Venture Futurists

VENTURE FUTURISTS
TOP 30 PROFILE INTERVIEWS

Startups are
leading the
charge in a
rapidly
evolving and
dynamic
landscape.
100X.VC Research | Copyright © 2021 First Founder Investment Adviser LLP. All rights reserved. 1
CONTENTS
1. Foreword
2. Be prepared to make mistakes, repeatedly - Alok Goyal
3. Ideas are not bulletproof - Rajit Bhattacharya
4. Focus on execution and bottom line - Pravin Gandhi
5. It's a marathon, so don't burnout - Ketaki Ogale
6. Tier-2 city entrepreneurs will be the biggest growth driver - Krishna Handa
7. Small pivots are part of any startup - Kuldeep Parashar
8. Be restless and paranoid - Shailesh Ghorpade
9. If you get the right fit there is no stopping - Niharika Bhargava
10. Integrity beats everything else - Aarti Gupta
11. The fascination of how technology and AI can change lives - Nikhil Maroli
12. Be open and flexible in your startup journey - Girish Shivani
13. This is the best time to build - Pranab Buragohain
14. VC investing is a long term game - Jatin Desai
15. Retention of customers in longer run is important - Charu Chaturvedi
16. Chase market product fit over product market fit - Pearl Agarwal
17. Keep learning, start small, execute fast - Anshul Shrivastava
18. A good team should have higher ambiguity tolerance - Jinesh Shah
19. Create something that humans cannot do without - Vaibhav Agrawal
20. Stay hungry, stay foolish and keep building - Arjun Vaidya
21. It is an execution play with many moving parts - Shashank Moddhia
22. A team is critical to building moonshots - Shahan Sud
23. The initial focus should be on engagement - Abhishek Mehta
24. Don’t be afraid to fail - Sanket Atal
25. Focussed vision towards the goal can do wonders - Ankita De
26. Aspirations exist, but this mind is more frugal - Vinod Shankar
27. Challenges are a part of an entrepreneur's daily life - Abhilash Pandey
28. Don't confuse lack of growth with lack of potential - Anjani Bansal
29. It's worth it to know that we're making a difference - Chirag Gupta
30. Chase value, not valuation - Namit Chugh
31. Appreciation for the right deed keeps you going - Anurav Dave
1. FOREWORD
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the first edition of 100X.VC Venture Futurists - Top 30 Profile

Interviews.
We have tried to be at the forefront of backing innovative founders building

disruptive solutions since 2019. With a portfolio of 150+ high-growth companies
and follow-on investors backing them, we’ve had a unique vantage point at the
seed funding level. Hence, we invited portfolio founders and investors to share
insights, personal views and philosophies on entrepreneurship and investing in
India.
The series of interviews will bring about a diverse array of perspectives

providing a candid look into the strategies of founders and investors and their
responses to the challenges.
We hope you will find these interviews interesting and informative. We

welcome your feedback to make our next edition of Venture Futurists more
meaningful.
Regards,
Ninad Karpe,
Founder & Partner
100X.VC
Indian startups
champion
innovation,
shaping a global
future.
Alok focuses on investments in SaaS, Dev/Infra
software, and cleantech companies. On behalf of
Stellaris, Alok is on the board of Whatfix, LoadShare,
Signzy and several others. Alok’s interest in venture
capital stems from the energy he derives in meetings
with entrepreneurs. He strongly believes that to be
an entrepreneur one needs to be a dreamer, and
indeed be foolish(read courageous) enough to
Alok Goyal pursue the dream. stellarisvp.com
Partner
What is your motivation to be in the Help describe your investment thesis and
venture investing business? ideas you would like to back.
I have harbored the dream of being an As a firm, we are bullish on the consumer
entrepreneur since my early 20’s and have internet, SMB networks and digitization, and
made some feeble attempts at being one. As the growth of global SaaS from India. Each
I grew older, I realized that I do not have it in investor in the team, however, focuses on a
me to be one. Being an early stage investor specific sector, and my focus has been
gives me the closest experience without primarily SaaS. Within SaaS, I am very bullish
being a founder myself. Founders have a on ‘intelligent apps’, i.e. reimagination of
very special DNA - they not only dream, but most processes through use of AI as well as
also have the courage to pursue their on developer tools and micro-vertical SaaS.
dreams. It is a privilege to be in a profession
where you get to spend most of your time What are your 5 key learnings from your
with this special breed of people. experience as a venture investor?
It is important to have a POV on the
Describe your workday and leisure day. future, even if you are not always right.
How does it look like? Have the courage to back your gut;
Each day is different. If I look at a monthly Never borrow conviction.
view, my time is split across four areas: Be prepared to make mistakes,
Meeting new founders; Conducting repeatedly.
diligence on companies where we see a Find your own investment style, i.e.
potential to invest; Working with portfolio figure out what enables you to build
founders to help wherever we can, and conviction.
finally, spending time with our investors (i.e. Remember that the company is built by
LPs). the founders, not you - you are a guest to
the party, so do not overplay your role.
What is your view on the future of India as
a market? Mention top 5 consumer/industry/
My answer will be biased - if I was not highly technology trends in India and globally.
bullish, I would not be in this business. I am Very difficult to say what are the top 5, but
long on the Indian market for the next here are some that I am excited about:
several decades, driven by a number of Transition from automation to
factors - the young and educated intelligence led by democratization of
population, high internet penetration, one of AI/ML.
the best digital public infrastructure in the Explosion of live video creating richer
world, a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem online experiences.
and a relatively stable geo-political Growth of web3 economy, with India in a
environment. India has a secular opportunity pivotal position.
to deliver 8-10% annual real GDP growth, Emergence of the “organization of one”.
and to build an incremental $1T market EV adoption at an inflection point.
value through startups in the next 10 years.
Top 5 pieces of advice you would give to a Which of your portfolio companies are
startup founder. you excited about and why?
Build what you are passionate about and This is an unfair question to ask - we are
believe in the right thing to do, not what both monetarily as well as emotionally
investors think you should. attached to all our portfolio companies.
Ask yourself every year if you are the best
CEO for the company, or would you and When you started your career what were
all shareholders be better off with a your ambitions?
different CEO. I wanted to do a PhD and be a professor. As
After the PMF and initial scale, the only you can see, nothing has happened as per
thing that will separate the great and the my plan. Like King Richards says “if you fail
good is your ability to hire, nurture and to have a plan, you plan to fail”, I have
retain exceptional people; Not strategy. constantly failed because I had a plan.
Much like everything else e.g. talent, IP
and other assets, cash is a critical input to What inspires you in life and what keeps
building a company - it is your job to you awake at night?
think ahead of time. Once the fuel stops, Builders/ creators of all kinds inspire me -
you need to add cash to the balance these can be people who compose music,
sheet. create an original painting, write a book,
Failure can happen quickly, but success design a building or build a company.
takes a long time. Building anything
meaningful takes 10 years. Be patient! I am a deep sleeper in general, so not the
variety that is awake at night. That said, as a
person, my energy comes from being with
people. Therefore, the only situations I am
up at night are when I am consciously or
Every founder and subconsciously aware of improper conduct
company is different, and on my part with anyone. This is in addition
to caffeine in any form after noon!
where they need help also
changes with the stage of the Books or Blogs you would recommend
entrepreneurs.
company. I am fond of historical fiction as a genre. Not
very fond of business books -I read to be
transported into a different world or
thought process. Reading business books
How do you support your portfolio does not give me that energy. I read blogs
companies? and listen to podcasts. I like SaaS blogs from
Every founder and company is different, and Bessemer Venture Partners, and podcasts
where they need help also changes with the from a16z, SaaStr and Invest Like the Best.
stage of the company. Our biggest role, is to
be an intellectually honest sounding board
to the founder. In addition, we work with our
portfolio companies to help recruit their
leadership teams and expand the size and
reach of their network.
Rajit first got curious about the world of data at a very
young age. By the time he turned 19, he was already
involved in building various data-driven solutions for
MNCs and enterprises. He believes that the actual
impact of AI and machine learning to empower
businesses and people is something that the industry
is not ready to believe.
Rajit Bhattacharya datasutram.com
Cofounder
How did the idea of Data Sutram come Review that said, “Data science is the sexiest
about? job of the 21st century!” But soon I realized
Enterprises need answers from their that the ground reality is very different
customers at every point of their journey in because as data scientists, we do not have
the customer lifecycle. When we were enough information to be able to create
working for one of the leading financial solutions. To enable myself, millions of
institutions in the country, I remember one people who aspired to go into this field, and
interaction that I had with the CEO of the for enterprises to make decisions, we
company. He asked me, “Rajit, can you tell realized that this is something to start with
me if this borrower is going to default and hence our journey started. We wanted
tomorrow?” This was during the peak COVID to build something, we wanted to solve a
pandemic and the company did not have problem and this was a problem that we
enough financial data of the customer to faced as data scientists so we wanted to
arrive at a conclusion. solve it for everyone.
So, at that time, we put our heads together When did you realise the need to raise
and looked at how many people were Venture Capital - Seed funding?
walking into the store every day as the In any product company, where we need to
borrower was a Kirana store. We observed build a product i.e. in our case, we needed to
whether the store is open or closed i.e. build a platform that enabled the collection
whether the store is accessible, and using of data from raw sources and create
smartphones, payment data, etc. We were intelligence. Till this platform was created,
able to put a picture together that depicted we couldn’t have approached clients to pay
this Kirana store doing business in that area us money. This was a typical chicken and
and we answered whether this borrower will egg problem. Did the chicken come first or
default tomorrow or not. This opened up our did the egg come first? As a result, for any
minds and this made us realize that more product company, it’s very important to
often than not the information that is have the financial backing to continue on a
needed to make a decision lies outside the journey where you build till a point the
database of an organization. This customer revenue comes in. Hence we
information is also often unstructured and realized the need for Venture Capital. We
not accessible to people inside the did not have enough money for ourselves to
organization and hence this was presented put in so we went for it.
as a market opportunity that we need to
build a platform that enables enterprises to How has 100X helped you at the
tap into these sources to get answers. beginning of your journey?
100X wrote us a check in five minutes when
What prompted you to start working on all we had was a PowerPoint Presentation.
Data Sutram and execute this idea? Now, today when I look back, whatever we
I entered the journey of being a data have built till now is because someone
scientist by listening to Harvard’s Business believed us for the presentation in five
minutes. Now that’s the real value of an What motivates you and keeps you going?
investor. The belief and trust that 100X has For me, motivation is about people. I have
put in us is today the reason why Data always believed that I want to build a mafia,
Sutram has come up. a set of people that goes and does crazy
things. As long as I enter the office every day
Has your startup pivoted? If so, what has and I have the mafia around me, it keeps me
the pivot been? motivated.
Most companies pivot when they are going
from an idea to an MVP because ideas are Your message for Startup founders
not bulletproof. To reach a minimum viable building in this sector.
product, you need the market to test your For any entrepreneur, the journey from zero
idea, give you feedback, and enable it. At to one is the most crucial. In that journey,
Data Sutram, we entered with a data the most important aspect is finding a
platform but the journey has been problem statement. More often than not, as
understanding and working in multiple founders, we focus on solutions, products,
sectors. We realized that financial services and stories but what it all starts with is the
needed data to take decisions on NTC and problem. I think my message and my
NTB customers. That’s a market fit that we biggest learning in this journey has been
got. So, the question is “Did we pivot or did that in your initial days - when you are
we find our niche?” building from zero to one - focus on the
problem statement and try to validate it as
much because once the problem is
decoded, you will find the solution too. The
belief and trust that 100X has put in us is
For me, motivation is today the reason why Data Sutram has
come up.
about people. I have always
believed that I want to
build a mafia, a set of
people that goes and does
crazy things.
What stage is your startup at present?

Currently, Data Sutram is at a Series A stage
in its early growth journey.
As founders, what are your goals for the

next 1-2 years?
As a founder, the aspiration is to build for the
world, from India. So, the next couple of
years are about scaling the business in India
but more importantly, exploring the
international go-to-market, where we can
replicate our Indian success stories in
countries beyond India.
Pravin has over 50 years of entrepreneurial,
operational and investing experience in the IT
industry in India. He was a founding partner of the
first early-stage fund in India – INFINITY.
Subsequently a founding partner in Seedfund I & II.
With over 18 years of investing experience, he has an
extensive network in the investment &
entrepreneurial scene and is an active early-stage
Pravin Gandhi seedfund.in
angel investor in the tech and impact space.
Founder & Partner
What is your motivation to be in the Engage with entrepreneurs during good

venture investing business? times and especially in bad times.
My motivation is to mentor young talent to Make sure compliance is a key
build sustainable companies. deliverable for the CEO.
What is your view on the future of India as Mention top 5 consumer/industry/

a market? technology trends in India and globally.
India has ample growth opportunities. So we Currently, I am interested in climate change,
will grow. Speed will depend on the global Alternate Proteins, Social impact ventures
environment and reforms in India. especially companies that have IP.
Help describe your investment thesis and Top 5 advice you would give to a startup
ideas you would like to back. founder.
I like to invest in companies that solve real Don't follow anyone else blindly. Learn
problems with technologies that make the and be nimble. Know when something is
business cost efficient. not working and solve it.
Your investor is your friend, not an
adversary. And it's a two-way
relationship. So stay engaged and
communicate.
Don't follow anyone else

How do you support your portfolio
blindly. Learn and be nimble. companies?
I am available for any interaction they need.
Know when something is not
I review business bi-weekly or monthly as
working and solve it. Your possible.
investor is your friend, not an
Which of your portfolio companies are
adversary. And it's a two-way you excited about and why?
relationship. So stay engaged and I am excited about all my investments. But
currently Goqii, Chalo, BECO.
communicate.
When you started your career what were
your ambitions?
I started in the VC business in the year 2000,
What are your 5 key learnings from your After being an entrepreneur, I have learnt
experience as a venture investor? and am still learning the VC business.
Don't get carried away with momentum. My ambition was to help part my learnings
Pick teams that are complementary. as an entrepreneur to young founders to
Focus on execution and bottom line. build sustainable, profitable companies and
hopefully make some money.
Ketaki has nearly a decade of product marketing
experience, having words for and with Fortune 500
companies globally. At BHyve, she leads Sales,
Marketing, and Customer Success; and likes
spending most of her time listening to user stories
and challenges. Outside of work, Ketaki enjoys food
and adventure sports.
Ketaki Ogale bhyve.io
Cofounder
How did the idea of BHyve come up? How has 100X helped you at the
BHyve is a fruit of the lived experience of the beginning of your journey?
founders. While working in large, global Capital access: Our first cheque came
organizations, we realised that the biggest from 100X.VC.
untapped opportunity for organizations is Access to angel investors - we raised
the sitting wealth of knowledge - some $200K from the angels who discovered
scattered, some undocumented. We realised us on the 100X.VC platform.
that by making it visible, and centralised, the Early customers: 2 out of our first 4
organization can unlock new productivity customers came through to us from the
and efficiency, and have employees leverage connects of 100X.VC.
the most of collective capabilities of the
group. That's when inspired by the ways What challenges did you face and how did
Bees use hive intelligence, we ideated you overcome them?
BHyve. BHyve is a category-creation product for the
majority of the Indian market. This means
What made you start working on BHyve we have to educate our customers about
and executing this idea? the value of efficient knowledge
We did lots of reading and spoke to people management. We do this through our
who said this was a real problem, that they marketing efforts, and through the
were solving to some extent at their end. We relationships our sales team builds with our
also met organizations who wanted to solve target buyer groups. Today's market is filled
this problem but didn't know how to. That with productivity tools and enterprise is
gave us the encouragement to start filled with technology. So breaking that
sketching out a solution. The pandemic, clutter, and showing real value is a huge
however, became our moment of truth, challenge. l say we are a work in progress on
when we realized that the gravity of our that front.
problem became 10x, and we had access to
the right technology to solve this at scale. What stage is BHyve at present?
BHyve currently has 12 customers, as a
When did you realise the need to raise horizontal SaaS Enterprise AI product. We
Venture Capital - Seed funding? have a recurring revenue and an NDR of
The first company that showed interest in us 140%. We're starting to see inbound traction
was Aditya Birla Hindalco. Their needs from established large organizations and
matched our value proposition, and they building a team that can support this
were keen to buy this product. For us, that growth. The next big thing for us is
green signalled a potential business Generative AI as a way to make knowledge
opportunity. So we realised that the next the most valuable asset of all organizations.
thing we needed for this puzzle was capital -
the funds to hire the right talent who can
build this app. That's when we decided to go
for funding.
As founders, what are your goals for the Your message for Startup founders
next 1-2 years? building in this sector.
Getting to $150K ARR with a focus on You have to feel passionately about a
medium and large enterprises. problem (especially at an early stage). A lot
Getting to 200% NDR. of investor, client and employee conviction
Breaking even. comes from this passion. Keep learning.
Launching a set of Generative AI You'll never know enough about your
capabilities to solve for higher order KM customers and users. Do your value
problems. proposition and problem articulation ever so
Raising the next round of funding. often, so you know you're going deep into
Building a rest of the world pipeline for the domain. Enterprise SaaS is tricky
the ‘selling from India’ model. because while there are playbooks, they are
not specific to your problem, industry or
What motivates you and keeps you going? scale. It's a marathon, so don't burn out.
Our users: I spend a lot of time looking Work on physical, mental, and emotional
through their requests, their usage wellbeing, so you can focus and steer your
patterns and testimonials - and it's ship well.
incredibly reassuring that they see value
in our work, and that it solves challenges
they encounter at work. This is
fundamental.
Our team: We're very fortunate to get to
work with very talented, passionate, and
incredibly hardworking people - who
genuinely care and want to see BHyve
thrive. Their ideas keep me excited and
motivated.
Our users. I spend a lot

