Nirmit Patel

Someone from a Tier 1 Indian VC told me a couple of weeks ago that their 10-year-old fund has a total paper return (illiquid) of ~3x. That happens to be exactly the same return as the Sensex over the past decade.* And an ETF tracking the Sensex is liquid, marked to market daily, and has lower costs. VC funds raised mega-funds of $200M+ on the India story during 2010 to 2020. Most of them are now unable to deliver the promised returns to their investors, which are usually 4-6x on the total sum invested. Contrast this with disciplined domestic funds like Blume and Sauce who did not succumb to the temptation of raising mega-funds to earn more management fees - even as they grew more successful. It’s easier to return funds when they are smaller—but you have to be willing to accept lower salaries and management fees as VCs. Blume’s founder Karthik illustrates this perfectly with a graph of his salary over time below. :) * Another metric to measure returns is IRR which takes into account when the money was actually invested investments. VCs don’t take all the committed money from LPs upfront; rather it’s in installments over time.

59

1 Comment

Whoa…… from $22B to zero. And before this, in February, once the world’s most valuable Edtech startup was valued at $250m post money. Chilling. Any thoughts on why this is happening and insights for founders, Edtech and beyond? #startup #fundraising #valuation #chasingthebubble #fundamentals

47

45 Comments

1.5 years since trading the American dream to build in India. Sharing 9 of my biggest learnings from 2024 as an entrepreneur. 👇 1/9. Thinking long-term and people-first approach. Scaled Gush to almost $1.5m ARR in 12 months from launch - as we grow, I realize the importance of long-term thinking, processes & people - it is all about how you influence and motivate them to dream and learn with you - customers - employees - investors It is all about people and long-term thinking. 2/9. All publicity is good publicity. I went viral for a Indo-US comparison thread - 7M views and it was picked up by national dailies. Got showered with love and hate. Some called it brave, others called it bs. The same words but such different reactions! In the end all publicity is good publicity - gave us over $300k ARR in sales & crazy brand visibility :) 3/9. More to life than logic. I did what all fin-fluencers ask you not to - Bought a new house in Bengaluru. Home purchase still feels like a debt trap. But f*ck it! There’s more to life than logic - It attracts so much social gratification from family and creates a deep-seated sense of social security. 4/9. Learnt how to raise larger VC rounds. Spoke with 50 VCs for our seed round 10 rejected without a call  25 first calls  15 did deeper diligence  6 went to IC  signed a term-sheet with 1 of them. 3 lessons: - Founder brand on linkedin is not considered a GTM channnel. - Business model change is a hard story to sell. - What VCs tweet or blog about might be very different from how they actually invest. 5/9. Data and anecdotal evidence can indicate completely opposite things. Had 2 huge cash burn spikes - reducing our runway by a lot. Everything looks perfect on spreadsheets until you start executing. Building tight processes now - for spending control and making sure money comes in on time. Small leaks sink big ships, and boy did we learn that! 6/9. Sometimes instant gratification helps. Got a new car this year. Never thought I'd care much about what I drive, but that upgrade feeling is real. 2 hours in Bengaluru traffic feels a lot more manageable now. Sure, the new car excitement fades, but those small comforts add up when you have to deal with the chaos daily. 7/9. Growing into an organization. Watched Gush maturing into a team of 200 folks (30 full-time + 170 contracted). Learning that 3 things are getting harder:  - Being as close to customers as we were on day-1 - Being as rapidly iterative as we were on day-1 - Having no blind spots in the organization 8/9. Health is your biggest asset. Got myself a personal trainer and what a difference! Used to think fitness was just about counting calories and hitting those 10k steps. Energy levels are through the roof and I'm learning there's so much more to it. 9/9. Building a solid social fabric around is key. Rekindled many old, long-lost friendships after moving back to India, had a straight impact on stress levels.

