E59: Nitin Sharma (General Partner, Antler India)

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Nitin Sharma is the General Partner at Antler India, and brings over a decade of experience in global venture capital, having invested in 50+ tech startups in multiple geographies. Most recently, he was the founder of FirstPrinciples, a thesis-driven syndicate and portfolio of 35+ startups, including Fynd, (acq. by Reliance), OnJuno, Niki, Kutumb, SharesPost (acq. By Forge), XOKind and many others backed by marquee investors. Nitin’s investing journey has previously spanned US venture capital at NEA and being a founding team principal at Lightbox Ventures in India.

In this episode we will cover:

1. Thoughts on Indian VC in the last 18 months – fundings, unicorns, valuations & growth (4:05)

2. Are we seeing an inflection point or have the last 18 months been an anomaly (9:15)

3. How are first time LPs looking at Indian VC? (19:18)

4. How to perfect the pre-seed game as an angel and as a VC? (24:35)

5. Developing an understanding of upcoming / niche sectors (30:32)

6. How does an investor embrace his/her biases to improve their judgement? (34:53)

7. Antler’s vision and strategy for India (41:04)

8. Challenges of going global from day 1? (47:03)

9. Why do we classify founders into familiar buckets while investing? (54:40)

10. Where is India in the crypto development cycle? (1:01:30)

11. Regulatory infrastructure for crypto to succeed in India (1:09:10)

12. Building mental models for VC investing (1:19:53)

13. Who will dominate Indian crypto VC market –– existing investors or new entrants? (1:25:01)