E30: Utsav Somani (Partner, AngelList India and iSeed)

Utsav Somani is a Partner at AngelList India and General Partner at iSeed (a seed-stage fund looking to bridge successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Indian founders in the search of money as well as the expertise and knowledge of scaling up a startup).

Follow Utsav (@somani_utsav), host Akash (@bhatvakash) and our podcast (@thedesi_vc) on Twitter.

. . .

The Desi Startups of the Week:

1. Flatheads: Flatheads is an all-day casual sneakers designed for work wear and optimized for 14-hour comfort.

2. MoveABox: MoveABox is Bangalore-based startup helping people to vacate and relocate their homes in a personalized manner.

. . .

In today’s episode we will cover:

1. Micro VC –– overcrowded with competition or not? (7:50)

2. Recap of VC landscape during COVID (17:08)

3. Raising a fund during the months of the lockdown (21:18)

4. Takeaways from raising a fund (22:56)

5. Utsav’s background (24:14)

6. What is Micro VC and how does Utsav see it within the Indian context (27:11)

7. Why is there a rise in Micro VC funds across India? (29:48)

8. Is Micro VC more riskier? (35:13)

9. What is the value proposition of a Micro VC (37:16)

10. How does an emerging fund manager attract good deal flow? (41:54)

11. Trend –– LPs turning GPs (48:13)

12. Dissection of Utsav’s tweet on the disconnect between macro trends (51:14)

13. Rapid fire (52:02)

2356 232

Suggested Podcasts

Quint Tatro & Daniel Czulno, CFP® a passionate look at everything money from budgeting, savings, investing, stocks, bonds, debt. For those that enjoy Dave Ramsey, Jill On Money, Smart Money, Bigge

Jaclyn Norton

Studio To Be

The Unforgivables