of time looking through their
requests, their usage patterns
and testimonials - and it's
incredibly reassuring that
they see value in our work,
and that it solves challenges
they encounter at work. This
is fundamental.
Krishna Handa is a graduate in Bio-technology and
Bio-chemistry, Law, and an MBA from Suffolk
University, Boston, USA. She is a serial ideator and
entrepreneur, and a mother. She is also the wife of
Arjun Handa, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of
Claris Group. She founded Dorizoe Lifesciences
Limited, after which she went on to start ‘ello’, a kids
Krishna Handa apparel and lifestyle products company. clariscapital.in
Investment Strategist
What is your motivation to be in the plenty of deas out there but what are you
venture investing business? willing to risk most importantly your idea
Motivation in the Venture investing should bring some societal change or be
business, personal motivation, and flexibility part of a larger cause or purpose. Deep tech
to play different roles as a woman and at the in agri, retail, and defence logistics, are some
core level allow me to tap into different of my favourite categories.
trends and crystal gaze into futuristic
opportunities that keep unfolding in the
world. To be somehow synchronized with
the larger collective and keep the curiosity
and learning an ongoing journey. India, as a country,
Describe your workday and leisure day, seems most promising with
how does it look like? so many passionate young or
My work and leisure are pretty well blended.
old entrepreneurs who are
Sometimes work gives more joy than the
responsibilities and burdens you carry as a following their calling and
woman in society. Self-discovery, endurance willing to take the risk.
training, travelling inward or outwardly to
learn and grow or simple time spent with
family gives immense peace and
satisfaction.
What are your 5 key learnings from your
What is your view on the future of India as experience as a venture investor?
a market? Key learnings -
India, as a country, seems most promising It’s ok to make mistakes but same
with so many passionate young or old mistakes cannot repeat twice so learn
entrepreneurs who are following their what are your pattern biases.
calling and willing to take the risk. I see rural, Intuition and logic should be weighed in
tier 2 cities are going to do just fantastic as and understanding the entrepreneur’s
well and might be the biggest growth driver deepest passion/motivation and fears are
for India as a market in various categories. important parameters of how he
Jio and now the 15k laptops recently being functions as a leader.
introduced are going to bring a big digital Keeping an eye on company’s cash burn
shift in India and create demands that were and bottom line.
never heard of before. Hit or miss go back to the companies
that you missed investing and find the
Help describe your investment thesis and why !
ideas you would like to back. Seek advice before investing to keep
I have a clear investment philosophy. I bet yourself in check.
on the founder and his courage and
willingness to go that extra mile as there are
Which of your portfolio companies are you
excited about and why?
I am excited about two companies, Porter, as
we were one of the initial investors and
QualSights, a US-based marketing company,
both are of course doing very well.
What inspires you in life and what keeps

you awake at night?
What inspires me is that there is so much
out there in life to yet learn, grow and
experience. What keeps me awake at night:
My mind, it’s my biggest strength and can
be my biggest weakness. Ideas are out there
but what are you willing to risk? Most
importantly, your idea should bring some
societal change or be part of a larger cause
or purpose.
Kuldeep has worked 7+ years in consulting with
Wipro & Fidelity Investments in India and London. He
has deep experience in the retirement space
especially creating 401k & IRAs which empowers him
to build PensionBox better. He loves speed, go-
karting, bike rides, beaches and non-fiction books.
Kuldeep Parashar pensionbox.in
Cofounder
How did the idea of PensionBox come up? there we kept moving forward. We
The idea didn’t come to us, the problem did. improved our financial projections, made
I was working on the US retirement space our roadmap better and also raised exactly
and wanted to figure out a way to plan our the amount we needed to launch
parent’s retirement. That’s how we started PensionBox.
looking at the Indian retirement space, a
rarely explored space. We started How has 100X helped you at the
PensionBox so that someday my parents beginning of your journey?
and I along with millions of Indians could 100x believed in us first before anyone else
use it and get their retirement with the right did and supported our persistence to grow,
pension. and build. My first in-person pitch and my
first Mumbai trip was with 100x and from
What made you start working on and there we kept moving forward. We
executing this idea? improved our financial projections, made
Two main reasons which made us start changes to our GTM, made the product
working on PensionBox, First was this gut roadmap better and also raised exactly the
feeling that we have to build this for our amount we needed to launch PensionBox.
people (scale and impact of the pension
problem) and second was that we actually Has your startup pivoted? If so, What has
can do it with in-house CTO Shivam who can the pivot been?
code the vision we can see together. Small pivots are part of any startup but we
haven’t made a major pivot in our vision or
When did you realise the need to raise product and still continue to work towards
Venture Capital - Seed funding? building PensionBox to improve the way
We felt the need to raise money when Indians retire.
PFRDA regulations required the net worth of
the company to be more than 75 lakhs and What challenges did you face and how did
50 lakhs as cash reserves to apply for a you overcome them?
licence for NPS. Also, we need to break into This might sound like any other success talk
the existing networks to build faster with but it’s true to 99%. PensionBox had delays
collaborations and integrations. So, we in licence work, people being unwilling to
looked for seed funding and guidance to join an early-stage startup, difficulty finding
steer through the pension space. people in the finance domain (as it’s a small
community) and 100s more. The only way to
How has 100X helped you at the beginning overcome them was to pick them up one by
of your journey? one and figure a logical way out of them. I
100X believed in us first before anyone else travelled to Delhi and stayed there till we
did and supported our persistence to grow, figured out the licence delay and sorted it
and build. My first in-person pitch and my out. We hired people who were willing to
first Mumbai trip was with 100X, and from work together - basically believers, and not
those who had doubts and unclear heads.
We looked for mentors to guide us in the Your message for Startup founders
finance domain and always looked for a building in this sector.
logical way out to fix our challenges. Fintech is a crowded space and it will
become more in the future but you need to
What stage is your startup at present? figure out what you can do better than most
PensionBox is in ‘build-fast-to-scale-faster’ in the market. Positioning and founders' way
mode. We have built the product, built a to go to market is a moat (many will
core team of 10 in the last year, are gaining disagree until you execute and show them
traction from 5000 to 1,55,000 users, are the numbers). Also, keep the cost of building
onboarding partners, and are expected to hit your product low to at least make some
10,00,000 users by March 2024. money in a low-margin business. At last, I
am just your fellow founder building,
As founders, what are your goals for the learning every day so do what your gut says
next 1-2 years? and execute!
The next 2 years are the years of scale and
building a truly Indian brand in the Indian
pension space. As founders, we have set two
major KPIs: 1) to keep the cost low, stay lean
and 2) to maximise revenue at scale.
PensionBox will reach every household by
the end of 2025.
I look for small wins

every day or at least every
week and that shows
progress. When you see
progress, you want to make
more of it, it’s like an
addiction to make things
work.
What motivates you and keeps you going?

To be honest, I look for small wins every day
or at least every week and that shows
progress. When you see progress, you want
to make more of it, it’s like an addiction to
make things work. Also, Shivam is my
cofounder, younger brother and best friend
who knows how to balance things together
to keep things running.
Shailesh Ghorpade is a seasoned professional with a
distinguished career spanning over two decades. He
brings a wealth of strategic insight to the investment
landscape. With a notable tenure as Chief Strategy &
Planning Officer at Suzlon Energy Limited and
leadership roles at Infosys, Shailesh has
demonstrated expertise in driving growth and
Shailesh Ghorpade innovation. exfinityventures.com
Cofounder
What is your motivation to be in the What is your view on the future of India as
venture investing business? a market?
We entered the Venture space in late 2013 – My view is that India emerged as a beacon
early 2014. Personally, I am delighted to even in tough times is testimony that it is a
meet a wide variety of audacious and resilient and fundamentally strong market.
imaginative founders, listen to their ideas, Given the geo-political situation and while
learn from them and try and work with them there is rhetoric about moving supply chains
to give them some shape – whether it is from China, it is not too easy. That being
capital or other interventions. I have a selfish said, if India works on its labour reforms, we
motive that founders keep me young and have the potential to be a manufacturing
open-minded and their energy is infectious. powerhouse. Having said that, there are
In the process, I will not deny that there is several self-imposed shackles that stifle our
motivation to generate outsized returns to growth, and while there is some change,
the fund and its investors. However, the doing business in India is still not very
larger calling is that India has transformed smooth given the arbitrariness of our tax
after the start-up ecosystem has taken root laws and the myriad processes that one has
and it is just the beginning. The excitement to follow for compliance – it takes away your
of what tomorrow beckons is palpable and I energy and attention from doing business.
can’t wait to experience it. Brand India is on Hence India has huge potential given all the
a high and will even go higher and to be a obvious factors but it is for us to lose from
part of the same is a fascinating journey. here.
Describe your workday and leisure day, Help describe your investment thesis and
how does it look like? ideas you would like to back.
Workday is usually 9-10 hours, which We have always been an Enterprise tech
includes meetings with startups, investors fund. We have never come to terms with
and teams. As a fund, we have always understanding the consumer tech model so
worked together and there is no WFH. We we have stuck to our knitting. We are sector
like to attend office, discuss, collaborate and agnostic and primarily our investment can
execute. All of us are very clear about be bucketed into three themes – Deep Tech
working from the office. However, even on a where we have done companies in Robotics,
work day, I alternate between Yoga and Mobility, Chip Design and Healthtech to
Running and I spend close to 75-80 minutes Enterprise SaaS to Products and Platform
on fitness. There is some reading to catch up companies. We are an early-stage fund (pre-
on a workday but mainly current affairs. I series A/ series A) and our cheque sizes are
follow sports keenly and on a leisure day you between $1-3M although, we do take some
will invariably find me on a golf course early-stage bets as an exception where
playing with some like-minded golfers and it cheque sizes could be around $500K USD.
is fun. There is no better way to unwind
yourself than playing a sport.
What are your 5 key learnings from your many ways to add value – getting them
experience as a venture investor? customers, providing them support on
Stay away from businesses where tech finance and governance, working with them
adoption risks are high. on building a team, referring them to the
Stay away from capital-intensive broader ecosystem to raise capital by
businesses. leveraging our relationships, etc.
Spaces that are humongous and whose
time has come are the most productive. Top 5 advice you would give to a startup
Stay away from single founders no founder.
matter how brilliant they are – either the Target large spaces.
founder does not believe in building a Respect capital and ensure that you pay
top team or he has not been able to attention to doing the right things from
excite anyone to join him – either way it is a governance standpoint.
a terrible thing. Constantly take customer and market
Do not extend more funding support to a feedback – continuously listen to what
startup (already funded by your fund) if customers and markets are saying and
either you lose faith in the team or you accordingly build your product
lose faith in the business. hypothesis.
Track meaningful and relevant metrics –
visit the first principles of finance for the
same. Vanity metrics do you no good
except lull you into complacency.
Be restless and paranoid – evolve
Respect capital and constantly. Track competition closely
ensure that you pay attention and not just on how much capital they
have raised but look at their proposition,
to doing the right things team strengths, customers, pricing, and
from a governance product very closely.
standpoint.
you excited about and why?
We are excited about a lot of companies in
our portfolio but if you have to look at some
stand-out names they will be Pixis, Log 9
Mention the top 5 consumer/industry/ Materials, Hippo Video, Skit.ai, Ati Motors,
technology trends in India and globally. Credilio, Locus and a few others. My
Mobility, primarily in areas of alternate excitement from all these companies comes
battery chemistry, battery recycling, from the fact that all these founders are
intelligence around the BMS which will exceptionally brilliant, but they have always
create models for funding and looked to make their startup into a business
underwriting, etc. and they have made that transition quite
Robotics, given its impact on Industry 4.0 well. One of our other companies,
Vertical SaaS MoEngage always makes us proud but sadly
Video AI we have exited the same. However, one
Fintech thing I am big about is Execution. And all
these companies are good at it. You may
How do you support your portfolio have a first class product and a strategy but
companies? a third class execution – I would rather back
Since we are an early-stage fund, we do a company with a first class execution but
partner with our portfolio companies in maybe a second class product.
When you started your career what were They have pioneered some innovative
your ambitions? financial instruments which is extremely
As a B School graduate, when I started, it light and less onerous, so start-ups do not
was always the corner office but over time spend much time doing arduous
you realize the futility of such self-fulfilling documentation. In my view, and to use the
ambitions. My kick in life is to make a startup lingo, 100X.VC provides all the funds
difference, however small, to all the with a very curated and well-diversified
stakeholders. TOFU (top of the funnel). I wish the entire
100X.VC team all the success and look
What inspires you in life and what keeps forward to strengthening our partnership.
you awake at night?
I like to read biographies/autobiographies of
a cross-section of people from Business to
Economics to Sport to Musicians to Artists
etc. and learn from their journey, and
perspectives. A lot of people inspire me from
all walks of life. Many times I look for
excellence in people who are not even
known and get inspired. You do not need to
only look upwards for inspiration. If you look
sideways or even below, you will find it in
plenty if you are perceptive. I find all those
people fascinating.
Books or Blogs you would recommend for

entrepreneurs.
There are quite a few books but I will go by
some recent books that I read. One is
Outsiders by William Thorndike Jr. This is a
must-read for all startup founders and I
would urge them to read. The Platform
Delusion by Jonathan Knee is another
seminal work.
If you have interacted with 100X.VC,

