Shekhar Kirani

If you doubted the rise of India as a powerhouse, Pine Labs, a significant fintech player, is now relocating its headquarters from Singapore to India following approval from a Singapore court. This strategic shift mirrors other successful Indian startups like PhonePe, Razorpay, and Groww, embracing the trend of ‘reverse flipping’. The move signifies growing confidence in the Indian market and its potential. Key factors enabling this move include: - Favorable economic policies - Growing domestic market - Increasing investor confidence - Greater certainty of an exit at a higher valuation - Ease of accessing capital - Regulatory changes - Maturing capital markets - Cost-effective listing process All great signs for India! #India #Fintech #PineLabs #Startups #BusinessGrowth

91

2 Comments

Truly inspiring to listen to Dax Dasilva tell the story of Lightspeed Commerce on 20VC. With $900M in ARR I was thrilled to learn that Dax bootstrapped the company for 7 years to get to $10M in ARR. I hope it doesn't take us 7 years to get Liquid360 there but it makes me feel better about the 3.5 years we've put in to date. For me these stories are deeply encouraging. When you're building something very big it can take time to get to launch. A couple of weeks ago we met with a global player in the VC world. They were looking to invest $5M - $10M and we said we weren't there yet. We'll get there but it wouldn't be the right move today. They then jumped to another conclusion. The wrong one. I get it. They have a multi-billion dollar fund and capital to deploy. We have a company to grow and too much cash will not help us do it right. We've made good decisions being lean. Our customers are starting at $500K. This is an enterprise/gov't product. We have to satisfy a very discerning customer. No bugs, no glitches. A dependable and reliable product. We are excited by the feedback. We are making the world safer. Harry Stebbings suggested that Lightspeed is one of the most misunderstood companies. It's market cap is $2.6B which seems really low relative to the ARR. Very interesting episode.

4

2 Comments

Like to order deliveries from the comfort of your own home? Zepto's recent $665 million funding will now allow the company to set up even more store across India to serve you better. Read all about it only in my new article at Entrepreneur India. . . . Follow and connect for more industry news and updates . . . #News #Update #Zepto #Funding #Investment #EntrepreneurIndia #AdityaPranMahanta https://lnkd.in/gYvATrUE

1

When you find a practical use of AI in an area that has strong tailwinds in the India growth story, you know this is a venture that has a high potential not just for value creation but for job creation in the country. Delighted to back TraqCheck founders Jaibir Nihal Singh, Armaan Mehta and @rishabh jain as they make it easier for over 200 corporations to embrace the new way of work. Traqcheck's Ai-enabled background checks of employees is way, way faster and far more reliable than traditional methods of background verification. Pankaj Bansal (पंकज बंसल)Karann Mittal Danish Dogra Aman Khan Yukta Kelkar Atreyi Dass

25

Interesting and relatable piece by Nutgraf / The Ken Praveen Gopal Krishnan in my inbox today. Few VCs balance this line well, even fewer can project an authentic narrative of what they actually do. In my observation of actions, a VC is a financier first and last, and anything else is marketing until proven otherwise. #vc #startups #india #founder

19

1 Comment

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

35

4 Comments

India’s Oyo, once valued at $10 billion, is finalizing new funding at a $2.5 billion valuation. This marks a steep decline from its $10 billion valuation in 2019. The startup, which has raised over $3 billion from backers like SoftBank, Peak XV Ventures, Lightspeed, Airbnb, and Microsoft, has struggled to attract institutional investors. In recent months, it has aggressively pitched to high-net-worth individuals after withdrawing its IPO application twice in the past four years. Once a red-hot Indian startup active in markets including the U.S. and Europe, Oyo has now scaled back its international presence. #venture #downround https://lnkd.in/gE2GjYnM

5

Excited and looking forward to discussing the evolving challenges of raising capital for early-stage startups at SAASCON24. Join me as I dive into the current trends, what founders need to know, and how we can navigate this more challenging environment. #SAASCON24 #StartupFunding #EarlyStageStartups #SaaS #Entrepreneurship

