The Exchanges

Q Dilip, uh, can you share, you know, in these sectors, uh, which are your various investments? At least the well-known ones.

A Yeah, I mean, I, I can tell you a few ones. I think it's not a, not a surprise. I mean, it's not a, I think, uh, uh, that the few investments which I have in, in, uh, B to B SaaS are what makes, uh, Sainz, Uh, I have, uh, BGP commerce in Nooblix. I have an investment in the Yellow Messenger. Um, last year I did the investments, uh, with Tredgenix. Um, and, uh, and of course I also like a little bit of content and try to take a tour with Pepper content. Um, and a lot of them, uh, which are there, I mean, there's a lot of traction which is happening also on the sales fund with GTM body. And those are the few of the investments that I have. On, On the, on the consumer side, I, I think, uh, I started a little bit late. I mean, I have my first investments with Babel Street, uh, and, and the second one with a bit of fly, which is, uh, more targeted towards, uh, nutrition and, and, and right kind of health, uh, I think, uh, these are the few investments that I have.

AI assessment note: “I have an investment in the Yellow Messenger. Um, last year I did the investments”

Q Dilip, and how have you seen, you know, uh, from 2015, when you became active in the ecosystem to now, how had your perspective changed?

A I mean, for me, um, the initial part was, uh, all about learning because, uh, I, I, I, to be honest, in the beginning, I didn't know how this thing works and operates. Uh, so I think learning, uh, and meeting more and more people and founders was critical. Uh, just to understand how does this whole thing works, whether it is raising it with funds, whether it is, what does it make, uh, for a beginning to happen? What does it take to, to scale up this stuff? Uh, why the, why there is a huge amount of importance being given to the founding team, how the camaraderie exists, um, uh, what are the exposures that are required in a particular sector, uh, to make them successful and all those things. So I think for me, it was, me, she, in part, was all about trying to find out what are the common patterns and the common learning out of it. And that's why if you look at it in the first three years, Um, I kept my investments very, very limited, although I still kept on meeting new people. Um, uh, but in the last couple of years, I mean, I focused, I mean, I, I, I feel that I have a little bit of, little bit of understanding now. Um, uh, I understand the common challenges and the patterns that exist, uh, and that makes it a lot more easier for you to decide on, on the investments as well as helping the companies. In the right ways. So I typically tend to now go between eight to 10 investmen…

AI assessment note: “in the first three years, Um, I kept my investments very, very limited”

Q And then what's, what's your framework around exiting these businesses, right? You, you come in as an angel investor, right? How long?

A It's a, it's a very, very good question. Uh, I, I think, I mean, I don't know whether I'm right or wrong in this stuff because there is nothing right or wrong in this stuff, but I tend to believe that if you come as an, it's an angel or, uh, in the seed round, um, it is a little bit different than you come at, Uh, at A and B and even as an angel or whatever you call. Uh, I think if you're coming at, uh, whatever, uh, angel round or a seat round, I think the right, uh, size for you to exit, I, I generally feel it is between whatever, one 50 to 200 to two fifty million. Um, so I think, uh, uh, rather than waiting for longer period of time, I have to believe in That, uh, if you, if you come to the size and the scale, maybe you have an opportunity to exit as well, uh, rather than waiting for a longer period of time. And of course, if you formally believe in some of the things, you can always keep it just generally as a proposal. I mean, let's say you try to keep and try to exit. If you've made an early investments, you can, you can try to exit when the company size is between

AI assessment note: “the right, uh, size for you to exit, I, I generally feel it is between whatever, one 50 to 200”

Q And, uh, for the sectors, especially like B to B SaaS and consumer where you are interested in, what are the trends that, you know, you think will happen in the next 10 years that, uh, you know, you are getting more involved in this ecosystem day by day?

A I think, uh, see, I think, uh, I always categorize, I mean, it's important that you, when you have a very, very sectorial focus or, or the, the, the area focus, you try to understand little bit more deeper. So I, I, if you look at, even in the, Uh, from the technology stack point of view, I always categorize this into, uh, uh, the companies which are getting built at, at IIS level, past level, and in SAS level. And I think what you're seeing, uh, still in India is, is almost, I mean, very, very few IIS. When I say IIS is, uh, Uh, the companies that are solving the problem at storage level, the network level, and the physical things, which are really the core of the infrastructure. What you start to see more and more is a lot of companies trying to solve, uh, the past problem, which is the API base. They create certain APIs, which can be exposed, and, and you make a learning out of it. Um, you start seeing a lot of things happening in that layer on DevOps, and, um, blue code, no code, and, All those features. You start to see a little bit more from India, and where India has largely been successful is at the top level, which is building those applications with SaaS layers and all those things. So what has changed in the last few years is, um, even in the past, it was predominantly SaaS. Now we start seeing a lot of companies which are building into the fast lane. So there is an …

AI assessment note: “What you start to see more and more is a lot of companies trying to solve”

Q Uh, so you mentioned a couple of points, right? Uh, the scale has to be across, uh, the organization. It's just not about go to market. So first time entrepreneurs usually just, uh, what I have observed typically end up focusing more on the product or indexing on the product and then the other aspects. So is that a limitation that you see?

