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

EP#68 Vishesh Khurana – Building Shiprocket to enable e-commerce in India, the scale up journey and approach to inorganic growth

Mar 26th, 2023 43m 52s

In this episode, Vishesh Khurana, Co-Founder @Shiprocket, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his background and path leading up to Shiprocket, macro tailwinds that shaped Shiprocket’s evolution and its current product stack, challenges faced

EP#67 Anjali Bansal – Investing in climate and sustainability, the importance of having a strong board and building longevity as an investor

Jan 22nd, 2023 43m 36s

In this episode, Anjali Bansal, Founding Partner @Avaana Capital, joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Avaana Capital, investing in process & product innovation, key headwinds & tailwinds in the current climate tech cycle

EP#66 Vishesh Rajaram – Opportunities & challenges in climate-tech and unpacking the iterative process to master deep-tech investing

Dec 18th, 2022 42m 47s

In this episode, Vishesh Rajaram, Founder & Managing Partner @Speciale Invest, joins our host Digjay, to talk about Speciale Invest’s journey with fund I, added advantages of a larger fund II, whether climate tech is at its inflection point tod

EP#65 Aditya Kulkarni – Building Stoa: India’s alternative to a traditional MBA, leveraging early-stage investors and scaling a profitable edtech business

Nov 27th, 2022 51m 50s

In this episode, Aditya Kulkarni (Co-founder & CEO, Stoa), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his past experience as an edtech entrepreneur, meeting his co-founder Raj and stumbling upon the idea of building Stoa, the value proposition of Sto

EP#64 Somesh Dash – Growth investing at IVP, earning the trust of marquee founders and the value of mentorship in venture

Oct 30th, 2022 58m 12s

In this episode, Somesh Dash (General Partner, IVP), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to IVP, IVP’s stellar track record of 130+ IPOs and how has the firm managed to win the trust of marquee founders, the importance of m

EP#63 Mark Kahn – Investing in startups building for the rural economy, identifying founders that scale and staying relevant as a venture investor

Oct 16th, 2022 44m 38s

In this episode, Mark Kahn (Managing Partner, Omnivore), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Omnivore, Omnivore’s investment thesis and evolution of the agritech opportunity in India, how and why India stands out compare

EP#62 Pearl Agarwal – Building Eximius Ventures, the Web3 opportunity & parallels between a founder and a first time fund manager

Sep 18th, 2022 48m 22s

In this episode, Pearl Agarwal (Founder & Managing Director, Eximius Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Eximius Ventures, the investment thesis & key focus areas at Eximius, the Web3 opportunity, marquee port

EP#61 Pankaj Makkar – The bull case for India, mental models to identify stellar startups and Bertelsmann’s India investment playbook

Aug 28th, 2022 46m 1s

In this episode, Pankaj Makkar (Managing Director, Bertelsmann India Investments), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Bertelsmann, evolution of Bertelsmann’s India investment strategy and why now is a good time to accel

EP#60 Madhu Shalini Iyer – Leveraging data science to invest in startups and the global investment perspective at Rocketship VC

Aug 7th, 2022 54m 31s

In this episode, Madhu Shalini Iyer (Partner, Rocketship VC), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Rocketship VC, genesis of Rocketship VC and its unique data-led approach to investing in startups, incorporating qualitati

EP#59 Jatin Desai – Backing outlier founders and investing in deep-tech/IP creating startups

Jul 17th, 2022 42m 42s

In this episode, Jatin Desai (Managing Partner, Inflexor Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Inflexor Ventures, the thesis and evolution of the fund, Jatin’s approach to evaluating & investing in deep tech sta

EP#58 Smita Deorah – Democratizing quality education in India, the growth playbook at LEAD & selecting the right investors for your startup

Jun 19th, 2022 1h 2m

In this episode, Smita Deorah (Co-Founder & Co-CEO, LEAD), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to LEAD, the genesis phase and what led Smita to make LEAD her life’s work, how LEAD plans to radically improve the state of edu

EP#57 Ben Mathias – Investing in growth stage startups, value add beyond Series A and why founders should focus on building capital efficient businesses

May 29th, 2022 43m 21s

In this episode, Ben Mathias (Managing Partner, Vertex Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Vertex Ventures, history & thesis at Vertex, key defining moments in evolution of India’s startup ecosystem, why it is

