The Propel(x) Podcast

Title: Building a Data-Driven Healthcare Real Estate Empire with Didier Choukroun Guest: Didier Choukroun, Founder & CEO of SPHERE Healthcare Investments Host: Swati Chaturvedi, CEO of Propel(x) Episode Overview: In this episode, Swati Chaturvedi talks with Didier Choukroun, the visionary behind SPHERE Healthcare Investments, a leading healthcare-focused real estate investment firm. Didier shares...

Discussion Points (4:12) What does the NSF look for in companies? (6:05) How does the selection process work? (10:05) What are the non-technical elements of the awards program? (19:12) Examples of breakout success in the NSF portfolio (21:14) What distinguishes a novel technology from a promising technology based startup? (24:45) NSF's outreach efforts for diversity and inclusion (29:16) Why shoul...

Discussion points (2:43) What is Deep Tech? (6:26) How do you gauge commercial readiness for Deep Tech? (8:51) How do you evaluate the unique risk factors of Deep Tech startups? (13:42) How does alignment and investment strategy create value as a venture investor? (18:35) Bridging the technical founder to successful commercial founder gap. (25:20) What areas of deep tech will be the biggest driver...

Discussion Points (0:30) What is product-go-to-market fit? (3:00) Why isn't Climate Tech just Cleantech 2.0? (8:00) How do you source good deals efficiently? (17:00) Who else supports Climate Tech? (23:31) What lessons did you learn from your first successful investment that are still relevant today?   References Baruch Future Ventures Jason Holt Tom Baruch Geltor Cyclotron Road MIT Engine Breakth...

In this episode we begin to analyze the Internal Risks of a company - Technology, Regulatory and IP risks are covered in this episode. Join us as we define each of the risks, and discuss the key considerations for each. Disclaimer: Propel(x) is a funding platform, not a Broker-Dealer. Securities are offered through Hubble Investments, member FINRA/SIPC and an affiliate of Propel(x). Private invest...

In Episode 4 we had put out a framework for 'How to Evaluate a Startup'. Episodes 6 and 7 discussed 'How to Evaluate the Market' and 'How to Evaluate the Team', respectively. In this episode, we continue the discussion on how to evaluate a startup. Today we discuss how to evaluate competition. Highlights of this episode: - Status quo, or how customers currently solve their problem, is always a com...

Join us as Swati discusses the process of investing with Gopi Rangan, an experienced investor in the insurance technology sector. We discuss the explosion of Micro VCs in recent times. Additionally, Gopi shares his process, how he sources companies, how he interacts with them, what characteristics he specifically looks for and he manages his portfolio post investment. As an early stage investor, G...

Professional investors cite 'team' as the single most important criterion that influences the investment decision. Yet, there are no precise metrics that guide the evaluation of the team. The assessment is often fuzzy, vague, and based on how the investor 'feels' about the team. This episode presents three tips that early stage investors should keep in mind when evaluating team: 1. Early stage inv...

In Episode 4 we presented a framework to Evaluate startups. The framework lays out several criteria along which you may evaluate startups. Market size is one of those criteria. Disclaimer: Propel(x) is a funding platform, not a Broker-Dealer. Securities are offered through Hubble Investments, member FINRA/SIPC and an affiliate of Propel(x). Private investments are highly illiquid and risky and are...

Join us as we interview our guest - Kiki Tidwell - a prolific angel investor, philanthropist, and cleantech evangelist. Among her many activities, Kiki is also a Founding Member of the Tech Advisory Group for the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice. More on Kiki here: https://humanrights.stanford.edu/people/kiki-tidwell In this episode, we discuss how Kiki invests. Her proce...

Startup investing is inherently different from investing in the public markets. There is no 10K or 10Q to review, no analyst commentary, no chatter on Seeking Alpha, there aren’t even discounted cash flows. How does one evaluate such a company? We discuss in this episode a framework to evaluate startups. We identify eight factors that can be used to evaluate a company: 1) Market risk 2) Competitio...

Learn the process of investing from a seasoned investor - Dr. Ronjon Nag, Director of MIT Alumni Angel Investors of Northern California as well as the Founder and Managing Director of the R42 Group. Dr. Nag is a serial entrepreneur (having sold his companies to Blackberry and Motorola), an active and prolific angel investor, as well as a lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University....

This episode discusses how you can get started in angel investing - how many companies should you plan to invest in, how many should you evaluate before you make an investment, where to find deal-flow, how to connect with early stage companies and more... Disclaimer: Propel(x) is a funding platform, not a Broker-Dealer. Securities are offered through Hubble Investments, member FINRA/SIPC and an af...

Andy Reed interviews Swati Chaturvedi to discuss the topic: Who should be an angel investor?  Discussions focus on three key criteria as you consider angel investing:  Are you an accredited investor (in the United States) or permitted by your country's regulations to invest in startups? Will you be able to set aside sufficient capital to build a diversified portfolio? Swati suggests a rule of thum...