Garuda Ventures

The RAISE Global conference last week brought a number of LPs and GPs into town. As Arpan and I brainstormed how we might gather a small group of friends for engaging conversation and appropriate amounts of caffeine to make it through the event, the answer became clear: latte art class! Our goals for the event were certainly accomplished and, judging by some of the impressive hearts and flowers, more than a few folks have some barista side hustle opportunities! Some fun coffee facts (at least based on the 20 attendees): - Average number of cups of coffee per day: GPs: 3 vs. LPs: 2 (feels right…😄) - Most popular coffee drink: Lattes followed in close second by black coffee Thanks to everyone who could make it, and special shoutout to Kashish and the Aura Tea & Coffee team for showing us how to properly steam, swirl and pour!

From my recent chat on Garuda Ventures Brick by Brick, with seasoned engineering leader Uma Chingunde (former Stripe Render VMware), listen to her share the virtues of founders balancing their teams with both experienced operators and first-time folks - to capture both the unbridled optimism needed to make startups work, and "speed running" the mistakes that seasoned folks have seen and can avoid:

Let’s go!!

Check out the newest episode of our Brick by Brick podcast Garuda Ventures, with the amazing Uma Chingunde as our guest! (Links to episode in comments below) I had the pleasure of getting to know Uma through First Round Capital's amazing Angel Track program (h/t Brett Berson and everyone at FRC!), and through another mutual friend and founder, Kintan Brahmbhatt. Uma has had an awesome journey as an engineering leader at top companies such as VMware Stripe and Render, and has lived through life at big companies, hypergrowth, and the pre-PMF stage as well. She is such a genuine, thoughtful person, and you can tell she is cool under fire. In our chat we cover topics like: ✅ How an engineering leader should calmly lead and manage through a service outage ✅ Why and how great founders balance teams with both less experience and more experience ✅ Lessons from Stripe's hypergrowth period including a culture of "and" not "or" ✅ How to stand out in engineering interviews And lots more. Please check it out and enjoy! #brickbybrick #garudaventures

Last week Arpan and I, together with our friends Sarah and Somrat at Recall Capital, hosted an event to kick off the Fall alongside founders, food and drink. I had the pleasure of moderating a panel discussion with some close friends and active Series A investors, Anish Acharya at Andreessen Horowitz, Sara Ittelson at Accel, and Alexander Niehenke at Scale Venture Partners to get their thoughts on the market today and how founders should look to "cross the Series A chasm". Some key takeaways from our discussion for founders out there: - 📈 There is optimism in the market: It's not all doom and gloom, good deals are still getting funded, everyone is excited about what products are being built. The big question for investors is opportunity cost - 🤝 Build relationships early: If you can, choose three to five investors you would be thrilled to have lead the round and, assuming mutual interest, get to know them over time - 🤑 The “texture” of the numbers matter more than the numbers themselves: How you articulate your numbers and their quality to help investors appreciate what they represent about the potential of your business is critical - 🤖 It’s not all AI, but you should be talking about it: You don't need to be AI-native to get funded, but you need to know how AI will impact your business and market For a full recap on what it takes to raise your A, including a few tips on how to run better process, click the link below!

It's been busy here Garuda Ventures - check out our August 2024 Newsletter! https://lnkd.in/gphV_CNV ✅ 2 new investments: 💰 B2B2C alts-as-a-service infrastructure that allows any platform to embed private investments natively into its own customer experience quickly and easily 🔄 The AI discovery and promoted search platform for e-commerce ✅ Announcing our podcast, Brick by Brick! Over the last 15+ years we have been fortunate to build a large network of seasoned founders, operators, and investors, each with unique insights, learnings, and untold stories from the trenches. We thought we would put that network to work and launched our podcast, Brick by Brick, where we learn how successful startups were really built, directly from the people who built them. If you’re startup curious, running an early stage company yourself, or considering joining a company as an early employee, this pod’s for you! Find us on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple. ✅ Q2 Travels! We were on the road again in Q2, with a chance to meet with the community in LA, Boston, and Missouri. Special thanks to all of you who came out to see us. We're incredibly grateful for our growing Garuda community! ✅ Our portfolio is always hiring - check out https://jobs.garuda.vc/ for more ✅ Exciting portfolio news from Airbase, Amperon, A Parent Media Co. Inc. (APMC), FlexPoint and Rebel Space Technologies Click the link to the newsletter in the comments below to learn more! #preseed #seed #garudaventures #vc

Our next Brick by Brick episode has dropped, with Ben Sabrin from Weaviate!

Check out our next episode of Brick by Brick, with Andrew Peterson of Signal Sciences and Aviso Ventures!

Do early startup employees make better founders? As Dropbox employee #1, former founder, and advisor/investor, Aston Motes knows a thing or two about building and founding companies. I asked him this question on the Brick by Brick podcast. His answer may surprise you! 🔗 to the full episode in the comments. #brickbybrick

We’re excited to launch a new initiative here at Garuda Ventures - “Brick by Brick”, a podcast about how startups are really built, from the people who built them. Rishi Taparia and I have been partnering in various ways with startups for a long time. The early days of startups are hard. It can feel like chaos every day, you feel like you’re swimming upstream, and it’s just you and a small band of believers. It’s unglamorous, it’s blocking and tackling, and it’s not for the faint of heart. Brick by Brick will share stories from the trenches from people who have gone through it before - early employees, founders, early investors. And we’ll learn lessons, insights, and tactics that we hope will help you build and grow your companies. Read more below, and follow the links in the comments to subscribe! #brickbybrick #garudaventures https://lnkd.in/gRNQHF-F