UVC

In this episode you will learn: Why does Capria Ventures act as both a VC fund and a fund of funds, and what benefits does this approach offer? What is the "state of the art venture capital innovation" that Capria Ventures brings? How does Capria Ventures nurture its partnerships with fund managers across different regions? What are some of the challenges that founders from the global south face a...

In this episode you will learn: After building multiple successful startups, why did Sergey get into VC? What is the fund strategy at Flint Capital? Is it a good strategy for startups to target the single biggest enterprise market in the world - the US?  Based on Sergey’s experience, what are some of the mistakes that startups make while trying to expand into the US market? How does he add value t...

In this episode you will learn: What are some of the success stories, challenges, and crisis that Karl faced while building multiple startups, and how did he navigate them? According to Karl, why should a VC think like an entrepreneur, and how can this approach benefit startups? Does Karl believe that prior experience as an entrepreneur is ideal for someone looking to become a VC, and why? How is...

In this Fundraise episode, I speak with Tim Flannery , CEO at Passthrough on their Series A fundraise. Tim shares the problem Passthrough is trying to solve, his larger vision for the company, the progress they’ve made so far and how he sees Passthrough positioned among its competitors in the market. Tim also explains why he chose to work with Positive Sum , the fund that backed Passthrough during...

In this episode you will learn: Elizabeth shares the story of how she got into entrepreneurship and subsequently a VC What is the fund strategy of Hustle fund? According to Elizabeth, why is the speed of execution so important for the success of a startup? Having made more than 700 investments in startups, how does Elizabeth rate herself as a VC? What does it take for a VC to get into the top 1% e...

In this episode you will learn: Why James became a VC despite having an opinion that it was a bad idea? How does Creative Ventures evaluate startups and why do they study the market they invest in deeply before looking at tech solutions for it? Why James doesn’t invest in startups with R&D risk and also talk about the strict protocols they have in place to make investments? Why startups who don’t...

In this episode you will learn: What is a term sheet and why does it exist? What are the key sections of a term sheet?  Why is the term sheet less like a legal document and more like a commercial document? Do you need a lawyer to negotiate the term sheets that VCs offer startups when they’re raising a fund? What are exclusivity rights, voting rights, governing laws, and information rights in a ter...

In this episode you will learn: According to Amra, should everyone start a business at least once in their career? What is Accelerating Asia? What are 3 services that they offer the startup ecosystem? Why was sustainability always a priority for Accelerating Asia right from the start? Why does Accelerating Asia focus on investing in startups that are between the MVP stage and the product-market fi...

In this episode you will learn: How did Puiyan break into the VC industry despite having an engineering background? According to Puiyan, should a startup founder engage with a big corporation as their initial customer or should he/she go after the SMB & Mid-Market segment? What are the core values of Vertex Ventures? What does it take to raise a Series A? How do Vertex Ventures assess Series A sta...

In this episode, you will learn: Pavel’s journey of building a web development company straight out of university How hard was it for Pavel to move to the US from  Russia and start a venture fund? How does Mindrock Capital operate and the value it provides to its investors? How does the prediction model at Mindrock Capital that evaluates the probability of a startup’s success work? What are its da...

In this episode you will learn: Why did Chirag start 8X Ventures instead of staying as a VC at 500 Global? Why is 8X Ventures based in Dubai? How does 8X Ventures compete with VC funds that are geographically closer to the deep-tech startups in Europe and US? Why does 8X Ventures invest in only deep-tech startups? According to Chirag, why have VC firms (which initially started with deep-tech inves...

In this episode you will learn: Why does Future Ventures invest in only technology risk startups? Can a venture fund afford to build a portfolio of just deep tech startups while giving good returns? If so, how? Maryanna shares why she invests with an abundance mindset and why it’s important. 3 questions that Maryanna asks herself while looking to invest in a deep tech startup How does Future Ventu...

In this episode you will learn: How did Mark convince his co-founders to work on his idea of Appboy (Braze) when they were building a different product at the time? As a founder, what is the hardest thing that Mark had to overcome while building Braze? What was Mark’s experience of raising a bridge round for Braze like? According to Mark, what percentage of startups end up raising a bridge round,...

