The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

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.. . .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.. . .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)

Ankur Warikoo is an angel investor, entrepreneur, mentor and public speaker. He co-founded Nearbuy.com in 2015, where he served as the CEO from 2015-2019. Ankur was previously the CEO of Groupon India + APAC, MD of at Rocket Internet India, Co-founder at Accentium Web, and a management consultant at A.T. Kearney. He also holds an MBA degree from The Indian School of Business, an MS Physics from Michigan State University and a BS from Hindu College, Delhi University. Ankur has 1M+ followers across social media is known to share videos where he often talks about entrepreneurship, leadership and is known to inspire the youth.Follow Ankur (@Warikoo), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. How has Ankur dealt with the COVID period? (3:39)2. What does Ankur make of the pandemic –– an inflection point or an uphill battle to restore economies? (5:54)3. How does he feel about industries hard hit due to COVID? (8:45)4. Ankur’s story and how it unfolded (11:50)5. When and how did Ankur take to angel investing (15:13)6. What made Ankur buyback Groupon India’s business and put ‘everything’ on the line? (17:15)7. How difficult was it to champion the move to buy back Groupon India? (19:53)8. What is Ankur’s relationship with risk and is there a personality to his investments? (23:53)9. Why does Ankur say he’s a bad investor? (27:21)10. What was Ankur’s (angel) investment thesis? (31:22)11. How much of Ankur’s personality will you see in his investments? (37:38)12. Where does Ankur source his deals from? (39:35)13. What does Ankur’s diligence process look like? (42:12)14. How long does Ankur take to make an investment decision? (44:40)15. Underrated and overrated qualities in founders today (45:48)16. How important is it for founders to sell their story and how can do they so effectively? (48:51)17. Because Ankur is a very public figure and vocal across social, does he feel people find him intimidating to speak with? And if so, how does he make them feel at ease? (52:57)18. Rapid fire (55:24)

Shruti Gandhi is the founder and General Partner of Array Ventures a data-driven venture capital firm. Six of her portfolio companies have exited to companies such as Apple, Paypal, and Samsung with 10x returns. Shruti spun Array Ventures out of True Ventures. She is also an adjunct professor in the CS department at Columbia University, featured on Business Insider, BBC, Forbes, VentureBeat, and USAToday, and host of the Array podcast.She also has an MBA from the University of Chicago and engineering in CS at Columbia University.. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. Why venture capital instead of angel investing 2. Process of setting up a VC fund in the US 3. How is Array VC structured 4. Challenges that come with being a single GP Fund 5. How has enterprise investing evolved in the last few years 6. How do you evaluate moats within startups that work at the intersection of the AI, ML and data? 7. How does Shruti define AI and ML 8. What kind of benchmarks should enterprise startups hit in order to be attractive for subsequent round of investors 9. Why is data not really a moat? 10. How does Array’s network of C-level executives drive value to portfolio startups? 11. Investment opportunities within ML 12. Rapid fire

Chinnu Senthilkumar is the General Partner and CTO at Exfinity Venture Partners, an Enterprise Tech focused VC fund with an emphasis on startups in the US-India corridor. Prior to Exfinity, Chinnu held Senior Executive roles at Intel, SanDisk and Texas Instruments, both in the US and India. In the capacity of SanDisk’s Country Head, Chinnu spearheaded SanDisk (now part of Western Digital) India operations in the areas of R&D, Operations and IT outsourcing. Chinnu is an innovator from a young age and received "National Technology award" from President of India at the age of 21. He has received his Masters from University of Utah, Salt Lake City, US and B.E. from College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai.You may follow Chinnu (@chinnusenthil1), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . . In this episode, we will cover:1. Current VC landscape in India (2:27)2. Chinnu’s background (12:04)3. Consumer vs Enterprise startups (16:10) 4. Investment strategy and criteria at Exfinity (22:00)5. Dissecting deals won or lost i.e. using post mortem to analyze fund performance and strategy (27:38)6. Corporate VC vs traditional VC (31:01)7. The role of a GP and how they raise funds (34:04)8. Time allocation as a GP (40:04)9. Raising funds –– which is the toughest, the first or the subsequent ones? (44:05)10. LP communications –– best practices with existing investors and how to handle conversations with potential LPs (45:55)11. GP commitment and benchmarks (53:23) 12. Rapid fire (56:42)

