The VCpreneur: Startups | Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Fundraising

In this episode, Jatin Desai (Managing Partner, Inflexor Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Inflexor Ventures, the thesis and evolution of the fund, Jatin’s approach to evaluating & investing in deep tech startups, commercialization of deep tech startups, importance of having exit strategies as an investor, outlier founders from Inflexor’s portfolio, Jatin’s learning curve as a VC, deeptech themes that Inflexor is excited about, how being a venture capitalist has influenced Jatin’s personality over the years and more. Inflexor Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in startups leveraging deeptech & technology IP in areas like AI-ML, AR-VR, Big Data, Robotics, Cybersecurity, Blockchain and SpaceTech. The venture recently closed their new fund at $80mm & has invested in startups like Bellatrix Aerospace, PlayShifu, Atomberg, CloudSek, Kale Logistics among others. Prior to become a venture investor, Jatin was the CIO of Bank of America & DSP Merrill Lynch in India. Before joining the bank, Jatin spent several years in US, EMEA & India in various technology roles dealing with Wall Street banks and Fortune 500 companies. You can connect with him here on Linkedin. ---- Show notes – (01:47) Jatin’s background & his path leading up to Inflexor Ventures (04:09) The thesis and evolution of the fund (07:35) Jatin’s approach to evaluating & investing in deep tech startups (12:46) Overcoming valleys of death & commercialization of deep tech startups (24:02) Importance of having exit strategies as an investor (28:05) Outlier founders from Inflexor’s portfolio (30:17) Jatin’s learning curve as a VC (32:40) Deeptech themes/sectors that Inflexor is excited about (35:37) How has being a VC influenced Jatin’s personality over the years? (36:22) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Smita Deorah (Co-Founder & Co-CEO, LEAD), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to LEAD, the genesis phase and what led Smita to make LEAD her life’s work, how LEAD plans to radically improve the state of education in India by transforming schools, the growth playbook & key challenges faced when building a scalable B2B product/service, what should founders focus on when hiring the core team for a mission driven startup like LEAD, Smita’s fundraising experience, LEAD’s criteria to select their investors & value-add from each of them, how being an entrepreneur has influenced Smita’s personality over the years and more. Smita & Sumeet, founded LEAD in 2012 with a vision to make global-standard education accessible and affordable to students, especially in non-metro cities. LEAD integrates a world-class curriculum with technology that powers all stakeholders in a school environment. Today LEAD caters to 5000+ schools in 500+ cities across India. This school edtech unicorn startup, was bootstrapped through 2017 & has subsequently raised >$100mm in funding from marquee investors like Elevar Equity, Westbridge Capital & GSV Ventures. Prior to LEAD, Smita founded Sparsh, a non-profit that implemented a pre-school in a box solution in 16 pre-schools around Mumbai. Prior to that, Smita spent 9 years in Procter & Gamble Singapore and India as a leader in Finance, Treasury and Strategy. You can connect with her here on Linkedin or Twitter. ---- Show notes – (01:45) Smita’s background & her path leading up to LEAD (07:15) What led Smita to start LEAD & make this her life’s work (10:30) The current state of India’s primary education system & how LEAD plans to radically improve the status quo (17:55) LEAD’s first principles approach of building a scalable B2B product; focus on the target audience, product design and measurable outcomes (23:25) The growth playbook; Key challenges faced when scaling up LEAD (34:58) What should one over index on when hiring the core team for a mission driven startup like LEAD? (39:15) Fundraising experience; LEAD’s criteria to select their investors (42:12) Value add from each institutional investor on the cap table - Elevar Equity, West Bridge Capital & GSV Ventures (47:15) How has being an entrepreneur influenced Smita’s personality over the years? (54:00) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Ben Mathias (Managing Partner, Vertex Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Vertex Ventures, history & thesis at Vertex, key defining moments in evolution of India’s startup ecosystem, why it is important for startups to focus on building capital efficient businesses, advice for first time VCs, nuances of investing in growth stage startups, adding value to founders beyond Series A rounds, outlier founders from the Vertex SEA portfolio & what differentiates them from the rest, how being a VC has influenced Ben’s personality over the years and more. Vertex Ventures is a global network of operator-investors who manage portfolios in the US, China, Israel, Southeast Asia & India. Vertex SEA & India has invested in more than 60 startups including 5 unicorns in their portfolio. Some of their marquee investments include startups like Grab, NIUM, FirstCry, Recko, CloudCherry, Active AI, Licious, and Kapiva among others. Prior to Vertex, Ben was a partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) where he launched their India presence. While at NEA, he led several investments in the Technology and Healthcare sectors. Prior to joining NEA, Ben had a successful software career in Silicon Valley where he held senior positions at E2open and i2 Technologies (acquired by JDA Software). You can connect with him here on Linkedin or Twitter. ---- Show notes – (01:42) Ben’s background & path leading up to Vertex (04:36) About Vertex Ventures - thesis & history of the fund (11:02) Key moments in India’s evolution as a startup ecosystem (15:02) The current macro backdrop; Why is it important for startups to focus on building capital efficient businesses? (18:44) Advice for first time VCs (21:38) Nuances of investing in growth stage startups (24:41) What does ‘value add’ mean for founders at and beyond Series A funding? (29:27) Outlier founders from the Vertex portfolio; What differentiates these founders from the rest? (32:42) Internalizing that venture capital is a long game; Challenges faced as a VC (37:14) How being a VC has influenced Ben’s personality over the years? (38:17) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Mayank Banerjee (Co-Founder & CEO, Even Healthcare), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Even, choosing the right co-founders, the problem statement that Even is solving for, challenges faced in the 0 to 1 journey, attracting quality talent at the earliest stages of a startup, straddling between the short term & long term vision, the importance of understanding the VC perspective when fundraising as a founder and having a thesis about the kind of investors you’d like to have on your cap table. Founded in 2020, Even is a healthtech company that partners directly with top hospitals to provide completely cashless, quality healthcare to its members. The startup aims to rid India of out-of-pocket healthcare expenses and mitigate illnesses early on with appropriate medical interventions with its partner hospitals. Even is backed by marquee investors like Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund (led by Peter Thiel) and operator investors like Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, Cred CEO Kunal Shah, Zerodha Founder Nithin Kamath and DST Global partner Tom Stafford. Prior to Even, Mayank co-founded Compass News, an AI based journalism platform with offices in London and New York & later worked with Entrepreneur First in Bangalore. Mayank studied at the Oxford University where he was the President of the Oxford Union. You can connect with him here on Linkedin or Twitter.  ----  Show notes –  (01:37) Mayank’s background & path leading up to Even  (05:20) Meeting his co-founders; What should one over-index on when choosing their co-founders?  (09:47) The genesis phase & the problem statement that Even is solving for  (17:07) Challenges faced in the 0 to 1 journey  (19:12) Attracting quality talent at the early stages of a startup  (20:49) North star metric for Even today  (22:09) Straddling between the short term & long term vision  (23:17) Fundraising experience at Even; Importance of understanding the VC perspective when fundraising as a founder  (26:37) Having a thesis about the kind of investors you want to have on your cap table  (29:20) Rapid fire and closing remarks  ----  If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Sanjay Nath (Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Blume Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Blume Ventures, the genesis of Blume to build an institutional seed stage fund, challenges faced as a first time fund manager, change in investment & hiring strategy with a growing fund size, the platform and community approach of supporting founders, building a strong VC brand, identifying founders that can build global companies from India, his learnings from a decadal career in VC and more. Founded in 2010, Blume is one of India's leading early-stage venture funds with more than $200 million in assets under management (AUM) across multiple funds & over 150 investments that includes startups like Unacademy, Yulu, Dunzo, Slice, ClassPlus, Ultrahuman, GreyOrange Robotics, Dataweave, Locus, Tricog, Lambdatest, Nektar.ai amongst others. Prior to Blume, Sanjay was based in the Silicon valley where he held consulting and management roles at Sun Microsystems, PwC and IBM Global Services. An alum of BITS Pilani and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Sanjay got his start in venture capital as an angel investor with Mumbai Angels where he invested in startups like InMobi, LittleEye Labs (acquired by Facebook) and others. You can connect with him here on