The Neon Show

From working at PwC, while pursuing his CA to starting a Venture Fund which invests in Early-stage disruptive Tech startups, Vishesh has experienced it all. He started his investing career at VenturEast in 2007. This was where he understood the Ins & Outs of Venture investing. From its Fund-I, Speciale Invest has invested in a total of 10 portfolio companies, some of which are Scapic, Agnikul,...

Ashmeet started his career at HP in 1989. He founded Sidana Systems in 1995 (later sold to Doclinx in 1999).He started his stint as a VC at Foundation Capital in 2004. Eventually, he founded Engineering Capital in 2015, which focuses on investing in Tech startups, based on Technical insights. He is one of the few VCs to have been to the base of Mount Everest. In this podcast, he also shares his ex...

Nikhil is one of the most Tech & Product-centric VCs in Asia. This probably comes from his early career with Microsoft, and later with Pie (acquired by Google).He also founded a company called TommyJams, a tech-enabled Artist management platform. He has been with STRIVE Ventures for over 5 years. STRIVE’s portfolio includes HASURA, Classplus, and Saleswhale among others. In this podcast, Nikhi...

Sheel is a Fintech-Entrepreneur turned Fintech-VC investing in Pre-seed & Seed rounds. His first startup was FeeFighters in 2010, which was acquired in 2012 by Groupon. In this podcast, Sheel shares his experience of being an entrepreneur twice and becoming an Angel Investor and later starting his own VC firm. Notes - 01:03 - His journey from a Fintech Entrepreneur to a Fintech VC04:50 - Start...

Amit being one of the co-founders of India’s first Unicorn Startup - InMobi, needs no introduction. After driving InMobi’s growth journey for over 10 years, he decided to start Yulu (E-bikes & Mobility solutions) in 2017. In his 2nd entrepreneurial stint, he also convinced Rajiv Bajaj (MD, Bajaj Auto) for investing in Yulu & assembling Yulu bikes in India by Bajaj Auto. As an Angel Investo...

Sajith has been constantly sharing his thoughts & thesis around the Startup ecosystem on social media since 2012.This probably reflects from his background, of being at the Times Group for over two decades and his love for reading and taking copious notes. He joined Blume Ventures in 2018, in his 40s. As he didn’t have a background in VC & Angel investing, he humbly considers himself, “An...

Pratik Poddar having his roots back in a Tier-II city, Patna, is probably one of the youngest Principals at a VC firm in India. After having multiple entrepreneurial stints, Pratik joined Nexus Venture Partners, in 2015 as an Investment Associate and has grown tremendously since. Some of Nexus Venture Partners’ portfolio companies include - Zolo, Postman, and Unacademy among others. In this podcas...

After completing his MBA from Delhi School of Economics, Ishpreet worked with many banks like - Kotak Mahindra, IFDC, and Citibank among others. For a major part of his career, he worked on Debt funding companies via Banks as Financial Institutions. Eventually, this made him start a Venture Debt Fund of his own, Stride Ventures in December 2018.Some of its portfolio companies include - Stellapps,...

While having his family roots back in Odisha (India), Somesh had his upbringing in the US.After completing his graduation from UC Berkeley in 2001, as the US job-market was hit after 9/11 he came to India and joined Sony Entertainment. Later in 2005, he joined Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) back in the US. IVP was founded over 40 years ago and has so far invested in over 400+ companies out o...

Dhruv worked with ABN AMRO and McKinsey & Company in Investment Management & Strategy roles in the early days of his career. He stepped into the VC ecosystem in India by eventually joining Helion Ventures in 2008.At Helion Ventures he was part of investing in companies like Ezetap, Azure Power, and MoEngage among others. Later when in 2015, Sistema (Russian conglomerate) decided to set up...

Ganesh began his career working in Strategy & Acquisition at Infosys in the San Francisco Bay area. He founded his first startup - Travelguru (later acquired by Travelocity) while he was pursuing his MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2006, he began his journey as a VC with Greylock Partners. In 2014, he Co-Founded Quona Capital, which is a Fintech-focused VC firm, making investments across...

With over 14+ years of experience in investing, Sushma has been acknowledged for “40 under 40 - Alternate Investment Professionals” in India. Currently, at Aavishkaar, she majorly looks after Fintech & Microfinance. Aavishkaar is also well-known for being one of the few VC firms in India, well known for its Impact Investing Thesis. Some of its portfolio companies are - Chqbook, Agrostar, and S...