Anup Jain is the managing partner at Orios Venture Partners, a VC firm investing in B2B and B2C startups with offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. Anup leads their FMCG and Retail investments and has over 20 years of experience of building brands across countries and categories. Follow Anup (@AnupOrios), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and the podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . . In this episode we will cover:1. Covid impact on Orios and the VC industry (1:15) 2. Anup’s background (23:28)3. FMCG & Retail investment in India (32:30)4. FMCG investments: contrarian or not? (43:45)5. What do investors look for in FMCG startups? (48:41) 6. Subscription vs non-subscription vs Digitally Native Vertical Brand (DNVB)? (54:10)7. Will Orios invest in a brand that doesn’t have an online presence? (1:00:01)8. How do you scale businesses with moats such as data, distribution and personalization (1:16:55)9. Rapid fire (1:08:58)

Sushma Kaushik is a Partner at Aavishkaar Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm currently deploying out of its 6th fund and has close to half a billion dollars in AUM. She has over 18 years of diverse experience in the field of early stage investing, small business incubation and consulting across sectors.She is an engineering graduate from RVCE, Bangalore and has an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.Follow Sushma Kaushik (@sushmakaushik1), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and the podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .In this episode you will learn:1. Sushma’s background (3:58)2. What Sushma loves about her job as a Partner (6:21)3. What does a Partner do at a VC firm? (7:20)4. First check written by Sushma (9:55)5. How do you convince fellow Partners to invest in an under-performing sector and justify the investment? (12:06)6. Learnings from investing (13:36)7. Aavishkaar Capital and their thesis (15:45)8. Challenges within the Impact Investment space (21:15)9. Should seed-stage investors also consider growth-stage investments? (24:34)10. How do you measure impact? (26:47)11. How often do investors track the metrics? (29:54)12. What is corporate governance for startups? (32:35)13. What is the relationship between investors, board members and executive leadership within a startup and who calls the shots once investors’ share in the business exceeds the founders? (41: 32)14. How do we solve for diversity within venture capital? (44:38)15. Rapid fire (49:00)

Piyush Puri leads the Brand Capital International team in Silicon Valley as Vice President of BWI, the strategic investment arm of The Times Group – India’s largest multimedia conglomerate. Before leading Brand Capital’s US office, Piyush was an investment banker in Mumbai, India focusing on investments in the energy, ancillaries, and the environment spaces. Piyush received his degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), has an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, and a Master’s Degree in Psychology of Leadership from Penn State University.Follow Piyush (@Piyushpuri13), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .In this episode we will cover:1. Piyush’s background (2:59)2. How does Brand Capital International help startups tap into the Indian market? (5:56)3. What do startups get wrong when they think about the India opportunity? (9:36)4. How does BCI approach investments? (12:17)5. What do non-Indian startups offer than incumbents don’t? (14:28)6. What’s the best outcome for non-Indian startups entering India? (18:42)7. How does BCI measure success of their portfolio companies? (19:45)8. How do portfolio startups measure the impact of BCI? (21:06)9. When’s the right time to think about global expansion (23:36)10. Is having ‘feet on street’ important when startups go global? (26:00)11. Internal reporting and accountability with respect to investments (27:59)12. How has the pandemic affected BCI and their co-investors during the lockdown? (30:35)13. BCI Portfolio: Does higher valuation (by non-Indian VCs) deter future investments from Indian VCs? (33:47)14. Rapid fire (38:20)

