Shardul Shah

Partner, Index Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investor@shardul_shah ↗LinkedIn ↗indexventures.com ↗

Shardul Shah focuses on early-stage investments across cybersecurity, enterprise software, AI, and cloud infrastructure at Index Ventures. He is best known for leading early-stage backing in landmark tech companies such as Datadog, Wiz, Duo Security, and Coalition.

35statements → 7claims → 3claims resolved → 33%fully supported → 4.06/5average certainty → 2.49/5average debate potential → 4.2/5argument clarity · the sources → 30said about them ↓

1 supported 2 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 3 not checkable as stated how the 7 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 6 assertions · 4 opinions · 17 insights · 7 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 7 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Shardul argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

Shah: 25% of New York Series A deals are in healthcare

“25% of series A's in New York are related to healthcare. That's a really different mix than San Francisco.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 46:08 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

none yet certainty 3

75% certainty 4

50% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.2 / 5 directness 4.1 · coherence 4.3 · precision 3.9 · compression 3.9

redirected or did not address 1 of 18 assessed questions (6%). Watch them ▸

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

228 words/min while actually speaking · 38.6 um and uh per 1k words · 13.6 false starts per 1k · 25.2% of pauses land inside a clause

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 5,802 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 4/10

pushed back at the host ▾ 4/10

setup questions received 30%

host pushback: the hardest questions Harry asked, tap to play ▶ 2:48“So you do not think that actually individuals and people who want to scale in a venture firm should kind of play the game on the field.” ▶ 21:39“But if you were seeing series B average entry prices go up by 30, 40, 50, 60% for the best, and then you're seeing, uh, compression in terms of public market pricing, like, even fo…” ▶ 10:10“Can you take me to a time when you've had the strongest intuition and it was wrong?”

when Shardul pushed back ▶ 21:21“I don't know why we're talking about averages. Like we're, none of us are in the business of mean reversion.” ▶ 21:55“No, that's not. I mean, we're we're mixing two time horizons, right?”

What they said35 What others said30 Episodes1

Everything Shardul Shah said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight

Shah: Team quality is far more important than market in VC

“Like, there's this canonical question, I think, in our industry. Is it the market or is it the team, right? And I think many great firms would argue that it's market. In my view, it's very clearly the team.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 8:03 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Pattern recognition and VC benchmarking are exercises in psychological safety

“There's so much long tail risk in a company that I feel like the exercise around pattern recognition benchmarking as just like two examples, risk mitigation as a third are exercises in psychological safety.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 30:30 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Opinion

Shah: Total addressable market calculations are a trap for venture investors

“TAM is a trap. Like, go back and look at the S-ones of some of the biggest public companies today. Their market caps are bigger than what they thought the TAM would be.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 13:59 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: VCs fail by picking wrong investments, not overpaying

“But when I think about conviction in people at the earliest stages I think you can be really elastic on price. At late stage, if you have conviction, price is just a representation of like future expected, expected free cashflow, right? So you're probably not …”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 12:02 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Follow-on rounds require rebuilding the investment case from scratch

“So I'm not thinking about averaging down my cost basis. I'm not thinking about incrementally increasing my ownership. I'm building a net new investment case on, can I create, you know, a fund returner? And with that, like I do all the work again. So if I think…”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 18:57 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Prediction Not publicly verifiable

Shah: Index Ventures targets 5x upside on late-stage growth investments

“It's super dangerous. I think to say there's a safe two X, there's no such thing. And you alluded to this with the memory of all of the activity from 2021. There's no such thing as a safe two X. And so what we're looking for is definitely five X plus upside, e…”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 20:37 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Assertion Partly supported

Shah: Wiz grew faster in four years than any company ever

“Bottoms up, the, you know, the business in, in, in four years, the company has grown faster than any company of all time with unbelievable productivity in different segments, in different geographies.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 25:01 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Power law returns trigger partner egos that fracture VC trust

“It's especially hard in a venture firm in light of the power law, right? Again, very few companies are going to Create returns, which means there's likely to be concentration among different investors. Which suggests that you can have a skew of ego or insecuri…”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 27:52 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Opinion

