E2: Naganand Doraswamy (Founder and Managing Partner, Ideaspring Capital)

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Naganand Doraswamy is the Founder and Managing Partner at Ideaspring Capital, a venture capital firm investing in early stage enterprise (B2B/B2B2C) technology startups. Naganand is a former entrepreneur with a successful exit under his belt. He previously founded and built Span Infotech before its acquisition by Evry, a Norwegian IT services company.

Startups in Ideaspring’s portfolio include Lavelle Networks, Whodat, Karomi, Zapty (exit), Worxogo among others. You may read more about Ideaspring Capital here.

Additionally, you may follow Naganand on Twitter – @Naganandd

Glossary of terms you will encounter in this episode:

  1. B2B: Business-to-Business also called B2B, is a business model which involves transaction(s) between two or more businesses.

  2. B2B2C: Business-to-Business-to-Consumer, also called B2B2C, is a business model where two B2B firms engage in a relationship where value chain to set up to deliver products and/or services to an end user consumer.

  3. Fund-of-Funds (FoF): Fund-of-Funds, also known as a multi-manager investment — is a pooled investment fund that invests in other types of funds.

In this episode you will learn about:

  1. Naganand’s journey from entrepreneur to VC

  2. B2B enterprise market in India

  3. The differences between enterprise tech startups in India and the US

  4. Fund-raising as a fund manager and what it entails

  5. How VCs evaluate B2B tech startups during an investment opportunity in India

  6. Ideaspring Capital’s most recent investment and why Naganand is excited about them

  7. People who have had impact on Naganand’s career

  8. Naganand’s advice to (first time) entrepreneurs on fund-raising