Vandit Jain

Who would invest in founders who have wasted $50M? Koo, an Indian microblogging platform, recently shut shop after raising $50M in capital. Everyone has their views on why Koo failed. IMO, the biggest reason behind its failure was a lack of PMF (Product Market Fit). Koo spent much money on marketing and didn’t build a product people wanted. It kept harping on nationalism, a Twitter for Indians, made in #India. This approach failed. However, this doesn’t mean Koo’s founders aren’t smart or intelligent. I wrote in an earlier post that we shouldn’t be surprised if Koo’s founders raise fresh capital for a new startup. To many of us, this might seem grossly unfair. Millions of smart, hardworking founders are struggling to raise capital while investors are backing failed founders who have wasted millions of dollars. How is that fair? It confirms the widely held belief that the #venturecapital industry is broken and corrupt where a few people with the right connections get all the capital while others don’t see a dime. It shows that the VC industry is a closed group, a cabal where who you know matters more than anything. While these are just complaints, most people who criticise VCs don’t understand how startup investing works. VCs welcome failures. They embrace them because they know failures are inevitable. When VCs invest in 20 #startups, they know 15 will fail. The goal is to invest in startups that can give them a 100x return. Failures are part of the game. They are unavoidable. The aim is to back founders who can build such 100x return companies. Hence, failures are not looked down upon in the VC industry. It’s similar to the American culture where society appreciates the people who take risks, and it easily accepts personal bankruptcies that result from this risk-taking approach. There’s no taboo in failing in the USA and the VC industry. I’m sure Koo’s founders have learnt from their mistakes. It’s an expensive mistake and not everyone is so lucky to have this luxury to spend $50M on their education. ;) However, most VCs will back Koo’s #founders because these founders know how to raise capital and they know how to not build and scale tech companies. Their past failures have improved their chances of future success. In the VC industry, Failure is Good.

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Indian venture market has exploded. Someone reported that there are 800+ funds/networks/syndicates/ accelerators active in Indian venture market now. Not sure, if that number is correct but if you are an early stage tech founder on your fundraise journey, chances are, you would meet hundreds of people. While majority of the fund houses are doing incredible work and shaping the ecosystem. There are certain kinds of investors you need to identify & avoid to save time and stay focused: Sharing from my personal experience, top 5 such cohorts to avoid and the takeaways for the founders: 1. Data collectors: At early stage, you don't have historical data to present. Your projections are just that, Projections. I wasted one whole week discussing with a prospective angel investor on why the CLTV to CAC ratio is x, and not y. Takeaway: Discuss high level strategic numbers only without going into the details. None of the projections would be accurate anyway when rubber hits the road. 2. Document collectors: Met few folks, who would watch from the fences and ask for n number of documents, data rooms, statements without sharing the purpose of the ask or even revealing their investment intent. Takeaway: It is supposed to be a bi-directional conversation. Say 'no' often, till the time, an official relationship is established. 3. Valuer (! investor): At early stage, valuation is a function of multiple parameters, the opportunity itself, the team, or anything else except steady cash flows, because you don't have much. I wasted another week with a prospective investor trying to justify valuation, had to shut down that conversation, after both of us started quoting Aswath Damodaran and his valuation principles. Takeaway: Too much content on the internet for both parties anyway. Shouldn't be a bone of contention at early stages. 4. Facilitators posing as investors: Met numerous people, who would go to any lengths to pose themselves as serious investors, even buying paid media articles. Only to reveal at the last: The success fee. Takeaway: Avoid facilitators until Series A 5. Brokers posing as market makers: People posing as market makers sharing tons of gyaan on LinkedIn but are actually deal brokers looking to make quick %. Personal experience: Two rounds of conversation happened and then out of blue, they added a third party in the mail trail, someone who facilitates mergers & acquisitions. There wasn't even a single instance in the past conversations where we indicated any such intent. Takeaway: Avoid name & shame in public but at least share within founder communities. #venture #fundraise #startups #investing

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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.

