venture capital

also referred to as: vc · vc industry · vcs · venture capital industry

130 statements across 83 episodes · 18 bullish · 45 bearish · 82 people on the record · first statement Aug 14, 2019 by Ajay Hattangdi · across every show →

Everything said about venture capital, oldest first

Aug 14, 2019 bearish
Insight
Hattangdi: Startups with unproven, emerging models should not be leveraged with debt
“Sometimes VCs do want to play, ah, in, in, in spaces where they have to explore certain models which are emerging, ah, but there is still some time to go before those models are approved, and, you know, that's not a risk that should be, ah, leveraged, in my op…”
Ajay Hattangdi Aug 14, 2019 ▶ 21:17 100xEntrepreneur| Episode 22 | Ajay Hattangdi Managing Partner and Co-founder of Alteria Capital
Aug 16, 2019
Insight
Reddy: VC effort skews heavily toward struggling founders rather than winners
“The guys who need you the most are the ones who are lagging behind for whatever reason, right? Either they're selling a tough sell or they're not able to raise money. So how's, you're not actually even the mean or the average of all of these. You're actually s…”
Karthik Reddy Aug 16, 2019 ▶ 1:14:45 100xEntrepreneur | Episode 14 | Karthik Reddy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures
Aug 16, 2019 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Reddy: VC herd mentality will not disappear due to follow-on dynamics
“So, I don't think the herd mentality is going away, right? Because effectively, It's led by how you think the next check writer is going to think. Right? And which automatically means by then the herd mentality is forming.”
Karthik Reddy Aug 16, 2019 ▶ 27:32 100xEntrepreneur | Episode 14 | Karthik Reddy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures
Aug 19, 2019 neutral
Insight
Mittal: VCs Do Not Solve Problems, Only Back Problem Solvers
“As VCs, we are not really solving the problems. We are backing problem solvers, right? And so the only problem we are solving is how to pick the right entrepreneur.”
Alok Mittal Aug 19, 2019 ▶ 14:55 100x Entrepreneur | Episode 11 | Alok Mittal, Founder Indifi & Angel Investor
Sep 8, 2019 neutral
Opinion
Sonpal: VC seed entry does not crowd out angel investors
“While the VCs are obviously interested in coming at an earlier stage, the number of startups is not grossly limited. So angel investors can still, even today find a lot of startups which are at a very early stage and are optimum or ideal for angel invest to co…”
Hetal Sonpal Sep 8, 2019 ▶ 15:01 100x Entrepreneur | Episode 9 | Hetal Sonpal, Angel Investor in 20+ Startups
Sep 14, 2019
Insight
Singh: Startups should look beyond VC to debt, vendors, and customers
“See, because it's also not right to believe that the only sources of capital are, is venture capital and equity, right? There are many other sources of capital in this world. You know, there's debt, there is your vendors, there are your, you know, your custome…”
Sarbvir Singh Sep 14, 2019 ▶ 40:11 The most common mistakes founders make ? w/ Sarbvir Singh, Waterbridge Ventures
Sep 19, 2019 neutral
Insight
Singh: Entrepreneurs should grow on their own steam and avoid unnecessary VC
“A lot of times, you know, we meet entrepreneurs where our advice is don't raise VC money. I mean, you have a great business, you have a great idea, you're doing well, actually manage to grow it on your own steam. Go to an investor only when you truly believe t…”
Kanwaljit Singh Sep 19, 2019 ▶ 42:02 What is Founder DNA? Exaplains MamaEarth, Boat, Licious Investor, Kanwaljit Singh, Fireside Ventures
Feb 14, 2020 bearish
Opinion
Verma: Decacorns relying only on capital as a moat will not endure
“I think there are a lot of crappy companies out there, if you ask me. They just, they all position themselves as decacons and there are no moats in their business other than capital is the competitive advantage. The day that goes away, they're not building a g…”
Sameer Brij Verma Feb 14, 2020 ▶ 52:56 Episode 50 | Sameer Brij Verma, Nexus Venture Partners
Feb 19, 2020
Insight
Aggarwal: Venture capital feedback loops take 10 years to evaluate skill versus luck
“Unlike a company where you get quarterly feedback on how you are doing in venture investing, especially early stage or scale up investing, the feedback loop is very long. You only get to know after 10 years. Whether you did right or wrong, and sometimes it cou…”
Sanjeev Aggarwal Feb 19, 2020 ▶ 31:08 Sanjeev Aggarwal on 700 Crore IBM Exit and founding Helion & Fundamentum VC
Feb 24, 2020 neutral
Insight
Mohapatra: Venture capital kills more startups than it helps survive
“So if you think about hundred companies that get venture funded, I think maybe 10 survive. And I'm speaking anecdotally here, but I think venture capital leads to a lot more startup death than it leads to startup survival, and that is what the model is optimiz…”
Hemant Mohapatra Feb 24, 2020 ▶ 13:08 Episode 53 | Hemant Mohapatra, Partner, Lightspeed India Partners
Mar 2, 2020
Insight
Why former operators who become VCs must stop thinking like operators
“The role of a VC is the full stop button for even an operator to stop thinking like an operator. And as long as you have the, Empathy to actually think like a founder you can overcome any handicap”
Rahul Chandra Mar 2, 2020 ▶ 38:16 Episode 54 | Rahul Chandra, Managing Director, Unitary Helion Fund
Mar 2, 2020 neutral
Insight
Rahul Chandra says VCs are as clueless as anyone else
“When you actually talk to A VC I think the point I wanted to bring out was they are probably as clueless as anybody else. You know, it's not like you know, they have a crystal ball. They're trying to decipher and learn with you and also take you know, a leap i…”
Rahul Chandra Mar 2, 2020 ▶ 2:13 Episode 54 | Rahul Chandra, Managing Director, Unitary Helion Fund
Mar 29, 2020
Insight
Gulati: Investors are 10x more driven when deploying personal savings
“I learned very early on when you're putting personal checks and with money that you've really hard earned and it's not coming as a, you know, so-called business entity or something of those lines you're, 10 times more driven to actually make that company work.”
Mohit Gulati Mar 29, 2020 ▶ 3:31 Mohit Gulati, ITI Fund on why Hyper-investment is not a sure shot success for startups?
Mar 29, 2020 bearish
Opinion
Gulati: Very few venture fund managers successfully return capital to investors
“I think our space has been one of the biggest problems or challenges with our space is very few fund managers have actually been successful in giving back money.”
Mohit Gulati Mar 29, 2020 ▶ 7:39 Mohit Gulati, ITI Fund on why Hyper-investment is not a sure shot success for startups?
Apr 19, 2020 positive
Prediction Not checkable as stated
VCs will scrutinize capital needs instead of forcing minimum check sizes
“I think now VCs will ask the question very, hey, listen, what do you really need this money for, right? Okay, here's five million because we can't, earlier it was like, okay, you know, we can't deploy less than three million because that's our minimum check si…”
Sanjay Nath Apr 19, 2020 ▶ 30:31 Blume Ventures: Sanjay Nath on Post Covid-19 Scenario for Startups & Building Future of Work
Apr 19, 2020 bearish
Opinion
Nath: The era of the generalist venture capital investor is over
“You know, that the era of the generalist VC is over.”
