Mohan: A founder's biggest challenge is working without traditional employment validation
Priya Mohan · Priya Mohan, Venture Highway on breaking the glass ceiling- being a woman leader in Venture Capital · Nov 9, 2020 · at 35:47
Priya Mohan, Venture Partner at Venture Highway and former co-founder of Vidyartha, reflects on the psychological challenges of transitioning from traditional employment to founding a startup.
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“The biggest challenge being a founder is to be able to live without the typical validations that you get being employed”
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More from Priya Mohan
Mohan: Vidyartha data revealed a massive gap between student aptitude and academics
“In Vidyartha, I had this massive data state by state to show how there's a huge gap between aptitude and academics, because kids are taught to score, right? But they're not taught to learn.”
Mohan: Venture Highway obtains board rights without always exercising them immediately
“A lot of these companies, we, you know we have board positions, but we choose to take it at an appropriate time. So we don't necessarily exercise the board position.”
Mohan: Venture investors cannot control outcomes, only their decision-making quality
“Essentially, this game I've realized is only the quality of decision making. You can't control the outcome, right? There's so many variables.”
Mohan: Confirmation bias is the biggest psychological trap in venture capital
“I think the biggest,
Bias, to be very frank with you is confirmation bias, right?
Like, ah, you know, the minute you think you like something about a deal, you're searching and seeking for information which is going to just agree upon the decision which you pe…”
Mohan: Early-stage venture skill lies in applying frameworks to heterogeneous founders
“What is interesting about this is you can at best create frameworks,
But when you apply them, it's applied on such heterogeneous data points, right?
You will never find two founders who are the same.
You will never find similar profiles.
You'll never find simi…”
Mohan: Great operators do not automatically make great venture capital investors
“If you think you're a good, ah, jockey, great, but don't think being a good jockey is going to automatically make you great at horse picking, right? Those are two different skills, and that's something I learned very quickly.”