E38: Adith Podhar (Managing Partner, Gemba Capital)

Adith Podhar is the Managing Partner at Gemba Capital, a fund which invests in angel rounds of tech firms focused on India consumption and cross-border SaaS.

Prior to Gemba, Adith has worked at Motilal Oswal PE fund in Mumbai, and spent time at ICICI as a Product Manager.

Follow Adith (@adithpodhar), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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In this episode we will cover:

1. Covid impact on investing (1:47)

2. How does Adith look back on 2020? (6:43)

3. What might the next 24 months look like? (11:47) 

4. Sectors within India that Adith is bullish on (14:26)

5. Adith’s background and journey into VC (18:00)

6. Learnings as a founder and how it’s helpful in VC today (21:11)

7. How have different investing experiences influenced Adith’s investor persona? (30:11)

8. How did Adith write his first check and what was the process behind it ?(34:18)

9. Gemba’s current investment thesis (38:29)

10. Raising money from domestic LPs (43:01)

11. Challenges of raising money from within India (45:41)

12. How does Gemba add value to startups? (48:37)

13. Portfolio support & time allocation (53:15) 

14. What does it take to be a good investor? (55:56)

15. How does Adith evaluate companies and founders of similar profiles (58:24)

16. Time spent on due diligence (1:00:13)

17.  Rapid fire (1:02:55)