Sanjay Nath Apr 19, 2020 ▶ 23:56 Blume Ventures: Sanjay Nath on Post Covid-19 Scenario for Startups & Building Future of Work
Apr 26, 2020 negative
Disclosure
Maheshwari: 75% of advisors warned me against joining Flipkart in 2009
“The VCs and advisors I had spoken to before joining Flipkart and 75% of them had advised against it believe that Indian consumers would probably not be able to trust online commerce.”
Mekin Maheshwari Apr 26, 2020 ▶ 23:44 Mekin Maheshwari on Impact of COVID-19 on Small & Medium Enterprises and Startups
May 3, 2020 positive
Insight
A VC's greatest value add is emotional companionship during difficult situations
“Entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey. And within that, if you can make some friends and you can talk to each other in a very informal fashion so that Any inhibition or difficult situation that the entrepreneur is facing, you're able to talk out as friends…”
Pankaj Makkar May 3, 2020 ▶ 15:33 Pankaj Makkar, Bertelsmann India Investments, on Investing in Growth Stage Startups
May 11, 2020 bullish
Prediction Held up
Gupta: VC Deal Volume Won't Drop by Half in 9 Months
“I'm not sure the, you know, in nine months time, we will be doing only half the deals that we did before. We'll be doing probably better than that.”
Deepak Gupta May 11, 2020 ▶ 27:59 Deepak Gupta, WEH Ventures on Impact of COVID19 on upcoming Investments & Startups
May 11, 2020 positive
Insight
Gupta: Investors Should Keep Deploying in Downturns Rather Than Withdrawing
“A downturn is not necessarily a crisis. So, if you can hold your conviction and invest, you should do that. It may be harder to invest at the same rate, and it's probably foolish to do that, but I don't think a complete withdrawal is something that I would pur…”
Deepak Gupta May 11, 2020 ▶ 6:54 Deepak Gupta, WEH Ventures on Impact of COVID19 on upcoming Investments & Startups
Jun 14, 2020
Insight
Non-founder venture capitalists struggle to empathize with startup challenges
“And largely without having been in founder shoes, it's very hard to actually empathize with founders all the challenges that people go through.”
Ganesh Rengaswamy Jun 14, 2020 ▶ 2:56 Ganesh Rengaswamy, Quona Capital, on the growth of Digital Lending and Neo Banking in India
Jul 19, 2020 neutral
Insight
Pai: Breaking into VC mid-career without existing relationships is much harder
“It's very hard for you to kind of get into a VC firm. I mean Without knowing some folks or without having created a brand for yourself especially if you are under, like, you know, late thirties, early forties someone like me who's been incorporated did not hav…”
Sajith Pai Jul 19, 2020 ▶ 4:19 Sajith Pai, Blume Ventures on building personal brands, being open-minded, and unlearning to succeed
Aug 3, 2020 negative
Assertion Partly supported
Mohnot: Majority of Shark Tank deals never actually close
“What they depict is not the reality of venture capital. And the majority of the companies that get funded on the show don't actually get funded, all sorts of issues.”
Sheel Mohnot Aug 3, 2020 ▶ 5:09 Sheel Mohnot, Better Tomorrow Ventures on his journey from Fintech Entrepreneur to Fintech VC
Aug 16, 2020 negative
Opinion
Sidana: Top-Down Market Sizing Is Incredibly Dangerous for Venture Capital Evaluation
“I think a top-down market size is an incredibly dangerous way to think about a market from a venture perspective.”
Ashmeet Sidana Aug 16, 2020 ▶ 26:45 Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital on Technical insights and building a fund for Engineers
Aug 16, 2020
Insight
Sidana: Successful Venture Investing Requires Being Physically Local With Founders
“Investing is a very local business. You really have to be local. You have to spend time in the market. You have to spend time with the entrepreneurs if you want to be a good investor.”
Ashmeet Sidana Aug 16, 2020 ▶ 19:14 Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital on Technical insights and building a fund for Engineers
Aug 16, 2020 negative
Opinion
Sidana: Most Silicon Valley VC Ignores Technical Roots for Market Insights
“I started engineering capital in 2015 because I noticed that even here in Silicon Valley, most of venture capital is actually focused on market insights or consumer insights. We had drifted away from our original roots, which of course was Silicon Valley.”
Ashmeet Sidana Aug 16, 2020 ▶ 2:42 Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital on Technical insights and building a fund for Engineers
Aug 16, 2020 neutral
Insight
Sidana: Winning in Venture Capital Resembles Competing for an Olympic Gold
“The analogy that I would make if you think about venture capital is like winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Let's say you want to run a hundred meters, and you're really good, and you come first in your school, and then you come first in your city, and then…”
Ashmeet Sidana Aug 16, 2020 ▶ 33:56 Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital on Technical insights and building a fund for Engineers
Aug 16, 2020 bearish
Assertion Contradicted
Sidana: The Average Venture Capital Firm Generates Flat or Negative Returns
“General belief is that the average venture capital firm has either zero or perhaps even negative returns net of fees. So as an asset class, venture capital on average Is not a profitable business.”
Ashmeet Sidana Aug 16, 2020 ▶ 34:50 Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital on Technical insights and building a fund for Engineers
Aug 24, 2020
Insight
Rajaram: Returning capital is an order of magnitude harder than investing it
“Giving our money is, is among the, among other things, easier to do because you're giving. Taking back is, is, is an order of magnitude harder, right? And then building A process to give and take, and then making it a cycle is where the core IP sits or the cor…”
Vishesh Rajaram Aug 24, 2020 ▶ 38:12 Vishesh Rajaram, Speciale Invest on investing in seed-stage deep tech startups
Aug 24, 2020 neutral
Insight
Rajaram: VC Strategies Must Be Repeatable and Relatable for Fund Managers
“Getting a strategy that makes money is different from getting a strategy that is relatable by you as a fund manager and repeatable by you as a fund manager.”
Vishesh Rajaram Aug 24, 2020 ▶ 31:10 Vishesh Rajaram, Speciale Invest on investing in seed-stage deep tech startups
Aug 30, 2020 positive
Insight
Gupta: Venture success requires cutting losers instead of funding weak links
“Second thing I would say also is that the key to success in venture funds is to not throw good money after bad. I mean, if things are not working, we just need to call it a day. And it's doesn't, it's not a reflection on the entrepreneur. It's just a reflectio…”
Naren Gupta Aug 30, 2020 ▶ 23:41 Naren Gupta on the journey of Nexus Venture Partners
Sep 28, 2020 neutral
Opinion
Ahluwalia: VCs are exceptionally particular about their personal branding podcast appearances
“So VCs when they invest in, in a personal branding endeavor, like, you know a part coming on as a guest on the podcast, they are very particular.”
