1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Piyush Kharbanda, General Partner at Vertex Ventures (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. I gave a talk recently at Kellogg about Indian startups: Past, Present, and Future. The recording will be available soon. We’ll publish it and you can take a look. One of the things I said is that India has this background in the services industry; the services industry came out of low-end services, BPO, et cetera. But now with human-in-the loop AI services, wherever there is a do-it-for-me scenario, this is actually to India’s advantage, especially if the services can be done from India.

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May 22 – 686th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 686th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to Pitch and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to Attend to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Register and you will receive the recording by email, even if you are unable to attend. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be Interested.

685th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Manu Rekhi, Inventus Capital Partners

Manu Rekhi, Managing Director at Inventus Capital Partners, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis.

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685th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this week’s roundtable here:

Roundtable Recap: May 15 – AI Investment Thesis with Manu Rekhi, Inventus Capital Partners

During this week’s roundtable, we had Manu Rekhi, Managing Director at Inventus Capital Partners, discussing his firm’s AI investment thesis.

Techjays

As for our entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Philip Samuelraj from Menlo Park, California, pitch Techjays.

Pitchlabz

Then we had Varun Kapoor from Dubai, UAE, pitch Pitchlabz.

Lino

Next we had Bharat Vohra from Amritsar, Punjab, India, pitch Lino.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Piyush Kharbanda, General Partner at Vertex Ventures (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What have you invested in that has passed all these diligence tests and emerged as something that looks like it could stand on its own without getting blindsided.

685th 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 30 Minutes

Today’s 685th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, May 15, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $26M and a Fabulous Exit

When we spoke in 2021, Founder CEO Vamsi Kora had bootstrapped Gathi Analytics to over $26 million in revenue in four years and exited at a fabulous multiple. Much to learn from his journey.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Vamsi Kora: I’m from south India, from a village in Rajamundry, which is very close to the Bay of Bengal. I did Mechanical Engineering. Right after it, I went to have one of the very few well-paid careers at that time. I couldn’t afford to come to the US. So I went into merchant shipping and roamed around the world for about three years. I made two and half rounds around the equator.

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