Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Asha Jadeja Motwani. Asha, welcome on the show.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Thank you, Nitin. Such a pleasure to be here.

Nitin Bajaj

Pleasure is all ours. Let’s start with the big question. Who is Asha?

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Asha is a mom, doctor, venture capitalist, philanthropist, art collector, and, increasingly, sort of a global citizen who is doing a whole bunch of stuff between US and India and with with some little bit of presence even in Europe now. So that’s me. I would say global citizen who is who is trying to bring about, you know, changes in India, especially, which, which tackle, you know, poverty and a and a scale, hopefully, And by bringing various things like entrepreneurship, by supporting women entrepreneurs, by helping girls with education, safety, things like that. So that’s my, my my work right now is mostly focused on on getting entrepreneurs who are already doing fantastic work on the ground, accelerate and follow a certain vision.

Nitin Bajaj

Love it. And I think one attribute you missed out on which I would like to add is you’re very humble, very approachable, very down to earth despite the fact, you know, the impact that you create in whatever field you you touch your hands on. So thank you for being you.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

No. Thanks. Thanks for saying that. Yeah.

Nitin Bajaj

Now I would love to know, having accomplished so much, what gets you up in the morning all excited, motivated to go do x?

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Full speed ahead? Yes. I feel that I’m blessed with, with an act of, of caring activity, of of being able to care. A lot of lot of us sometimes can get distracted. Mhmm. And we want to be, you know, we get distracted with our own little things here and there. I I feel like for some reason, I’ve had from from childhood, I would say, an attitude or maybe it also came about because of family. Mhmm. An attitude of sort of saying that it matters to us if somebody around us is not doing well. And how do you how how do you make can you make a difference? And if so, what are the resources you have on your table? You look at those resources. You map them. And you say, how do I connect these dots so that that person out there that is either suffering or not doing well or can do better and make a difference in their community? How what what can I do that will make a difference? That’s what wakes me up in the morning and gets me jumping out of bed. And, you know, thank heavens that there is there is so much to be done everywhere. It’s not just not just India, but I I wake up in the morning and I look at what’s going on in east Palo Alto or across the bridge, you know, even in the Bay Area. Yes. And there are there is so much to be done. There is so much problem solving to be done. There is so much, I I personally don’t believe in this whole idea of sort of wealth Mhmm. Kind of equalization. Asha I think that’s something that governments can handle. But I do feel that if there is, suffering, of people around you, then that’s something that needs to be addressed. And that we can make a difference. Each of us can make a difference. So, you know So true.

Nitin Bajaj

Yeah. I’m very curious to know the why, but also how do you go about, you know, thinking and dividing your time and energy between being a venture capitalist and an astute one of that and then being a philanthropist?

Asha Jadeja Motwani

So the division of time is blurring Nitin. Increasingly, you know, as, as I move forward in life, in the sense that a lot of my philanthropic projects are based around entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs who are already making a difference. Mhmm. We call them social entrepreneurs but they are actually not social entrepreneurs. They are they are also very for profit. They are, you know, they are business oriented. They are they are economic oriented. They’re problem solving kind of entrepreneurs that I work with. And these folks are bringing to the table so much of their own resources even if they’re bigger, but they’re in a in a very smart, intelligent kind of a way. So so the so my own, you know, the the boundaries between pure venture capital, which was, you know, how do I make that 10 x or a 1,000 x in a matter of 3 years or 4 years or 10 years? From that to saying, how do I invest in this particular social entrepreneur whose impact is fantastic on the ground? Yes. But the returns may be slower and, you know, more far out in the future.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

But the returns have to be there. I don’t believe in, you know, unless it’s a very, very specific area. I don’t believe in the grants model. I prefer, models where, I I tell my entrepreneurs, even social entrepreneurs, that this is an investment. Yes. How are you Asha be able to not only return my investment, but return it to me with a profit? How will you do that? And once I push my other peers to think like that, their own sustainability level goes up. And they think much more as a as a business, as a sustainable business will not be dependent, you know, on on grants.

Nitin Bajaj

And I think that’s the best way to do it. How do you bring in that sustainability model within the structure instead of expecting and going in fundraising

Asha Jadeja Motwani

on a constant basis? Yes.

Nitin Bajaj

If I were to get a sense of, you know, what I love to talk about and I know that’s dear to you also is the impact. What would you say is the impact of your investments, that you can measure as of right now?