Siddhartha Ahluwalia Sep 28, 2020 ▶ 15:00 Behind The Scenes: Making of Prime Ventures podcast & 100x Entrepreneur podcast with Amit Somani
Oct 19, 2020 negative
Insight
Mohan: Avoid anyone promising guaranteed angel investment exits
“So nobody, and if somebody tells you that he's going to guarantee you exits, I would tell the investor stay away from them because even a very good VC, very good investor does not know because there are other factors outside the company which help them succeed…”
Shanti Mohan Oct 19, 2020 ▶ 26:22 Shanti Mohan, Founder, LetsVenture on the rise of Angel Investing in India
Nov 9, 2020
Insight
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…”
Priya Mohan Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 23:32 Priya Mohan, Venture Highway on breaking the glass ceiling- being a woman leader in Venture Capital
Nov 9, 2020 positive
Insight
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.…”
Priya Mohan Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 42:36 Priya Mohan, Venture Highway on breaking the glass ceiling- being a woman leader in Venture Capital
Nov 9, 2020 neutral
Insight
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…”
Priya Mohan Nov 9, 2020 ▶ 23:15 Priya Mohan, Venture Highway on breaking the glass ceiling- being a woman leader in Venture Capital
Jan 4, 2021
Insight
Kumar: Raising VC without a proven US parallel is very difficult
“In a stage where nobody has ventured, it's very difficult to get the venture money because there is no parallel. Today, a lot of investment happened because there's a parallel in US or somewhere it has worked or in a similar market.”
Krishna Kumar Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 19:41 Inside the mind of Krishna Kumar, Founder, CropIn- the largest Agritech SaaS startup of India
Feb 1, 2021 neutral
Insight
Sakoda argues venture capital's main playbook over twenty years was bundling
“I think the venture capital industry over the course of the last 20 years went from being very small to being very big, and largely speaking, the most conventional playbook in venture has been to bundle. And I think over the last 20 years, many people have tri…”
Jon Sakoda Feb 1, 2021 ▶ 15:12 Jon Sakoda, Founder, Decibel Partners on importance of having a coach for early-stage founders
Apr 19, 2021 bullish
Insight
Winning modern VC means backing rocket ships regardless of entry valuation
“So I think the new playbook, in my opinion, where the depth is going to be very crazily deep is just whenever you find a rocket ship, whatever it takes, you get into that boat or you get into that rocket ship and ride it through. And that is what will matter m…”
Abhishek Goyal Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 24:56 Inside the mind of Abhishek Goyal, Co-Founder, Tracxn | 100x Entrepreneur Podcast | Top Podcast Ep
Apr 19, 2021 negative
Insight
Strict VC ownership minimums cause funds to miss out on 100x winners
“And that is why I believe that if you have minimum ownership requirement, and hence you will lose out on a winner because of that, then you are, even at hundred million pre, there is an upside potential of hundred x now, which was, which didn't exist in 10 yea…”
Abhishek Goyal Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 22:50 Inside the mind of Abhishek Goyal, Co-Founder, Tracxn | 100x Entrepreneur Podcast | Top Podcast Ep
May 31, 2021 negative
Opinion
Agarwal: VCs avoid risky new ideas to protect their LP returns
“And although it is being said in the general, in the VC industry that they love to take risk and love to put money behind the new ideas, but actually they don't. They all, they need to return money to their own investors, and they would like to take a bet on s…”
Amit Agarwal May 31, 2021 ▶ 16:03 Disrupting real estate market with Amit Agarwal, Founder, NoBroker | 100x Entrepreneur Podcast
Jul 12, 2021 neutral
Insight
Mittersain: Bootstrapping via slow profit accumulation is no longer the ideal strategy
“So I think strategies may need to change and just trying to run a profitable business today may not be good enough. If the opportunity to scale and create a massive business exists, it was you have investors who are willing to back you. And therefore I think w…”
Nitish Mittersain Jul 12, 2021 ▶ 12:58 Nazara Technologies founder on IPO and future of the Company @NazaraGames
Oct 4, 2021 bullish
Insight
Acharya: Existing investors doubling down provides the highest quality market signal
“But I think it's the highest quality signal if your existing investors are doubling down or tripling down on the same company. When the typical venture model is to have distribution across investments. And if there are folks on your cap table who want to conce…”
Amrit Acharya Oct 4, 2021 ▶ 43:03 Zetwerk founder on Pivoting, Funding and Building a Manufacturing Unicorn ft. Amrit Acharya
Nov 1, 2021
Insight
Venture capital is not a winner-take-all business due to power laws
“See, it's hard, ironically, VC itself is not a winner-take-all business, right, like, You will see funds at every stage and every sector succeed. Because finally the power law game means that, you know, even if one of your companies really, really works, you w…”
Kushal Bhagia Nov 1, 2021 ▶ 18:01 ​@firstcheque7252 CEO on Early Stage Investing and investments from founders ft. Kushal Bhagia
Nov 29, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bansal: Early-Stage VC Decision Timelines Dropped from Weeks to Days
“So at the early stage, I'm not sure we ever had a few months. It's just that it has gone from being a few weeks now to a few days.”
Anjali Bansal Nov 29, 2021 ▶ 23:39 Investing Lessons from Anjali Bansal, Founder, Avaana Capital and The next Decade in VC
Dec 28, 2021 bearish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pitti: VC money dried up in travel because funded startups failed to deliver returns
“See, eventually one day for, I can speak for my industry, my travel industry, the money has dried up. The VC money has dried up just because none of the players have successfully delivered the value. To the VCs, to the PEs, to the banks.”
Prashant Pitti Dec 28, 2021 ▶ 25:39 Bootstrap to IPO in 10 years ft. Prashant Pitti, founder EaseMyTrip
Dec 28, 2021
Disclosure
EaseMyTrip started with 5-10 lakh INR, never raised VC/PE/bank money
“We probably put in about five to 10 lakh rupees to start the business. And the business is still bootstrapped. In the last 13 years of running, we have never raised any money either from VC or PE or a bank.”
Prashant Pitti Dec 28, 2021 ▶ 6:28 Bootstrap to IPO in 10 years ft. Prashant Pitti, founder EaseMyTrip
Jan 10, 2022 negative
Insight
Singh: Overpromising growth to VCs forces founders into aggressive, harmful selling
“Even when I raise funding, I'm not, I don't want to offer the moon to the next investor. Hey, you know, we have from here. We can go here. We have just gotten started. This is because once I make that promise, what do I do next night? Next I have to sell, sell…”
Rajan Singh Jan 10, 2022 ▶ 26:45 Do THIS to BUILD Life Long Habits!
