The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Rohit Goyal is the Manager Partner at Windrose Capital, a Pune based early stage VC firm investing in India’s fast-transforming economy. He has entrepreneurial experience in Manufacturing & Technology and has set-up companies in & outside India, with people from China, Sri Lanka, UK & Germany.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Electronics & Tele-Com.) & Masters in Management (Finance & Entrepreneurship) from CASS Business School, City University, London. 

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Indistractable: Indistractable is a suite of productivity apps to help you fight digital distraction, starting with a minimalist launcher.

2. Bima Garage: Bima is focused on making insurance easy for everyone in India, with a focus on hassle-free claims management service.

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In this episode we will cover:

1. Last eight months at Windrose Capital (2:39)

2. Conversations with existing LPs and potential LPs during COVID (5:37)

3. Evolution of the thesis at Windrose? (19:43)

4. Rohit’s background and journey into VC (24:34)

5. Why Windrose chose Pune to be their HQ? (32:07)

6. Does the location of the fund really matter? (37:05)

7. How does a young fund manager convince LPs to invest in the firm? (39:15)

8. How did Rohit shortlist his LP candidates? (43:40)

9. What does ‘contextual fit’ really mean and represent at Windrose Capital? (47:33)

10. Determining market velocity and mapping the future of Indian VC (56:05)

11. Rapid fire (1:03:55)

Srikanth Sundararajan is the General partner at VenturEast, an India focused fund that helps tech startups looking to go global from India across segments like education, health, financial services, agritech, and Enterprise SaaS. Srikanth has 25+ years of international experience in the software product and services having worked at HP, Informix in the US, and was part of the executive leadership team at HCL, the world wide CTO at Cognizant and the COO at Persistent through its successful IPO. In the US he had also successfully founded his own startup, Pretzel Logic Software Inc., which was acquired by BEA spinoff WebGain. BEA was later acquired by Oracle. He was also part of the founding team at IDS, which was also acquired.

He is also a visiting faculty of computer science at IIT Bhubaneswar and has taught at several US universities. He also serves on national committees on technical education, an initiative of MHRD, Government of India. He was also a member of the tech committee for the Government of India initiative on indirect taxes (Customs and Excise).

He holds a B Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a MS/PhD in Computer and Information Sciences from University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. He has several publications and is the holder of patents, jointly with HP.

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Foodwalas: Foodwallas is a Gourmet food delivery startup that lets mom and pop stores to reach a big, national audience.

2. Elo App: A vernacular audio streaming app for you to consume content if your preferred language.

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In this week’s episode we will cover:

1. Learnings through investing during the pandemic (3:29)

2. Srikanth’s background (8:20)

3. What aspect of Srikanth’s past is most valuable to him today as a VC (11:17)

4. What made Srikanth join VenturEast? (21:02)

5. Investment thesis at VenturEast (24:32)

6. Disruption: Incumbents vs new entrants (34:05)

7. Is legacy software dying? (41:29)

8. Differences in investing in different tiers in India (47:45)

9. Srikanth’s preference: startups from tier 2/3 markets or those targeting tier 2/3 markets (54:25)

10. India and its deep tech ambitions (56:53)

11. Rapid fire (59:15)

Sasha Mirchandani is Managing Director and Founder of Kae Capital and Co-founder Mumbai Angels. Previously, he was at Blue Run Ventures as Managing Director for the India operations. Before joining Blue Run Ventures he was CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies. Earlier he was at Mirc Electronics (Onida) where he was Head of Corporate Affairs and new business.

Follow Sasha on Twitter (@sashamirchi), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc).

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Aisle: Aisle is a dating app for Indians around the world

2. Sarva: India’s largest and only Yoga based wellness ecosystem

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In this week’s episode, we will cover:

1. Impact of COVID personally and professionally (3:30)

2. Learnings during COVID as an investor (6:55)

3. LP sentiment and concerns (10:58)

4. Sasha’s background (15:50)

5. How did Mumbai Angels come into being? (20:05)

6. When should an angel think about raising institutional capital for his/her fund? (24:55)

7. Mistakes angels make during investing (26:31)

8. Sasha’s thesis during the early days on angel investing (28:00)

9. Evolution of investment thesis at Kae Capital across funds (29:45)

10. How do you decentralize venture capital in India to allow for more investors to enter the market (35:42)

11. Rapid fire (39:50)

Utsav Somani is a Partner at AngelList India and General Partner at iSeed (a seed-stage fund looking to bridge successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Indian founders in the search of money as well as the expertise and knowledge of scaling up a startup).

Follow Utsav (@somani_utsav), host Akash (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Flatheads: Flatheads is an all-day casual sneakers designed for work wear and optimized for 14-hour comfort.

2. MoveABox: MoveABox is Bangalore-based startup helping people to vacate and relocate their homes in a personalized manner.

