EP#20 Utsav Somani – The AngelList India journey, advantage of having good angel investors on your cap table & starting a micro fund to bridge the gap between India & the Silicon Valley

The VCpreneur: Startups | Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Fundraising

In this episode, Utsav Somani, Partner @AngelList India & @iSeed, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his exciting journey & vision at AngelList India, the asymmetric upside from writing good cold emails, advantage of having angel investors on your cap table along with institutional VC funds, and starting his own micro fund iSeed, to bridge the gap between India & the Silicon Valley

AngelList is platform that is democratizing angel investing and helping startups with fundraising, launching products and hiring talent. Besides leading AngelList India, Utsav is also an experienced angel investor with a portfolio of more than 30 companies which includes the likes of BharatPe, Innov8, LogiNext, Mall91 and many more. He has recently launched his new micro-VC fund called iSeed – which is India's first micro-fund backed by top global founders and investors. The fund will invest in about 30 early-stage Indian startups with an average check of $150k. You can connect with him here on Linkedin / Twitter

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Show notes –

1. (01:31) Utsav’s background and path leading up to AngelList India; His life changing ‘cold email’ to Naval Ravikant

2. (04:41) Writing a good cold email; Zero downside, Unlimited upside

3. (07:51) Why entrepreneurship & angel investing is glamourized?

4. (10:16) What should founders look for in an angel investor? Common missteps that founders should avoid during their first fundraise

5. (14:36) Learnings as an entrepreneur while scaling up AngelList in India; AngelList’s mission & vision for startups in India

6. (19:54) About Utsav’s latest micro seed fund – iSeed; Bridging the gap between Indian entrepreneurs & Silicon Valley

7. (24:05) Founder personalities & sectors that iSeed is looking to back

8. (27:26) Rapid fire and closing remarks

Mentioned in this episode:

Utsav’s article about the different types of investors & what founders should be mindful of when raising capital

Sumukh Sridhara’s (Head of Product & Engineering, AngelList India) episode on The VCpreneur podcast