Hemant Mohapatra was not on this episode. A recording of them was played into it, so these
are their words but not an appearance on the Neon Show. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Hemant Mohapatra of Lightspeed India contrasts US venture investing dynamics with the operational requirements of serving Indian SME and logistics buyers.
“To win a market, software is not going to be the only thing that will work. We keep talking about, at least in logistics and SME, we talk about full stack solutions where you have to own the journey of the buyer because it's an unsophisticated buyer. If you throw a software over the fence, they will just not know what to do with it.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
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More from Hemant Mohapatra
Insight
Mohapatra: Venture capital kills more startups than it helps survive
“So if you think about hundred companies that get venture funded, I think maybe 10 survive. And I'm speaking anecdotally here, but I think venture capital leads to a lot more startup death than it leads to startup survival, and that is what the model is optimiz…”
Mohapatra: India lacks the experienced middle management layer found in US startups
“The middle layer is is where I think India lacks quite a lot, and the U.S. Is very, very, very, has a very, very thick middle layer, which is the VP and the directors, you know, especially in product sales and engineering. There are a lot many more Shelly Sand…”
Mohapatra: Top companies succeed through distribution engines rather than superior products
“Most of the best companies, best by that I mean, the most well-known companies don't always have the best product. They have the best engines to put the product in the hands of consumers, and iterating on that quickly to improve the product.”
Mohapatra: Investment theses should evolve from founder conversations, not top-down VC research
“My philosophy is that entrepreneurs will almost always, not almost, I think they will always and always know a lot more than you about the market and where the market is moving and where the white spaces are. So my preference there is to not think a lot about …”
Mohapatra: To Win and Profit, Operate 80% Gross Margin Businesses
“Ended up realizing, after spending six years there, ended up realizing that, you know, you have, if you want to win and make money, you have to be in a 80% gross margin, you know, business versus a 20% gross margin business, which is what chip design and chip …”
Mohapatra: Indian founders now build for global markets from day zero
“A lot of the founders now, they have evolved to think about world on a, the globe on a local scale, right? So, they think about, they used to think about India as the first market, now they think about India plus Southeast Asia as the first market, or they thi…”
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