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In today’s episode we will cover:

1. Micro VC –– overcrowded with competition or not? (7:50)

2. Recap of VC landscape during COVID (17:08)

3. Raising a fund during the months of the lockdown (21:18)

4. Takeaways from raising a fund (22:56)

5. Utsav’s background (24:14)

6. What is Micro VC and how does Utsav see it within the Indian context (27:11)

7. Why is there a rise in Micro VC funds across India? (29:48)

8. Is Micro VC more riskier? (35:13)

9. What is the value proposition of a Micro VC (37:16)

10. How does an emerging fund manager attract good deal flow? (41:54)

11. Trend –– LPs turning GPs (48:13)

12. Dissection of Utsav’s tweet on the disconnect between macro trends (51:14)

13. Rapid fire (52:02)

Rutvik Doshi is the General Partner at Inventus Capital India, early stage Venture Capital firm that invests in Pre Series A and Series A. Rutvik has participated in India’s fast emerging internet ecosystem since 2007, first with Google where he launched several products including Voice Search, Google Mobile App, SMS Channels and managed Google News globally, and most recently as the CEO of ecommerce startup Taggle in Bangalore. Before Google he spent 6 years in the US building internet management software for CA Technologies. Rutvik holds a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and an MBA from INSEAD, France.

Follow Rutvik (@rutvik), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Project PIF: Project Pay-It-Forward is a cloud-based mentorship platform for graduate admissions

2. Podium: Podium is a platform that brings people closer to have virtual conversations around social issues.

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In this episode we will cover:

. . . (Part 1) . . .

1. Impact of COVID on fund dynamics and larger macro economic trends (5:24)

2. How did LP’s react to the pandemic (7:44)

3: Investment strategy during Covid and plans for the future (13:11)

4. How did Inventus India Capital build rapport with founders during the pandemic, in the absence of F2F meetings? (18:38)

5. Rutvik’s background and sequence of events leading up to Inventus (19:58)

6. Evolution of VC in India (28:06)

7. Investment thesis at Inventus (32:21)

8. Importance of forging strong relationships with other VC firms in India (37:17)

. . . (Part 2) . . .

9. Raising domestic capital –– Has India reached a point of comfort to invest in VC as an asset class? (42:51)

10. Why is it better to have Indian investors than global? (44:44)

11. What should emerging fund managers be prepared for when they speak to potential LP candidates? (49:02)

12. How many calls do VC’s have with potential LPs (53:53)

13. How do the Partners split fundraising responsibilities (55:53)

14. When will see a change in venture investing to bring more profitability? (1:00:09)

15. Lobbying in India (1:02:41)

16. Raising money from foreign investors or Indian? (1:05:42)

17. Rapid fire (1:08:05)

Vinay Bansal is the CEO at Inflection Point Ventures, an early stage angel investing platform. He is a finance professional and turnaround specialist with 20+ years of experience across Fortune 50 companies, private equity & startups. Last, he was Senior Advisor at TPG Global and before that CFO & CIO at Wildcraft India. He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and spent the first 14 years of his career in leadership positions across Financial Management and Manufacturing / Supply-chain sourcing functions at GE and Hindustan Unilever.

Follow host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Fire.Fly: Fire.Fly is a Bangalore-based learning & development startup focusing on teaching the values of creativity & compassion through online & offline workshops and experiences.

2. Leher App: Leher App is a social network built around video discussions that connects people around their interests and passions.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. Vinay Intro (2:43)

2. Covid impact –– Macro-level and portfolio-level (3:43)

3. Why has IPV been active when other VC firms have been conservative in their approach during covid (6:48)

4. Will companies getting funded now continue to see similar success post-covid? (11:21)

5. How can startups leverage the pandemic to create moats (16:21)

6. Vinay’s background (20:07)

7. Challenges of being an agnostic firm (28:58)

8. Time management for GPs (33:16)

9. What is CXO genie and how’s that unique to IPV (35:57)

10. How to measure success of a mentor-driven program? (41:29)

11. Measuring portfolio returns and communication with LPs (46:27)

12. Best practices for LP communication (52:20)

13. Rapid fire (55:13)

Melissa Frakman is the founder & managing partner of Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), a venture capital fund investing in early-stage fintech startups in India. She brings 15 years of experience participating in India’s digital revolution to bridge worlds for entrepreneurs and companies. Named on the “Global Fintech PowerList” by Innovate Finance, Melissa has led early stage investments in asia, supported new market strategy, and built partnerships worth over $1 billion for 15 of the Fortune 100 companies.

Follow Melissa (@melissafrakman), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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The Desi Startup of the Week:

Piggy: Piggy is a next generation mutual fund investment app that simplifies investments.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. Sectors within FinTech that have stood out during the pandemic (4:12)

2. Melissa’s journey so far (5:46)

3. Why does Melissa think India has a more robust and advanced FinTech ecosystem than other markets (10:48)

4. FinTech: Bundling vs Unbundling (14:00)

5. FinTech investment trends and risks associated with investing in the space (17:04)

6. The FinTech opportunity: Urban, Middle and Rural India (19:43)

7. FinTech challenges within rural India (24:05)

8. Educating the masses: Is it the role of the govt. or startups? (25:53)

9. Innovation with UPI (28:15)

10. Assessing FinTech startups (31:16)

11. Traditional financial institutions: opportunity or threat? (35:37)

12. How does EMVC add value to their portfolio (37:58)

13. Rapid fire (40:23)

14. Ways to get in touch with Melissa (48:20)

Pankaj Jain is an angel investor and Ex-Partner at 500 Startups, a California-based seed fund and accelerator program. Pankaj focuses on investing in early stage startups across India, United States, and South Asia and has led investments in over fifty companies.