Linkedin or Twitter. ---- Show notes – (02:02) Sanjay’s background & path leading up to Blume (03:45) The genesis of Blume Ventures; Building an institutional fund to invest in seed stage startups (06:09) Challenges faced when launching Fund I (10:02) Change in investment & hiring strategy with a growing fund size (15:55) The platform and community approach of supporting founders (18:59) Building a strong brand as a VC firm (20:20) Sectors that are likely to be global offshoots from India (22:02) Key traits of founders that have the capability to build global companies from India (30:14) Learnings from a decadal career in VC (33:14) How has being a VC influenced Sanjay’s personality over the years? (36:42) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Mihir Gupta (Co-Founder & CEO, Teachmint), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Teachmint, surviving the 0 to 1 phase as first time founders, building a foundation to scale up rapidly and how to sustain momentum after scaling up, benefits & challenges of pursuing inorganic growth, finding a balance between core venture building & fundraising, aligning fundraising strategy with market dynamics, optimizing for 'conviction' & 'speed' of decision making when choosing your investors and more. Founded in 2020, Teachmint is an edtech-infrastructure startup that helps teachers and institutes create their own virtual classrooms and build direct relationships with students. The startup that is backed by marquee investors like Learn Capital, Rocketship.vc, Better Capital, Lightspeed India, Vulcan Capital among others, has scaled up rapidly in the past 2 years to become one the of the largest teaching platforms in the world. Prior to founding Teachmint, Mihir held leadership positions in startups like OYO and Open Financial. An IIT Bombay alum, Mihir spent the early years of his career as a consultant with McKinsey, working extensively in South East Asia and India. You can connect with him here on Linkedin or Twitter. ---- Show notes – (02:16) Mihir’s background & path leading up to Teachmint; Bringing together the founding team (08:42) Surviving the 0 to 1 phase as first time founders (10:46) Building a foundation to scale up rapidly (14:19) What should founders focus on, to sustain momentum after scaling up? (17:09) Teachmint’s approach to attracting & retaining quality talent (20:43) Benefits & challenges of pursuing inorganic growth (27:22) Finding a balance between core venture building & fundraising (29:51) Aligning fundraising frequency & strategy with market dynamics (33:29) Optimizing for conviction & speed of decision making when choosing your investors; How to gauge conviction when talking to investors? (37:26) How has being a founder influenced his personality over the years? (38:30) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Shiv Sharma (VP International, Stocktwits), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Stocktwits, the reducing gap between startups from India & The Silicon Valley, making the switch from venture capital to the operating side, how Stocktwits is building the world’s largest social finance app, leveraging community to drive financial literacy, why now is the right time for the company to enter India, launching a product in a new market & importance of collaborating with local partners when doing so. Founded in 2008, Stocktwits is the world's leading social network and community of 6mm+ investors and traders. The company is now entering India on the back of its $30mm Series B funding led by Alameda Research Ventures along with participation from Times Bridge. Prior to Stocktwits, Shiv was a VC at Cisco Investments, backing Enterprise SaaS companies. An INSEAD Business School alum, Shiv is passionate about all things public market investing & investing education. You can connect with him here on Linkedin or Twitter. ---- Show notes – (01:32) Shiv’s background & path leading up to Stocktwits (03:34) The reducing gap between startups from India & Silicon Valley (07:02) The switch from venture capital to the operating side (10:02) Common mental models that can be applied to both private & public market investing (12:28) About Stocktwits; Why now is the right time for the company to enter India? (18:53) Leveraging community to drive financial literacy (23:02) Launching a product in a new market; Importance of collaborating with local partners (29:15) Vision for Stocktwits - Build the largest social finance platform in the world (32:11) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Jyotsna Krishnan (Managing Partner, Elevar Equity), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Elevar Equity, Elevar’s unique investing DNA, taking concentrated bets while investing at very early stages of a company, why ‘aspiration’ is the key emotion that founder’s should tap on when building for the underserved markets, building conviction as a ‘founding investor’, Elevar’s North-star metric as a VC fund, how