Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan (Rajan)

✨ Chet Kapoor ✨ is quite the Silicon Valley legend. Three-time founder and currently the CEO of DataStax his wisdom for founders is incredibly spot-on ✅ and timeless ⏰ ! In this most recent and probably best-ever episode of The Enterprise GTM podcast, Chet discusses what it takes to build enduring tech companies. Some 🎤 soundbites 🎤 from our conversation: 👩‍🏫 The quality of people influences the outcome of your startup the most. 🔥 You do not need smart people who sit around and pontificate. ☄ Momentum is everything. Never underestimate it. 🌟 Having complete clarity of thought at any given time is very important--who are you doing this for, and how will it change their lives? 🌈 One of the best ways to create a large company is to create a parade or join one. ☝ Know who you are. There's a high likelihood that the company will become more like who you are rather than who you want to be. 🛑 Don't make the mistake of hiring sales execs too soon. Be extra cautious about partnerships. 📣 Tune in to hear about what he has to say about AI startups getting started today, the future of the data layer, the evolving importance of data roles (data science, data engineering), and so much more! #devtool #founder #startup #data #ai https://lnkd.in/gW-58nvE

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its not just about VC/investor appetite for more mature start-ups where the risk is relatively less, its the turn now of VCs being treated the same by LPs. very likely to happen in India as well if not already happening. The infamous long tail in VC universe is very much going to be a reality.

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Wow, great stuff on this first episode. I got the run down from Ataes Aggarwal and Arya Satish, and I see that critically important business and life topics will be covered in this podcast series. Follow, tune in, and spread the word. PSA: Some super thoughtful and practical content to be had here with this podcast. 🙌

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I had a lot of fun recording a podcast episode with Shiva Singh Sangwan. We discussed the evolution of Humba Ventures & Susa Ventures; tips for raising and building a fund; how to improve investment sourcing & picking; the role of luck in investing, and so on. https://lnkd.in/eiqsStej

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Continuously learning on the job and reflecting on those learnings are important for personal growth. Another important thing is to pen down those reflections once in a while. This is a nice short read from Kaushik with candid reflections of an operator to VC transition with insightful nuggets for anyone who may be new at that intersection or for first/second time founders. #venturecapital #operator #founders

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SolarSquare Energy is the largest installer and operator of distributed solar assets in India, and has become one of my favorite case studies of *nailing* product-market fit within the Lowercarbon Capital portfolio. This week, they announced a $40M Series B funding round led by our friends over at Lightspeed - it's go time, chalo! India is the world's fastest growing residential solar market, with more roofs and more sun than just about anywhere on the planet. There's a whole lot of room to run - only 1M homes have been solarized to date out of the 50M ready to install. Add that up, and we see a $100B prize up for grabs by the end of the decade. The jalebi on top? The Indian government has strategically accelerated this industry by rolling out subsidies, reducing permitting friction, and enshrining net metering as a legal right. Solar Square is in the right place at the right time. Huge congrats to Shreya Mishra, Neeraj Jain, Nikhil Nahar, and the entire team. If anyone is looking to join the next Indian unicorn at the center of the global energy transition, look no further. #tech #climatetech #climate #energy #energytransition #solar #electrification #india #emergingmarkets

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I recently reviewed a term sheet with a portfolio founder for a priced seed round from a new investor. We’d led their pre-seed round and there was a specific provision in the seed term sheet that the founder was adamant about pushing back on - founder revesting. and my advice surprised him. I pointed out that not only was this term not harmful, in fact it was beneficial and meant to protect him in the long run. Often times, included in early stage term sheets is a provision requiring founders to revest their shares - typically another 4 years. The purpose of this is to mitigate the potential for "dead equity" on a cap table. When a departed founder owns a meaningful stake but is no longer actively working on the business it can be demotivating for the remaining founding team and also make raising additional capital very challenging. The initial reaction for most founders is to push back on this term - and logically it makes sense - they've already vested a fair amount of equity and don't see why they should start over. The longer you sit in a VC chair you tend to see every iteration of founder dynamics play out. Founder departures are fairly common- they happen for all different reasons/circumstances, but in nearly all cases founders should want the lions share of the equity to be in the hands of the individual founders that are still meaningfully contributing to the success of the business as it scales. Sheel Mohnot at Better Tomorrow Ventures recently wrote a great piece related to this topic, focused on initial founder vesting schedules. He recommend founders set an 8 year vesting schedule at inception, which I think is an interesting direction seasoned founders could head in.

