Warren Buffett once said, “The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself … the more you learn, the more you will learn.”
Keeping that thought in mind, the JIMS Rohini Fraternity of IIC conducted yet another knowledge session which revolved around Venture Capitalist Funding opportunities for early startups.
The session was hosted by Anukampa Kukreja and Vaibhav Gupta who welcomed the entire audience including esteemed members of the organizations and dignitaries of behalf of the fraternity and shortly went on towards extending a warm introduction to our honorable chief guest Ms. Vandana Tolani; who have had a stellar career starting from family offices in Singapore and Jakarta to serving as an angel investor in Indonesia and eventually becoming the Founder and CEO of Covanto: India’s leading Investment Banking firm. Not only is she a leading entrepreneur who carries within herself a reservoir of eternal knowledge but is also someone who tries to permeate that knowledge and inspire others every time she gets an opportunity to.
The session commenced with the speaker introducing the audience to the touchpoints that she was going to cover as they moved through the flow of the discussion.
Then she talked about the three major mistakes that majority of entrepreneurs make during the early stages of their startups, including distorted product-market fit, inefficient team structures and inadequate analysis of competitors.
As the session proceeded, she also spoke about the best practices to raise funding which should be religiously followed by early –stage entrepreneurs:
- Develop investor pipelines and track interactions
- Preparing a holistic pitch deck
And further went on to discuss the key resources that entrepreneurs spearheading early stage startups should have at their disposable in order to raise the right kind of funding, have the right investors on board at the right time.
Having acted as an angel investor herself, she understood how vital it was to understand the ideology of the investor if you want to secure the funding and that’s why she also talked about four ways in which Venture Capitalists think differently and put forth her splendid book recommendations which the audience could refer to understand the air around this thematic area better.
Last but not the least, the session was followed by an interactive and engaging question and answer session after which the hosts extended a token of gratitude to the dignitaries and the speaker who took out their precious time to enlighten the students about the world of Venture Capitalism and startups.