About Tarun Davda:

My next guest on The One Percent Project is Tarun Davda. He is the Managing Director of Matrix, India. Prior to joining Matrix, Tarun was the Co-founder, India CEO and Board Member at StepOut.com, a venture-backed startup. StepOut became India’s #1 online dating site with over 5 Million users. Before that, Tarun established BigRock.com (incubated by the Directi group) - India’s #1 provider of domain name registration and other web services. Tarun started his career at Infosys as an IT consultant. He has an MBA from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad and an Engineer from VJTI, Bombay.

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In this conversation he talks about:

1. His journey building Matrix India, or rather, reviving and strengthening a brand that was established when venture capital was still in its infancy in the nation. He discusses the opportunities and problems that he confronted while also delivering relatable anecdotes making the conversation all the more captivating.
2. His perspective on how to define disruptive ideas/pitches & highlights how the way venture capitalists think and analyse has changed over time. With a deeper understanding of the matter, he now believes that the most disruptive ideas are the ones that are easiest to dismiss, and that it is only right to hold onto them.
3. How the Indian Founder has evolved over the last decade, and how the crowd has changed radically. Says it's one of the best things that's happened in the last decade; people are more prepared and aware, and Tarun thinks it's just going uphill from here.
4. His thoughts on improvisation and innovation. He believes it is subjective to each individual's interpretation of the terms, but in his opinion, no two marketplaces are the same because innovation is always breaking grounds.
5. What VCs look for in a pitch/ deck: Product, Team, and Market. He believes in a country like India, where everything appears to be a vast market on the surface; coursing through it just serves to highlight how narrow the market is in fact.
6. He discusses the influence of Chinese investments on the progression of entrepreneurship in India. He stresses on how the Chinese have been able to open our minds to accommodate the nuances in the market place. This is because they are benefitted from hindsight and a better outlook on what has worked for the companies in their nations.

Key Take-Away

1. Every investment is a learning opportunity.
2. The most disruptive ideas are the ones that are the easiest to dismiss.
3. An entrepreneur that can change your predisposed view in one, single meeting is the one you need to back.

Rapid Fire:

• The hardest thing about your job? 
  • the toughest one is to be proven wrong.
• One book or a blog that has influenced you personally and professionally?
  • Super Forecasting and 5 AM Club
• Your most favourite superhero?
  • Spider-Man.

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