Startup Project: Build the future

In this Episode of Startup project, Nataraj talked to Eric Satz, Founder & CEO of Alto IRA. Prior to his role as founder and CEO of Alto, Eric worked in investment banking at DLJ/Credit Suisse and co-founded several companies, including: Currenex, an FX trading solution sold to State Street for more than $550M; Plumgood Food, and; Tennessee Community Ventures, a VC firm We talked about: - The problems that led to creation of Alto IRA Advantages of using Alto IRA  Working with partners like Coinbase, Angellist & Republic Diversification of investments Fundraising via Equity Crowdfunding Peter Thiel's 401k strategy Follow Eric on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ericsatz and learn more about Alto IRA here. Nataraj is an engineer at Azure, partner at planbcapital.co & hosts thestartupproject.io podcast. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/natarajsindam and stay up to date at https://www.getrevue.co/profile/bmb/members

In this Episode of Startup project, Nataraj talked to Sajid Rahman, Founder of My Asia VC. Sajid is an operator-investor who invested in 1000+ Startups with 40+ Exits. He is the founder of myasiavc.com and his portfolio companies span all geographical regions including North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Latam. We talked about: Transition from Banking to Angel Investing Solving the cold start problem  Best way to start leading investments in 2021  Graduating from a syndicate to fund Thought process behind Investing in different stages Thesis for the new late stage fund Why he thinks startup investing is not risky Decisions making style Trends he is looking forward in next couple of years. Follow Sajid on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SajidRepublic and learn more about My Asia VC at myasiavc.com Nataraj is an engineer at Azure, partner at planbcapital.co & hosts thestartupproject.io podcast. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/natarajsindam and stay up to date at getrevue.co/profile/bmb

In this Episode of Startup project, Nataraj talked to Martin Tobias, Founder of Incisive Ventures. Martin is a serial entrepreneur, investor in 100+ deals as an angel, also the Founder of a leading Angel network, Element8. He is also 3x CEO, and has raised over $500M (including two IPOs). We talked about: First Angel Investment Meta Themes  Capital Efficiency in North America vs India Looking at valuations with the lens of notional capital What led to his investment in DocuSign at a time when electronic signatures were not legal. Story behind starting Incisive in the middle of a pandemic Follow Martin on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MartinGTobias and learn more about Incisive at Incisive.vc Follow Nataraj on Twitter at https://twitter.com/natarajsindam and stay up to date at thestartupproject.io

This is a special episode. I have known Vipul for over 6 months now. With in just couple of conversations I have come to realize that he is one of the most interesting founders I have come across. In this episode we talked about: Vipul's journey prior to starting unlu.io & building Rutogo & CricnWin. Making money using  Internet The concept of Fandom vs Respect How his experience working with influencers in cricket and co-producing movies is helping him build Unlu? How does the journey of making an Unlu Class happen, from concept to production? How does Unlu convince the like of Ruskin Bond & Manoj Bajpayee come and teach their craft on Unlu? Market size of Indian Influencer economy what's next after Unlu Shoutouts & Unlu class? What are the moats that are separating Unlu from the competition? Thesis behind Angel investing and the experience of seeing exits like Fitso (aq by Zomato) Follow Vipul on Twitter at https://twitter.com/iamvipulagrawal and learn more about Unlu at unlu.io Follow Nataraj on Twitter at https://twitter.com/natarajsindam and stay up to date at thestartupproject.io

In Episode 5 of The Startup Project (thestartupproject.io) Nataraj talked to Ani Mohan who is the founder and General Manager of Gamesnacks (gamesnacks.com), a web based game platform incubated inside Google's Area 120.  The conversation included the following topics: Start of the Gamesnacks and all the previous versions of it  Incubation of projects inside google area 120 How a decision to Pivot to Gamesnacks was made? Embedding as a distribution Strategy Value chain of Gaming Ecosystem & Future trends in gaming Follow Ani on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ani_c_mohan and learn more about Gamesnacks at gamesnacks.com Follow Nataraj on Twitter at https://twitter.com/natarajsindam and stay up to date at thestartupproject.io

Manik is the Co-Founder of Omnify (getomnify.com), a global SaaS platform for small and medium service business. Previously he was also the co-founder of LinkMySport.  We talked about: Service Ecommerce Pivoting multiple times to find product market fit Scrapping and restarting to figure the right customers in right geography Giving back time to customers Getting through the rollercoaster of pandemic when 90% of your customers are outside India Vision of Omnify Follow Manik on Twitter at https://twitter.com/manik_me and learn more about omnify at getomnify.com Follow Nataraj on Twitter at https://twitter.com/natarajsindam and stay up to date at thestartupproject.io

Vikas is the Co-Founder of Leher (Leher.app), a live discussion platform. Previously he was also the co-founder of Commonfloor.com which was acquired by Quikr.  We talked about: Growth of Leher in last 6 months Monetization Models Content moderation The Clubhouse Effect From Commonfloor to Leher, how has the Indian Startup ecosystem changed? Follow Vikas on Twitter at https://twitter.com/vikasmalpani and learn more about Leher at Leher.App Follow Nataraj on Twitter at https://twitter.com/natarajsindam and stay up to date at thestartupproject.io

Pankaj Jain is currently COO of Workomo. He has worn multiple hats in his journey from being a founder, operator & investor. He is also an advisor to Angel List India's The Collective Fund. We talked about  Creating communities like Startup weekend & now Indian startup club on clubhouse (https://indianstartup.club/) Working at TLabs (Times Internet's Accelerator) Different Accelerator models in India  Leading 500 Startup's India Strategy Evolution of Food Startups in India Jio Effect in India Advising for Angel List India's The Collective Fund Perspective on AL Syndicates Indian companies registering outside India 2020 is it a crisis/bubble/opportunity Being chief operating officer at Workomo Follow Pankaj on Twitter (https://twitter.com/pjain) and learn more about Workomo at https://workomo.com Find more about Nataraj on Twitter https://twitter.com/natarajsindam More information at thestartupproject.io

Pranay is the co-founder of 91 Springboard (91springboard.com), one of India's successful co-working space companies.   We talked about:  Interesting origin story of 91Springboard  Evolution and scaling of 91Springboard  The business model of co-working space company   How 91Springboard became on of the best startup incubators and received "Best emerging Technology Incubator 2016" award from president of India  His recent foray to Angel Investing and setting up a syndicate  Goa as a startup destination You can follow Pranay on Twitter (https://twitter.com/PranayG) and learn more about 91Springboard here (91springboard.com) More information of all other episodes are at thestartupproject.io and you can find more about Nataraj on Twitter @natarajsindam.