being a VC has influenced Jyotsna’s personality over the years & more. Founded in 2006, Elevar Equity is a VC firm that invests in transformative and scalable ventures focused on underserved customers & low-income communities. Elevar has invested in 40+ companies across India and Latin America, which includes impact driving companies like Ujjivan, Samunnati, LEAD School, The Better India, InCred, Justo, Indifi amongst others. Prior to Elevar, Jyotsna was at HSBC and worked directly with the bank’s India leadership. An SP Jain alum, Jyotsna has over 16+ years of work experience spanning across banking, retail financial services and building businesses as an early-stage investor. You can connect with her here on Linkedin. ---- Show notes – (01:43) Jyotsna’s background & path leading up to Elevar Equity (06:01) Elevar’s DNA - Understanding the pulse of the underserved customer segment in emerging economies (08:50) Unique VC & PE crossover investment style - concentrated bets while investing at very early stages of a company (11:20) Why ‘aspiration’ is the key emotion that founder’s should think about when building for this segment (17:59) Available white spaces for founders to build trusted brands catering to the underserved markets (25:49) Building conviction as a ‘founding investor’ (31:11) North-star metric for a VC fund like Elevar (32:50) How being a VC has influenced Jyotsna’s personality over the years? (36:45) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Rohan Verma (Co-Founder & CEO, Breathe Well-being), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, making the switch from B2B to B2C, the key problem statement that Breathe Well-Being is trying to solve & it’s unique product positioning, key learnings from his entrepreneurship journey, achieving balance & focusing on mental wellness as a founder and the importance of nailing the quantum & timing of your fundraise. Breathe Well-Being is a digital therapeutics company that helps people prevent, manage and reverse chronic conditions using a community-first approach. The startup has built a clinically proven Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Programme which has seen rapid  adoption over the past couple of years & very high retention rates across all it’s cohorts. Breathe Well-Being is backed by marquee VCs like Accel, 3one4 Capital, General Catalyst as well as angel investors like Sandeep Singhal, Ashish Gupta, Stanford Angels among others. Prior to Breathe Well-being, Rohan ran an edtech startup before spending 3 years at McKinsey & Nomura. An alum of NTU Singapore, Rohan is a Crossfit Level 2 trainer & mindfulness coach. You can connect with him here on Linkedin. ---- Show notes – (01:45) Rohan’s background & path leading up to Breathe Well-Being (03:50) The switch from B2B to B2C (11:50) Problem statement & Breathe Well-Being’s unique product positioning (20:55) ‘No outcome, No pay’ policy for clients (26:13) Key learnings from Rohan’s entrepreneurship journey (28:38) Achieving balance & focusing on mental wellness as a founder (31:35) How to assess whether a company is ready to raise venture capital? (37:25) Managing back-to-back funding rounds; Importance of nailing the quantum & timing of your fundraise (39:15) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter

In this episode, Amit Gupta (Co-Founder & CEO, Yulu), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, the switch from mobile (InMobi) to mobility (Yulu), evolution of Yulu’s product over the past 5 years, leveraging public & private partnerships to build a strong foundation, what does it take to build a category-creating startup, learnings from previous ventures & the importance of playing the long game, fundraising experience at InMobi & Yulu and his angel investing playbook. Yulu is a micro-mobility platform powered by shared electric two-wheelers that aims to reduce traffic congestion and air pollution in India. The startup is backed by marquee investors like Rocketship, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Blume Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Wavemaker, among others. Prior to Yulu, Amit co-founded a mobile adtech platform called InMobi which was one of the first unicorn startups of India. You can connect with him here on Twitter or Linkedin ---- Show notes – (02:42) Amit’s background & path leading up to Yulu (05:38) The switch from mobile (InMobi) to mobility (Yulu) (07:39) Evolution of Yulu’s product over the past 5 years; Impact of Covid-19 on Yulu’s journey (18:00) Leveraging public & private partnerships to build a strong foundation for a new category (23:05) What does it take to build a category-creating startup? (26:25) Learnings from previous ventures - ‘Playing the long game’ (29:41) Fundraising experience at InMobi & Yulu (33:26) Importance of choosing the right investors (38:21) Amit’s angel investing playbook (40:30) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay here on Linkedin & Twitter