EP#56 Mayank Banerjee – Building Even Healthcare, choosing the right co-founders and understanding the investor perspective when fundraising as a founder

May 8th, 2022 33m 37s

In this episode, Mayank Banerjee (Co-Founder & CEO, Even Healthcare), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Even, choosing the right co-founders, the problem statement that Even is solving for, challenges faced in the 0 to

EP#55 Sanjay Nath – The journey from a fund manager to a firm manager, the platform approach of supporting founders and building an enduring VC brand

Apr 3rd, 2022 45m 25s

In this episode, Sanjay Nath (Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Blume Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Blume Ventures, the genesis of Blume to build an institutional seed stage fund, challenges faced as a firs

EP#54 Mihir Gupta – Building Teachmint, leveraging inorganic growth to scale up and lessons from fundraising

Mar 13th, 2022 43m 14s

In this episode, Mihir Gupta (Co-Founder & CEO, Teachmint), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Teachmint, surviving the 0 to 1 phase as first time founders, building a foundation to scale up rapidly and how to sustain m

EP#53 Shiv Sharma – Building Stocktwits in India, pioneering social finance & cracking a new market with an established product

Feb 27th, 2022 37m 30s

In this episode, Shiv Sharma (VP International, Stocktwits), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to Stocktwits, the reducing gap between startups from India & The Silicon Valley, making the switch from venture capital to th

EP#52 Jyotsna Krishnan – Building conviction as a ‘founding investor’, Elevar’s unique investing DNA and backing entrepreneurs that build for the underserved markets

Feb 13th, 2022 41m 17s

In this episode, Jyotsna Krishnan (Managing Partner, Elevar Equity), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Elevar Equity, Elevar’s unique investing DNA, taking concentrated bets while investing at very early stages of a co

EP#51 Rohan Verma – Building Breathe Well-Being, re-inventing chronic care with a community-first approach and nailing the timing of your fundraise

Jan 23rd, 2022 46m 3s

In this episode, Rohan Verma (Co-Founder & CEO, Breathe Well-being), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, making the switch from B2B to B2C, the key problem statement that Breathe Well-Being is trying to

EP#50 Amit Gupta – Playing the long game and building category creating startups like InMobi & Yulu

Dec 19th, 2021 44m 31s

In this episode, Amit Gupta (Co-Founder & CEO, Yulu), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, the switch from mobile (InMobi) to mobility (Yulu), evolution of Yulu’s product over the past 5 years, leveragin

EP#49 Rajan Bajaj – Building Slice, re-inventing payments & the pursuit of building a quality consumer product for India

Dec 5th, 2021 38m 6s

In this episode, Rajan Bajaj (Founder & CEO, Slice), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, the problem statement & need for a product like Slice today, pivots made since founding the company in 2016, how

EP#48 Ritu Verma – Seeding startups that are building for the next billion, challenges faced as a GP and the importance of collaboration in venture capital

Oct 31st, 2021 40m 33s

In this episode, Ritu Verma (Co-founder & Managing Partner, Ankur Capital), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to venture capital, thesis & vision at Ankur Capital, learnings from past investments in Agritech & Healthtech,

EP#47 Arjun Vaidya – Building Dr. Vaidya’s, overcoming self-doubt as a founder and his approach to fundraising & exits

Oct 10th, 2021 38m 23s

In this episode, Arjun Vaidya (Venture Lead India, Verlinvest; Ex-CEO, Dr. Vaidya’s), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship & venture capital, his inspiration behind starting an Ayurveda brand, initial cha

EP#46 Ashish Dave – Evaluating seed vs growth stage startups, the learning-unlearning cycle in VC and balancing between due diligence & speed of decision making

Sep 26th, 2021 42m 29s

In this episode, Ashish Dave (CEO @Mirae Asset Venture Investments, India), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to venture capital, setting up Mirae’s India Venture arm, due diligence missteps by VCs when optimizing for spe

EP#45 Aprameya Radhakrishna – Building the vernacular ecosystem for Bharat, lessons on fundraising & identifying the right sounding board as a founder

Sep 12th, 2021 36m 21s

In this episode, Aprameya Radhakrishna (Co-founder @Koo, Vokal & TaxiForSure), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, founding TFS & exiting to Ola, founding Vokal & Koo to build the vernacular ecosystem f