#100xEntrepreneur
#Podcast with Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners

“I’ve more patience than the average person, because life is a marathon, not a sprint” – Shripati Acharya

Coming from a very humble background, Shripati did his schooling in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bhopal. Later took admission in IIT Madras, then went to Stanford to pursue his Masters and finally did his MBA from Harvard.

In 1999, he Co-founded Snapfish (now part of HP) – One of the largest online photo services in the world with over 70M members. In his later career he worked at Senior Management roles at Cisco & UIDAI Aadhaar.

In 2011, he Co-founded Prime Venture Partners, one of India’s Premier Early Stage Funds, focused on creating disruptive, category creating technology companies out India for local and global markets.

His Portfolio Companies include – Ezetap, Happay, and MyGate among others.

In this podcast, Shripati shares his deep insights of the SaaS opportunities in India & the core fundamentals of Early Stage Investing.

Notes –
00:36 – His Journey from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Bhopal to Stanford
01:47 – How did he start Snapfish?
03:10 – From being the Founder of Snapfish in the US, what brought him into the Indian Startup Ecosystem?
04:17 – How was Prime Venture Partners started?
06:06 – “Being a VC you should meet every entrepreneur with an open mind and not have preconceived notions”
08:24 – Operating Thesis at Prime Ventures
15:45 – Meeting existing Portfolio companies regularly for discussing Strategic Actions
17:27 – His thoughts on Wealth Creation & Public Marketing Investing
19:14 – What are the parallels between Early Stage Investing & Public Market Investing?
22:17 – Potential in Indian SaaS companies to go for an IPO
25:28 – Unfortuante failures or hurdles occur when Entrepreneurs are caught up in hindsight
32:54 – Is it possible to build breakout companies like Whatsapp in India?

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