JasaRodio

JasaRodio | Episode 76 | Venture Debt 101: A Guide on the Why, What, and How!

Guest: Punit Shah, Managing Partner - Alteria Capital.

Sharing his insights on:

1. What is Venture Debt, and how it differs from other forms of financing?
2. What are the key benefits of Venture Debt for startups, and how can it complement future equity rounds?
3. When should startups explore Venture Debt, is it the right choice for specific needs (e.g. bridge rounds)?
4. What does a typical Venture Debt term sheet look like (i.e. interest rates, repayment schedules, warrants, collateral/security, etc)?
5. Advice for founders/startups exploring Venture Debt as a financing option?
6. What do Venture Debt players look for during due diligence?
7. Any limitations/drawbacks to Venture Debt that startups should be aware of?
8. A brief on Alteria Capital, with some examples of startups they funded with Venture Debt.

Ashish Kumar

• Partner, The Fundamentum Partnership (growth-focused VC Fund)

Sharing his insights on:

1. As a part of a VC firm, what got you interested in the healthcare sector?
2. You had assessed several players in the pharma space, what were the 3 key factors that stood out for PharmEasy?
3. Besides the team, what other factors drove you to commit to PharmEasy?
4. In general, what makes a team shine over others when it comes to investment?
5. Coming back to PharmEasy, you tweeted about channel relationships, margins, and supply chain as key differentiators, can you elaborate on that?
6. So quite a cliche question, did you ever envisage that PharmEasy would turn up as a unicorn someday?
7. From the founders' perspective, what should they focus on at the early stage, to become a leader in any sector?
8. Finally, tell us about "Fundamentum Partnership," and what's your investment thesis?

Ryan Breslow

• Founder of 2 unicorns: Bolt and Eco.
• Sharing his own experiences, Ryan talks about the 10 Sales Tactics that Truly Work!

Rishav Agarwal

• Founder & CEO, Picxele (Gig Economy)

Sharing his insights on:

1. What has changed in the Gig Economy, post Covid-19 pandemic?
2. How large is this Gig Market across the globe?
3. What are the challenges with Gig Economy?
4. How are gig platforms like Freelancer, Upwork really differentiating/solving this gap?
5. How can founders/startups benefit from the opportunities involved?
6. Journey of Picxele, and what gap does it fulfill?

Bonus podcast recorded on a recent Twitter thread by Chris Cantino on the same subject.

Chris is currently the co-owner of Color Capital. Prior to this, he was CMO of Schmidt's Naturals and helped propel the company to $100M+ acquisition by Unilever alongside wife and partner Jaime Schmidt.

Head on to this podcast, to hear 10 pointers recommended by Chris to scale up your venture as a viable/potential acquisition venture!  

Purva Aggarwal

• Founder & CEO, Good Good Piggy
• Women in Tech ® India Ambassador

Sharing her insights on:

1. The story behind building Good Good Piggy?
2. How important is financial literacy for kids?
3. How should parents teach financial education to their children?
4. Is pre-teen the right age to talk about investments?
5. What's the market opportunity like for such a sector?
6. Finally, how's Good Good Piggy inculcating financial literacy among kids?

Parag Dhol 

• Managing Director, Inventus Capital India

Sharing his insights on:

1. Why do corporates/startups acquire other companies (key reasons)?
2. When should a founder decide to sell his/her startup?
3. Once decided to sell, how should an entrepreneur prepare his/her startup for a possible acquisition?
4. Why do acquisitions fail at certain times, and how should one prevent it from happening?
5. Based on a portfolio company, what's the journey like from growth to IPO?
6. Finally, a brief about Inventus Capital and its investment thesis?

Sameer Sortur

• Regional Director GCC, Founder Institute
• Founder-CEO, SquareCircle Global

Sharing his insights on:

1. How is the Founder Institute enabling startups globally?
2. What differentiates Founder Institute from the other accelerators?
3. What factors/aspects does Founder Institute look for in a startup to shortlist them in the program?
4. How does Founder Institute help those entrepreneurs who don't make it?
5. What kind of support do entrepreneurs get when they join the program?
6. As a Regional Director, what's your vision for the Founder Institute in GCC?
7. Finally, tell us a bit about yourself and your venture SquareCircle Global?

