Every Business is a People's Business Including a Venture Fund

Whatever you do, be different! That was the advice my mother gave me and I can't think of a better advice for an entrepreneur. "If you are different, you'll standout" -Anita Roddick

Entrepreneur India

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Jacob has been a star veteran venture capital investor investing in start-ups for the last 17 years. Jacob started with India's first angel fund called Infinity Ventures before setting up Seedfund in 2006 along with one of the founders at Infinity Ventures, Pravin Gandhi and another venture capital and ad veteran Mahesh Murthy.

Seedfund has been among the best performing early stage funds in India that saw Indian start-up ecosystem born and grow. And that's been most gratifying for Jacob over the years. "Seedfund's first fund that we raised in 2006 was the best performing fund in the country in terms of actual cash returns," asserts Jacob.

Online portal for used and new cars, CarWale, and bus ticketing start-up, redBus, were among the super exits for Seedfund and has companies like Chumbak, Edusports, and Voonik in its portfolio. Among many learnings over the course of talking to several entrepreneurs and investors, Jacob clearly understood that at the end of the day every business is a people business including running a venture fund.

"Fundamentally, it is the people business. If I have an unhealthy relationship with an entrepreneur then my role at the board gets completely negated because he or she will not look at me through that lens," believes Jacob. The people skills hence have to come naturally in business. "So even if I have a good point to make, there would be a different agenda for entrepreneur towards me and vice versa." Currently, Seedfund has 35 companies in its portfolio.

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