Feb 14, 2020 · 1h 9m · neon-show
Episode 50 | Sameer Brij Verma, Nexus Venture Partners
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In Episode 50 of the 100x Entrepreneur Podcast, host Siddharth Ahluwalia interviews Sameer Brij Verma, Managing Partner at Nexus Venture Partners, who shares insights on high-conviction early-stage investing, incubating category leaders like Postman and Unacademy, and maintaining disciplined unit economics. Sameer critiques hyper-growth driven by venture subsidies, emphasizing the necessity of intellectual honesty, market timing, and enduring founder partnerships.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 3.3 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 1.1 Siddhartha pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 51:56 Sameer calls out value-destroying companies subsidized by venture slush funds
Sameer aggressively attacks market distortions, asserting that numerous overvalued startups lack genuine moats and rely solely on venture subsidies rather than viable economics.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 1:02:51 Siddharth challenges Sameer on Nexus portfolio companies being US-centricSiddharth repeatedly pushes Sameer on whether Nexus's major successful portfolio exits and companies are US-based rather than Indian domestic investments.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 41:59 Sameer schools Siddharth on market timing using the host's own past ventureSameer illustrates why secular market timing and value migration matter by breaking down why Siddharth's medical records startup in 2000 was premature relative to modern digital infrastructure.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 41:05 Siddharth asserts that defining future markets is subjective and non-obviousSiddharth demonstrates VC market insight by challenging Sameer's thesis, arguing that the largest market opportunities cannot be measured in the present because winning VCs anticipate unseen value.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sameer Brij Verma's Career Journey to Venture Capital | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks an introductory question regarding Sameer's career journey. Sameer delivers an extensive monologue covering his engineering background, telecom operational roles, Reliance Ventures, and transition to Nexus. | |
| Passion, Gratitude, and Embracing Delayed Gratification in VC | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks a reflective question about gratitude. Sameer speaks about delayed gratification, his deep passion for early-stage investing, and partnering with entrepreneurs through chaotic early stages. | |
| Overview of Key Investments Across US-India and Domestic Sectors | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth prompts Sameer to list key investments led at Nexus since 2012. Sameer categorizes his portfolio across cross-border enterprise tech and Indian domestic consumption. | |
| Investment Philosophy, Sourcing Discipline, and Fund Economics | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Siddharth questions whether leading two to three deals a year is slow. Sameer explains fund mechanics, partner capacity, and the necessity of high selectivity to return fund capital. | |
| Performance Highlights Across Nexus Funds and Portfolio Pillars | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Siddharth highlights the large $50M follow-on rounds raised by Postman and Unacademy. Sameer reframes by emphasizing that raising capital is merely external validation, pivoting to operational metrics and capital efficiency. | |
| The Rapid 48-Hour Unacademy Investment Decision | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Siddharth brings up the story of Sameer signing Unacademy within 48 hours. Sameer elaborates on high conviction, fast decision making, founder chemistry, and his rare loss of Freshdesk to Tiger. | |
| Thesis Behind Unacademy and the Indian Test-Prep Opportunity | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Siddharth queries the initial investment thesis, subscriber numbers, and market size. Sameer details the geography-access problem in test prep where 80% of students lack local access to coaching institutes. | |
| Discovering and Incubating Postman from Inception | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Siddharth assumes Nexus had more incubation time with Postman. Sameer directly corrects this narrative, explaining he convinced Abhinav not to take an acquisition offer and locked in a term sheet before an entity even existed. | |
| Three Core Investment Vectors and Founder Conviction | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Siddharth notes Sameer's aggressive conviction style and mentions Tiger and Tencent's blank term sheets. Sameer articulates his three-vector investment framework and defends Tiger's high-speed conviction model. | |
