Techcircle Startup Walkabout Pit Stop I - Lightspeed Advisory Services, Vasant Kunj

We began the Delhi edition of Tech Startup Summit 2014 yesterday with TC Walkabout- a unique initiative started by Techcircle where we arranged a visit to offices of prominent investors, startups and companies and an interaction with the top management. This time around, participants were taken to the offices of investors like Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Advisory Services, as well as leading companies including One97 and Snapdeal.

Our first Pit Stop was the office of Lightspeed Advisory Services, where we were greeted by Dev Khare, principal at Lightspeed. Khare started the session by promising the participants that the interaction will be informal and interactive.

After a quick presentation by Khare, participants were given a chance to shoot questions at him. The questions ranged from how a venture should go ahead with its valuation to what makes a startup interesting for a VC, among others.

Khare answered all the questions, stressing on the fact that it is important to have the right VC. "Do choose your investors very carefully. Ask them if they do investment in the same sector," he said.

Key Takeaways

Even startups have the option of choosing an investor. They should be very particular about the kind of investor they are approaching. "It's like a marriage. It is a long term commitment, and startups have the right to take a decision on who they want to marry."`

Running at a loss is not a bad thing as long as a startup has a long term plan for profitability.

Startups should avoid investors who have already invested in their competitors.

Post the interaction, we moved to our second Pit Stop, which happened to be the office of venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Stay tuned for more on that.

You can also check out our Twitter handle @techcirclein for updated pictures of the TC Walkabout.