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Top News of the Week in Indian Startup Ecosystem: 1. The week saw the first mega funding deal materialise for an Indian startup in the form of healthtech unicorn Innovaccer’s $275 Mn Series F fundraise. 2. On the back of this, healthtech emerged as the most funded startup sector this week. Besides Innovaccer, BrainSinghtAI and Zoplar also raised $5 Mn and $3.4 Mn this week. 3. Fintech, cleantech and ecommerce all saw three funding deals materialise this week, leading to fresh capital infusion of $48.9 Mn, $14.2 Mn and $13.3 Mn respectively. 4.  After months of speculations, Ritesh Agarwal increased his stake in his startup OYO with a capital infusion of $65 Mn via his venture capital firm Redsprig Innovation Partners. This funding round made travel tech the second most funded sector this week. 5. This week’s most active investor was VC firm Alteria Capital, investing in BrainSightAI’s $5 Mn pre-Series A funding round and Pratilipi’s $1.2 Mn funding round. 6. Eyewear major Lenskart is said to have initiated talks with bankers for a $1 Bn IPO that could value it in the range of $7 Bn to $8 Bn. Its IPO could hit the Indian bourses toward the end of the next financial year. Read the full post on link below Stay up do that with the Indian startup ecosystem on Medial.

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New Delhi-based venture capital firm growX ventures, focused on B2B and DeepTech, has launched Fund II with a target of ₹400 crore ($47.1 million). The firm plans to support both early-stage and early-growth-stage companies such as semiconductors, defence-tech, spacetech, alternate materials and advanced manufacturing, fintech, healthtech, and supply chain/logistics over the next two to three years. The first investment will be up to ₹10 crore in seed rounds and ₹20-30 crore in Series B rounds. Ashish Taneja To share your startup information write us on - [email protected] For Startup funding reach out us at: https://lnkd.in/gqwTnHME Join Our Whatsapp Channel To Get The Latest Updates & News: https://lnkd.in/esJEFzan #GrowXventure #news #startup #funding #fundraising #venturecapital

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Can you think of a business that runs on a 0-day working capital cycle? PharmEasy saw a 90% valuation cut last year, from its peak of ~$6B. Practo, and MFine are also struggling. Online medicine delivery is tough because, unlike #ecommerce , people don’t buy medicines for discounts. It is a very high-trust transaction, hence offline any day triumphs. That’s why most #medicine delivery startups have started to foray into a slightly higher margin and to some extent broken #business : Lab testing. Pharmeasy had acquired Thyrocare to up its lab testing game. You would get a lot of promotional messages on Practo, MediBuddy and other teleconsultation #apps to carry out tests from their app. But if one player has cracked and monopolised this #market, it is Dr Lal Pathlabs. Dr Lal PathLabs has ~6000 diagnostic centres across India that provide 5000+ tests. Out of these ~3000 tests no other path lab provides(high EBITDA margin). It does about ~Rs 3000 Cr in revenue and is a market leader in lab testing and pathology #business. So how Dr Lal manage to do so? Lab testing is an extremely fragmented market with local players almost holding ~85% of the market. It is also a very difficult business. Unlike the US, where it's more of a B2B business and insurance companies directly tie up labs and strike bulk deals. India is a B2C #market, where most of the time the final consumer pays for every test. Hence managing working capital is difficult and critical. That’s where Dr Lal triumphs. Working Capital Cycle is: Average Receivables Period + Average Inventory Period - Average Payables Period A longer cycle is not favourable for any #company because it ties up capital for a long time without generating any return. Receivables are solved because every time you take a test, you pay money upfront. Hence it is 0 in most cases. Managing inventory is very tricky. Every test involves 3-4 inventory items. For 5000 tests across 6000 centres becomes a herculean task. Dr Lal follows a different model. What it does is, it aggregates demand from a bunch of its test centres and then places a bulk order. Its #technology allows to get a real-time analysis of inventory across each of its centres. Hence with so much data it predicts the combined inventory required across, multiple centres and gives bulk order. Since it gives such large orders, it is able to strike deals with suppliers for larger credit cycles (larger payable days). The higher days of inventory is compensated by a higher payable day. Hence it is able to operate at a 0-day working capital cycle, compared to its competitors with 15-20 day cycle. It is also a formidable #wealth creator. It operates at an ROCE of 20-25% and has almost tripled its stock price in the last three years. Do you think the new-age teleconsultation/medicine delivery #startups will be able to compete with Dr Lal Pathlabs? #kneeledge

