuted on the NSE in October 2022, becoming one of the few venture-backed startups to go public. Abhishek's strategic leadership and unwavering commitment to excellence have been vital in the growth and success of the company.

Before Tracxn, Abhishek gained experience working with esteemed organizations such as Amazon Development Centre (India) Private Limited, Yahoo Software Development India Private Limited, and Accel. He also served as a consultant with 3i Infotech Limited and Erasmic Consulting Private Limited.

Abhishek has been recognised as part of the '40 under 40' list by Fortune India in both 2018 and 2019, highlighting his success as a young entrepreneur. He holds a bachelor's degree in technology with a specialization in computer science and engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.

Episode Notes:

1. What was it like before and after Tracxn's IPO? (3:38)

2. Why did Tracxn's founders choose to go public instead of selling the company? (6:10)

3. How has Abhishek's leadership role changed since the IPO? (7:30)

4. How did Tracxn's investors learn about the IPO process, and what was their reaction? (15:53)

5. What's the best analogy for a company going public? (20:20)

6. Why did Abhishek choose to become an entrepreneur? (22:30)

7. What was Tracxn's first milestone? (26:00)

8. Would Abhishek do things differently if he had to build Tracxn again? (30:30)

9. What were some of the toughest days as a founder? (33:33)

10. What is Abhishek's superpower as an angel investor? (38:18)

11. What's the biggest lesson Abhishek has learned over his career? (44:23)

12. Abhishek tips on leadership and management (47:15)

13. What advice would Abhishek give his younger self? (57:00)

. . .

Social Links:

Tracxn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tracxn

Abhishek Goyal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AbhishekTracxn

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Sanam Rawal is the Founder and Partner at Metamorph (previously known as Passion Connect), a Blume Ventures-incubated human resource advisory platform that helps startups grow with talent acquisition, talent branding, acquisitions, research, learning and development and more. With offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Pune, Metamorph has assisted in the hiring of more than 800 candidates, including CEOs and senior vice presidents for well-known startups such as Unacademy, Slice, HealthifyMe, Dunzo, Cashify, Purplle, and many more.

Episode Notes:

1. How did Sanam become involved in the world of venture capital? (3:45)

2. Sanam's perspective on working within the Blume ecosystem (15:25)

3. A glimpse into the early days at Metamorph (18:36)

4. How does talent matching occur at the portfolio level? (26:08)

5. What makes founders choose to work with Metamorph despite having their own HR teams? (30:10)

6. The role of HR firms in M&A processes (35:04)

7. Overcoming challenges when working with portfolio startups (42:57)

8. Metamorph's strategy for hiring the best employees to support startup growth (48:45)

9. Addressing the reverse brain drain phenomenon (51:50)

10. Key takeaways from building and developing Metamorph (54:06)

11. Sanam's proudest achievement during her time at Metamorph (1:00:33)

. . .

Social Links:

Sanam Rawal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sanam_Speaks

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Jen Abel is the accomplished Co-Founder of JJELLYFISH, a Boston-based firm renowned for its pioneering approach in assisting B2B startups to achieve early-stage sales proficiency and success in the United States, as well as the UK and Australia markets. With over six years of experience in the industry, JJELLYFISH has empowered over 200 B2B/enterprise startups to validate their sales process and go-to-market strategy, demonstrating a commitment to delivering exceptional results.

The firm's highly skilled team has a proven track record of generating impressive revenue and driving substantial outcomes for companies headquartered in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America. JJELLYFISH's range of services caters to diverse needs, including acquiring first-time US customers, defining US go-to-market strategies, or transitioning from the SMB market to mid-market/enterprise levels. The firm's expertise in these areas is unparalleled, and they have demonstrated a remarkable capacity to navigate and succeed in complex markets.

Episode Notes:

1. The inspiration behind co-founding JJELLYFISH (2:52)

2. The evolution of the sales process in the US over the years(8:27)

3. The benefits of founder-led sales for startups (15:20)

4. The right time to invest in sales teams (23:15)

5. Jen's definition of PMF (33:55)

6. Common pitfalls Indian founders face while selling in the US (45:34)

7. Tips for improving sales skills for founders (50:47)

8. Advice for founders entering US markets (57:37)

. . .

Social Links:

JJELLYFISH on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjellyfish_co

Jen Abel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjen_abel

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Rahul Chowdhury is the Managing Partner at N+1 Capital, India’s first revenue based debt fund. He brings 18+ years of intensive entrepreneurial and operating experience. He is a two-time founder, having founded and sold DenuoSource, a Chicago-based data analytics firm, in 2011. He later founded Reboot, India's first refurbished IT asset lifecycle management firm.

How does revenue-based-financing (RBF) work?

N+1 will provide startups access to capital, at a premium, without taking any equity share or collateral from the company. Further, it collects a percentage of the borrowing entity’s monthly revenues to pay the capital back, and gives steady returns to its limited partners on a quarterly basis. Unlike venture debt firms, N+1 isn’t dependent on future fund-raise of the startup, but will invest on the basis of its revenue outlook.

Episode Notes:

1. What motivated Rahul to pursue a career as a venture capitalist? (3:38)

2. The impact of Rahul's operator journey on his venture capital journey (6:02)

3. With whom does Rahul do business? (12:50)

4. Key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (15:41)

5. Rahul’s decision making process (23:10)

6. How important are metrics and numbers in investment decision making? (35:40)

7. How does Rahul view black swan events and their impact on predicting the trajectory of startups seeking revenue-based financing? (38:18)

8. Evaluating businesses of varying sizes with respect to revenue based financing (45:31)

9. How significant is TAM to a revenue-based-financing investor? (55:20)

10. Challenges of revenue based financing in India (58:38)

11. Why VCs like to collaborate with a revenue-based-financing firm? (1:04:20)

12. What were the LPs' concerns about a revenue-based-financing firm? (1:09:51)

13. Personality-Fund-Fit for a fund manager (1:15:35)

14. Things about India that continue to surprise Rahul (1:21:28)

. . .

