Depending upon who do you ask the question, the answer to “Indian Startup ecosystem has a shortage of good quality?” would oscillate between kick-ass investors and great customers. While the presence of both is crucial to validate the success of the startup, founders always seem to be cut-off from both of kick-ass investors. With India poised towards climbing up the entrepreneurial ladders, no...
Health warning: this post is slightly longer than the regular articles as the subject calls upon a more detailed discussion of the issues, so please be patient and read on! Our start-up ecosystem has come leaps and bounds over the past few years, the sheer development can be measured by the rising number of early stage investments, the increase in the number accelerators and the number of wannabe...
After our 1st session of #AngelOfficeHours in Bangalore, Our next Angel Investor Office Hours will be in Mumbai on 22nd January 2013 at the Mumbai Angels office at 111, Industrial Area, Hindustan Minerals Compound, Next to Chroma Store, Cinemax Lane, Sion East, Mumbai 400022. Seasoned Angel Investors Anil Joshi and Ajeet Khurana of Mumbai will offer 8 Startups a chance to pitch to them. Startups...
Following up on this post by Mukund Mohan, the first session of the office hours will be held on 8th January (Tuesday) at the Microsoft Accelerator (Lavelle Road, Bangalore) from 3PM – 5PM. 4 startups that apply on a first come first serve basis will be given a chance to meet, pitch and take feedback from Anil Joshi from Mumbai Angels or if you are really good, Anil might agree to fund you...
How to hack your seed round in India, got 63 emails, comments and twitter messages asking me to take the post to its next logical step. The 3 biggest issues entrepreneurs raised were: 1. They dont have the email addresses of these angel investors. Even if they did send them an email, responses were slow or went into a “black hole”. 2. The angel networks in particular have a fairly arduous process...
This is another post to force the debate. I have heard many Indian entrepreneurs say that they would rather be funded by a US investor than and Indian investor. In fact most would prefer specific Silicon Valley investors. There are many pros and cons to both Indian and Silicon Valley investors. Lets do the valley first. Pros: 1. Investors move quickly. They make no decisions fast and yes...
I came across this rather misleading article by a New Investor in town, that India has a Series A drought. I think its a bit sensationalist and misleading and drinks a bit of his own coolaid and shifts blames on others, but I’d agree with the article on one count – Yes there is a drought. I am going to start this off on the right foot. This whole venture funding phenomenon is about at the best 15...
I’ve spent a decent amount of time in India over the past few months. Most recently, I spent a little over two weeks of August meeting with founders and investors in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Goa. A couple of observations in no particular order: Indian founders don’t have clear role models… at least not within the Indian startup ecosystem. That being said, that will likely change over the next...
Like you, I assumed that all VC’s are risk takers. I mean as an asset class if you have to provide the highest returns over the long term, I would suspect you have to take big risks to get big returns. The average Indian bank has been giving around 8% annual returns on FD (source), real estate returns about 13%, and gold loan providers will give you close to 15% I am told. So, VC as an investment...