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AI-powered blue-collar recruitment platform Vahan.ai has raised $10 Mn (INR 83.7 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by existing backer Khosla Ventures.  The round also saw participation from Y Combinator, Gaingels and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma among others 👇 The latest round takes the startup’s cumulative funding to $18 Mn till date, including $8 Mn and an undisclosed amount raised in 2021 and 2019, respectively. Vahan seeks to use the fresh money to develop its AI recruitment technology, which will support eight major Indian languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Bangla and Gujarati. Currently, Vahan’s AI recruiter conducts interviews in English and Hindi. However, within the next year, the platform will expand into other languages To read the in-depth article, click here: https://lnkd.in/gSrziXGT #news #AI #startup #funding

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Sujith Nair, Beckn's WhatsApp-averse, badminton-loving chief mover and shaker, gave us a peek into the world's first # e-commerce protocol. Imagine if Colgate wanted to sell a lot of toothpaste, would it open separate exclusive stores on every street? NO! Instead, it ensures its products are available in all stores where people come to shop, and not just toothpaste. Similarly, Beckn is a way for an online business to make its products and services available on other stores (popular daily-use consumer apps) instead of setting up its own store (its own consumer app) and waiting for customers to come in droves! The Beckn Protocol underpins Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC) and is a universal translator for e-commerce platforms. We would normally call it the Rosetta Stone for digital services, but now we have BHASHINI 😉 . It allows disparate systems to "speak" to each other seamlessly. The Beckn Protocol has become a verb in the tech world. "Just Beckn it!" has become a common phrase among developers when discussing open-source solutions for digital commerce. In fact, we like it so much that we are using Beckn use cases as our episode artwork (instead of our normal groovy cover art) to spread the word in our own little way. Some may even argue that the yellow and black in the artwork denote open mobility networks (read taxis) 😀. The even more nerdy might catch the movie reference in the title 🎬. So, is it an app? Is it an aggregator? Is it a platform? No. It is a Super Capability - #decentralised and #open. Listen, learn and use. sujith nair | Pramod Varma | Sanjay Purohit | Shankar Maruwada | Shireesh Joshi | T Koshy | Namma Yatri | FIDE | Antler | Bingepods (Ideabrew Studios) | OpenExO | Thinkers360 | IBM Alumni | Microsoft Alumni Network | The RSA (The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce) | World Economic Forum | Digital India Corporation | nasscom | Abhishek Singh | Nilesh | Sheetal https://lnkd.in/dydrjnbU

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Highperformr.ai, a marketing SaaS startup floated by former Freshworks executives Ramesh Ravishankar and Srivatsan Venkatesan, has raised $3.5 Mn (INR 29.2 Cr) in a seed funding round 👇 The startup’s first product, Highperformr for Teams, leverages generative AI and LLMs to help B2B businesses maximise their return on investment (ROI) on social media campaigns. The fresh capital will be deployed to further the startup's research and development activity, build the platform's native AI capabilities, and expand its distribution network. To read more in detail, click here: https://lnkd.in/gV8tqWyU #startups #fundraising #growth #saas

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{New pod 🎤} "𝐆𝐓𝐌 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐔𝐒-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐁2𝐁 𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬" This episode explores GTM strategies and learnings for US-India B2B SaaS startups. We cover everything from finding design partners in the US, scoping MVPs, figuring out what ICP to focus on, navigating the unique challenges of early PMF, GTM hiring in the US, and finally, working towards creating M&A exit options. Joining me for this discussion is Satya Ganni, an experienced SaaS founder and operator who has successfully built and sold five companies and led two acquisitions as a buyer. He is currently serving as CEO of Beamer and Userflow. Beamer is developing a cutting-edge product-led growth toolkit tailored to product leaders at SaaS and digital-first companies. They recently acquired Userflow to augment the business. TIME STAMPS: (01:15) Satya’s journey as a repeat US-India SaaS founder and operator (04:38) [Case Study: 0-to-1] Finding US design partners (11:09) Scoping B2B SaaS MVPs (15:42) [Case Study: $10k-100k ARR] Identifying which ICP to focus on - SMB vs mid-market vs enterprise (22:23) [Case Study: $100k-$1Mn ARR] Navigating the unique challenges of early PMF (27:18) [Case Study: $1-5Mn ARR] Building a US leadership team post-PMF (34:33) [Case Study: $5-20Mn ARR] Working towards creating M&A exit options  (38:46) Learning to become a proactive relationship builder YouTube - https://lnkd.in/guGQeBwA Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gAg7XeF4 Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gkYEDpED An Operator's Blog - https://lnkd.in/ggGbzSKY

