Invest Stream
By Invest Stream
Web: pjain.me
Twitter: twitter.com/investorcraft
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/investstream
Invest StreamMar 20, 2020
Let’s go for a Hike w/ Kavin B. Mittal
Angel Investing at Scale with Fabrice Grinda
Fabrice Grinda is the founder of Zingy, Aucland OLX and FJ Labs, a VC firm and venture studio based in NYC, focusing on marketplace businesses. FJ Labs has invested in hundreds of companies such as Alibaba, Bla Bla Car, Zolostays, Brightroll, ZoomCar and many many more. In 2018, Forbes named Fabrice the #1 Angel investor in the world.
On this episode of Invest Stream, Fabrice shares his journey as an entrepreneur and how that led him to invest in startups in France and Europe, his thoughts on the cryptocurrency vertical, what approach he took to working with the entrepreneurs that he invested in and much much more.
How to Start Your First Early-Stage Venture Fund
On this episode of Invest Stream Live, Arjun Dev Arora, Founder of Valence Advisory, joins Invest Stream to share some tips on how to go about raising an early-stage venture capital fund for the first time. Why should one do it? What are some of the pitfalls? What do Limited Partners (LPs) want to see and what do they not like and a lot more about how one should go about raising a first time fund.
Arjun was a Partner at 500 Startups, Founder & CEO of ReTargeter (acquired by Sellpoints in 2015), and head of business development @ Yahoo! Real Estate and has been recognized at the: White House, United Nations (UN), and the Global Summit for Entrepreneurship, for his success and commitment to a values-centered organization.
Part 3 - Off the Beaten Path: Wall Street to Startup Investor - A Fireside Chat with Pankaj Jain, Founder of Invest Stream
Who is "Pankaj Jain" besides being the founder of Invest Stream and Founder Craft What came before?
I've been a risk manager at the largest hedge fund in the world, LTCM, operator, product manager, entrepreneur, community builder at BarCamp Delhi, co-founder of HeadStart Network Foundation and Startup Weekend India.
I've been a venture capitalist at TLabs and 500 Startups, advisor to startups, funds and platforms like AngelList India and most recently, a dabbler in startup and venture capital related video content.
My friend and former colleague, Ritesh Bansal, suggested interviewing me on the show to bring out more about who I am and what my journey has been. Naturally, I couldn't refuse an invitation to be on my show so get ready for a frank and open discussion between an old friend and I.
Part 2 - Off the Beaten Path: Wall Street to Startup Investor - A Fireside Chat with Pankaj Jain, Founder of Invest Stream
Who is "Pankaj Jain" besides being the founder of Invest Stream and Founder Craft What came before?
I've been a risk manager at the largest hedge fund in the world, LTCM, operator, product manager, entrepreneur, community builder at BarCamp Delhi, co-founder of HeadStart Network Foundation and Startup Weekend India.
I've been a venture capitalist at TLabs and 500 Startups, advisor to startups, funds and platforms like AngelList India and most recently, a dabbler in startup and venture capital related video content.
My friend and former colleague, Ritesh Bansal, suggested interviewing me on the show to bring out more about who I am and what my journey has been. Naturally, I couldn't refuse an invitation to be on my show so get ready for a frank and open discussion between an old friend and I.
Part 1 - Off the Beaten Path: Wall Street to Startup Investor - A Fireside Chat with Pankaj Jain, Founder of Invest Stream
Who is "Pankaj Jain" besides being the founder of Invest Stream and Founder Craft What came before?
I've been a risk manager at the largest hedge fund in the world, LTCM, operator, product manager, entrepreneur, community builder at BarCamp Delhi, co-founder of HeadStart Network Foundation and Startup Weekend India.
I've been a venture capitalist at TLabs and 500 Startups, advisor to startups, funds and platforms like AngelList India and most recently, a dabbler in startup and venture capital related video content.
My friend and former colleague, Ritesh Bansal, suggested interviewing me on the show to bring out more about who I am and what my journey has been. Naturally, I couldn't refuse an invitation to be on my show so get ready for a frank and open discussion between an old friend and I.
