1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Lisa Chai, General Partner at Interwoven Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do some use cases. Tell us about some companies that you’ve invested in Vertical AI. Let’s understand a bit more about those.

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How You Can Plan for an Early Exit

Did you know that the vast majority of acquisitions happen in the sub $50 million valuation range?

The best way to make money off such acquisitions is to build a startup with capital efficiency. If you can bootstrap, great. If not, raise small amounts of money so that you own a large percentage of the pie at the time of Exit.

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Positioning Drives Velocity

VCs are salivating over ultralight startups right now. The stigma around solo entrepreneurs will vanish soon. Positioning will remain key to achieving Velocity. And Velocity will continue to drive Fundability.

Are you trying to raise money for your startup and getting rejections? It’s worth understanding WHY. VCs are looking for Velocity. Their goal is to achieve $100M in revenue in 5-7 years. How do you do that? You can read more and dialog here on what drives Velocity.

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Best of Bootstrapping: An AI Startup Bootstrapped Using Services

Co-founder Nitesh Chawla bootstrapped Aunalytics while keeping his academic job at Notre Dame. This is our conversation from 2021.

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

Nitesh Chawla: I’m from New Delhi although I was born in Calcutta. I did my schooling from Delhi Public School. Then I did my engineering from Pune. Then I came to the United States in 1993 right after finishing my undergrad. I went to grad school in South Florida. I got my PhD in Computer Science with a focus on Machine Learning and Data Science.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Lisa Chai, General Partner at Interwoven Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: From what I gathered, you are focusing on Vertical AI? Is that a correct observation?

Lisa Chai: We lean heavier towards Vertical AI, but it’s not a mandate.

Sramana Mitra: Okay. Let’s double click down on Vertical AI. We’ll come back to what else you’re doing besides Vertical AI.

Bootstrapping in the Age of AI

The Age of AI is also the golden age of Bootstrapping. And it is the golden age of Solo Entrepreneurs. With AI, you can build a lot in an ultralight mode and get VCs salivating. The key is Positioning. Let’s discuss the nuances.

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