Venktesh Shukla - Becoming One Of Silicon Valley’s Most Active Angel Investors

Halo Drop

If you’re an Indian entrepreneur or you're thinking about founding a startup in India, don’t miss Venktesh Shukla this week on Halo Drop. Venk is a general partner in Monta Vista Capital, a VC company focused on seed stage B2B companies, bringing a hands-on operational approach to the first years of a company's life.

As President of TiE, a nonprofit that exists to promote wealth creation through entrepreneurship, Venk presides over one of the most powerful networks focused on technology startups in Silicon Valley. Venk is also the founding chair and active member of the TiE angels, one of the most active angel investor groups in the Valley.

“In those 3 years that the group invested in 25 companies, I wrote only 5 checks, but those 5 companies turned out to be the best of those 25, and nobody else in that 100% investor group got those 5 right.”

Venk is also involved in Startup India, an initiative designed to make it easier to startup, fund and grow a company in India.

“I used to write extensively, criticising [startup] policies in newspapers in India. The government thought that the best way for them to prevent me from writing all these things is to bring me inside.”

In this latest episode, Venk shares his incredible journey: from his boyhood dream of being an engineer, to coming to the US for his MBA. How he became Teradyne’s most successful sales person having never sold before. Why he became a VC. How he became involved in Startup India. Why having a wide network of people is invaluable. And how meditation gets his head back in the game.

“I sit down and try to figure out where I want to be two years from today. That frames how I should be spending my time today. What do I want to see happen in two years from today, and then work backwards from there.”

On today’s podcast:

• Finding product market fit
• Becoming a TiE angel
• The advantage of being a distributed company
• Startup India
• His advice for new entrepreneurs

Links:

• Venktesh Shukla
• https://tie.org
• @vshukl
• https://www.montavc.com/
• Steve Blank - The Four Steps To The Epiphany
• Bertrand Russell - In Praise Of Idleness
• Ries & Trout - Positioning