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Manish Singhal

Founder, pi Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.

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Manish Singhal is the founder of pi Ventures, an early-stage fund investing in AI, IoT, and blockchain startups. He previously co-founded LetsVenture in 2013 and has backed companies such as FrontdeskAI, Wysa, and SigTuple.

13statements → 1claims → 0claims resolved → 4.08/5average certainty → 1.62/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 5said about them ↓

1 not checkable as stated how the 1 claim stands · each chip opens the sources

1 assertion · 1 opinion · 5 insights · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 1 claim: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Manish argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Manish Singhal on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Manish Singhal said on the Neon Show that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Singhal: The best founders do not need investor help; they pull it
“People who are really good, whom you want to back, don't need your help. Whatever help they need, they'll take it from you.”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 12:37 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Insight
Singhal: Impacting startups requires being a founder or investor, not a platform
“To make a deeper impact, especially for product startups, one has to be on either side of the table. Either you got to be an entrepreneur or an investor. As a platform, you sort of become the table, right?”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 5:16 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Insight
Singhal: Founders should test ideas by letting them simmer for 100 days
“So if you have an idea that I want to do this, right, as a startup, sit on it for a hundred days. Let it sort of simmer in your head. And if you feel so passionately about it, even after a hundred days, there is something in it, then go and follow it.”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 7:36 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Insight
Singhal: 'AI-First' startups solve problems impossible without AI
“There are, in AI, we divide our companies into two buckets. What we call as AI first companies and AI second companies. AI second companies are companies which have a solution without AI, and with AI, it gets many, many fold better. But AI first companies are …”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 14:38 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Insight
Singhal: Test AI startups by measuring the impact of removing AI
“And that is what is AI adding to the whole problem solution statement that you are trying to address? And how deeply does it address it? You know, and if I take out AI, what will the impact on that?”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 17:23 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Disclosure
Singhal: I have never read a single book on AI
“I have not read a single book on AI.”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 35:39 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Disclosure
Singhal: pi Ventures Fund I raised 225 crore INR with $1M checks
“In our first fund, we have raised two 25 crores, which is around thirty-three million dollars. We have done 10 investments. We are likely to do four to five more investments from this fund. We typically invest around a million dollar plus minus in the first ch…”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 17:55 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Disclosure
Singhal: pi Ventures evaluated 800 companies over three years, investing in 10
“Over three years we had seen around 800 companies, over three years. And we had invested in 10, right? On an average week these days, we see seven to 10 companies every week.”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 21:36 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Singhal: 70% of 800 evaluated startups had an AI component
“Out of those 800 companies, around 70% of the companies had AI component in them and 30% for others.”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 22:00 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Disclosure
Singhal: pi Ventures was the first investor in Niramai when others hesitated
“When we did Nirami investment, we were the first investor in, and because it was a very disruptive startup not many people, they were interested, but not coming sort of forward. So, but when we sort of said, okay, we are going to do this, right, then we saw so…”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 24:27 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Disclosure
Singhal: pi Ventures took 2.5 years and ~1,000 pitches to raise
“It has been the, probably the most challenging thing I have done in my career so far. I mean, building Slingbox was easier than fundraising for five inches. And in some way it has also changed me as a person in an irreversible fashion, right? You go through so…”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 30:27 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Disclosure
Singhal: pi Ventures gained fundraising momentum only after making first three investments
“In fact, the only way we got momentum in our fund raise is when we actually wrote the first three checks. So that time people got some confidence, okay, there is something in the market.”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 32:46 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures
Opinion
Singhal: Asking for help is stigmatized and underrated in India
“Most underrated or I think almost stigmatized concept in India is taking help and asking for help. We are not good at asking for help.”
Manish Singhal Feb 12, 2020 ▶ 37:50 Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures

The other half of the tape: Manish Singhal's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 5 times in 2 episodes on the Neon Show. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Nishith Rastogi 4Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1

Every mention by year

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2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2021 4 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Episode 51 | Manish Singhal, pi Ventures Feb 12, 2020 30m
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