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During yesterday's LibreQoS APNIC webinar, I posed the question: won't more bandwidth solve these problems? As Herbert Wolverson said, yes, more bandwidth is good, but, still these problems remain if queueing is done incorrectly. Here's my take on why bandwidth alone is not as good as bandwidth + good queueing policies: Generally it was believed that 'data is important, so don't throw it away; hang on to it and send it later'. In practice, this has proven to be suboptimal as two issues may emerge: 1) latency increases for some flows due to heavy demand from other flows using the same bottleneck link, 2) even a single flow can have excessive latency due to aspects of typical TCP behavior (referred to bufferbloat) when the buffers grew large enough that the data being buffered was retransmitted anyway. It turns out that not all data is equally important. Active Queue Management is the art of deciding priorities, both in deciding what data to throw away, but also in allowing some later arriving data to be transmitted ahead of data in another connection that arrived before it. These problems have been studied, and good solutions have been found by using certain queueing policies in routers and switches, referred to as “fq_codel’ and “cake”. These track the different flows not by classifying the data, but by watching the behavior. Flows that send relatively little data (DNS lookups), or at a measured pace (video chat) have priority over flows that send a lot of data as quickly as possible (App and System updates, Video and ISO downloads).

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Tech of today was at some point of time considered as DeepTech. This evolution happens gradually, powered by visionary innovators and supportive investors who pave the way forward. Today, India stands in a unique position—not only to drive groundbreaking innovation and attract top talent but to do so at a significantly lower cost than in other markets. At Aeravti Ventures, we are continuously inspired by the innovation potential of the Indian founders and are thrilled to be at the forefront of it. Below is the link of the The Economic Times article in collaboration with Ankit K. of Capital-A https://lnkd.in/gPhJ3pyk

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DePIN & RWAs dominance isn't as far off as most people think. Across every innovative cycle, three fundamental pillars emerge: foundational technology development, proliferation of infrastructure, and a surge in application development. As we venture into the third cycle, DePIN and RWA protocols are poised to become market leaders paralleling the dominance witnessed by infrastructure projects from 2015 to 2024.

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🚀 Exciting News! Medial Raises $500K in Pre-Series A Funding 🎉 We’re thrilled to announce that Medial has successfully raised $500,000 in our Pre-Series A funding round, led by Ortella Global Capital - OG Capital, India's only fund that co-builds companies, co-founded by Rajvardhan Mohite and Sayan Ghosh - OG Capital. At Medial, our mission is to create an integrated professional ecosystem for the startup and tech community. Over the past few months, we’ve built a tight-knit and highly engaged community of 100,000 users, with 10,000+ Daily Active Users, all working together to share ideas, gain insights, and drive innovation. 🌟 Why Medial? The internet lacks a dedicated space for startups and tech professionals to grow and collaborate without toggling between multiple platforms. That’s the gap we’re solving—by offering: Real-time curated updates on the startup ecosystem. A social feed for deep, meaningful discussions. Startup Showcase to pitch, validate ideas, and gather feedback. With an early focus on monetization and profitability, we’re proud to share that Medial is on track to achieve profitability within the next two quarters. A huge thank you to our users, team, and investors for believing in our vision and helping us scale a platform that prioritizes meaningful connections, growth, and innovation for professionals worldwide. This won’t have been possible without my co-founders Prateek Kaien, Aishwarya Raj Pandey and Harsh Dwivedi and their deep obsession about Medial and its users. Our team which is probably the most hardworking and passionate set of youngsters who deeply care about the mission - Aditi Rajesh, Vaibhav Jaiswal, Sumanta Sarkar, Shivadharsinii S, Harsh Pardikar, Ayush Tripathi, Varun B., Tanvi Bharti, Anurag Prasoon. This wouldn’t have been possible without the early backing of Prateek Agarwal (Pre-seed investor) who led our pre-seed round when we just had a plan on paper. His immense early faith in us and our mission has taken us a long way. Our product is sticky and our users love because of the constant mentorship and advice from my favourite mentor Ranjeet Pratap Singh. Thank you so much for your valuable insights and teaching us so much about consumer internet and UGC. Also, cheers to the new partnership with Sayan Ghosh - OG Capital and Rajvardhan Mohite. Hoping to skyrocket from here. 🚀 This is just the beginning. Together, let’s redefine how the startup and tech ecosystem connects, builds, and thrives. 🌐 👉 Learn more about Medial: https://medial.app #Medial #StartupFunding #TechEcosystem #Startups #Innovation #Networking #SeriesA Press Release- https://lnkd.in/gmDd_n5n

