In this episode, Avnish Bajaj, Founding Partner at Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India), shares what it takes to build one of India's most competitive VC firms and land the best startup deals.

With over 20 years of experience, Avnish has been at the forefront of India’s venture capital industry. He co-founded Matrix Partners India in 2006 after a successful entrepreneurial journey with Baazee.com, which he later sold to eBay, serving as its Chairman & Country Manager.

From founder to angel investor to VC, Avnish has done it all—scaling businesses, backing category-defining startups, and navigating the challenges of venture investing. His portfolio includes Ola, Razorpay, Country Delight, Practo, Quikr, and many more.

Tune in as we dive into his insights on winning the best deals, building a top-tier VC firm, and the evolving startup ecosystem in India.

0:00- Introduction

2:58 - How Founders Should Choose VCs?

9:02 - Z47 as an Operator-Led VC

15:32 - Generalist vs. Specialist VCs

20:24 - India’s VC Ecosystem in Last 20 Years

6:38 - First-Time vs. Second-Time Founders

31:48 - Founder-Market Fit Explained

35:18 - How LPs Allocate Money in India?

46:22 - How Investors Bet on Countries & Assets

52:09 - Can Tech Founders Run Multiple Businesses?

57:06 - Is India’s Market Ahead of Entrepreneurs?

1:01:10 - Rapid Fire: How Z47 Picks Founders

1:03:44 - Is Seed Stage Funding the Only Battle?

1:11:21 - When VCs Like the Founder, Not the Market

1:14:11 - Z47’s Work Ethic

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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.

Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.

We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
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Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
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Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
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This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

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