EP#23 Vishesh Rajaram – Backing mission-oriented founders & investing in disruptive tech startups

In this episode, Vishesh Rajaram, Founder & Managing Partner @Speciale Invest, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his learnings as a venture capitalist (VC) – at Venture East earlier and now at Speciale Invest, backing early-stage startups in disruptive technology domains like Space-tech, micro-mobility, clean energy & robotics, how deep-tech startups can reduce risk and gain trust of investors and iterating investment strategies as a VC.

Vishesh who has about 13 years of experience across enterprise technologies and consumer services. Vishesh started his venture capital journey with Venture East in 2007, one of India’s oldest VC firms. After spending almost a decade at Venture East, Vishesh founded Speciale Invest in 2016. Speciale Invest is an early-stage investment firm that focuses on B2B deeptech startups across both hardware & software and has been an early pioneer of domains like Space tech, Robotics, Deep tech software, micro-mobility, and clean energy transportation. So far, it has invested in about a dozen startups, including the likes of Agnikul, Utlraviolet, Truelark and Wingman, among others. Vishesh is a Chartered Accountant and an alum of the Indian School of Business. You can connect with him here on Linkedin / Twitter

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Show notes –

1. (01:59) Vishesh’s path leading up to venture capital

2. (06:02) Learnings from a decadal experience of being a VC

3. (08:40) Founder-insight fit; Backing startups that are building technologies of the future

4. (14:46) Key headwinds for Deep tech / IP driven startups to thrive in India; How founders gain trust of and reduce risk for investors?

5. (20:22) What does Speciale Invest particularly look for in founders that are pursuing hardware/deep tech opportunities?

6. (21:57) Adding value to startups beyond just the capital

7. (23:55) Evolving VC landscape; Overcoming long feedback cycles and iterating investment strategies as a VC

8. (28:13) Key principles to build a strong institutional VC brand

9. (30:25) Rapid fire and closing remarks