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Great Insights from Vinod Khosla's Talk on Investor Value: 🔸 90% of Investors add No value, and 70% actually add negative value. Real value comes from experience, not credentials. 1. Simply having an MBA or working at a venture firm doesn’t qualify someone to guide entrepreneurs. 2. Those who haven't built a large company or gone through the uncertainties and traumas of entrepreneurship are often unqualified to advise. 3. If you’ve never been in the trenches making tough trade-offs, you can’t effectively help an entrepreneur. 🔸 Pick investors who can help – not those just with experience in stability. 4. Investors who are comfortable with uncertainty and first-principles thinking. 5. Look for investors who prioritize learning and adaptability over rigid experience. 6. Do not choose an investor who only understands incremental change, not disruptive innovation. Khosla’s Final Advice to Entrepreneurs: 7. Don’t Overvalue Experience: Just because someone has worked in a big company or has a prestigious title doesn’t mean they’re equipped to handle the fast-moving, unpredictable nature of startups. 8. Look for Problem Solvers: Investors who can deconstruct challenges to their fundamental components and find creative solutions are more valuable than those offering "tried and tested" advice that doesn’t fit your unique situation. 9. Adaptability Over Stability: The best investors will challenge your thinking, help you discover new approaches, and aren’t afraid of making bold decisions—just like you need to be as an entrepreneur. Apply first principles when choosing. Choose wisely!! https://lnkd.in/gV6rG6NJ #FirstPrinciplesThinking #Entrepreneurship#StartupAdvice #InvestorInsights #LearningOverExperience #BoldDecisions

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Episode 341 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Somak Chattopadhyay, Managing Partner at Armory Square Ventures. Yes, markets like the Bay Area, NYC, and Boston get a lot of attention when it comes to building startups and having the ability to raise capital, but there are lots of other places to build a successful company. This has always been the case, but the pandemic definitely pushed this reality further.  This is why a firm like Amory Square Ventures exists. There are lots of secondary markets where entrepreneurs need access to capital and it is also a very important matter for the local economy for these companies to grow and create jobs, versus relocating. Somak shares the details of what led him down the path to start Armory Square Ventures, a seed and early stage venture fund, and why their approach of investing in seconday markets has not only been a differentiator for their firm but what they also consider as an optimism engine and a community catalyst for regions outside Silicon Valley. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Advice on how founders can push back on advice from investors. * Somak’s background story and his early career in startups. * How he landed in venture capital at Edison Ventures and Tribeca Venture Partners. * The details on what they are targeting for investments and portfolio company examples like Machinery Partner and ACV Auctions, a Buffalo company that went public. * Somak’s anti-portfolio, companies that he reviewed and an investment didn’t work out and went on to be a successful company. * Advice on building a marketplace. * And so much more. #venturecapital #startups #marketplaces

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🚀 Insights from Venture Collision Conf Today! 🚀 Privileged to learn from industry leaders at today's event: Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of Web Summit, Rashmi Gopinath from B Capital and Shailesh Lakhani from Peak XV Partners. Here are some key takeaways: - Rise in Bootstrapping startups: More bootstrapping startups this year than ever, emphasizing a trend towards building with limited external funding. - Secondary Market Activity: The secondary market is more active this year, reflecting dynamic investment strategies compared to last year. - Engineering Talent: Strong engineering talent is crucial for building successful teams. Talent hotspots include the Bay Area, Beijing/China, and India. - Capital Dynamics: The excess capital raised in 2021 and 2022 has intensified competition in certain sectors, diluting opportunities and leading to an unsustainable environment. A return to stability will take time. Grateful to everyone who shared valuable insights today! #Venture #collision2024 #Startups #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #TechTrends

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The Council's first SPV of 2024 is down in the books and oversubscribed. Running SPVs where we have pro rata or extra allocation in fund deals is a muscle we are building pretty late in the game as a firm. As a solo GP with a tiny team, it's crippling to think of the extra work required and risk of not meeting platform minimums to run an SPV. But 7 of our port co's have recently raised follow on funding where we had pro rata. These are awesome deals for our LPs, angel members, and syndicate community. We simply can't afford to let them slip through the cracks. These allocations are only becoming more valuable as our firm grows, so we must start NOW! Proud to say this one went off without a hitch and our syndicate community is small but THRIVING. Wish us luck as we keep building. Note our SPVs are now on Sydecar. The best way to get access is to know someone on The Council Fund team and be on our SPV email list. **What's an SPV?** An SPV is a Special Purpose Vehicle. It allows multiple angel investors to pool together into one larger investment into a company. This helps the founder keep paperwork and investor relations to a minimum (less names on the cap table = simplicity!). When people say they're investing with a "syndicate" or they are "syndicating a deal," SPV is the entity and process by which they do that. A "syndicate" is like a community of people that invest via SPVs together.