Shah: Best ZIRP founders under-grew while VCs missed liquidity windows

“For founders, like the best founders probably didn't grow aggressively enough. For investors, investors probably didn't maximize liquidity opportunities.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 48:35 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Assimilating to firm norms sets VC investors up for failure

“If your goal is to be the best version of yourself and your firm's goal is to be the best firm on the planet, there's no room for assimilation and confirmation, right? Conforming to other norms. So I think it's absolutely wrong. I think if you try to assimilat…”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 2:28 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Returning the fund is the only career metric that matters

“The game on the field, if you're a venture investor, is to invest in a fund returner. If you return the fund, don't worry about it.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 3:05 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: There are no predictable human patterns for successful founders

“When it comes to patterns of selection and patterns within people, The only pattern is there is no pattern.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 9:30 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Index Ventures' three rules to avoid missing generational founders

“The sins of omission for us distilled into three lessons. One don't be cute on price. Two don't overthink it. Three don't pass on generational founders.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 10:43 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Disclosure

Shah: All Index investments in Datadog and Wiz were high priced

“Every investment in Datadog I was at a high price every, it's not an outcome yet, of course, but every investment in Wiz has been at a very high price. I feel great about each of those decisions.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 12:35 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Disclosure

Shah: Datadog co-founder Olivier Pomel was initially not a great fundraiser

“When we invested in Olivier and Alexi Series A at Datadog, so he was not a great fundraiser.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 16:45 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Sins of omission matter more in VC than sins of commission

“I really think that the sins of omission Are much more significant than the sins of commission.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 30:05 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Shah: Seed investors use signaling risk as a tactical objection

“In the seed market most seed investors are using signaling as part of an objection to work with a multi-stage fund.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 31:16 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Founders should avoid party seed rounds due to coordination overhead

“Like I definitely don't encourage founders to have like a party round. It ends up being, An exercise of herding cats.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 33:05 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: Founders should avoid taking angel investment from customers

“Don't take money from customers, right? It's fraught with a conflict of interest.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 34:03 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: VCs should sell immediately if a founder is unethical or incompetent

“If you come across an entrepreneur who you believe is on the spectrum of unethical to incompetent, you should sell immediately.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 42:00 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Opinion

Shah: Describing founders as 'A-plus' without substantiation is VC BS

“It really irritates me when I hear, ah, investors say it's an exceptional founder, ah, an A-plus founder, without any, like, specificity or substantiation.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 48:10 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Insight

Shah: First-time founders' biggest mistake is not firing fast enough

“Not firing fast enough.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 48:28 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Disclosure

Shah: Index Ventures requires two partners for every founder meeting

“Every meeting ideally would have two people in it. So that's a super high bar for taking Any meeting, like I'm asking to prioritize someone else's time in addition to mine, which means the threshold for a meeting is super high.”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 6:03 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Shah: Index Growth Fund returns followed power law over mid-tier multiples

“When we started our first growth fund our hypothesis was probably three to five X over three to five years, right? I'd just come out of a private equity firm as had some of my colleagues. And so we had like a, we had that mentality. And when we looked at the p…”

Shardul Shah Sep 16, 2024 ▶ 19:56 Shardul Shah: How Index Makes Decisions & Why Benchmarks & Averages in VC are BS | E1202 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 11statements(11 left)

The other half of the tape: Shardul Shah's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 29 times in 9 episodes on 20VC. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 21 Danny Rimer 6 Dan Fougere 2

Statements about Shardul Shah, by other people (1)

Disclosure

Fougere: Top enterprise CIOs rejected Datadog's cloud monitoring pitch in 2017

“Amit and I went on a series of dinners with Shardul Shah in early 2017, and we were, and it was all CIOs. And CTOs. And we were so excited and we went to fancy restaurants and nobody cared about cloud monitoring.”

Dan Fougere Nov 22, 2024 ▶ 5:30 Dan Fougere, CRO @Datadog: Why Discounting is Dangerous and Contract Sizes are Misleading | E1229 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings