Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Padmaja Ruparel, President, Indian Angel Network (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: And how is your network organized?

Padmaja: We were very entrepreneurial in how we started. I don’t think there was much thinking at that time. We didn’t realize it would be so big, to be honest. So, we just started with a private, limited company which is for more administrative purposes, just so that payments can be taken in and expenses can be pushed out.

There isn’t a plan to create a value in the network. It was conceived as a not-for-profit, no loss/no gain kind of a scenario, and we still work on that. Having said that, we just instituted a section 25 company, which is a true not-for-profit company. So we will migrate to that. What we started was very entrepreneurial, but we have grown it well into a professional organization and becoming the largest player in the early-stage entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

Irina: Is it supported by members’ dues?

Padmaja: Yes, memberships.

Irina: What can angel-backed companies do to increase their chances of success?

Padmaja: Apart from doing what they have to do, I think they should be able to leverage the angel network very well. They have the fortune of being in touch with people who built companies from the ground up.

Angels bring not only investments, but also huge operational savvy, which is not embedded implicitly in the VC system, for instance. Unless somebody brings on a successful entrepreneur on the VC board or fund or whatever, it’s not embedded in the system.

Here, largely there are people who have been successful entrepreneurs or successful intrapreneurs – people who changed their own corporate space successfully. I think that’s a huge, huge opportunity to leverage and take advantage of to build their strategies, to change things, be open to it. So, mentorability and leveraging the investors network, I think, could make the difference.

Irina: Do you advise them to ask questions, be proactive, and go and engage with your network?

Padmaja: Yes, we do. In fact, in many of our invested companies we tell them, Here is the network, you can see it on the website, tell us who you want to engage with. And we do those proactively; we connect people and set up meetings.

Second, we send out the entire proposition to the network so that all investors, irrespective of whether they invested in that deal, do come forward and help. We create visibility for our invested companies so that they get a bit of a stage to stage their show. We do all of that. As a part of nurturing, I think it’s important to nurture our invested companies before we go out.

Irina: Great insights, Padmaja. Thank you very much for sharing.

This segment is part 9 in the series : Seed Capital From Angel Investors: Padmaja Ruparel, President, Indian Angel Network
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