Social Links:

N+1 Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/np1capital

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Tarun Sharma is Managing Partner at MegaDelta Capital Advisors, a sub-advisor to Millenna Capital, a Mauritius based investment fund as well as an investment manager of MegaDelta Capital Fund I, a SEBI registered Category II Alternate Investment Fund. The fund has invested in companies such as GOQii, Nova, IDfy, Naaptol, Firstcry, MoneyTap etc. and others.

MegaDelta typically invest $15-25M across sectors of such as Healthcare, Enterprise technology and Engineering Services.

Tarun has more than 18 years of work experience, including 16 years in principal investing and investment advisory in India and around the world. He currently serves on the boards of GreytHR Software, Intelligence Node, Panacea Medical Technologies, and Air Works Engineering, as well as Nova Fertility and FirstCry.com as a Board Observer.

Tarun formed the core investment advisory team for NEA India prior to joining MegaDelta Capital, leading investments in consumer, healthcare, and technology companies. And before that, he worked for Peepul Capital Private Equity, where he was involved in transaction structuring and execution, as well as actively managing portfolio companies in the consumer and media sectors. He began his career at Goldman Sachs International in London, first with the Equity Derivatives team and then with the Global Macro Proprietary trading team, where he developed a strong understanding of macro themes and translated them into investible opportunities.

Tarun received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, India and earned his B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Delhi, India.

Episode Notes:

1. Intro (2:45)

2. Tarun’s journey into venture capital (4:12)

3. The evolution of the Indian venture capital landscape over the last 15 years (12:05)

4. How has Tarun evolved as an investor over the years? (16:20)

5. The role of a successful fund manager (21:35)

6. Takeaways from investing and collaborating with portfolio founders (case in point: Firstcry.com) (31:02)

7. Healthcare in India: Why haven't venture capitalists done more in this sector? (43:21)

8. Where is the real opportunity in healthcare in the next 4-5 years? (48:13)

9. Advice Tarun would give himself (55:20)

. . .

Social Links:

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Kanika Mayar is a Partner at Vertex Ventures SEA & India (VVSEAI), a fund part of the global Vertex Ventures network of funds, with portfolio companies such as Licious, FirstCry, Nium, Binance, Grab, Yatra, and Happy Fresh. In addition to Southeast Asia and India, the Vertex Global Network is comprised of affiliates in Silicon Valley, China and Israel.

Kanika joined Vertex Ventures in 2020 and focuses on opportunities in India in agritech, B2B, consumer, and health tech. Kanika has worked in private equity, asset management, and investment banking for over 9 years.

Prior to joining Vertex, Kanika was an Investment Officer with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where she focused on investing in early-stage technology, telecom, renewable energy and infrastructure companies across India and South Asia. Before IFC, Kanika was with Goldman Sachs’s Investment Banking team covering transactions in natural resources in Europe.

Kanika holds a Bachelor in Economics from the Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Episode Notes:

1. Intro (1:30)

2. Kanika's professional trajectory (2:42)

3. A general overview of the VC industry in recent years (7:00)

4. India's macro trends (14:22)

5. Kanika's India thesis (21:23)

6. Portfolio startup learnings (31:51)

7. Establishing long-term relationships with founders (41:20)

8. Advice to anyone entering venture capital (51:30)

. . .

Social Links:

Vertex Ventures on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VertexVentures

Kanika Mayar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KanikaMayar

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Aprameya Radhakrishna is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Koo, an Indian microblogging and social networking app also known as the Indian Twitter. The company has raised a little over $50M from marquee investors such as Accel, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Tiger Global among many others.

He founded his first venture, TaxiForSure with Raghunandan, which was acquired by OLA in 2015 for $200 million. In 2017, Aprameya launched his second venture, ‘Vokal,’ a user-generated content platform in Indian languages, with partner Mayank Bidawatka. After that, he realised that content in regional Indian languages was sparse, as most social media platforms carry an English-first approach and are built primarily for English speakers residing in urban centres. This gave him the idea of developing a multi-lingual micro-blogging platform for Indians, Koo, to communicate and connect with their linguistic and cultural communities.

In July 2020, he won the Prime Minister’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge.

Episode Notes:

1. Intro (2:20)

2. Reflections on free expression in the context of microblogging and social media (3:50)

3. Growing Koo within different sections of the Indian populations (8:55)

4. How did the idea for Koo come about, and what factors aided the company's growth? (12:50)

5. Learning from building TaxiForSure that translates to building Koo (17:10)

6. The initial set of milestones that established the Koo brand (20:04)

7. Expansion during the pandemic (23:48)

8. Lessons from India's growth that will help Koo expand to the United States (26:47)

9. Creating richer community experiences (29:40)

10. Taking on Twitter (33:52)

11. Scaling values as businesses grow (37:44)

12. Creating a brand with a purpose (41:38)

13. How do investors perceive Koo’s growth in the coming years? (47:37)

14. Lessons learned as a serial entrepreneur in India (50:18)

. . .

Social Links:

Koo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kooindia

Aprameya Radhakrishna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aprameya

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Shyam Menon is the founding partner of Bharat Innovation Fund (BII), an India-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in IP-driven deep tech, healthcare, agritech, fintech, mobility, logistics, enterprise and renewables startups. The fund has invested in Fire Compass, CreditVidya, Shifu, Detect Technologies, among many others. He has worked in the technology industry for over 25 years.

Prior to launching BII, Shyam co-founder Infuse Ventures, India’s first clean tech focussed early-stage venture capital fund backed by BP, IFC, MNRE, SIDBI and other prominent LPs, and spent several years abroad working across global institutions such as the World Bank, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Conduit Ventures, Fuel Cell Energy, and Acumentrics Corp.

