In this episode, Arpit Maheshwari, Principal @Stellaris Venture Partners, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his background and path leading up to Stellaris, the investment philosophy at Stellaris and the journey from Fund I to Fund II, stand-out attributes of select founders from Stellaris’ portfolio, scaling up as an investor and balancing mindshare between different sectors, managing relationships/conversations with startups that are unable to achieve venture scale and value add from investors.

Stellaris is an early-stage sector-agnostic investment firm, currently investing from its second fund of $225mm. Since its inception in 2017, the firm has invested in 30+ startups across sectors like SaaS, financial services, B2B commerce, consumer brands, social commerce, education, electric vehicles, healthcare, and more. Some of its marquee portfolio startups include the likes of Whatfix, MamaEarth, Turno, Slintel, Limechat and Signzy among others. 

Prior to Stellaris, Arpit ran Corporate Innovation for Arvind Limited, managed product and strategy for Cardekho.com’s used-cars business, and headed product management at iProf – an edtech start-up. An IIT-Delhi/IIM-Ahmedabad alum, Arpit started his career with a 3-year stint at BCG.

You can connect with Arpit here on Linkedin / Twitter

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Show notes –

1. (01:45) Arpit’s path leading up to Stellaris Venture Partners

2. (05:06) Stellaris - the investment philosophy and journey of the firm from Fund I to Fund II

3. (14:06) Stand out attributes of select founders from Stellaris’ portfolio

4. (21:27) Scaling up as an investor and balancing mindshare between different sectors  

5. (30:04) Managing relationships/conversations with  startups that are unable to achieve venture scale

6. (34:05) How has being an investor influenced Arpit over the years?

7. (35:35) Rapid fire and closing remarks

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