A Uh, I mean, I mean, And focusing on the product, that's where I always feel. The problem always comes in is, making the product scalable is different than adding features on the products. And that's why I'm always careful. It's, that's why I made the sentence very clear that, ah, the, the initial section, the initial part of the product needs to be very, very focused. You, in order to blow yourself up, you will always come across a requirement from different customers to, To add more features and you can easily divert it to becoming a much more complex thing rather than solving the problem that you're trying to solve. So you need to also start saying no in certain aspects and rather focus on what you're trying to believe and building. So I think that, that focus is extremely clear and important that what is your scope in the beginning to make you a success and really get the product market fit in the right way. Um, then Um, before being successful and rather making it much larger. So I think that topic is extremely key. And in that topic, uh, once you start getting a success on, on the product market field, how do you make sure that this product is rightly scalable? It means the security requirements, it means, ah, the, the, can it be scalable to tens of thousands of users? Um, will it be an issue if it Can it be applied in multiple countries together? All those things needs to…

AI assessment note: “making the product scalable is different than adding features on the products”

Q So you have seen a scale, you know, uh, where you mentioned that you took, uh, uh, SAP, the division you were leading from twenty million, uh, dollars of revenue to one billion dollars of revenue. How are you able to help your portfolio companies, the same B to B SaaS to go from zero to one million error and then from one to ten million error?

A I think, I think it is, um, to be honest, Siddharth, it is all about the scaling. You need to understand it is not just a good market issue. Um, when you, when you talk about scaling, It has to work in tandem across all the different, uh, areas that is existing inside the firm. Uh, when I say this, what I mean is whether all your software is able to scale. Uh, because it's software, it's very different when you want to give it for two people or two companies, and then you want to give for mass. Um, and when I mean by readiness, it is also got to do with what kind of quality standards you have. Ah, what kind of, ah, flexibility, agility, and scalability, which can you can bring on the table. So one is on the, on the pure software and the development side, whether the product itself will be able to scale and mature, and, and you don't run into an issue of, ah, once the product is ready, and then you run into large, but that's the thing. Because you can, you can keep on selling, ah, but if your product is not right, even if you have a large numbers, I tell you, ah, You will use it very, very fast. The second aspect is extremely important is, is the whole customer success, or, or, ah, once you get the customers, I think you should be brutally honest, ah, in terms of not using them. Because it's so difficult to get the customer in the beginning, and you need to put all the right mec…

AI assessment note: “one is on the, on the pure software... second aspect... is the whole customer success”

Q So Dilip, uh, you come from a very traditional background. You know, you were ex-managing director for SAP Labs India and ex-president for HANA Enterprise Cloud. What, what urged you, you know, to, to, uh, take a step forward in the startup ecosystem?

A Yeah, I think Siddharth, it's a, it's a very, very good question because, uh, just from a background, I come from, Uh, traditional, uh, Rajasthani, uh, business family. Um, and we've been there in Bombay for both for seven to eight years, uh, doing business in, in, uh, sweets and dry foods and, and those kind of stuff, which, you know, I mean, one of the things which I, uh, uh, when I was growing up, uh, which was interesting was we used to grow the business, but, uh, you were not able to, um, scale, uh, In an autistic way, which you always would tell, right? I mean, uh, in a traditional way, you always require, uh, let's say an appropriate amount of capital, appropriate amount of resources to do this. So I think scaling was a big issue, uh, without having too much of invested capital in. I think that was the reason why I, I, I decided to make a jump and go on to a little bit on the corporate side, um, of learning how the scale happens in, in this large firm and large companies. And end up being very lucky, ended up being, uh, at SAP. Um, and, uh, I spent close to 19 years at, at SAP. Uh, and I think the predominant objective, even at SAP, was before SSHQ before, when it was all about, how do you learn the art of scaling? How do you, uh, scale the business from, from a small, uh, uh, a small venture or a small, uh, idea and, and try That's why, uh, I, I try to learn and move to…

AI assessment note: “I decided to make a jump and go on to a little bit on the corporate side”

Q And, uh, uh, you mentioned, you know, the, that size. Have you taken any exits? Because many of your companies today are at that size.

A I mean, I did couple of them. Um, so, I mean, few of them I have always kept it, uh, for, for longer, but I think, uh, but generally that would be my approach as I even go forward and stuff because, uh, I want to keep on exiting, uh, because I think generally what I've learned and also seen as a part of my, My analysis when I did for five years in meeting founders, and it's not just founders you meet, you're meeting also a lot of people who are angel investors, and a lot of people, even in the VC world, who have done a lot of their past investments, and I think one of the biggest things, uh, it is all about exit at the right place, at the right time, in the sense of, so you need to also see a success. It's not about investing alone, but also having the right exits, and an equal amount of exits, so, um, so that's why I learned out of it, and I tried to follow. I followed it in my couple of investments, Um, but, uh, but that's the general approach I will follow. Of course, I'll try to keep you where I feel it is, uh, is, is, it can give you a large upside, but also helps the company a large advantage. For me, more important is that I do this, um, angel investing because it's also, because that's what I love, uh, money and the monetary part becomes secondary in a certain way because, uh, in a certain way you're privileged to, to lead some life and you can invest, Generally well of…

AI assessment note: “I mean, I did couple of them.”

Q And, and in this approach, you know, uh, have you seen the same observations while you were scaling, uh, the SAP business?

A It's always, I mean, it's a lot more easier because I think large companies have, uh, a little bit more manpower and, uh, capability and all those things. But I think, uh, the right question there is always what is the focus. Uh, and, and you can keep that focus. It's, do you see this also in the large firms, right? I mean, you try to do too many things and, um, and, and you don't just attempt to differ, um, uh, let's say, uh, and not do anything right in the right way. So I think, uh, that's a learning you can even extract this out of, uh, through a past exposure. It's very, very common. And, and that you can apply this in the startup world as well.

AI assessment note: “that's a learning you can even extract this out of through a past exposure”