Shirish Nadkarni

• Serial Entrepreneur, Author of "From Startup to Exit"

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. How easy/difficult is it to launch and scale up a tech venture?
2. What should be the ideal journey for any venture?
3. What should tech startups do to succeed in all phases?
4. How should founders efficiently raise funding, and when should they start the process?
5. His own journey insights from 3 startups, things that went great, and about his failures?
6. A bit about his book, "From Startup to Exit" and how to get it?

Saloni Jain

• Founding Partner, SUNiCON Ventures

Sharing her valuable insights on:

1. When should founders reach out to Angel Investors for investments?
2. What motivates Angel Investors to invest in a startup?
3. 8 different types of Angel Investors, with a brief on each?
4. How does a founder assess/shortlist the right Angel Investor, who would be a great fit?
5. And, how to reach out to these shortlisted ones?
6. A bit about yourself and SUNiCON Ventures.

Hassan W. Bhatti

• Prior co-founded, Cryptonumerics (acquired by Snowflake)
• Investor @thecommunityvc
• ProductBD, @snowflakedb

Sanil Sachar

• Founding Partner at Huddle

Sharing her valuable insights on:

1. Why should entrepreneurs opt ​for the​ accelerators, and what kind of value add should they expect?
2. With so many different options available, how should a founder select, who would be a right fit?
3. At just a 1-2% success rate, what qualities/skills of an entrepreneur would ensure that s/he gets admitted in a cohort/program?
4. What are the most common mistakes that founders do, when applying for the cohorts/programs?
5. Most startups look at accelerators as stepping stones to fundraising, what would your thoughts be on this?
6. Tell us a bit about Huddle, what do you look for in a startup and what do you offer them at each stage?
7. Finally, would you share few success stories from some of your earlier investments?

Shashank Randev

• Founder, VC at 100X.VC

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. Why does it make sense for entrepreneurs to raise early-stage capital via SAFE notes?
2. What is a iSAFE Note, and is it similar/different to a Convertible Note or a Compulsory Convertible Debentures? And, is iSAFE essentially a CCPS?
3. What are the various terms that are usually covered in a SAFE note​? And, besides valuation cap and discounts, are there any other terms covered in iSAFE, and what are considered to be standard market practices?
4. Some founders see great potential risks in using SAFE, how should they be watchful of it?
5. How many startups have used iSAFE so far, also if you could share some of the success stories?

Devank Chandak

• Founder at HelpingHands, Social FinTech

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. Why he chose entrepreneurship at such a young age?
2. What made him launch his venture "Helping Hands," and whom (customers) does it caters to?
3. The traction, challenges, as well as the learnings!
4. The future (vision) of "Helping Hands" in the next 5-10 years?
5. How can teenagers really balance between the education and entrepreneurship?

Elizabeth Yin, co-founder of Hustle Fund shares her valuable insights for founders of startups, who are raising early-stage rounds

Snippet: By tranching your fundraising, you can quickly build a momentum to raise the pre-seed and seed funds.

Besides, you don't necessarily need a lead investor too.

A lot more is on the podcast!

Rupam Das

• Founder, CEO of Acculi Labs

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. What is PAIO, and how is it different from Compulsary Convertible Debentures or CCD and Convertible Notes?
2. Why didn't you raise funding from any angel platform/syndicate?
3. What terms and conditions did you stipulate in PAIO?
4. What was your fundraising experience, how many investors participated in PAIO?
5. Finally, which kinda startups can emulate/use PAIO for fundraising?

Akriti Gupta

• Founder, Canfem | UN Awardee

Sharing her valuable insights on:

1. Let's start with your background and what really motivated you to launch Canfem?
2. How large is this problem of breast cancer globally, and what are the key problems being faced by the female patients?
3. How did you arrive at launching breast prosthesis as well as brassier i.e. what was your research behind launching these?
4. What are the typical challenges that you've across so far, and how did you overcome them?
5. What's your vision for Canfem, and can you share 1-2 stories, which kind of inspired you? 

Gigi Levy-Weiss

• General Partner, NFX
• Founder & Chairman, Tectonic

Sharing his valuable insights on:

• The 7 Rules of Hiring for the Early-stage Startups!