Mar 14, 2022 positive
Insight
Goel: Early founders should ignore market size and focus on problem depth
“I always advise people that don't worry about the market size. You know, I know every, every VC will say the other way around and they're right. They're not wrong. But I'm saying as an operator, when you're about to build a business, you should worry about how…”
Saahil Goel Mar 14, 2022 ▶ 46:19 How He Built A ₹7,000+ CRORE Logistics Tech Company! ft. Co-Founder of Shiprocket, Saahil Goel
Apr 18, 2022 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gill: D2C company revenue valuation multiples generally range between 4x and 8x
“I think that is pretty much set by the, you know, it's general in the industry. It could be anywhere between say four to Seven or eight X also, which is then based on how good the unit economics of the business are. Right. What is the potential of growth, righ…”
Aarti Gill Apr 18, 2022 ▶ 39:06 Building A 180 CRORE Women Nutrition Brand! ft. Aarti Gill, Co-Founder, OZiva
Apr 18, 2022 neutral
Insight
Gill: Private valuations are paper; true value is realized at listing
“I think in a, you know, because these are intermediate valuations, right? These are paper valuations. How much do they matter? I think your ultimate story comes in when you actually get listed, right? In general, I think that's the way to identify or say, for …”
Aarti Gill Apr 18, 2022 ▶ 39:40 Building A 180 CRORE Women Nutrition Brand! ft. Aarti Gill, Co-Founder, OZiva
Jun 21, 2022 neutral
Insight
Startups outgrow traditional venture capital upon reaching one billion dollars in sales
“The other more important reason that we did it is that we have reached a stage in our company at a billion dollars of sales. You need to now get strategics or you need to get piece because you at one point go out of this whole BC world because of the quantum o…”
Hari Menon Jun 21, 2022 ▶ 24:59 How He Built India’s Largest Online Grocery Store? Ft. Hari Menon, Ceo & Co-Founder, BigBasket
Jul 18, 2022
Insight
Venture capitalists need optimism to avoid misery given long feedback cycles
“If you're not optimistic in this business, you will get miserable because it's a long game. The feedback cycles are very long.”
Nitin Sharma Jul 18, 2022 ▶ 17:58 The BIGGEST Mistake Founders Make After Funding Ft. Rajiv Srivatsa & Nitin Sharma, Antler India
Jul 18, 2022 negative
Insight
Venture capital pressure forces founders to chase artificial growth prematurely
“We see expectations put a lot of pressure on that to artificially grow sometimes faster than the business or the customer need can be solved that. And so I think it's not just the founder's fault, frankly, it's investors play a big role in, in distorting that …”
Nitin Sharma Jul 18, 2022 ▶ 47:22 The BIGGEST Mistake Founders Make After Funding Ft. Rajiv Srivatsa & Nitin Sharma, Antler India
Aug 23, 2022 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sourcewiz's pre-product pitch deck featured a Notion log of 90 interviews
“And actually it helps, like it helped us in our early VC conversations. I had a slide where, and actually one of the VCs had given me this advice. We were pre-product, right? So we had a slide where I literally had a snapshot of that notion with like all of th…”
Divyanshu Makkar Aug 23, 2022 ▶ 1:11:11 How He Built India's #1 SaaS for Manufacturers? Ft. Divyaanshu Makkar, Co-Founder-Sourcewiz
Aug 23, 2022 negative
Insight
Makkar: VCs demanding five-year projections pre-product are unfit for seed stage
“Asking for projections for a pre-product company five years out. It's, yeah, it's, you know, I'm just going to do some art there. And I felt like, you know, that like almost all VCs, like no, 99% of the VCs didn't ask me for it only one or two hours. And I, th…”
Divyanshu Makkar Aug 23, 2022 ▶ 30:22 How He Built India's #1 SaaS for Manufacturers? Ft. Divyaanshu Makkar, Co-Founder-Sourcewiz
Aug 23, 2022 negative
Insight
Makkar: VC skills do not translate to early-stage startup operations
“The skills that you learn in VCs are not really applicable to what you will do as an entrepreneur. And that became very clear to me very quickly. It was clear to me when I did consulting because none of what I did as an entrepreneur You know, outside of like, …”
Divyanshu Makkar Aug 23, 2022 ▶ 8:33 How He Built India's #1 SaaS for Manufacturers? Ft. Divyaanshu Makkar, Co-Founder-Sourcewiz
Dec 19, 2022 neutral
Insight
Gupta: Building a meaningful startup takes 8 to 10 years
“This is the fact. No one can become two, four, five years.”
Akhil Gupta Dec 19, 2022 ▶ 32:49 Is India's Real Estate Industry Doomed? | NoBroker IITian Founder on The Neon Show
Apr 3, 2023 negative
Opinion
Radhakrishna: Typical MBA VCs Lack Operational Nuance for Investing
“What I would have liked is more people who have run real businesses to be VCs. Because there's a lot of nuances and nitty gritties that, you know, the typical MBA VC doesn't get. And even with 20 company experience, I think, you know, the nuances of running a …”
Aprameya Radhakrishna Apr 3, 2023 ▶ 40:40 From TaxiForSure to Koo: The Entrepreneurial Journey of Aprameya Radhakrishna
May 23, 2023 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ahluwalia: VCs rejected him for lacking McKinsey, top MBAs, or Kunal Shah's status
“VCs told me that you are not Kunal Shah or neither you are McKinsey nor you come from a top tier MBA college.”
Siddhartha Ahluwalia May 23, 2023 ▶ 3:12 Podcasting to Investing: Breakdown of Our Journey | 100x Entrepreneur
Jul 14, 2023 positive
Insight
Bikhchandani: IPOs and Profitability Grant Complete Independence From VC Agreements
“And to do that you your best independence from venture capital and p agreements is profits is profit and is going public because when you go public all vcp agreements fall away”
Sanjeev Bikhchandani Jul 14, 2023 ▶ 15:51 Sanjeev Bikhchandani on Finding Zomato & Taking the First Tech Company in India to IPO
Jul 28, 2023 negative
Insight
Singh: Building for VC trends is a mistake due to saturation
“What like in our own journey, we've seen that it's the biggest mistake is to try to build a business around what will be cool for a VC, because there is no way you can be the smartest person in the world, but to predict that, you know, at that time where, you …”
Vineeta Singh Jul 28, 2023 ▶ 31:26 Indian Beauty Standards, Marriage & Life Lessons | Vineeta Singh & Kaushik Mukherjee on Neon Show
Aug 25, 2023 negative
Opinion
Chopra: Founders Should Not Risk Homes When VCs Exist To Absorb Losses
“That's the job of VCs and LPs for which this amount of money is just dropping the ocean. Why would you put your own house on the line”
Paras Chopra Aug 25, 2023 ▶ 1:28:07 Wealth Creation, Life's Purpose, Brotherly Stories - Paras & Pallav on Building Global SaaS Products
Sep 22, 2023 bullish
Insight
Shenoy: VCs Should Push Portfolio Startups to List on Indian SME Exchanges
“My funda is, in fact, a VC should go and tell companies, please list on the SMA exchange. I will buy your shares on the SMA exchange. After that, if there is no liquidity, it will come one day. Your e-shops, your employees can sell on the, this thing exchange.”
Deepak Shenoy Sep 22, 2023 ▶ 1:12:15 Watch This BEFORE Renting Out Your Property In India! | SEBI Manager Deepak Shenoy on The Neon Show
Oct 6, 2023 neutral
Insight
Sudhakar: Startup capital availability strictly follows a recurring sine wave cycle
“People will suddenly throw in money after literally like there's no tomorrow, and then after five years, there'll be one huge scarcity for money. Then again, there'll be, after three years, there'll be again one huge glut. So I think it's a matter of, I think …”
V.S. Sudhakar Oct 6, 2023 ▶ 32:52 Did Jio SAVE India, Bharat's BIGGEST FLAWS & Helping Indian Farmers | BigBasket Founder on Neon Show
Nov 3, 2023
Insight
Lunia: VC partners doing 10 deals a year cannot maintain quality
“For 11 years, we've known that three, four deals a year per person. Is the ideal number to maintain discretion. The moment you start doing 10 deals a year, it's sort of you can't really maintain the same quality.”