Shyam graduated with honors from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology with a Bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Missouri University of Science and Technology with a Master's degree in Material Sciences. Despite beginning his Ph.D. at UC Davis, he decided to discontinue it and pursue a career in the impact space.

Episode Notes:

1. Intro (2:20)

2. The origin story of Bharat Innovation Fund (3:00)

3. Why did Shyam decide to bet on the Indian startup story in 2007/08? (37:47)

4. Backing dreamers and disruptors (44:30)

5. How has Shyam evolved as a fund manager (1:02:30)

. . .

Social Links:

BII on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bharat_fund

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Tushar Vashisht is the Co-founder and CEO of HealthifyMe, a digital health and wellness company that provides smart meal plans personalized by expert nutritionists and customized workout plans with certified fitness coaches. The company has raised just over $100M from Khosla Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Athera Venture Partners, Blume Ventures among several others.

Vashisht began his career on Wall Street at BlackRock. He later joined Deutsche Bank as a corporate finance analyst in San Francisco before moving to Singapore. In 2009, he joined the Aadhaar project headed by Nandan Nilekani, and in 2012 he co-founded HealthifyMe with Mathew Cherian and Sachin Shenoy.

Episode Notes:

1. Introduction (2:50)

2. What led Tushar to found HealthifyMe (4:05)

3. How did Tushar and his team validate their HealhtifyMe thesis? (8:40)

4. How do you find early adopters and solicit feedback as founders? (13:48)

5. How does the life of a founder change when they raise capital (22:05)

6. The pandemic's impact on HealthifyMe as a company (28:55)

7. Which is more difficult: building in the early stages or empowering leaders within an organization? (36:47)

8. Tushar’s frameworks for decision making (39:55)

9. Tushar's advice to his younger self (44:52)

. . .

Bonus: Ud ja Re by Tushar Vashisht

. . .

Social Links:

HealthifyMe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HealthifyMe

Tushar Vashisht on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tusharvashisht

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Upasana Taku is the Co-founder, COO and Chairperson of MobiKwik, a financial services company that provides a fintech platform designed for online payments (incl. BNPL), life insurance, and loans. The company has raised $178M from marquee investors such as Sequoia, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Blacksoil, AmEx Ventures, Orios Venture Partners, Cisco Investments among many others. Upasana built the company from scratch and now has 32 million users and 100,000 merchants, doing close to 500,000-1,000,000 transactions every day.

Episode Notes:

1. What inspired Upasana to found Mobikwik (4:23)

2. How does one validate an idea or a business in its early stages? (10:30)

3. The evolution of the CEO's role (23:08)

4. The vision for MobiKwik (30:53)

5. Thoughts on monetizing UPI (41:55)

6. Differentiating consumer and fintech products, companies, and offerings (45:50)

7. What advice would Upasana give herself if she had to start over? (51:10)

. . .

Social Links:

MobiKwik on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MobiKwik

Upasana Taku on Twitter: https://twitter.com/UpasanaTaku

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Bipin Shah is the Partner at Titan Capital, an early-stage sector agnostic micro VC fund based in India. The fund has an incredible portfolio of over 250 startups in India and the US across consumer internet, D2C, SaaS, AI, Web3, and other sectors, including investments in Ola, UrbanCompany, Mamaearth, Oziva, Dealshare, Razorpay, Ofbusiness, Yellow Messenger, Beardo, and Giva, among many others.

He was a founding team member of Lead Angels Network, a seed-stage investment platform, before joining Titan Capital in 2015. He graduated from IIT Bombay in 2013, where he was a member of the E-Cell team for five years and led it in his final year.

Episode Notes:

1. Bipin spoke about his "gardening approach" and how it is helping entrepreneurs

2. Bipin discussed Titan's investment growth and reaching unicorn status

3. How Titan's 40% of portfolios raised Series A in less than two years of investment

4. How did Bipin begin his Titan journey with Kunal and Rohit?

5. Titan Capital Fundamentals: 3 Key Ingredients for Investments

6. Early investment experience and developing the investment philosophy for Titan

7. Short stories on investments in companies such as Beardo, Fynd, Superdaily, Mamaearth, Credgenics & others

8. Bipin's Titan journey learnings and methods for assisting founders in improving their unit economics

9. The most important piece of advice from Bipin on investing in startups

10. Insights into other sectors in which Titan invests

Social Links:

Titan Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TitanCapitalVC

Bipin Shah on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bipin_28

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Yash Jain is the Founder and General Partner at Sparrow Capital, an early-stage micro VC fund that invests upto $500K in SaaS, B2B, Fintech, and Consumer Internet sectors in India with investments in companies such as Mailmodo, Qoohoo, Bimaplan, GoKwik, Superfone among others. Prior to Sparrow, Yash had two stints with large VC funds in India – Kalaari Capital and Arkam Ventures, and also worked at Flipkart as an analyst.

Episode notes:

1. Why venture as a career path? (2:20)

2. The difficulties of launching a new fund as a millennial (10:48)

3. Nuances and learnings from investing in India (16:07)

4. What founders in India can do better (36:00)

5. What can Indian VC improve on doing better (44:45)

6. Lessons learned from Yash's time in the US and the future plan for Sparrow (54:32)

7. Advice for young fund managers (1:02:46)

. . .

Social Links:

Sparrow Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sparrowcapvc

Yash Jain on Twitter: https://twitter.com/yash_sparrow

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Milap Jadeja is the Managing Partner of Openbook VC. He is a senior management and strategy professional with over 20 years of experience in building multiple businesses in sectors such as Pharmaceuticals, Agriculture and Non-ferrous castings. Milap brings with him a proven track record in investment leadership being An established angel investor with over 50+ angel investments in startups including unicorns and soonicorns. He has also led multiple fundraising efforts for startups as a syndicate head. A seasoned investor, he is an LP at multiple funds such as Better Capital, Cloud Capital and Prophetic Ventures.

