Pepperfry will benefit significantly post-COVID from the shift to online shopping
Pankaj Makkar · Pankaj Makkar, Bertelsmann India Investments, on Investing in Growth Stage Startups · May 3, 2020 · at 9:48
Pankaj Makkar of Bertelsmann India Investments discusses the pandemic's impact on portfolio companies like furniture marketplace Pepperfry in April 2020.
0:00 / 0:24exact quote · 24.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“We think that a company like Pepper Fry may end up Eventually benefiting significantly after this COVID episode is behind us. The reason of course is that it is part of an online trend where people will spend less time looking at offline options, but may go significantly towards online. And that would benefit companies like Pepper Fry.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Pankaj Makkar
A VC's greatest value add is emotional companionship during difficult situations
“Entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey. And within that, if you can make some friends and you can talk to each other in a very informal fashion so that Any inhibition or difficult situation that the entrepreneur is facing, you're able to talk out as friends…”
In 2013, no dedicated VC funds targeted Indian Series C or D
“What we did realize was there was a significant market in Series D and Series C stage, which at that time we called as a growth investing in a VC market.
And honestly, we did not find even a single dedicated fund which was focused on that market, and we decide…”
Bertelsmann targets hard-to-replicate operational capabilities over specific startup sectors
“The idea is not to be sector specific, but look at capabilities and understand if there are capabilities which are very difficult To replicate and that's what we call as a complex business. We like those businesses because we ourselves are in such business.”
Merging Saavn with Reliance was the best path against new strategic rivals
“After some time we did see a lot more strategic entering into the game as soon as they realized that this is a large market. And at that point we realized that the best bet we had to make sure that the company becomes fairly viable and sustainable is to join h…”
Growth investors must distinguish fundamental business drivers from paid marketing scale
“Make sure that you look at fundamental levers behind the growth of the companies versus artificial levers like using digital marketing to get scale.”
Startups must secure an 18 to 24 month runway during major crises
“You don't know how long this crisis will last. You don't know how the recovery will be. And hence having at best 18 to 24 month runway is needed in the business at this point. If you think that there are ways in which you can cut your costs delay some amount o…”