287

12 Comments

🕵‍♀️ Did you know Rare Rabbit bootstrapped its way to its first $8m revenue? With its recent Rs 500 crore funding, Rare Rabbit is gaining well-deserved attention from the investment world. This week, we're highlighting why Rare Rabbit is a “Business that just makes sense”. Founded by Manish Poddar in 2015, Rare Rabbit has leveraged his family's textile business, Radhamani Textiles, to establish a strong foundation in quality and supply chain management. 👉🏻Fundamentals Rare Rabbit focuses on high-quality, fashion-forward menswear. With 122 stores across India and a robust online presence, they combine physical and digital retail effectively. 👉🏻Growth Potential Valued at $300M, Rare Rabbit is poised to capitalize on the booming Indian menswear market. The recent ₹500 crore investment led by A91 Partners, Nikhil Kamath, and the Vedant Fashions Limited - Manyavar-Mohey family office will fuel their expansion plans. 👉🏻Financials Rare Rabbit achieved profitability in FY23 with a net profit of ₹32 crore and sales exceeding ₹350 crore. Their rapid scaling while maintaining profitability showcases their efficient operations. 👉🏻Founder's Background Manish Poddar’s experience with Radhamani Textiles provides Rare Rabbit with a competitive edge in quality and innovation. 👉🏻 Why Rare Rabbit Makes Sense Rare Rabbit’s innovative design, strong financials, and strategic growth plans make it a compelling investment opportunity. What other businesses do you think I should cover? Let me know in the comments!

14

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together" GalaxEye announced investment by MountTech Growth Fund - Kavachh, a $60 million Category-II AIF, has made its inaugural investment in GalaxEye’s $10 million Series A fundraising round. GalaxEye, founded by a dynamic and skilled team from IIT-M, is on a mission to revolutionize space-based surveillance with cutting-edge, multi-sensor (SAR and MSI) fusion technology. With the first LEO satellite launch slated for mid-2025, GalaxEye aims to meet critical security and commercial needs, showcasing the power of innovation driven by purpose and precision. This partnership exemplifies our commitment to supporting trailblazing solutions that address pressing challenges in surveillance and security. GalaxEye’s ambition to leverage SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and MSI (Multispectral Imaging) fusion for space-based surveillance aligns well with the evolving demands of both defence and commercial sectors. Their innovative approach with LEO #satellite constellations promises to address critical security and monitoring needs with unmatched precision and real-time insights. Backing a driven and skilled team like GalaxEye, rooted in a legacy of innovation like Avishkar Hyperloop, speaks volumes about the fund's dedication to fostering groundbreaking technology. This partnership not only reflects the fund's commitment to advancing national security infrastructure but also highlights a forward-looking vision that appreciates the convergence of innovation and practical impact. The anticipated satellite launch in mid-2025 is set to be a milestone in this collaborative journey, and it will be exciting to witness the tangible outcomes of this strategic alliance! #space #venturecapital #investment #india #strategic https://lnkd.in/ggZuW2xs

83

1 Comment

Mayank Bidawatka, Koo's co-founder, raised a $4M seed for his new consumer internet startup. Koo raised $50M+ before shutting down early this year. Most #founders would struggle to raise $0.5M at such an early stage. Koo's investors lost their shirts when it shut down (not literally but you get the gist). Then why are new investors backing a founder who lost other investors millions? Koo shut down and lost money. You might think this shows the founders were incompetent. VCs don't think like this. In the #VentureCapital industry, failure isn't bad. Sometimes, it's good. VCs look at Mayank and Koo in a different light. Here is a founder who raised $50M and scaled a consumer #technology startup to a certain level. He has the vision to build a product like Koo. He has the skills to hire and retain good people. He knows how to sell his story to investors. He understands what it takes to build tech #startups. VCs want these traits in founders. There must be different reasons for Koo's failure. IMO, it failed because it was a poor product harping on nationalism to find users. However, VCs backing Mayank think Koo failed because the Indian market wasn't ready for it or some other reason. They believe Mayank will be more successful this time because he knows how to build and scale consumer technology companies. VCs find this story of one billion users and a dollar opportunity credible because it comes from a celebrated founder. If it were you and me with the same product or vision, they wouldn't be so easy with capital.

