Q1 2022

Communication

Investor updates & correlation with startup success:

My observation after writing 65+ checks in startups is that the regularity with which founders share investor updates seems to have a high positive correlation to how well their startups do. Our best-performing startups are the ones that have been most consistent in sharing regular, structured investor updates..

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Q3 2021

Entrepreneurship

Are you really fit to be a founder?

Today it makes sense to talk about the “money” side of entrepreneurship. Many people have the needed skills, experience & passion to be great founders. Yet they’re unfit to be one. Why? It's to do with “founder financial viability”. While there’s an appreciation by most founders for a need to bootstrap & work without market salary for some time..

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Q2 2021

Storytelling

Is your belief in meritocracy the reason for your failure?

As a pre-seed/seed stage startup investor, the most frequent gripe I hear from Indian founders is that they had a better product, competent team & better numbers, yet the investors funded their competitors. This makes them confused & dejected, and they lose faith in VCs & angels..

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Q1 2021

Culture

A case against the maverick unicorn founder:

Recently, the founder of a very well-funded startup got angry on a call because he heard a colleague drink water. His comment - "If what I’m saying is less important to you than drinking water, we shouldn't even have this call”. Stop for a moment & let this behaviour sink in. Unreal..

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Q2 2022

Ownership

Dynamic equity split among co-founders:

The next innovation in startups needs to be a dynamic equity split among co-founders. Too often we’re seeing co-founders start with an equity breakup which feels right on day zero, but isn’t reflective of relative value creation a few years later. This seeds discontentment among minority co-founders, who feel shortchanged..

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Q1 2022

Entrepreneurship

Facing Rejection:

I received an emotional email from a founder today after we could not make time for him for a mentoring session. One thing that is surely common across a failed venture or a successful unicorn is that the founders of both face a lot of rejection. Dealing with continuous rejection is a hard reality of entrepreneurship - from investors, customers, talent, and sometimes it'll feel from the whole world..

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Q2 2022

Regulations

How to spur domestic capital participation in the Indian ecosystem:

Learning from my experience in the US & interacting with global GPs, four things the Indian government can do to further spur domestic capital participation & domestic funds in the startup ecosystem: 1) Formally define local accredited investors & lay out the process for investors to be verified as accredited. Then provide these people more freedom to invest..

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Q1 2021

Timing

The YC ding

To all those founders who haven't received an interview call from YC today & are feeling rejected, don't feel down & dejected. Thousands of founders have been in the same place as you, before they figured it out & made their venture into a big success. Some of the more successful founders in our portfolio have been there as well..

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Q2 2022

Startups

Momentum is everything.

In startups, momentum is everything. When you have momentum, close the fundraise, close the sale, hire the star. Enables you to carry on the momentum further. Waiting for that perfect timing may make you lose the hard-fought momentum itself. There are no perfect decisions.

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