In this episode, you will learn: Silicon Valley’s open and sharing culture and the role VCs had in its making The mindset of a VC The role VCs played in making companies like Apple what they are today VCs who’ve stood out to Sebastian while researching for the book Bill Gurley and his investment in Uber + how he understood that network businesses are lucrative What is the solution for growth inves...

About Michael Blakey Michael Blakey is the Managing Partner and co-founder of Singapore-based venture capital firm Cocoon Capital. Set-up alongside Will Klippgen in 2016, Cocoon adopts a hands-on, founder-first approach to early-stage investing. Before this Michael was an entrepreneur and since 2000 was a full-time angel investor who was named ‘UK Angel Investor of the Year 2015’, selected as one...

In this episode you will learn: Why did Aly start a VC fund focussed on Web3 and other emerging techs What are some of the differences and similarities of investing in Web3 companies when compared to SAAS companies? What are the risks of tokenisation? “If you have a good social media presence or an audience, Web3 startups would want your money.” How true is this statement? What are some of the tra...

In this episode, you will learn: Why is Intudo Ventures an ‘Indonesia-only’ venture capital firm? Intudo Ventures is an independent VC firm, ie no single LP owns more than 10% of the fund.  Why is this important? How is Intudo’s team consisting of just nine people set up and operate to ensure they support all their portfolio startups well? According to Eddy, why will his ‘concentrated portfolio’ a...

About Jeevan Sunner Jeevan graduated from UCL in Pharmacology where she spent time in clinical settings spanning healthcare and academia. She thereafter joined PwC's Insolvency and Restructuring department, implementing turnaround and restructuring projects for large corporates during crisis. After completing her ACA Chartered Accountancy qualification, she moved to PwC's Commercial Innovation tea...

In this podcast episode, you will learn: According to Insik, what are the values, skillsets and dynamics of a great team? What should be the ideal size of a founding team? What are some things that the startup founders don’t understand about VCs? When should startups think about forming a board, what is the role of the board and who should be a part of it? What is the role of a board member and an...

In this podcast episode, you will learn: What is venture philanthropy? How is it different from a VC fund? What is the investment thesis at Kickstart ventures? What has Kickstart’s journey from its first fund right up to the recent (third) fund been like? Why does Kickstart invest in startups throughout the globe as opposed to the conventional approach of VC funds of focusing on particular geograp...

In this episode you will learn: Why was becoming a VC a more appealing decision for Do instead of just continuing to build startups? How did the factors such as his ten years of work experience in building and growing startups, working with big corporates, and understanding how investments work affect his decision? What are the challenges that he faced and the lessons that he learned along the jou...

In this episode you will learn: Why Joseph started a VC fund specializing in healthcare? What are some of the interesting innovations happening in the three areas of focus for the healthcare tech industry namely prevention, diagnosis,and absolute cure? 3 strategies that startups can use to ace fundraising Why it’s important for startups to do a competitor analysis before approaching VCs and how st...

In this episode you will learn: What is FounderSuite? What are the ways in which FounderSuite facilitates fundraising? Why FounderSuite over spreadsheets? How did Nathan redirect his entrepreneurial spirit to create a SaaS product aimed at entrepreneurs? How can founders lookout for clues for a good founder-VC fit? What’s the roadmap for a founder to materialize their ‘dream team’? What’s the righ...

In this episode you will learn: What is the key quality required in an entrepreneur or VC entering 2022’s breakneck technology sector? Can speed of execution be an appropriate criteria when tracking a startup’s progress? How do VCs navigate the equivocality of a business’s input and output? What is the one hubris that usually afflicts entrepreneurs? How has abundant capital hampered the process of...

In this episode you will learn: Hian’s meandering journey from Singapore to England, from computers to law, and how he ended up becoming an investment banker. Why does Hian liken entrepreneurs to underdogs? How can entrepreneurs transcend the underdog mentality? The success story of Kumu, a Filipino video sharing and e-commerce social networking service How does the face-off between tradition and...