The number of bankers reaching out with bridge rounds for startups that have raised ₹100+ crores but have run out of money astonishes me. How does a company (since these are no longer startups) run ‘out of money’ after having such a large cash pile? …

Pulling the plug on your fundraise I’ve written a lot about the fundraising process. Of late (however), I have begun advising founders to pull the plug on their fundraise. It is an emotionally sensitive topic for founders. It requires you to acknowledge the failure of a mission that you have put your heart & soul into…

My Funding Picks For Last Week (W4) Every Monday, I sit with my team to review the funding activity of the previous week. Then, I pick out a few companies that I would have loved to invest in or find founders doing similar things from that list. Here is my rationale behind this weekly exercise. I am…

The 5 things I wish for from next week’s budget I got COVID last week, it felt like a nasty strain of flu, and after 5 days, I was at full strength, back to my normal levels of stamina. Even when we look at numbers globally, the time has come for all of us to look beyond COVID. Therefore, the…

My Funding Picks For Last Week (W2 & W3) Every Monday, I sit with my team to review the funding activity of the previous week. Then, I pick out a few companies that I would have loved to invest in or find founders doing similar things from that list. Here is my rationale behind this weekly exercise. After a…

My Funding Picks For Last Week (W1) Every Monday, I sit with my team to review the funding activity of the previous week. Then, I pick out a few companies that I would have loved to invest in or find founders doing similar things from that list. Here is my rationale behind this weekly exercise. I am…

Book Review: The Billion Dollar Whale A common observation made by fund managers, limited partners, and (interestingly) journalists on the 2 year-long startup boom is the speed of some of these deal closures — primarily by skimping (or skipping) due diligence on deals before investing. …

I believe that founders are super-humans. Founders take an incredible financial, emotional, mental, and (unfortunately) health risk to create the change that they want to see in the world. They must display a great belief in the incredible while consistently staring at the inevitable. They must wear so many faces…

There is an old saying in sales, “The worst salespeople are the best interviewers”. However, this saying is even more applicable for sales managers, especially those with 2–3 decades of selling experience, for different organizations. They can be detrimental to your start-ups’ sales efforts. The best sales managers are too…