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I first met Mike Maples, Jr in 2010, when Founders Network was just an idea. Over the years, Mike and his team at Floodgate (special shoutout to Arjun Chopra) have been great mentors, sharing their insights and guiding our founders. Most recently, their advice played a pivotal role in helping us launch Founders Network Fund. Today, Mike shared the key ideas with FN'ers from his new book Pattern Breakers (https://a.co/d/buKBd5O ), which explores the insights he’s gained from backing companies like Twitter, Twitch, and Okta -- and which put him on the Forbes Midas List 8x. This is the most important book on startups in the last ten years, according to Steve Blank. My notes on the key concepts of his talk: 1) Inflections – "not a trend but a change event that represents a turning point in our ability to provide empowerment." e.g. The GPS chip in iPhone 4s 2) Insights – "a non-consensus and right insight about the future that's powerful and non obvious and leverages inflections." e.g. Lyft = GPS + strangers driving you 3) Founder future fit – "Living in the future before other people live in the future and then try to build what's missing in the future." If you're a founder, check out the book. Grateful for the impact Mike and Arjun continue to have on both me and the Founders Network community!

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Venture capital exists to capitalize and create hallmark entrepreneurial business building stories, and this one, from Eric Tarczynski, Founder of Contrary, one of the earliest investors in Indian commerce start-up Zepto, is one of those outstanding stories and a must-read below! The growth and progress of this Indian start-up are truly remarkable, especially given it was only founded in 2021! Zepto recently raised $665 million in a new round of funding, more than doubling its valuation to $3.6 billion from $1.4 billion in less than a year, as the #Mumbai-based startup doubles down on its efforts to capture the contested quick commerce market in #India. US-based Glade Brook Capital Partners LLC, Nexus Venture Partners and StepStone Group co-led the “highly-oversubscribed” Series F round. Avenir, Lightspeed India and Avra (former Y Combinator Continuity exec Anu Hariharan’s new fund) as well as existing backers Goodwater, Lachy Groom and Contrary followed. It is clear that US investors are still active and keen on the India start-up market. The startup said its revenue has risen 140% from a year earlier, and its annualized gross merchandise value (GMV) is on track to exceed $1 billion. It works with more than 50,000 delivery partners and is adding over 5,000 delivery partners each month. The company said about 75% of its dark stores were EBITDA positive as of last month. Congratulations Eric Tarczynski and the Zepto Team! #fundraising #indianmarket #venturecapital #earlystage #indianentrepreneeurs #capitalmarkets #highgrowth #unicorns #seed

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Excited to announce the launch of Bracket by BoldCap 🚀 India's first Go-To-Market platform for entrepreneurs building global AI companies. For the past year, Bracket has been exclusively supporting our portfolio founders to tackle the complexities of scaling AI-native products in the global market, especially North America. Today, I am excited to launch Bracket; to provide all AI builders with the same GTM accessibility.. 🎯 The new landscape shift has made it absolutely clear that traditional SaaS playbooks no longer fit the bill for AI-native products. We are redefining this through Bracket – our closely curated community of 50+ GTM operators across North America and Europe who offer the resources, networks, and the new-age playbooks that founders need in their $0-$1M journey of building an AI company from India to the world. 🌍 We work with some of the smartest minds in GTM globally– from the Revenue director at Clari, Pricing leader at DocuSign, GTM leader at Databricks, Sales leader at Outreach to Growth Leader at Snowflake and many more– all exceptionally talented operators who have built multiple GTM motions from scratch and are now committed to support the upcoming generation of entrepreneurs along with us. We deeply believe this is what our ecosystem needs: accessibility to the right leaders in the global market, and we aim to bridge this for Indian founders. Thanks to our early GTM partners Jyoti Swarnkar Samuel Sunderaraj Kiran Surapaneni Merritt Baer Murali K Atul Sahai Ramana Narayanam Sara Archer Sara Jones Shiv Sundar Stan Rymkiewicz Andreas Drakos Andres Lozano Sanudo Ashwath M. Brant W. Cody Harris Connor Williams Daniil Krets Jake Haselden Jeff de Ruyter Karthik Ramamoorthy Kevin Flitcroft Laura Handy LeeRon Yahalomi Paul McGhee Shane O'Neill (and the list goes on.... unfortunately not able to tag more) who shaped Bracket into a powerful community along with us. Big shout out to Aditi Gera for all her effort on putting this together and to the rest of the BoldCap team Shiv Tayal Pratham Chadha Kevin D'Souza. Thank you Bhuvana Kamath and YourStory Media for this exclusive coverage - https://lnkd.in/gZBXTsmv If you're founder in the AI software space, we are excited to work with you! BoldCap

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