Shubhan Dua

We have been debating for a while if it's appropriate to publish our inside jokes:) But since Jack started, we want to add a few things... 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗩𝗖 𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 Let me be transparent = I’m gonna lie to you now Let me be fully transparent = I’m gonna F*****g lie to you now When a VC or an angel introduces a portfolio company of theirs to another VC hoping they’ll invest in it: - They aren’t looking for money = they are always looking for money - They have a long runway = they are looking for money but you’ll pay more - They are raising and we see a lot of interest from multiple VCs = we are really concerned they won’t be able to raise - We are enthusiastic about this company = we’re not gonna invest another dollar in it - We are highly enthusiastic about it = not even a cent - The round is closed and it was oversubscribed = they barely managed to raise and still need money if you want to invest When a VC shares dealflow with other VCs: - We thought it might be interesting to share this investment = we have a problem making it alone Emails and WhatsApp between VCs: - Hi = I need something from you - How are you = I really need something from you - I hope this email finds you well = Can I get to business? What VCs say to entrepreneurs: - We want to move fast = this is going to be a long and excruciating process - We would like to follow = we will only invest if A16Z decides to lead

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If you want to get a picture of how VCs think, this Sequoia investment memo (to invest in YouTube) is good to read.

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Motivate Your Money to Create Abundance At ODIGITAL Startup Drivers, we believe everyone deserves to experience living in financial abundance sometime in their lifetime. We know a proven way to create financial abundance is to either own a successful business or invest in businesses that are addressing real-world challenges in life and business. When these assets increase rapidly in value over time, they will deliver massive profits in return on investment (ROI) for stakeholders at future exits. At ODIGITAL Startup Drivers, we understand that venture capital investing operates the Power Law business, where one big win with 50x or more will more than pay for all the portfolio losses in a diversified fund, with massive profits in ROI. Take a look at this big win by Sequoia Capital, an investment in YouTube. A win that will definitely pay for a ton of losses, that gave them a return on investment of 57x in about a year after funding. https://lnkd.in/dKY5B-hv We have partnered with Tekedia Capital to give our members exclusive access to invest a minimum of $250 per startup in their early-stage technology startup investment deals. We have an ongoing funding round that will end in 4 days. This round has a diverse line up of 10 innovative startups from varied sectors and regions, that are poised to disrupt markets, and deliver outsized gains in ROI for investors at future exits. This cohort has the most innovative line up I have ever witnessed on this platform, and I urge you not to miss out on this round, even if you have to sacrifice something today. I believe your future will thank you for it. We invested in a startup at $1m valuation in 2020 and it's currently valued at $100m. We funded another company in 2022 and it's valued at $150m presently. And we have delivered 3 profitable exits in less than 2 years after funding. If you want to start building or you want to add to your portfolio of high-growth technology startups, hurry and connect with me via direct message, or email - invest@startupdrivers.com, or click - https://lnkd.in/dHd8K9ZN - to join our WhatsApp group. I will guide you through our process of becoming equity owners of these potential category-king businesses, and positioning for exponential ROI at future exits. Join Us. Let's Win Together! Repost for the benefit of your network.

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🚀 What's common between Robinhood, Shyp, Eero, and Houseparty? 🚀 They all launched their initial products on Product Hunt and went on to become successful, venture-funded companies! In the fast-paced world of tech startups, bringing a new product to market can be challenging. Product Hunt offers a unique platform for founders, developers, and product enthusiasts to gain visibility, gather feedback, and build an initial user base. Whether you're an indie developer with a side project or a startup ready to disrupt the market, our latest article dives deep into how to leverage Product Hunt effectively. From pre-launch preparation to building a community of evangelizers, we cover everything you need to know to make your launch a success. https://lnkd.in/dhN3hQBU At Venture Highway, we are dedicated to supporting founders through every stage of your entrepreneurial journey, from product launch to beyond. If you’re preparing to launch on Product Hunt and looking for guidance or collaboration, reach out to us at parth@venturehighway.vc. 💡📈 Venture Highway Neeraj Priya Rahul Aakanksha Akul Abishek Siddhi Siddhant Nipun Nidhi Ajoy #ProductHunt #StartupLaunch #TechStartups #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #ProductDevelopment

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Summary: ShareChat, a popular social media startup in India, has seen its valuation plummet from $5 billion to $2 billion following a new funding round. The company has experienced a positive year, cutting expenses and doubling revenue, but has still faced a significant decrease in valuation. Key takeaways: ShareChat's investors, including Google and Tencent, have seen their debt convert to equity at a valuation below $2 billion in the latest funding round. Despite facing strong competition from Instagram and YouTube, ShareChat remains the largest standalone social media app in India and is focused on live-streaming as a differentiating factor. ShareChat has been able to reduce expenses and increase revenue through cost optimization and investment in AI talent. Counter arguments: Some may argue that ShareChat's decrease in valuation is a sign of potential challenges in the Indian market and the company's ability to sustain growth. There may also be concerns about ShareChat's reliance on monetizing through advertisements, particularly as the Indian government is considering stricter regulations for social media platforms. #valuations #tech #private