73

1 Comment

Commoditization of AI models Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of watching Aravind Srinivas' (founder of Perplexity) interview with Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan . It's a great interview and I would recommend AI founders to watch it if possible. https://lnkd.in/gnM2NeS8 Couple of things that stuck me from the interview: 1. Aravind believes in the commoditization of AI models in the long run. His take his firms like Perplexity which focus on user problems and solve for it using relevant models will win. Perplexity does it quite well, do check them out if you haven't already. This is something that AI entrepreneurs should think about. Creating foundational models is freaking expensive! and for conservative capital allocators like us it is too risky a bet (not betting on AI is even riskier 😅, I guess we need to learn more) I am going to tag the platform Guru and distinguished IIMB alumnus Sangeet Paul Choudary for his take on this. 2. The initial employees (5-10) have to be truth seekers rather than social affirmers(?) It was great hearing him talk about the culture at Perplexity of seeking the truth through open conversations and arguments on Slack rather than provide positive affirmation. I think it's something that every founder should strive for. Truth will prevail in the longer run. This works in technology, finance, politics, society, anywhere. (Satyamev Jayate is true in itself!) But to be able to have an open conversation, the founders need to have depth themselves. This is something that I feel the Indian ecosystem lacks, as most of the founders seem to be managerial in nature. I find them shifting to jargons rather than simplicity when questioned deeper. (By the way this is a classic test to check whether someone really knows it, people who know what they are talking about will make it simpler, those who don't take the cover of jargons to increase complexity and portray intelligence) I understand my analysis could be biased due to self-selection, and I would love to be proven wrong. It's pretty cool that Aravind chose Larry Page as his favourite entrepreneur due to their common background of coming from academic research to entrepreneurship. What I definitely don't agree with Aravind on The idea that luck doesn't play a role in outcomes. Successful people generally attribute success to their hard work/smartness / enterprise without understanding their privilege. For e.g. A smarter/more hardworking/more enterprising Dalit girl from Bihar will never have the kind of opportunities that I had as a Tam Bram born in a lower-middle class but very well educated family in Chennai. One has tried to solve for it using our Sakhi Scholars programme, which supports gifted girls from underprivileged communities to achieve their dream through financial support. On a lighter note, Aravind is a 2017 IIT-M alum and has already built a $8 billion company, what the hell am I doing with my life? 🤔

1

1 Comment

Yes, everything in the age of AI is an API. And as AI evolves, the need for well designed and secure APIs will become even more crucial in the ecosystem #postman #ageofAPIs #noAIwithoutAPI

46

1 Comment

Interesting article by ET Prime on Softbank’s evolving investment strategy based on The Arc scoop on the Ultrahuman deal Thanks for citing us, Manu P Toms 🙏 More on what’s working for Ultrahuman and the round here - https://lnkd.in/gcQimTAS

7

1 Comment

Only TWO days left to apply for the RippleX Fellowship program! If you are a student/dropout/recent grad building a b2b software company in Canada/US, this is the program for you. In our last batch we had some amazing mentors like: - Braden Ream (CEO, Voiceflow): Mastering storytelling and navigating selling into enterprises - Rahul Parmar (Prev. Senior Director of Sales, Drata): Sales 101 – Converting pilots to real revenue, creating urgency among buyers, and best practices to manage a sales process - Nicholas Chepesiuk (CEO, OnCall Virtual Care, now part of Qualifacts): Striving towards product-market fit, utilizing creative outbound strategies, and the importance of building trust with customers in the early days - Justin Sky (CEO, Rose Rocket): Identifying venture-scale markets, learning when to pivot, and building strong organizational culture - Josh Gray (CEO, Artemis): Conducting customer validation, segmenting your ICP, and advice for young founders Apply here: https://lnkd.in/e2iAu6vi

19

2 Comments

Rebalance is India's first angel community that's 51% women with 27 investments across fintech, biotech, consumer, drones, Gen AI, deeptech healthcare, climate, energy, edtech and more. 🔥 Aishwarya is hosting a limited-seating, candid chat for women who invest in startups (would like to invest with Rebalance) and for women who want to learn about startup investing. No question is too trivial or small, this is a safe space to ask anything about startup investing! When: 26 May 2024 [Sunday] Where: Somewhere in Delhi ☕ Timings: 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm 2 days to go!! RSVP here: https://shorturl.at/EoYLN If you're already an investor or not based in Delhi/Gurgaon - you can directly sign up here to be part of the investing community: https://lnkd.in/g7taCdkc

44

4 Comments

🌟 Thrilled to unveil the journey of building a global SaaS company from India! 🇮🇳🚀 In this engaging podcast with Rohin Dharmakumar from The Ken, I share some of the core mental models that have been instrumental in my entrepreneurial path: 1️⃣ Risk Taking: Embracing and navigating risks has been key to our success. 2️⃣ Mental Toughness: Insights into how my early life experiences shaped the resilience needed for the entrepreneurial journey. 3️⃣ Opportunities Ahead: Discussing the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for Indian SaaS companies. 4️⃣ Choosing a Co-Founder: Essential criteria and insights on selecting the right partner. Building global companies from India is not just a goal—it's a lifelong mission. Join me as I discuss the lessons learned, the challenges overcome, and the promising future of building a global company from India. 🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/grehUQQ9 #Entrepreneurship #SaaS #India #GlobalBusiness #Podcast #MentalModels # AI

