SC Moatti

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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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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Looking forward to meeting women entrepreneurs who are on their journey to create some pathbreaking ideas and inspiring others to do the same. #advaitawomenentrepreneurs #womeninbusiness #entrepreneurship #womenentrepreneurs #EmpowerWomen #womenleaders #businesswomen

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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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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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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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This by Niren Shah of Norwest Venture Partners in his interview with Madhav Chanchani on The Arc is a point i deeply resonate with. Because we have a very thin (~30m households, ~120m people) consuming class (India1) for most products, if you are looking to expand outside this segment, then your pricing changes, and that impacts your cac, and unit econ and you have to reconfigure the biz model all over again, and then you have to rework PMF for this audience. My 2 caveats for early stage founders 1) monetise early, even if it is a 2-stage biz model where you get audience first, and then think of monetising. Do not keep it unmonetised for too long. It is only when the customer faces some economic cost, or you know someone is paying for the product (advertiser), that you know it is working, and can pour on the customer acquisition fuel 2) if you believe you are largely an India1 product - and there is no shame in it (for this 120m people would be the 13th most populated nation in the world if it were seen as a separate country) - then be careful about how much capital you raise. The biggest mistake happens when you raise a lot of capital - typically at Series B,C thinking the growth will continue, and you get tapped out, but to satisfy the madates of growth investors you still end up spending for customers, but a lot of your original biz model and pricing has to change to cater to this lower income set, and the unit econ goes awry. TLDR: Monetize early. And if you are going to remain India1, raise only the capital you can absorb, get profitable and list early. Link to the arc piece: https://lnkd.in/g7zsRE3F

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My Entrepreneurial Kickoff for 2025 In 2024, a dream of mine came true: co-founding my own startup with my childhood best friend, Aayush Shah. We incorporated our company, kickstarted beta development, tackled compliance hurdles, and laid out a multi-year roadmap. Now I’m stepping into 2025 with a positive outlook—knowing we’re just months away from our beta launch! Our startup, Zennoia, is transforming how early-stage ventures interact with investors — from the very first pitch to long-term collaboration. What type of content to expect from us: • Bi-weekly updates on our journey • Short videos & reels to share behind-the-scenes moments • Candid conversations about both the highs and lows of startup life This year, Aayush Shah and I will both be sharing content from our unique perspectives—though not limited to just “tech” or “business.” As an engineer, Aayush Shah will talk about coding challenges and product development, but he’s also diving into the business side of things to understand how engineering decisions align with market realities. Meanwhile, I (Sharvil Ved) bring a business perspective, but I’m immersing myself in the technical foundation that fuels our vision. Each new insight shows how engineering decisions shape strategic outcomes—and how real impact arises when business insights and technical execution work in tandem. If 2025 is your year for bold moves—whether you’re starting something new, scaling up, or stepping outside your comfort zone—let me know! I’d love to cheer you on or swap stories. Where to Find Us Zennoia • LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit: @zennoia • X (Twitter), YouTube: @zennoiaofficial Sharvil Ved (Me) • LinkedIn, instagram and youtube: @sharvilved • X: @sharvil_ved Aayush Shah • All Platforms: @shahaayush1999 Here’s to turning big ideas into realities and celebrating every step along the way!

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Looking forward to diving into the state of the late-stage venture market at TechCrunch Disrupt next week with Karthik Subramanian. With late-stage companies facing tougher paths to exit, we’ll be debating whether the market is actually rebounding, sharing our thoughts on the outlook for future IPOs, and discussing how founders can navigate these shifting dynamics. Hope to see you there! #TCDisrupt #VC

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Delighted to share this enlightening episode of 'Why Leadership Fails' with the insightful Surajit Chanda In this episode, we explore: ✅ The entrepreneurial spirit that drives success ✅ Essential team-building strategies ✅ Overcoming the inevitable hurdles in the startup journey Surajit's journey is a testament to the power of resilience and innovation in entrepreneurship. If you're looking to gain some practical tips and be inspired, this episode is a must-listen. Toyow HT Smartcast #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #TeamBuilding #Resilience #WhyLeadershipFails

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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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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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In the latest article, "Bridging Boardroom Divides: Conflict to Consensus," the intricacies of boardroom conflict resolution processes and their significant impact on corporate governance are explored. This piece provides insights into effective boardroom management and how strategic conflict resolution can enhance decision-making and governance. It discusses how transforming inevitable conflicts into constructive dialogue can strengthen board dynamics. Discover more about navigating boardroom challenges and fostering a conducive environment for organizational growth. #CorporateGovernance #BoardroomDynamics #BoardConflict #ConflictResolution

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Catch us for the session today - on Navigating the Entrepreneurial Ladder - Scaling to a Publicly Listed Co!

