Two weeks back I was sitting in on a pitch wherein a healthy snacks company was looking at raising its seed round from us. The company was yet to launch its products in the market, but the team had the requisite experience and plan to get the venture off the ground. The company checked all…
Read More "Investor Alert: Founders are Using Investor Math Against Us!"
I usually do not write my blogs before 6-7 pm but the events of my breakfast wont allow me to keep my thoughts within my head. The last time I was in Bangalore I was put up at the Taj Gateway Hotel on Residency Road. The stay was pleasant except for a couple of issues…
There is a worrying trend that is growing in my email & linkedIn inbox i.e. the rise of “boutique” investment bankers representing startups that are raising their first round of investment capital. What use does a banker serve at seed stage? I am not against the idea of hiring investment bankers to facilitate transactions (Artha…
I thought of writing this post almost two weeks back when I saw the movie for a second time but it would have given up key twists of the plot that would ruin the experience of those that hadn’t seen the movie. I (now) believe that most of the moving going population has seen the…
Monday’s post, the math of early stage venture capital sparked off interesting debates on various forums. Generally, there is a belief that 268x return in 7 years is unrealistic, many conjectured that early stage VCs expected lower returns, some made the argument that 20% irr was the return expected from a VC (answer to that…
Read More "Part 2: Early stage investment math – the rule of 3x"
Apurva and I visited the office of a startup that we are co-leading the investment into with a global angel network. Their packed office was hot & stuffy due to the lack of airconditioning on a sweltering summer day in Bangalore. As we walked through the office the signs of an early stage venture in…
Today I met with an entrepreneur in the travel space that kept reiterating that they wanted to grow organically and without burning money. The “startup” wanted to take it’s a offline business model of booking air tickets, where it earned a respectable profit – online. Coming from a strong referral I spent a couple of…