Steering NYC-based Unicorn, Knotel, Through the Pandemic
The global lockdown response to the covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on startups across the world. On this episode of Invest Stream, join me as I discuss the challenges of navigating through this crisis with Amol Sarva, the founder and CEO of Knotel, a NYC-based flexible workspace provider.
I spoke with Amol Sarva, founder of Knotel. Knotel is a flexible workspace startup providing headquarters as a service to companies like Cheddar, Omnicom, Draft Kings and many many others. Join us as we talk about serial entrepreneurship, leading a unicorn through the pandemic and what the future of work looks like today vs. the beginning of the year.
Amol co-founded several startups including Virgin Mobile USA, Peek, Halo Neuroscience, Knotable, Knotel, and built a building in New York called East of East. He studied cognitive science for his Ph.D. at Stanford with undergraduate degree from Columbia. He teaches at Columbia. He is a backer, advisor, and mentor at 50+ companies.
A Fireside Chat with Rob Go
How does one go from being an operator to starting a venture capital fund? Rob Go, co-founder of NextView Ventures shared how he got started as a VC, how companies in NextView’s portfolio as well as NextView have been adapting to the pandemic, what’s changed for the firm since the pandemic hit, the new accelerator program and much much more.
Rob Go is a co-founder and Partner at NextView Ventures. Prior to founding NextView, Rob was at Spark Capital, Ebay, as well as, Fidelity Investments and BzzAgent. Catch him on Twitter at @robgo
Catch the video at https://youtu.be/3Ng8IqiBlSk
The Rise of Indian Venture Capital
Over the last twenty years, India has seen a tremendous amount of economic activity in the tech arena. The startup and venture capital ecosystems were a bit slow to pick-up, partly due to low Internet penetration until just a few years ago. That, however, didn’t prevent the creation of unicorns like Flipkart, Snapdeal and others. Since 2017, India has seen numerous new venture capital firms being launched with domestic and foreign capital. Japanese and Chinese investors have poured billions of dollars into Indian tech startups and venture capital firms over the last 5 years.
In the next Invest Stream Live, we’re going to chat with Ankita Vashistha, founder of the Saha Fund and Rahul Chandra, founder of Arkam Ventures. Both Ankita and Rahul have been very active in India and both of them have very unique fund strategies. We will discuss broad trends they are seeing in India right now, what drove them to formulate such unique theses for their respective funds and what they see in store for Indian startups and other VC firms over the next year.
Ankita founded India’s first venture capital fund to invest in women-led technology and innovation entrepreneurship. SAHA Fund was recognized by the Prime Minister of India's office as the first venture capital fund in the country to support women entrepreneurs and businesses.
Rahul is one of the earliest VCs to invest in tech startups in India when he invested in startups on behalf of Walden's India focussed VC fund in 1998. He co-founded India's first homegrown VC fund, Helion and is presently building a new VC firm, ArkamVC which is focussed on tech innovation for middle India.
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Fundraising to Protect IP
In this short episode of InvestStream, I share a few thoughts on these scenarios.
IP Protection can be something very important for a startup but it can also be a very expensive thing to do and do right. Some tech startups consider raising money primarily for filing patents and other intellectual property protections while others think it might be a good idea to raise money from angels or venture capitalists specifically to protect the IP they've created.
In this short episode of InvestStream, I share a few thoughts on whether it's a good idea or not to try to raise money from angels or VCs primarily (or solely) for the purpose of filing patents, trademarks, litigation or financing other forms of intellectual property protection.
youtu.be/xVVEmGKugf0
June 16, 2020
How are Pre-Seed and Seed Changing
A lot is changing in the startup world. Even before getting hit with COVID-19, the definitions of pre-seed, seed, post-seed/pre-series A were changing at a fast clip. Many early-stage VCs were moving downstream, writing larger checks and investing in later rounds. At the same time, larger, late-stage VCs were either ramping up their scout programs and investing earlier than every before, other VCs were directly investing earlier and earlier. From Silicon Valley to New York City, this has created new opportunities for some, while creating additional competition for other investors.
Join us on the next InvestStream Live on June 9th, 2020 to hear two well known early-stage VCs discuss how they see the landscape changing over the next six to twelve months. What will this mean for the number of deals getting done, the size of the deals, the check sizes and more.