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👋 Aspiring VCs, I hear you! I've been receiving a flood of questions about breaking into venture capital: > How to get your foot in the door > What it's really like working at a VC fund > Matching Your Skill Set to VC Roles Instead of answering each query individually, I thought it'd be more helpful to offer personalized guidance. Want to chat about your VC career aspirations? Book a 1-on-1 slot with me using the link in the comments. Let's discuss your path into the exciting world of venture capital! #VentureCapital #CareerAdvice #Startup https://lnkd.in/dEScjFgS

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My conversation with Amit Singh of Misfits Out on YouTube at 1pm We covered Misfits Capital, Shuttl's growth levers and more Hope you enjoy the episode! You can watch the episode through the link below

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My biggest win when I was in college: - Starting a podcast 1. Got the chance to interact with legends in the industry People like Pomp, Casey Adams and more 2. Grew the YouTube to 100 + subscribers - 100+ views on podcast content alone on YouTube - 6k + Impressions on YT 3. And Podcast Channel on Spotify to 1000+ Impressions over last 30 days 4. Ranked in charts of several countries over years Massive amount of learnings, and upside over the years My key learnings: 1) Podcast discoverability is not very good Growth happens through the guest, and word of mouth, compounding and network effects 2) Events for your podcast = new fans, connections, people interested - Magic is in the event attendees mixing, and talking with each other 3) KPI's for me for podcast: -> Quality of the content -> DM's 4) Going from 0-1 is hard - Growth is hard - Getting guests is hard 5) Learn the art of cold emailing 6) Experiment a lot

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After Maya Bakhai and I nerded out about what it takes to break into VC today, decided to write a blogpost on everything that isn't cold emailing a bunch of VCs and founders. Couple key takeaways: 1/ Take market risk, not execution risk. The latter means you're always competing with people playing on home field advantage aka someone who's been a great executor for 20-30 years. 2/ Optimize for high quality of eavesdropping. In the sense that when you try to get to know someone, create a space where they as well as others of their caliber can get more bang for buck when they show up, even if just by eavesdropping on surrounding conversations. ie podcasts, events 3/ Excellence is everywhere. Try not to overoptimize for metrics that everyone is familiar with and there is immense value in finding undiscovering entrepreneurial talent before others. Full blogpost here: https://lnkd.in/gAt-Mp3J

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If I was to do a monthly podcast epiosde segment called This Month in VC 1) Who should I invite as a guest for this segment? 2) Any VC's who would be down to come on and share their stories + insights on this? Basically recapping what happened in that month in VC - It would be an under 30 minute discussion - Recorded remotely using Zoom, Riverside DM me or reply to this if interested Inspired by Harry Stebbings This Week in SaaS to try out a different format

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There's a tremendous impetus within crypto to onboard the popular masses. Whether it be the next blockbuster game, fitness app or wallet. And there are already some great ones out there. However, the financial properties (or 'moneyness') of crypto are next to impossible to detract from. It's a natural prerequisite that most people will need to have a strong degree of certainty on what the value of their assets are in relation to the real world. Hence, the birth of the stablecoin as one of the most important pillars of the entire space. Take a look at this chart from Nic Carter (source link https://buff.ly/4btSwgU) And when you see it, you realise its impossible to imagine a space where they don't exist in the short term. Because when you have the prospect of holding value on chain without the overlay of the cycle, it tends to stay there, ready to be deployed in the next cycle. Interesting things happen when you begin to deploy that capital on chain - lower risk means bigger inflows. Bigger inflows make niche models mainstream. Mainstream platforms attract the masses and an ecosystem forms. In the long term of course, with the debasement of major world currencies, anything goes. But that's a story for another day. #crypto #defi #web3 #money #stablecoins blockchain

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3 takeaways for startups about monetization from Daniel Chalef, CEO/Founder of Zep AI (YC W24) 1️⃣ Know that your pricing & packaging will change. Plan for flexibility from day 1 so that you don't lose agility. 2️⃣ It’s necessary to separate entitlements from billing systems to enable monetization flexibility. Without a flexible entitlement service, startups get stuck, unable to innovate, and ultimately frustrate their customers and sales teams.  3️⃣ Don't build monetization infrastructure. It's not core to your product, and the result is almost always something hard-coded. Our conversation was packed with insights about building startups, LLMs, & SaaS monetization (full episode in the comments). Some of the topics we covered: 1️⃣ Daniel's vision for Zep and the drive that comes from being highly curious & easily bored :-) 2️⃣ The power of small language models 3️⃣ How B2B SaaS companies should implement monetization to deliver flexible pricing & packaging from day 1 At Schematic, we've learned tons from Daniel over the last year. He's founded several companies and served in executive leadership roles across nearly every function at growth stage companies like SparkPost, a MessageBird company��& Domino Data Lab. At Y Combinator-backed Zep, he's building against an huge vision to be the state layer LLM applications. If you're an enterprise building on LLMs, you have very specific needs around data retention (think integration into data lakes, integration to line of business applications, etc), and Zep allows you to instantly recall, understand, & extract data from chat histories, so that you can power personalized AI experiences.

