Dev Khare
@dkhare
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Partner @LightspeedIndia , investor in software/digital startups originating in India/SE Asia. Message me here:
San Francisco | Bangalore
Joined July 2006
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So nice to be back in Bangalore this week. Land of unicorns, the most inspiring founders, the finest filter coffee and the largest collection of speedbumps in the world. 😍
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At the height of the dotcom bubble in early 2000, capital was abundant, talent was scarce & at a premium (sounds familiar?). A🧵...
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Indian startups using each other's products has grown up to be a big internal economy eg SaaS/payments/etc in b2b/b2b2c models. If you are a founder in India, what are the key products from Indian startups your startup uses?
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The incomparable Himalayas. And a dip in the Ganga to wash away all my VC sins. 🙏🏽
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I am delighted to welcome
@manjotpahwa
as Vice President. Manjot will be based in Bengaluru & will look at developer, enterprise and consumer startups in India and Southeast Asia. She joins us from Stripe & Google (Mountain View). More below 👇🏽
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Too many India-based SaaS startups bloated up (even pre-pandemic and even now) at $30-50k ARR/FTE, negating any cost advantage from operating from India. US at-scale SaaS at $300k average. $50mm ARR company could be 750-1500 people from India and 300-400 people from the US. Big
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Bittersweet photo. So much information packed into this photo, including class divide, gender divide, how the country has helped some people do well but left a lot of people behind, pride in the country at all levels of society, culture (shoes are taken off), etc. ht:
@avnish
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When I was an investor in the Bay Area, almost every pitch at seed or series A had a financial model, even if just a basic one to bring out core assumptions. In India, I have yet to see projections in any seed or series A deck. It is almost uncool to talk about financials here..
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These days, the number of zoom webinars for founders is far outpacing the total number of founders.
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Small boards (5 or less) are magic. These massive board meetings here with 10-20 people and every board member and board observer bringing a colleague stifles problem-solving conversations, vulnerability, transparency and generally makes things unproductive.
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Kids are logged into Microsoft Teams for their first remote class, now that schools are shut in Delhi. Certainly feels like a new era...all these online learning systems globally are going to be tested at a scale they have never seen before
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Bangalore is tech capital, Chennai is SaaS capital, Mumbai is finance capital, Delhi is dhandha capital. Works?
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We are delighted to officially welcome
@CarinaChopra
as Head of Marketing here at Lightspeed India. She joins us from Unilever. Read more below 👇🏽
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Ask a VC for money, they will give you advice. Ask a VC for advice, they will give you money.
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((differential insight + conviction) + bias to action) + storytelling ability = superpower zone for doing anything in life.
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Online education is having its moment with early stage VCs. A wholly different quality level of companies coming out. Some bubbles eg numerous Lambda clones. What we like: D2C, brands, differentiated pedagogy which is not possible purely offline.
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Best wishes
@deepigoyal
& entire
@zomato
team. You have the entire Indian startup ecosystem behind you, wishing you all the best. 👍🏾🤞🏽🙏🏽
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I moved to India from San Francisco/ the Bay Area 8.5 years ago. If your mindset is positively inclined to India and you are considering a move given this H1B issue, check out these webinars this Saturday. Hear from 10 women and men who moved back!
#ComeHomeAndBuild
Join us for a webinar this Sat (US) on moving from
#US2India
w/ speakers who’ve been there, done that & continue to build for the world from India. We'll talk family, quality of life, women's safety, work culture, & starting up. Register
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Just walked through Tiktok lane in Connaught Place in Delhi. Surreal watching all these teenagers shooting Tiktok videos. Digital driving offline behavior.
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Anybody else had the experience of getting your computer science degree and then forever being the tech support person for your family, for some unfathomable reason?
#25yearsofsuffering
.😤
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I've had it with India SaaS companies trying to do SMB + mid-market + enterprise... enough already. On top of that, definition of enterprise in India is warped: $50-75k ACVs is mid-market, not enterprise. Please decide what you want to be and focus.
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I was a cofounder at my startup when the 2000 dotcom bubble burst, a VC in the Bay Area when the 2008 sub prime crisis unfolded, a VC in India in 2015/16 when the funding mkt slowed down and now still an India-focused VC in this (potential) 2022 downturn...🧵
It strikes me that today's market environment is pretty unusual for a wide swath of the Twitterati, having not been investing, earning or company-building in the 1980/90s. So probably the best way I can help isn't market prognostication but mind-set /1
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ad in Palo Alto. 🤔🤣❤️
I guess this is one Indian consumer Internet brand that is global.
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I think the whole tech ecosystem would be better off without most of the regular conferences or conclaves, except for some narrow focused deep dives. Negative ROI and return on time for pretty much everyone. (personal opinion)
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Founders' ability to decentralize decision-making drives higher quality of talent which in turn drives non-linear scaling.
Founders' inability to decentralize decision-making drives lower quality or churn of talent which in turn seriously dampens growth.
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Just drove past Aditi Technologies office in Sada Shiv Nagar where I was a product manager intern in 1997. Lots of memories from Bangalore at that time- fog in the morning, a 1-shack airport building where they greeted passengers with flowers, Cubbon Park runs, Airlines still
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Focused attention is a super power. It is the only super power I know of that is generated by another super power, which is the ability to say no to a lot of other things.
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1/8 Today,
@thedarwinbox
announced its $15mm financing, led by
@SalesforceVC
. I couldn't be happier for this founding team from Hyderabad to have Salesforce make its first SaaS investment in Asia. cc:
@alexkayyal
^ArundhatiBhattacharya
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Focus on fundamentals.. who is your bulls-eye customer, identify the pointed burning problem, build something very differentiated, show value fast, productize (vs customizing or one-offs), make things repeatable, build relationships internally and externally...
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Here’s how old these India consumer Internet companies are in Dec’17:
Swiggy 4 yrs
Byjus 6 yrs
Oyo 6 yrs
Ola 7 yrs
Zomato 9 yrs
Flipkart 10 yrs
Verse/Dailyhunt 10 yrs
Matrimony 16 yrs
MakeMyTrip 17 yrs
PayTM/One97 17 yrs
Times Internet 18 yrs
Infoedge 18 yrs
Justdial 21 yrs
Here's how old these companies will be turning in 2018:
Snapchat: 7 years
Uber: 9 years
Twitter: 12 years
Facebook: 14 years
Tesla: 15 years
Google: 20 years
Netflix: 21 years
Amazon: 24 years
Apple: 42 years
Intel: 50 years
HP: 79 years
Disney: 95 years
IBM: 107 years
540
21K
39K
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Founders: As the conferences season gears up in India, my unsolicited advice is to avoid these broad conferences. IMO, they are generally a waste of your precious time. Attend only those that are deeply focused in your vertical/industry where real business deals can get done.
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Market's back. Frenetic financing pace. Proof: VC webinars at all-time low😝
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Curate your Twitter feed for sharp and informed views from individuals. < 200 people if possible. Everything else is noise and can be found elsewhere eg news, forwards, opinions, trolls, entertainment, self-promotion, humble-brags, blogs etc
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Here in India, the general view is that China Internet companies succeeded in China because of the Great Firewall of China. China Internet companies don't think this is the reason. Perhaps instructive for India startups. Excerpt fr
@plus8star
's 2009 preso.
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$2+ billion IPO - what a journey for One97 / PayTM through the pre-smartphone/operator-centric era to the post-smartphone/OTT/UPI era in India. A super milestone for the Indian startup ecosystem. Best wishes on the process and🤞,
@vijayshekhar
and
@Paytm
team!
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Super to see the
@Pepper_Content
team in Mumbai. Marketplace+SaaS coming together to productize an industry that has been services-only to-date.
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Turn off self-view (in zoom/teams/whatsapp/facetime) to connect with others better. Humans have not evolved to see themselves while in dialogue. It's too distracting and ego-satisfying.
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Every Whatsapp/Discord/Signal group in India is a Covid help/support group, at this point. 😷😔 Heartening to see all the grass-roots support flowing.
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Lesson learnt: Volume of capital raised and # of people hired is not a measure of success. It's all a distraction from the core business of business- solving a hard problem for lots of customers.
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Today, we spoke with a founder who has Covid-19 but is persevering through it, continuing with meetings, building something brand new to the world. 🙏🙏 Huge props to them! I can relate a little bit, I had Covid in June, thankfully asymptomatic but still not fun. Fully recovered.
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Humayun's Tomb in Nizamuddin, Delhi. Crystal clear sunlight, blue skies, AQI at 15. How humanity has taken advantage of this planet is unforgiveable. Photo taken by Akshay Jaitly an hour ago
#covidnature
#nofilter
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Complexity of product/model is not a moat. Moat exists in simplicity x execution x focus.