Anand Lunia Nov 3, 2023 ▶ 21:58 The India Opportunity, Youth’s BIGGEST Problem & Future of Startups | India Quotient VC on Neon Show
Nov 3, 2023
Insight
Lunia: Venture capital exhibits a power law nested inside the power law
“So there's a power law about who succeeds, but within that power law, there's another power law. There's another power law. So out of your four winners, one winner will be outsized.”
Anand Lunia Nov 3, 2023 ▶ 17:35 The India Opportunity, Youth’s BIGGEST Problem & Future of Startups | India Quotient VC on Neon Show
Dec 6, 2023 negative
Insight
Suresh: Forcing 80–100% annual growth creates weak startup foundations
“But if you're going to make me grow this 80, a hundred percent year on year, I don't think it's possible. I think it just puts very wrong measures and we all face it, right? Every time we have to go raise capital and it is important. You have these weird like …”
Bhavna Suresh Dec 6, 2023 ▶ 36:56 India’s Spending Habits, ONDC, Building 10club & More I Bhavna Suresh I Neon Show
Jan 19, 2024
Insight
Fafaria: VC nimbleness is evolving thought to rationalize exceptions, not fast checks
“The nimbleness until the froth was there in 2021 was defined by how fast you can cut the check and land the money in my bank. I think nimbleness comes in the way we are able to evolve the thoughts and come to rationalizing an exception that you want to make be…”
Ashish Fafaria Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 1:14:27 Before Applying For A Venture Capital Job, Watch This Podcast! I Blume Ventures Partner I Neon Show
Jan 19, 2024
Insight
Fafaria: The core job of VC is making exceptions to your rules
“The other thing that I do try and remember, remind myself, and we do discuss during our leadership meetings and ICs is, ours is a job to make exceptions. You first make the rules, and then you make exceptions.”
Ashish Fafaria Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 1:12:30 Before Applying For A Venture Capital Job, Watch This Podcast! I Blume Ventures Partner I Neon Show
Jan 19, 2024 neutral
Insight
Fafadia: Venture capital is the highest level of intellectual sales
“You are in a job which is the highest level of intellectual sales.”
Ashish Fafaria Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 1:32:16 Before Applying For A Venture Capital Job, Watch This Podcast! I Blume Ventures Partner I Neon Show
Jan 19, 2024 negative
Insight
Fafadia: Entering VC with less than a 15-20 year horizon is wrong
“If you're looking at anything which is less than 15, 20 years, it's a wrong foot forward.”
Ashish Fafaria Jan 19, 2024 ▶ 1:24:08 Before Applying For A Venture Capital Job, Watch This Podcast! I Blume Ventures Partner I Neon Show
Mar 8, 2024 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Suhasini Sampath: Rivals with half Yoga Bar's revenue received higher valuations
“I remember that when we were raising, There were a couple of companies at half our revenue and two XR losses getting valued higher than us. Now it causes problems for both parties. No strategic is going to give you that kind of value.”
Suhasini Sampath Mar 8, 2024 ▶ 58:55 Building YogaBar to a 500 Cr and selling it to ITC ft Founder Suhasini S
Apr 13, 2024 neutral
Insight
Mayya: 10,000 audience comments provide better product guidance than VCs
“There's a difference when a VC tells me, Varun, this is how it is, and today, every day, like, 10,000 comments telling me what it is. Who do you believe? Because I'm building not for the VC. I'm building for this user... So the 10,000 people telling me what to…”
Varun Mayya Apr 13, 2024 ▶ 1:14:56 Dear Indians, Watch This Before Moving To America - Varun Mayya’s Brutally Honest Career Advice
May 17, 2024 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Sethi: 80% of Recent Venture Capital Will Go to Zero or Consolidate
“And I think people are, in my opinion, and what we're geared up for is that about 80% of the, that capital is gonna get into consolidated or zero.”
Arjun Sethi May 17, 2024 ▶ 49:04 VC MASTERCLASS - B2B SAAS, Quick Commerce, Peter Thiel And India’s Decade I Arjun Sethi I Neon Show
May 17, 2024 negative
Opinion
Sethi: Current Venture Capital Practices Are Archaic and Outdated
“What you see in venture today is it's pretty archaic and pretty old.”
Arjun Sethi May 17, 2024 ▶ 19:58 VC MASTERCLASS - B2B SAAS, Quick Commerce, Peter Thiel And India’s Decade I Arjun Sethi I Neon Show
May 27, 2024 negative
Opinion
Venture capital is not a path to getting rich in five years
“I think being a VC is not, not the path to become rich in five to six years. We have been doing it for the last five years and I don't think it has made us money, but we do it for the pure love of patience.”
Siddhartha (Siddharth) May 27, 2024 ▶ 17:54 Nansi Asks Siddhartha About Neon Fund 3, VC Career And Future Life Updates I Neon Show
Jun 12, 2024 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Raggl: Austrian and German family foundations are often restricted from venture investing
“A lot of families also own foundations in, in Austria and also in Germany, which is more about passively managing their wealth. And they also sometimes not even allowed to invest in venture.”
Laura Raggl Jun 12, 2024 ▶ 30:24 B2B SAAS Investors Discuss European And Indian Startup Ecosystems | ROI Ventures | Neon Show
Jun 14, 2024
Insight
Ganesh: Healthcare requires patient private equity, not venture capital
“So in my view, healthcare is a patient capital. Healthcare is long duration. Healthcare is not a rocket ship. Healthcare is grows, becomes steady, and then continue to provide dividends in that kind of an industry. And the kind of capital that needs to go afte…”
Meena Ganesh Jun 14, 2024 ▶ 9:41 She Sold Her Companies To ICICI & Pearson, Then Built Portea - Serving 1 Mil Patients In 40+ Cities
Jun 20, 2024 negative
Opinion
Batchu: People pursue VC for status and power, not helping founders
“It's a high status job. That's why they seek it. Right. And I think it's a lot of, Extrinsic motivation and reason as to why people want to be VCs not necessarily intrinsic motivation. I think they tell themselves, oh, like I want to help founders. But I think…”
Sri Batchu Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 30:08 Wealth Creation For Employees Explained By Sri Batchu (Ramp, Instacart, Opendoor) I The Neon Show
Jun 20, 2024 neutral
Insight
Batchu: Institutional VC requires a different skill set than angel investing
“The skill set of being a successful VC in terms of like pricing and winning the allocation, and also honestly building really high conviction to drive to a smaller, you know number of deals that you really want to win is a completely different skill set than b…”
Sri Batchu Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 48:20 Wealth Creation For Employees Explained By Sri Batchu (Ramp, Instacart, Opendoor) I The Neon Show
Jun 20, 2024 negative
Insight
Sri Batchu: Power law dynamics disincentivize VCs from helping struggling startups
“Because of the power law dynamic, unless you're A winner, a clear winner. They're actually not incentivized to work with you, which is the irony is like, okay, the person that needs the most help, they're least incentivized to help.”
