Sramana Mitra: For the entrepreneurs who are listening, you cannot fit a square peg in a round hole. Just like when you were looking for the product-market fit, you are going to have to find an investor entrepreneur fit. An investor who is looking for one type of exit is not going to invest in
Sramana Mitra: Is the fund strategy chasing unicorns? Are all your companies looking to become unicorns? Mark Achler: No, I’m from Chicago. We are from the Midwest. I like to roll my sleeves and build real companies solving real problems. If they turn into a unicorn, then that’s great. The odds of that happening is
Sramana Mitra: You have a relatively small fund at the moment. What are your thoughts about chasing unicorns versus chasing the 2x to 5x companies? Suman Talukdar: I’m relatively new on the investing side, but I have had experience working with venture-backed companies. All the work and effort pays off when things work. When they
Sramana Mitra: If you look at the public market, the tech stocks have done well. Their earnings have been good. It’s not like they are missing a lot of their numbers. Many are overshooting their numbers. It’s striking how well people have adjusted to buying technology without human interaction in person even in large sales.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s dig down to AI and your thesis around AI a little bit. We do a series called Thought Leaders in Artificial Intelligence. It’s a popular series. We have been doing it for a long time. We bring entrepreneurs as well as people in large companies to talk about what they are doing
Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about trends. What are you investing in? You can use examples and case studies. What are you seeing? What would you like to see? What trends are you seeing that you would like to invest in more? Mark Achler: In preparation for this interview, I was thinking about this question and
Sramana Mitra: I love this kind of multicultural perspective. As you know, we are a global accelerator, so we work with entrepreneurs all around the world. When you started talking about AiSprouts, you said that you wanted some product validation. Talk to us about what you mean by that. In that context, you also said
Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Mark Achler of MATH Venture Partners was recorded in January 2021. Mark Achler, MATH Venture Partners, focuses on B2B selling as a key factor in startup success.