Episode notes:

1. Comparisons of two art forms: photography and investing (3:42)

2. A look back at investments and founders (22:50)

3. What has Milap learned about investing and specifically that in India? (30:16)

4. Takeaways from working with founders (45:10)

5. How has Milap evolved as a person? (58:25)

. . .

Social Links:

Openbook VC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenbookVC

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Shalini Chhabra is the Managing Partner at 3i (Impact India Investments) Partners, a Silicon Valley-based Impact Fund with the objective of supporting enterprises looking to solve some of the most pressing challenges faced by India's lower-income millions.

She is a seasoned Banker with over two decades of experience in Credit Risk Management. She has managed diverse portfolios including Large Corporate, Inter-bank, SME, Financial Institutions including Mutual Funds and Insurance, Government / PSUs, and Structured Finance including Supply Chain Financing, Factoring, Securitisation, Inter-bank Participation etc. She has also managed Risk Policy and processes, Basel Implementation and Development of Risk models for PD estimation for HDFC Bank.

She is huge proponent of gender equality, and currently mentors young students with AFH (“Aspire for Her”), hoping to bring about the change in perspective and reduce, if not eliminate the various self-limiting reasons for success by Women.

Prior to becoming a VC, Shalini was also an experienced angel in the impact space, primarily looking at livelihoods creation at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

Episode notes:

1. Career in banking (3:34)

2. Learning from the banking sector that Shalini has carried over to VC (6:25)

3. Framework for risk appetite (18:05)

4. What has Shalini learned about herself as a result of her work in banking and venture capital? (28:42)

5. Shalini discusses what it takes to be a fund manager and success frameworks for operators (44:50)

6. Shalini's professional career (58:50)

7. Shalini's views on investing in personas (1:05:24)

. . .

Social Links:

3i Partners on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3i-partners-india/

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Mohit Gulati is the Managing Partner & CIO at The Investment Trust of India (ITI) Growth Opportunities Fund, one of the largest financial services conglomerate offering a range of products and services from Lending, Equities and Derivatives trading, Equity Research, Commodities Trading, Portfolio Management Services, Distribution of Mutual Funds, IPO & Insurance products and Investment Banking Services.

Mohit bring over 10 years of experience in the Investment & Fund Management space, and led first round deals across ECOM Express, Grab.in, LocalBanya, TarusaWorld, WigzoTech, HumourMe and over a dozen early-stage startups. 

Prior to ITI, he founded Altius Ventures, which invested in sectors like ecommerce, fintech, enterprise software (SaaS), and internet of things (IoT).

Episode notes:

1. Mohit’s career in a nutshell (4:26)

2. Life in Indian venture (26:04)

3. Thesis on investing and philosophy for investments (46:35)

4. What does Mohit love about venture and his job today? (53:40)

5. Advice to younger self (1:05:50)

. . .

Social Links:

ITI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ITIFund

Mohit Gulati on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mohitmgulati

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Abhishek Nag is a Partner at Lightspeed India where he primarily focuses on investing in consumer internet companies, media & entertainment, the creator economy, and gaming. He brings extensive experience driving strategic partnerships, business development, and corporate development for internet companies in the domains of growth, content and payments, among other areas. Previously he held operator roles at hyper-growth companies including Meta (Facebook), Hike, Uber, and most recently, Netflix.

He’s been an active angel investor since 2016, investing in over 45 startups with several first round investments turned unicorns.

When he’s not busy working with startups, Abhishek publishes a newsletter in which he writes about building, scaling, and investing in technology businesses in India.

Episode notes: 

1. State of Indian venture capital in the context of today’s macroeconomic climate (3:52)

2. Fundings, valuations and funding winter: When will the market correct itself? (13:50)

3. What can Indian investors learn from the past and how can we become better investors in the future? (20:40)

4. What made Abhishek switch to VC? (25:55)

5. What has Abhishek learned from his angel investing experience that he now applies as a VC? (34:11)

6. Advice for angel investors (39:05)

7. A playbook for determining GTM and new market expansion (43:03)

8. Advantages of having feet on street (52:26)

9. Building products for different markets (56:15)

. . .

Social Links:

Lightspeed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp

Abhishek Nag on Twitter: https://twitter.com/abhisheknag

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Rahul Chowdhri is the Managing Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, an early-stage tech-focused venture capital firm based in Bangalore with investments in companies such as Mamaearth, MFine, Whatfix, Vogo, among many others. 

Rahul is an industry veteran, having been in Indian venture for over 15 years. He started his investing career at Helion where he was a Partner and led investments in companies such as BigBasket, Simplilearn and Livspace. At Stellaris, he focuses on B2B & B2C Commerce, Consumer Brands, Content/Social, Agri-Tech, Recruitment and Gaming.

Prior to getting into venture, Rahul had stints in product management and consulting roles at Microsoft, MarketRx, i2 Technologies, and BCG. He holds a B. Tech degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

Episode notes:

1. Current market sentiment and the state of the industry (3:03)

2. What have Stellaris' top-performing companies and founders done really well in the last few years? (7:25)

3. How does Rahul view investments, both cash-efficient and capital-intensive? (13:45)

4. The evolution of Indian investors' risk appetite (18:30)

5. What attracts investors to founders in both bear and bull markets, and what characteristics do they share? 23:26)

6. How does Stellaris view market corrections in today's context? (28:26)

7. What do the best operators do to take their businesses to the next level? (32:45)

8. How far into the future do funds look when developing their investment thesis? (37:15)

9. Fund culture, metrics, and metrics (41:07)

10. What has Rahul learned about himself as a fund manager over the course of his investing career? (45:48)

11. What is Rahul's decision-making framework? (50:10)

. . .

