Pritesh Gupta

Indian VCs offer comprehensive resources for fundraising and hiring, including investor lists, templates, job boards, and networking events. Check the link in the comment #venturecapital #fundraising #startup

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OpenAI's Sam Altman interviews serial founder and legendary VC investor Vinod Khosla. Sam asks "What percent of investors are good company builders?" Vinod responds with 3 powerful statements: 1️⃣ 90% of VCs add no value 2️⃣ 70% of VCs add negative value 3️⃣ If you haven't built a company before, you haven't earned the right to advise an entrepreneur #VentureCapital #Fundraising #Founders

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{New pod 🎤} "𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬?" Was super-fun to jam with Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan) - Managing Partner at Upekkha. We discussed how Indian startups should look at AI, including real addressable opportunities, how to differentiate and compete against global competitors, what pre-AI SaaS startups should do to stay relevant, the India domestic AI opportunity, and finally, operating learnings for US go-to-market. Some thought-provoking insights and learnings for Indian AI and SaaS startups in here. Let us know what you think! YouTube - https://lnkd.in/g8d7rSe5 Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gpzkM8Jw Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gEf_zvKM An Operator's Blog - https://lnkd.in/gRzK2nTb

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Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India) shared two simple methods that can help founders to find whether they have achieved Product-Market Fit (PMF) 👇 The First is "Retention Curve" - "The retention curve is what percentage of your users keep coming back over some time while using your product/service." Essentially, there are 3 kinds of retention curves, and you should plot this curve by day, week, or month, once you launch your product. 1. Declining Curve (dark grey line), let's say you’ve launched a consumer internet app on day 0, and every week your retention rate declines by 10%, which essentially means that by the end of 3rd month, all your initial users would have churned, then that's a declining curve, which indicates that you don’t have a product-market fit. 2. Flattening Curve (orange line) is actually good, although it kind of varies depending upon the category (Health-Tech, EdTech, etc.,) but generically speaking if the retention curve flattens between 20%-40% that could be quite good. 3. Finally the best one is the Smiling Retention Curve (green line), which means that retention drops but then as time goes on you keep reactivating users, which indicates that you're getting close to your product-market fit. Another question that founder should think is - 2. Do Customers Love Product? Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that organizations use to measure customer loyalty toward their brand, product or service. NPS works by asking your customers a single question: "How likely are you to recommend our products/services to others?" NPS = % Promoters (score 9-10) - % Detractors (score 0-6) If the magic score is = 70% or more, then you have an amazing product-market fit. But if the number declines to 40% or below, then you don’t have it. It's that simple! What do you think of these two methods? 🚀 Check out my free newsletter for insights: https://lnkd.in/dKZQKHg2 . #startup #fundraising #venturecapital #funding #fundraising #founders #founderjourney #entrepreneurship #entrepreneur #founderstories #startuptips #sharktankindia #siliconvalley #startups #vc #vcfund #vcfunding #funding #startups #pmf #product #sequoiacapital

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Different Pre-Seed VC Fund Models Part I: Afore Capital – A Focused Pre-Seed Fund Model In the evolving landscape of Indian startups, structuring pre-seed VC funds effectively is very important for nurturing early-stage innovation. There are two main ways to approach this: a dedicated strategy like Afore Capital or a cohort and index strategy like Y Combinator. In this two-part post, let's explore both the models and their potential benefits for the Indian startup ecosystem. Afore Capital’s approach is a prime example of a focused pre-seed fund. With three funds, over $300M dedicated to pre-seed startups, and $11 billion in market cap, Afore’s strategy involves an exclusive focus on the earliest-stage companies. This model ensures that startups receive the attention, resources, and mentorship they need right from the start. By committing solely to pre-seed investments, Afore has created a playbook to identify and support pre-product, pre-revenue start-ups, providing a solid foundation for future growth. In India, while some are adopting the Y Combinator strategy, there’s a clear opportunity for a model like Afore. A focused pre-seed fund could fill the gap, offering targeted support and funding to help startups thrive from day one. Stay tuned for Part II, where we’ll delve into the Y Combinator model and how its cohort and index strategy can benefit the Indian startup ecosystem.

