Global Themes

The Hockey Stick Effect and getting to $50m

Shantanu — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:54:15 +0000

Christian Chabot has a timely – and sobering reminder on IPO Dashboards re. how long it takes for a start-up to achieve meaningful revenues at scale (Hat Tip: Guy Kawasaki). As he says: …growth conversations between VCs and management teams often cause angst. One of the reasons is that people from both groups tend to have unsubstantiated [...]

Getting out of Venture Capital…kind of

Shantanu — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:19:18 +0000

Dear All: For those of you who may not already know, I am leaving Amadeus at the end of eight long years – of what has been an amazingly rich and educative experience. I am leaving to spend more time in (and on) India and a few personal passions. I will continue to scout for interesting seed [...]

Characteristics of Great Investors

Shantanu — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:52:42 +0000

Chanced upon this great post by Matt Blumberg on “10 Characteristics of Great Investors“. Should be read by ALL investors, I think. I am listing my favourite five of the ten characteristics below: Great investors know how to give strategic advice without being in the operating weeds of a company Great investors get to know whole management teams, not [...]

On micro-entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises…

Shantanu — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:40:03 +0000

Fellow blogger Swaroop recently wrote a post on a dosa seller in Bengaluru that had me thinking. Swaroop’s dosa-seller is someone whom I would call a micro-entrepreneur. A micro-entrepreneur is usually involved in an activity that manages to support his/her family’s basic needs. A good micro-enterprise will generate profits that would be larger than most average jobs. Needless [...]

Presentation on VC activity in India at London

Shantanu — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:29:10 +0000

Shared some slides at the India Investment Opportunities Forum in London yesterday. India Investment Opportunities Jul 09 View more presentations from Shantanu Bhagwat. I also talked about some of my investments (Myntra, Innoviti and ElementsAkademia) in India. It was a good interactive session. I felt the mood is turning upbeat (although less so here in London and in the US). More [...]