The Neon Show
Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journey from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.
Hence was born the Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.
We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
The Neon Show
What's Happening to VC in India w/ All In Capital, Peer Capital & Upekkha
Venture capital is much fancied today.
Is this job which looks like cutting cheques for products and founders you like, for everyone?
As for any work, there are traits you should have and some which won’t help you on the job.
We have with us Kushal Bhagia (All In Capital), Karthik Prabhakar (Peer Capital), and Rajan (Upekkha).
Three people who interestingly all began as engineers and took different career paths to today become Fund managers of leading VC firms.
All In Capital’s $24M pre-seed fund backing early-stage founders,
Peer Capital’s $75M early-stage fund investing in tech-first Indian startups from seed to Series A,
Upekkha's $40M Capital’s accelerator-style fund supporting B2B SaaS startups.
Tune in!
01:53 – Why builders shouldn’t become VCs?
03:12 – Why best VCs sell well & stay curious
05:12 – How the VC job is like Flying a plane
07:48 – How parental instincts enable VCs?
10:42 – Is fundraising harder than ever?
14:12 – What makes people write VC cheques?
18:03 – Where do India’s rich family offices invest?
20:30 – Why India still doesn’t have its own YC?
22:55 – The OG YC when startups weren’t cool
28:00 – Can YC’s numbers ever be replicated?
33:03 – David v/s Goliath of Small vs large funds
39:02 – Zepto’s first $50k cheque
40:22 – Sectors VCs won’t touch
41:35 – Story-driven v/s numbers-driven Fundraising
44:36 – How we missed Swiggy, Postman & Zepto?
46:18 – The best VCs
48:24 – What needs to change in Indian VC?
49:47 – Founders we’d invest In (But not work for)
51:25 – Unlearnings as an Investor
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India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.
This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.
What is Neon Fund?
We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.
Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.
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Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww
Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
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This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.