303

52 Comments

VC is not rocket science but the high volume of information and the constant context switching makes it extremely difficult to manage efficiency & time. For this, I have realized that the right technology stack can be a game changer. Below are the key tools we have been using to streamline operations - sourcing, evaluation, and portfolio management. I would love recommendations on tools that might have helped others improve efficiency. 📰 Sourcing & Evaluation:- ▶ LinkedIn - Linkedin Premium & Sales Navigator are a must have to identify new founders building. ▶ Tracxn (Research Database) - With an increasing number of features, Tracxn has become the quickest go-to research tool. ▶ Taghash (CRM) - An easy to use and comprehensive CRM can save at least 1-2 hours a day. ▶ Otter.ai (Notetaking) – Seamless note taking and summary tool helps keep information organized. ▶ Phantom Buster (Lead Gen & Management) – For mass reach outs and streamlining reach outs based on key words. 📩 Communication & Co-ordination:- ▶ Calendar – I am obsessed with calendar management. While Calendly or another tool can be helpful, I use a simple google calendar to plan and colour code each day carefully. ▶Zoom – Has been instrumental in reducing travel time at least for initial due diligence. ▶ Substack – We use it for our fortnightly newsletter for mass communication and sharing industry insights. ▶ Intuit Mailchimp – More intimate communication and reporting requires carefully curated contact list. We have found mailchimp to be helpful here. 🗃 Reporting:- ▶Dropbox DocSend – Has helped in avoiding multiple email threads with different attachments while still ensuring transparency.

101

14 Comments

How do people see founders from IIT? 1. Raises investment People: "It's easy to raise money when you are from IIT" 2. Burns money People: "Investors should look beyond IIT's founders. Founders from non-IIT/IIM backgrounds would better utilise the money." 3. Build a successful company/unicorn People: "Valuation is still high. It won't sustain and will fail" 4. Shuts down after raising money People: "I told you it won't work" Meanwhile, Founders, the real ones, don't care whether they are from IIT/IIM. They keep building, keep pushing, and keep changing the world. ******* Follow Shubham Bansal for unfiltered life stories and learnings.

32

6 Comments

📣 Announcing: Fastrack to Residency through a Warm Intro If you are an exceptional founder (individual or team) that’s just starting up, Nitin Sharma & I are spending 2 full days next week at the Antler India Residency office (in Bangalore) on Aug 1st & 2nd to directly talk to you!    The only twist - you need to reach us through someone who knows you - and knows us too! Why are we doing this - we announced last month that we are investing $500k in 20 companies (amounting to $10Mn in the next 6 months). This is our endeavour to deliver faster and bigger on this promise!  What we promise - is a decision into the Residency within 24 hours of us meeting you (over one of those 2 days). Here’s how it will work -  (1) Find someone in our networks (cue: some of them would have shared this post on their LinkedIn / Twitter) or would have engaged with us in the past   (2) Show us you are super resourceful :) Ask them to email us / Whatsapp us / tweet to us / message us on LI - any of the Antler team members that they know (there’s 18 of us!) - to give a warm intro to you. Convince them to write at least a good line or two about you :)   (3) Send us your best pitch deck once we connect with you (4) All shortlisted individuals and teams (best of the best) will get a direct slot with Antler India on Aug 1/2 to meet us IRL  (5) You will get a decision to get into the Antler India Residency (for a $500k commitment) before Aug 3rd! What about the other cities - Rest assured, we plan to do this in NCR and Mumbai very soon! Looking forward to meeting many of you exceptional builders next week!

649

58 Comments

Can technical founders become effective CEOs? Srinath Sridhar knew he needed to step out of his comfort zone when he founded Regie.ai four years ago. Now he and cofounder Matt Millen have raised more than $20 million and landed on G2’s list of fastest-growing software products of 2024. My full conversation with Sri is in the comments.