please share a few good words about us.
100X.VC is a fantastic platform that strikes at
the roots of the startup ecosystem. The team
is well rounded and they provide a
phenomenal multiplier effect to not only
financially give the startups an impetus but
several startups who eventually come to us
have given a great account of 100X.VC and
their engagement model.
Niharika comes from a digital marketing
background, is a Ted-x speaker and has done MSc in
Marketing strategy and Innovation from Cass
Business School London and further worked in the
corporate industry.
Niharika Bhargava thelittlefarm.co.in
Cofounder
How did the idea of The Little Farm Co. with orders from pin codes we hadn’t even
come up? imagined. We decided this could be big and
We are a family that loves food, and after my if we have to scale we would need capital to
grandmother passed away we used to miss make The Little Farm Co. a household name.
the pickles she made at home. When I Another reason apart from capital was
looked outside in the market for what kind access to the right partners, The FMCG
of pickles are available in the market, they sector is usually very closed-off and having
somehow did not have the same taste or the right set of partners to help in achieving
appeal as homemade pickles do. That's the right product market fit. With a VC like
when I realised that there was a gap in the 100X.VC coming in, we realised they could
market. I started collecting all the family help us in our scaling journey like they have
recipes with the help of my dad and family with other FMCG brands.
members. I did a small farmers market to
test the product and we sold out. There was How has 100X helped you at the
no looking back since then. Post which, the beginning of your journey?
scaling journey started and we started 100X didn’t just come in with capital, but
growing our ingredients and stabilised the also mentoring and the pool of networks
recipes and standardised processes. The key that it opened for us. The 90 days we spent
insights for us were most of the working in Mumbai for the 100X masterclasses
professionals in India don't have the time to helped us as founders. 100X connected us
make pickles at home, do not have easy with many founders in the consumer space,
access to homemade pickles and what they which helped us understand and learn from
find in the market is filled with preservatives. their journeys. The value of this is huge
because it helps us save a lot of time as we
What made you start working on The can learn from other founders' experiences.
Little Farm Co. and executing this idea?
Once we market-tested the recipes, the next Has your startup pivoted? If so, What has
step was to stabilise the recipe as we didn’t the pivot been?
use any preservatives. We managed to The ethos of our brand has always been the
stabilise it to 12 months + successfully and same, there have been some small pivots
started scaling. We make these tasty pickles which I feel are essential as per what is
with minimum manual intervention but needed for the brand to grow. One of them
preserve tasty old, forgotten recipes using was me running this brand in a self-funded
our secret and quality ingredients. set-up profitably before and then deciding
to raise Venture capital and successfully
When did you realise the need to raise doing so. The other pivot was, we were
Venture Capital - Seed funding? selling offline via farmer markets and
Think of it pickle is consumed in every Indian boutique stores but now shifting the focus
household, be it breakfast, lunch or dinner. to digital and only focussing on a few
But one turning point for us was when we geographies. The main reason was not to
got published in one Hindi national paper spread ourselves too thin and expand based
organically and our website exploded with
on revenue-based targets after mastering a What motivates you and keeps you
few areas and channels. This pivot has going?
definitely helped us scale rapidly. One major thing that always motivates me
to keep going is to see how far I have come
What challenges did you face and how did and the efforts we have put in so far. The
you overcome them? others are ‘customers' feedback and
One major challenge for me was that I did approval of the product, the sales and
not belong to this background, I come from repeat customers. And lastly, the farmer
a marketing background and had no women we are supporting while building
experience in the food space. But I am this to keep going is to see how far I have
happy to say that I learned on the job and come and the efforts we have put in so far.
built the right team, got the right mentors to The others are ‘customers' feedback and
scale this. Apart from this, FMCG space is a approval of the product, the sales and
very competitive space so scaling operations repeat customers. And lastly, the farmer
and distribution was a challenge. But post women we are supporting while building
our fund raise we have started to build the this.
right team and distribution networks.
Your message for Startup founders
building in this sector.
One message I give to all founders is that if
you have a great idea do try it, you won’t
know if it works till you explore it further.
We are at a scaling Deep dive into testing your product and
stage and my vision is to market research. If you get the right fit there
is no stopping.
make The Little Farm Co. a
household name in the
condiments space.

We are at a scaling stage and my vision is to
make The Little Farm Co. a household name
in the condiments space. We are currently a
digital-first brand selling via our website,
amazon and quick commerce platforms. the
vision in the near future is to dominate
these channels.

next 1-2 years?
Our vision is to focus on our strength of
distribution and accessibility and build a
solid FMCG brand in the condiments space
with a 360-degree approach via multiple
sales channels such as MT, GT, Quick come
and website, as well as internationally and
further scale the business.
Dr. Aarti Gupta belongs to the promoter family of the
Jagran group. She is the Chief Investment Officer at
DBR Ventures. Named amongst the 22 Top Women
Investors in the country by Inc42, she looks for
companies with innovative and transformative
solutions to problems that exist on a larger scale. She
is the past Chairperson for FICCI FLO Kanpur and the
National Head for FICCI FLO Start-ups. She is also the
anikarthventures.com
Aarti Gupta Chairperson of the Startup Committee of Merchant
Chief Investment Officer Chamber of UP.
What is your motivation to be in the next decade being very good for the overall
venture investing business? growth of the country.
For me, venture investing started as an asset
class diversification. As the CIO for our family Help describe your investment thesis and
office, as the returns in equity and fixed ideas you would like to back.
income over time have been squeezed we I like to invest in early-stage startups that
wanted to explore venture investing. are solving an existing problem with a large
However, over the years, this has really enough market size with a USP strong
caught my interest. The ability to be part of enough to become market leaders. I am
an entrepreneurs journey as they problem sector agnostic, however I do have an
solve and disrupt sectors is extremely inclination currently towards consumer
gratifying. Early stage investing offers a tech, ecommerce enablers, space tech, and
chance to mentor and channelize once femtech. Extremely positive and optimistic
personal experience and network to help about the next decade being very good for
another budding entrepreneur. In addition the overall growth of the country.
to the returns, this has been my motivation.
Top 5 advice you would give to startup
Describe your workday and leisure day, founder.
how does it look like? Know your numbers inside out.
For me, workdays and leisure days involve Know your competition.
spending time with people, travel, reading Integrity beats everything else.
and exercising. Its just that on workdays I am It is a rollercoaster ride, you will fall down
spending time with the team, analysts, fund from your highs and you will rise up from
managers and work colleagues. I travel to your lows.
different places either for meetings, events Always remember the passion and the
or workshops, read reports and updates on reason why you started.
the market and exercise. On a leisure day I
spend time with friends and family, travel on How do you support your portfolio
holidays and explore new destinations, read companies?
biographies (they are my favorite genre) and Mentorship, funding, network.
exercise!
What is your view on the future of India as you excited about and why?
market? Actually, we can say "It's difficult to name
I have been an investor in the Indian just one name from our large portfolio but
markets for more than a decade now and I we surely are very bullish on three sectors;
strongly believe in the Indian growth story. the Ecom enablers, the healthy living niche
The Indian consumer, entrepreneur and and Big business disruptors. We like 6deg,
government are unique in themselves and wicked and Agnikul respectively. All three
that is why we see a comparatively lesser can go global as well.
effect on us of the world wide recession. I am
extremely positive and optimistic about the
What inspires you in life and what keeps Books or Blogs you would recommend
you awake at night? entrepreneurs.
What keeps me up at night is my journey of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to
finding my own power, dealing with my own Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.
hardships and coming out stronger. I have Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of
this deep rooted need to be able to use the Nike by Phil Knight.
power and knowledge I have to help others Atomic Habits: An Easy, Proven Way to
discover and reach their potential. Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
by James Clear.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies
Make the Leap and Others Don’t.
Losing my Virginity – Richard Branson.
What keeps me up at
night is my journey of finding
my own power, dealing with
my own hardships and
coming out stronger.
Nikhil Maroli spearheads strategic partnerships in the
UK, the primary market, overseeing the delivery of AI-
based road condition assessments and asset
mapping. With over four years of expertise applying
AI and lean manufacturing principles in the
transportation sector, Nikhil has previously served in
roles at Velodyne LiDAR and Tesla as a process
Nikhil Maroli engineer. roadmetrics.ai
Cofounder
How did the idea of RoadMetrics come mapping using LiDAR for automotive (B2B)
about? applications. We finally decided to work on
The idea of RoadMetrics came up when building an AI system for road condition
Dipen and Mishal, two childhood friends, assessment and monitoring for the
found that Google Maps suggested an international market.
alternative route that promised to save time
but turned out to take twice the time due to What challenges did you face and how did
bad road conditions. That's when they you overcome them?
explored the idea of mapping road Some challenges included raising capital
conditions using computer vision-based investment for a new technology, and
artificial intelligence methods, while in customer reluctance to change existing
college as a senior year project. habits and methods. We displayed our
value-for-money for road maintenance
What prompted you to start working on teams to switch from machine-based road
RoadMetrics and execute this idea? assessment methods to using our AI system
The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) for road condition assessments that
approached Dipen and Mishal to help them leverage smartphone video data.
build a map of road condition data for their
road maintenance efforts. That's when they What stage is your startup at present?
realised the need to build a product. We are at a scale-up stage with 11 early
adopter customers in the UK (our home
When did you realise the need to raise market) and others in the US, Middle East
Venture Capital - Seed funding? and Australia.
Soon after starting our company in October
2019, we needed seed capital to build and As founders, what are your goals for the
rapidly experiment with test ideas. This was next 1-2 years?
in December, late 2019 when 100X received Our goals in the next 1-2 years are to sign up
our application and invited us to learn more 100 customers and rapidly expand our
about our team and idea. presence globally for highway asset
management.
How has 100X helped you at the beginning
of your journey? What motivates you and keeps you
100X has been valuable in helping us with going?
mentoring, support and access to The fascination of how technology,
connections to raise follow-on investment to especially AI, can change lives and help
grow and expand our business. organisations improve efficiency and costs.
Has your startup pivoted? If so, what has

the pivot been?
Yes, we tested multiple ideas including a
road condition mapping app (B2C) and
Your message for Startup founders healthcare, etc. are seeing massive shifts in
building in this sector. efficiency improvements and savings with
Many areas in traditional industries such the usage of AI. AI is seeing increased
as highway infrastructure, real estate, adoption and disrupting many industries.
Therefore, startup founders can expect to
see a lot of opportunities opening up in this
field.
The idea of RoadMetrics

came up when Dipen and
Mishal, two childhood
friends, found that Google
Maps suggested an
alternative route that
promised to save time but
turned out to take twice the
time due to bad road
conditions.
Sustainable
innovation gain
momentum
globally.
At YourNest Venture Capital, Girish is responsible for
developing the investment strategy, spotting
emerging trends, identifying investment
opportunities, monitoring and reviewing progress at
portfolio companies and hand holding them for
building robust processes leading to their success.
Girish Shivani yournest.in
Executive Director
What is your motivation to be in the etc. but as we matured into 2nd or 3rd fund,
venture investing business? we sharply defined our investment thesis.
I am actually an accidental VC, We are the only fund in the country that is a
serendipitously reached out to Sunil, who purely deep tech, IP-led firm that helps
looped in Sanjay, while they were build global products out of India. There are
conceptualising the first fund and they were 2 layers to deep tech - one is the entire
looking for a partner with an enterprise tech hardware vertical around Sensor, Robotics,
background. Quit my job at 41 and ever Wearables, IoT etc, and the other is the
since have been a part of the VC world. software vertical around AI, machine
learning and distributed. As long as the
Describe your workday and leisure day, investments are a combination of one or
how does it look like? more of the core technologies that we focus
I manage the deal flow at YourNest, so I on, we are happy to evaluate.
don't really have a leisure day. I work 7 days a
week. I usually find time during the day itself What are your 5 key learnings from your
to unwind, so I typically play golf in the experience as a venture investor?
morning, twice a week. I also go for walks in The biggest learning is that business
the morning, start my day at 6:30 am and go plans do not fail in Excel sheets, but
to bed at 11:30 P.m. Fun fact, I actually go to these fail when it comes to execution.
bed with 0 unread emails! I read a lot of You can never underestimate the power
pitch decks and tech-focused newsletters, of a team, a single person can only take
one of my favourites being Medium. I have an opportunity as far, its the team that
an interest in astronomy as well! does the magic.
The sharper you are in terms of segment
What is your view on the future of India as definition the better you can channel
a market? your resources and target the niche.
I think considering the way China has Keep your friends close and your
imploded, we are the 2nd largest VC market enemies closer, if you don't have
and in no time we will become no.1, both information about the competitive
from a size perspective and from a tech landscape, you can only go that far.
adoption perspective. As a VC I've gotten an Be open to new ideas and be flexible in
inside view of how the market has evolved your startup journey.
and we have a long way to go, I feel like we
have just scratched the tip of the iceberg. Mention the top 5 consumer/industry/
technology trends in India and globally.
Help describe your investment thesis and So broadly, I think the next decade, or the
ideas you would like to back. next 15-20 years, is the year for product
When we started we were a tech and tech- companies in India. We've seen in the last
enabled-focused fund. We were looking at 25-30 years, how the growth of tech services
deep-tech, shallow tech B2B, B2C, IP led companies like BM, Accenture, and Infosys
has generated close to USD500bn wealth,
and how they've scaled up using Indian our side to make them succeed we do it
engineering skill sets to get the service whether it be hiring, or expansion. Starting
model that is currently in use. from getting the right set of co-investors,
and introducing them to the right set of
The same trend is coming into play on the IP people. We have a 100-day playbook that
Led product side in India. The Indian every company goes through as we help
product-based companies in the next 15-20 them build the right structure for their
years, will generate trillion dollars of wealth. company, so everything that is required to
Backing interesting founding teams, manage the funds effectively and move
working on deep tech and building products forward we are happy to help with. We pride
in India at Indian prices - but selling across ourselves as nurture capitalists.
the globe - is what I think will be the
forerunner in the next few years. Which of your portfolio companies are
you excited about and why?
Top 5 pieces of advice you would give to a I have 25 portcos and I am excited about all
startup founder. of them! We’ve invested in this company
I think the first piece of advice is to find called Exponent Energy from Bangalore
co-founders who bring complementary that is building fast charging infra. They help
skills. If you are a techie go find a with last-mile delivery infrastructure. They
commercial guy and vice versa, if you're a can bring the vehicle to full charge in 30
product guy then find a service guy, and mins. They just raised $13 million.
vice versa. An individual skill set does not
take you far, it’s the diversity in skill sets When you started your career what were
that takes you to places. your ambitions?
Don't cringe at investing in sales at the As I said, I became a VC accidentally, there
right time because, at the end of the day, was no ambition and this was not on the
cash runs the business engine, if you do roadmap at all, I quit a very cushy job at the
sell then there is no way you can build age of 41 when I was at the top of my career
the scalability factor for your startup. then, and started my journey in the VC
You have to be a storyteller as a founder world. I realised that If I didn't take the
because you're selling your story to your plunge at that time then I would have never
employees, customers, and investors and been able to do so.
you have to be a credible storyteller at
that. Especially if you are a techie we've What inspires you in life and what keeps
seen that gap exists which is important you awake at night?
to fill. Very honestly what keeps me awake is the
Build the right structure for the moving deal flow, that something will cross my table
car. Build a culture of openness, and and I will pass it and it will become the next
empathy and value your partners and big thing. We get an opportunity to write a
employees, value your families, that is cheque and if we don't write that cheque
extremely important. then whatever happens it becomes a loss of
Keep a very sharp eye on cash flow. a very big opportunity. I should be able to do
cannot move your eye from how much justice to the deals that come to my table.
cash you are burning, and fix it as quickly As long as these decisions are conscious and
as you can if the trend is divergent. we are not looking at it in a very superficial
manner, I am happy. We look at every
How do you support your portfolio opportunity as if it were the next big thing.
companies? Our promise to the ecosystem is that - do
So we are tied to the hip, we win only when write to us, and you will hear back from us.
our portcos win, so whatever is required As to what inspires me, I think that any sort
from
of achievement and path-breaking stuff that Books or Blogs you would recommend for
pushes the envelope excites me - whether it entrepreneurs.
be somebody doing fundamental physics I voraciously read fiction, 2 books a week.
research or be it humans traveling to Mars. Nonfiction puts me to sleep, and I've been
Wherever boundaries of science are being doing 2 fiction books per week for the last 25
pushed and frontiers of human knowledge years. I enjoy thrillers, sci-fi, World War 2-
are being tested, is what keeps me inspired. based stories, Cold War stories, etc. I have
regularly interacted with 100X VC, right from
the very first cohort. Sanjay and Shashank
are good friends and we've looked at every
company that's come out of 100x. The way
You have to be a you run the cohorts is very interesting,
demo day is very slick and I think the
storyteller as a founder companies that come out of your portfolio
because you're selling your are amazing. The quality of the founders is
very encouraging and I am excited to attend
story to your employees, the next demo day!
customers, and investors and
you have to be a credible
storyteller at that.
Co-founder and Chief of Marketing at KloudMate. He
swears by the power that the internet vests upon us,
and loves new-age conquest marketing, with an
ever-evolving technology landscape. In the past,
Pranab, with his friends-cum-current co-founders
Bidyut Baruah and Amitava Saha, ran a successful
AWS cloud consulting business, before finally
Pranab Buragohain deciding to transition into being a product company.
kloudmate.com
Cofounder
How did the idea of KloudMate come up? good ones came at a price. Soon, it was clear
It was during our cloud consulting days, that that we must look at infusing external
we realized that a more simplified, yet capital, not only to aid hiring but to amplify
evolved approach to Observability was the development, growth and scale.
need of the hour. The existing isolated
processes that customers were practising, How has 100X helped you at the
were not efficient for the ever-growing, beginning of your journey?
complicated, distributed cloud architectures. I do not know where to start. To the extent
Soon, KloudMate was born, with the idea of that we’re not sure anymore if this would
correlating data from the three pillars of have been possible, had 100X not existed.
Observability - Logs, Metrics and Traces - to We have written a detailed account of our
present powerful intelligence to Developers 100X experience in an article.
and DevOps teams, and help them boost
efficiency by debugging in minutes, rather What challenges did you face and how did
than spending hours, or even days. you overcome them?
There were a ton of challenges, whether it
What made you start working on and was the idea itself, validating it first, or
executing this idea? building and then reaching out to users (the
Once the idea struck, we discussed it and classic chicken and egg story). A large part
got some validation from a few of our of our confusion got taken care of, once we
existing customers from the consulting started working with customers to
business. They were very encouraging and understand their pain points with using the
thought it was worth pursuing. Soon cloud and trying to figure out what we could
enough, we found ourselves writing product do to help them overcome them with ease.
notes and user journeys, in a bid to build an It was also a major revelation for us. In the
MVP, which turned out to be a fully developer tools and cloud-tech space, there
functional platform within 6 months. is so much to be done that every little
problem faced by users can be built into a
One thing led to another, and by the time meaningful full-scale product, with the
we were looking to raise our first round of potential of going global. That every small
funding, the product was already at par with use-case can potentially create a new
some large players who had existed for a category, and also lead it.
while (if not better).
When did you realize the need to raise KloudMate is currently in public beta. Users
Venture Capital - Seed funding? can sign up and go through a self-discovery
While initially we wanted to bootstrap our and implementation process, while our
way into go-live, it was at the time of hiring Sales teams are engaging with enterprises
Tech resources, that we realised that it won’t to tailor plans specific to their needs. This is
be a sustainable model. Being a deep tech a crucial juncture for us, as we’re currently
product like ours, we needed top-notch seeing a few tens of developers from across
developers and DevOps engineers, and the the world sign up every hour, and devising a
watertight, customer success process is Your message for Startup founders
what we’re spending a great amount of time building in this sector.
on. With the advent of Cloud and SaaS (as a
business model), Enterprises have never
As founders, what are your goals for the been more welcoming of newer
next 1-2 years? technologies and tools that can help them
Our goal is to achieve certain internal North improve process flows, boost team
Star metrics in terms of user growth, productivity, or enhance ROIs. As long the
revenues and NPS scores. These will not only ICPs and their corresponding
help us further validate our product communication strategies are mapped out,
proposition, but also allow us to make getting into enterprises has never been
development efforts to reach a state of easier. A lot of enterprise-grade concerns,
maturity, that makes it easier to find such as security, data integrity or
product-market-fit. compliance - things that have hitherto been
extremely difficult to build and accord with -
have now become a lot easier to deal in,
what with the emergence of cloud
technologies like Serverless.
We’re fortunate to be
living in times where you can
build amazing products and
sell to global audiences,
without having to traverse
boundaries.

KloudMate is what keeps me going, and
doesn’t let any of us sleep at night. Knowing
that it can become synonymous with
Observability, a tool that can redefine the
very approach, and help change existing,
primitive processes employed by developers
and DevOps teams. We’re fortunate to be
living in times where you can build amazing
products and sell to global audiences,
without having to traverse boundaries. This
is the best time to build, and the ever-
evolving technology landscape is what
keeps us afoot, always learning, and in trying
to constantly deliver the best, to our
customers, that’s all the motivation I need.
Jatin Desai is the Managing Partner at Inflexor
Technology Fund (Fund-2) and General Partner in
Parampara Early Stage Opportunities Fund (Fund-1).
He has over 25 years of global experience spanning
Fund Management, Investments, Entrepreneurship
and Technology/Operations roles. He has been
involved with the startup ecosystem in India for the
past few years and was also part of the US startup
Jatin Desai inflexor.vc
ecosystem in the mid to late 90s.
Managing Partner
What is your motivation to be in the a large domestic market size, or building in

venture investing business? India and selling globally type business
As an entrepreneur and ex-techie with models. We participate from a seed round in
global experience before becoming a VC companies with some initial revenue
fund manager, I believe that it’s the right traction and product-market fit, to Series A+
time to be in the venture investing business rounds. We invest in AI/ML, SaaS,
in India. We have smart young Cybersecurity, Big Data Analytics, FinTech,
entrepreneurs setting up businesses to solve ConsumerTech, AgriTech, Industry 4.0/IOT,
real-world problems using technology and AR/VR, select SpaceTech, CleanTech and
innovation in such a large domestic market other verticals.
and the potential for tapping even larger
global markets. VCs can help them with What are your 5 key learnings from your
capital to scale faster, lend operating experience as a venture investor?
experience as required to young founders Gut feel on founders and business model
and build world-class companies. An is as important as the data-based
important outcome of this core activity can diligence before investment decision,
also result in wealth creation for the particularly in early-stage startups.
stakeholders and the country’s economy Entry valuation is important and should
boost it even further and have a multiplier not be shy to pass deals based on out-of-
effect. whack valuations (right deal vs best
deal).
What is your view on the future of India as Picking winners from the portfolio and
a market? doubling down on them can make a big
With the normal ups and downs as is difference in the performance outcome.
common in any maturity cycle, I’m VC investing is a long-term game in the
personally more bullish on India than ever context of building relationships,
before. India is already the world’s 5th reputation and giving good cash exits to
largest economy and within striking investors.
distance of being the world’s 3rd largest Even good startups can get choked in
economy. GDP is growing and we also need deep downturns if they don’t have
per capita incomes picking up to hit our enough runway.
next inflection point in the growth journey
and VC/startup ecosystem can play a key Mention the top 5 consumer/industry/
role in this. technology trends in India and globally.
Mainstreaming of AI-ML.
Help describe your investment thesis and Continued move to Cloud.
ideas you would like to back. Quantum computing to mainstream this
Inflexor backs innovative startups across decade.
verticals with good founders solving B2B, Metaverse in some shape or form.
Enterprise or select B2B2C problems with 5G at scale.
technology IP/deep tech-led solutions, with
If you have interacted with 100X.VC,
please share a few good words about us.
100X.VC is a great partner/investor for young
I believe that it’s the startups that are at angel/seed/pre-revenue
right time to be in the stages as the mentoring and network they
offer to such startups is absolutely amazing. I
venture investing business in know this first hand having interacted with
India. We have smart young the entire team at 100X and being
associated with them across their various
entrepreneurs setting up
cohorts as Investor partner and MasterClass
businesses to solve real-world host.
problems using technology
and innovation in such a large
domestic market
An IIM-A alumni, she has been in the IT industry for
about 10 years before she joined agrigator. She has
worked on multiple projects throughout her journey
and developed automations for multiple giant
companies. Her experience from developing the
supply chain ERP solutions has helped her build
product addressing issues at granular levels. She is
Charu Chaturvedi one of the very few female founders building agrigator.co
Cofounder solutions in the agriculture supply chain.
How did the idea of Agrigator come up? government’s FIED program and received a
An opportunity to build something in the grant of INR 10L. September 2019 was when
agri supply chain. Udit was working for we officially decided to start the company
Rivigo. During his journey in helping them and focus our energies on our first fundraise.
build a contractual logistic business, he And it happened so quickly. 100X trusted us
realized that there was a major gap w.r.t. with our first fundraiser in Dec 2019.
logistics in the agri supply chain.
The entire supply chain was extremely How has 100X helped you at the
unorganized and worked in an on-spot beginning of your journey?
logistics market. He saw an opportunity to Their exceptional style of mentorship and
build something that would change the way dedication is commendable. This is what
the supply chain runs. I brought in my exactly any startup needs. No founder is
experience of creating ERP software for born with the talent of running a company
FMCG and understood how organized or raising funds. An entrepreneur might
logistics worked. Together we started initially just have the idea as a prized
working on finding ways to bridge the gap possession but gradually the ecosystem
and build a product which solves day to day- helps develop the other necessary skills. This
to-day problems of our stakeholders. is exactly where 100X plays a crucial role.
Giving the right advice, support and
What made you start working on exposure.
Agrigator and executing this idea?
The agri sector has always been an What challenges did you face and how did
interesting area for me. Coming from a you overcome them?
‘farmers' family and married into another, Finding the right team has been the biggest
helped me a lot in understanding the pulse challenge. Agri logistic industry is a very
and problems of the market. Udit’s proposal complex industry and isn’t easy for anyone
of first solving the on-spot logistics made a to just start working and giving results.
lot of sense to me because procurement is Sales, ops, tech, and finance, for each team
something which anyways will happen we had to work really hard to find the right
eventually but for the customer base we people. Plus, the delay in fundraising due to
were targeting, finding a truck on time was COVID, did complicate our hiring process as
the bigger pain point. They are into the well. But then we survived the tough
business of doing trade and not being stuck months, kept learning, fired no one and
in the endless hassle of arranging logistics. created the business we are today.
When did you realise the need to raise What stage is your startup at present?
Venture Capital - Seed funding? We are operational in 4 states now moving
We started working on the idea after getting more than 300Cr of freight annually. We
incubated at CIIE, IIM A in April 2019. Later took a decent amount of time in one state
we also got incubated under the before stepping out to the rest of the three.
The ideology was simple. We wanted to
understand the minor nuances of the sector market. Avoid burn from free services to get
so we could build the right solution. initial traction. Retention of customers in the
longer run is important.The customers have
As founders, what are your goals for the been too comfortable with the traditional
next 1-2 years? way of business for too long and would go
From day 1 of the company our focus has back to business as usual as soon as they
been on building a sustainable business. We realise they aren't getting much value from
have made revenue from the very first trip.
We hope to move towards profitability by What motivates you and keeps you going?
the end of FY 24. Our customers keep us motivated. This
sector has been out of the radar for a long
time and there are very limited solutions
available focused on solving the day-to-day
problems. We wish to enable the traders
and small-scale millers along with the
This is a difficult Carrier providers by solving the problems
industry, a tough nut to one by one and eventually give them the
experience of seamless transactions to earn
crack. Stay focused and keep
more and save more.
building solutions and don’t
expect an overnight success.
This is a difficult industry, a tough nut to
crack. Stay focused and keep building
solutions and don’t expect an overnight
success. Pick one problem of the customer
at a time and think of simple solutions via
tech. Try and maintain the status quo of the.
Pearl Agarwal founded Eximius Ventures in March
2020 to build a thriving and equitable startup
community in India. Through the micro VC fund,
Pearl aims to enable startups in the pre-seed stage to
build and scale their businesses by supporting them
with capital and growth opportunities. She also
recognizes the need for women to become equal
participants in the ecosystem and eliminates
Pearl Agarwal eximiusvc.com
accessibility gaps by giving precedence to female
Founder & Director founders.
What is your motivation to be in the accelerate their operations, interactions with

venture investing business? new founders to help them brainstorm on
I grew up in a micro-business family. When I emerging trends, and pertinent discussions
began observing the unwavering zeal with with the team to instil greater clarity in our
which entrepreneurs operate, I developed a mission. While being a VC is indeed a full-
keen passion to help them, and the entire time business, I always set aside for
ecosystem. It is this passion that prompted rejuvenation on weekends. ‘Leisure’ would
my return to Indian soil, after a decade-long typically involve meals with friends and
investing career in the US. family, and keeping up with the house of
the dragon.
My crusade to bolster the Indian start-up
landscape commenced with DotReview, What is your view on the future of India as
which was a platform that finally allowed a market?
founders to learn more about their The next decade (and probably decades to
prospective investors before fundraising, come) will belong to India. India has over
and share their experiences anonymously 800 million people with access to
with the community. During DotReview’s smartphones and a working-class
incipient stages, I had to interview over 100 population of over 400 million. With a huge
founders. It was then that I was acquainted demographic dividend and increasing
with the chief deficiencies that plagued the acceptance of technological innovation, it is
system – lack of a seamless fundraising an unstoppable wave.
process, and a severely inadequate
emphasis on transparency during the same. Additionally, the sheer perseverance with
Realising how adversely founders are which Indian entrepreneurs operate is
affected by the aforementioned deficiencies, rather inspiring. It is this grit that gives me
I transitioned to the VC world, to use my great confidence in India’s transition to a
faculties for uplifting them. completely developed market. I hope that
this transition will also be accompanied by
Describe your workday and leisure day, the wisdom to do away with stigmas which
how does it look like? hinder a few high-potential industries in the
A VC role is all about being able to effectively country like gaming.
multi-task. There are several dimensions of a
VC role, including developing an Help describe your investment thesis and
understanding of innovation happening in ideas you would like to back.
the market, working with emerging At Eximius, we always look to become a part
founders and portfolio founders to help of companies whose premise is based on
them brainstorm on the trends, and reinventing the wheel. We love to back
ensuring that the ship runs effectively. A entrepreneurs who adopt a customer-
regular workday usually entails catch-up centric approach and move away from the
calls with our portfolio founders to tried and tested. The ability to utilize the
understand how we can help them
vastness of the ecosystem through How do you support your portolio
partnership and collaboration to create new companies?
categories is the sweet spot for us. When it comes to supporting our portfolio
founders, our philosophy is centred on three
What are your 5 key learnings from your pillars:
experience as a venture investor? 1) Founders’ First: - For us, the founders are
Being able to control your emotions and always paramount. We seek to help them
not let FOMO drive you is a moat. with their pertinent life problems before
Consensus is not always right in this assessing their metrics.
market and hot deals are not always the 2) Community Led: Community is the new
highest return generating ones. MOAT. We assist our portfolio founders in
Every second invested in Due Diligence is finding their GTM through community led
worth it. avenues.
Whitespaces and internal thesis are 3) Global Network – To help expand the
important to be conviction-driven, and founders’ horizons, we connect them with
the default state is to be conviction- global thought leaders in numerous sectors
driven as the market moves fast. like gaming, fintech, healthtech, etc. This
Faster TAT and quality of investments helps them gather a more in-depth
should never be mutually exclusive. understanding of the target market.
Mention the top 5 consumer/industry/