Source: His Twitter Profile

Rachita Kumar

• PE, Madison India Capital

Sharing her valuable insights on:

1. Why should startups remain focused, especially during the early stages?
2. 2 contrast case studies, 1 which has drifted away from its core focus, another which has remained focused and benefitted immensely?
3. Finally, how should startups really expand, while keeping their core focus intact? 

Daniel Lewis

• CEO/Founder, Convoy

Sharing his valuable insights/learnings on building a unicorn startup, Convoy!

Source: Full Podcast.

Immad Akhund

• CEO & Founder, Mercury (Bank)

Sharing his valuable insights on:

• How to Build a Compelling Story or Narrative for Your Startup?

Source: This twitter thread!

Alexandre Covello

• VC Partner, Defrocked VC

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. Key reasons behind the failure of over 70% funded startups?
2. Journey from Seed to Series A.
3. How should founders effectively scale up from Seed to Series A Round?
4. When scaling up (from Seed to Series A), what are the pitfalls to watch for, and how to avoid them?
5. What should the founders do, when not fundraising?
6. Finally, about his venture "Defrocked VC," and its investment thesis?

This podcast is inspired from a post by Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y Combinator on his website, dated back in February 2009.

These 13 wisdom points are so relevant for the Founders, even today.

Chad Fox

• Managing Partner, Fox Ventures

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. What is a Micro VC, and how are they different from a traditional VC fund?
2. What are the nitty gritties involved in starting a Micro VC Fund?
3. Why should early-stage startups opt for Micro VCs vis-a-vis a traditional VC?
4. In comparison to angel groups/syndicates, when does it makes sense for the founders to instead opt for a Micro VC Fund?
5. About his venture "Fox Ventures," and it's investment thesis?

Shital Kakkar Mehra

• Executive Presence Coach for CEOs
• TEDx Speaker, Best-selling Author

Sharing her valuable insights on:

1. Why is communication so important, especially for entrepreneurs?
2. Key signs to indicate if one lacks in communication skills.
3. How to improve one's communication skills?
4. What does it mean to engage with empathy?
5. How to empathetically engage with all key stakeholders (i.e. employees, customers, suppliers, etc?)
6. Finally, about her recent book "Executive Presence," and how to get it?

Alex Garcia, CEO & Founder at The Hustle helps companies generate sales & leads using digital platforms.

In a thread on his Twitter account, Alex shared valuable insights on, how should you build a lead funnel and effectively generate sales.

He used a similar approach to help his friends achieve over $25K of eBook sales with barely any ad spend.

Sweta Rau

• Angel Investor, White Ventures
• Member at XA Network

Sharing her valuable insights on:

1. Why Angel Investors make more sense at the pre-seed/seed stage?
2. Strategy to target the prospective investors, and get a lead investor.
3. Her assessment criteria for investing in early-stage startups?
4. Her advice for bootstrapped founders, facing a high burn rate.
5. An elevator pitch that wowed her?
6. A brief on one of her investment success stories.

Janine Sickmeyer founded and built legal startup NextChapter, which she bootstrapped for over 6 long years. As a first-time founder, Janine steadily grew to 20 employees, and was instrumental in achieving 6K customers as well as 14% MoM consistent growth for 3 long years. Eventually her startup was acquired in September 2019 by Fastcase!

This podcast is taken from her thread on Twitter, where she shared her experience on, why being a first-time founder is so hard!

According to her, for the first-time founder it takes 2X time and roughly 3X money to succeed.

Elizabeth Yin, the co-founder of Hustle Fund VC on her Twitter account, shared a series of tweets on "How to Set the Prices for Your Product or Service?"

This podcast is the extract of that thread.

Prashant Narang

• Co-Founder, Agility Venture Partners

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. Why is cash flow so important for startups or small businesses?
2. How can the entrepreneurs systematically manage their finance?
3. What strategy would you recommend for getting payments/accounts receivables on time?
4. How can founders create their simple 3-5 year financial projections without hiring an analyst?
5. Share a brief about Agility Ventures and the investment criteria for startups?

