We have been funding companies that not too many people seem to like initially. These companies solve rather unsexy problems of rather common people across the world. We don't care if it looks ugly, as long as it promises to grow like weed.
However, the process is rather subjective. Sometimes we feel network effect is more important than the tech, or that tech is more important than design. At other times, we feel distribution is more important than engagement. These discussions help us judge how strongly you feel about the market and your approach to it.

It starts with an initial call - usually on one Zoom with a partner or an associate. There may be a follow-up action or call after that. The next step? Pitch to a larger group - two or more partners after which its either a pass or a final pitch to the whole IndiaQuotient team. There will be intermediate coffees that will be more about knowing you. After our IC, we will get a termsheet out in 24 hours. The whole process can take as little as one week, but we prefer a bit of “slow dating” to give founders a chance to know us better.

The intersection of smartphone, big data, and design is changing our lives. We see people around us doing almost everything on the smartphone. Buying, talking, learning, playing, getting entertained, paying bills, and more. We think that a country of our size has big markets and bigger markets. Choosing a market is about relative size, be it food, water, housing, healthcare, education, finance, SaaS, or discretionary spends.

Find us on LinkedIn and Twitter, at events and conferences, or via common friends. Become friends with our existing founders. As a last resort, you could even write us an email.

Sunday evening, because we just can’t wait for the week to start!

It is never too early to reach out to us. The best time to pitch is when you haven’t got a single customer, and the best form of pitching is a link to your product.

It will help if you describe yourself in a word or two: hacker and blogger, designer mom of two, consultant turned cook, musician turned data analyst, doctor turned banker, etc. We ideally want you to be all of these.

Thorough research on Google has shown that the following criteria define a good entrepreneur. We want all of these, or just the last one!

• Hunger - underdogs, like struggle
• Hustle – take very quick decisions using the subconscious
• Have only one focus in life
• Very frugal; lifestyle already sacrificed
• Love breaking the norms/your surname is Bansal

We think it’s about the execution, not the idea. In India, some business models are just dead on arrival. And yet there are many ideas that will work very well here. We don’t mind if you are inspired by somebody, but we prefer that you write your own script. Thanks, Firstround!

We have sleepless nights after we say ‘sorry’ to an entrepreneur. So, please make sure your company is disrupting something, shaking things up, offending a lot of people. Take a cue or two from this list:

• You think current social networks will fade away, like their predecessors, and you want to build the next one. From India.
• You were denied a loan by a bank and want to raze down all those big buildings and shrink them to an app.
• You want to eliminate exams entirely, and do assessments by monitoring the pulse rate of students during classes.
• You don't like current music apps, and think your taste of music should play on its own for you.
• You want to make consumer hardware in India, even though your batchmates think you are nuts to stay back here.
• You want to create a brand that leverages the internet for marketing, sales, and distribution.

It’s an extra round of dilution. Period. Most of our founders raise their first cheque from us, and many of them add angels of their choice to our round.

We have the highest graduation rate from our round to follow-on rounds, at over 75%. And we have given bridge rounds to each and every portfolio company when they asked for it.

We promise no ‘board meetings’ till we are the only investors in the company. You will find us available any time of the day, but won’t hear from us chasing you for ‘data’ and reports. You don’t treat us as your ‘directors’ in the real sense, but as a resource that you can leverage when you need.

You will always get a partner on your board, along with another supporting partner. And each partner does not more than 3 deals a year, staking their personal credibility behind the company, regardless of the deal size. So whether its 150K or 2M, you will be equally important to us.