Fintech solutions utilizing India Stack to
improve access to financial services
Since the very start of
across Tier 2+ cities.
Comprehensive platforms that utilise the my professional journey, I
Healthcare stack to extend
wanted to bring a real
comprehensive healthcare services to
every citizen in the country. change in the lives of
Meticulously designed games centred on entrepreneurs.
Indian themes specifically.
Second layer Infra solutions in web3
emerging from India.
Companies in India buy SaaS tools that
directly/indirectly help in retaining talent.
Which of your portfolio company are you
Top 5 advice you would give to a startup very excited about and why?
founder. While we are rather[Ma4] enthralled with all
Execute first then raise. Execution the companies we’ve associated with so far,
doesn’t mean the product needs to be Jar, Ekacare, and Stan are very special to us.
ready, but the problem statement should Jar: Jar is a micro investing app that
be validated before an MVP is planned. incentivises the inherently Indian habit of
Work on your tonality to convince people saving by investing the savings in digital
of your vision. gold.
Chase market product fit over product
market fit. Ekacare: Ekacare aims to digitise the entire
Establish a culture of seamless healthcare industry. It allows users to build
cooperation in your team. comprehensive health profiles, and utilises
Learn to filter advice and survive like a the same to extend comprehensive services
cockroach. that cater to all the needs of a patient.
Stan: Stan revolutionises the entire Books or Blogs you would recommend
spectrum of the fan engagement market. It entrepreneurs.
allows users to create NFTs of their favorite Hard Thing about Hard things - This book
influencers, trade them, and use them, all in keeps on evolving with you at every stage of
pursuit of exciting perks and rewards. entrepreneurship.
When you started your career what were Lenny Newsletter - Talks about product and
your ambitions? growth with hands on example.
Since the very start of my professional
journey, I wanted to bring a real change in First 1000 - Talks about GTM strategies of top
the lives of entrepreneurs. My experiences in companies during early days. A huge part of
Investment Banking, Private Equity my responsibilities is to converse with other
investing, Angel Investing, and the VC sector leaders and assimilate their
ecosystem have made me acutely sensitised understanding in my repository. The folks at
of the founders’ woes, and the possible 100X.VC have been very insightful, and
solutions we can bring about to help them. always generous with their knowledge. They
have been a phenomenal force in bringing
What inspires you in life and what keeps solid, first-time founders to the forefront.
you awake at night?
When our portfolio founders speak highly of
us, it keeps me pumped up and motivated.
The fact that there are a lot of first time
founders who are misguided in fundraising
and are struggling to raise now, fighting
each day to keep the ship from sinking, and I
am not able to help them keeps me awake
at night.
With 12+ years in the IT industry, Anshul has fostered
a deep passion for technology, with a particular focus
on AI and cutting-edge advancements. His vision has
always been to harness technology's transformative
power, and he believes in the potential of AI to make
positive strides in all industries. Through strategic
leadership, he aims to drive Vodex.ai's growth,
continuously enhancing their services to meet and
Anshul Shrivastava vodex.ai
surpass clients' expectations.
Cofounder
How did the idea of Vodex come up? When did you realise the need to raise
Kumar and I thought of Vodex when we Venture Capital - Seed funding?
were talking about the problems companies We realised quite early in our journey
were facing while trying to reach their that we needed to raise VC funding.
prospects and customers over a phone call When we decided to focus on one niche
specifically for sales and marketing-related which is sales-related outbound calls for
scenarios. We knew this as we had
B2C businesses, we realised that we will
previously worked on a company working
need VC funding to make it bigger.
with Chatbots and Voicebots for over 10
While initially, we bootstrapped to build
years. Many businesses started approaching
us to find a way to have automatic calls that the MVP and initial customer validation,
sounded like a real person talking. We to make it more scalable we need VC
quickly realized that no one was offering this investment.
solution, hence we thought we could fill the
void with a solution that uses artificial How has 100X helped you at the
intelligence to make calls feel more beginning of your journey?
personal. 100X has provided invaluable support in the
initial stages, offering mentorship, resources,
What made you start working on Vodex and access to networks crucial for growth.
and executing this idea? We were able to not only build the product
What made us start working on Vodex was we wanted to build but could deploy it to
seeing a problem that businesses had with clients from various industry segments.
leveraging automation while trying to reach Thanks to the network, the mentorship and
out to prospects and customers over phone the support provided by 100X.
calls. There were issues on both ends, the
businesses as well as the consumers. While What challenges did you face and how did
going for automation, businesses were you overcome them?
facing issues like expensive bot While starting with Vodex we faced some
development fees or frustrating IVR technical challenges like how to provide
experiences, while doing it manually, they real-time response over phone calls. One of
had to incur expensive costs for hiring the biggest challenges was to address the
training and retaining human resources. At delay in voice bot response time; however,
the same time, it was not a good experience we managed to solve it. Apart from that,
for the consumers as well. IVRs were unable finding our Ideal customer was a challenge
to answer any queries and bots were saying, for us as well. We experimented with various
“Sorry I didn't understand” most of the time. industry segments and verticals. The
With human resources, consistency of problem with selling to the wrong ICP is
experience was a big challenge, while some that you can do 1 - 2 sales easily but after
reps were really good, some were bad as that, it becomes very difficult to sell to other
well. similar people. Finding the right industry
segment, right geography, right messaging
and the right marketing channel was also a the AI Space since early 2014 - 2015 and
challenge which we managed to overcome Generative AI since 2020.
eventually.

Vodex is in a growth and expansion stage
right now. With a live product already
established in the market and recognized as Start with a conversation
a leader in sales engagement and with your potential
automation over phone calls, the company is
now focusing on scaling its market customers and identify the
presence, particularly in the United States problems that you are going
and Canada. We have launched Vodex 2.0
to solve.
on 7th October 2023. This upgraded version
comes with a powerful combination of
human-like ultra-realistic AI Voice, super low
latency, support for 96 languages, real-time
call transfer, real-time analytics, and so
much more. We have an end-to-end Your message for Startup founders
generative AI-based outbound calling building in this sector.
solution in a human-like voice. We are very Here is my message to other startup
close to reaching an ARR of $1 million by the founders building in the same sector. Start
end of this fiscal year. Currently, the focus is with a conversation with your potential
to expand the market presence of Vodex in customers and identify the problems that
the U.S. and Canada. We are also working on you are going to solve. Do not start with
bringing lots of new features and technology and just think about what cool
functionalities in Vodex based on customer thing I can build with this technology.
feedback and inputs. Instead, talk to customers, understand their
pain points and challenges, and then think
As founders, what are your goals for the about what you want to build and why. Do
next 1-2 years? not build a full-fledged product at the start,
We have started our Journey by automating instead start with building an MVP first.
outbound presales tele-calling activities but Show them to your potential customers and
our focus will be on automating end-to-end ask for their feedback. Based on their inputs,
sales activities using the power of LLMs and improve your product. Charge from day 1, do
Generative AI. Also, our focus will be to not just offer your product for free. You get
expand into the US market, make our real feedback and insights from your
customers successful and help them save customers only when you charge them.
time, and money and can get maximum People don’t generally give much thought
value out of our product. Our focus will also to free products. Those who are really your
be on improving our offerings by customers, those who want you to solve
implementing state-of-the-art technology their problems will pay you even if your
solutions and staying ahead of the charges are high and they will work with you
competition. closely, and provide you feedback to help
you build the product. Keep learning, start
What motivates you and keeps you going? small and execute fast.
As a founder, one needs to be passionate
about what you are building. Fortunately,
both my co-founder and I are passionate
about technology. We have been working in
Jinesh has played a pivotal role in nurturing startups
with breakthrough technologies. His extensive
background also includes a significant tenure as CFO
and Vice President at Nexus Venture Partners, where
he specialized in finance, investments, and investor
relations
Jinesh Shah omnivore.vc
Managing Partner
What is your motivation to be in the committed to furthering the agritech

venture investing business? ecosystem in India and will continue paving
Back in 2010, we saw a huge potential in the way for mainstream capital to enter this
Indian agriculture and yet no capital flowing developing and promising sector.
into the sector. Therefore, deserving tech
innovations were unable to raise any kind of Mention the top 5 emerging agritech
institutional funding and most importantly, trends in India.
Indian farmers were being deprived of the Precision agritech.
possibility of a better livelihood. The Automation.
motivation has stayed the same really - Climate-smart innovations.
supporting agritech entrepreneurs and Risk mitigation.
serving Indian farmers. Agrifood life sciences.
What is your view on the future of India as What advice would you give to a startup
a market? founder?
The tech revolution in Indian agriculture has When we assess startups, we primarily look
only just begun. Agriculture in India goes for the four Ts - Team, Technology, Total
well beyond paddy, wheat, and vegetables. Addressable Market (TAM), and Traction.
There are several sub-sectors, what we like
to call white spaces, that are ready for digital We prefer founders to have relevant startup
interventions. These would include high- experience and preferably an education
value cash crops like tea, coffee, spices, from premier institutes. Furthermore, given
plant-based proteins, agrifood life sciences, the complexity of tasks and roles in today's
climate-controlled agriculture, embedded start-up ecosystem, it is too much to ask for
value chain fintech, and much more. We one person to handle everything and
expect the sector to maintain a steady pace therefore entrepreneurs need to invest time,
of growth in the coming years and will see energy and, if need be, money in getting co-
large sustainable companies getting created founders before approaching any VC. In
from the current agritech startups soon. terms of technology, there is really only one
question, how differentiated is the solution
Help describe your investment thesis and and how much money has already gone into
ideas you would like to back. similar solutions? Coming to the TAM,
Omnivore invests in Indian startups venture capital is for those who have the
developing breakthrough technologies for vision to scale exponentially and have the
agriculture, food, climate resilience, and the plan to back that vision because a VC will be
rural economy. Our investment thesis looking to multiply the investment 3-4 times
focuses on six core agritech themes: Farmer and that is not possible in an enterprise that
Platforms and Fintech, Precision Agriculture, does not have a sizeable market. Finally, we
Agri B2B Marketplaces, Farm to Consumer have traction, which is essentially the
(F2C) Brands, Agrifood Life Sciences, and product-market fit. A good team should
Post-Harvest Technologies. We are deeply have higher ambiguity tolerance which is
critical at the early stages. In fact, I'd rather Books or Blogs you would recommend to
invest in an A-team with a B-level business entrepreneurs.
idea than the reverse. Specifically to agritech entrepreneurs, I
would suggest reading Omnivore by Michael
Pollan, and The End of Plenty by Joel K.
Bourne Jr.
When we assess startups,

we primarily look for the four Ts
-Team, Technology, Total
Addressable Market (TAM), and
Traction.
Vaibhav is a Mechanical Engineer and has worked as
a Research Analyst, CAD Engineer, Program Manager
and Head of Operations in different firms. After
working for a couple of successful startups, Vaibhav
soon realised that his true calling was to start
something of his own. This, combined with his
passion to help the underprivileged, motivated him
to establish Broomees with the other two Founders. broomees.com
Vaibhav Agarwal
He currently heads the Product, Sales and Creative
Cofounder
How did the idea of Broomees come up? not a big enough differentiator for the long
It was the first wave of Covid and nobody run to be honest. So we had to start our own
had ever seen unemployment like this training centres and 100X helped us in the
before. My co-founder Saurav was helping process! Today, we have 5 training centres
domestic help in his area survive by getting and a good hold on the quality of the
them menial jobs here and there, while my workforce.
other co-founder Niharika was struggling to
get a full day domestic help. We 3 What stage is your startup at present?
brainstormed on the idea of creating a Seed - Pre Series A, expansion stage.
platform where both - domestic help
employers as well as employees can find As founders, what are your goals for the
each other and help each other out. That's next 1-2 years?
how Broomees was born (Broom + Ease, as Improving the quality and reducing TAT of
brooming is one of the most essential services. Covering entire NCR and Bangalore
domestic works of India, which we aim to Reducing costs associated with training of
solve for along with other important workers, increasing retention.
services).
When did you realise the need to raise

Venture Capital - Seed funding?
We were running the business profitably for
almost a year when we realised why we 100X gave us a much
were able to do that - no expansion. That's needed validation for our
when we realised we need mentorship and
capital from investors. It is a very big market
idea at an early stage. After
to capture! that, it's been one blessing
after another. Multiple
of your journey? connections, a bigger fund
100X gave us a much needed validation for
raise and what not!
our idea at an early stage. After that, it's been
one blessing after another. Multiple
connections, a bigger fund raise and what
not!
What challenges did you face and how did Every other day we get to hear that
you overcome them? Broomees saved a household from giving up
We faced a very big challenge initially - on their lives. There are women who have
quality control. Our workforce was just lost all hope and think that nobody is ready
above average and we were like any other to give them work. There are families which
service provider, just that we had a better are totally dependent on a single earning
website and educated employees. This was member and that earning member has
already lost their job. Broomees stepped into
these households and did not just give fair
wages, but tried to double their incomes
and provide dignity and respect at work. This
is what keeps us going. This is in fact what
keeps the entire team going.

building in this sector?
Believe in your idea and create something
that humans can not do without.
Arjun Vaidya is the Co-Founder of V3 Ventures and
Venture Lead at Verlinvest. He is a D2C founder &
investor and leads venture investing for Verlinvest
through a new fund called V3 Ventures. He was the
first Ayurvedic Entrepreneur to be featured in the
Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia List for and Business World
40 Under 40 List. He is also a World Economic Forum
Arjun Vaidya Global Shaper and a part Brown University’s Young v3.ventures
Cofounder Alumni Advisory Council.
What is your motivation to be in venture a day. Compounding only comes from a

investing business? strong, empowered team!
Having been a founder myself and seen the Entrepreneurship is not part-time,
ups and downs, I believe there is no better hobbies are. You’re either in or you’re
journey. I was fortunate to see an outcome out. You can’t be slightly pregnant with
with Dr Vaidya's and so as a venture investor Entrepreneurship.
I want to enable 10s if not 100s of founders to Stay hungry, stay foolish and keep
see experience something similar. building!
What is your view on the future of India as

a market?
The next decade is India's. We have a free
economy, a young population and a
burgeoning middle class that is aspirational. Having been a founder
While things around the world may not be myself and seen the ups and
looking as good, our depth of domestic
consumption has kept us insulated. This is
downs, I believe there is no
our opportunity! better journey.
Help describe your investment thesis and

ideas you would like to back.
Unlike a lot of consumer investors, for D2C
brands - I invest mostly in things I don’t
consume. While this seems counterintuitive,
companies?
I’m a big believer in the Bharat opportunity.
With whatever they need. I think as an
That’s where the real scale is in our country.
investor our job is to be there when we’re
My consumption may be different from
needed and not be there when we want to
what has real scale and so, this is a fun filter I
be. The founder is the captain of the ship
like to play with!
and, when the captain needs a coach,
supporter or helping hand, I am there. But, I
Top 5 advice you would give to a startup
know very clearly that I’m not running the
founder.
business!
I’ll say four:
It looks glamorous from the outside but a
startup journey has more failure than
you awake at night?
success. So, be ready to keep falling and
The depth of opportunity that we have in
rising. From my favourite song - “I get
our country! We’ve got miles to go.
knocked down but I get up again. You’re
never gonna keep me down!”
You can’t do it alone - as much as you try,
you can only work efficiently for 12 hrs.
Shashank is an Entrepreneur with over 15 years of
multinational work experience in the field of medical
devices. He founded The Renal Project company with
the mission to provide life-sustaining therapy of
kidney dialysis with high standards of quality,
compassion and value for human life, to the
population, without access to one in a vast country
Shashank Moddhia like India. therenalproject.com
Founder & CEO
How did the idea of The Renal Project Has your startup pivoted? If so, What has
come up? the pivot been?
Through corporate experience, I identified a Yes. One 3-bed dialysis micro-center with at
critical gap in the availability of kidney care least 25% EBIDTA and sustainability within
in India as compared to other countries. 24 months.
What made you start working on The What challenges did you face and how did
Renal Project and executing this idea? you overcome them?
With 12 years of work experience in Cash Flow, Standardization, Patient care,
healthcare and a specialty in kidney care, as Trainingprograms of staff, Emergency cases
a biomedical engineer, I was in a very good preparedness.
position to quit my corporate job, and rather
solve a starting healthcare gap in India.
When did you realize the need to raise

