The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 12 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Bajaj: Z47 never joins competitive rounds, strictly choosing to preempt or pass
“We are never market participants. We are never participants in market rounds. Very, actually never. We are always, so we have this concept of P to P. Okay. There should be only two answers to a deal situation. Preempt or PWC, which is pass with conviction. The…”
Bajaj: Founders frequently lower their valuations to include Z47 in rounds
“Generally, we are not the highest price payers... Often what happens is our peer group is paying much more. And then we will tell the founder, we are not in at that price and believe it or not, the price actually comes down. It doesn't come to our price or it …”
Bajaj: Almost everything in VC can be copied except reputation
“If you look at venture capital, if you look at most businesses, almost everything can be copied in no time. Reputation cannot. Reputation is a moat. Reputation compounds with time.”
Bajaj: Rejecting great founders over market doubts causes our biggest misses
“Every time we have violated that principle, it's our anti-portfolio. Every time we have followed that principle, it's a great hit in our portfolio. So Ola, we didn't believe in the market. We believed in the founder. So we have a line internally when somebody …”
Bajaj: About half of Indian startups valued over $500M have experienced founders
“When you looked at fast forward to today, about 50%. So they are, I think the 500 plus are 150 or whatever similar to the unicorn number because the 500 to one billion is not that many. And more about half are experienced founders.”
Bajaj: Experienced founders avoid market risk and focus more on distribution than product
“What experienced founders do differently? They generally don't take market risk, right? They will go after deep markets business. It's much easier to build businesses in deep markets. Okay. Having built a company once, they will typically be very profit driven…”
Bajaj: Z47 discusses people rather than deals in Monday partner meetings
“And by the way, in our Monday meetings, we discuss people, not deals.”
Bajaj: Repeat founders give time to VCs only when they learn something
“My bet is that if you feel that you will learn something, you'll give your time. So that's the bar. The founder has to feel that they will learn something, right?”
Bajaj: Z47 passed on Swiggy due to a portfolio conflict
“Swiggy where, you know, he emailed us proactively, but we already had a competing investment.”
Bajaj: Z47 measured investment team productivity on meeting volume until 2016
“Until 2000, 15, 16 they used to get measured on coverage. And you know, we had some review meetings where people would say, how many companies have you met and this, that. So it created what we call a met culture meeting. The quality of the meeting may have be…”
Anil Goteti returned investor capital after US-India SaaS venture stalled
“So when Anil Gotti was starting his second company, he wanted to do U.S. India SaaS, even though the founder market fit was questionable. And we told him, And he said, no, e-commerce, whatever. And was not looking in the direction of getting the product market…”