Sri Batchu Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 1:03:07 Wealth Creation For Employees Explained By Sri Batchu (Ramp, Instacart, Opendoor) I The Neon Show
Jun 20, 2024
Insight
Batchu: Winning allocations, not finding top founders, differentiates VC firms
“It turns out that that's not the most differentiating element for investors. Like, you know, because of the parallel dynamics of the portfolio of VC investment, you just have to have a handful of really good companies. Right. And there's the founders, the 10, …”
Sri Batchu Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 19:01 Wealth Creation For Employees Explained By Sri Batchu (Ramp, Instacart, Opendoor) I The Neon Show
Jun 23, 2024 neutral
Opinion
Acharya: Predictable and Repeatable VC Exits in India Remain Unproven
“The things which I would say as a private market venture investor, which people are still have question marks on, is around liquidity and exits. So, of course, part, ah, limited partners who are investing money in India want to have a view of when they are goi…”
Shripati Acharya Jun 23, 2024 ▶ 4:26 Reverse Brain Drain, Reality Of Venture Capital And India’s Next 10 Year Explained By Top Indian VCs
Jun 23, 2024
Insight
Swami: It takes 10 to 12 years to evaluate a VC's skill
“In three years you can find out if you are a bad VC, but it takes 10 to 12 years to know if you are any good at it, and it takes 20 years to prove that you are consistently good at it”
Sanjay Swamy Jun 23, 2024 ▶ 39:34 Reverse Brain Drain, Reality Of Venture Capital And India’s Next 10 Year Explained By Top Indian VCs
Jun 23, 2024 negative
Opinion
Somani: Recent graduates should not enter venture capital without operating experience
“I don't think young people should get into VC, especially of the, you know, just coming out of IIT, can I come join, you know, Neon or Prime or whatever. Because I think, and certainly the way we practice the boutique art, right, form here at different, you kn…”
Amit Somani Jun 23, 2024 ▶ 40:16 Reverse Brain Drain, Reality Of Venture Capital And India’s Next 10 Year Explained By Top Indian VCs
Jun 23, 2024
Insight
Swami: VCs make money on winners but build reputations on failed startups
“So, there's a famous quote, I think you used to tell me, I don't know who you are spending it to, but you make your money on the winners, But you make your reputation on the ones that don't pan out, right? And so we end up, you know, it seemed like an expressi…”
Sanjay Swamy Jun 23, 2024 ▶ 1:00:41 Reverse Brain Drain, Reality Of Venture Capital And India’s Next 10 Year Explained By Top Indian VCs
Jul 5, 2024 neutral
Insight
Doddala: Venture performance has far wider quartile dispersion than private equity
“There's a lot of dispersion between the performance of top quartile and bottom quartile. Not so much dispersion in private equity, but in venture.”
Raja Doddala Jul 5, 2024 ▶ 13:54 2024 VC Updates, IPO Trends, And Fundraising Advice with Churchill’s Raja Doddala I Neon Show
Jul 20, 2024 neutral
Insight
Garg: VC investing has no checklist and relies ultimately on gut calls
“At the end of the day, there is no checklist for a VC. When you invest, when you don't invest, it's a gut call. So yeah, if the gut says no, don't invest.”
Nishit Garg Jul 20, 2024 ▶ 49:01 Flipkart’s Success Secrets, VC Power Law, And IPO Market : RTP Global Partner, Nishit Garg
Jul 20, 2024 positive
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Garg: VCs will rethink power-law models if profitable $300M–$400M IPOs succeed
“If there is a, you know, there is a series of outcomes of, you know, 305, four hundred million dollars of businesses which have been capital efficient, being profitable from early days and good IPOs. I think the VCs will also start thinking very differently fo…”
Nishit Garg Jul 20, 2024 ▶ 32:41 Flipkart’s Success Secrets, VC Power Law, And IPO Market : RTP Global Partner, Nishit Garg
Jul 20, 2024 negative
Insight
Garg: VCs cannot become great investors by playing popularity games
“I think you definitely, one of the biggest mistakes some VCs do is always be really nice to the founders and not tell them what the market realities are or what they're seeing out there. You know, you can't be, you know, be a great VC by being, by playing a po…”
Nishit Garg Jul 20, 2024 ▶ 45:32 Flipkart’s Success Secrets, VC Power Law, And IPO Market : RTP Global Partner, Nishit Garg
Sep 20, 2024 positive
Insight
Ferrari: Bending Spoons outsources finding product-market fit to VC investors
“We chose to build a Benny spoons in the way I mentioned so outsourcing, finding product market fit to the market. There's plenty of people looking to do that. Plenty of VCs and angel investors investing so that bets are made and rather Benny Spoon's coming in …”
Luca Ferrari Sep 20, 2024 ▶ 15:54 $2.5 Billion Tech Empire Built On Acquisitions, Efficiency, & Pure Ambition w/ Founder, Luca Ferrari
Sep 20, 2024 neutral
Insight
Ferrari: VC portfolio math reduces individual startup survival odds
“When you look at it on a portfolio basis, it might be the case that you're better off with each company, each bet going a hundred miles per hour, whatever decision that picked, And so that more will fail than if each had been more cautious, had kept optionalit…”
Luca Ferrari Sep 20, 2024 ▶ 41:29 $2.5 Billion Tech Empire Built On Acquisitions, Efficiency, & Pure Ambition w/ Founder, Luca Ferrari
Sep 28, 2024 neutral
Insight
Parekh: Passive VCs lose context on startups without continuous founder updates
“The problem that a VC has, he's anyway a passive investor. He doesn't know, can't learn your business well enough. And if you give him a quarterly update, by the time he figures out what your business is again, and refreshes his memory, that meeting is over. S…”
Vipul Parekh Sep 28, 2024 ▶ 25:08 BigBasket Co-founder on 10 Min Delivery, TATA Acquisition, Wealth Creation & More | Neon Show
Dec 13, 2024 bearish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wertz predicts 2021 and 2022 startup vintages will take longer to mature
“I think especially in everything that was invested in, in 21 and 22 will take even longer, right? Because most of the startups that got invested in, in that period of time were a little earlier, a little less mature given the hotness of the market.”
Boris Wertz Dec 13, 2024 ▶ 10:00 Why Top Global VCs Are Eyeing India | Boris Wertz | Version One Ventures | The Neon Show
Dec 13, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Historical data shows emerging managers' first and second funds generate top returns
“History has shown fund one and twos of lots of emerging managers have done exceptionally well and kind of created some of the best returns.”
