E40: Vinod Shankar (Partner, Java Capital)

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Vinod Shankar is the Co-Founder and Partner at Java Capital, an investment syndicate investing in sectors such as healthtech, consumer internet, deep tech, SaaS and EdTech. Prior to founding Java Capital, Vinod was the Associate Vice President at Kalaari Capital and before that was the Head of Sales & Marketing at Just Books Inc.

In this episode we cover:

  1. Why launch an investment fund in the middle of the pandemic? (1:57)

  2. Challenges of raising a fund during the pandemic? (5:29)

  3. Vinod’s journey into VC (11:23)

  4. How do you do cold outreach to VCs (19:10)

  5. Chief Hustle Officer –– what do you mean by that? (29:30)

  6. Sourcing startups – Cold vs Direct (35:43)

  7. Experience at Kalaari (39:09)

  8. Experience which had the most impact on Vinod’s life (45:41)

  9. Responsibilities that VCs bear on nurturing the ecosystem (54:30)

  10. How do you encourage sustainable businesses within VC? (1:01:14)

  11. Rapid fire (1:09:35)

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