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Measurement is a tricky

Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Question. Because when you see the there is there are there are two aspects of measurement. 1 is, of course, the usual metrics of source. Saying how many people were impacted, how were they impacted, and what were the you know, what were the usual metrics for that. The second is, these are I would say these are more intangible effects. So for example, let me give you an example of, you know, like, for example, I have a robotics start ups, start up out of India. It’s not just about employment that they are, so the measurable impact would be okay. How many people are they employing? What is their revenue? How are the the profits? How are the other employees doing in the company? The usual metrics. But then there are also metrics around, you know, these guys are beginning to be a role model for other companies in that space. And the founders are actually now becoming mentors to younger entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. So so what’s happening is you’ll have other people who are from Bangalore or around Bangalore who are now reaching out to my entrepreneurs and and getting their feedback, advice, introductions, and so on. Those are intangible, you know, things that that that we are making an impact on. And and I think those are invaluable. I think it’s just it’s it’s creating a mind shift in in young people. Things also like, for example, one of the things that I really, was was surprised to find is that, some of my entrepreneurs have, you know, based on certain role models decided not to do college, actually, and drop out of college, and continue doing this data. And one of them right now is, he he dropped out of high school, actually. He is now he’s developed a drone, that has is now, you know, it hovers over land mines. Uh-huh. So his current customer is Ukraine. So he’s actually, you know, neutralizing land mines in Ukraine. Yes. And he’s 20. Dropped out of high school and college. Thankfully, his parents did not mind, but I do see myself as being, you know, responsible for his dropping out of high school. And and it never scared me. I knew that he was, you know, he was on great things. He was on he’s on to great things, actually. But, you know, there are these these are these are things these are impacts that we, we must appreciate, actually. We must learn to, you know, to know that these are things that are extremely important.

Nitin Bajaj

I agree. I mean, they’re intangible, but not really.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Yeah. So

Nitin Bajaj

I love that. Now as you go out and, you know, escalate and be an agent of change and be a catalyst, what is the biggest challenge you’re facing?

Asha Jadeja Motwani

I would say I mean, I I see challenges as opportunities, Nathan. You know, Nathan, I do I do see them as, let me give you an example. So let’s say if I’m looking at startup scene in India, and I find that there’s some regulatory challenges. Right? That there are some bottlenecks that, that, you know, that just slow down the whole whole entrepreneurial ecosystem. So if I see that, not only do I make it make it my business to communicate to the Indian, you know, political system, including to the prime minister Mhmm. And get that, message out. But I also see that as saying not only are we getting that regulation down, but what are we substituting it with? Do we need a substitution? And if you’re substituting it, can it be an excellent rather than, you know, something that is rent seeking, you know, old, old beast? So so yeah. So I think I I do see them as opportunities right now. You know? In India, I think the the the the bottleneck, I would say, or obstacle is is the, the existence of lots and lots of legacy regulations that we don’t need. India has done a fabulous job. Actually, Modi has done a fabulous job of getting rid of many, many regulations. But I think there are many more

Nitin Bajaj

to go.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Agree. You know? So

Nitin Bajaj

I love how you take on a challenge and flip it around and see how you can make a difference with that attitude, with that relentless approach and help these entrepreneurs to engage and improve and accelerate. Is there, in addition to this, an opportunity that you’re most excited about?

Asha Jadeja Motwani

I’m actually, I would say I’m, I mean, personally Asha VC, I see, you know, artificial intelligence, AI, as being huge. It’s it’s like it’s it’s a revolution of its own. Mhmm. Just like the mobile phone revolution. It is huge. Mhmm. We still don’t understand fully the extent to which this thing can, can change the way we live, work, and learn. So so that’s something I think I’m super excited about. I just I I, you know, have just begun to scratch the surface of this beast. And I hope that I can learn more. But, of course, all of you have probably have tasted, you know, the the power of chat GBD. Oh, yes. But that’s just the 1st generation starting point of what’s possible. So I think for me, AI is a is a huge opportunity. 2nd opportunity which is untapped, across the planet is women. Yes. We don’t have women in the workforce in most of the, the, you know, parts of the planet. And this is huge because once women start getting professionally trained and into the workforce, we will start seeing, paradigm shifts in the way we work Nitin the way we, you know, we understand problems and the way we solve them. I actually think that the more that we have women even in defense Mhmm. And so on, the the more likely we are to see less preponderance of war. And, you know, if there are virtually it’s just men running the show right now and you have wars all over and, you know, strife. And I think that is likely to go down significantly if women were in positions of authority in armies, in defense, and things like that. I think that’s a huge untapped opportunity.

Nitin Bajaj

I so agree with you. I think it’s a bigger opportunity than AI.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

That’s true. Yeah. It will change the history of our planet.