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Needed: A course for founders on "Building and Scaling Teams 101" that founders would willingly spend time on, believe and internalise. The school of hard knocks is a damn inefficient way to learn this.
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We
@lightspeedindia
are excited to host
@DavidSacks
, founder
@craft_ventures
, COO @ Paypal, CEO @ Yammer, COO @ Zenefits and an originator of the bottoms-up playbook in SaaS, for our
#MastersOfSaas
fireside chat series w/ global SaaS leaders. RSVP @ 1/n
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Super excited to see Sharechat broaden it's depth and reach into the next billion users in India. And welcome to our new partners
@Twitter
and Trustbridge.
#makeinindia
#makeforindia
Twitter leads $100M round in top Indian regional social media platform ShareChat by
@refsrc
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First time I've seen an end-user panel done at a conference... and this one's going to be done in Hindi and has got a set of users who've never spoken publicly before! Has been fun putting this panel together with
@sahilkini
.
#iday2018
Can register here:
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It's super exciting when founding CEOs 1) get to self-conviction around building strong executive teams and 2) start thinking about placing and moving the chess pieces versus being on the chess board themselves.
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We were delighted to host
@DavidSacks
yesterday for a
#MastersOfSaaS
session. Some super helpful learnings that I've summarized in this thread. For more insights on building your SaaS business, sign up for David's newsletter here: 1/n
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ACT was formed a year ago by founders, investors and volunteers across India and has raised & put to work 100cr ($13mm+) for leveraged Covid relief projects. You can donate now from abroad (eg from US as a charitable contribution) and India. Click here:
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Having gone through the dot com bubble/bust in 2000 (as founder) & the financial crisis/bust in 2008 (as investor), I know that risk is what people tend to focus on in the near-term... but private markets do come back, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
#keepbuilding
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Lovely to see discussions on Indian startups at at HBS.
@oyorooms
this year,
@byjus
last year. We had Jeff Bezos in our year (1996) and we discussed whether Amazon would ever expand beyond books 🤯🤭
Amazing to represent OYO as a case protagonist at HBS RC class yesterday! Great discussion on a case that’s set in 2017 - we have a come a long way since then but the learnings from discussion still relevant for us!
@oyorooms
@riteshagar
@pchakravarty
@kavikrut
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For India, I think the main generational breakpoints are 1947 (post independence), 1971 (socialist era), 1991 (liberalization) and 2011 (digital natives). Or, to simplify things, which cricketer you most identify with- Pataudi, Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Virat.
I believe that three partitions shape India's migratory history - that of 1937, 1947, and 1971
#migrationmuseum
@ChinmayTumbe
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2 hours from Bangalore airport to Koramangala. I must be truly living the high life.
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Realizing that the birdsong that I associated only with early mornings actually goes on throughout the day but is drowned out by noise pollution from human activity.
#janatacurfew
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👆🏽 may sound old-fashioned and generic but it is the core of the best companies... so next time you hear that talent is at a premium and that you should raise gobs of capital just because, think again... don't get distracted... Fin.
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One measure of a founder (or human being, in general) is how fast or slow they internalize knowledge and put new learnings to work.
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Working with several teams right now that are pre-product and (in some cases) have not even left their previous companies! Really tests our conviction on team and market but can be magic when it works out right.
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The puck is moving to
#b2b
for Indian companies, including for small businesses. Great to see the article mention several Lightspeed-backed companies powering away already here, including and Darwinbox.
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Founders-investor fit is rarely talked about. Important dynamic that can dramatically shape how companies perform over several years. Getting to a safe space is table stakes, after which the possibilities are endless, through ups and downs. The flip side is messy.
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For whatever reason, I am feeling way more inspired by Business Blasters
@bb_official2021
, spreading entrepreneurial energy to high schoolers in Delhi, than by
@sharktankindia
, which is feeling, to me, a bit overdone.
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Oh please, enough already. Indian startups growing because many are solving real unmet needs with new models, not because of adopting buzz words.
Indian
#startup
ecosystem is catching up fast with developed countries due to adoption of advanced technologies such as Analytics,
#AI
,
#IoT
, AR/VR,
#Blockchain
. Take a look-
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Congrats to the 10 teams participating in
@lightspeedee
's 2nd annual cohort this year!
@bakbuckApp
@blackboardradio
@deepsync_ai
@eazypgofficial
@GratitudeApp
@gromofintech
@IthakaTravel
@OpenAppIN
@Womaniya1
@xenohq
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I see a 909, 820 and 795 AQI here in Delhi. Truly frightening numbers. Complete and utter market failure.
