The Neon Show The Game VCs Play and Win | How VCs Spot and Back Exceptional Founders with Pratik Poddar & Brij Bhushan
What makes a great venture capitalist — luck, timing, or the ability to see what others miss?
Brij Bhushan (Prime Venture Partners) and Pratik Poddar (Nexus Venture Partners) talk about the long game of venture capital; the waiting, the lessons hidden in mistakes, and the emotional ride of backing founders through years of uncertainty.
With Pratik, we dive into some of the biggest names in the Nexus portfolio: his first meeting with Rapido’s founder before he even joined Nexus, the Meesho pitch that became a big miss, and his first call with Zepto’s founders. Nexus was one of Zepto’s earliest investors and has backed the company in every round since. Pratik speaks with great clarity about conviction, timing, and what truly defines great investing.
Brij reflects on his decade of building Magicpin, what it means to “build the same company three times,” and how that journey reshaped the way he now works with founders. Having lived through the chaos of scaling, near-failure, and reinvention, he brings the founder’s perspective back into venture capital.
Together, Brij and Pratik capture the essence of the VC game — how the industry is evolving, why consensus rarely creates outliers, how real decisions are made inside funds, and why the best founders often seem “too early” rather than too late.
We talk about everything that shapes a VC’s everyday life, and above all why Brij and Pratik believe it’s still the best job in the world.
0:00 – Trailer
01:59 – Biggest learnings from 10 years as a VC
05:00 – Rapido as a counterintuitive bet
06:49 – Meesho was a big miss
10:20 – Why Venture capital is the best job?
12:35 – Every meeting could be life-changing
14:54 – Knowing you are NOT in an Operating role
16:55 – How often are VCs wrong about market size?
18:58 – Where to invest in Consumer companies?
25:33 – How consumer VCs bet on behavior change
27:12 – Is e-commerce truly built for young users?
28:10 – How do Investors deal with Bias?
30:04 – Are VCs only remembered for success stories?
37:45 – Why good deals rarely come from Consensus?
39:24 – The first call with Zepto’s founders
41:10 – How often do you meet truly exceptional founders?
43:45 – Should VCs react to market shifts?
46:42 – How long VC’s take to make an investment decision?
50:53 – How founders should approach fundraising
54:27 – Can India produce 50 decacorns in the next few years?
55:51 – Best way to play VC game is to have right fund size
56:42 – Not Knowing is a pre-requisite for a VC
1:00:41 – Exceptional founders have this superpower
1:02:02 – Where Indian founders have a real edge
1:05:14 – Building AI in India: local maxima or global maxima?
1:09:00 – When will Indian Co’s acquire Indian startups for $Billions?
1:11:55 – Why Zomato & Swiggy aren’t true Consumer Co’s?
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