Champions with Chequebook$

The startup ecosystem in India has seen a radical evolution over the last 20 years and Kosturi Ghosh, Partner at Trilegal has had both a ringside view and a pivotal role to play in this growth. Starting with a deep interest in IP law, Kosturi has seen companies grow from the garage to the listing floor, and been a trusted advisor to startups and funders in their growth journeys. She has also been a quiet and steady advocate of developing more diversity in the startup world. She has actively advocated for increasing diversity in startup leadership and governanceIn Season 2, Episode 3, our host Maya Chandrasesekaran, Managing Partner Green Artha, uncovers Kosturi’s insights on:✅ Setting up the right systems for good governance✅ How Founders should be tapping into the Founder-Network through their journey✅ Tactical and practical tips to build for scale✅ New tools and instruments that can help de-risk deals for funders and founders Insights on tools and financial instruments to mitigate risk for founders and investors✅ Using the Board as a platform to improve diversity in startups and the ecosystemFor every founder navigating growth, scale, governance and listing, and every funder thinking about portfolio creation and exits, this episode is a goldmine of insights.🎧 Tune in now to hear directly from Kosturi on what it truly takes to build, scale, invest and exit, in India's startup ecosystem.A special thank you to WaterBridge Ventures for graciously offering their studio space for this recording and Trilegal for supporting this podcast series.

When we think about the evolution of deeptech in India, there aren’t many who have seen it all. Our guest today on the Women in Investing podcast is one of those.

Meet Swapna Gupta , Partner at Avaana Capital, Kauffman Fellow and previously investor from Qualcomm Ventures where she saw the early and emerging technology deals in India.

In Season 2, Episode 2, our host Maya Chandrasekaran, Managing Partner Green Artha, uncovers Swapna’s insights on:

✅ Actively building a career in investing

✅ Transitioning from a CVC to a fund and the journey along the way

✅ The evolution of deeptech investing in India

✅ What founders should do better when they build

✅ What it takes to build conviction in a world of increasing uncertainty

For every founder navigating the world of frontier tech or fundraising, or emerging investors thinking about a career in this space, this episode is a goldmine of insights.

🎧 Tune in now to hear directly from Swapna on what it truly takes to build, scale, exit, and invest in India's deep tech ecosystem.

When we talk about consumer brand builders who have navigated the full journey—from launching a brand to scaling, exiting, and then turning investor - there aren’t many who have seen it all. But today’s guest on Women in Investing podcast is one of those rare few.

Meet Shuchi Pandya, Principal at Fireside Ventures and the visionary founder behind Pipa Bella, a jewelry brand that not only captured the hearts of consumers but also secured a strategic exit with Nykaa.

In Season 2, Episode 1, our host Sapna Goyal, VP, WaterBridge Ventures, uncovers Shuchi’s insights on:

✅ The early days of building a D2C brand before it was even a thing in India

✅ Lessons from raising VC capital and scaling a consumer business

✅ The inside story of exiting to Nykaa and what founders should know about acquisitions

✅ Her transition from operator to investor and what she looks for in founders today

✅ The biggest mistakes consumer brand founders make (and how to avoid them!)

For every founder navigating the world of D2C, fundraising, or strategic exits, this episode is a goldmine of insights.🎧

Tune in now to hear directly from Shuchi on what it truly takes to build, scale, exit, and invest in India's consumer ecosystem.

A special thank you to WaterBridge Ventures for graciously offering their studio space for this recording.

Drop your thoughts in the comments—what resonated the most with you from Shuchi’s journey? 00:00 Introduction to Champions with Checkbooks

00:38 Meet Shuchi Pandya: From Founder to Investor

01:20 Building Pippa Bella: The Journey

04:58 Strategic Partnerships and Acquisition by Nykaa

07:12 Transition to Fireside Ventures

08:05 Insights on Operating vs. Investing

10:15 Fireside Ventures: Focus and Strategy

16:48 Advice for Founders: Building Consumer Brands

29:08 Rapid Fire Round with Shuchi Pandya

33:19 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Chronicling women investor and fund manager journeys and thoughts is the cornerstone of the Champions with Chequebook$ podcast series by Women In Investing. As part of that goal, Chanchal Bhoorani, VP, WestBridge Capital joins Sapna Goyal, VP, WaterBridge Ventures. all the way from the Valley to share her thoughts.

