E10: Abhishek Prasad (Managing Partner, Cornerstone Venture Partners)

Abhishek Prasad is the Managing Partner at Cornerstone Venture Partners (CSVP), an early-stage fund focused on backing startups that are ‘technology enablers’ in India and abroad. A few of the companies within their portfolio include Intelligence Node, Wizgo, Credit Nirvana and Smart Ship.

Abhishek is an IIM-B alumnus, committee member at NASSCOM and has previously spearheaded the Investment team at GenNext Ventures Fund (part of Reliance Industries Ltd.)

Follow both, Abhishek Prasad (@abhishek_csvp) and host, Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.

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Glossary of terms:

1. NPA: NPA or Non-Performing Assets is defined as a credit facility in respect of which the interest and/or installment of principal has remained 'past due' for a specified period of time. In simple terms, an asset is tagged as non-performing when it ceases to generate income for the lender.

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In this episode we will learn about:

1. Abhishek’s experience investing as a CVC and then now as a traditional VC fund

2. India’s value proposition to investors

3. Qualities in a startup/founding team that attracts CSVP

4. How involved an investor should be in an early stage startup

5. Areas where CSVP makes investments in

6. What is impact scaling and why is that the thesis for success at CSVP

7. False positives and false negatives with respect to investing in technology startups

8. What customer diligence is all about