Aug 15, 2019 · 1h 3m · neon-show
100xEntrepreneur | Episode 6 | Girish Shivani, Co-founder and Partner at Yournest Venture Fund
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of the 100xEntrepreneur podcast, YourNest Venture Fund co-founder Girish Shivani discusses the evolution of India's venture ecosystem, the fund's B2B and deep tech investment thesis, and the rigorous founder evaluation frameworks guiding their portfolio. He also shares candid insights into his personal journey, operational discipline, and practical advice for early-stage entrepreneurs.
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 2.8 Guest teaching 3.3 Guest disagreement 1.2 Siddhartha pushing back 0.5
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 54:40 Clarifying consumer investment stance
Girish firmly interrupts Siddhartha to correct his premise, clarifying that YourNest never had an outright ban on consumer deals and still reviews them regularly.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 1:01:46 Pushing beyond defensive savingsSiddhartha interrupts Girish to challenge whether his formula is merely defensive saving rather than a strategy to actively build and multiply personal wealth.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 17:26 Reframing VC delay in a buyer's marketGirish re-educates the host on how entrepreneurs should view investor delays, explaining that saying no is easy and keeping a deal in limbo is actually a sign of genuine interest.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 19:49 Challenging LP optimism against global benchmarksSiddhartha questions domestic LP bullishness by citing the scarcity of Indian mega-exits like Flipkart compared to developed startup ecosystems in the US and China.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Evolution of India's Early-Stage Ecosystem | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Siddhartha opens with a broad question on upsides and downsides of early-stage VC over seven years. Girish re-anchors the premise by stating there has been virtually all upside, walking through macro data points and ecosystem evolution from 2012 to 2019. | |
| Investment Thesis, Sector Focus, and Early Learnings | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha inquires about thesis validation and failed bets. Girish outlines the fund's deliberate concentration on enterprise B2B over consumer plays, noting specific past experiments in out-of-home analytics and video healthtech. | |
| Highlighting Major Portfolio Successes | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha asks about breakout portfolio companies and the key differentiators between 10x/50x performers and stalled ventures. Girish lists portfolio winners like Uniphore and Cove IoT, explaining that IP is necessary but not sufficient compared to founder alignment. | |
| Deal Screening Criteria and Responsiveness to Entrepreneurs | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Siddhartha asks about filtering criteria and investor ghosting/delaying tactics. Girish explains their negative screening rules and vigorously reframes investor delay, arguing that in a buyer's market, not getting an outright 'no' is a positive signal. | |
| Domestic LP Appetite and Asset Allocation Strategy | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Siddhartha pushes on why domestic LPs remain bullish despite India having fewer mega-exits like Flipkart compared to the US or China. Girish clarifies LP asset allocation dynamics, portfolio diversification, and the 5-10% surplus rule. | |
| Unanimous Due Diligence Process and Partner Dynamics | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddhartha asks about founder vetting and turnaround times. Girish details YourNest's unanimous 5-partner consensus model and bluntly disclaims being the people-evaluator expert, deferring entirely to his partner Sanjay's veto authority. | |
| Partner Synergies, Co-Investing, and Missed Deals | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddhartha asks about partner learnings, co-investors, and anti-portfolio deals. Girish shares the complementary skill sets across partners and details near-miss deals like Power2SME and LogiNext. | |
| Deep Tech, Hardware Focus, and Realistic Valuations | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddhartha drills into fund performance, 50x returns, M&A prospects, and potential bubble risks. Girish explains their aggressive hardware positioning, noting valuation froth has already cleared out rather than building up. | |
| Global Scaling, Founder Demographics, and Peer Funds | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | Siddhartha tests a binary dilemma between a 23-year-old and an experienced founder, and later brings up the myth of VC arrogance. Girish rejects the either/or framing, explaining that venture selection relies on complex AND conditions rather than singular attributes. | |
| Personal Journey, Career Discipline, and Daily Routine | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Siddhartha pivots to Girish's personal background, discipline, and daily routines. Girish lightly teases the MBA-style purpose question before giving an extensive account of his habit-driven schedule, reading discipline, and tech history from St. Stephens. | |
| Actionable Founder Advice, Wealth Rules, and Conclusion | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Siddhartha asserts that YourNest decided never to do consumer plays, which Girish immediately corrects. When Girish shares his core personal finance equation (Income - Savings = Expense), Siddhartha pushes back asking how to actively grow wealth. |
Statements from this episode (21)
Shivani: YourNest deal flow surged from 50 to nearly 1,000 quarterly opportunities
“When we started, we used to get about 50 opportunities every quarter to look at. Today we get close to a thousand, you know.”