It’s yet another solid chat from the Women In Investing’s podcast series ‘Champions with Chequebook$’. This series highlights investors who are coincidentally women and takes you through their thinking and journey as fund managers and investors. We hope you’ll listen in and share widely.

Presenting another episode of the Champions with Chequebook$, this time with Archana Srivatsan, Head of South & South-East Asia VC at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In this podcast, we spotlight fund managers and investors from our network, their theses, journey and stories as investors. We hope you’ll listen in and share.

Maya Chandrasekaran, Co-founder and Partner, Green Artha, Co-founder, Women In Investing speaks to Archana on a diverse set of topics around the impact investing ecosystem and more!

In this conversation, Archana shares her non-linear journey in business & social impact and her decade-long career at the Gates Foundation, now focused on investing in technology companies that are innovating to solve critical socio-economic challenges, eventually leading her to the boardrooms of multiple companies.

Archana shares her insights on opportunities in the Indian ecosystem, particularly the rural economy. Maya and Archana unpack the uniqueness of this market and how this space requires first-principles-driven, home-grown innovations.

From her vantage point as an impact investor, Archana talks about the careful balance between commercial viability and patience - it takes time, focus, and catalytic capital to build institutions that achieve long-term social impact. At the same time, being too patient can lead to unsustainable ventures.

In Archana’s words, “When I think about impact, outcomes matter, not just outputs. Outputs are an essential means to the end, but not the end.” Focus on ultimate outcomes beyond immediate outputs has indeed been the hallmark of Archana’s work.

Welcome to Episode 5 of “Champions with Chequebook$”, the podcast where we spotlight fund managers and investors from our network, their theses, journey and stories as investors. We hope you’ll listen in and share.

Anisha speaks candidly about female founders in the ecosystem and once again highlights the funding gap to women entrepreneurs. Global stats show that only 2% of women founders get funded through venture capital. In this episode, Anisha and Maya untangle the myths surrounding women founders and consumer startups.

In Season 1, Episode 2, we have the OG of OGs, Paula Mariwala, Founder, Stanford Angels and Aureolis Ventures chatting with Maya Chandrasekaran, Co-founder and Partner, Green Artha, Co-founder, Women In Investing Community speaking openly as only she can on her trajectory in the Indian VC landscape. Paula is a trailblazer in the VC ecosystem in India for sure! She speaks of her journey from studying Physics at Stanford and the need to commercialize deep tech ideas that led to her understanding of venture capital.

In this conversation, Paula speaks of the giant leap into venture with her mentor’s backing. Interestingly enough, she speaks of her lack of interest in numbers and business models, all while believing in the potential of technology and what it could do to a country like India. All this way back in 2005! 

More than anything else, Paula traces the highs and lows of the VC and startup ecosystem in India and talks in detail about the changes she’s witnessed and been a part of, all these years. Nostalgia abound with facts - very few have chronicled India’s startup growth with this lens.Also, don’t miss the story of the father-in-law walking up to Paula and asking her not to give his son-in-law any money! A very India story in every way.Listen in to Maya and Paula(link shared in the first comment) to learn more on her investing principles, her unwavering support to women founders and investors, alike. And lots, lots more in this goldmine of a conversation.

Paula plays the role of the chronicler here, and this context is immensely valuable for what we are trying to build here with her support at Women In Investing. A champion all through!

In this fantastic episode, Rema Subramanian, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Ankur Capital Fund  brings together all the 12 years of early-stage investing experience to the fore along with our host, Maya Chandrasekaran, Co-founder and Partner, Green Artha, Co-founder, Women In Investing Community. 

Rema speaks passionately about how Science helps move consumer behaviour forward. A multi-faceted person herself, Rema identifies her non-conformist hobbies or talents as a way to help her excel at her core job of investing. Her journey from factories (no toilets for women. Any surprises there?) to being at the cusp of the IT revolution and digitisation makes for a very long and interesting journey.

Rema also spends time breaking down Ankur’s investment philosophy and goes deep into deep science solutions and data digitisation as two pillars of their strategy. This conversation stands out because of Rema and therefore, Ankur’s ability to pick the most disruptive and unconventional of bets, be it agritech, sportstech or within deep science. Her passion and steadfast belief in these unconventional themes stands out!

The Women in Investing community, through this podcast series, hopes to shed light on women investors building their careers through high-purpose, intentional bets on themselves, the founders they decide to invest in and the kind of firms they build for the future. We hope you will share with us your thoughts on this series with us and others in your network.

Until next time, here’s Rema breaking down what makes her and Ankur Capital tick!