Everything Priya Mohan said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Mohan: Vidyartha data revealed a massive gap between student aptitude and academics
“In Vidyartha, I had this massive data state by state to show how there's a huge gap between aptitude and academics, because kids are taught to score, right? But they're not taught to learn.”
Mohan: Venture Highway obtains board rights without always exercising them immediately
“A lot of these companies, we, you know we have board positions, but we choose to take it at an appropriate time. So we don't necessarily exercise the board position.”
Mohan: Venture investors cannot control outcomes, only their decision-making quality
“Essentially, this game I've realized is only the quality of decision making. You can't control the outcome, right? There's so many variables.”
Mohan: Confirmation bias is the biggest psychological trap in venture capital
“I think the biggest,
Bias, to be very frank with you is confirmation bias, right?
Like, ah, you know, the minute you think you like something about a deal, you're searching and seeking for information which is going to just agree upon the decision which you pe…”
Mohan: Early-stage venture skill lies in applying frameworks to heterogeneous founders
“What is interesting about this is you can at best create frameworks,
But when you apply them, it's applied on such heterogeneous data points, right?
You will never find two founders who are the same.
You will never find similar profiles.
You'll never find simi…”
Mohan: Great operators do not automatically make great venture capital investors
“If you think you're a good, ah, jockey, great, but don't think being a good jockey is going to automatically make you great at horse picking, right? Those are two different skills, and that's something I learned very quickly.”
Mohan: Breakout unicorns require conviction-based investment calls, not firm consensus
“Every big Decacon unicorn today is a regret for the VCs who are not in it, right? And if you've seen some of the best journeys, This comes back to the original point which I made in, in answer to your question as to how's the decision-making adventure highway.…”
Mohan: A founder's biggest challenge is working without traditional employment validation
“The biggest challenge being a founder is to be able to live without the typical validations that you get being employed”
Mohan: Venture Highway over-indexes on founders and welcomes business model pivots
“Especially at the stage that Venture Highway comes from, we literally over dial on the founder and the founding team, right, and we have some frameworks in our head as to how, ah, you know, about the whole founding team, how to think about it, and essentially …”
Mohan: Venture Highway uses 'startup sensei' titles to maintain flat structures
“We don't have kind of names in Venture Highway. We don't call ourselves partners. So Vijay, I'm just called a startup sensei. It just blew my mind when Sameer said, I'm not going to give you titles. It's because we really wanted to build a flat organization.”