425th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Alireza Rahnema, 7 Gate Ventures

Alireza Rahnema, Principal and General Partner at 7 Gate Ventures, talks about the Vancouver startup eco-system and his firm’s investment thesis.

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429th Roundtable Recording on January 24, 2019: With Preeti Rathi, Ignition Partners

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Roundtable Recap: January 24 – The Changing Dynamics of Seed Investing

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Preeti Rathi, Partner at Ignition Partners. We discussed the changing dynamics of Seed Investing.

Kitchens On Rent
As for pitches, first up, we had Mohit Walia, from Noida, India, pitch Kitchens On Rent, an innovative concept for leveraging spare capacity in restaurant kitchens. Mohit is a Zomato alum and has just launched his business.

T2India
Next, we had Sutanu Banerjee from New Delhi, India, pitch T2India, a BPO service catering to tour operators. The company is doing over a million dollars in annual revenue, and is looking for growth strategies.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With George Spencer of Seyen Capital (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: One of the options that we have to keep in mind is that the vast majority of strategic acquisitions happen in the $50 million to $60 million price point. For everybody concerned about making money with a $50 million exit, you have to build the company in that $5 million to $10 million capitalization.

George Spencer: That’s right. The goal here is not to sell the company for $50 million to $60 million. If that’s what ends up happening, you end up making three or four times your money, so be it. Just getting yourself to the position where you’re able to do that is important. I think that you need to be very capital efficient and conscious of that. To be honest with you, I don’t think that happens all that much out in the Valley. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With George Spencer of Seyen Capital (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Your point is very well-taken. In the early stage, not everything is figured out. There is a certain amount of pivoting that goes on often in the quest for that repeatable sweet spot. Capital markets change and competitive markets change. You just have to adapt.

With that understanding though, I want to ask you a slightly different question. We are in the beginning of 2019. Lots of stuff have already been built. It’s not like there are so many wide open opportunities out there to build these massive unicorns. There are some and there are categories where people are pursuing that kind of opportunities. There are also many niche opportunities. Some of these businesses need to be built for small amounts of capital – $1 million to $2 million – and then sold for $10 million to $15 million. Do you have appetite for this type of investments? >>>

420th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Susan Stone of Sierra Wasatch Capital

Susan Stone, Founder and Managing Partner at Sierra Wasatch Capital, discusses their investment thesis around Media Technology.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With George Spencer of Seyen Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Within B2B SaaS, do you have a preference between selling to enterprises versus selling to small businesses?

George Spencer: I’ve invested in the past in both and made money on both. My diligence is understanding how you’re going to be able to build a distribution channel based on the price points that you’re able to sell your software for. I’ve worked with SPS Commerce that was selling outbound telemarketing salesforce. I can work with both small businesses that make $100 a month per customer all the way to companies taking in $5 million a year from some customers.

Sramana Mitra: Across the companies that you have invested in both from this fund as well as your general experience, can you share a few examples and give us a flavor of when you went into the deal, what did you see? What is it that made you decide to invest in this particular set of companies? Give us some case studies so we understand how you think about investments. >>>

416th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Jason Cahill, McCune Capital

Jason Cahill is Managing Partner at McCune Capital, a NY-based firm. He talks about the pros and cons of chasing Unicorns, as well as his firm’s investment philosophy.

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