The Exchanges

Q And, uh, at India question, you work very differently than the funds you, you and Alan both have worked with. And like most of the large partners in India, there is no consensus, right, for making the first check. First check, uh, a partner can take a call themselves, as you have mentioned, and then the second check requires consensus. Can you share more about that? Yeah.

A So, so that, uh, when you're investing at very early stage, right? So in early stage, uh, There is not a lot of data based on which we can take a decision, right? So, so the decision is largely on Uh, knowing something which is very subjective, right? So which is very intangible, right? So, so for example, uh, you meet a, a team of two guys, right? And you know that this guy is exceptional because, because of a certain thing that you can't even explain, right? So you know that this guy is exceptional and he will, he has a very high capability with relate, uh, with relation to the business he's proposing, right? Now to be able to explain that to two more people or three more people and get them to, uh, Agree that that is the case and then invest that sometimes becomes tough, right? And if you don't do that investment, then you lose a very, uh, orthogonal kind of a opportunity, right? So therefore, as a rule, what we do at India question is that when you are investing for the first time, right? Uh, we largely go by the gut of the, the champion partner over there. So if I am basically leading a deal, And I am very sure about doing the deal. Right. Then my, my partners will, uh, identify and point me the risks, which are, which are visible at that point of time. Right. And I will look at those risks. And even after looking at those risks, I might take a call that. Okay. I still, I …

AI assessment note: “we largely go by the gut of the, the champion partner over there.”

Q You also have a personal bias for very large outcomes, right? Madhukar. So thereby, uh, when, when you enter Uh, uh, you know that many of the stuff will not work, right? Where does that thinking come from?

A I think that thinking comes from, uh, probably what is your, uh, goal in your life? What is your objective in your life? Right? So, so the reason, uh, uh, especially for me, uh, I'm interested in, uh, uh, something which is very, very scalable, right? So which is very large scale, right? So Siddharth, you have to understand that from the background where I come from, right? So I was an agri-engineer, right? Most of my peer group colleagues are in sales, right? So they, they are either selling seeds or tractors, or some of them moved and became professors, right? And then when I went to IIM, after IIM also, most of my colleagues are in, uh, in banking, finance, marketing, sales kind of stuff, right? So most of them are in the, Mainstream kind of a business, right? Uh, I've taken all, all these risks because, because, and I was working at Avishkar also, that was also great, a good salary. The fund was scaling. It was not like, it was a, it was not growing, right? And, and for me also career wise, it was a great thing, right? The reason for leaving Avishkar was very similar to the reason leaving Pradaan in, uh, I, I want, Things to Basically make a change, right? So it should do something remarkably big, right? So the outcome has to be very high, very, very big, right? The chances of that success, if it is low, I am fine with that, right? So I, I can live with a failure. I don't h…

AI assessment note: “that thinking comes from, uh, probably what is your, uh, goal in your life”

Q Madhukar would, would love to know your journey before India, where you grew up, your family background, right? Your education.

A Um, yeah, great. So I, I come from a, uh, uh, small town called Jamshedpur, uh, in Arkansas, uh, earlier, uh, and I did my schooling, et cetera, from Jamshedpur. Uh, Jamshedpur is a, uh, Little, ah, still sitting famous for the, ah, so almost all, ah, Are heavily dependent on data, and we have a very good ecosystem going over there. So, uh, good road, good power, etc. I grew up there, and, um, Shethpur is quite an engineer, so everyone over there, who, uh, everyone wants to become an engineer, and wants to go to an IIT. I also wanted to go to an IIT. So, uh, prepared for IIT, and obviously I was not able to get into IIT. Uh, in, in mid nineties, the number of seats in IITs were only 2000 seats. Uh, and then, uh, I went to study in Delhi, uh, uh, due to graduation. And by serendipity, I, uh, somehow ended up in agriculture. Uh, this was through, uh, Central, uh, Central entrance examination, which was being conducted, conducted, and I just happened to get that exam and, uh, and got a seat in, uh, Ludhiana Engineering College. So, joined over there. Uh, my family background, my father was, uh, engineer in, uh, two sisters, uh, Me, ah, we, like most other families, ah, we lived in Tata systems, Tata schools. I studied in a private school, but most people used to study in Tata schools. We had Tata schools also. Tata gave us, Tata has residential complexes, so we were in apartments …

AI assessment note: “I come from a, uh, uh, small town called Jamshedpur”

Q Uh, what are the companies that, uh, the, uh, four, five companies, uh, Madhukar, that, that have considerable valuation, at least, you know, if we want to measure today that you have banked?

A See, forget about valuation. I would say that, uh, let's talk about impact. Impact, right. So let's, let's look at it. So, you know, share chat, right? So share chat is pretty, pretty big, right? So it had, it has a few hundred million, few hundred million users, right? On a monthly basis, right? So they are pretty big. Valuation also, as wise, they are a unicorn. And then, uh, in my portfolio, you have companies like, I have a company called local, right? So, which is, uh, trying to digitize the regional newspaper, right? So the regional newspaper is a, Big, uh, big, uh, thing for people who live in smaller cities and towns, right? So they don't read your times of India or economic times, right? There is read their local newspaper in their local language, which carries, uh, very hyperlocal and, uh, local news, right? So that's a very, that's a massive opportunity, right? So, so, uh, I think I, I myself, I'm not able to imagine that what you can't do, right? So if once you have a certain level of penetration and once people are trusting you and using your content on those platforms, you can actually, there is nothing which you can't do, right? So you can do a lot of stuff over there, right? So most of the content related, advertising related, transaction related, e-commerce related stuff can be enabled on, on that platform. And And while today the time for that market looks lik…

AI assessment note: “forget about valuation. I would say that, uh, let's talk about impact.”