1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Swapna Gupta of Qualcomm Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Technology consumer products and consumer electronics hasn’t really happened in India. It’s all been from elsewhere. China is very strong. Chinese products come into India fairly aggressively, right? The competitive landscape is very tricky. You’ve invested in about 25 companies.

Why don’t we talk about a few case studies of what you have invested in. Take us through the journey of when you saw these companies, what did they have? What caught your attention to convince you that this is something that you want to invest in? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rebecca Kaden of Union Square Ventures (Part 2)

Rebecca Kaden: Another example is Modern Fertility. Modern Fertility has a female focus in home fertility. Traditionally, to get core information about your own fertility, you’d have to try to get pregnant for a period of time. You’d have to struggle. You’d go to a doctor. The doctor would prescribe you to a lab. You take these tests. By this point, it’s cost you regularly about $1500, a significant amount of time, and often emotional pain. It’s presented as a problem. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Swapna Gupta of Qualcomm Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Are you investing in media as well?

Swapna Gupta: Yes, but our perspective is slightly different. We’re looking at technology which is changing. Media is changing as well. It’s no more just about content. You’re talking about virtual reality. You’re talking about augmented reality. You’re talking about immersive experiences. What we’re playing closest to is digital content media versus traditional content media.

Sramana Mitra: Is e-commerce also something you’re still playing in? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rebecca Kaden of Union Square 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 Rebecca Kaden was recorded in February 2019.

Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at Union Square Ventures, discusses her firm’s capital efficient investment thesis and debates the pros and cons of blitz scaling.

Sramana Mitra: Union Square has been around for a while and has been very influential in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Tell us a bit about where you are today. What is the vision? What is the investment thesis at this point of the game? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Swapna Gupta of Qualcomm Ventures (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page.

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Swapna Gupta was recorded in February 2019.

Swapna Gupta, Senior Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures, explains the firm’s investment strategy.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s have you introduce the firm to our audience first.

Swapna Gupta: Qualcomm Ventures is a global billion-dollar fund. Qualcomm Ventures India is a $150 million dedicated fund for India for investing across sectors. We have been in India for the last 10 years. We have a healthy portfolio of about 25 plus companies. We have been investing in consumer, enterprise, and hardware companies. It’s an exciting time to be in the ecosystem. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yash Hemaraj of Arka Venture Labs (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Before we move to the entrepreneurial discussions, could you talk a little bit about the three venture funds that have put Arka Ventures together. What do you envision would be their roles in follow-on financing in the companies that come into Arka?

Yash Hemaraj: We wanted to make this an open and powerful platform for our founders. Again, when you’re building enterprise companies or B2B-focused companies, it’s never a one-stage game. You have to build companies in stages. We wanted to partner with the folks who are united in this mission of providing an open and collaborative partner platform for all Indian entrepreneurs and helping them scale into the global markets. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yash Hemaraj of Arka Venture Labs (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: If you get carried away and raise huge amounts of money, you better have a strategy of doing something that is going to get you to the right exit because all these investors also need exits and you need exits. This is a very complex set of strategic moves that you’re going to have to think through. I think raising lots of capital is something that you should be very careful about. Frankly, I have constantly pushed Freshworks on this topic.

If you read my personal coverage of Freshworks through the last decade, you will see that I’m constantly holding them publicly accountable for raising so much money and not hitting profitability. This year they have hit profitability, which is a great milestone. The reason Freshworks is important is because this is the first company out of India to be able to do stuff at scale. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yash Hemaraj of Arka Venture Labs (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: In the last 30 days, we’ve done story after story analyzing what’s happening on the acquisition side of B2B SaaS. I think one of the things that’s very attractive about Arka is that you’re not chasing unicorns and I’ll let you elaborate on that.

Yash Hemaraj: You’re right on the point that a lot of companies, especially in the B2B side, get acquired for anywhere from $50 million to $100 million according to some statistics published very recently. That’s the opportunity where if you’ve taken in $50 million into your company, there’s no way you can sell the company for $50 million and everybody is happy about it. >>>