Until you actually run a business in India, it's very hard to understand how much of an entrepreneur's time here goes in just making sure they are compliant with all laws and are paying each tax correctly and on time.

India goes out of its way to make this a struggle. My favourite example of this was from @mihirssharma 's book Restart.
If you run a restaurant in India - the Excise department had a rule which says you can have only one entrance/exit whereas the fire department said you have to have minimum 2. So you have to bribe at least one.

Today I want to talk about another dumb thing first-time founders do while fund- raising and that is-

All the founders show up for every pitch call!

(Yes, I did this too at my startup! 😅)

Why is this is a dumb thing to do? 🧐
Read👇🏾 and RT to help me reach more founders. 1/n For most founders, fund-raises are an extreme waste of the most valuable resource you have - your time!!
Founders have to speak to anywhere from 5 to 50 or sometimes even 100+ different investors.😫 2/n

One of the dumbest things 1st time founders do on pitch calls (I have done this too) is to name-drop other investors they have met trying to induce FOMO - especially brand name funds.

It actually has the opposite effect. Why ? 👇🏾 1/n Experienced investors know that if the deal is really good the other funds would probably have already pounced and made an offer by now (yes, that is how fast good funds move).

The fact that this call is happening likely means it's not. 2/n

I have raised a seed round as a founder and invested in 100+ startups in their first round as an investor.

Even though this definitely won't help me now as a VC, here's the one rule on fundraising that I wish all founders understood 👇🏾 You need to get multiple VCs to say Yes at the same time.

If you get one offer then you have to take what you're getting or you choose to walk away.

But if you have 2 or even better 3+ offers, then you actually have room to negotiate - on both the terms AND the valuation.

One area where Indian founders really need to up their game is building up their inbound hiring funnels (i.e. people reaching out to you for a chance to join your startup whether you have a role open or not)

Inbound generally delivers the best quality candidates because 👇 They
➡️ Self- selected for passion - they care about what you are building
➡️ Demonstrated drive & initiative by reaching out
➡️ will jump through more hoops in your process to prove themselves
➡️ usually ok with wearing multiple hats (what you need in early stage)

India need a business incubator which replaces college as the default option for 18 year olds. Imagine a 1 or 2 year college that teaches you a new profitable business model every month (Shrimp Farming, Shopify Stores, Recruitment Agency etc) and at the end you pick one to start. Instead of Placements you will be taught how to successfully apply for a bank loan to get Rs 5L to start your first business.

One area where young IIT Founders truly have an unfair advantage in start-ups is hiring. They already know who the smartest folks are +/- 2 batches and are able to convince them to to take the plunge.

Non-IIT folks have to work much harder to build a network this strong. And it's not just about finding smart folks but folks who come in with the expectation of slogging it through 12-16 hour work days. It's almost irrational to join a start-up that young, with less pay and with so much uncertainty.
You would only do that for a friend you admire.

Once a startup decides to pivot - Most founders make the mistake of trying something adjacent to what they already tried.

They are held down by the baggage of the past. If I have spent so many months (and sometimes years) on this space - surely I'll find something here? 1/4 It’s hard to go back to the team and say - “Hey, looks like we were *completely* wrong about this and we need to write off the past year of work and start again from scratch”.

But it must be done - because only YOU care about that year - the market doesn’t give two hoots. 2/4

The Byju's acquisition of White Hat Jr is a truly landmark moment for the Indian Startup Ecosystem for several reasons!

tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/startups/…

1/n The Time!

It took only 20 months to go from 0 -> $300M acquisition! Truly Silicon Valley style Blitzscaling!

2/n

I think I have said it before, but I really fucking love what we are doing with @firstcheque 😊
Even in this gloomiest of climates, it's hard to feel pessimistic when you are spending most of your time with founders dreaming up the future.