Venture Capital - Seed funding?
We are a "Why"
Kidney care and lack of dialysis therapy is a
global problem and not a local issue by any company, not a "What"
means. Hence, the product and services of company. The sense of
The Renal Project needed "scale" to reach
purpose, and achieving it
the market size and geography. This is when
external investment and strategic every single day, each patient
partnerships were seen as essential. at a time keep us motivated
day and night.
of your journey?
Being in healthcare delivery, a brick-and-
mortar space, the founders as well as the
investors need a strong conviction with the
idea. It is an execution play with many As founders, what are your goals for the
moving parts such as infrastructure, next 1-2 years?
partnerships, supply chain and government To grow The Renal Project from Western
policies. 100X took this bet on us with its first India to at least 10 states in India.
check which gave us a God-sent chance to
prove our sustainable model and the What motivates you and keeps you
capability of the founders. going?
We are a "Why" company, not a "What"
What stage is your startup at present? company. The sense of purpose, and
We are currently already in the growth achieving it every single day, each patient at
phase with a presence in western India. a time keep us motivated day and night.
Healthcare delivery is a difficult space due to
factors such as low national budget for
healthcare, paying capacity, language
barrier and health awareness of clientele.
But immense success awaits if you have
technology, perseverance and a sense of
Purpose with you.
Strategic
partnerships are
accelerating the
expansion and
impact of
startups.
Shahan is an investment banker-turned-VC.
Currently, he is co-building JAFCO Asia in India. He is
the youngest member of JAFCO Asia's global
investment team and their first investment manager
in India. He is an economist by education and a
columnist by passion. As a passionate trend analyst,
he actively authors thought pieces on consumer
Shahan Sud trends, the Indian economy and the startup jafcoasia.com
Investment Manager ecosystem.
What is your motivation to be in the Ventures that have high levels of

venture investing business? Corporate Governance.
With my grounding in Economics, I had Ventures that are built by founders that
conceptual clarity that my interests were are resilient and have integrity in their
leaning towards finance. I started my career DNA.
in finance in Bombay with Anand Rathi Regardless of market cycles, our thesis
Advisors. I was working with founders on the would remain the same as we feel a strong
Sell side, actively tracked trends and shared foundation is a sufficient condition to build a
my insights through various business dailies sustainable business, especially in a
from an early age. Over time, I realized that competitive market like India. From an
early-stage investing is expected to pick up India market standpoint, a few key sectors
pace in India and that is when I joined the that we are bullish on over the next few
Indian Angel Network. Being part of the quarters are SaaS (B2B or vertical plays),
Investments team, I built and led the Marketplaces, FinTech 2.0, Consumer
Consumer vertical at IAN. By now I knew Enablers, Agri-Tech, Climate-Tech, Clean-
that working with entrepreneurs and Tech, Health-Tech, Cyber Security and Deep-
helping them to “Build for India” was Tech. In addition to this, being sector and
something that I was passionate about. So, stage-agnostic, we are open to innovative
when I got the opportunity to co-build ventures that we are evaluating on a case-
JAFCO Asia in India, it was a good fit. As I to-case basis.
transitioned to the Buy Side and as I co-build
JAFCO Asia in India along with the global What are your 5 key learnings from your
team, my motivation to remain in venture experience as a venture investor?
investing remains the same: “to support and For me, transitioning from the Sell side to
to help in building India’s growth story”. I the Buy side was timely; it helped me to
feel Indians need to work towards building broaden my horizons; made me far more
the Indian dream for India to achieve its empathetic to founders and taught me the
GDP targets. resilience needed to build and contribute to
large teams. In addition to these three
Help describe your investment thesis and learnings, my role at JAFCO Asia has taught
ideas you would like to back. me how to work alongside global teams and
From a JAFCO Asia in India perspective, we how one must keep a founder’s mindset
look at four broad pillars that are sufficient while building a brand in a market like India.
conditions for us to evaluate a venture. I must also emphasize that the ability to be
These are: humble and to have clarity of thought and
Ventures that are either “Building In action are critical for an investor to operate
India, For the World” or “Building for from their highest potential. Without having
India or Bharat”. these two traits, the first five learnings will
Ventures that are either Tech-driven or not be sufficient for a venture capitalist to
Tech-enabled. invest in a competitive market like India.
Top 5 advice you would give to a startup Build for customers, not investors: You
founder. can only optimize for CAC to an extent.
As a global investor in the early stage Beyond that, the venture must be able to
investing space in India, we at JAFCO Asia, bring in repeat purchases. And this is
feel founders should focus on the following 5 where the strength of your product or
key pointers as they go ahead and build: SaaS solution comes into play.
Be aware of your surroundings and strive Repeat users are a function of a stellar
for Conscious Capital: Founders must product and seamless customer
realize that the cost of capital has gone experience. Furthermore, in the initial
up and innovative business models need stages of building your product, you
to rationalize monetization over gross must keep your ear to the ground and
transaction volume. Trickle down to the value the feedback that your first few
bottom line or a pathway to the same is customers give you. Iterating the
the key to a sustainable business model product or solution based on such
in these challenging times. feedback allows you, as a founder, to
Founders must strive to raise capital only continuously find multiple PMFs early-on
when they need to - Not just to increase so that you can scale your venture’s
the valuation or your existing investors solution in a sustainable manner.
want you to. This “Conscious Capital” will While this might seem expensive for the
help you to derive the much-needed startup in the initial stages, it pays
balance. healthy dividends later on.
A team is critical to building moonshots: Be balanced: As a founder, you must
Founders need to invest in a team that learn to analyze how macroeconomic
helps them reach their goals of building forces impact your business and you
their moonshots. The founders must be must know when it is the right time to
personally invested in hiring their first 5 pivot – either from a PMF perspective or
team members as not only do their from a going concern perspective. In
visions need to be aligned but also the addition to this clarity, founders must
teams must be capable of building learn to actively report and be compliant,
synergies on what each one of them while ensuring they have their feet on
brings to the table. the accelerator.
Smart Capital & develop the ability to tap
into an investor’s moat: While the top 5%
founders will continue to attract capital
at favorable valuations even in this
market (as there is no dearth of capital),
as a founder you must raise capital from Over time, I realized
the investor that is the best fit for your that early-stage investing is
venture. There must be synergies there.
Furthermore, you must be able to ask the
expected to pick up pace in
investor “What is your moat?.” If the India and that is when I
investor can’t answer this question you
joined the Indian Angel
may want to reconsider partnering with
them. We at JAFCO Asia in India, have 5 Network.
moats and we are happy to discuss these
when you reach out to us. The ability to
get “Smart Capital” is crucial for founders
to succeed in today’s time.
companies?
We help the companies we invest in by
leveraging our existing portfolio across India,
Southeast Asia, Japan and Taiwan to drive
synergies and in guiding them to make
strategic routes to other markets. In addition
to working with them on a month-on-
month basis, we also actively help them in
raising capital for their follow-on rounds. We
do all of this with a co-founder mindset.
Having a 50-year history, JAFCO Group is
one of the earliest and largest VCs in Japan,
invested in more than 4,000 companies and
taken more than 1,000 companies to IPO.
Due to our strong network and connection
in Japan, we have created many
opportunities from Japan - from a GTM
perspective or a fundraising perspective.
This is one of our key differentiating factors.
Abhishek is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur with an
experience in design and community. He has been
active in the Anime ecosystem for around a year, has
scaled communities to 200k+ members, and has built
one of the largest creator communities in the space.
Abhishek Mehta quriverse.com

Cofounder
How did the idea of the Quriverse come We got a few users from there, but our
up? communities needed to be more engaging.
The idea of quriverse came during our We had the distribution going for us, but we
college days when we got our first-time needed to work on interactive features from
experience with what fandom is. From a product end. Focus on things like live
Anime and Marvel to sports, fandom was the streaming, creator tools, and more. So
topic of discussion everywhere. To stay around August 2021, we decided to raise the
updated on our football club, we built a venture capital but with the mindset that
modified version of the RSS reader, which we also wanted someone who could provide
could bring you all the updates on your us with the right mentorship.
favourite football club from the web. This
tool grew as more students wanted to use it How has 100X helped you at the
for their use case. The response intrigued us, beginning of your journey?
and we went a bit deeper into this. We The impact of 100X has been immense in
realized how the fan experience needed to our journey from the day we had our 1st
be fixed, and existing solutions needed to do conversation to the present day. In the initial
more. People use multiple tools for different days, especially for the 1st time founder,
use cases, and a more tailored solution is there are many things you have to learn,
needed is how the initial idea of quriverse from finance to fundraising to storytelling
came into the picture. and more, to run your business. 100x
precisely delivers industry-level
What made you start working on and masterclasses and one-to-one mentoring
executing this idea? sessions. The offline masterclasses
There was always a spirit of building organized at the Mumbai office can be
something, like Inmobi, Urbancompany, described as a startup MBA. The learning
sharechat, and Indiamart coming from our curve in those two weeks was surreal and at
campus. Just seeing the response on the a swift pace, and 1-to-1 interaction with the
campus we thought of building online 100x team helped us a lot in all areas of
communities, starting up with Quora. Seeing building a good business. Even post the
that the community is growing fast gave us pitch day, the whole 100x is a very
a lot of belief that this can be something approachable, helpful, and true mentor.
plus. Plus, trends were also in our direction
as many community platforms built around Has your startup pivoted? If so, What has
the niche were coming up then and doing the pivot been?
well. Our vision is to build the future of fandom
communities and creators. But when we
When did you realize the need to raise started building, we realized how every
Venture Capital - Seed funding? fandom is unique, and we need to prioritize
In 2021 we launched a basic web app that and focus on one rather than all. The Anime
would provide curated content on keywords community has been gaining momentum
and let you comment on that. in India and abroad for a long time.
What stage is your startup at present? What challenges did you face and how did
We're in a pre-revenue stage and running you overcome them?
Quriverse, the web app, on an invite-only Challenges are something that you come
basis with around 1k creators and fans. Our across daily when building a startup. We
community size in total is 10k+ plus, with a faced quite a few challenges during the
strong WAU of ~30%. Our current focus is on fund-raising, in technology, and in hiring.
nailing the engagement for a small cohort Speaking with the right people and doing
before we focus on scaling and what we feel is right is our go-to way of
monetization. overcoming challenges. Speaking with
mentors like 100x and speaking with other
alumni founders is the best way to go about
it.
Challenges are something

that you come across daily when
building a startup. We faced
quite a few challenges during the
fund-raising, in technology, and
in hiring.
Sanket has 29+ years of experience in Software
Development with Informix, Oracle, CA Tech,
MakeMyTrip (E-commerce), and Intuit, working in the
US and India with geographically distributed teams.
He is execution focused with experience in business
strategy, innovation, enterprise architecture, research
& development, engineering, operations, program
Sanket Atal management, and process/governance.
salesforce.com
Managing Director
What is your view on the future of India as way. But, I firmly believe Networking is the
a market? number 1 muscle we need to develop and
It’s no secret that India has displayed an embrace to advance on the straight and
entrepreneurial streak like no other in the narrow path to success. Secondly, DON’T BE
last couple of years. With the 3rd largest AFRAID TO ASK. As a startup founder, the
startup ecosystem in the world, India is ability to bite down on preconceived
home to 80,000+ active startups(link to stat) hesitations and be bold enough to ask for
who are the torchbearers for innovation in help can go a long way. Third, DON’T BE
the country. The pandemic along with the AFRAID TO FAIL. In fact, fail fast, learn from
government has encouraged India’s startup your mistakes and move on. Iterative
ecosystem to emerge stronger which we are learning from your failures and mistakes is
seeing in terms of our country already key to success.
hitting the 100+ unicorns goal. With
innovative ideas abound a combination of How do you support your portfolio
3Ts or 3 positive factors – Technology, Talent companies?
and Target Markets have come together to At Salesforce we firmly believe that
create what I like to call an entrepreneurial technology has the potential to change the
‘nirvana’ which could very well provide world, reimagine economic benefit, and
startups a way to unlock their hockey stick help people connect, and do things better,
growth paths. Even here at Salesforce, we more efficiently and economically. As part of
have created a self-sustaining economy that this belief and vision of being enablers of
helps startups leverage the same 3Ts to innovation, we launched the Salesforce
build, grow and thrive. Within the Salesforce Startup Program. Through the Salesforce
economy, startups can get ideas from Idea Startup Program, we have taken a ground-
Exchange, grow their solutions on top of our up holistic approach to act as true catalysts
Salesforce platform and cater and sell to a to a startup end-to-end growth journey.
global market via AppExchange. In my
opinion, the future looks brighter than ever As the unifying layer between the startup
before and the coming years will bring even ecosystem and the vast Salesforce
more disruptive solutions to change the way ecosystem, the program provides startups
we live, consume, connect and unified access to our products,
communicate. marketplaces, joint go-to-market
opportunities, opportunities for
Top advice you would give to a startup investments, sustainability initiatives,
founder? mentorship and an ecosystem. Essentially,
I’m going to share a little wisdom that the Salesforce Startup Program through its
served me well and has been a guiding light customized offerings presents startups with
in my 30+ year career. If you’ve got your astronomical opportunities to accelerate
heart set on the high-risk, high-reward their growth journeys.
lifestyle of starting your own business,
there’s no shortage of advice heading your
Books or Blogs you would like to By virtue of being in an amazing company
recommend for entrepreneurs. like Salesforce, if I can enable startups to
One of my personal favorites, Blue Ocean create amazing products and access global
Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée markets then that in itself is a big win for
Mauborgne is a book I definitely me.
recommend all entrepreneurs to read. The
book brilliantly argues how a cutthroat and
dense market space only creates a red
ocean of competitors trying to fight over the
same customers and profit pool and how
instead, one should strive to find their blue
Networking, I firmly
oceans. The book can be incredibly valuable believe is the number one
for entrepreneurs to learn methods that can
muscle we need to develop
help find uncontested market spaces where
they can grow and dominate. Another great and embrace to advance on
read is hands down The Tipping Point by
the straight and narrow path
Malcolm Gladwell. It explains how one can
influence their magic moment or threshold to success.
beyond which products and ideas go viral.
Lastly, David and Goliath again by Malcolm
Gladwell points to how one can succeed and
win even in the face of what looks like
insurmountable odds. What is your motivation and what inspires
you in life?
When I moved back to India, my motivation
was simple. I wanted to make a difference in
whatever small way to the ecosystem – and
that is exactly what I’ve been trying to do. My
efforts with the startup landscape are a step
in that direction.
Ankita is an Engineer from IEM Kolkata, Passionate,
Creator and a Leader. She has been amongst the top
10 winning teams in Code 19 Hackathon, a 72 hour
Hackathon by The Silicon Valley based Motwani
Jadeja Foundation to find solutions to India’s
challenges against the Coronavirus outbreak. Other
Notable achievements include Vice Chair and Ex-
Ankita De President at IEM Entrepreneurship Cell Kolkata. utsavapp.in
Cofounder
How did the idea of Utsav come up? How has 100X helped you at the
We started in Durga puja, during the beginning of your journey?
pandemic. Being Bengalis, we missed the With more than 100 hours of mentoring,
essence of Durga puja. We came forward to training, and exciting masterclasses -
talk to more than 300 community members meeting founders from all across the world
who organised the entire celebrations. We is what 100X exposed us to from Day 1. They
realised the need for a platform like Utsav. have been connecting us with the right set
of people to guide us in the journey and
We built and launched it in 30 days. Almost scale up! 100X has truly provided mentoring
all the notable puja communities joined unlimited.
Utsav to participate in the festivities virtually.
The app got listed in the trending section of Has your startup pivoted? If so, What has
Google Play Store with more than 8K+ the pivot been?
downloads in a few days with no budget Yes, we have pivoted by adding a commerce
invested for marketing. angle to the community approach in the
Spiritual Tech Domain to empower the
What made you start working on Utsav communities better.
and executing this idea?
In our families, we have witnessed this What challenges did you face and how did
problem of accessibility to fulfil their spiritual you overcome them?
aspirations and they do not know where Some key challenges we faced are:
they can reach out to get regular updates Bringing a Revolution in the Faith Tech
and content for the same. The religious and Space is challenging but we always aim
spiritual market has been traditionally to talk to the right people who
unorganised, fragmented and largely left understand that this is the new era of
out by the digital revolution in the country. digitization.
The love and support of our users motivated Raising our next round, being first-time
us to work further. Since then, we have founders.
worked closely with thousands of
communities, spiritual influencers, and What stage is your startup at present?
places of worship and understood their 85000+ downloads for Android App.
problems. 550K Traffic on the Website.
2000+ communities onboarded
When did you realize the need to raise including famous temples of India like
Venture Capital - Seed funding? Puri Jagannath Temple.
For a startup in the B2C space, building 2500+ Spiritual Offerings Booked worth
communities and the right networks 20Lacs+ in 5 months.
requires an initial investment to keep We are looking to raise our Seed Round
growing. We realised it last year when we at the moment.
started pitching to investors for the first
time.
100X have been
connecting us with the right
set of people to guide us in
the journey and scale up!
100X has truly provided
mentoring unlimited.