Karthik Sridharan

• Co-founder & CEO at Flexiple & Remote.Tools

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. You spent $5K each on your 1st and 2nd products but eventually both failed, what really went wrong?
2. Then as a masterstroke, you instead used GoogleSheets as a product and went on to generate $100K in revenues, how did that go?
3. So, what's the learning here for the founders who're building their first MVP?
4. Having bootstrapped Flexiple for 4 long years, tell us about this whole journey of yours?
5. What would be your 5 key lessons from your bootstrapping journey that you share with the fellow entrepreneurs?
6. How did you gain the first 100 customers for Flexiple?
7. Finally, can you share a brief on both your ventures i.e. Flexiple and Remote.tools?

Bhavik Vasa

• Founder at GetVantage, India's first Revenue-Based Financing platform

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. What is Revenue-based Financing (RBF), and Who is it for?
2. The major considerations, when opting for RBF?
3. What flat fee does GetVantage charge?
4. What are the qualifying criteria, and the repayment options involved in RBF?
5. How does GetVantage really work?
6. 2 success stories of startups that opted for GetVantage's RBF, and gained invaluably?

James Church

• Author, Investable Entrepreneur
• Co-founder & COO, Robot Mascot

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. Why is it so difficult to raise funding in the early-stages?
2. Most common mistakes that entrepreneurs do, while pitching to the investors?
3. How does one create a great pitching story for their business?
4. How can entrepreneurs make their ventures, truly fundable/investable?
5. What all metrics should be tracked by the entrepreneurs, which will make them a credible investment opportunity?
6. Let's talk about your book "Investable Entrepreneur," could you share a brief on the same, and how can listeners get it?

David B Horne

• Award-winning Author of "Add then Multiply"
• TEDx Speaker

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. Why is the organic growth method quite slow, and limited for any venture?
2. What are the perils of scaling-up/growing too fast?
3. His advice to the founders of early-stage startups!
4. How can entrepreneurs use his "FACE Methodology" to exponentially grow their venture?
5. 2 case studies where David applied it to grow exponentially?

Hernan Fernandez Lamadrid

• Cofounder & Partner, Angel Ventures, Mexico
• 17 Investments for a total of $14 Mn

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. Brief on Latin America's Startup Ecosystem.
2. Challenges and the future of Latin America's Startup Ecosystem.
3. His advise to those entrepreneurs, who are at the ideation stage?
4. How is Angel Ventures, Mexico enabling the startups across Latin America?
5. 2 success stories of startups, invested by him?

John D. Hanson

• Director, Accelerated Revenue
• CX & Winning Consultant

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. What is Customer Experience (CX), and Why is it so Important?
2. Role of Customer Love/Obsession in Investors' Funding, and How can CX help?
3. How can CX help SaaS Startups Retain their Customers?
4. How Customer Experience be a Strongest Moat for the Startups?
5. Case Study of Zappos.com, how they engraved CX as its culture, to eventually get acquired for $1 Bn by Amazon!

Yamika Mehra

• Venture Partner, Favcy
• Co-Founder, Refittings.com

Sharing her insights on:

1. Why Should Professionals Opt for Angel Investing?
2. Risks and Potential Returns Involved in Angel Investments?
3. How to do an Initial Due Diligence, before Investing?
4. About Favcy Venture Builder, and Investing through them?

Jonathan Siddharth (Founder & CEO, Turing) shares his valuable insights on "Parallel Approach to Fundraising," a breakthrough approach using which he raised $14 Mn seed round for his venture, Turing! 

Mark Nadal

• Founder & CEO, Era Inc

Sharing his valuable insights on:

1. His Fundraising Journey Experience.
2. Mistakes He Made during Fundraising and the Learnings from Them.
3. Do Strong VCs Connections or Introduction to VCs from Other Founders' Help?
4. Differentiating Factors between the Investors, Who Commit and Those Who Just Drag?
5. His Tips for the Founders, Who are in Fundraising Mode!

Raj A. Kapoor

• Founder & CEO, India Blockchain Alliance.
• Recognised Expert, Writer & Speaker on Blockchain.

Sharing his insights on:

1. Difference between Blockchain and Bitcoins.
2. How can Startups and SMEs leverage Blockchain to enhance their processes or other areas?
3. How can HealthTech and EdTech sectors benefit from Blockchain?
4. How can the Agriculture sector leverage from Blockchain?
5. A Brief about his venture India Blockchain Alliance!