Twenty years ago, when we were doing a scenario planning exercise at the Hero Group, Mr. Arun Maira (ex-member Planning Commission and ex-chairman BCG), one of the most respected professionals and experts in scenario planning had highlighted that non-experts add tremendous value. I have experienced this in quite a few projects and achieved amazing outcomes. I would encourage founders of Start-Ups […]

I am extremely delighted to be named amongst the top angel investors of 2020 by Forbes India and YourStory. While the number of investments shown by Tracxn is 7, I have actually made over 15 investments through my family firm Sarcha Investments in the year 2020. I have now completed over two years of angel […]

I have engaged with the Start-up fraternity for a couple of years and have interacted with over 300 founders. One of the common concerns I hear from some of them is that there is so much on their plate and they are unable to meet timelines, which leads to stress in the system. The psychological […]

I was interacting with the CTO of one of my 30 portfolios of StartUps. Here is a summary of key Takeaways on building a collaborative approach to deliver great outcomes 1. All CXOs must think like the CEO of their respective functions. 2. Each of the CXOs must think like a product/ service provider to […]

In my pursuit of sharing simple frameworks for founders and owners, I have come up with an equation around execution, since in a startup it is all about executing the idea. Here is how I would like to elaborate on rigour and speed. Rigour, there is a need to have a rigour around:  Pursuing the […]

After startups have done a deep dive in evaluating the business on the attractiveness of opportunity, ability to compete, evaluated the risk and synergies, and have a strategy to execute the plan, it is important to focus on the business principles and operating framework.  I have tried to put together some business principles that may […]

I have now been engaged with almost 30 portfolio companies in the start-up domain and have interacted with over 300 Founders. This view is based on the fact that companies which have a virtual presence and have the internet as the backbone must explore leveraging Platform as a Service (PaaS) to scale faster, enhance value […]

I heard Mr. Ambani at the 2019 AGM wherein he said that Reliance will target to get to zero net debt by 2021. Few people interpreted this statement to mean that Mr. Ambani was becoming risk-averse and the Reliance investment cycle was coming to an end. I had shared my thoughts on this issue on a […]

It is my belief that fundraises will always be relatively easier for good companies with great founders and management teams, that have built a sustainable and differentiated value proposition and are agile to adapt to the situation. I believe that such franchises will always be in demand both in public and private markets. Approximately half […]

After having spent a fair amount of time over the last decade during my corporate journey in evaluating businesses for investments, raising funds from investors for some businesses and having made over 25 angel investments in my recent avatar as an angel investor, I thought of sharing a construct with the founders which they can […]