Social Links:

Stellaris VP on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stellaris_VP

Rahul Chowdhari on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rchowdhri

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Chirag Gupta is the Managing Partner at 8X Ventures, a deeptech fund investing in India. Prior to 8X, he has held leadership positions at 500 Global, Careem (MENA's first unicorn acquired by Uber at $3.1bn), McKinsey, PwC/Strategy& and Korn Ferry. During these experiences, he helped 10+ corporations build their unique startup “explore” strategy, helped multiple startups grow to unicorn status, and partnered with governments of 8+ countries to grow their startup ecosystem. 

Chirag holds an MBA from University of Chicago: Booth and Nanyang Business School, and completed his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.

Episode notes:

1. How does Chirag define deep tech (3:50)

2. Market being ready vs market being big (17:46)

3. Competitive nature of the deeptech landscape in India (26:44)

4. Why are Indian deep tech startups valued lower than their European and US counterparts? (33:22)

5. Is revenue still the most effective metric for evaluating deeptech startups? (37:50)

6. Will foreign investors price Indian investors out of the early and growth stages of deep technology, as has happened in other sectors? (42:25)

7. The benefits of down-rounds (46:00)

8. Deeptech sectors Chirag is bullish on (51:38)

9. Advice to deeptech founders in India (57:51)

. . .

Social links:

8X Ventures on Twitter: https://twitter.com/8xVentures

Chirag Gupta on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommittedChirag

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Gautam Patel is the Founder and Managing Partner of Z3Partners, a growth-stage fund based in Mumbai. Prior to founding Z3Partners, Gautam has been the co-founder of Zodius Technology Fund and Zodius Technology Opportunities Fund, successful early-growth stage Private Equity funds with a track record of investing in industry leaders such as BigBasket, Pepperfry, OfBusiness, Zivame, Medgenome and Antuit.

Prior to Zodius, Gautam was the Managing Director and Head of India for Battery Ventures, a Bay-Area based venture capital and PE-fund. Prior to that he was part of the leadership team at iGATE.

Gautam started his career in Investment Banking in the US with Lazard Freres. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.

In this episode, we discuss Gautam’s journey as an investor and everything he’s learned from investing in India and India-focused businesses.

Episode notes:

1. Lessons learned from investing in India over the last two years (3:30)

2. How are investors currently viewing the market? (7:55)

3. Conviction building when a fund only invests in 8 startups per year (10:18)

4. Why did Guatam transition from operating to venture capital? (15:10)

5. Reflecting on Gautam's first investment and its significance in the context of India's growth story (17:40)

6. Fundamentals of business management (21:10)

7. The privileges and perils of being a venture investor (28:50)

8. Key lessons Gautam has learned about company building from his experience operating and investing in the growth stage (41:00)

9. How do you turn a business around? (48:01)

10. When should investors assist founders in running their businesses? (56:00)

11. Collaborating with co-investors (1:06:06)

12. To what extent does Gautam's operational experience play to his strengths as an investor? (1:12:11)

13. Things about Indian VC that still surprises Gautam (1:16:56)

. . .

Social links:

Z3Partners on Twitter: https://twitter.com/z3partners

Gautam Patel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gautamapatel

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Gaurav Hinduja is the Co-founder and Managing Director of axio (previously known as Capital Float). It brings together pay later, credit and personal finance management under one seamless brand experience. On a mission to make credit worthy for all, axio leverages technology to deliver innovative financial products to millions of individuals across the country, including vast sections of traditionally under-served consumers. axio is the brand name of CapFloat Financial Services Private Limited, a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) registered with the Reserve Bank of India. The company has raised over $200M till date from Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners), Sequoia India, Lightrock, Creation Investments Capital Management LLC, Ribbit Capital, and Amazon.

Gaurav brings deep operating experience in India with detailed knowledge of complex supply chains. Prior to axio, he ran operations for Gokaldas Exports, India’s largest apparel manufacturer employing 40,000 people with $250 million in revenues. As COO, he had complete P&L responsibility for a major business line and led the implementation of lean manufacturing across company units.

In today’s episode, we talk about the journey of the unknown, something many founders go through especially when they start business in domain they’ve had little or no prior experience in.

Episode notes:

1. What inspired Gaurav to pursue entrepreneurship? (3:35)

2. Do founders really plan ahead when they build businesses? (6:37)

3. Why Gaurav and his co-founder, Sashank Rishyasringa decide to start axio? (8:18)

4. What inspired Gaurav to pursue an idea in a field in which they had no prior experience? (11:08)

5. Impact of Silicon Valley exposure in Gaurav’s entrepreneurial journey (15:52)

6. Early days of company formation and customer interactions (18:43)

7. When did Gaurav transition from a doer to an enabler in the company-building process? (26:44)

8. The significance and impact of early-stage investors (30:37)

9. Creating moats as the company expands (33:30)

10. How do you gain customers in a competitive market? (37:35)

11. How does Gaurav make decisions, and what is his decision-making framework? (44:30)

12. What has Gaurav learned about himself during all his years of being in business (50:33)

. . .

Social links:

axio on Twitter: https://twitter.com/add_axio

Gaurav Hinduja on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gdhinduja

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/t

Srikanth Iyer is the Co-founder & CEO of HomeLane, India's largest startup in the home decor space, backed by Sequoia, Accel, Stride Ventures, IIFL Asset Management among others investors. Srikanth is a serial entrepreneur and industry leader, having started his entrepreneurial journey as the co-founder of Edurite Technologies, which eventually was acquired by Pearson India, where he spent the next few years as the CEO and responsible for bringing technology enabled education to millions of schools in India and making Pearson a leading player in Indian education. He is also a Venture partner with Unitus Ventures, an impact fund focused on India.

Episode notes:

1. Where does Srikanth find the courage to enter and dominate industries in which he has no or little prior experience? (3:56)

2. Framework to excel as a generalist in business (8:33)

3. Developing stronger leaders within an organization (14:48)

4. How to the best people at various stages of company development (20:50)

5. Mantra for building successful businesses (29:00)

6. Keeping it simple in business (39:39)

7. Values, culture and teams at the early-stage vs later-stage (51:07)

8. Srikanth’s advice to younger self (1:05:53)

. . .