next 1-2 years?
Expand our Team.
Enhance Product Features (Some really
interesting ones coming up!)
Scale Up our Operations across all states
of India and Abroad as well!
Vinod Shankar – Partner and Cofounder Java Capital.
Prior to this, he was an AVP at Kalaari Capital and
brings over 15 plus years of experience as a engineer,
builder and investor in the Indian start-up ecosystem.
At Kalaari, Vinod was involved in sourcing,
investments and portfolio management largely for
Vinod Shankar seed stage companies and mentoring the fellows.
javacapital.co
Cofounder
What is your motivation to be in the Help describe your investment thesis and
venture investing business? Ideas you would like to back.
I have been in the venture business for Java Capital has a twin-pronged thesis, one
nearly a decade now, graduating from being we invest in young first-time founders with
an Angel investor to working at a large large market opportunities, like Bharatx and
venture capital firm (Kalaari) to starting my Yellow Metal. Two, we invest in second-time
fund Java Capital. All along this journey founders and domain experts. Our preferred
when I heard an entrepreneur with an idea areas of investment are frontier tech, SAAS,
to change the world with technology, that climate and sustainability, we will make a
gave me the drive. The ability to bring few opportunistic bets in other areas like
change, intellectual curiosity and satiation of consumer internet and brands.
that curiosity drive me every day to do the
venture business. What are your 5 key learnings from your
experience as a venture investor?
Describe your workday and leisure day. Play long-term games with long-term
What does it look like? people, have patience with a strategy.
A typical workday involves turning up on Relationships and trust matter, but
time at the office, I value discipline and everyone looks out for themselves.
consistency over talent. Given the lean team, After all rationalisation and objective
talking to new founders, and existing data analysis, investment decisions boil
portfolio founders to help them, and talking down to who you are, not what you
to LPs for fundraises and meetings with know.
fellow VCs is a typical day for me. On leisure Be open to meeting new people,
days I largely end up spending time with serendipity leads to more outcomes than
family, playing with kids, dinner at new fancy anything.
places for sure and taking small vacations as
often as possible. I'm an ardent fan of cricket, Mention the top 5 consumer/industry/
so I end up watching when India plays. technology trends in India and globally.
Frontier/Deep Tech.
What is your view on the future of India as Climate and sustainability.
a market? SAAS - India to the world.
Bright! Extremely Bright! The land of Agritech.
incredible possibilities, the Land of dreams is Blockchain.
here not in the West anymore. I'm an
optimistic person, as a VC you have to, Top 5 advice you would give to a startup
having seen through the analogue to digital founder.
transition as a 90's kid, the transformation Think long term, work with long-term
over the last 2 decades has been incredible, people.
to say the least. Delegate as much as possible, build
teams.
Telescopic and microscopic vision When you started your career what were
regularly. your ambitions?
Build a culture from day 1, founder At the start, I was an engineer with a
culture is the company culture. business mind, curious about stock markets,
How do you support your portfolio and balance sheets and invested my first
companies? pay into stock markets. Over the years, the
I take pride and make a concerted effort to ambition has gotten refined - broadly I want
add value to our companies. Making to make a positive impact on people and the
connections with potential next-round planet. The planet question has added
investors, helping and sharing resumes for dimension in the recent past. Money has
recruiting. Organize expert sessions and always been a consequence, but I have lived
mixers for founders to help learn and frugally all my life and the mind is frugal.
exchange knowledge of ideas within the Aspirations exist, but this mind is more
portfolio companies. frugal.

you awake at night?
I'm not awake at night, I sleep peacefully
and dreams wake me up early in the
morning. Nature inspires me - water, forests,
the beach and the food do that to me more
Play long-term games than anything else. The lack of wealth
with long-term people, have distribution inspires me and makes me sad
at times. Insults and rejections inspire me.
patience with a strategy.
Build a culture from day 1, Books or Blogs you would recommend for
entrepreneurs.
founder culture is the
Ayn Rand books, Naval’s Philosophy, The
company culture. Man Who Knew Infinity, Chandra by
Kameshwar C Wali, Books on/by Richard
Feynmann, Ogilvy on Advertising and One
Straw Revolution.
Which of your portfolio companies are you Sessions and mixers for founders to help
excited about and why? learn and exchange knowledge of ideas
It would be unfair to take a few names, I'm within the portfolio companies.
equally excited for all. Personally, I love
Agnikul - Uber for Rockets and Customfit.ai -
a top-class conversion optimization product
for the world from India.
I'm excited about Yellow Metal - a digital-

first, at-home gold loan lending platform
play for Bharat ( tier 3/4 towns), gold as a
store of wealth is almost near-universal in
this country.
Abhilash is a business graduate from IIM Calcutta. He
has worked with Global Conglomerates like Microsoft
and Facebook. He founded and built InfiSecure, from
2016 to 2019, as one of the top Bot Security businesses
globally, and has a keen understanding of building
and scaling a start-up. He is currently heading
business as Co-Founder and CEO at Greenkin.
Abhilash Pandey
Cofounder greenkin.in
How did the idea of Greenkin come up? How has 100X helped you at the
During 2020, when the whole world was beginning of your journey?
impacted by COVID, the founders, Ritika and Capital, Mentorship, Connects! When I think
I, moved to our farmhouse and stayed there about Greenkin, I cannot imagine it without
for about 9 months, Living a life amidst 100X and the kind of mentorship we have
nature inspired us to make our city lives received from the beginning. 100X has been
greener and better as well. In 2021, while a part of this wonderful journey from even
shopping for plants ourselves for our home before the website was launched when we
in Mumbai, we realized the pain points that were working hard to set up everything that
Indian homeowners and plant lovers face in was required to bring Greenkin to Indian
finding good indoor plants. This led to the Consumers.
idea of Greenkin, a platform that allows
people to shop for exotic and easy-care What challenges did you face and how did
indoor plants for their homes. you overcome them?
Challenges are a part of an entrepreneur's
What made you start working on Greenkin daily life. We have always been aware that
and executing this idea? every problem can be solved in various
Before Greenkin, I had run another start-up. ways, and we apply design thinking to solve
Post its exit, I wanted to build another most of our challenges at Greenkin.
business that I was passionate about that
had scalability and a growing market. When What stage is your startup at present?
I realized the existing market opportunity Greenkin is at a very early stage, and we
that Greenkin had and the genuine pain have shipped over 7000 plants already. We
points that consumers face, it was hard for are currently recording double-digit month-
me to keep myself away from following my on-month growth. We aim to help Indian
passion for making the world greener. consumers make their homes beautiful with
plants and natural elements, and we have
When did you realise the need to raise yet only scratched the surface. We see
Venture Capital - Seed funding? tremendous potential in Greenkin and feel
Right at the idea stage, we knew that that we are solving a very common pain
building something as big as Greenkin point in a very large market.
required capital. Thousands of MSMEs sell
plants and yet, the problems that end As founders, what are your goals for the
consumers face haven't been solved. Solving next 1-2 years?
big problems needs great ideas and a good Our vision is to make Greenkin a self-
amount of Capital to bring the ideas to sustainable venture, where our Customers
fruition. fuel growth. Over the next 1 to 2 years, we
are looking to grow multi-fold with
exceptional customer service and NPS.
We aim to be in every household in India,
and we are focused on creating memorable
experiences for our consumers.
Challenges are a part of
an entrepreneur's daily life.
I, and the whole team at Greenkin, are
extremely happy with the work that we are We have always been aware
doing. With every plant we ship, we are that every problem can be
spreading happiness and bringing a smile to
people's lives. Frankly, it is hard to get solved in various ways, and
demotivated when one is doing something we apply design thinking to
that brings satisfaction to their work life,
every day. At Greenkin, our philosophy is
solve most of our challenges
that our work should keep us going, not the at Greenkin.
other way around where we need to keep
going to do the work.

Gardening, as an industry, is one of the
oldest industries and still has thousands of
MSMEs operating in India. Modern
consumers require fresh ideas, so build
something unique. Also, I believe founders
need to keep in mind that since we are
dealing with live plants, there is an extra
layer of handholding and support required
for Customers. This is a huge space in itself
for new ventures.
Anjani is the Country Head for Global Brain VC Fund
in Japan and responsible for building its investment
portfolio in India and Bangladesh across all sectors.
He led private sector investments for the Gates
Foundation and held multiple leadership roles
working across India and Africa. He also founded and
managed an angel investment fund.
Anjani Bansal globalbrains.com
Partner
What is your motivation to be in the market and existing participants.

venture investing business? Ideas that generate outcomes that are
Engage and partner with people and ideas exponentially better than what's possible
that will shape our collective future; today.
Constantly build-test-modify theses on the A team that has demonstrated execution
evolution of multiple sectors; Opportunity to capability and has set clear metrics.
channel capital towards its most productive Self-awareness to recognize and openly
use cases; Learn something new every day. discuss failures.
Zero time for cockiness and bravado.
Describe your workday and leisure day.
What does it look like? What are your 5 key learnings from your
On a work day, I engage with portfolio experience as a venture investor?
companies on specific areas of support, Don't confuse lack of growth today with
meet new companies and explore potential lack of potential tomorrow - sometimes
investment opportunities, do due diligence companies stay small for an unusually
and IC on investments in progress, and meet extended period while they refine their
industry operators in specific sectors where model. The subsequent growth curve
we are considering new investments. For could be steep. This is also true for deep
leisure, I play tennis, read, and sometimes tech.
watch a movie. Whistle does not drive the train-back
communication with tangible actions
What is your view on the future of India as and metrics.
a market? Don't put the cart before the horse - set
India presents an outsized growth clear and achievable priorities and
opportunity by creating prosperity for execute.
hundreds of millions of people. However, it's Don't underestimate the complexity and
not going to be automatic. Several cost of expansion to new countries.
exogenous and endogenous variables will Be clear and specific about what I can do
influence that outcome. As an investor, there as an investor to support the founders.
is no better place in the world to be right
now. Mention top 5 consumer/industry/
Help describe your investment thesis and Digital transactions by lower income
ideas you would like to back. segments as access to broadband
The precise thesis varies based on the internet increases and demand grows
problem being solved depending on our for use cases beyond entertainment and
experience of investing in companies over communication
the years and across the globe. However, Technologies that stop and/or reverse
certain characteristics are common among climate change
companies that I like to back: Agricultural modernization.
Strong understanding and vision of the
Personalized and efficient healthcare When you started your career what were
delivery. your ambitions?
Financial and wealth management for Just Survive - I was way out of my depth
millennials and Gen Z. developing financial software for
commercial banks and derivatives trading in
Top 5 advice you would give to a startup New York. Burnt an inordinate amount of
founder. midnight oil to get on top of both business
Pay attention to people that disagree and technology.
with your vision of the market.
Avoid the valuation trap. What inspires you in life and what keeps
One high performer will contribute more you awake at night?
than five average performers - invest Make a meaningful contribution to improve
your time in hiring the right talent early. the lives of people and advance our species
Stay humble. by supporting the entrepreneurs who are
It is going to be a long and tough journey essentially putting the most at stake; I
- invest in your physical and mental cherish a good night's sleep and try to not
health, don't get burnt out, and stay let anything interfere with it.
cheerful.
Books or Blogs you would recommend for
How do you support your portfolio entrepreneurs.
companies? I think entrepreneurs do well with a
Industry partnerships incl. synergies within perspective wider than just business.
our portfolio of over 300 companies across Some recommendations here cover
the globe; Hiring across functions; and history, present and future. The Most
Global expansion. Powerful Idea in the World - William
Rosen, Leonardo Da Vinci - Walter
Isaacson, No Rules Rules - Reed Hastings,
Bharat: India 2.0 - Gautam Desiraju,
String Theory - David Foster Wallace.
Pay attention to people that disagree
It is going to be a long with your vision of the market.
and tough journey - invest in Avoid the valuation trap.
One high performer will contribute more
your physical and mental
than five average performers - invest
health, don't get burnt out, your time in hiring the right talent early.
Stay humble.
and stay cheerful.
It is going to be a long and tough journey
- invest in your physical and mental
health, don't get burnt out, and stay
cheerful.
Which of your portfolio companies are you

excited about and why?
Far too many to list here. Overall I am super
excited for startups solving real problems in
large markets of tier II and III India, and
climate tech that can be commercialized
and scaled globally.
Chirag Gupta is an expert in Operations and Logistics,
with a proven track record of success in managing
the flow of products and services from suppliers to
customers. His expertise includes supply chain
management, resource allocation, and inventory
control. He is a highly organized and detail-oriented
individual who is committed to ensuring that
products are delivered on time and meet the needs
Chirag Gupta bebeburp.com
of customers.
Cofounder
How did the idea of Bebe Burp come up? journey. First, they provided me with
The idea of Bebe Burp came from my own valuable feedback on my business plan and
personal experience, when my sister was helped me to refine my pitch. Second, they
blessed with a baby. She was struggling to introduced me to many potential investors
find an easy and effective way to burp her and helped me to get in front of the right
baby. This is when we realised that many people. Third, they provided me with other
other parents must be facing the same resources that helped me to get started.
problem. That's when the idea for Bebe Burp And finally, they were a great sounding
was born! It's a simple yet effective solution board and helped me to stay focused and
to an everyday parenting problem. motivated.
What made you start working on Bebe What challenges did you face and how did
Burp and executing this idea? you overcome them?
After realising that there was a need for a I faced some challenges in the early days of
better way to burp babies, I started working Bebe Burp. The biggest challenge was
on Bebe Burp. I wanted to make the lives of finding the right manufacturer who could
parents easier. I wanted to create a product make the product to my specifications. I
that would be easy to use and would solve a went through several iterations before I
real problem. We received positive feedback found a manufacturer that could meet my
from friends and family, and that's when I needs. I also had to learn a lot about product
knew that I had to pursue this idea and design, manufacturing, and marketing. But I
bring it to market. So, I started working on was determined to make Bebe Burp a
the design, development, and success, and I persevered through the
manufacturing of Bebe Burp. And that's how challenges.
Bebe Burp was born!
When did you realise the need to raise Bebe Burp is currently in the growth stage.
Venture Capital - Seed funding? We've got a solid product and a growing
The need to raise seed funding came when I user base. Now, we're focused on expanding
realised that I needed more capital to bring our reach and growing our user base even
Bebe Burp to market. We were at our more. We're also working on building out
revenue stage, but we needed more funding our team and infrastructure to support our
to finalize the design, manufacture the growth. It's an exciting time for us, and we're
product, and launch it. That's when we looking forward to what the future holds.
started reaching out to potential investors
and pitching the idea of Bebe Burp. And As founders, what are your goals for the
that's how I raised seed funding! next 1-2 years?
Our goals for the next 1-2 years is to
How has 100X helped you at the beginning continue growing our user base, expanding
of your journey? our product offering and building a strong
100X helped me in many ways through my team. We want to be the go-to platform for
people looking to find and share parenting What motivates you and keeps you going?
advice. We also want to build a community What keeps me motivated and keeps me
of parents who support and learn from each going is the passion we have for our mission
other. Ultimately, we want to make a and the impact we're making on parents
positive impact on the lives of parents and and their children. We've heard from so
their children. many parents about how Bebe Burp has
helped them feel more confident and
connected, and that's what drives us to keep
going. It's not always easy, but it's worth it to
know that we're making a difference.
What keeps me
motivated and keeps me building in this sector?
going is the passion we have My message for startup founders building in
the parenting space is to stay focused on
for our mission and the your mission and not be afraid of
impact we're making on experimenting. Parenting is a complex and
ever-changing landscape, and there's no
parents and their children. one-size-fits-all solution. The best way to
create a product that's truly helpful and
valuable is to listen to your users and be
open to trying new things. Parenting is a
marathon, not a sprint, so take your time
and enjoy the journey.
Namit Chugh is a health venture expert who has
worked in the industry for several years. He has
experience in developing, funding, and scaling health
startups, as well as in managing venture capital
investments in the health sector.
Namit Chugh whealthventures.com