Shruti Gandhi is the Founder of Array.VC, a Silicon Valley based venture firm investing in category-leading startups that take advantage of data, analytics, workflows, and new platforms to change the way an industry works.
Paul Sethi is the Co-Founder of 2048.VC, a New York City based venture firm investing in founders who are creating companies that have differentiation and defensibility through technology. They are geographically agnostic but invest in enterprise SaaS, AI/ML, FinTech, HealthTech, Cybersecurity, Dev tools, Hardware, Genomics, Marketplaces, and B2C/D2C in cities like NYC, Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Toronto/Waterloo, Nashville, Pittsburgh and more.
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Angel Investing in Indian Startups 2020
This week on InvestStream, I talk with Miten Sampat, Chief Strategy Officer at Times Internet (the largest media company in India) and Sonali Thapar, Director of TCAP Investments, a family office based in India. Listen to insights on how the market is changing, what angel investors and other early stage investors should be thinking about and doing during the global rebalancing.
Angel investing in Indian startups has been growing rapidly over the last 5 years. The risk capital these individuals, family offices and angel networks provide, has been invaluable to countless startups in India.
However, with the COViD-19 lockdowns across the globe, startups have faced immense pressure from existing investors, primarily, because many expect the pace of new investments and the amount of money being raised as well as the valuations the money is being raised at to fall, perhaps for quite some time.
Miten has been an active angel investor in the US and India for many years as well as being an active corporate VC at Times.
Sonali is responsible for managing the investment portfolio of TCAP, her family office. In addition to investing in startups, TCAP also invests in real estate, debt and equity.
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What are some risks associated with angel investing?
As tech startups have continued to thrive over the last decade, more and more people have been either thinking of investing in startups or have started to deploy capital. Others, still sit on the sidelines hearing from friends how some of their startup investments have performed (on paper, at least).
On this episode of InvestStream, we’re going to cover some of the risks associated with angel investing in tech startups.
What other risks do you see?
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Why should founders update [all of] their investors regularly?
VCs and angel investors take risks when they invest money into a startup. Most VCs (but not all) get access to updates through "information rights", at least until a certain point in time. However, angels don't always have a legal right to updates about how a company is doing.
On this episode of InvestStream, the founders or Workomo and PaperStreet are going to join Pankaj to discuss how and why it's in the founders' best interests to keep all of their investors regularly updated about what's happening with the startup they invested in (with all of the good, bad and ugly).
Why Become an Angel Investor?
Angel investing into startups has risen significantly over the last decade. Part of the increase in angel investing has been because of the availability of information via blogs and news platforms like TechCrunch, VentureBeat, etc. but also because of investing platforms like AngelList. In addition, early successes have yielded a class of angel called the "Super Angel". Ever thought about how or why people have been investing more heavily into startups? In this episode on InvestStream, Pankaj talks about a couple of reasons why people might start investing in early stage startups.
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The Difference Between Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors
What is the difference between venture capitalists and angel investors? In this episode of InvestStream, I discuss the difference between these two types of startup investors. Knowing the difference can be very useful in understanding a particular investor's motivation for investing or not investing in a startup.
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As an angel, what do I look for in a startup's team before investing?
In part one of this episode of InvestStream, I talk about what I look for in a startup’s founding team before making an angel investment into the startup. In part II and III, I will talk about traction and total addressable market size.
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Herding Angels and VCs for Your Startup’s Round
Raising a round of capital for your startup is rarely easy. Ankur asked on YouTube what are some things that could help get other investors to come on board after you close the first investor. In this video, I share a few things that could help convince other investors to join the round after the first one has made a commitment.
*** Don't forget to watch the live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
The Raise: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFW0SzosvdKhu5WJIoRnAZ5MgR2bkDLaF
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- Founder Craft: https://foundercraft.com
Balancing Due Diligence and Making Fast Decisions in Early Stage Startup Investing
In this episode of InvestStream, I share a few thoughts on balancing the need for due diligence with the need to make fast decisions in early stage startup investing. Investment Committees sometimes ask for lots of information during the due diligence process which could drag out decision making for months, in some cases. What happens when decisions get dragged out could be more of a problem for venture capitalists and angel investors than it could be for startups. If you have other thoughts on why taking too long to make a decision could negatively impact an investor, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
*** Don't forget to watch the live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
The Raise: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFW0SzosvdKhu5WJIoRnAZ5MgR2bkDLaF
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Advice on pitching that startup to angel investors and venture capitalists...