Anand has worked with some top companies in SaaS & Product roles - Yahoo, Airtel, Snapdeal, Freecharge, Facebook & currently at Five9.Since 2014 he has been an Angel Investor in over 50+ companies, some of the popular one’s being - Yulu, Khatabook, and MoEngage among others. In this podcast, Anand shares his experience of building consumer-friendly products & becoming a successful Ange...

Anup worked with some top of the line consumer brands like - Bata, Yum! Restaurants International (Pizza Hut), Whirpool, and P&G among others for over 20 years of his career. In 2015 he started his own family office through which he mentored and Angel Invested in several startups over the next 2 years. In 2017 he joined Orios Venture Partners, where he currently focuses on retail, fintech, hea...

During her early career, Ritu worked in Product Development at Unilever and later in Marketing Strategy at Philips. In 2013 she Co-founded Ankur Capital with Rema SubramanianAnkur Capital has so far majorly invested in Agritech & Healthcare sector, some of its portfolio companies - Health Sutra, Cropin & Niramai among others. In this podcast, Ritu shares her experience of investing in Agri...

Deepak’s investment journey started with him joining Intel Capital in early 2000, where he spent 14 years managing global investments, mergers & acquisitions. In 2015, he started Equitycrest, which identified and worked with early-stage startups and assisted them in engaging with investors to realize their funding needs. After gaining over 17 years of investing experience and managing acquisit...

Pankaj joined Bertelsmann New York in 2009 and later started Bertelsmann Corporate Services India Pvt. Ltd and Bertelsmann India Investments. Bertelsmann India Investments has several popular startups in its portfolio - Licious, Pepperfry, and Quikr among others. In this podcast, Pankaj shares his opinions on how startups can optimize spendings and become more cash efficient in the long run. Notes...

Coming from a Tech-background Mekin spent his early career at Yahoo, Ugenie, Lulu.com, and Flipkart. Since 2016, he has also been an Angel Investor investor and exited a few startups such as - UrbanClap, Vaahan, Tapchief, Quizziz & mGaadi. In 2017 he started Udhyam, it focuses on nurturing and guiding students to become future entrepreneurs at the school level. In 2018, he parallelly started G...

#100xEntrepreneur #Podcast with Sanjay Nath, Managing Partner at Blume VenturesIt seems as if Silicon Valley has been a consistent choice during the early career phase for several Indian VCs! Sanjay isn’t an exception as well. After spending his early years in Silicon Valley, in 2006 he came back to India and became an active member of Mumbai Angels. Finally, after 4 years of being an Angel Invest...

Mark started Omnivore, an impact Venture Fund focused around Agritech back in 2010. Omnivore has so far invested in over 57 startups which are based on multiple verticals such as - B2B, B2C, Fresh-to-home & Rural Fintech. Some of his Portfolio Companies are - Bijak, Stellapps, and DeHaat. In this podcast, Mark shares his experiences & learnings of investing in Agritech Startups in India ov...

After working at BCG for 2 years, Ishaan joined Sequoia India's Analyst Program in 2011. He spent around three and a half years at Sequoia India. He then went to business school and joined Sequoia India back in 2016. In this podcast, Ishaan shares his experiences & learnings of investing in Consumer brands and Fintech Startups. Notes - 00:42 - Joining Sequoia India's Analyst Program0...

“It’s fine to grow slower, but importantly to grow sustainably.” Mohit has been a successful Angel Investor since 2012 growing over 20x in his portfolio. He even considers his learnings from one of his early investments - Local Banya equivalent to an MBA degree. Since 2017 he has been a part of the Investment Trust of India Group and manages investments in early-stage innovative ideas. Some of his...

#100xEntrepreneur Podcast with Vaibhav Domkundwar, CEO at Better Capital“Do Zero Paid Marketing - To Understand What’s Working And What’s Not” Vaibhav has founded successful companies like Roamware (acquired by Audax Group) and Better Inc. As a VC & a founder, he’s a core believer in implementing & experimenting with organic growth hacks to grow a company, this reflects in most of his port...

#100xEntrepreneur #Podcast with Rutvik Doshi, Managing Director, Inventus Capital PartnersRutvik refers to himself as an “Accidental Venture Capitalist”, coming from a Product management & Software Engineering background. He’s an IIT Kharagpur alumni and later did his MBA from INSEAD. During his early career, he worked at Broadcom Inc. & Google. In this podcast, Rutvik shares his experienc...

#100xEntrepreneur #Podcast with Vidit Aatrey, Founder & CEO, MeeshoAfter completing his B.Tech. from IIT Delhi, Vidit worked with ITC & InMobi during his early career. It was around 2015 when he decided to try out something and while exploring other options he came across this idea to create a platform (Meesho) where people could start & manage their business from the comfort of their...