Srikant Vasan, founder of Avesta Fund and former Techstars partner, explains his core heuristic on portfolio construction at seed stage.
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“But bottom line, I would say, is it's a different asset class than venture. You got to treat it differently. You've got to have many more shots on goal, and you have to be very vigilant about the basis, the cost at which you get in.”
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More from Srikant Vasan
Disclosure
Vasan: Any Avesta team member can halt diligence using an Andon cord
“We have this concept called anyone can pull the Andron card. This is a system that was developed in Toyota back in the Kanban days to say anyone on the shop floor, if they see something, say something and pull the card that'll stop the shop floor. And we do th…”
Srikant VasanAug 20, 2025▶ 8:16Early-Stage Climate Tech Investing: Insights from Avesta Fund on Building Impactful Portfolios
Disclosure
Vasan: Avesta designates a devil's advocate for every deal
“We have someone who's designated as a devil's advocate internally for every deal saying there's obviously someone who's pushing it because they're passionate about it, but someone else gets to say, how could this fail?”
Srikant VasanAug 20, 2025▶ 8:59Early-Stage Climate Tech Investing: Insights from Avesta Fund on Building Impactful Portfolios
Insight
Vasan: Startups should hold weekly all-hands meetings before Series B
“I'd say in a startup world, at least before, say, series B, you probably want to do weekly all hands, because things change a lot in a month.”
Srikant VasanAug 20, 2025▶ 17:21Early-Stage Climate Tech Investing: Insights from Avesta Fund on Building Impactful Portfolios
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Vasan: AI and crypto will reshape electrical grid needs for 20 years
“The electricity, the electric utilities are going through huge amounts of change, and especially with the waves of AI and crypto and so on, the needs that the grid has to be put through have fundamentally changed over the last five years, and will continue to …”
Srikant VasanAug 20, 2025▶ 23:26Early-Stage Climate Tech Investing: Insights from Avesta Fund on Building Impactful Portfolios
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Vasan: Scaling a new cement product requires several hundred million dollars
“A new form of cement will take, for instance, several hundred million before they, you know hit, hit any kind of scale.”
Srikant VasanAug 20, 2025▶ 25:50Early-Stage Climate Tech Investing: Insights from Avesta Fund on Building Impactful Portfolios
Disclosure
Vasan: Avesta Fund targets commercialization-ready, asset-light climate tech startups
“So we try to look for commercialization ready and light asset kind of models, if you will.”
Srikant VasanAug 20, 2025▶ 26:09Early-Stage Climate Tech Investing: Insights from Avesta Fund on Building Impactful Portfolios
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