Pankaj spent over 12 years in the Financial industry at firms such as JP Morgan, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) and GlobeOp Financial Services in various operational roles including enterprise mortgage risk management, application development, market data infrastructure, trade management, pricing infrastructure and customer service areas.

In 2007, Pankaj’s adventures in India began, where he started a company building an on-demand, employment marketplace for the under-served. In 2008, Pankaj became a co-founder of the HeadStart Network Foundation and the led the efforts in Delhi. In late 2010, he began setting up Startup Weekend in India.

Follow Pankaj (@pjain), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash), and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter. Pankaj also runs a YouTube channel on investing titled Invest Steam.

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The Desi Startups Of The Week:

1. Oropocket: Oropocket is an investment platform allowing you to invest in precious metals and digital assets.

2. Basis: India's only platform focussed on the holistic financial wellness of the urban Indian woman.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. Intro (3:51)

2. The new normal (6:15)

3. Impact of the pandemic on VC investments (8:56)

4. Pankaj’s journey into venture capital and investing (19:45)

5. Which period in his professional career does Pankaj consider the most crucial (40:26)

6. Differences between angel investing and venture investing (51:21)

7. How influential can an angel be (54:14)

8. How do angels add value (59:41)

9. How can VCs and angels work together? (1:07:23)

10. Angel investing in India vs angel investing in the US (1:12:11)

11. Founder evolution from Pankaj’s experience in all these years on investing (1:17:54)

12. How do angels measure success? (1:33:10)

13. Intangible returns for angels (1:36:53)

14. Why did Pankaj decide to run an angel syndicate rather than starting a VC fund? (1:40:08)

15. Rapid fire (1:45:52)

Ankur Warikoo is an angel investor, entrepreneur, mentor and public speaker. He co-founded Nearbuy.com in 2015, where he served as the CEO from 2015-2019. Ankur was previously the CEO of Groupon India + APAC, MD of at Rocket Internet India, Co-founder at Accentium Web, and a management consultant at A.T. Kearney. He also holds an MBA degree from The Indian School of Business, an MS Physics from Michigan State University and a BS from Hindu College, Delhi University. Ankur has 1M+ followers across social media is known to share videos where he often talks about entrepreneurship, leadership and is known to inspire the youth.

Follow Ankur (@Warikoo), host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. How has Ankur dealt with the COVID period? (3:39)

2. What does Ankur make of the pandemic –– an inflection point or an uphill battle to restore economies? (5:54)

3. How does he feel about industries hard hit due to COVID? (8:45)

4. Ankur’s story and how it unfolded (11:50)

5. When and how did Ankur take to angel investing (15:13)

6. What made Ankur buyback Groupon India’s business and put ‘everything’ on the line? (17:15)

7. How difficult was it to champion the move to buy back Groupon India? (19:53)

8. What is Ankur’s relationship with risk and is there a personality to his investments? (23:53)

9. Why does Ankur say he’s a bad investor? (27:21)

10. What was Ankur’s (angel) investment thesis? (31:22)

11. How much of Ankur’s personality will you see in his investments? (37:38)

12. Where does Ankur source his deals from? (39:35)

13. What does Ankur’s diligence process look like? (42:12)

14. How long does Ankur take to make an investment decision? (44:40)

15. Underrated and overrated qualities in founders today (45:48)

16. How important is it for founders to sell their story and how can do they so effectively? (48:51)

17. Because Ankur is a very public figure and vocal across social, does he feel people find him intimidating to speak with? And if so, how does he make them feel at ease? (52:57)

18. Rapid fire (55:24)

Shruti Gandhi is the founder and General Partner of Array Ventures a data-driven venture capital firm. Six of her portfolio companies have exited to companies such as Apple, Paypal, and Samsung with 10x returns. Shruti spun Array Ventures out of True Ventures. She is also an adjunct professor in the CS department at Columbia University, featured on Business Insider, BBC, Forbes, VentureBeat, and USAToday, and host of the Array podcast.

She also has an MBA from the University of Chicago and engineering in CS at Columbia University.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. Why venture capital instead of angel investing

2. Process of setting up a VC fund in the US

3. How is Array VC structured

4. Challenges that come with being a single GP Fund

5. How has enterprise investing evolved in the last few years

6. How do you evaluate moats within startups that work at the intersection of the AI, ML and data?

7. How does Shruti define AI and ML

8. What kind of benchmarks should enterprise startups hit in order to be attractive for subsequent round of investors

9. Why is data not really a moat?

10. How does Array’s network of C-level executives drive value to portfolio startups?

11. Investment opportunities within ML

12. Rapid fire