Insight into the VC world from the lens of a VC veteran
The book - Moonshot Game - gives an insider view into the world of VCs from the perspective of VC veteran Rahul Chandra and his VC firm Helion Ventures. Helion Ventures raised $600M in total, investing in more than 130 ventures like BigBasket, MakeMyTrip, RedBus.
This book is an honest reminder about its harsh nature and the fortitude one needs to survive in the VC arena. The author gives us a detailed insider outlook on the adventures and misadventures being a VC brings.
- A key lesson is that becoming a successful VC requires one to master the skill and art of selecting. Admittedly this ability is developed by evaluating and analysing the countless pitches of various themes one has to listen to and envisioning the future with regards to those projects.
- Offers an in-depth understanding of the selection process of one of their most successful deal (MakeMyTrip) and how they survived near-death during the dot-com bubble burst. He also shares his insights on missing on great deals (BookMyShow).
- Paytm pitched to Helion in 2017 and were keen to invest. Soon Paytm was locked in by a different VC who offered them the term sheet sooner than Helion.
- Rahul shares the lessons he learnt from unsuccessful investments like Ji Grahak and the perils that overzealous dealings can cause.
- The book touches on the art of negotiations when it comes to making deals and describing various scenarios.
- Startups can have 3 different phases with regards to evaluating the success of funding them. This is usually 3 year period. Clueless phase, sane phase and then lazy phase.
- Rahul describes the fund's experience in the world of financial services with its investments in Spandana and Equitas. Equitas listed on the stock markets with almost $210M in private capital backing Helion's search for businesses with solid market demand which could raise late-stage capital on fundamentals.
- The author points out the problem faced by non-tech companies that are funded by VC. They have to sort out the economics after they have established unprofitable methods.
- E-commerce started gaining traction in 2011 with growing roots from 2008 and 09. Tiger Global invested $10M in Flipkart. Helion also believed India could not facilitate the capital needed to build a horizontal e-commerce business at the time. Vertical e-commerce made more sense due to constraints on capital in the market.
- Helion ventured into the vertical with their investment in LetsBuy. They witnessed hypergrowth which was enthralling but also demanded enormous cash to expand. Eventually, their runway kept reducing and was bought out by Flipkart.