33

3 Comments

"Ye maine theek toh kiya na....?" Every founder’s toughest battle? Self-doubt. As a founder I go through a series of doubts often: "Did I push the team too hard today?" "Did we make the right call on hiring or layoffs?" "Could I have handled that better?" I feel self-doubt keeps me in check and also keeps me sane! To every founder: you’re not alone in this. Keep building, keep learning. What are your thoughts around this? #startup #doubts #entrepreneurship

50

9 Comments

We've been part of this journey with Vidur Kataria Sidhanth Madan & Radhika Mittal since the pre-seed round in 2020 (also closer to heart since this was the first deal from Fund II). The investment thesis for us was always very simple - we tried cooking Chinese food at home during Covid, and all that was available was "Ching's Secret Schezwan Fried Rice Masala" & it was surprising that the second most enjoyed cuisine in the country is Chinese & we have just one brand that catered to this audience. Then we ended tasting the Masterchow sauces & we were just floored to see the difference in quality and taste. Having said that, the thesis that we believed in, didn't ring a bell with a lot of folks that we spoke to in the last 4 years. These were the top reasons why VCs hesitated -> 1) Market size is not large enough - Our belief was that the market appeared to be small, because the only brand available thus far was Ching's. Then Ching's got sold to Tata for ~5500cr, then noone questioned the market size any more. 2) Products are too expensive - Their sauces which was the first category they got into - was priced at ~Rs.240. Lot of people thought that this was expensive for India. But that was just the first category, after that in just last 2 years the founders have innovated on the product (Cup Noodles, Ramen, Chilli oil) and made products cheaper (Masterchow Staples, Chowmein, Schezwan). But I'm glad we got some believers along the way in the form of Anicut Capital LLP & Surge. And now, Tanglin Venture Partners. The founders continue to surprise everyone & I believe they'll do so in the future as well! #startup #funding #fmcg https://lnkd.in/g2wdAvmx

120

7 Comments

My brothers Devang Aggarwal Tanishq Rastogi recently started a kids clothing D2C brand Dave & Tan and while helping them plan their cashflows i created certain mental models for them. Sharing brief synopsis of the same here. There are 4 important components to Working capital: 1. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), 2. Days Payable Outstanding (DPO), 3. Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO), 4. Gross & Projected working capital DPOs: Number of days in which you pay your vendors. Ideally you should negotiate for longer payable days. If you are a high growth brand your vendor negotiation should be on point since you might be contributing a significant portion of their business and hence have leverage. Add this as a part of KRAs for your category managers and track this monthly. to drive outcome. Best brands are able to gain significant advantage here. Cash-Discount This should be coupled with negotiation for cash discounts as well. For cash-rich brands and for companies having low gross margins this can be significantly bottom line accretive. However a very fine balance is required here and also needs to be looked in conjunction with your cost of capital to avoid harming overall cycle. DIO: Number of days of inventory stored To track financial success for your business this should be one of the north stars. Your capital can get stuck in inventory very quickly before you know it and while you may generate profits on paper but be extremely cashflow negative owing to this. Often companies are very lethargic at recognising dead inventory (this is almost like NPAs for lenders). DIOs should be kept as low as possible in your business. To minimise this create a very clear inventory ageing dashboard with SKU wise ageing tracked and aggressively chase to clear out goods going above your targeted inventory turnover. You can run additional sales, run specific ads on those products, try to liquidate using B2B sellers etc. Another key component is to keep recognising dead inventory ASAP. While this may be counterproductive in the short term - however in the long term this can be significantly helpful for you to keep putting that pressure within the team and on yourself to minimise this to lead to both a healthy bottomline as well as balance sheet. DSOs : For D2C Brands : typically there are 2 primary channels - website & marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra, Zomato, Blinkit etc. While selling on own website typically the DSOs are negligible. For COD orders there might be 7-10 days settlement cycle. For marketplaces the cycle can go upto 45 days. These are typically non-negotiable and hence fixed components. Planning runway : Your runway is your cash-in bank minus the additional working capital required for growth divided by your burn if any. This is extremely critical to track for EBIDTA-negative businesses. Often founders look at cash including working capital to come up with runway which can lead to disaster.

