EP#28 Raja Ganapathy – The ‘skin-in-the-game’ marketing model, partnering with founder-led companies & building a strong VC brand

In this episode, Raja Ganapathy, Founding Partner @Spring Marketing Capital, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his background and path to venture capital, the gap in the marketing ecosystem and how Spring Marketing Capital aims to plug that using their skin-in-the-game model, importance of articulating the founder’s vision & how it impacts product roadmap, the brand as well as the culture of a startup, his experience working as a CMO at Sequoia India & how new age VC firms can build a strong brand to attract founders.

Raja has worked with founders for most of his working life of 24+ years - first with Ogilvy & Brand David, and later as CMO with Sequoia India, before starting Spring Marketing Capital with his co-founders Arun Iyer & Vineet Gupta. Through his career, Raja has partnered with some well-known brands like Byju’s, CARS24, Cred, Daily Hunt, Wakefit, Epigamia, among others. You can connect with him here on Linkedin/Twitter

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Show notes:

1. (01:42) Raja’s background & path to venture capital
2. (04:02) The big gap in the marketing ecosystem; The ‘skin in the game’ model at Spring Marketing Capital
3. (08:32) How Spring Marketing differs from typical ad agencies?
4. (12:08) Raising funds from LPs; Thesis & investment model
5. (16:57) Working with founders to define the core value proposition of their product/service
6. (22:48) Importance of clearly articulating the founder’s vision & how it helps in defining the culture of a startup
7. (26:49) When should founders spend on marketing?
8. (31:57) CMO experience at Sequoia
9. (36:26) Building a strong VC brand like Sequoia, a16z
10. (40:02) Rapid fire & closing remarks

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