| Key Investment Mistakes: Rigidity and Corporate Mindsets | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Siddharth asks about past investment mistakes and probes whether Sameer saw market shifts before founders did. Sameer highlights intellectual rigidity and corporate executive mindsets as core failure patterns. | |
| Market Timing, Value Migration, and Capital Expectations | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | Siddharth challenges that future large markets are inherently invisible early on. Sameer responds with an analysis of value migration and cites Siddharth's own early-2000s medical records startup as a classic case of premature market timing. | |
| Maintaining Intellectual Honesty and Navigating Growth Capital | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Siddharth brings up the operational pressure placed on founders after raising massive $50M-$100M growth rounds. Sameer emphasizes the necessity of maintaining intellectual honesty and bringing in seasoned growth-stage board governance. | |
| 2019/2020 Market Outlook: Liquidity Hype versus Broken Unit Economics | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | Siddharth asks about potential 2019/2020 bubble risks and whether a 2008 crash could recur. Sameer delivers a fiery critique of vanity metrics, broken unit economics, and heavily subsidized startups masquerading as sustainable businesses. | |
| The Imperative for Real P&Ls Over Growth at All Costs | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | Siddharth probes why private tech companies delay IPOs and how consumer startups will survive without gross margins. Sameer critiques hyper-growth NASDAQ and mobility companies for relying on equity subsidies over resilient gross margins. | |
| Nexus Portfolio Depth, Capital Discipline, and Understated Culture | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Siddharth challenges Sameer on Nexus portfolio companies being perceived primarily as US-focused. Sameer clarifies their cross-border model, demonstrating how engineering and origination for firms like Druva and Aryaka remain firmly rooted in India. | |
| Nexus Cultural Pillars: Flat Hierarchy, Radical Openness, and Loyalty | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks about foundational principles learned from senior partners at Nexus. Sameer discusses the fund's non-hierarchical structure, radical transparency in feedback, and loyalty to founders during downturns. |
Statements from this episode (29)
Verma: Reliance Ventures Deployed $34M–$35M and Backed Paytm and Yatra
“We deployed about 34, thirty five million dollars in our life cycle as a fund, not too much. And fortunately for the vintage, when we started out, we did, we ended up doing quite well. Just given how venture works, we had we'd invested in PDM in oh seven, oh n…”
Verma: 85%–90% of Nexus Investments Are Pre-Revenue and Pre-Product
“Mostly, I would say 85 to 90% of my investments
at Nexus have been in pre-revenue, pre-product companies”
Verma: VC partners typically make six to eight investments over three years
“The way, way any of these funds are funds or any generally venture funds are structured is, you know, you would do, you, each partner would do about two to three investments every year. And, you know, And you do that for the, in every fund you would do about s…”
Verma: My investments have returned the entire fund in every fund I've joined
“Every, every fund that I've been a part of so far, my investments have kind of returned the capital of the entire fund.”
Verma: Reliance Ventures' Paytm investment returned the fund over 2x
“PTM you know, that was the top one returned the fund two times, and as far as Reliance was concerned, a little over that”
Verma: Nexus Fund IV looks likely to return over $350M
“We will, it looks very, very, very possible that we will return over three, fifty million dollars of capital from that.”
Verma: Nexus seeded Postman with its first $1M check
“They started off and out of our office in Bangalore. We seated there and wrote them the first million dollar check.”
Verma: Postman has 25% developer market share and 8M+ users
“You know, they have a 25% market share in the globally across the developer base, right? Eight plus million developers use their platform. 400,000 companies use their platform. Enterprises use their platform.”
Verma: Nexus was the first institutional investor in Unacademy
“We wrote the first Series A check to them, our first institutional investor there.”
Verma: Unacademy's revenue run rate exceeds total money spent
“And I think our revenue is much more than the amount of money spent so far in terms of run rate.”
Verma: Nexus signed Unacademy term sheet within 48 hours of meeting
“I met Gaurav for the first time on a Thursday, and I think we signed the term sheet on a Saturday. I think that's how it worked, right?”
