Debunking Venture Capital for Founders and Startups with Ankur Ahuja

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Ankur Ahuja, Chief Operating Officer at Varana Capital. Venture capital has a very sexy perception in many people's minds. Ankur discusses what really happens behind the scenes and what VCs really look for and their priorities in selecting companies.

Ankur shares who the people behind VCs are and that, more than anything, venture capital is about investing in people since the relationship is typically set for 10 years. Ankur also talks about the importance of a CFO in startups looking for VC and he suggests hiring a fractional CFO to get this set up.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The anatomy of a VC fund
• VC is all about investing in people
• Startups should hire fractional CFOs
• Successful exits: Who gets paid?

QUOTES

Ankur: "What is the total addressable market? That's a term you hear a lot about, TAM. We also look to see is this technology new? Is it disruptive? How disruptive is it? Are we recreating the wheel or are we taking something and just making it incrementally better?"

Ankur: "What we need to do is figure out very quickly which companies are going to be outliers and team, in the beginning, is a really big thing because you're investing in people. When someone just has an idea and it's like a pie in the sky, as I call it, you're investing in somebody and a team and a person."

Ankur: "If you don't need a full-time CFO is hire a fractional CFO. There's a lot of companies like Early Growth and a few other companies that we partner with that have fractional CFOs that know exactly how to package those numbers and set up a data room for us with everything that we need to make those investment decisions a lot easier and a lot faster."

You can find out more about Ankur in the links below:

• LinkedIn (personal): https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankur-ahuja-63070537/
• LinkedIn (Varana Capital): https://www.linkedin.com/company/varana-capital/
• Website: https://varanacapital.com/