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A review of the last decade of Indian Maiboard #IPOs: India's public markets have seen significant IPO growth, #2024 will mostly break records with a forecast of ~98 IPOs. Founders also are curious to know more about the entire IPO game, to answer some of these, we analyzed a decade of Mainboard IPOs in India from 2015-2024. Below are the key findings in Part 1 of our analysis - Proceeds Allocation: A significant portion of IPO funds have gone towards Offer for Sale (#OFS), enhancing #liquidity for investors and founders. - IPO Expenses: IPO costs typically range from 3-8% of the offer size, with lower percentages for larger offers. - Filing Timeline: Companies take ~200 days on average to file for an IPO - Utilization of Funds: Larger offers often target acquisitions and debt repayment, while smaller firms focus on working capital and organic growth investments. The detailed post and report are available here: https://lnkd.in/dW3E2992 We welcome any thoughts or questions. Blume Ventures Karthik B. Reddy Ashish Fafadia Sanjay Nath Sajith Pai Arpit Agarwal Aria Pradhan Rohit Kaul Sarita Raichura Alok Mehta Mitul Mehta Ria Shroff Desai Somya Agrawal

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Founders like D2C. It’s just not a VC favourite. While D2C continues to be wildly popular among consumers, as is also clear from the number of D2C IPOs in India, there are mainly two friction points for VCs when investing in them. First, it’s tough to scale brands beyond INR 100 Cr ARR, especially given the poor brand loyalty and fierce competition in the space. These challenges eventually dilute the ROI and prolong exits for VCs. Second, the more the brands raise initially, the more they’re forced to grow later at any cost. This can result in distraction from the main business, severe cash burn, and funding issues. All in all, it is a good business for founders who don’t raise too much money and for folks with self-employment ambitions. Expecting a lot more consolidation in the space going forward - brands that do it well will scale.

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What do VCs want? A few traits of fundable startups Sometimes I meet disillusioned first-time founders who believe the VC industry is rigged. They lament that VCs are not interested in funding them even though their companies are profitable. One common grievance is that VCs only fund loss-making businesses. This hypothesis of VC funding loss-making seems true because most #startups continue to burn money even after raising tens of millions of dollars. VCs operate by a playbook. To them, quick growth is more important than early profitability. They invest in companies that have the potential to grow quickly, preferably without burning a lot of #money. Some cash burn is inevitable though. One key #investing criterion for all VCs is a large market or TAM (Total Addressable Market). The TAM should either be large enough to support many big players or it should be expanding rapidly – ideally both. Amazon in the early days of the internet is a popular example. Even though online book sales were zero when Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, the internet penetration was exploding. Hence, Bezos bet (correctly) that online book sales will grow with the internet growth. He made billions for himself and his investors using this hypothesis. We can find several examples like this where VCs bet in tiny markets that can expand rapidly. One big trend in #India is increased funding in the clean beauty industry. Dozens of D2C or consumer startups have raised capital to target this opportunity. Even within this clean beauty space, founders are finding their niche. Rosemary Oil Essentials is one such niche. It was a non-existent market a few years ago. Now, it's a Rs 400-500 Cr market and exploding. VCs find these niches exciting. While all fundable startups share a few common traits (Scalability, Disruption, Timing, Future Market Leadership), a big and rapidly growing TAM is critical. You can build a big company only if the market size is big enough. The ultimate aim of all VCs is to invest in companies that can become the next Amazon. A big TAM is paramount to achieve this. Big TAM = Big Company P.S. We are doing our next Founder Fundraising Workshop on the 22nd & 23rd of June. It's an 8-hour programme for first-time founders who want to raise #venturecapital. The registration link is in the comments.

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How does game theory influence Seed funding vs Series A/B? Top Indian VC explains 👇 In a recent episode of GrowthX Inner Circle, we host Aviral Bhatnagar (founder, A Junior VC). We discuss the state of building in India, how is the VC ecosystem evolving, India's 2030 opportunity & more. The link to the full episode is in the comments ✨

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An interesting trend in the Indian family-office ecosystem: > Old-money family offices (entrepreneurs who built traditional, successful businesses) allocate ONLY 5-10% to private markets and startups and a significant portion usually between 40-70% in public markets and a decent amount to fixed-income/debt instruments whereas > New-money family offices (FOs of entrepreneurs who have made their money building startups) invest the majority of their capital in private markets (sometimes as high as 70-90%) and have a much smaller public markets and fixed income portfolio relatively. Many startup founders say that they do not understand the stock markets and PREFER to do private markets as they think it's within their 'circle of competence'. Will be super interesting to see how this trend plays out over the long-term.