You get to live that future today 😎 Just think how different your life and this country was just a decade ago.
No Ola, Swiggy , Flipkart, Unacademy, no UPI - no phone in every Indian's hand, no 22 year olds starting Global tech companies from 🇮🇳
Now just think how different it will be in 2030. 😎

Once in a while you meet a Founder so deeply entrenched in the problem they are solving, it really 🤯
I call them Freak Founders and I ♥️ them.
Typical signs:
- what they are building looks "weird"/ "niche" or like a "toy" 1/2 - they talk non-stop for hours on why this is a BIG problem
- usually its a one of a kind business - i.e. I won't see any other pitches like theirs
- to an outsider it will look crazy. Like if you told your parents you are doing this they would be legit concerned.
I ♥️ them

One of the most under appreciated but important Indian thinker (and doer) of our times is the Zoho founder @svembu
Super excited to see him start to publicly share his views on twitter and webinars more regularly.

India cannot continue on this economic growth model lead by a handful of cities that are crumbling under their own weight. We need high-value work to start coming to rural areas and @svembu success at Tenkasi is a guiding light for all Indian founders.

Those opposing the abolition of labour laws in UP must ask themselves honestly - have these laws really enhanced working conditions or destroyed them ?
Why are 90% of our workers in the unorganised sector then with no safeguards, PF or insurance ? People need to understand that the government can't legislate a new reality into existence. Banning factories without toilets or ventilation doesn't mean these factories disappear - just like how banning our currency didn't eradicate black money from India.

Big difference - most 90s dhanda promoters invented or built diddly squat. They brought foreign tech/products to sell in India, traded goods or played on regulatory arbitrage.

The startup kids are actually building products - original IP - often at world-class quality 👌

https://twitter.com/1shankarsharma/status/1199246578466328576

The class of people raising funds is also very different - startup folks are largely from IIT/BITS - technocrats who already won the maniacal competition to get into these colleges.
Unlike promoters from the 90s who mostly joined dad's business after Bcom.

Sharing some of my learnings from one of the best books I read in a long time - "A Man for All Markets" by Edward Thorp. 1/n Over the course his lifetime, Thorp :
▶️ Was a professor of Mathematics
▶️ Figured out how to beat the dealer at Blackjack
▶️ Built the first wearable computer to predict roulette

2/n

Wow the stories coming out of this PMC bank mess are heartbreaking. Thanks @wealth_park for highlighting them 👇

https://twitter.com/sonu_girgla/status/1178048939045486593?s=09

https://twitter.com/Veenabhakta/status/1176477685897449474?s=09

Whenever I see a founder feeling down and beaten, I love sharing the story of Batman with them.
And by Batman, I mean the story of the Boy who saved Batman.

I heard this three years ago but kept coming back to it because it’s so incredible. 🤯 Thread! 1/9 Jan 1966 : 14 yr old Michael Uslan saw the first batman TV show. He has a big fan of the comics & couldn’t bear to see the show.
Batman was supposed to be dark and gritty, instead everyone was laughing at this.
He swore - one day he would make the world see the true Batman. 2/9

I feel Tik Tok's Auto-Playing Video UI, that figures out what you might like to watch within a few taps is highly under-appreciated. It totally changes the dynamic for first time internet users by taking away the pressure of having to "make a choice" to watch/tap. 🤔 1/7 It is in fact the equivalent of "Television" for Mobile . It feels the same - just keep clicking/tapping till you find something you like. However unlike your 📺, this television quickly learns what you like, which super charges ⚡️ the experience. 2/7

Heard some amazing Podcasts over the past two weeks that taught me more than a full year of college. 🤯
Thread 👇 1/6 Starting with @david_perell interviewing @tweettal on how the internet has forever changed media. Particularly fascinating conversation on the UI for Passive entertainment - newsfeed (FB) VS the UI for active entertainment consumption- Tiles (Netflix) 2/6
perell.com/podcast/tal-sh…

If you think about it - Indian IT has pioneered the @LambdaSchool model. Infosys/TCS/Wipro hire thousands of fresh grads with no real skills, train them for 6 months while paying them a salary and then put them on projects billing ~10x their salary to clients. Cc @AustenAllred Zoho went a step further and started hiring high school grads instead of college grads. Always wondered why others havent followed suit in India since universally everyone agrees that the average Indian engineer has no real skills.