How to Be a Successful Venture Capitalist

Bipul Sinha is the founder and CEO of Rubrik, a leader in zero-trust data security used by enterprises to defend against ransomware and to create global cyber resiliency. On today’s episode, Jon Sakoda speaks with Bipul Sinha on his unusual path from India to Silicon Valley and his unique mindset as a startup founder:

• Don’t Be Afraid to Drop Everything  [4:30-6:50] - Bipul dropped out of school in order to study for his college entrance exams in India. Growing up in a lower middle class household, Bipul needed to excel on the exams to escape poverty. Listen to the advice Bipul received from his father on the value of learning from failure and never constraining your self belief in what you can achieve.
• How to Engineer Hypergrowth from Day One  [20:46-24:19]  - Rubrik’s success in its early days was incredible, achieving $50 M in sales in its first year. Many founders approach product-market fit through serial steps, while Rubrik was engineered for faster growth from the very beginning. Listen to how Bipul approaches product-market fit through a parallel process in order to create more explosive growth.
• Avoiding Psychological Safety and Accepting Conflict [33:55-39:00] - Bipul believes that conflict is a part of every great startup, but it is human nature to try to create psychological safety. He strongly believes that every founder needs to embrace, and find joy, in pushing a company to its limits which is often in conflict with being satisfied. Listen to how he instills this culture in his company.

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