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Join the conversation and explore the hottest asset class for Family Offices and Portfolio liquidity right now

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The Tech Revolution: Powering India's E-commerce Boom❗ India is experiencing a digital revolution fuelled by the democratisation of fast and affordable internet access and low-cost mobile hardware. This has been a game-changer for several industries, with e-commerce leading the charge! E-commerce is disrupting the Indian shopping landscape in a big way, and it's not slowing down. Here's how embracing the latest tech trends can benefit your business: ✅ Evolving business plans: By staying in tune with technology, you can adapt your plans to meet the ever-changing needs of your customers. ✅ Future-proofing your business: Technology is the future, and businesses that integrate it seamlessly will be in a strong position to thrive. ✅ Gaining a competitive edge: Leveraging the latest tech can give you a significant edge over competitors who are slow to adapt. Technology is no longer a luxury - it's a necessity for success in today's dynamic business environment. #SibaPanda #Ecommerce #India #Technology #Growth #Trends #Entrepreneur

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As we navigate the evolving landscape of Indian agritech, recent insights from the Blume Ventures Agritech Blueprint 2024 highlight both the challenges and immense opportunities within this dynamic sector. With over 6,224 agritech startups emerging in India, the potential for innovation is vast. However, the industry has faced significant hurdles, including a 60% drop in funding in 2023, as reported by AgFunder. In response to these challenges, Momentum has launched Earth Fund - a dedicated initiative designed to empower agri-tech startups to drive meaningful change in agriculture. What is Earth Fund? The Earth Fund is a ₹10 crore fund aimed at supporting innovative agri-tech startups who are changing the way agriculture is happening in India. Why choose Earth Fund? We're fixing your distribution challenges through corporations. Also providing funding support for you to scale your startup. To know more, https://lnkd.in/gJU9Hykc Apply here: https://tally.so/r/w5vQJP #startup #agritech Image credits: Freepik.com

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My closest friends are VCs & this is the ONLY formula you need to know to get funded. VCs are rational humans who operate on incentives. As rightly said by legendary investor Charlie Munger: “Show me the incentive & I'll show you the outcome” VCs are smart. The method they use to evaluate startups reveals their incentive. The method has 5 steps: 1. Set IRR (eg 30%) & investment amt ($8 million) 2. Calculate revenue for the exit year (assume an exit year) 3. Find valuation multiple using comparable comp (EV/Rev) 4. Exit value = Step 3 * Step 2 (Exit revenue * multiple) 5. Discount the exit value back to the present using IRR This yields post money valuation. Pre money value = Post money - Investment Then ownership stake is determined by (Investment amt / post money)*100 Which is 29.7% in the below ex If you look at the most crucial thing which VC’s do it’s calculating IRR Because if your start-up doesn’t give them 30% IRR Pensions funds won’t give them money If VC’s are your bosses Then pension funds are VC’s bosses To stay in business Show them you can earn 30% IRR Then VC’s can show these pension funds That they are worthy of investing their money The game isn’t RIGGED against you, provided: You understand their incentive You understand what VC’s need You understand where they are coming from

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We all know that 90% of startups fail but do we know that 47% of startups fail due to lack of capital? Securing funding remains a significant barrier for many aspiring entrepreneurs. Without access to the right resources, promising ventures can falter and ultimately shut down. We believe startups are the backbone of India's growth, and we're passionate about assisting entrepreneurs on their journey. That's how IndiaBizForSale.com was born (back in 2013). Now (in 2024), we have a huge network of (37,700+) business investors from 1300+ different locations and industries in India (90%) and Abroad (10%). For startups, currently, there are more than 5,000 startup investors available who are seeking the right startup investment opportunities in India. By leveraging IndiaBizForSale.com (or similar platforms), startups can increase their chances of finding the right funding and turning their fundraising into a success. Do recommend to your fellow startup founders who are in seek of investment. #Startup #Fundraising #Growth #Success https://lnkd.in/dDjzs52A

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