First Cheque
fund on 1 show · 16 statements across 1 episodes · said 55 times in 3 episodes since 2021
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2021 55 mentions in 3 episodes 18 per episode
- @firstcheque7252 CEO on Early Stage Investing and investments from founders ft. Kushal Bhagia
- Investing in outliers with Madhukar Sinha, Founder, India Quotient | 100x Entrepreneur Podcast
- Journey of Reliance acquiring Fynd, with Founder, Farooq Adam | 100x Entrepreneur Podcast
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16 statements about First Cheque, every show
Only five of First Cheque's initial 100 portfolio companies have shut down
“About five companies are shut down already, and it's possible that I mean, we fully expect a lot more will, because at pre-seed, we are taking the highest class of risk.”
First Cheque will invest in competing startups if venture partners vouch
“If a venture partner knows the founder, then we'll still do the deal, even if it's a competing company, because as I said, we are investing at pre-seed, right? So the market and team is what is important to us, not the current product.”
First Cheque's Fund 1 check sizes averaged 50 lakh rupees with syndicates
“First fund itself was putting 10 lakh rupees in every company, but because of the angel list syndicate, we were doing anywhere from 25 lakh to 50 lakh. 50 lakh was the average check size in the first fund.”
First Cheque deploys an average check size of $100,000 per startup
“The average size right now we are doing is about a 100,000 dollars. So about for 75 lakhs is what we are deploying per company.”
First Cheque evaluates 300 to 500 startup investment deals per month
“Yes, I think, I would say we see three to five, 500 deals a month, roughly. 300 to 500 deals a month is what we see, so it's in the same ballpark as what you said.”
First Cheque invests almost blindly if a venture partner vouches for founders
“If the deal has come through a venture partner, and if the venture partner knows the founder, right, and is watching for the founder, then we will almost blindly invest. Then it doesn't even, like, as long as it's a VC fundable space, we'll go ahead and invest…”
Most pre-seed startup teams pivot away from their initial product idea
“Because most pre-seed investments, the team pivots after a while, they'll, you know, find adjacent ideas. They'll, they'll, they won't even be doing what you thought they'll be doing when you invest.”
First Cheque's breakout portfolio startups include GIVA, Fashinza, and Fleetx
“So I would say Jeeva. Jeeva is doing really, really well. It's a DTC silver jewelry brand. Fashions are doing really, really well. It's a BtoB marketplace for the fashion supply chain. Then FleetX is doing really well. It's a SaaS company which enables fleet o…”
First Cheque executes 30 to 40 startup investments per year
“First check as a fund will still do 30, 40 deals a year.”
First Cheque sources 70% of its deals through venture partners
“Effectively all hundred deals have been done with a VP, but I would say about 70% were sourced by them. 30% would have come from our network.”
First Cheque caps pre-product, first-time founder valuations at $2M to $3M
“Category A is first time founders. Younger folks, you know, free product deals where the risk is significantly higher. Those deals we don't do beyond two, three million evaluation. Three is also a bit on the higher side. Usually it's around two million.”
Pedigreed Indian founders raised 2021 seed rounds at $10M to $20M valuations
“Ah, but even then, what we see is that, like, a VC round, VC seed round is typically happening at, say, A one and a half to three million dollar raise was happening at a 10 to fifteen million, sometimes twenty million valuation. But people who only have this p…”
Over half of First Cheque deals are pre-product and pre-revenue
“Like at least half of them are pre-product. And almost all are pre-revenue.”
Almost half of First Cheque's first 100 investments raised follow-on funding
“If you look at the first score, the first 32 deals we did out of those 20 21 have raised follow on rounds now. If you look at our second cohort, which is the next sort of 3035 deals we did out of those 12 13 I've raised follow on rounds and out of the last coh…”
First Cheque backed almost 100 companies through its first fund
“We've backed almost a hundred companies now through the first fund.”
First Cheque launched in 2019 to co-invest alongside founder angels
“We decided, okay, let's, let's, you know, try and set up a fund which basically backs founder angels and then let those founder angels pick companies for the fund, and the fund will basically just invest with them wherever they do. So that is how India, that i…”