Episode 53 / February 24, 2020
Hemant Mohapatra, Lightspeed Venture Partners
After completing his graduation from IIT Bombay, Hemant worked at AMD during his early career.
In 2012, after completing his MBA from Cambridge University, he joined Google, where he worked in New Partnerships & Development for 5 years, post which he joined Andreessen Horowitz in 2017.
Lastly, after seeing a huge potential in the growing Indian Startup Ecosystem, he ended up moving to India in 2018 and joining Lightspeed India.
Some of Lightspeed India portfolio companies are Oyo, Udaan, Darwinbox, OKCredit, and Shuttl among others.
In this podcast, Hemant shares his learnings of building a Tech company in India, he also shares his Venture Investing experiences in India & the US.
Watch all other episodes on The Neon Podcast – Neon
Or view it on our YouTube Channel at The Neon Show – YouTube
Notes –
00:46 – From growing up in Middle of Himalayas to joining Lightspeed India
05:38 – Joining Corporate Development at Google after MBA
06:26 – Choosing Lightspeed India vs any other VC firm in the US
12:10 – Is it necessary to raise a Venture Capital to build a big company?
15:38 – Is it the right time to build a Tech company in India?
18:16 – Looking after Enterprise, Fintech & Logistics focused deals
19:59 – Big wins for Lightspeed in India – Byju’s, OKCredit, Udaan, OYO
25:25 – Difference b/w Venture Investing in US & India (Andreessen Horowitz vs Lightspeed India)
30:42 – What Indian Entrepreneurs can learn from their US counterparts?
33:22 – “Most problems are solvable if you immerse yourself deep within”
38:33 – Best Founders know much better about a Market than a VC
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Looking to build a differentiated tech startup with a 10X better solution? Prime is the high-conviction, high-support investor you need. With its fourth fund of $120M, Prime actively works with star teams to accelerate building great companies.
To know more, visit https://primevp.in/!