142

9 Comments

The a16z podcast on product-market sales fit with Jyoti Bansal, Peter Levine, Satish Talluri and Sonal Chokshi is a goldmine of lessons for founders and product leaders of startups at different stages. Here are a few key takeaways from my perspective: 1: There is no market without the user.  In the early phases of a company, when you're still pre-product-market-fit, obsesses over the user, not the technology. It is crucial at this early stage that you are able to define what metric you will use to measure user adoption, and optimize for it accordingly. 2: Integrate the go-to-market model into your product thinking. Who you sell the product to, and how you intend to sell and support your product is just as important as the functional & technical requirements of the product. The features of the product should reflect aspects of the go-to-market strategy. 3: Solving an existing problem? Do it 10x better. If you want to introduce a product in an already established market, make it 10x better - 10x easier, or 10x cheaper or 10x more scalable. 4: Bridge the gap between engineers and customers. Who said engineers don’t need to understand the customers? While this may be especially relevant to technical products, I’d argue this applies across the board. Engineers hold the keys to innovative solutions, but to fully equip them, it's necessary they possess a robust understanding of both the business and its customers. 5: if your users are getting adoption and are happy with the product, the money will come.  Lower margins for the first year with a platform + services deal is still okay, if it significantly increases your chances of renewal. 6. Follow the two-thirds, one-third rule Dedicate two-thirds of your engineering resources to sustaining current customers and penetrating existing markets further. Assign one-third of your engineering resources to broadening your TAM (new markets/new users). 7. Display creativity with your product, but maintain simplicity in pricing. Keep it straightforward for your sales team to explain your pricing structure. Price your product in a format that your customer is familiar with. Understand the ROI, the value your product adds to the business, and their budget constraints. Use these factors as pricing guidelines. Once you know this, it's better to price higher; you can always offer discounts later. 8. Concentrate on the aspect you must learn the most to reach the next milestone. Excel at it and then proceed to worry about the subsequent milestone when you get there P.S. I've put the link in the comments below" 👇 #brand30 #productmanagement

10

7 Comments

Finsire has recently started its learning series - Ideally by chatting with the best folks in the Industry. Here, with Siddharth Shetty, Co-founder and CTO of Account Aggregator (AA) from DigiSahamati Foundation, we speak about the data exchange's inception, growth, and future in India. - We use AA for various reasons, including pushing boundaries in India's data exchange layer with various use cases. - It's been about three years since it went live, and over 70 million cumulative Indian accounts are linked. - One-of-a-kind data sharing network from India that is not seen anywhere across the globe, baring Singapore with https://lnkd.in/gyrCQtVQ - Different approach to protect consumers as compared to the previous models that existed to attain consumer data by various methods used by Plaid or Salt Edge Onemoney Finvu (Cookiejar Technologies) Protean eGov Technologies Anumati by Perfios AA NADL - Account Aggregator Computer Age Management Services Limited KFin Technologies Ltd. Enjoy - Please click on the link below and watch the video!

96

Startup decks vs Business plans. It's accepted that a startup needs a deck. Dax Dasilva of Lightspeed Commerce made an important point on 20VC. Writing a business plan - including financial projections - is an important step. It requires discipline. It provides a rigorous framework for thinking deeply about the problem you're trying to solve. Harry Stebbings countered that he doesn't even want to see a deck since it's all dreams. We spent a lot of time and energy on our business plan with the expectation that we would show it to no one ever. The business plan was part of our roadmap for the company. We researched customers - including having 50+ conversations. We wanted to understand them: their background, their interests, their presence on social media. We also wanted to understand how they were evaluated by leadership and how integrated they were with the business of the company they were protecting. We researched pricing both with potential customers and other products in our industry to find out if OpEx or CapEx was a better fit. How did they buy today? How would they like to buy? We did market research to understand the verticals and map the right entry point - we were wrong but that doesn't reduce the value of the research. We looked at competitors in depth to understand what they were seeing that we weren't. Dax is right. This is an invaluable document that should be updated every year - the company is changing, the market is changing, there's more feedback about price and ICP. It's not for sharing with the outside world. It's a map for driving forward. Decks won't get you investment - VCs invest in people. We make decks but we know they don't tell our story. The deck is a calling card. Dax and Harry are both right. https://lnkd.in/e25M82xY

15

CLSA published a detailed research report on India quick commerce. Recommended reading. Who will be the first to create a $50-100Bn company in India internet? #Zepto #Zomato #IndiaInternet

19

The decisions and actions of our brightest minds in the coming years will play a crucial role in defining our trajectory for the century and where we land with the technology of our time. We have a special fireside chat in Bangalore this week that will explore an Investor perspective on the India opportunity in AI. We’re joined by Pratik (from Nexus VP) and Matt (from EF) who’ve been investing in AI for more than a decade. Expect us to delve into key topics like the role of capital, talent, compute, the importance of alignment and safety, and the future of AI among other things (more on this in the link). RSVP here: https://lu.ma/h589mcrs #venturecapital #technology #ai #entrepreneurship #startups #vc

10