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🌟 Exciting Collaboration Alert! 🌟 I’m thrilled to announce that BitsCrunch and ZeroLend have teamed up to redefine the landscape of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). 🚀 🔗 ZeroLend: A User-Friendly Lending Protocol on Layer 2s ZeroLend brings simplicity and accessibility to DeFi lending. Built on Layer 2 solutions, it aims to onboard the masses by providing a frictionless lending experience. Whether you’re a seasoned DeFi enthusiast or a newcomer, ZeroLend has something for everyone. Explore more at ZeroLend. 🔍 BitsCrunch: AI-Powered NFT Data Platform BitsCrunch stands at the forefront of NFT innovation. Their AI-enhanced decentralized data platform empowers developers to create robust NFT applications (dApps) swiftly and seamlessly. Dive into the world of high-quality NFT analytics with BitsCrunch! Learn more at BitsCrunch. 🤝 The Synergy Together, BitsCrunch and ZeroLend are unlocking new possibilities. Imagine AI-driven insights enhancing your lending decisions or NFT data enriching your DeFi strategies. This collaboration bridges the gap between cutting-edge technology and user-friendly experiences. 🌐 🙌 Join us in celebrating this milestone! Let’s shape the future of DeFi and NFTs together. 🌈 #DeFi #NFTs #Collaboration #Blockchain #Innovation

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This is so important to call out Chang (CK) Kim. It’s such a rat race in the Valley. When you surround yourself with people working in corporate big tech who are paid big salaries and stock, you can feel so small and broke as a startup founder trying to build something. You envy them for them for their stability and income, but they envy you because you’re pursuing your dreams. You can often feel like a failure because you can’t provide the same things for yourself or your family. At least in Silicon Valley there are many other founders around and people understand what you are doing. I remember when, in places like New York or Los Angeles, saying you’re a founder at a dinner party might as well be saying you have an infectious disease or are unemployable. I remember turning down invites to glamorous weddings in exotic destinations because I just couldn’t afford it on my startup budget. It wasn’t until I started surrounding myself with other founders who could relate to my experience that I was able to be in a better mental space and stop questioning my self-worth. Of course you will still compare yourself to your founder peers when they raise a new round or have an exit, but you’re rooting for them at the same time, because you hope that will be you someday. There’s a fellowship among struggling founders, because they’re the only ones who understand the rollercoaster of emotions you go through every single day. You can literally be happy one moment because you closed a huge deal and terrified the next because a key employee hands you their resignation letter. This is the biggest reason I started the Asian American Founder Circle, because we as founders had a whole separate load of baggage we had in common. Find your people, you’ll be better off when you realize you’re not alone.

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India-based crypto exchange company CoinDCX has acquired the UAE-based virtual assets trading platform BitOasis, for an undisclosed value. The acquisition marks CoinDCX first investment the MENA region. Founded in 2016 by Ola Doudin, BitOasis is MENA’s first and largest crypto asset exchange. It is available in 15 countries across the region, allowing its users to buy, hold and sell 60+ cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, CoinDCX, founded in 2018, is a crypto exchange in India that provides 15 million users easy access to Web3 experiences and democratizes investments in virtual digital assets. CoinDCX, along with Wamda Capital and Jump Capital, had previously invested in BitOasis in August 2023. Full release here: https://lnkd.in/esem9nCw #MiddleEast #UAE #Crypto #Web3

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Summary: ShareChat, an Indian social media startup, has seen its valuation drop to $2 billion from $5 billion after a recent funding round. However, the company has managed to improve user engagement, cut expenses, and attract large advertisers. Key takeaways: ShareChat's valuation has decreased to $2 billion from $5 billion following a new funding round. The company has improved user engagement, cut expenses, and attracted large advertisers. Despite facing competition in the short-video market from Instagram and YouTube, ShareChat remains the largest standalone app in India and is focusing on live-streaming for entertainment and creator-user connections. Counter arguments: ShareChat's valuation decline is a significant decrease and may affect investor confidence in the company. ShareChat's competition in the short-video market may impact its ability to attract and retain users. #venturecapital #vc #startups #dealflow

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Bitcoins the world is a strange place. Halfing if it happens will deepen the crisis as far as I think, reason being, the already high energy consumption will hamper the results and halfing won't in a fortnite double the value. A big disastrous episode could unfold and an unknown war of DIGITAL Currencies. #BITCOIN #BITCOINHALFING #CRYPTO #DIGITALASSETS #DIGITALCURRENCIES https://lnkd.in/grMzWeQW

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We applied to Y Combinator and were rejected twice before being accepted for the Summer 2015 batch. It was trajectory altering for our startup Scentbird and informs so much of how I think about founders and business models that will build the next generation of breakout companies. The deadline to apply is April 22. Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments. Best of luck! Red Bike Capital #failure #venturecapital #startups

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