E30: Utsav Somani (Partner, AngelList India and iSeed)

Utsav Somani is a Partner at AngelList India and General Partner at iSeed (a seed-stage fund looking to bridge successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Indian founders in the search of money as well as the expertise and knowledge of scaling up a startup).

Follow Utsav (@somani_utsav), host Akash (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Flatheads: Flatheads is an all-day casual sneakers designed for work wear and optimized for 14-hour comfort.

2. MoveABox: MoveABox is Bangalore-based startup helping people to vacate and relocate their homes in a personalized manner.

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In today’s episode we will cover:

1. Micro VC –– overcrowded with competition or not? (7:50)

2. Recap of VC landscape during COVID (17:08)

3. Raising a fund during the months of the lockdown (21:18)

4. Takeaways from raising a fund (22:56)

5. Utsav’s background (24:14)

6. What is Micro VC and how does Utsav see it within the Indian context (27:11)

7. Why is there a rise in Micro VC funds across India? (29:48)

8. Is Micro VC more riskier? (35:13)

9. What is the value proposition of a Micro VC (37:16)

10. How does an emerging fund manager attract good deal flow? (41:54)

11. Trend –– LPs turning GPs (48:13)

12. Dissection of Utsav’s tweet on the disconnect between macro trends (51:14)

13. Rapid fire (52:02)