Verma: Tiger Global outbid Nexus on Freshdesk Series A round
“Like Freshdesk is one. But I was outbid by Tiger to do the round at that point of time, and I just couldn't get the requisite conviction in the authorship to kind of step up on the valuation at the Series A level.”
Verma: 80% of Indian test prep aspirants lack local coaching access
“If you look at the coaching center market, right? If you think, think about it, 80% of the people in the coaching center market are in, in, in remote areas, right? They had to come to cities to study and there's no coaching centers there, right? So like, For t…”
Verma: Postman founder had a $1M–$2M buyout offer before raising VC
“He had a buyout offer from a company. At that point of time, which he was considering, which would have made him very rich. I mean rich. It's a relative term, but he would have made a couple, you know, one or two million dollars as a result for just a side pro…”
Verma: Nexus signed Postman term sheet before company was incorporated
“Without a investment committee meeting or whatever, I had another colleague of mine, Sandeep join in for that meeting and we didn't let him leave without signing up the term sheet. So pretty much, so we hold in and close on that term sheet then and there was, …”
Verma: Postman had 300K–400K developers before raising institutional capital
“There were early signs, even when I met him that, you know, they would, they had about 304 100,000 developers on their platform using this.”
Verma: Tiger Global's fast-conviction model is effective and profitable
“It's a good model. I think, you know, Tiger is a, you know, you have to respect them. I think, you know, I don't think they're crazy. I think they've You know, they're, they started out, I think in 2001, they raised 15 funds after that, if I'm not wrong, 15 or…”
Verma: Corporate executives struggle to build startups due to rigid thinking
“The other thing is that I think I'm also made mistakes where I've invested into people who are kind of Corporate executives. And you know, just thought that corporate executives could build startups. I think those are the things. It goes back to the same rigid…”
Verma: Indian e-commerce could not have scaled in 2007
“I don't think a company in e-commerce could have scaled as well. If it was in 2007 in India, it would have. There were early signs, you know, the yatras in the, and the make my trips were the early signs of transaction level booking, but the e-commerce came in…”
Verma: Underestimated how quickly Mobile Premier League would monetize
“Like in MPL, I didn't hear the founder story, but I thought that that would take a little bit more longer than what it was. There was a pent up need, but I didn't think that they would be able to monetize as fast as they have.”
Verma: Early-stage VCs tap out beyond multi-billion-dollar scale
“Because we as early stage investors also in some ways tap out in terms of understanding how a company, beyond, let's say a couple of billion dollars will go to the next.”
Verma: VC-subsidized customer growth in B2B will not convert to profits
“Otherwise there will be flare ups and blow ups because these companies can't raise money because they don't have an economic model. So there's a lot of subsidization of the customer, which is happening right now by burning through a lot of money. And that's no…”
Verma: Growth-stage venture investing will become very cautious by mid-2020
“I think on the growth stage side, again, it's going to become a little bit more cautious. I think that's going to, there's a sort of a lag time, I would say, but I think by May, June of next year, I think things will be very, very very cautious, I would say.”
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…”
Verma: Uber and Lyft lack resilient unit economic models
“In some of these businesses, whether you look at Uber, or you look at Lyft, or you look at some of the companies you've gone public, they don't have a unit economic model, which is very resilient. If you look at it, right, they don't have that.”
Verma: Most Indian unicorns would collapse without external funding
“If you take out, I think the unicorns in the country, if you take out the external funding today, I don't know how many people, how many of them will stand up on their feet. They can't. That to me is a big, big, big, big red flag.”
Verma: Nexus has returned far more than majority of Fund I capital
“Whether it's Pubmatic or Sadimac in fund one, and when we started out, those are, and we've already returned a majority of, much more than a majority of capital from that fund.”
Verma: Nexus manages $1.6B across 11 people as India's largest homegrown fund
“We have three people in the Bay Area right now, and we have four people in Mumbai, and four people in, in Bangalore. So it's an 11 member team, very small. We are India's largest homegrown fund, managing about a 1000000000.6.”