Investment Team
What is your motivation to be in the demand-side tailwinds including increased

venture investing business? consumer spending on healthcare,
I started my career as a healthcare strategy improved insurance coverage, greater
consultant and worked on private equity adoption of digital healthcare solutions and
diligences for half a decade. Consulting supply-side tailwinds including the growth
taught me the right frameworks – and I of healthtech startups, adoption of
wanted to use my healthcare and finance technology by healthcare providers, and
knowledge to help founders early on. I government regulatory support.
believe that the next decade will define the
road to entrepreneurship in India. And I Help describe your investment thesis and
want to play a pivotal role in changing this ideas you would like to back.
landscape. At W Health Ventures, we invest in
innovative, tech-enabled, health-tech
Describe your workday and leisure day. ventures that are providing end-to-end
What does it look like? solutions for large white-spaces in
A typical workday involves meeting new healthcare. We are excited about vertically
founders, talking to existing portfolio integrated, single-speciality models and
founders to understand what support they have already backed companies across
might need from me or the team – be it diabetes, mental health, pregnancy, sexual
hiring, strategy, financial review, inorganic health, chronic pain, weight loss, etc. A key
growth opportunity assessment, etc. and aspect we look for before investing is the
team standups to brainstorm/debate on startup’s obsession with improving clinical
new ideas and companies. Every single deal outcomes and experiences for patients- this
received or sourced by the team has to be validates the need for the solution and also
discussed internally and a select few then drives patient adherence and retention.
reach the partner level. A leisure day is a
combination of a fun cycling ride and new I am personally excited to back startups that
food experiments – both cooking and eating are omnichannel as today, relying solely on
out. online channels is not sustainable,
particularly in healthcare where patients are
What is your view on the future of India as traditionally used to offline touchpoints.
a market? Also, keen on startups building healthcare
I am personally super-bullish about the products and services in India that can be
Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem, and more sold globally. We are also very interested in
so for healthcare, one of the only sectors products solving for the huge out-of-pocket
growing at 20-25% Y-o-Y. Although expenditure (~50%) in healthcare.
healthcare is complex with multiple
stakeholders and difficult to crack, it holds What are your 5 key learnings from your
an unmatched potential to better lives- experience as a venture investor?
making it all the more exciting and Be founder-first: They are the core of why
rewarding to build in. This is the time to investors exist. Our goal is to drive value and
build healthcare in India - propelled by help them create long-term scalable impact
Be courageous: As an investor, even after Non-patient-facing solutions are seeing
detailed research, many times we have to traction among healthcare providers
risk being wrong to back innovative, never- globally.
seen-before ideas to enable real impact. New healthcare workers: Healthcare
innovation has led to the emergence of a
Learn as you go: Every investor has an ever- new healthcare workforce comprising
hurting anti-portfolio, what we have to do is health coaches, care concierges,
reevaluate decisions and investment insurance relationship managers and
processes and get smarter. remote paramedics.
Be patient-centric: To build a product
Empathize Every founder, even those which customers are obsessed with, it is
building products that do not fit in your imperative to understand what they
thesis, deserves respect provided through want. To keep a pulse on the ground,
clear communication, timelines and any founders should talk to their customers
support. across different stages of the customer
cycle.
Chase value, not valuation: Creating
value for all stakeholders especially
patients should be core to founders as
valuation is an after-effect of this.
Be courageous: As an
Never compromise on business ethics:
investor, even after detailed Ethical values are the building blocks of
research, many times we every successful organization and are
integral to building a solid culture.
have to risk being wrong to Be unapologetically yourself: You will
back innovative, never-seen- find the right partner, be it a supplier,
leadership team member, or investor,
before ideas to enable real sooner or later.
impact.
companies?
Business insights and research: Through
my and the entire team’s immense
Mention a few consumer/industry/ experience across healthcare companies
technology trends in India and globally. and our visibility of the entire industry,
Emergence of vertically integrated we can provide startups with insights
models: Patients want the reassurance, that help build new and improve existing
convenience and comfort of one-stop products and services.
solutions for any health ailment. In the We have a significant number of doctors
last two years, there have been several in our team and advisory panel who are
start-ups building end-to-end platforms instrumental in strengthening clinical
with services and products focused on a models.
single therapy area. Bring global learnings to India: We invest
Omnichannel approach: Startups have in the US as well; our goal is to learn from
begun to realize the importance of global successes, contextualize and help
physical touch points and thus, our portfolio companies bring those
partnering with legacy healthcare products and services to India.
providers or opening offline Strategic partnerships: For healthcare
centres/clinics. startups, partnering with traditional
healthcare providers is key to growing What keeps me motivated to wake up every
operations but often difficult. With our day excited for the office is the realization
existing network, we can cultivate these that each of my tasks plays a small role in
relationships. meaningfully improving the health of
Hiring: Helping find and evaluate millions of Indians.
applicants for key hires in the company.
Books or Blogs you would like to
Which of your portfolio companies are you recommend to entrepreneurs.
excited about and why? Intended Consequences by Hemant
It’s hard for a parent to select a favourite Taneja of General Catalyst, founders
child, but for the sake of this question- Mylo. should read this to work towards
Right from the first call with the founder responsible innovation and use of
Vinit, I was massively impressed with how technology for the greater good.
quickly and efficiently Mylo built a hyper- Build is a book by Tony Fadell or as he
engaged community of parents and created has titled it, an unorthodox guide to
processes enabling high user obsession. The making things worth making. Tony
users’ trust in the Mylo brand is passed on to Fadell is most well known as the creator
their high-quality mother and baby care of the iPod and iPhone; his journey as a
products and services developed from user founder and engineer across leading
data and insights. What Vinit and team Mylo tech giants and startups is incredible
have built is incredible- no other community advice for entrepreneurs and creators
in India has been so successful with today.
engagement and monetization. I also had
the privilege of interacting with mothers
using Mylo and was blown away by the
impact Mylo has had on them. One lady
expressed how Mylo alleviated her anxiety-
at 2 am, when she would wake up stressed
with some question regarding her baby and
was uncomfortable waking up family
members, Mylo became an outlet where she
could post her questions and get answers
within minutes.
When you started your career what were

your ambitions?
I always wanted to do something that can
affect lives positively and make a meaningful
impact. And I experimented with my career
early on to finally decide on the kind of work
that I wanted to do. Despite starting as a
techie, I moved quickly to finance and then
to financing in healthcare – which is what I
enjoy the most.

you awake at night?
Mostly, cross-time zone meetings keep
me awake given we are a US-India fund!
Anurav Dave is the founder & CEO at LUZO. He has
pursued his Bachelors of Law and has worked in the
role of business development and sales with a UK
based startup. Anurav founded LUZO along with his
two close friends in the midst of covid. LUZO is now
rapidly growing in multiple cities with numerous
salon partners eager to join while customers enjoy
Anurav Dave exclusive benefits at these renowned salons! www.luzo.app
Cofounder
How did the idea of LUZO come up? education we received via masterclasses
Our co-founder's mother started a salon and were incredible!
spa right before COVID-19. During the
lockdown, everything had to shut down and What challenges did you face and and
they faced great losses! We, being close how did you overcome them?
friends, decided to help him and his family. One of the major challenges we faced was
In the quest to help, we realised the slow and fearful execution leading to limited
technological gap in the beauty and growth. With 100X we realised the
wellness service industry. This opportunity importance of scaling rapidly. We started
led to LUZO! making quicker decisions, analysed them
and made the necessary changes instantly.
What made you start working on LUZO
and executing this idea? What stage is your startup at present?
I have always had a passion for starting LUZO is currently at an expansion stage. We
something of my own. In fact, I have failed a started off in Mumbai but we have received
few times before! Nevertheless, when I saw several customer requests from various
the opportunity to help my friend and build leading cities! Since our model is highly
a startup too, it only took me a day to scalable, we believe we can capitalise on our
change my career. first mover advantage.
When did you realise the need to raise As founders, what are your goals for the
Venture Capital - Seed funding? next 1-2 years?
After we launched LUZO, we saw an organic As founders we aim to build an ecosystem
demand from customers. However, we only around the beauty and wellness service
had a few salons to cater to their demand. industry. This is a highly underserved
We realised that salons were happy to come market growing at a 28% CAGR! Everyday
on board too! However, we needed funds to when we hear our customers and work with
scale it geographically to a wider set of numerous salons, we get a better
audiences and salons. This led to our understanding of their pain points. This
meeting with 100X. gives us an immense opportunity to build
the right ecosystem for the industry.
of your journey? What motivates you and keeps you
I still remember the first in-person meeting going?
we had with all the partners. The meeting Every time a customer compliments our
ended with 100X giving us 2 targets to service and a salon says they received more
achieve before going forward. When we than expected business, we as a team are
achieved them, we realised how important highly motivated. I believe appreciation for
they were for us! I believe it’s their the right deed keeps you going.
experience that showed us the right
direction. Also, the early connections and
The beauty and wellness service industry still
Every time a customer works as if it’s 2010! There is a tremendous
compliments our service and lack of technology available to these service
providers. While there is an ever-increasing
a salon says they received demand from customers, the quality of
more than expected supply for the same is limited. There are
multiple problems to be solved in this sector!
business, we as a team are
Pick the one you can relate to the most and
highly motivated. start building. You are bound to meet
success!
Technology
empowers
global
entrepreneurs,
democratizing
accessibility.
We want founders to spend less time fundraising and more time building their
business. We take pride in funding early-stage founders via iSAFE within 20days and
working closely with the startups to get them metric driven in 90 days for their next
funding round!
At 100X.VC we are invested in your success. Meet verified investors at the 100X.VC
Pitch Day.
To join Class 11, submit your startup ideas to www.100x.vc/class11
100X.VC is India's first venture fund to invest in early-stage startups using iSAFE
(India Simple Agreement For Future Equity) Notes. We are a SEBI Registered CAT |
AIF, Investment Adviser and the first Institution Investor in our portfolio companies.
Our goal is to fund 100 startups every year using iSAFE Notes. 100X.VC Portfolio
Investments: www.100x.vc/portfolio
100X.VC Team:
Sanjay Mehta Ninad Karpe Yagnesh Sanghrajka

Founder & Partner Founder & Partner Founder & CFO
sanjay@100x.vc ninad@100x.vc yagnesh@100x.vc
Shashank Randev Vatsal Kanakiya

Founder VC CEO
shashank@100x.vc vatsal@100x.vc
Contact us:
Startups:
Email us a short blurb, demo link and pitch deck at pitch@100x.vc. Alternatively,
provide details at www.100x.vc/class11
Investors:
For information on portfolio companies, visit: www.100.vc/portfolio. Email us at

hello@100x.vc
Press:
For specific queries, email us at press@100x.vc
Follow us:
For webinars, podcats and LIVE discussions.

Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube
Disclaimer
The “Top 50 Profile Interviews” is provided by 100X.VC, an early-stage venture capital firm, for general information
purposes. It is not a substitute for personalized advice or investment advice, and its content may not apply universally
or be up-to-date. The market landscape is dynamic and rapidly evolving, on a daily basis. 100X.VC strives for accuracy
but does not guarantee completeness or reliability. The Booklet does not create a professional-client relationship, and
we disclaim liability for any loss or damage. No representation or warranty is made that any returns indicated will be
achieved. The opinions or estimates herein are subject to change and may be amended without any notification.
Every reader should carefully study and ensure that they understand and exercise due care and discretion in
considering their investment objective, risk apetitie and personal circumstances against the risk of the investment. All
readers are advised to seek independent professional advice in case of doubt. The data, opinion, forecast presented in
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Links to external websites are provided for convenience but are not endorsed. The Booklet is not financial, legal, or
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TOP 30 PROFILE INTERVIEWS

2. Be prepared to make mistakes, repeatedly - Alok Goyal

3. Ideas are not bulletproof - Rajit Bhattacharya

4. Focus on execution and bottom line - Pravin Gandhi

5. It's a marathon, so don't burnout - Ketaki Ogale

7. Small pivots are part of any startup - Kuldeep Parashar

8. Be restless and paranoid - Shailesh Ghorpade

9. If you get the right fit there is no stopping - Niharika Bhargava

10. Integrity beats everything else - Aarti Gupta

12. Be open and flexible in your startup journey - Girish Shivani

13. This is the best time to build - Pranab Buragohain

14. VC investing is a long term game - Jatin Desai

15. Retention of customers in longer run is important - Charu Chaturvedi

17. Keep learning, start small, execute fast - Anshul Shrivastava

19. Create something that humans cannot do without - Vaibhav Agrawal

21. It is an execution play with many moving parts - Shashank Moddhia

22. A team is critical to building moonshots - Shahan Sud

23. The initial focus should be on engagement - Abhishek Mehta

24. Don’t be afraid to fail - Sanket Atal

25. Focussed vision towards the goal can do wonders - Ankita De

27. Challenges are a part of an entrepreneur's daily life - Abhilash Pandey

30. Chase value, not valuation - Namit Chugh

Welcome to the first edition of 100X.VC Venture Futurists - Top 30 Profile

We have tried to be at the forefront of backing innovative founders building

The series of interviews will bring about a diverse array of perspectives

We hope you will find these interviews interesting and informative. We

What stage is your startup at present?

As founders, what are your goals for the

What is your motivation to be in the Engage with entrepreneurs during good

What is your view on the future of India as Mention top 5 consumer/industry/

Don't follow anyone else

Our users. I spend a lot

What inspires you in life and what keeps

I look for small wins

What motivates you and keeps you going?

Books or Blogs you would recommend for

If you have interacted with 100X.VC,

What stage is your startup at present?

As founders, what are your goals for the

Has your startup pivoted? If so, what has

The idea of RoadMetrics

What motivates you and keeps you going?

What is your motivation to be in the a large domestic market size, or building in

What is your motivation to be in the accelerate their operations, interactions with

Mention the top 5 consumer/industry/

What stage is your startup at present?

What is your motivation to be in the committed to furthering the agritech

When we assess startups,

When did you realise the need to raise

Your message for Startup founders

What is your motivation to be in venture a day. Compounding only comes from a

What is your view on the future of India as

Help describe your investment thesis and

When did you realize the need to raise

What is your motivation to be in the Ventures that have high levels of

Abhishek Mehta quriverse.com

Challenges are something

As founders, what are your goals for the