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While going through the YC S24 batch, I couldn’t resist making my own list of top picks. These are based on what gets me excited—industry potential, founder-market fit, team chemistry, and that compelling founder story. If your favorite isn’t here, don’t take it personally. Every company in the batch is phenomenal. But hey, I can’t put all 254 on my list! So yeah—here’s my top 10 picks for YC S24 batch (in no particular order): • Blaze (YC S24) by Faiyam Rahman, Luc Succes, and Igor Zagnieński - Global venmo for cross border payments. • Cartage by Abdul Basharat, Harman Sahota and Josh Lampen - Your end-to-end logistics partner that delivers beyond freight - speed, transparency, and peace of mind shippers count on. • Modus by Lin Ling and Amar K. - Unlock revenue per employee with AI powered headcount management. • Decisional AI (YC S24) by Sai Neeraj Kanuri, Adit S. and Dhruv Tandon - AI Agent that helps Financial Professionals do deep thoughtful financial work. • Merlin AI (YC S24) by Kumar Siddhartha, Ayantika Dey , and Sneha Kumari - the AI-powered ERP for construction. • Dimely (YC S24) by David Pang and Peter S. - An AI copilot built to automate your manual billing workflows. It understands your business and is as accessible as sending an email. • Offstream by Varsha Ramesh Walsh and Zach Janicki - Streamline compliance for your carbon project. • Fazeshift (YC S24) by Caitlin Leksana and Timmy Galvin - Automating invoicing & accounts receivable. • Terra by Lev Glushkovskii and Dylan McFarland - A new world of furniture procurement. • @Modern Realty by Raffi Isanians and @Raymond Xu - Your AI real estate agent. • LedgerUp (YC S24) by Joseph Johnson and Bailey Spell - Your first and only finance hire. • Manaflow (YC S24) by Austin Wang, Wesley Tjangnaka, and Laurence Chen - Automate repetitive white-collar work that fits in tables with AI.

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NEW: Indian startups nearly reached $1 Bn in funding in Nov, boosted by major deals in e-comm, healthtech, and fintech. While funding was slightly lower than Oct, big investments in startups like Zepto and HealthKart showed strong investor interest. Report by Harsh Upadhyay and Shashank Pathak

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Last couple of years lot of startup founders have reached out to seek some help in terms of insights sharing, some internal operations to be sorted, connects to be established for hiring, angel investing, connections to angel investors and VCs. My usual recommendations have been as follows and this view hasn’t changed in the past 7 years - Maintain majority control of the business with founders if you are building long term - Vet your investors more than you vet your customers - completely one way door, you cannot change your share holding easily once anyone enters - Build skills for your team ; you need to be their guide ; if as a leader you can’t build skills for yourself there will be no respect on the ground - Preserve reputation of the brand ; that’s all that matters - Stop comparing your journey with another company and do not get any success into your head - If you can’t push on distribution and you are not restless around it, company will fail - Keep all costs absolutely low - Always be creating or closing demand and diversify the business as long as it’s your core domain - Stop going to networking events not relevant for you - Hire only if your P&L allows you, else do the work yourself I’m a big believer that we need founders with deep conviction about what they build and stand on their own feet and on their own terms even if that’s the hard path..

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Like any first time founder, I used to think my edge is: → A ₹10,000 Cr market with 25% YoY growth → "Next-gen" app with world-class UI → Distribution strategy & systems → No dominant competetion But here's what actually matters: -> Ex-employer becomes your first enterprise client -> That side-project generating ₹2L MRR silently -> Family support & stable income at home -> Genuine industry connections Figure out the basics first and keep building. PS: If you're working on something meaningful, let's connect!