I wanted to share a few quick thoughts about a startup pitch I received, which wasn’t quite the norm. Here are a couple of tips to be aware and avoid if you can when you are pitching your startup to raise money from angel investors or venture capital funds.
Create an AngelList syndicate now!
What makes AngelList syndicates exciting for angel investors with access to high quality deal flow? It's the carry. Much like carry in a VC fund incentivizes VCs, carry in a syndicate incentivizes angels to share their deals with others. In this episode of InvestStream, I give an example of how carry creates significant leverage for an angel investor.
*** Related Videos ***
- What is "Carried Interest" or "Carry" in a Venture Capital Fund, Hedge Fund or Private Equity Fund?
- How to start investing in startups using AngelList
- Investing in Startups using AngelList Syndicates
*** Don't forget to watch The Raise, a live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
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How growth stage startups can create a thesis for M&A and strategic investments
Growth stage companies that have cash and need to fuel growth should look at a few things to create inorganic growth. I answer a question from Dipit, co-founder of InShorts, about how growth stage startups can create a thesis for M&A and strategic investments.
What makes AngelList syndicates exciting for angel investors with access to high quality deal flow? It's the carry. Much like carry in a VC fund incentivizes VCs, carry in a syndicate incentivizes angels to share their deals with others. In this episode of InvestStream, I give an example of how carry creates significant leverage for an angel investor.
*** Don't forget to watch The Raise, a live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
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AngelList: https://angel.co/pjain
Founder Craft: https://foundercraft.com
The need for an investment thesis
What is an "Investment Thesis" and why investors in any asset class like real estate, stocks, bonds, startups, cryptocurrencies, etc should have one.
*** Don't forget to watch The Raise, a live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
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Things to think about when pitching international investors
More and more VCs and angel investors are investing across international markets these days. This is great news for younger startup ecosystems. However, foreign investors don't always see startups with the same lens as local investors. This can be good, but it can also be a challenge. Here are a couple of things to think about if you're pitching a foreign investor that is relatively new to investing in your region.
*** Don't forget to watch the The Raise, a live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
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What Sucks About Being a Venture Capitalist
In Part 4, Sanjay shares a few thoughts about the challenges of being a Venture Capitalist and selling LPs on the India tech startup dream. We wrap up with a request to our Angel and VC friends in India.
How growth stage startups can create a thesis for M&A and strategic investments
Growth stage companies that have cash and need to fuel growth should look at a few things to create inorganic growth. I answer a question from Dipit, co-founder of InShorts, about how growth stage startups can create a thesis for M&A and strategic investments.
*** Don't forget to watch the live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
The Raise: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFW0SzosvdKhu5WJIoRnAZ5MgR2bkDLaF
*** Social ***
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/pjain
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/pjain001
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pjain001
- Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/InvestStream
- Blog: http://blog.pjain.me
- AngelList: https://angel.co/pjain
- Founder Craft: https://foundercraft.com
B2B, SaaS, AI, Robotics and Challenges with Indian Startups with Sanjay Nath
In this episode of InvestStream I chat with my friend Sanjay Nath (@sanjaynath) co-founder and managing director at Blume Ventures in India. Sanjay has been an angel investor and VC for well over a decade and has invested in dozens of companies in India. We discuss a lot of topics including the maturing of the talent pool increased capital availability for the growth stage later stage VCs going upstream or earlier in their investments like Sequoia running an accelerator and much much more.
In Part III Sanjay and I discuss B2B and “advanced tech” and the evolution from B2C startups to the role of media focusing on funding and the change in the perception of startups by corporate executives and their willingness to not just invest in startups but also quit working at large companies and instead work at startups.