Rohan Malhotra is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Good Capital, a Delhi-based early stage fund which takes a bottom-up approach to problem-solving and values first-principles thinking. Prior to Good Capital, he co-founded Investopad, a seed-stage technology incubator that focused on ventures that were centered on solving India-centric problems.You may follow Rohan (@r0hanmalhotra), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . . In this episode we will cover:1. Intro (1:50)2. How did the name ‘Good Capital’ come about (3:54)3. What was the motivation in starting Investopad and then Good Capital (8:10)4. How do two young people in their 20s start a fund without prior experience in building companies or managing funds (14:01)5. How Investopad’s success became the foundation for Good Capital (16:38)6. Fundraising challenges for young first-time fund managers and alignment with LPs (19:27)7. Good Capital: Investing thesis (21:12)8. How does a deal like Meesho come along? (22:58)9. What is a ‘first-close’ from a fund-raising perspective? (33:07)10. How long does it take to close the complete fund-raise for a fund? (34:55)11. Portfolio construction at Good Capital (38:22)12. Rapid fire (40:42)

Vinod Murali is Managing Partner and Co-founder of Alteria Capital. Vinod has 15+ years of experience spanning Venture Debt, Mezzanine Capital & Structured finance, Corporate Banking and Branding. Prior to Alteria, he spent time as the Deputy CEO at InnoVen Capital India (prev. known as SVB India Finance), and before that, at Citigroup as part of the Corporate and Investment Banking Group where he managed large Corporate relationships across Auto, Healthcare and Consumer industries.Follow Vinod (@vinodmur) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.. . .Glossary of terms:1. Venture debt: Venture debt is a form of debt financing for venture equity-backed companies that lack the assets or cash flow for traditional debt financing, or that want greater flexibility. It is a form of “risk capital” that is less costly than equity when structured appropriately.2. Burn: Amount of monthly cash that a company spends. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. Vinod Murali’s background and the birth of Alteria Capital (03:28)2. Reason behind Silicon Valley Bank’s exit from India (11:20)3. History of venture debt in India (14:44)4. Reasons venture debt doesn’t sit well with traditional banking institutions (22:25)5. Parallels between venture debt and equity financing (29:05)6. How are debts structured? (33:27)7. What are debts repaid? What is the typical interest rate? (36:00)8. How are warrants / dilution structured? (38:01)9. Debt arrangements that have gone well and those that haven’t and why? (40:38)10. Why don’t debt financiers usually take board seats? (44:28)11. Are personal guarantees eligible in a venture debt scenario? (48:00)12. How does a deal like Dunzo come along? (49:44)13. Rapid fire (52:36)

Alex Lazarow is the Investment Director at Cathay Innovation. Prior to joining Cathay Innovation, Alex was a Principal at Omidyar Network, a global philanthropic investment firm. While at Omidyar, he focused on investments in the global FinTech and financial inclusion space across the U.S., Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.He is also an adjunct professor specializing in impact investment and entrepreneurship at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is a Kauffman Fellow, CFA Charterholder, and a Stephen M. Kellen Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Comm from the University of Manitoba.Follow Alex (@Alex_Lazarow) and host, Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.. . .Glossary of terms:1. Network Effects: Network Effects is a phenomenon whereby increased numbers of people or participants improve the value of a good or service.2. Impacting Investing: Impact investing refers to investments made into companies, organizations and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return3. Blitzscaling: It's the science and art of rapidly building out a company to serve a large and usually global market, with the goal of becoming the first mover at scale; an accelerated path to the stage in a startup's life-cycle where the most value is created. . . .In this episode we will learn:1. Alex Lazarow’s background (3:20)2. Why did Alex decide to write ‘Out-Innovate’? (7:00)3. What are ‘Frontier Ecosystems’? (9:34) 4. Similarities between emerging markets around the world and emerging markets within the US such as mid-West (11:53)5. Learnings from speaking to Indian entrepreneurs about ‘sustainable’ growth (14:38)6. Misconceptions about Blitzscaling (18:22)7. Challenges in building global companies (22:04)8. How should entrepreneurs think about the global opportunity and get it right? (25:15)9. Bottlenecks in building sustainable businesses (28:10)10. Is real innovation taking place outside the Silicon Valley? (31:16) 11. Misconceptions Alex had about emerging markets before writing his book (33:40)12. How has Alex changed through his experience of writing the book? (35:15) 13. Rapid fire (38:10)