1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Swati Chaturvedi of Propel(x) 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 Swati Chaturvedi was recorded in August 2017. 

Swati Chaturvedi is Co-founder and CEO at Propel(x), an online platform where entrepreneurs are connected to angels. Swati and I discussed some of the key trends of the seed financing eco-system as viewed from Propel(x).

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Propel(x).

Swati Chaturvedi: Propel(x) is an investment marketplace where we connect startups with accredited investors. Our goal is >>>

387th Roundtable Recording on February 22, 2018: With Nate Redmond, Alpha Edison

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

Roundtable Recap: February 22 – Understanding a Trust-Driven Investment Thesis

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Nate Redmond, Managing Partner at Alpha Edison, a VC firm that has put trust-driven ventures at the center of its investment thesis. It’s a very interesting conversation for both entrepreneurs and investors to listen to.

Momni
As for entrepreneur pitches, Karmel Larson from Orem, Utah, pitched Momni, a trust-based mobile app that faciliates the process of moms sharing the responsibility of child care. Excellent presentation and a promising company!

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Naren Gupta of Nexus Venture Partners (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: It’s not there. We hear from entrepreneurs from all of those places because we operate with a global footprint. In some ways, India is doing better. Latin America is behind because Latin America hasn’t had the technology outsourcing industry which is where the Indian technology product industry is coming from. That’s where they developed their skills.

Latin America hasn’t had that industry. Now there’s near-shoring. Technology talent is getting groomed in Latin America but it’s a very different market than the heavily technology savvy Indian market. Europe is also not a heavily technology savvy market. It doesn’t have the level of technology-trained

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Naren Gupta of Nexus Venture Partners (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is your perspective of these global companies being started in various different places? India is just one of them. We are seeing companies coming out of Europe and Asia. There is a tendency or practice of them moving headquarters to Silicon Valley or somewhere in the US. What is your feeling about that? Is that something you require your companies to do? What’s your analysis?

Naren Gupta: The last few years, that has worked out well for companies. My belief in the long term is, that is going to be completely unnecessary. I think your headquarters will be in the cloud. Physical headquarters are going to become a thing of the past. Why do we move the headquarters to Silicon Valley? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Naren Gupta of Nexus Venture Partners (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Definitely, we encourage the philosophy of bootstrap first and raise money later. We have nothing against raising money but bootstrapping first is really critical to preserve ownerships. The amount of money that is being raised today, especially in these cloud businesses is crazy. By the time you raised that much money, that valuation is crazy.

Naren Gupta: I think one thing it does for you is it makes you frugal. I really believe that all great entrepreneurs are extremely frugal. It doesn’t mean you don’t spent the money to build your business, but you spend the money only when there is payoff. You only spend that much amount of money that’s necessary to get you a result. I’m a big fan of it. I started a company many many >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Naren Gupta of Nexus Venture Partners (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page. The following interview with Naren Gupts was recorded in October 2014. 

Naren Gupta, co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners – a firm with an excellent track record of investing in the Silicon Valley – India corridor, but with a global market point of view – shares his insights, nuggets, and interesting wisdom. He is a veteran investor who is also strikingly polite and humble.

Sramana Mitra: I want to tell you one story before we start the discussion and ask you questions. One of your 

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Scott Sandell of NEA (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: The counterpoint to that is entrepreneurship is happening at a much larger scale. It has become cool to be entrepreneurs. When we were starting out in the mid-90’s, it wasn’t cool. It was cool to go work for somebody else. If you drop out of MIT or Stanford to start a company, that’s a badge of honor. That’s nothing to apologize for. If you choose to go back, fine. If you don’t choose to go back, no problem.

It has become standard fare in a career choice. As a result, the level of experimentation around the world has exploded, which brings us to our next question. NEA actually had a global agenda for a long time now. Of course, 1Mby1M is a global program. What is your view of entrepreneurship on a global scale? What are you thinking? What is NEA thinking in terms of leveraging that opportunity and working with entrepreneurs around the world? >>>