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🚀 From Even Healthcare to Healthify – Indian Startups Raised $187 Mn This Week🚀 This week 21 Indian startups raised $187 Mn, which includes 4 growth stage and 13 early-stage deals while 4 early-stage startups kept the transaction details undisclosed. In terms of the city-wise number of funding deals, Mumbai-based startups led with 9 deals followed by Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Pune, and Chennai. During the week, seed funding deals are on top, with 8 deals followed by Series A, pre-Series A, Series C, and Angel deals among others. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $315.51 million with 28 deals per week. So, I put together a comprehensive guide that covers: - 📌 Key Startup Funding Highlights of The Week 📌 Growth/late-stage deals 📌 Early-stage deals 📌 City and Segment-Wise Deals 📌 Other Major Developments of This Week ➕ Follow Shilpi Kumari for more such insightful content. #startups #fundraising #fundingsuccess #investmentstrategy #founders #entrepreneurs #startupecosystem #fundingnews

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🚨 Indian Startup Funding Alert: $432M Raised in last Week $432 Million. 20 Deals. >30 times last week Series F Innovaccer (Healthtech, Healthcare SaaS, B2B): Funding Raised: $275 Mn Investors: B Capital Group, Banner Health, Danaher Ventures LLC, Generation Investment Management, Kaiser Permanente, M12 Series A GrayQuest (Fintech, Lendingtech, B2B-B2C): Funding Raised: $9.3 Mn Investors: IIFL Fintech Fund, Claypond Capital, Pravega Ventures Beyond Snack (Ecommerce, D2C, B2C): Funding Raised: $8.3 Mn Investors: 12 Flags Group, NAB Ventures, Japanese VC firm Enrission India Capital, FAAD Network EMO.energy (Cleantech, Electric Vehicle, B2B): Funding Raised: $6.2 Mn Investors: Subhkam Ventures, Transition VC Oben Electric (Cleantech, Electric Vehicle, B2C): Funding Raised: $5.8 Mn Investors: Ambis Holding US, Kuberans Ventures, Karimjee Group, Mission Vertical Capital, Sanjiv Saraf’s family office, Pravek Kalp family office RAS Luxury Skincare (Ecommerce, D2C, B2C): Funding Raised: $5 Mn Investors: Unilever Ventures, Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund hBits (Fintech, Investment Tech, B2C): Funding Raised: $4.6 Mn Investors: Capricon Realty Zoplar (Healthtech, Medtech, B2B): Funding Raised: $3.4 Mn Investors: Blume Ventures, BEENEXT, Saison Capital, Atrium Angels, Finfirst, LogX Ventures Pre-Series A BrainSightAI (Healthtech, Healthcare SaaS, B2B): Funding Raised: $5 Mn Investors: IAN Alpha Fund, IvyCap Ventures, Silver Needle Revivo (Consumer Services, Hyperlocal Services, B2C): Funding Raised: Undisclosed Investors: Inflection Point Ventures Seed Moonrider.ai (Cleantech, Electric Vehicle, B2B-B2C): Funding Raised: $2.2 Mn Investors: AdvantEdge Founders, Micelio Fund Spintly (Deeptech, IoT & Hardware, B2B): Funding Raised: $407K Investors: Spyre VC BlackCarrot (Ecommerce, D2C, B2C): Funding Raised: Undisclosed Investors: We Founder Circle, EvolveX Accelerator, Suraj Nalin Pre-Seed Reput.ai (Enterprise Tech, SaaS, B2B): Funding Raised: $1 Mn Investors: GrowthCap Ventures, Vipul Parekh, Abhijeet Kumar, Vishal Jain Quash (Enterprise Tech, Horizontal SaaS, B2B): Funding Raised: $635K Investors: Arali Ventures, Java Capital, PeerCheque, DeVC, Abhishek Goyal Pratilipi (Media & Entertainment, Digital Media, B2C): Funding Raised: $1.2 Mn Investors: Alteria Capital Bodmas Technologies (Enterprise Tech, Horizontal SaaS, B2B): Funding Raised: Undisclosed Investors: Auxano Capital #startupfunding #investment #funding #startupcfo #jordensky

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Amid the rising competition in the quick commerce space, Zepto is looking to raise $650 Mn from new and existing investors 👇 The funding round, which will be led by existing backer Nexus Venture Partners and its limited partner StepStone Group, will bump up the startup’s valuation to $3.5 Bn from its last valuation of $1.4 Bn. The investment will make it Nexus’ largest investment till date. The round will also see participation from existing investor Glade Brook Capital and new investors Avenir Growth, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global and Avra, the report said. This came a day after another report said that DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners will invest in Zepto’s funding round. However, it pegged the round’s size at around $300 Mn. 🔗 To read more in detail, click here: https://lnkd.in/gf5KfYkY #funding #valuation #startups #growth

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