AMA with angel investor, entrepreneur, and IndiaQuotient’s founding partner, Anand Lunia. Date: April 4, 2024

[kmoore]

Hi, r/StartUpIndia, IndiaQuotient here! We are an early-stage VC fund based out of BLR. Our portfolio includes companies like ShareChat, Sugar Cosmetics, Giva, WebEngage, Lendingkart, etc.

Join us for an AMA session on April 4th with our founding partner, Anand Lunia. Ask him anything about venture capital, starting up, fundraising, etc.!

Please note: Anand will start answering the questions at 7:00 p.m. IST.

https://preview.redd.it/1jnjvrt3hfs...bp&s=976527365716c6eca4b4ef50c79219440275d294

About Anand Lunia

Anand Lunia is a founding partner at IndiaQuotient. He has been an entrepreneur, angel investor, and fund manager. Earlier, he was a partner at Seedfund, known for its exits in Carwale and Redbus. He started his career after IIM Lucknow as a banker with ICICI and a finance professional with Asian Paints. In 2000, he co-founded Brainvisa, an ed-tech company that he exited successfully. His angel investments include Faasos, Mydentist, and Inkfruit. In recent times, his picks include Lendingkart, Sharechat, and Sugar. Fintech, Media, and SaaS are his current interest areas. After seeing the entire evolution of the Indian startup ecosystem starting from the first dotcom boom in 1999, his mantra is 'Entrepreneur is King, Not the VC.’

 

[jamesms]

@kmoore What books/resources do you think everyone, and specially the first time businessmen who haven’t pursued a typical MBA, should refer to?

 

[kmoore]

@jamesms Peter Drucker is a must

Read Biographies - Made in USA about Sam Walton (Walmart) is a fantastic book. There is Made in India by Kishore Biyani.

Read Philip Kotler- good book on marketing.

My favorite remains Eliyahu Goldratts original edition of the Goal.

Scott Adams 'How to fail at almost everything and still win big' is a fantastic book for everyone.

 

[eileen7173]

@kmoore How to start a startup as a college student, especially in a city with not so good entrepreneurial ecosystem?

 

[kmoore]

@eileen7173 Make friends while traveling to Delhi/Blr and keep in touch with them on zoom. Make online friends. Read. Listen to Podcasts.

 

[gvze]

@kmoore Thanks!

 

[denadii]

@kmoore Hi Anand!

How should one ideally begin their journey towards startup ?

Suppose I individually have an idea should I :

1. Get My idea Validated first ? How does market survey help ?
2. Find a co-founder experienced in the same domain ?
3. I am always worried that sharing/disclosing my idea could lead to IP theft ? How can I safeguard my IP and also find partners ? Is an NDA valid in Indian law ?

 

[kmoore]

@denadii Validate the idea from multiple sources, including by building a mock brochure and selling to real customers. If its an app, build it and then validate. If a fashion co, build 500 pieces and then validate. Sell to a co-founder - smart guys will buy the idea only if its good.

More importantly, most ideas fail even if validated well. Be prepared to try hard for 12-24 months and then pivot based on what you learnt new.

NDAs are useless. Don't worry about your idea being stolen- in 140 cr people in India, someone is always doing the same thing and you just don't know it. Businesses are built by execution on a decent idea, not by IP. If its a science IP, file a patent.

Only the highly educated narcissists think their idea is worth stealing. Dont be like them.

 

[saren911]

@kmoore

1. Where to focus on the initial efforts for building a saas startup. Get company registration, incorporation in order (or) work on MVP, build traction, get paying consumers
2. If Im going to initially start a venture as a solopreneur working from home office to market validate my saas venture, how do I setup all the paperwork to operate right now, and how to set it up, so it can be expanded later on.

 

[kmoore]

@saren911 Get a few design partner or beta customers or launch a consumer app. this is ideal. Don't think before spending coding effort- its learning anyways.

Make a good deck for the product or a brochure. make a good website. get a waitlist.

paperwork can follow when the waitlist (or traffic etc) explodes.

 

[saren911]

@kmoore Thanks for this advice. Much appreciated.

 

[theworstsinner14]

@kmoore Mr Lunia. Congratulations on your wonderful achievements.

We are a product startup. Inspite of being in the green, We are being advised to have an investor for 2 reasons,

1) the PR and credibility that comes with a funding round
2) To have the necessary gun powder incase of copy cats from much larger companies.

Though both these reasons seem valid, I am kind of skeptical. I would love to have your view on this

 

[kmoore]

@theworstsinner14 BS. don't raise.

You can always raise when you really face threat from companies. Large companies are not threats usually: watch out for other startups like yourselves

The best Gun powder is revenue. Even better is customer advance payment. A friend of mine built a startup fully out of a $250K advance plus monthly advance payments from an enterprise customer. Sold it for 8M.

 

[soteriologist]

@kmoore I own a clothing brand i want to expand it , what advice would you give ?

 

[kmoore]

@soteriologist Step 1- become the best store or brand in your region. Outperform all other stores in your region. Keep iteratiing till you reach there.

Step 2- if you reach there, build a team and get some friendly money and expand to 2-3 more stores.

Step 3 - become cash flow positive and raise some debt.

Step 4- after 100 cr, raise PE money.

Skip VC.

 

[dubois]

@kmoore Hi Anand,

Great to have you here. My question is more a observation. I see plenty and plenty of early stage vcs/micro vcs and very few mid market to late stage vcs from India. Most are global brands , my question is why?

Are returns for funds currently only attractive to early stage vcs who exit based on valuations and more and more late stage vcs struggling to make money via ipo or any other liquidity event?

 

[julian246]

@kmoore RemindMe! 1 day

 

[kmoore]

@julian246 Hey, the AMA will happen today at 7:00 p.m. IST.

 

[acult]

@kmoore

1. Do you think there is potential for disruption in travel space. For eg makemytrip, easemytrip etc.
   a. Can niches say religious travel focused companies come up?
   b. A startup came on sharktank india which offered end to end travel planning ( well packages of sorts). An aggregator of sorts of oyo mmt etc. Anupam told them to shut them down since fundamentally people enjoy planning trips. Do you agree that such plays are not possible due to user behaviour?
2. Sugar speaks a lot about you that you were the only one that believed in them when they were rejected by everyone. What 2-3 things led you to invest in them when everyone else ( possibly data ) said otherwise?
3. What do you think about the next billion users? Where are some platform plays based disruption that could happen. I read about FRND app and how you helped them scale. How long will the FRND story take to really play out and is there scope for more players. Where else can disruption happen in tier 2/3 and how long will value creation happen in those plays?

 

[kmoore]

@acult 1.Travel will change. Its exploding.

People who used email never thought that business will run on Whatsapp.

Not everyone travels frequently and these people need help.