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- AngelList: https://angel.co/pjain
- Founder Craft: https://foundercraft.com
India's "Jio-fication" & the rise of EdTech, FinTech, AgriTech, HealthTech startups w/ Sanjay Nath
In this episode of InvestStream I chat with my friend Sanjay Nath co-founder and managing director at Blume Ventures in India. Sanjay has been an angel investor and VC for well over a decade and has invested in dozens of companies in India. We discuss a lot of topics including the maturing of the talent pool increased capital availability for the growth stage later stage VCs going upstream or earlier in their investments like Sequoia running an accelerator and much much more.
In Part II Sanjay and I discuss “India 3.0” the Jio-fication of Tier 2 and 3 cities and how AgriTech FinTech HealthTech EdTech/EduTech and other areas that are exciting. Sanjay also shares some thoughts about Blume’s portfolio companies in these sectors.
Watch the equity dilution in your startup!
Not paying attention to the amount of dilution you and your co-founders get hit with in early rounds could potentially cripple your startup and leave your team with so little equity in your company that it just doesn’t make any economic sense. In this episode of InvestStream, I talks about the challenges of too much dilution and what founders can do to minimize the problem.
*** Don't forget to watch The Raise, a live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money ***
*** The New Seed Landscape https://www.pear.vc/the-new-seed-landscape ***
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More Startup Pitch Deck Advice
It's hard to know how much information is enough to share when you're out trying to raise money and sending out a pitch deck. Founders either cram in too much information or not enough. I will share two examples of what not to do and what the objective of the pitch deck that you're emailing out should be.
*** Don't forget to watch The Raise, a live streamed show detailing a startup's journey to raising money **
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- AngelList: https://angel.co/pjain
- Founder Craft: https://foundercraft.com
Building Deal Flow for Your Startup Portfolio
In a previous video, I talked about how AngelList can be used to get started. In this episode of InvestStream I discuss additional things angel investors and new VCs can do to build their startup deal flow.
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A Discussion about Indian Startups with Blume Ventures' Co-founder, Sanjay Nath
In this episode of InvestStream, I chat with my friend Sanjay Nath, co-founder and managing director at Blume Ventures in India. Sanjay has been an angel investor and VC for well over a decade and has invested in dozens of companies in India. We discuss a lot of topics including the maturing of the talent pool, increased capital availability for the growth stage, later stage VCs going upstream or earlier in their investments like Sequoia running an accelerator and much much more.
We discuss the maturation of the Indian ecosystem and high caliber founders, “India 3.0”, the Jio-fication of Tier 2 and 3 cities and how AgriTech, FinTech, HealthTech, EduTech and other areas that are exciting including some of Blume’s portfolio companies in these sectors. Sanjay then shares some thoughts on B2B and “advanced tech” and the evolution from B2C startups to the role of media focusing on funding and the change in the perception of startups by corporate executives and their willingness to not just invest in startups but also quit working at large companies and instead work at startups.
We close this episode with a few thoughts about the challenges of being a Venture Capitalist and selling LPs on the India tech startup dream and a request to our Angel and VC friends in India.
The Need for Investor Due Diligence
How do you know if an #investor offering to #invest in your #startup is going to be someone who is going to support your #vision for your #company and your #product? People talk about “dumb money” and “smart money” but what about “toxic money”? In this episode of #InvestStream, I talk about the importance of doing due diligence on potential investors. #InvestStream, #Due Diligence, #Founders, #Startups, #Tips, #Investor #Diligence,#Investors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omdf2fHvLMM
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What makes a startup venture fundable?
There are a few things that should be on the checklist of any startup before they think of approaching investors other than friends and family. The first is TAM or “Total Addressable Market”. VCs need big markets to support big companies. A better understanding of VC economics would help explain this a bit better but for the moment, just assume that VCs need big exits otherwise they go out of business. Big exits are usually via IPOs. Rarely does the NYSE or Nasdaq allow listing a company under a $1 billion market cap. In order for a company to list for on a public exchange for a billion dollars, they really need a few hundred million in revenue and lots of growth prospects otherwise, public investors won’t buy into the IPO. After years of rapidly increasing valuations in the space, we’re starting to see some strain in the ride-sharing space after Lyft’s IPO and questions about whether Uber’s IPO will be under the initial target of $125B ( add link to Uber video ) and closer to $100B. Unless the market that a startup is targeting is a multi-billion dollar market or growing rapidly, it’s very difficult to convince most VCs to invest. The quality of the team is also critical to the success of a startup and its execution. If the team is solid, investors are more likely to get excited about investing. Finally, there’s traction. Having traction is critical to an early stage startup looking attractive to angels and VCs. If the traction is strong and there’s a well understood growth plan, investors are more confident that the team can attack the large total addressable market.