112

7 Comments

STARTING THE YEAR WITH A ROCKING NEWS!! Faad Capital is on the list of India's top startup investors of 2024 by Inc42 Media . 🙌 With 42 investments and over 50 CR deployed last year, we have continued our journey to support many notable companies and entrepreneurs.✅ Also, the year saw eight successful exits, strengthening our quest to create high-value capital for our LPs and stakeholders. 💰 All this would not have been possible without the support of rockstar partners, investors and stakeholders. 🙏 At 110+ portfolio companies now, we are all set. 2025, here we come! 💪 #startups #india #investors Karan Verma Dr.Dinesh Singh Neha Mourya Sanyam Jain Vatsal Lunawat Shivani Khare Abhilash Gupta Vansh Mittal

182

59 Comments

{New pod 🎤} "𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 0-𝐭𝐨-1 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐔𝐒-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐯 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩" This episode is an in-depth discussion of going 0-to-1 as a US-India dev tool startup. We cover everything from how to identify market gaps, ways to think about dev tools MVPs, leveraging the India developer market to build global products, comparing various GTM channels like Hacker News, GitHub, Reddit, LinkedIn & open-source communities, learnings from shuttling between the US and India and finally, harnessing the power of open-source. Joining me for this discussion is Pranay Prateek, co-founder of SigNoz, an open-source observability platform that is native to OpenTelemetry and provides logs, traces, and metrics in a single pane of glass. He has been a developer in the past, worked in product roles in companies like Microsoft, and is a champion of open-source. TIME STAMPS: (00:47) Introduction to Observability (04:50) Identifying market gaps in dev tools (07:43) Leveraging the India developer market to build global dev tools (12:44) Acquiring the first set of US design partners as a US-India dev tool startup (17:34) Scoping out dev tools MVPs (28:36) GTM models for open-source dev tool startups (41:34) Learnings from shuttling between the US and India as a dev tools founder (49:41) Is YC relevant and helpful for US-India dev tool founders? (54:48) Harnessing the power of open-source in a dev tools startup YouTube - https://lnkd.in/g98wXYcT Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gH9Vkxq9 Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gbc8je-j An Operator's Blog - https://lnkd.in/gEaf5sX3

21

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

Recently I read about an ex-founder alleging fraud by co-founders and Tier I VCs. While the cases are under judicial review, such disputes are disheartening. But they’re also part of the long and evolving journey of India’s startup ecosystem. We’ve faced a couple of disputes among founders in our portfolio as well. What matters is how we learn from these situations and focus on building stronger governance and trust. Even in comparatively mature ecosystems like the US, disputes have happened, but they’ve always bounced back stronger. I hope 2025 will be a year of growth and constructive progress for Indian startups. #VC #Startups #Governance #Collaboration #Innovation

34

5 Comments

Catch me and Rajinder discuss Sumit Chhazed and Harsh Saruparia's journey of scaling OTO to a leading 2W commerce + financing platform in the country. Sumit and Harsh's focus on providing a seamless consumer experience (discovery + "Amazon-like" buying journey) coupled with innovative financing options has enabled OTO to sell 1 Lakh+ 2Ws in a short span of time. Some ingredients of their success captured below: >> Founders' obsession to disrupt a large, yet under-served space seeing massive tailwinds (changing buyer demographics, premiumization, EV penetration etc.) >> Conviction in building a "full-stack model" from day 1 >> Enabling "win-win-win" partnerships between brands/OEMs, dealers and financiers >> Building a robust and scalable commerce stack to handle the operational nuances of a 2W purchase + financing journey >> The team's past experience, that helped them gain a "right-to-win" for the re-sale leg of the business >> A frugal, cost-conscious mindset and company culture Link to the episode below Sumit Chhazed Harsh Saruparia Vikram Vaidyanathan Rajinder Balaraman Matrix Partners India #MatrixMoments

45