Boris Wertz Dec 13, 2024 ▶ 33:11 Why Top Global VCs Are Eyeing India | Boris Wertz | Version One Ventures | The Neon Show
Dec 27, 2024 negative
Insight
Allebest: Founders are naive about the friction of forced VC exits
“I think people are a little bit Naive about the downsides of raising money. Ultimately your investors will want an exit and it may not be at the same time as you. And for a business that's as mission driven as chess.com is, it's, it has at times been irritatin…”
Erik Allebest Dec 27, 2024 ▶ 25:09 How Chess.com Founder Built A $150 Million ARR Empire With Zero VC Funding | Erik Allebest | Neon
Feb 14, 2025 neutral
Insight
Banglani: VCs Outside Founders' First-Choice List Face Severe Adverse Selection
“For entrepreneurs, it's a funnel. In the first reach out, you will not go to all the 30 odd funds that that exist in India. You will go to a list of five funds. If those five do not invest in you, then you go to the next list of 10 funds, and then you'll go to…”
Ritesh Banglani Feb 14, 2025 ▶ 8:51 $600M AUM, 44 Bets, and a 30x Return Unicorn: Stellaris Venture Partners on Picking Winners Early
Feb 14, 2025
Insight
Banglani: Venture capital returns depend on deal access before deal analysis
“Unlike many other asset areas, the one important thing in venture is that not everyone has equal access. I might be smart enough to recognize the next Zomato, But if the founder of the next Zomato is not coming to pitch to me, I'll make exactly zero dollars fr…”
Ritesh Banglani Feb 14, 2025 ▶ 4:20 $600M AUM, 44 Bets, and a 30x Return Unicorn: Stellaris Venture Partners on Picking Winners Early
Feb 14, 2025 neutral
Insight
Banglani: 100% deal coverage means no proprietary venture deal flow exists
“Nobody wants a hundred percent because that means there are no proprietary deals in the market, not for us, not for others. Just like we want we want to access certain entrepreneurs before they even start their fundraise. So do our peers and competitors. So a …”
Ritesh Banglani Feb 14, 2025 ▶ 8:16 $600M AUM, 44 Bets, and a 30x Return Unicorn: Stellaris Venture Partners on Picking Winners Early
Mar 21, 2025 bearish
Opinion
Bajaj: The first decade of Indian venture capital was a write-off
“Most of us VCs got started in 2006. I would say first decade was a write-off.”
Avnish Bajaj Mar 21, 2025 ▶ 20:46 10 Unicorns, 5 IPOs, 26 Acquisitions – India’s OG VC, Avnish Bajaj On Why Only Founders Matter
Mar 21, 2025 neutral
Insight
Bajaj: Maximizing deal coverage works in thin markets but fails in mature ones
“When the markets are thin, coverage is a good measure. So, including me, we used to go to IITs, we used to go to conferences, we used to speak at conferences, you know, honestly conferences, you get mobbed later, you are, you know, taking, giving out your card…”
Avnish Bajaj Mar 21, 2025 ▶ 24:47 10 Unicorns, 5 IPOs, 26 Acquisitions – India’s OG VC, Avnish Bajaj On Why Only Founders Matter
Mar 21, 2025 bullish
Insight
Bajaj: Almost everything in VC can be copied except reputation
“If you look at venture capital, if you look at most businesses, almost everything can be copied in no time. Reputation cannot. Reputation is a moat. Reputation compounds with time.”
Avnish Bajaj Mar 21, 2025 ▶ 8:43 10 Unicorns, 5 IPOs, 26 Acquisitions – India’s OG VC, Avnish Bajaj On Why Only Founders Matter
Mar 21, 2025 negative
Insight
Bajaj: Public market investors, not VCs, consistently generated returns in India
“Because investors know India and they have generally mixed to negative views because venture capital has had liquidity issues. Private equity has had high valuation issues. Actually the people who have consistently made money have made money in the public mark…”
Avnish Bajaj Mar 21, 2025 ▶ 39:57 10 Unicorns, 5 IPOs, 26 Acquisitions – India’s OG VC, Avnish Bajaj On Why Only Founders Matter
Apr 18, 2025 negative
Opinion
Investors dislike the CRM category because they doubt new companies can scale
“In the CRM is, is not a very you know very desired investment category. And there's so many companies which come in CRM space even today. And it is very hard for anybody to believe that any company can scale in CRM space or in generally customer relationship s…”
Nilesh Patel Apr 18, 2025 ▶ 10:07 $1Billion CRM From India Competing With Salesforce | Nilesh Patel, LeadSquared
May 16, 2025
Insight
Prabhakar: Pitch prospective LPs for the fund after next, not immediate fund
“Whenever you're talking to anybody in my own mind, I'm thinking that I'm pitching to this person, not for the next fund, but for the next to next fund. And if something converts in this fund, great, because you're not you're not selling a product. You're actua…”
Karthik Prabhakar May 16, 2025 ▶ 11:51 What's Happening To VC In India w/ All In Capital, Peer Capital & Upekkha
May 16, 2025
Insight
Bhagia: Half of VC is sales to founders and LPs
“We see, I think I feel half of it is a sales job. You're selling yourself to the founder when you're selling yourself to LPs that's a large part of your job.”
Kushal Bhagia May 16, 2025 ▶ 3:33 What's Happening To VC In India w/ All In Capital, Peer Capital & Upekkha
May 16, 2025 neutral
Insight
Bhagia: Mega-fund strategy inherently degenerates into a capital deployment problem
“I think one big disadvantage for the larger funds also that the bigger you become, right? Your fund strategy becomes a deployment problem. Cause how many, if you run a fine and million dollar fund. Even if I give somebody five million dollars, it's like one pe…”
Kushal Bhagia May 16, 2025 ▶ 38:25 What's Happening To VC In India w/ All In Capital, Peer Capital & Upekkha
May 30, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Most funded Indian startups had category benchmarks, whereas FinOps had none
“Majority of the companies which are getting funded, right? So these were also operating in in existing categories where you had, you know, some benchmarks and you had, you know, some reference points. But in our case, it was a new category which we're opening.…”
Saurya Prakash Sinha May 30, 2025 ▶ 28:32 Why Stripe Paid $150M For A Young Indian Startup | Saurya Prakash Sinha, Recko
Sep 30, 2025 negative
Insight
Sharma: Playing 'Yes Man' to VCs Causes Dangerous Strategic Drift
“I have seen a lot of founders who, when they are raising and they're talking to so many people, they play yes man to VCs. So they might have a different opinion, but they're like, okay, this person is 80% agreeing to what I'm saying. 20%, there's a conflict. C…”
Shikhil Sharma Sep 30, 2025 ▶ 31:46 How to Build a Startup in 2025? | Shikhil, Co-Founder Astra Security
Oct 22, 2025 negative
What-if
Toshniwal: Taking venture capital would have worsened financial outcomes for YML employees
“I think the outcome would have been, probably the personal outcome would have been worse for not just me, but also the people at YML.”
Ashish Toshniwal Oct 22, 2025 ▶ 36:35 How Ashish Toshniwal built a $350M Co after an email from Steve jobs | Ashish Toshniwal
Nov 4, 2025 negative
Insight
Bhushan: Investors must avoid operating portfolio companies alongside founders
“Eventually the founder is in the command of the ship. Right? And if there are more than one commanders, you will likely end up Having an accident, so you need to step away, but that's part of, like, my transitioning also to make sure that I'm not stepping into…”
Brij Bhushan Nov 4, 2025 ▶ 15:16 Why Finding Your ‘Rapido Bet’ and Surviving Your ‘Meesho Miss is the Best Job | Pratik & Brij
Nov 4, 2025
Insight
Bhushan: Portfolio failure is usually apparent within two to three years
“Failures are many a times very, Quickly apparent. Like, within two, three years, you will know, with reasonable confidence, and not so high confidence, that this is unlikely to be the blockbuster return company in your portfolio.”
