Raising money to build a startup is a huge challenge. To be able to raise any money at all, you must first understand how investors think. We have developed the following courses catering to entrepreneurs in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.
>>>Chandrashekar Kupperi is General Partner at Peaceful Progress Fund, an angel fund in India. We have some very interesting discussions on consumer startups in India, especially the ones targeting lower economic strata consumers.
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During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Chandrashekar Kupperi, General Partner at Peaceful Progress Fund, an angel fund in India. We had some very interesting discussions on consumer startups in India, especially the ones targeting lower economic strata consumers.
T-Ora
As for the pitches, up first we had Karthikeyan R. from Singapore pitch T-Ora, a solution for fact checking fake news.
Zabble
Next we had Nik Balachandran from Walnut Creek, California, pitch Zabble, a waste management software.
Enthu.ai
Then we had Gaurav Mittal from Chandigarh, India, pitched Enthu.ai, an AI solution for contact center call analysis.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
Steve Eskenazi is an Angel Investor, and we had a number of interesting trend conversations.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with a little bit of your background. Tell us about what path you have traveled.
Steve Eskenazi: My career has three distinct phases. In the 1990s, I was Wall Street’s digital media analyst introducing Wall Street to companies like America Online and Electronic Arts. For the next 10 years, I was a venture capitalist for a firm called Walden VC where we invested in internet, SaaS, and digital media companies.
>>>Andrus Oks is Founding Partner at Tera Ventures, based in Estonia. We have a great discussion on entrepreneurship in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries in particular.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as Tera Ventures.
Andrus Oks: I’m one of the founding partners of Tera Ventures. Tera is an Estonian-based seed fund. We currently invest from our €45 million second fund. We are halfway through. We have done 15 deals. We are doing another 15. We support our portfolio companies throughout the rounds. We like to be early. We’re often the first investors.
>>>Krishnakumar Natarajan, Co-founder of Mela Ventures and former CEO of Mindtree, discusses the Indian Venture ecosystem.
Sramana Mitra: I’m looking forward to catching up with you. We haven’t talked in a while, but we have followed each other’s work for a long time. Catch me up on Mela Ventures.
>>>In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
Bill Baumel, Managing Director at Ohio Innovation Fund, is one of the pioneers of the Ohio startup ecosystem.
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Zain Jaffer, Partner at Blue Field Capital, discusses trends in PropTech.
Sramana Mitra: Our focus today is primarily on the investing that you had recently started. If you want to set some context about your entrepreneurial background, that would be great.
Zain Jaffer: As soon as I discovered computers, I started to mess around, code, and design things. I’ve always been at it trying to build things. Sometimes, it worked out. Most of the time, it doesn’t. I have had a lot of attempts. All you need is to be lucky once. It can change your life completely. I had a big exit. It was $718 million back in 2019 when I started an advertising tech company.
>>>During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Bill Baumel, Managing Director at Ohio Innovation Fund, one of the pioneers of the Ohio startup ecosystem.
CaterBite
As for entrepreneur pitch, we had Boddu Venkat Sujith from Visakhapatnam, India, pitch CaterBite, a concept arbitrage on EZCater, a Unicorn.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.
I would like to encourage bootstrapping entrepreneurs to start thinking about certain investors as bootstrapping partners. These investors, typically, LIKE capital efficient businesses.
They do not want to force feed capital into companies, unlike certain larger funds.
Their fund sizes are small, and they are set up to make money off smaller exits. [Re: Bootstrapping to Exit]
Please listen to a few conversations to get a feel for the point of view. There are many more on the Seed Capital series on our blog. You can also listen to the 1Mby1M Podcasts for more.
Julie Lein, Managing Partner at Urban Innovation Fund, discusses pre-seed and seed funding in companies focused on the betterment of cities.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s get you and Urban Innovation Fund introduced to our audience.
Julie Lein: I’m the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the Urban Innovation Fund. We are a venture capital firm that invests in startups shaping the future of cities. We invest across a variety of verticals. These are what you might consider more traditional smart city sectors like transportation, energy, PropTech.
>>>Steve Eskenazi is an Angel Investor, and we had a number of interesting trend conversations.
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In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Angel investor Steve Eskenazi. We had a number of interesting trend conversations.
iBay
As for entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Pradheep from Singapore pitching iBay. The company has significant traction.
Capriquota
Next we had Olabode Qudus from Ogun, Nigeria, pitch Capriquota, a concept stage venture with a little bit of validation.
BEI.RE
Then we had Ranga Krishnan from San Jose, California, pitch BEI.RE, a prop tech venture that also has some degree of validation.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
Andrus Oks is Founding Partner at Tera Ventures, based in Estonia. We have a great discussion on entrepreneurship in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries in particular.
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