Social links:

HomeLane on Twitter: https://twitter.com/homelanedecors

Srikanth Iyer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/srikanthiy

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Chanakya Hridaya is the co-founder of BlackBuck. Founded in 2015, BlackBuck has been a pioneer in bringing the offline operations of trucking online, be it matching a shipper with a trucker or reshaping the infrastructure around trucking to facilitate payments, insurance, and financial services. Today, BlackBuck is India’s largest trucking network, and our robust ‘Freight’ and ‘Fleet Management’ technology platforms deliver reliability, efficiency and seamless experience for shippers and truckers. The company has raised $364M till date from Tribe Capital, Trifecta Capital Advisors, B Capital, Sequoia, Accel and Tiger Global.

In today’s episode, we will cover:

1. How did the idea for BlackBuck come about? (3:05)

2. Disrupting the Indian trucking industry (11:15)

3. Early days of product adoption and finding PMF (19:40)

4. Learning from the growth story of BlackBuck (28:07)

5. Framework for problem solving (34:19)

6. The hardships of entrepreneurship (40:10)

7. Navigating the challenges of marketplace models (47:55)

8. Prioritization as a founder as businesses and ideas grow (59:49)

9. What has Chanakya discovered about himself while working on BlackBuck? (1:07:40)

Social links:

Chanakya Hridaya on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChanakyaHridaya

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Ketan Patel is the Chief Executive Officer of Mswipe. Founded in 2011, Mswipe has gone on to become the leading digital payments and financial solutions company supporting the growing merchant community across India.

Ketan joined Mswipe in 2021 after 18 years at Kotak where he oversaw management, business development, operations and the use of emerging technologies to disrupt the finance industry. During his time at Kotak, he has headed key verticals including Private Banking, Composite Business Solutions and E-commerce. In his latter years at Kotak, he became a startup specialist helping build 4 businesses from scratch for the bank, one of which being CASHe, a credit-enabled financial technology platform that offers a wide range of consumer lending products and services, which he helped transition from a startup to a profitable and future-ready business.

Ketan is a well-known industry veteran in the world of finance and has been recognized for his work many times over his career, including receiving The Economic Times' Young Entrepreneurs Award in 2020.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. What inspired Ketan to pursue a career as an entrepreneur? (4:56)

2. What has Ketan learned about himself as a result of his entrepreneurial journey? (7:01)

3. What is Ketan's perspective on the role of a CEO? (10:03)

4. Managing stakeholders as a business grows (12:35)

5. Why is self-awareness as a leader critical to success? (17:10)

6. Looking back on Mswipe's early days (19:44)

7. Scaling organizational culture and principles (23:35)

8. Long-term value implementation lessons (29:40)

9. Decision-making framework for leaders (36:50)

10. Dealing with adversity as a CEO (41:06)

11. Words of wisdom for his younger self (46:02)

12. What is Ketan's vision for Mswipe? (55:56)

13. What would the next chapter of Ketan's life look like? (58:48)

Social links:

Mswipe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Mswipe

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Mukesh Kalra is the CEO of ET Money, one of India's fastest growing investment and wealth management platform with a total of over $3B worth of investments under management. Mukesh has over 15 years of experience in building businesses and products from scratch in the consumer internet and mobile advertising space. Prior to heading ET Money, he was one of the core members at InMobi and helped build it from concept into the world’s largest independent mobile ad network. He then launched his own fintech firm, Moneysights, which was later acquired by Times Internet, and Times Group. 

 In less than 5 years, ET Money has built a solid customer base of over 10 million users across 1400 cities. The platform has been a pioneer in building industry-first technical solutions like paperless video KYC for MF investments, and the country’s first Aadhar-based SIP payment feature, amongst others.

ET Money is simplifying the financial journey of new-age Indians by offering easy investment for different needs like Mutual Funds, National Pension System, and safer avenues like Fixed Deposits. 

In this episode we will cover:

1. India: A macroeconomic outlook (3:38)

2. Why has India fared better than any other markets affected by the global financial slowdown? (10:20)

3. Lessons learned from black swan events (15:50)

4. What did Mukesh excel at during black swan periods? (25:12)

5. Thoughts on market manipulation in the context of content creators (42:06)

6. Why must a founder constantly evolve their mental models (54:03)

7. The vision for Indian fintech in the coming years (1:05:28)

. . .

Social links:

Mukesh Kalra on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalramukesh

Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vc

Akash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakash

Podcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivc

Akash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Ankit Kedia is the Founding Partner of Capital-A. He is a second generation entrepreneur who has held senior leadership positions at Manjushree Technopack Ltd. (MTL), India's largest rigid plastic packaging company. With a penchant for institutional marketing and a credit of designing the Key Account Management program, Ankit has been instrumental in the 5x growth of revenues and EBIDTA at Manjushree, where he devoted 15 strong years. He was also instrumental in raising private equity capital from Kedaara Capital and helped in the acquisition of two rival companies, before divesting controlling stake to Advent International in 2018.

In this episode we will cover:

1. What does Ankit really love about venture capital? (3:10)

2. Ankit's perspective on India's macro economic climate (6:30)

3. Market fluctuations in the early stages of investing (8:50)

4. Founder-market fit and how it influences a fund manager's investment decisions (14:48)

5. Learnings from investing in Indian startups (17:56)

6. How to identify the best startups (22:24)

7. The most difficult thing for a fund manager of a micro VC fund (34:40)

8. Ankit's perspective on the Indian early-stage venture landscape (36:53)

9. Why did Ankit choose to invest in tech startups rather than traditional manufacturing businesses in which his family had had a lot of success? (41:10)

10. What has Ankit the LP learned about Indian VC that he can use as a fund manager today? (44:15)

11. What would Ankit advise his younger self? (46:51)

12. Advice for entrepreneurs and fund managers (48:55)​

Manish Taneja is the co-founder and CEO of Purplle, an online beauty and wellness retailer and a recent entrant into the unicorn club. He brings a wealth of experience having spent some of his finest years in venture capital (Avendus Capital), private equity (Fidelity Growth Partners India) and investment banking (Lehman Brothers), before turning a founder.

