UVC: Anand Datta from Nexus Venture Partners on why calm is a superpower, importance of product communication and why lending is a business of collections

Understanding VC

Anand is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build high impact enterprises in Fintech, InsureTech, Education, Logistics. With a background in operations at high growth companies, Anand is keen to help start-ups with his experience. He believes in the immense scope that “Bharat” presents for innovative India specific models.

Anand was an entrepreneur and business leader prior to joining Nexus. He was a founding team member of MagicPin, a hyperlocal deal discovery platform. Most recently he was heading New Market P&L and Growth across Asia for BIMA (Milvik) – a global insure tech company. Previously Anand worked with Bain & Co. as a strategy consultant where he advised Technology and Consumer Goods companies in India and Silicon Valley.

Anand holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur.

Key Takeaways

• How a background in consulting has helped Anand in his career as an entrepreneur and a VC
• What is first principle thinking and how you can apply it to solve large problems
• Why ‘being calm is a superpower’ for a founder going through the topsy turvy journey of building a startup
• Why founders should focus on communication as part of their product’s distribution, marketing, customer onboarding, customer support, and how startup teams can develop their communication skills
• 2 startup pitches that stood out out for Anand, the core questions a startup should be answering while pitching to VCs & control rights to keep in mind while working with a VC
• Why lending is a business of collections
• Challenges of a category building business and why your story matters more than anything else while you are building a category building business
• How the Indian tech ecosystem has matured and why now you see startups building products for the global markets
• Why lesser the regulation, the better for the tech ecosystem and why the next 10 years is going to be a golden period for the Indian tech ecosystem