Brij Bhushan Nov 4, 2025 ▶ 30:57 Why Finding Your ‘Rapido Bet’ and Surviving Your ‘Meesho Miss is the Best Job | Pratik & Brij
Nov 4, 2025
Opinion
Bhushan: Ten years is not enough time to evaluate a VC
“I think even 10 years is not enough to say that I have done as, done well as a VC.”
Brij Bhushan Nov 4, 2025 ▶ 32:58 Why Finding Your ‘Rapido Bet’ and Surviving Your ‘Meesho Miss is the Best Job | Pratik & Brij
Nov 12, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Aggarwal: VCs funded shift-left CSPM for the future before customers were ready
“We raised the money on that concept because VCs always want to invest in future. We realized that customers are not ready because they're already running their applications on cloud.”
Sachin Aggarwal Nov 12, 2025 ▶ 26:12 The Founder Who Mastered Timing Ft Sachin Aggarwal | StackGen
Nov 28, 2025 negative
Opinion
Zuora CIO: Non-VC-backed software startups are a procurement red flag
“If I come across a startup which is not backed by VCs, I typically, for me, it's a red flag. Typically, it's a red flag for me.”
Karthik Chakkarapani Nov 28, 2025 ▶ 31:16 3 Steps on How Large Companies Decide to Buy From a Startup or Not | CIO Karthik Chakkarapani
Dec 12, 2025 neutral
Assertion Supported
Kudva: India's venture capital industry emerged in the early 2000s
“And, you know, the whole VC industry, the availability of risk capital in the quantities that you see today was something that happened in the early 2000 or mid 2000, right? The first decade of the century.”
Roopa Kudva Dec 12, 2025 ▶ 20:07 For the CEOs of 2026, From One of India's Top Leaders | Roopa Kudva, Ex-CEO Crisil
Dec 30, 2025
Insight
Early-stage investing is backing founders who will succeed anyway
“So you see, you, the secret of early stage investing is actually to invest behind founders and teams and companies that are going to succeed anyway. Maybe we made two percent difference. But you've got to be humble enough, enough to recognize that.”
Sanjeev Bikhchandani Dec 30, 2025 ▶ 21:48 Best of 3500 Minutes from Top Founders & Investors in 2025
Mar 19, 2026 neutral
Insight
Agarwal: AI startups must prove they offer better returns than backing Anthropic
“And I've heard this in conversations where a VC would be like, do you, do I invest in startups, which is like a risky business and I'm still getting a 10 X return or do I just put my money in Anthropic and I'll just get a 10 X return without doing any work. So…”
Rohit Agarwal Mar 19, 2026 ▶ 43:52 Which AI Model are companies actually Paying For in 2026? | Rohit Agarwal, Portkey
Mar 26, 2026 positive
Insight
Sidana: Venture capitalists should break rules rather than make them
“I believe in venture capital, you shouldn't make rules. In fact, our job is to break the rules.”
Ashmeet Sidana Mar 26, 2026 ▶ 18:13 Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
Mar 26, 2026 bullish
Insight
Sidana: A well-run VC fund should pay carry within 10 years
“In a good business, in a well-run business, you should definitely get carry checks in less than 10 years.”
Ashmeet Sidana Mar 26, 2026 ▶ 58:19 Why Rule-Breaking Is the Only Rule in Venture Capital | Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital
Jun 11, 2026 negative
Disclosure
Saxena: Founders who cannot demo their own product are unfundable
“I will never back a founder who can't do a sales demo themselves. If you have to rely on your AE and SE to do a demo, I wouldn't, as a VC, I wouldn't fund you.”
Shashank Saxena Jun 11, 2026 ▶ 1:27:55 Questions Every Founder Must Answer Before Taking an Acquisition Offer | Shashank, VNDLY & Pantomath
Jul 17, 2026 neutral
Insight
Venture returns depend on company quality, exit ownership, and entry price
“In our business, I think three things matter in that order. I think number one, it's a parallel business. So you've got to be in the best companies. A few companies end up driving the returns, whether it's for your fund or for the industry, and you've got to b…”
Gaurav Jain Jul 17, 2026 ▶ 35:01 We Turned Pre-Seed Into a $10 Billion Category | Gaurav Jain, Afore Capital
Jul 17, 2026
Insight
Gaurav Jain: Venture capital is fundamentally a sales job
“In reality, it's really a sales job, right? You're selling people to take a meeting with you. You're selling people to take your money”
Gaurav Jain Jul 17, 2026 ▶ 17:40 We Turned Pre-Seed Into a $10 Billion Category | Gaurav Jain, Afore Capital
Jul 17, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Jain: Historically 70% of VC capital went directly to hiring engineers
“Historically, 70 cents of every dollar we would give as VCs to founders would go towards hiring engineers, right?”
Gaurav Jain Jul 17, 2026 ▶ 47:07 We Turned Pre-Seed Into a $10 Billion Category | Gaurav Jain, Afore Capital
Jul 17, 2026
Insight
Jain: The true constraint in startups is talent, not capital
“The constraint actually is not capital, as I've realized over time, there's a lot of money in this world. The constraint is talent. Right. There's a lot of people who want to start companies. So that's not the constraint. There's very few people that are reall…”
Gaurav Jain Jul 17, 2026 ▶ 18:32 We Turned Pre-Seed Into a $10 Billion Category | Gaurav Jain, Afore Capital
Jul 31, 2026 bearish
Disclosure
Krishnan: Prediction of a 10x AI-driven startup surge was wrong
“One prediction on way on which I, I'm just, I turned out to be wrong was I would have expected this kind of productivity gains to come all the way on the stack along the stack. Like I would have expected that, for example, the number of let's say good venture …”
Vijay Krishnan Jul 31, 2026 ▶ 38:37 The Man Training GPT, Gemini & Claude Reveals What's Coming Next | Vijay Krishnan, Turing
Aug 22, 2026 negative
Insight
Mehra: Raising VC too quickly traps founders in unconvincing ideas
“Sometimes that is actually much worse than the counterfactual. Because if I, let's say I start with an idea I'm not passionate about. And I don't think it's gonna work. But maybe like a big name VC comes and invests in that. Then there are two problems. One, I…”
Krishna Mehra Aug 22, 2026 ▶ 54:55 Slow Teams Lose PMF in 90 Days | Krishna M, Elevation Capital
Sep 10, 2026 negative
Insight
Sankar: Horizontal platforms are loved by VCs but pose horrible GTM challenges
“We were a horizontal platform, which was great. You know, VCs love it. It's actually a horrible go-to-market problem because you know, where do you start? It's about repeatability, right?”
Prukalpa Sankar Sep 10, 2026 ▶ 11:49 Why Startups Fails Even After Finding PMF | Prukalpa Sankar, Atlan
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