What newbies are learning from star entrepreneur-investors
Summary
"He taught us how to negotiate with cloud vendors, delivery boys ... the lot," says Sanghvi.Entrepreneur investors, who put money into other startups , often help fledgling companies dream beyond their immediate survival, help with advice and access, and iron out the initial troubles that plague every new business.Danish Ahmad, founder-CEO of Shopsity, an online-to-offline app that connects customers to lifestyle retailers in their vicinity, says that if it had not been for hard-headed inputs from entrepreneur investor Sandeep Aggarwal, founder of online marketplace Shopclues, his business would have shut shop by now. LogiNexts Sanghvi says he knew both his iconic investors long before they backed him -not only did he meet them often at business networking events but was also on an entrepreneur WhatsApp group, called Bombay Hackers Painters, with them. For example, Sandeep Aggarwal and I knew each other because we were running online retail outlets -Shopclues and Yebhi," he says.The network brings in much needed support at the birthing stage when venture capital funds tend to stay away . Srinivasans deep technology background and Sachin and Binnys connections were super critical in the initial days when I was not sure where the company was headed," says Mehta.He says they know when you are ready to scale up or when you should raise funds and how much equity you should part with. Venture capital investors are very good with numbers and translating the entire business plan on paper which is also critical for a startup, explains Bhangadia, and adds: "A mix of both is actually ideal."