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Back in Bangalore, but an exciting few days in Boston and NYC with the Citizen Stack team as they take the India Stack on the road, including at the UN.   What was built in India, for India, is a monumental achievement in showing what is possible when imagination, will, and dedicated group of spirited volunteers (ProductNation/iSPIRT) combine the best of technology, public policy, legal frameworks, and private sector participation to create the rails for citizen inclusion and the delivery of public goods.   This is such a significant story for world that few outside understand for myriad reasons—including complacency and complexity—and so large and difficult to grasp (at least in the west) that when one looks at what India has achieved in such a short time it feels like the stuff of science fiction.   Having seen this story unfold, from the early days of Aadhaar, the well-worn assumptions about how India consumes, transacts, travels, saves, and invests, have been rewritten and will evolve with new stacks in health, agriculture, and data protections. Given India’s average age is 28, there is a whole generation that is going to experience a vastly different set of public goods and services that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.   For starters, India has: ·     Authenticated 1.4 billion people with a digital identity ·     $230 billion of monthly UPI transactions and on track to hit 1 billion transactions per day in the next 2 years ·     Reduced the time to open a bank account from 6 days to 1 hour ·     Efficiently administered 2 billion covid vaccination doses over 18 months, without adding an additional clinic   Having set a benchmark for inclusive growth, low cost delivery, consent, and data privacy, the story has now gone global. It was inspiring to hear directly from numerous UN participants (France, Philippines, Ethiopia, among them) on implementing elements of what India has open-sourced to the world. Specifically, the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP), which was developed at International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore provides a flexible and scalable identity platform that caters directly to the needs of diverse populations, including those in remote and underserved areas. Already implemented by 18 countries, representing 110 million people, MOSIP-based systems are on track to providing a legal and verifiable ID for the remaining billion world citizens that still lack one. Thank you Sharad Sharma and Jasminder Singh Gulati, and your teams for including me on what I hope is the beginning of many Citizen Stack events around the globe. What a time to be proud of what India has given the world. #ExportQuality #IndiaStack #Aadhaar #UPI #DPI Amie Patel Pankaj Jain Vaibhav Parikh Anurag Saxena Digital Public Goods Alliance Ravi Tyagi

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What does the future hold? 🤔 According to top VC Vinod Khosla, it's looking optimistic! In a recent article, Vinod Khosla at Khosla Ventures shared his views on our plausible futures in 2035-2049, and it's a nice counterbalance against the too-pessimistic doom thinking out there. ⚡ Khosla believes that entrepreneurs, with passion for a vision, invent the future they want. And if we allow it to happen, abundant, awesome, technology-based, “possible tomorrows” are likely ⚡ ----------------------- Are you interested in building the future with/ for your company? Take the first step here 📆 https://lnkd.in/e6kjakzF Let's make the future happen! 🚀 #Future #Venturing #Innovation #Entrepreneurship #Technology #Possibilities

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In an era where innovation outpaces regulation, how can entrepreneurs embed social responsibility into the DNA of their startups? 🌐💡 Recent conversations and insightful pieces, particularly one by Lyel Resner and Dr. Wilneida Negrón, have sparked a profound consideration in my thinking: the imperative for responsible innovation in tech ventures. They posit a tantalizing question - what if the tech giants of tomorrow were built on the foundations of public interest and social responsibility today? Diving into this thought experiment reveals more than just an ethical proposition; it opens up a paradigm where businesses can be both profitable and purposeful. Embedding social responsibility from the outset could guide ventures to prioritize long-term societal well-being over short-term gains. Imagine a future where companies are not just evaluated by their financial performance but also by their contribution to solving societal issues. The notion is ambitious but certainly not unattainable. This approach challenges us as entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators to rethink our roles in shaping the future of technology. It's a call to action to pioneer a new wave of responsible businesses that are equipped to address, rather than exacerbate, global challenges. Let’s discuss: How can we as part of the startup ecosystem integrate these principles into our work from day zero? Your thoughts could light up paths not yet traveled. 🚀🌍

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