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.
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Kumar: Founders must stick to their vision rather than pivoting for investors
“Once you start a business and you've got some passion and some, got some inspiration behind it, you have to stick it out for a while. And you have to prove it to yourself that it works or doesn't work more than Following what somebody else says, especially the…”
Kumar: The era of building generational business legacies is completely over
“I think the old mentality of building a legacy out of business is anyway over. So one should basically look at business as creating something which is generating some value for the society, and hence you make money out of that. And the minute you are not addin…”
Kumar: Founders must never treat their startup as a family member
“Somewhere making your business, your family, Or like a family member. That is wrong. And that's where I would draw a line. So you do not fall in love with something that you cannot detach from.”
Kumar: Founders must step aside when passion stops growing the business
“There is a time when an entrepreneur's passion cannot grow the business anymore. You need either professionals to come and run your business. So you need to take a back step. You should be ready to do that.”
Kumar: Startup outcomes depend strictly on market size and focus, not passion
“Where people succeeded or failed was about the size of the market that they were actually trying to get to. And second was the focus.”
Kumar: Founders waste money pivoting based on non-investing VCs' free advice
“Every investor gives some kind of a guidance without investing. So they would change their path. They would do things and wasted a lot of time and money doing that.”
Kumar: Businesses driven purely by discounts lack value creation
“If I am a salesman of discounts, then it's not a business I want to be in because I wasn't adding any more value.”
Kumar: Family business received 12x EBITDA acquisition offer in 2012
“It was more on EBITDA than on the run rate. So it was it was about 12, 12 X EBITDA for a manufacturing company, which is pretty much getting into commoditized thing. It was a fantastic offer, but it wasn't 400 crores.”
Kumar: Angel investing should not be a primary income source
“It's a very risky. I'm not advising anybody to make make it a business, make it a source of income. It's not. It's very risky and it's risk capital totally.”
Pawan Raj Kumar bases 75% of angel investment decisions on founder passion
“That's a very, very important factor for me, and I think 75% of my decision is made with that. Rest 25 is about how big the market is, how much share can be taken, is there an environment which can affect, ah, because I will make money only when somebody else,…”
Kumar: McDonald's account grew to triple company's prior revenue in six years
“In other six years, we were doing three times more than what our company was doing just with McDonald's.”
Kumar: Angel investing provided skin in the game to learn tech
“I thought that if I invest some money, I'll have more skin in the game and hence have more you know initiative or motivation to learn about it. So I did that. I invested in a few companies. I became an angel investor.”
Kumar: McDonald's added 100 stores per year in India around 2012
“India, you know, McDonald's at that time was growing at hundred stores a year, and other chains were also growing, so there were a lot of American companies which were looking, looking at India to invest in, and grow their businesses here.”