Categories
Advice Entrepreneurship Startups Venture Capital

Founders Doing Due Diligence On Investors

Doing due diligence on investors is something that should be discussed more frequently. It’s important for founders to take the time to understand who the investors are, how do they help and support the companies they invest in, how do they react when things aren’t going as well as hoped for.

Spending some time doing due diligence on potential investors can save you lots of grief in the long run. I’ve talked about this often and it’s great in theory but it’s not as easy to do in person. Now that I’m back on the operating side of a startup, here are some tips on how to diligence possible investors:

  • Start with making a list of the investors you think would be interested in your startup keeping a few broad things in mind (use a spreadsheet or a CRM)
    • Vertical the company is in and is the VC firm + partner interested in the space
    • Stage of the company and does the firm invest at this stage
    • Check size that you’re looking for and what the firm writes
    • Any existing competing investments that the firm has made
  • Find people you know that may be connected to these individuals
    • Have a prepared email that you can send to the people you know who can possibly connect you to these investors. The email should be a very short email that explains why you would like to connect to the investor, a summary of your startup and have a teaser deck attached. Some people like to use DocSend but I prefer a PDF.

Once you’ve exhausted your personal network, find 5-10 founders that the firm and the partner have invested in (ideally should include failed startups).

  • Reach out to them on social media, via common contact or a cold email to see if they will chat with you about your startup and provide some advice on your round as well as share some info about the investor(s). If they say yes to a meeting, do some research on them, e.g. understand what their startup does, maybe check out the product, use Crunchbase to get an idea of some of their investors, how many rounds they’ve raised, you can use tools like Workomo (shameless plug) to get some background about them and common interests you might have.
  • Founders can be very open with other founders. Do what you have to in order to maintain that trust. Use the meeting to do your due diligence on the investor. Ask the founder about the firm on your list and how they were to work with through the ups and downs. Make sure you are clear that this is confidential and DO NOT repeat it to anyone, even in conversation. Don’t be shy about getting into details as long as the founders are comfortable sharing. Don’t pry but don’t hold back on asking the questions you think will help you get an understanding of who the investor is and how they work.

In short, make sure you take the time to do your due diligence on investors. It’s critical to know who you’re potentially partnering with for the duration of your startup.

Categories
Business Entrepreneurship Startups

Time to “Workomo”

For the better part of the last decade, I’ve been a startup investor and community builder. It’s been a lot of fun and I have loved learning from all of the founders I’ve met. I’m hoping to meet even more founders and operators during the next part of my journey, where, I’m taking the plunge back into the world of building and joining Workomo as COO.

Why Workomo?

Workomo is a young startup based out of the San Francisco Bay Area founded by my friend Soumitra Sharma. Soumitra and I have known each other for a few years, having crossed paths in the Indian startup ecosystem and having invested together. Soumitra reached out to me when he was raising his pre-seed round in late 2019. We had a conversation about Workomo and I committed to invest on the spot.

Since then, I’ve been spending a lot of time with the team testing out the product, providing feedback, and talking strategy with Soumitra. I even wrote some code to help them with a problem they were dealing with.

In the context of my professional career, I’ve often said that “what you do matters less than who you do it with”. I feel very lucky to have an opportunity to work with an incredibly sharp team and a founder with a crystal clear vision for Workomo.

I look forward to sharing more details about what we are building at Workomo and what we have in store over the next few months.

If you want to take the Chrome extension for a spin, please add your name to the waitlist.

Categories
Advice Angel Investing Bangalore Business Delhi Entrepreneurship India InvestStream Video New Delhi Startups Venture Capital Video

Early-Stage Startup Deal Terms in India 2020

There was a recent thread on Twitter about how even in 2020 angels and VCs in India continue to put ridiculously onerous terms into early-stage deals.

I recently invested in an Indian startup that closed a pre-series A round and the documents were more than 100 pages. When I was at 500 Startups, with the help of BMR Legal, we modified the 500 Startups KISS Agreement for India and open sourced the documents in the hopes that it would simplify early-stage documentation and reduce the amount of time to close a deal and the cost of doing early-stage deals in India, much like Series Seed docs and the SAFE have done in the US.

Here’s a presentation I gave in January 2020 at CIE-IIIT Hyderabad on some of the deal terms in India to watch out for. Unfortunately, there’s no video of the actual presentation I gave so I recorded a voice over for you.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

If there are additional terms you have questions about or terms you’ve come across that are onerous, please leave a comment on the YouTube video and I will respond. Hopefully, other founders will benefit from it as well.

Categories
Advice Angel Investing Business Entrepreneurship Finance Investing InvestStream Video Startups Venture Capital Video

Angel Investing at Scale with Fabrice Grinda

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Fabrice Grinda is the founder of Zingy, Aucland OLX and FJ Labs, a VC firm and venture studio based in NYC, focusing on marketplace businesses. FJ Labs has invested in hundreds of companies such as Alibaba, Bla Bla Car, Zolostays, Brightroll, ZoomCar and many many more. In 2018, Forbes named Fabrice the #1 Angel investor in the world. On this episode of Invest Stream, Fabrice shares his journey as an entrepreneur and how that led him to invest in startups in France and Europe, his thoughts on the cryptocurrency vertical, what approach he took to working with the entrepreneurs that he invested in and much much more.

Categories
Angel Investing BarCamp Entrepreneurship India Investing Investing InvestStream Video Life startup saturday Startups Venture Capital Video

Off the Beaten Path: Wall Street to Startup Investor – A Fireside Chat with Me!

Who is “Pankaj Jain” besides being the founder of Invest Stream and Founder Craft What came before? 

If you’ve followed my erratic writing over the years, you might have some idea. I’ve been a risk manager at the largest hedge fund in the world, Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM), operator, product manager, entrepreneur, community builder at BarCamp Delhi, co-founder of HeadStart Network Foundation and Startup Weekend India

I’ve been a venture capitalist at TLabs and 500 Startups, advisor to startups, funds and platforms like AngelList India and most recently, a dabbler in startup and venture capital related video content

My friend and former colleague, Ritesh Bansal, suggested interviewing me on the show to bring out more about who I am and what my journey has been. Naturally, I couldn’t refuse an invitation to be on my own show. Get ready for a frank and open discussion between an old friend and I. This is going to be Ritesh’s first time being visible on any social media channel, so please be gentle with him. It’s an #AMA so feel free to ask me anything.

I’m looking forward to seeing you for the AMA-style chat on July 28th, 2020 at 9:30am PDT / 12:30pm EDT and 10:00pm IST. If you’d like to RSVP and have a calendar invite, click the button. Otherwise, head over to YouTube with your questions.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.