E26: Pankaj Jain (Angel Investor & Ex-Partner, 500 Startups)

Aug 3, 2020

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Pankaj Jain is an angel investor and Ex-Partner at 500 Startups, a California-based seed fund and accelerator program. Pankaj focuses on investing in early stage startups across India, United States, and South Asia and has led investments in over fifty companies.

Pankaj spent over 12 years in the Financial industry at firms such as JP Morgan, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) and GlobeOp Financial Services in various operational roles including enterprise mortgage risk management, application development, market data infrastructure, trade management, pricing infrastructure and customer service areas.

In 2007, Pankaj’s adventures in India began, where he started a company building an on-demand, employment marketplace for the under-served. In 2008, Pankaj became a co-founder of the HeadStart Network Foundation and the led the efforts in Delhi. In late 2010, he began setting up Startup Weekend in India.

Follow Pankaj (@pjain), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash), and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. Pankaj also runs a YouTube channel on investing titled Invest Steam.

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The Desi Startups Of The Week:

1. Oropocket: Oropocket is an investment platform allowing you to invest in precious metals and digital assets.

2. Basis: India's only platform focussed on the holistic financial wellness of the urban Indian woman.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. Intro (3:51)

2. The new normal (6:15)

3. Impact of the pandemic on VC investments (8:56)

4. Pankaj’s journey into venture capital and investing (19:45)

5. Which period in his professional career does Pankaj consider the most crucial (40:26)

6. Differences between angel investing and venture investing (51:21)

7. How influential can an angel be (54:14)

8. How do angels add value (59:41)

9. How can VCs and angels work together? (1:07:23)

10. Angel investing in India vs angel investing in the US (1:12:11)

11. Founder evolution from Pankaj’s experience in all these years on investing (1:17:54)

12. How do angels measure success? (1:33:10)

13. Intangible returns for angels (1:36:53)

14. Why did Pankaj decide to run an angel syndicate rather than starting a VC fund? (1:40:08)

15. Rapid fire (1:45:52)