E39: Pratik Poddar (Principal, Nexus Venture Partners)

The Desi VC: Indian Venture Capital | Angel Investors | Startups | VC

Pratik Poddar is the Principal at Nexus Venture Partners.

As an entrepreneur turned VC, Pratik is excited about working alongside technology entrepreneurs to create an impact on the lives of millions of people in India. He is most passionate about consumer, community/content, education, e-commerce, financial services, and healthcare startups.

Prior to joining Nexus, Pratik spent three years working on his startups in social e-commerce and content marketing spaces where he experienced firsthand the challenges of building a company. Earlier, he worked as a quant analyst and algorithmic trader at Morgan Stanley, and private equity analyst at Blackstone. Pratik has a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.

In this episode, we will cover:

1. Look back at 2020 (2:15)

2. Will VCs look at portfolio constructions differently post the pandemic? (4:50)

3. What signals is Pratik looking for from an investment deal? (6:12)

4. How should VCs protect themselves so as to not fall prey to bad deals? (9:01)

5. What does a Principal at a VC firm do? (11:47)

6. How does Pratik add value to startups (14:50)

7. Opportunities and challenges of bottoms-up investing (18:55)

8. How does operating experience help investors in VC? (23:05)

9. Products vs Platforms: How can founders of today think about converting products into platforms? (30:27)

10. What don’t founders realize about building for India? (39:49)

11. What don’t VCs understand about middle India? (46:05)

12. How does Nexus look at new sectors and what is their approach to investing? (51:16)

13. Rapid fire (55:25)