In this episode we will cover:

1. Manish's biggest takeaways from the last two years of building Purplle (4:18)

2. What has Manish discovered about himself and his role as a leader in general? (17:08)

3. As a founder, how does Manish deal with difficult decisions? (27:02)

4. Influences and influencers who have had an impact on Manish’s life (38:23)

5. Where does Manish see Purplle in the next decade (49:20)

6. Manish's advice to his younger self? (59:58)

Parag Dhol is the General Partner at Athera Venture Partners. He started his VC career with ICICI Venture, India’s first venture capital company, in 1993. He followed that up with stints at GE and Intel’s corporate venture arms. Parag joined Athera (formerly known as Inventus Capital) in 2008, shortly after the first close of Fund I. Parag is/was a Board Director/Observer at redBus (acquired), FundsIndia, Lemnisk (buy-back), eTechies (buy-back), Power2SME, PolicyBazaar (IPO), Avaz (buy-back), peel-works, Tricog, worxogo, Pixxel and Clootrack.

Parag has a B.Tech. (Mechanical Engg.) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Venture Capital in India in the 1990s (2:55)

2. What factors influence a fund manager's temperament? (5:26)

3. Things that surprise Parag about Indian venture capital (9:58)

4. What lessons has public market investing taught Parag about private market investing? (20:29)

5. Managing investor biases and blindspots (24:32)

6. What investment advice would Parag give to his younger self? (29:13)

7. Evolution of Indian VC over the decades (35:10)

8. Considering the current venture landscape in India (43:59)

9. What continues to pique Parag's interest in the India opportunity? (51:16)

10. Athera's vision and the role Parag sees it playing in Indian venture capital (55:08)

11. How would Parag like to be remembered i.e. his legacy in Indian VC (1:00:06)

Arun Chulani is an Emerging Markets Analyst at First Water Capital, a fund focused on Indian Equities. First Water’s investment philosophy centers primarily on a long-only strategy, with a value driven and concentrated portfolio approach.

Arun is a value investor focusing on hard assets (sectors such as steel, cement, rubber, oil etc.) and cyclicals, taking concentrated bets on preferred plays. Prior to First Water he was with NIG, handling an industrials fund with $400M AUM. Arun is also a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of the LSE.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Macroeconomic view of the public markets? (2:24)

2. Mean reversal in light of the current market environment (5:06)

3. When the market is effectively underperforming, how do you invest? (7:52)

4. The economics of hedge funds and their investors' attitudes (12:47)

5. How does First Water Capital develop an investment thesis like theirs? (14:30)

6. What impact does the budget have on First Water Capital investment plan? (22:15)

7. What metrics does First Water Capital use to differentiate its sectors? (27:04)

8. How do you assure competition in industries with powerful incumbents? (27:57)

9. What factors do funds consider before investing in big businesses? (32:10)

10. Extrinsic vs. intrinsic value (36:20)

11. What according to Arun is the hardest thing for investors to evaluate (39:12)

12. Can a slowdown in one industry affect the growth of another due to the marco-climate? (43:41)

13. The effects of trickle-down (45:22)

14. Tips for making fund investments in public markets (47:49)

15. Industries that Arun is bullish on (51:11)

RK Rangan is the Chairman of BLinC Invest, a venture capital fund committed to funding EdTech and Fintech startups in India. He is a seasoned business leader with over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry across Investment Banking, Asset Management, Insurance and Consumer Banking. He is a specialist at strategic development and transformation of businesses and has held President/MD and CEO positions with large global corporates.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Current state of the industry (3:41)

2. Microtrends that influence macrotrends in investment (14:46)

3. Indian EdTech: How to create long-term business models and maintain good corporate governance (30:57)

4. Is an independent regulator required for Indian Edtech? (36:10)

5. What does it take for investors to put their investment thesis into action? (39:15)

6. What are the various challenges that a fund manager faces when implementing their thesis, and how does this change over time? (52:38)

Sandeep Patil is a partner at QED Investors, and heads the fund’s investments in Asia. Founded in 2007, QED Investors has invested in more than 180+ companies, including 27 unicorns, and has more than $5 billion under management. Notable investments include Nubank, SoFi, Credit Karma, Klarna, GreenSky, Avant, Flywire, Remitly, QuintoAndar, Creditas, ClearScore, and Konfio.

He has extensive consumer internet experience and is a global banking and financial services industry veteran. Over the course of his career, he has helped launch consumer and SME lending businesses at Flipkart, as well as contributed to the company's fundraising and eventual sale to Walmart. He was also the Managing Director and CEO for India at Truecaller, where he oversaw the Adtech, Payments, FinTech, SME/Enterprise, and Developer businesses, doubling revenue and achieving net income profitability despite the pandemic.

Sandeep brings extensive consumer credit experience from Capital One in the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as experience serving global investors, banks, and insurers at McKinsey & Company.

Sandeep holds a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and an MBA from the London Business School (LBS).

In this episode, we will cover:

1. How and why did Sandeep become a venture capitalist? (3:03)

2. What are the parallels and differences between the 2007/08 crisis and the post-pandemic economic slowdown? (14:56)

3. QED's assessment of the current market and its implications for venture investing (24:15)

4. What is the balance between founder-market-fit and investor-founder-fit? (31: 37)

5. Consumer vs. enterprise in Indian fintech: where is the opportunity? (40:00)

6. From where will the winners in Indian fintech emerge? (46:55)

7. How easy is it to keep an eye on Asian markets from the UK? (51:15)

Abhishek Goenka is the Head & CIO at RPSG Capital Ventures, a corporate venture fund backed by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group. The fund primarily invests in early-stage consumer brands in India including F&B, CPG, personal care and lifestyle goods. Abhishek brings two decades of experience across investments and M&A having spent time being part of the investments team at True North and JP Morgan. He is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst by qualification. 