Nitin Bajaj

Yes. Yeah. Asha, as we look forward, I would love to take a look back in the rear view mirror and talk about 2 instances. 1 that became a success beyond your imagination, and another one that did not meet your expectations and was a failure became a lesson.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

I would I would say the the biggest success as you would know and, you know, most of the most of people in the Bay Area would know is that Rajiv and I were very closely involved in the creation of Google. Yes. Rajiv, much more so than me. But I think that was probably the biggest success story. Mhmm. Did we know about it when Google started? We knew that it was very powerful because the algorithms that Rajeev had, you know, had coauthored, both page rank and anchor text, were so disruptive. I mean, they were mathematically so difficult and so disruptive that we knew that something big was cooking. And the people’s response, response on the campus when when Google was released as the search engine on Stanford campus. Mhmm. The the results were so good. The search results were so good that we knew that there was something big cooking there. But we didn’t know exactly how it was going to turn out given that there were at least, I would say, 6 other pretty good, you know, search engines already running. So so the biggest success was was Google, and I think that’s something that, I’m lucky and that we were that I was also here at Stanford, and Rajiv was on the computer science faculty. And Larry, Sergei, and Rajiv and all of them worked together on this. But but I think what what was really the learning from that really was that they started out with a vision Mhmm. Saying saying how do we, as computer scientists, make a difference in this world to make it a better to make it a better world. Right? Mhmm. And they really felt that with their skills in computer science and mathematics, if they brought all the information off the planet they really started with a very simple idea. They brought all the information off the planet into the hands of all the human beings. Mhmm. That’s an instant equalizer in many ways. Right? And so just imagine, such a simple philosophical idea is what created this, you know, this search engine. In terms of, what were the, what would I I mean, you know, what were the sort of biggest failures or I mean, many startups. Right? So I would say out of, every 10 startups that I funded or that Rajeev and I funded Mhmm. We I would say maybe about 4 to 5 would succeed. And another 6 may not make it. And this is the norm. I mean, we did much

Nitin Bajaj

better. Yes.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

We were still much better. But, but the, but the learning there in all these the failures or the or the start ups going very up was that of course, it wasn’t just a loss of our investment, which was trivial compared to what what what what was at stake. But I think the, the learning there was that the one thing that really makes a difference is the vision of the founders of the entrepreneurs. If their vision is is huge, it’s it’s a much bigger than their own, you know, sort of, you know, matrix of where they want to be in the next 5 years or something. If their vision was was broad to begin with, that is something that was critical. That learning was important for for both of us. That it that, in the founder’s vision was something that we really started betting on later on. And, one of the companies that I think was a big big, you know, surprise for me when it failed was a company called Adchemy. Mhmm. It’s an advertising engine that was developed around the whole Google ecosystem. Mhmm. And, and it yeah. It for me, a bit both earlier and I thought it was going to be a big big play. And it it, it it did sort of go belly up. It was Asha acquired by Walmart or something. But, but it was a disappointment.

Nitin Bajaj

Great. As long as we learn from it Yes.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

We move on. Yes. Absolutely.

Nitin Bajaj

Asha, I would love to move us into my favorite part of the show, which is the one line life lessons. I’d love for you to share a few of your life lessons with us.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Sure thing. Nitin, and thank you again for, you know, inviting me on your show. I think, one of the lessons that I’ve learned as I, you know, run into challenges in life is to not look at the word as kind of either or. You know, I started substituting or for the word and. Yes. And I Nitin that that has really helped me to say, okay. One can do this and that, and and and somehow make it happen. So that ends up being inclusive. It unites people. It unites opposing parties. And I think unity is much more important than, division of any kind. And it’s possible to do it, and many of us are able to do it well. I think that’s a lesson, one important lesson. The second, lesson I would say that I can, you know, I can share is that, you know, when you interact with new people, start out with the assumption that there is a core goodness to everybody, you know, and begin from there. After that, you can, you know, if you run into lots of evidence of somebody being a bad apple, that’s fine. Act on it. But in general, I think it’s important to start out with the assumption that everybody has a good heart.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

And, that, you know, if you peel a few layers, it it it you can make it work. You can make it work. Yeah. We are lucky to be here and, you know, we we we forget, I think, that we are here for a limited time on the planet. You know? And so if that’s I would say there’s probably the 3rd, you know, lesson if at all. That, since we are here for a short period of time, if we reverse engineer from the end and say, what can I do in the next 20 years or 30 years? Right? What is it that I can do that that will make the world a better place? It will be fun for me. And how do, you know, how do I make this happen? It’s actually quite easy then to put the steps forward. And, remember that, that this is a journey to be enjoyed. Life is about, you know, really enjoying oneself, having fun, working hard, and and know, getting some results. So yeah.

Nitin Bajaj Love that. Asha, thank you so much for making the time to be with us, for sharing your journey, your story, your successes, and your lessons. We really appreciate it.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Thank you so much, Nitin. This is great. Yeah. It is, thank you for having me on your show and, look forward to, having our own fellows now slowly getting more visibility on your show.

Nitin Bajaj

So thank you. Thank you so much.

Asha Jadeja Motwani

Thank you.