Shivani: India's angel investor base exploded from 150 to nearly 4,000
“When we started, there were probably 120, 150 angel investors. At last count in India today, there were about 4000 angel investors.”
Shivani: India has around 40 pre-Series A tech venture funds
“We were, as I said, the third or the fourth fund in the country doing this. Today there are about, 40 of us who are actually doing pre-series A tech and tech investments.”
Shivani: Indian startup founder average age shifted from 24-25 to 31-32
“We've seen how this entire journey has moved from the average age of the entrepreneur moving from 24, 25 to 31, 32 today”
Shivani: India now has around 10 to 12 unicorn startups
“When we started, there were no unicorns. Today we have, you know, at last count about 10 or 12 of them in the country.”
Shivani: Only three of YourNest's 20 portfolio companies are pure consumer plays
“Out of the 20 companies we have across to come, to put two funds we have only three plays which are pure consumer plays.”
Shivani: Raising YourNest's first venture fund took 3.5 years
“It took us three and a half years to reach the first one.”
Shivani: YourNest condensed 174 diligence variables down to 10
“When we were starting to build out YourNest, we realized that there were about 174 variables that one had to look at to basically get to a go, no-go situation from an investment perspective. We then very quickly realized that 174 is not happening, so we kind o…”
Shivani: A leadership coach holds the only veto power on YourNest's IC
“Sanjay who's you know, who I told you was an executive coach and leadership development guy is the only guy who sits on the IC who has a veto power. So we will actually walk away from opportunities which Sanjay says are not, you know, people are not with banki…”
Shivani: YourNest rejects single founders, pre-revenue, and outsourced tech
“So for example, we don't do single founders. We don't do since we invest in technology, we don't invest in companies where technology is outsourced and there is no co-founder on the technology side. We don't do pre-revenue. We don't do brick and mortar. We don…”
Shivani: YourNest responded to all 17,000 pitch emails over seven years
“I would have seen about 17,000 opportunities in the last seven years. I would have responded to every one of them. I means my team, your nest would have responded to every one of them. That's the process we built.”
Shivani: Founders should view VC delays as genuine interest, not stringing along
“The fact that I am not saying no to you can, should be actually seen positively. Because, I can easily say no, you know. So, so therefore if I'm saying that, you know, we are interested, you know, get to a stage where we can, you know, relook at the opportunit…”
Shivani: YourNest Pitched 1,000 Prospects for 140 Fund 1 LPs
“When we started in 2012 I must have knocked a thousand doors to get the 140 investors that I got.”
Shivani: Second-time founders are always better because they learned from past mistakes
“Second time is always better because they have either become very successful, or they have learnt at somebody else's cost.”
Shivani: YourNest requires unanimous consensus among all five partners to invest
“So in our case, the entrepreneur has to meet actually all five of us and it is a unanimous decision to invest or not invest. It is not a democracy that we run, right? So if we agree to invest, then all of us have to agree to invest.”
Shivani: YourNest takes at least 12 weeks from initial outreach to fund disbursement
“From the day you write to us to a term sheet is anywhere between six to eight weeks, if not more. And from a term sheet to a dispersal is another 10 to 12 weeks, depending on what is your readiness on the, you know, from our due diligence perspective. So it's,…”
Shivani: Proprietary venture deal flow is largely a myth in India
“Our feeling is that proprietary deal flow is not a very large chunk in this country, which means everybody gets to see everything.”
Shivani: YourNest Passed on Power2SME's $2M Round
“Power to SME came to us through Inventus when Narayanan was raising, I think, a two million dollar round. But it was pre-revenue, you know, and you know, even though he was a second-time entrepreneur we were not sure how that model would scale up. And he was r…”
Shivani: Four of YourNest's Last Five Investments Included Hardware
“Four out of last five investments, we did have a hardware element. The two we are doing now also has a hardware element.”
Shivani: India's domestic B2B market is too shallow to build $20M+ businesses
“India from the B to B side is not such a deep market. It's very shallow, and therefore, if they have to build a 20, 30, forty million dollar opportunity, they will have no choice but to go out and explore beyond the Indian shores.”