1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Gaurav Jain of Afore Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Gaurav Jain of Afore Capital was recorded in February 2018. 

Gaurav Jain is Managing Partner at Afore Capital, a firm focused on pre-seed investments. This is an excellent conversation for entrepreneurs looking for insights into pre-seed.

Sramana Mitra: With your specific focus, which is pre-seed, we are are very interested in hearing your perspective because, as you know, that part of the ecosystem is very underserved. People want validated 

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Andrew Romans of Rubicon Venture Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: How big is the fund?

Andrew Romans: We’re investing out of a $50 million fund that has a hard cap of a hundred. We’re already actively making investments. For your audience, we’re actively looking for deal flow. If the company has not raised at least a million dollars of outside non-founder funding capital, we prefer not to hear from them.

We like to see companies that have raised at least $1 million from someone who’s not on the founding team. If founders invest, that’s great but we want to see outside investors who put in a million. We do like to see companies that are up to $100,000 MRR >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Aniruddha Malpani of Malpani Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: How do you parse the unicorn mania that’s going on in the industry now? If you do get a hot company that goes through multiple rounds of financing, you could get buried under later-stage liquidation preferences. How do you protect yourself and how do you think about this scenario?

Aniruddha Malpani: We’ve not reached that stage yet. It’s still early days for us. I think the reality is that most of these companies are never going to become unicorns. That’s a good problem to have. Our focus is making sure that we have pro-rata rights. Initially, we will continue growing with these companies as they continue to grow.

Our hope is that as we engage with entrepreneurs, they will not ditch us when they start talking to the bigger boys. Again, I have

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Aniruddha Malpani of Malpani Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What trends are you seeing in the entrepreneurs who are coming to you for funding? What kinds of entrepreneurs are coming? What resonates with you?

Aniruddha Malpani: As I said, the social impact piece resonates with me because I actually think these companies will be far more profitable, partly because of the financial capital we’re providing. They also have human capital. The employees these companies attract are very different from the average employee who works for a for-profit institute.

Then there’s that social capital angle, which means customers are far more wiling to pay a premium for some of these products. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Aniruddha Malpani of Malpani Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: To net it out, you are agnostic to B2B or B2C. You are really interested in learning about something new. That’s your primary motivator.

Aniruddha Malpani: I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I’m good at what I do. This is what I call the T-shaped model of living a life. I have a lot of vertical expertise in my particular domain. I would now like to go across other fields. The only way I can learn in these other fields is by investing in other startups.

Sramana Mitra: You’re a very curious man. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Aniruddha Malpani of Malpani Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Aniruddha Malpani of Malpani Ventures was recorded in September 2017. 

Aniruddha Malpani, Director and Founder of Malpani Ventures, is an active angel investor in the Indian circuit. He discusses what he looks for in companies he wants to invest in.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Malpani Ventures. What is the focus of your firm? How big is the fund and what sized investments are you making? >>>

12 VCs, Angels and Seed Investors Pinpoint Where They Want to Invest via the Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum

To benefit entrepreneurs who are seeking funding, I’ve asked many investors to pinpoint what they want to invest in and exactly what they are looking for in startups. Industry trends, segments, locations and areas of personal interest all play roles in developing an investor’s investment thesis. Read the following investor interviews to learn exactly what these VCs, Angels, and seed investors are looking for in startups.

Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital, outlines the top trends driving startups and venture capital from his firm’s perspective.

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5 Investor Podcasts Discuss A Wide Variety Of Startup Interests

There are currently about 500 funds spanning pre-seed, seed, post-seed, pre-Series A and startup investing is constantly evolving. Entrepreneurs with an eye on financing need to keep up with the trends and special interests of VCs, Angels and seed investors. Have a listen to my recent 30-minute podcast interviews with five investors who have a wide range of interests, from AI concepts to women entrepreneurs, from Indian startups to non-Unicorn ventures. Perhaps your startup fits within one of their areas of interest?

Ankit Jain is Founding Partner at Gradient Ventures, Google’s new AI venture fund, which will invest in and connect early stage startups with Google’s resources, innovation, and technical leadership in artificial intelligence.

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