Sarbvir Singh, Managing Partner at Waterbridge Ventures, explains why structural capital concentration poses a bigger challenge to startups than market size.
“See what has happened in India, and I think it's a global phenomenon, not just in India that sometimes some industries get overwhelmed by too much capital. So one player is able to raise, you know, significant capital from one of the big guys, let's say soft bank or somebody, then what happens is that the rest of the players in the industry, even if they're doing a good job or whatever, basically just get overwhelmed. And if you happen to be in one of those players, it becomes a very difficult situation.”
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More from Sarbvir Singh
Opinion
Singh: Founders who neglect documentation often cause their own fundraising delays
“Many times people blame investors, but a lot of times I feel founders don't take the process very seriously. Whether you know, and I don't know exactly why, because I assume they want to get the capital in fast, but you know, you have to understand that there …”
Sarbvir SinghSep 14, 2019▶ 31:01The most common mistakes founders make ? w/ Sarbvir Singh, Waterbridge Ventures
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Singh: Large Indian VC funds vacated the early-stage seed market
“And we realized that this is actually a very big space and it has been vacated by some of the larger funds.”
Sarbvir SinghSep 14, 2019▶ 5:17The most common mistakes founders make ? w/ Sarbvir Singh, Waterbridge Ventures
Insight
Singh: Co-founders must have a shared history before partnering
“So I think it is very important that when you Decide to partner with someone and I'm sure whether as a founder or co-founder or anything else, you need to have some degree of history with the person because it's a difficult relationship. I mean, any partnershi…”
Sarbvir SinghSep 14, 2019▶ 6:33The most common mistakes founders make ? w/ Sarbvir Singh, Waterbridge Ventures
Disclosure
Waterbridge exited Unacademy with a 5x return and over 150% IRR
“Unacademy which was our first check, which we exited that position. With a very handsome return. It was five times our initial money or over a 150% IRR.”
Sarbvir SinghSep 14, 2019▶ 9:27The most common mistakes founders make ? w/ Sarbvir Singh, Waterbridge Ventures
AssertionSupported
India's $60B bus market dwarfs the $10B car ride-hailing market
“Chalo is doing exceptionally well, managing over 10, 12,000 buses already. A huge space in India. Buses are a sixty billion dollar market as opposed to, you know, cars, which Uber or Nola, which is like a ten billion dollar market.”
Sarbvir SinghSep 14, 2019▶ 10:28The most common mistakes founders make ? w/ Sarbvir Singh, Waterbridge Ventures
Disclosure
Waterbridge spends 70% of evaluation time assessing founders' motivations and capabilities
“We are a founders first fund. We're very clear on that. We spend, I would say, 60, 70% of our time in understanding the founders, their motivations, their ability to, you know, execute their suitability for the business that they are doing.”
Sarbvir SinghSep 14, 2019▶ 12:04The most common mistakes founders make ? w/ Sarbvir Singh, Waterbridge Ventures
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