The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Utsav Somani is a Partner at AngelList India and General Partner at iSeed (a seed-stage fund looking to bridge successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Indian founders in the search of money as well as the expertise and knowledge of scaling up a startup).Follow Utsav (@somani_utsav), host Akash (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Flatheads: Flatheads is an all-day casual sneakers designed for work wear and optimized for 14-hour comfort.2. MoveABox: MoveABox is Bangalore-based startup helping people to vacate and relocate their homes in a personalized manner.. . . In today’s episode we will cover: 1. Micro VC –– overcrowded with competition or not? (7:50)2. Recap of VC landscape during COVID (17:08)3. Raising a fund during the months of the lockdown (21:18)4. Takeaways from raising a fund (22:56)5. Utsav’s background (24:14)6. What is Micro VC and how does Utsav see it within the Indian context (27:11)7. Why is there a rise in Micro VC funds across India? (29:48)8. Is Micro VC more riskier? (35:13)9. What is the value proposition of a Micro VC (37:16)10. How does an emerging fund manager attract good deal flow? (41:54)11. Trend –– LPs turning GPs (48:13)12. Dissection of Utsav’s tweet on the disconnect between macro trends (51:14)13. Rapid fire (52:02)

Rutvik Doshi is the General Partner at Inventus Capital India, early stage Venture Capital firm that invests in Pre Series A and Series A. Rutvik has participated in India’s fast emerging internet ecosystem since 2007, first with Google where he launched several products including Voice Search, Google Mobile App, SMS Channels and managed Google News globally, and most recently as the CEO of ecommerce startup Taggle in Bangalore. Before Google he spent 6 years in the US building internet management software for CA Technologies. Rutvik holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and an MBA from INSEAD, France. Follow Rutvik (@rutvik), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Project PIF: Project Pay-It-Forward is a cloud-based mentorship platform for graduate admissions2. Podium: Podium is a platform that brings people closer to have virtual conversations around social issues.. . .In this episode we will cover:. . . (Part 1) . . .1. Impact of COVID on fund dynamics and larger macro economic trends (5:24)2. How did LP’s react to the pandemic (7:44)3: Investment strategy during Covid and plans for the future (13:11)4. How did Inventus India Capital build rapport with founders during the pandemic, in the absence of F2F meetings? (18:38)5. Rutvik’s background and sequence of events leading up to Inventus (19:58)6. Evolution of VC in India (28:06)7. Investment thesis at Inventus (32:21)8. Importance of forging strong relationships with other VC firms in India (37:17). . . (Part 2) . . .9. Raising domestic capital –– Has India reached a point of comfort to invest in VC as an asset class? (42:51)10. Why is it better to have Indian investors than global? (44:44)11. What should emerging fund managers be prepared for when they speak to potential LP candidates? (49:02)12. How many calls do VC’s have with potential LPs (53:53)13. How do the Partners split fundraising responsibilities (55:53)14. When will see a change in venture investing to bring more profitability? (1:00:09)15. Lobbying in India (1:02:41)16. Raising money from foreign investors or Indian? (1:05:42)17. Rapid fire (1:08:05)

Vinay Bansal is the CEO at Inflection Point Ventures, an early stage angel investing platform. He is a finance professional and turnaround specialist with 20+ years of experience across Fortune 50 companies, private equity & startups. Last, he was Senior Advisor at TPG Global and before that CFO & CIO at Wildcraft India. He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and spent the first 14 years of his career in leadership positions across Financial Management and Manufacturing / Supply-chain sourcing functions at GE and Hindustan Unilever.Follow host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.. . .The Desi Startups of the Week:1. Fire.Fly: Fire.Fly is a Bangalore-based learning & development startup focusing on teaching the values of creativity & compassion through online & offline workshops and experiences.2. Leher App: Leher App is a social network built around video discussions that connects people around their interests and passions.. . .In this episode, we will cover:1. Vinay Intro (2:43)2. Covid impact –– Macro-level and portfolio-level (3:43)3. Why has IPV been active when other VC firms have been conservative in their approach during covid (6:48)4. Will companies getting funded now continue to see similar success post-covid? (11:21)5. How can startups leverage the pandemic to create moats (16:21)6. Vinay’s background (20:07)7. Challenges of being an agnostic firm (28:58)8. Time management for GPs (33:16)9. What is CXO genie and how’s that unique to IPV (35:57)10. How to measure success of a mentor-driven program? (41:29)11. Measuring portfolio returns and communication with LPs (46:27)12. Best practices for LP communication (52:20)13. Rapid fire (55:13)

Melissa Frakman is the founder & managing partner of Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), a venture capital fund investing in early-stage fintech startups in India. She brings 15 years of experience participating in India’s digital revolution to bridge worlds for entrepreneurs and companies. Named on the “Global Fintech PowerList” by Innovate Finance, Melissa has led early stage investments in asia, supported new market strategy, and built partnerships worth over $1 billion for 15 of the Fortune 100 companies. Follow Melissa (@melissafrakman), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. . . .The Desi Startup of the Week:Piggy: Piggy is a next generation mutual fund investment app that simplifies investments. . . .In this episode, we will cover: 1. Sectors within FinTech that have stood out during the pandemic (4:12)2. Melissa’s journey so far (5:46) 3. Why does Melissa think India has a more robust and advanced FinTech ecosystem than other markets (10:48) 4. FinTech: Bundling vs Unbundling (14:00) 5. FinTech investment trends and risks associated with investing in the space (17:04) 6. The FinTech opportunity: Urban, Middle and Rural India (19:43) 7. FinTech challenges within rural India (24:05)8. Educating the masses: Is it the role of the govt. or startups? (25:53) 9. Innovation with UPI (28:15) 10. Assessing FinTech startups (31:16) 11. Traditional financial institutions: opportunity or threat? (35:37)12. How does EMVC add value to their portfolio (37:58)13. Rapid fire (40:23) 14. Ways to get in touch with Melissa (48:20)

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)