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@aviralbhat
Freshly-minted MBAs wanting to work in a "hot space" is the surest sign of the peak of the market and upcoming downturn... I'm speaking as an MBA myself 😬
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Nearly 50 founders at
@lightspeedindia
Founders' Evening in Menlo Park. Grateful to the
#indiatoglobe
community and heartening to connect after 2-year involuntary hiatus🙏
#saas
#edtech
#fintech
#crypto
#b2b
@RaghuRavinutala
@chennamaneni
@rconline
@bipulsinha
@ajeets
@mohitsax
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2002-Nuclear winter post 9/11. 63 pitches, one Series B term sheet (my experience at our startup).
2021-Animal spirits roam aka 1 pitch, 63 term sheets.
These cycles *will* happen in your startup's life. Neither of these situations reflect the inherent worth of the startup.
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Superb running weather at Kukkarhalli lake, Mysore. 21C, breezy, overcast. 💯
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I say Delhi. They hear Tu Jaanta Nahi Mera Baap Kaun Hai?
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Super excited about Lightspeed's sixth geography: US+Israel+China+India+Europe+Southeast Asia. Partnering with founders across the globe.
#onelightspeed
Today we announce our expansion to Southeast Asia as we officially launch our operations from Singapore. We're excited to partner and support bold entrepreneurs building disruptive companies!
@altecremedy
@bsomaia
@PinnLawjindakul
@lightspeedvp
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Congrats
@mrgirish
and team! A big milestone for the India SaaS ecosystem! And we saw the India spirit in the S-1 language. 🙏🏽🇮🇳
And the numbers are super: $350mm run rate, growing 45%, 118% NDR, free-cash-flow positive.
Freshworks S1 filing for $100 million IPO in the US.
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"Stealth mode startup" makes a return on people's profiles. The only other time I remember this was in vogue was late 1999...
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I reshaped my news and analysis intake in 2019 with newsletters, paid subscriptions and print. Here's how it went for me. Keep in mind this is a tech investor and regional viewpoint so mileage may vary for you. 1/n
I'm focusing this year on reading news analysis rather than instant news/opinions on social media. Which one physical newspaper or news magazine subscription would you recommend (and why)?
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Learnt a lot from
@satyanadella
&
@Microsoft
team, along with my peers in venture capital. Satya is a great listener. We covered platforms vs aggregators, developer ecosystems, GTMs in US/EU vs India/Asia, economics of platform offerings relative to those who run on top etc.
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High gross margin x high LTV/CAC x high growth x high retention = nirvana. Look at your business objectively through the lens of these benchmark thresholds for your segment/model.
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Curious stat from Hotstar's report on video watching in India - truly late bed-times all across India!
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Absorbing Silicon Valley seed wisdom from
@semil
, venture partner at
@lightspeedvp
and founder at Haystack.
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Just finished a fascinating book: India Moving, A History of Migration by
@ChinmayTumbe
. Some takeaways that may impact how founders think about the Indian consumer base. . 1/n
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Not just edtech, zoomtech, SMBtech - the biggest step jump might have happened in mobility. The world has rediscovered bicycles! 1000 cyclists at India Gate every morning. Hearing 6 month wait in Germany to get a bicycle.
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We reviewed 2023 YTD for India wrt enterprise software (incl SaaS, infra, AI, security etc). Summarizing some (somewhat obvious) takeaways based on change from H1 to H2 2023:
>> A movement toward formation of infrastructure, security and AI startups relative to applications
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Overnight shocks have defined how India has moved (please forgive my omissions & recency bias) - 1991 balance of payments crisis, 2008 financial crisis, 2016 demonetization, 2016 Jio launch, 2016 UPI launch, 2020 Covid and now this.
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At board meeting of scaled India->US SaaS company yesterday. Refreshing to see NOIDA up there on the wall, right next to a super view of San Francisco.
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I was in the class. Many recommended Amazon just stick with books 😂 😳 Bezos gave his famous laugh and left us in suspense
Harvard Business School students providing feedback to Jeff Bezos in the early days of Amazon
via
@mikedariano
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Seeing increasing numbers of customer contracts in our SaaS portfolio with $400k- $1mm ACVs... heartening to see high ACV models scale from India (selling into India as well as global) in addition to $50-100k ACV mid-market and $5-25k ACV SMB models.
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