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- Founder Craft: https://foundercraft.com
What is “Carry” or “Carried Interest”?
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AngelList: angel.co/pjain
Founder Craft: foundercraft.com
Sharing Your Startup Idea with Investors
Sharing your startup idea can be a scary thing. All kinds of thoughts pass through our minds when we’re getting started - “What will people think about it?” “Will they think it’s a dumb idea?” However talking to investors about your startup idea can rouse all kinds of other fears - “Will the investor steal my idea?” “Will they share my information with other startups?” “Who else will they share my information with?”
All of these are great questions and in this video, I try to dig into the core issues of execution vs idea reputation/trust long-term vs. short-term etc. in the question of sharing your idea.
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Investing in Startups using AngelList Syndicates
Angel investors are an integral component of the startup ecosystem. In Silicon Valley, more and more people are becoming angel investors. In the rest of the world, there’s a great deal of work being done to build an angel investor ecosystem to help power early stage #startups. How can you use existing social networks like AngelList to start dipping your toe in the water? AngelList syndicates make it really easy to get started.
— Show Links —
AngelList: https://angel.co
AngelList Syndicates: https://angel.co/syndicates
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How to start angel investing using AngelList
Angel investors are a critical part of the startup ecosystem. In Silicon Valley more people are probably angel investors than those that aren’t. In the rest of the world there’s a lot of interest in building an angel investor ecosystem to help power early stage startups. Many founders employees from startups have started angel investing. In many cases they have inspired executives and business people from more traditional businesses to also get involved. In this episode of InvestStream I discuss a few simple ways to get started once you’ve made a decision to become and angel investor in startups.
— Show Links —
AngelList: https://angel.co
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YouTube: https://pjain.co/investstream
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pjain
Instagram: https://instagram.com/pjain001
Blog: http://blog.pjain.me
AngelList: https://angel.co/pjain
The qualities of good founding teams vs. bad founding teams
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Blog: blog.pjain.me
The Importance of Updating Your Investors and Stakeholders
* Gross Burn Dec 2018: $100,000 / month
* Revenue Dec 2018: $20,000 / month
* Net Burn Dec 2018: $80,000 / month
* Cash in the bank Dec 31st, 2018: $850,000
* Runway (typically Net Burn but could be different based on growth, cost cutting, etc.):14 months
* Total Pageviews this month Dec 2018: 4,250,000
* Pageview growth from (last month/last quarter/last year): 60%
* Total Unique Visitors Dec 2018: 2,125,000
* Visitor Growth from (last month/last quarter/last year): 40%
* Total Items Sold Dec 2018: 8911
* Items Sold Growth Since (last month/last quarter/last year): 10%
* Average Order Value Dec 2018: $2.25
* Order Value Growth Since (last month/last quarter/last year): 15%
* Gross margin Dec 2018: 35%, up from 24% in Dec 2017
* New product summary, Challenges Being Faced, Goals and targets for 2019, etc.
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10 Steps for Getting from Idea to Funding
Many people have ideas but most people get stuck on executing those ideas.They may come across a company that did what they were thinking about and say “I had that idea before they did”. Having an idea isn’t enough. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the execution of that idea.
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0xnCYImGVhbD7vb1cQolgQ
- https://twitter.com/pjain
Don’t Do This or Your Investors Will Walk
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Blog: blog.pjain.me
4 things an angel investor likes about this fintech startup
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Should you apply to a startup accelerator?
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What to do when a founder leaves the startup?
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Blog: blog.pjain.me
Good Product Ideas vs. Bad Product Ideas
How the founders of startup Supply.ai decided to split equity when they were getting started.
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Blog: blog.pjain.me
How to allocate equity in a startup in the early stages.
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Blog: blog.pjain.me