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Lessons learned over the last two years investing in India (3:53)

2. How does RPSG Capital Ventures plan to invest in the second half of the year? (12:46)

3. What aspect of the Indian consumer story drew Abhishek in? (20:33)

4. Addressing and tackling the middle India opportunity (26:26)

5. What factors does RSPG Capital Ventures consider when investing in startups in the early stages? (32:40)

6. Tips for constructing your cap-table (44:30)

7. Advice for today's entrepreneurs and those who will start businesses tomorrow (51:20)

8. Where will RSPG invest in the coming year? (56:48)

Madhu Shalini Iyer is a Partner at Rocketship VC. Previously, she was the Chief Data Officer of Gojek and helped grow the business into a $1 billion unicorn. She was on the board and started the Singapore office. Prior to Gojek, Madhu was an operating partner at a 150M private equity fund building startups across South East Asia. She was part of the founding team of Intuit’s Quickbooks Lending Platform where she helped grow the platform to $300 million and holds 3 patents in the areas of user data augmented algorithms for financial inclusion.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Madhu's journey from Intuit and GoJek operator to board member and investor (3:00)

2. What aspect of the operator journey makes investing more pleasurable? (10:45)

3. How does Rocketship VC use data science to assist in the selection of startups for investment? (18:21)

4. How does data science influence Rocketship's thesis? (22:41)

5. Portfolio construction constraints with a heavily data-driven model (25:32)

6. Where does Rocketship stand on gut and human instinct versus data science? (30:20)

7. How did Rocketship's data science-focused fund model attract LPs? (34:05)

8. How does data and the Rocketship model adapt to macroeconomic trends? (42:27)

9. Can data be used to assess the impact of an investment on a portfolio? (46:15)

10. Why is investing so personal for Shalini (50:41)

11. Advice to founders and investors (59:25)

Viral Jani has been the driving force behind several challenging projects in Consumer Tech, Television Broadcasting, Digital, Social Media and Media Planning. Armed with more than 15 years of experience in media and technology, Viral plays a key role in spearheading Investment Operations at Times Bridge.

A post graduate in Communications Management, Media & Brand Management from MICA, in his previous avatar, Viral has led strategy, television and entertainment partnerships for Twitter across India and worked with key strategic partners across sectors to drive innovation and monetization.

Prior to Twitter, he was the Head of Strategy and Social Media for Times Television Network. Viral has also been associated with several other major media houses in India like NDTV, Disney, Viacom and Mindshare.

In this episode we will cover:

1. Times Bridge and its unique structure (3:12)

2. When does a company approach Times Bridge (14:50)

3. How does the deal flow at Times Bridge work? (18:57)

4. Measuring success with Times Bridge business model (25:10)

5. How does Times Bridge view competition in its portfolio? (31:30)

6. The impact of the macroeconomic environment on today's investments (35:02)

7. Learnings from the Times Bridge portfolio and the impact of macro trends on their Indian businesses (40:21)

8. The hardest aspect about being an investor (42:42)

9. Managing relationships with portfolio startups and working on the India expansion story (47:18)

10. What should companies considering expanding into India know and be aware of before entering the market? (51:40)

11. words of wisdom for his younger self (56:16)

Mohit Kumar is the Co-founder and CEO of Ultrahuman, a metabolic health tracking platform that provides intelligent nudges based on glucose biomarkers and aims to improve users’ exercise, sleep and nutrition based on deep insights from the platform. Ultrahuman was founded by Mohit Kumar and Vatsal Singhal who were also co-founders at Runnr which later merged with India’s largest food delivery service Zomato.

Ultrahuman has raised over $25m to date from Alpha Wave, Steadview Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and iSeed fund, and a range of other angel investors including Tiger Global’s Scott Schleifer.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Impact of the last two years on Ultrahuman (2:50)

2. How did the founding team come up with the idea for Ultrahuman (7:33)

3. How did the Ultrahuman team perceive the TAM? (17:25)

4. How does Ultrahuman raise public awareness about food, diet, nutrition, and lifestyle? (23:30)

5. Breaking down data for customers who are not data savvy (30:15)

6. The Science of Metabolic Score (35:20)

7. What has Ultrahuman team learned from the pandemic user data? (39:10)

8. How can men and women understand their bodies better through Ultrahuman (44:46)

9. What is Ultrahuman’s vision for the future (52:38)

10. How does Ultrahuman intend to democratize data access? (1:09:25)

11. How do investors perceive Ultrahuman? (1:11:05)

Vinay Singh is a Partner at Fireside Ventures, a fund specializing in early stage and seed investments in the Indian consumer space. With 7+ years at Hindustan Unilever as Marketing Manager for a multi-crore brand, extensive expertise in digital marketing at McKinsey & Co., and Bankbazaar.com, Vinay has a unique perspective on the intersection between consumer brands and technology. He has also been an entrepreneur, as the founder and CEO of Stepni.com, which was acquired by Quikr.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Vinay’s take on the market right now (3:00)

2. Does abundant dry powder allow funds to modify their thesis? (8:33)

3. How does a venture capitalist look at ‘brand building’? (14:30)

4. How can you build a global D2C brand from India? (21:08)

5. Does a startup’s mission really matter to investors? (28:45)

6. How does a founder find purpose in their idea / business? (37:46)

7. How important is operating experience for an investor (44:24)

8. For founders: How to build rapport with your investors (48:11)

9. What does Vinay and Fireside Ventures do REALLY well (53:04)