A short thread on what we look for at a seed-stage startup - every VC has their magic formula and ultimately a lot of it is gut instinct. Would love to hear thoughts from founders and others in the VC community.

A lot of my examples are for B2B(2C) - so keep that in mind. 1. Who is the customer?
How narrowly & thoroughly can you describe the customer, what their objectives are & why you believe they have a pain point. The more detailed a description you have of the customer, the happier I am - saying we solve everyone's problems is a bad idea!

#FOUNDERS #STARTUPS #PostCoronaMindset

1/I'm super impressed by all founders I've spoken to in the last week - every one of them recognizes things have changed & are proactively taking steps to not be in a position where they run out of money before June 2021 2/Even those who were planning to raise are now going back to their WorkSheets & doing zero-based planning and asking questions - is this a vitamin or an aspirin (want or need) - & if its a need, is there a smarter way to do this.

1/n #Covid19 #WorkFromHomeNOW
We @primevp_in had a call with about 30 of our founders today - glad to say most companies are taking the problem seriously. @MyGate_com with an AirForce Officer at the helm naturally has thought through & already actioned amulti-step plan. 2/n They are going to share this plan - I will post it here by the weekend.

A couple of others @SunstoneEdu & @IncRecko have already moved to 100% #WFH.

Most of the other 25 companies have already started splitting their teams across office spaces & days of the week.

Story-a-day: The pencil's tale
(thanks to a nice forward by @TulsiSwamy )

An old pencil maker took his newest pencil aside, just before he was about to pack him into a box. Imagining the little fellow as a person he recalled a few things about the pencil. “There are five things you need to know,” he said to his pencil, “before I send you out into the world. Always remember these five things - never forget them - and you will become the best pencil you can be!

#ZeroMDR 1/ Since 2006 I have been the bigget believer and proponent of in digitizing payments - ideally via mobile payments - lord knows I've preached this more than anyone else has! Even my 83-year-old mother is a convert, and I literally refuse to pay anyone in cash! #ZeroMDR 2/ The benefits of #digitalpayments are spread across a large ecosystem - notably the government, merchants, consumers, banks & Payment Systems Providers (PSPs).

The costs of digital payments are today borne by the banks & PSPs - who pass them on to merchants!

Wow! @Google writing to the #Fed to replicate #UPI is a great example of what I once told @tomfriedman at a friend's house in 2008. #TheWorldIsFlat - no, #TheWorldIsUpSideDown & India is showing the way!

Excited & Proud to see the next wave of #IndiaInnovations go to the world! @Google @tomfriedman So what will it take for UPI to become one of India's key exports? I expect there is nothing to be gained in aiming to "license it". Yet, we could proactively propose a global, interoperable payment network on UPI that takes into account inter-country money-transfer regulations.

As VCs, we see companies come up with 5-year financial models - what we look for is the thought process - rarely the specifics! The ONLY guarantee is that what's on the model will NOT happen - as epitomized by this @DailyDilbert cartoon! @DailyDilbert This is particularly true for very-early stage companies - especially in the B2B sector - where the core value proposition is still being defined, customer ROI hard to measure and CAC still is hard to quantify.

One of the most humbling things in life is sales - I feel everyone should spend a year in sales early in their careers - including the #VIP's of them all, #SoftwareEngineers! If you don't, you will never develop empathy for the customers. Some of my biggest learnings was during my stint in sales - especially in a foreign country - early in my career. Some tips...
1) You have to take rejection well
2) People don't see your product the way you do
3) Most people don't care about your product
5) Price doesn't matter

Building A National InterOperable Payments BRAND for India - we've done the hard-work and built the WORLD's BEST Real-Time, Interoperable, Payments Solution!

Now let's do the simpler stuff of giving it a simple common BRAND & communicating & scaling it!

linkedin.com/pulse/building… It's also critical for all partners in the ecosystem to co-exist and ensure interoperability. Merchant acceptance in India is poor because everyone goes after the same merchants & few serve mass merchants with an open & interoperable mindset.

#SayNoToCash #GoDigital

#AadhaarVerdict
The only 5 things we needed:
1) #Aadhaar is legal
2) Don't save Aadhaar#Biometrics or Copy
3) ANY legal entity in India can do an AUTH
4) eKYC only for Govt/Regulated Entities
5) Auth/eKYC record saved by @UIDAI for 180 days #Aadhaar is legal and not unconstitutional
What constitutes Aadhaar data has to be clear - to me its only Aadhaar Number
& biometrics. My name, Addr, DOB, Sex, Photo are NOT #Aadhaar data-
whether someone got/verified them from UIDAI or not its NOT Aadhaar Data,
its *MY* data!

#AadhaarIsSafe 1/
I'm totally amused to read the various headlines around the @rssharma3 challenge! Clearly shows one of three things:
1) Knowledge of #Aadhaar @UIDAI is poor
2) Biased people take away what they want to believe
3) Both
No data is hacked/stolen or misuse-able #AadhaarIsSafe 2/
Fact of the matter is that #Aadhaar only has 5 pieces of information - Name, Address, DOB, Gender, Photo, Photo and optionally Email Address, Phone#. I know of NO service that lets you subscribe without the first 5 items and most likely one of 6 & 7.