Dharmesh Raithatha, Partner at Forward Partners, reflects on the contrast between his background as a startup operator and his role as a venture capitalist.
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“Working in startups you only get to see a few ideas get to any stage. So you're very into detail, and you're really into, like, growing that one company versus suddenly, you know, I'm exposed to, you know, thousands of ideas, and trying to think about longer-term trends”
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More from Dharmesh Raithatha
Opinion
Early-stage startups should avoid outsourcing technical development unless cloning
“So I'm super anti-outsourcing. So unless you've got like a very clear idea that's just a copy of something else.”
Dharmesh RaithathaDec 14, 2015▶ 11:4020 VC 096: Developing The Idea Muscle and VCs Providing More Than Just Money with Dharmesh Raithatha, Partner @ Forward Partners
Insight
Early-stage VC funds benefit from having dedicated product specialists
“I think for the early stage funds, you know, having someone that understands products can help massively because, you know depending on the company, there's a lot of challenges, either seed or series A, where they need to start scaling up.”
Dharmesh RaithathaDec 14, 2015▶ 4:1720 VC 096: Developing The Idea Muscle and VCs Providing More Than Just Money with Dharmesh Raithatha, Partner @ Forward Partners
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Forward Partners rejects founders lacking deep understanding of the problem
“So we've seen lots of like the similar ideas, but the founders don't have the kind of deep understanding of the problem. They found a problem and they're going to go, right, we're going to build a startup, but they don't have that kind of deep understanding of…”
Dharmesh RaithathaDec 14, 2015▶ 7:1820 VC 096: Developing The Idea Muscle and VCs Providing More Than Just Money with Dharmesh Raithatha, Partner @ Forward Partners
Insight
Internalized problem experience trumps industry knowledge for early-stage founders
“Ross Bailey, right, you know very, very young when he joined us, I think it was 1920, you know, but he had experience of trying to run a pop-up shop. He understood the problems out there of trying to do that, you know, trying to solve that for himself. So it w…”
Dharmesh RaithathaDec 14, 2015▶ 8:2220 VC 096: Developing The Idea Muscle and VCs Providing More Than Just Money with Dharmesh Raithatha, Partner @ Forward Partners
Insight
Founders must validate user problems before spending years building products
“You brainstorm lots of ideas, but then the next step is to go out and, you know, talk to people and interview them and observe them and try to understand more detail in that problem. You know, how are people trying to solve it now? Where are their frustrations…”
Dharmesh RaithathaDec 14, 2015▶ 9:3820 VC 096: Developing The Idea Muscle and VCs Providing More Than Just Money with Dharmesh Raithatha, Partner @ Forward Partners
“So at Forward Partners, we tend to take people that are in, in the main solo founders who, you know, tend to be non-technical.”
Dharmesh RaithathaDec 14, 2015▶ 10:2720 VC 096: Developing The Idea Muscle and VCs Providing More Than Just Money with Dharmesh Raithatha, Partner @ Forward Partners
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