[00:00:00 – 00:00:18] Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to The INDUStry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is my namesake, Nitin Pachisia, but much more famous, much more accomplished. Nitin is the cofounder of Unshackled Ventures. Nitin, welcome on the show.

[00:00:18 – 00:00:19] Nitin Pachisia 

Thanks, Nitin.

[00:00:20 – 00:00:23] Nitin Bajaj

Pleasure to have you. So tell us who’s Nitin?

[00:00:25 – 00:01:07] Nitin Pachisia 

It’s a deep question. So, you know, I’m a father of 2, husband of a phenomenal wife. I’m an immigrant. So my character is defined by by background, in India and then, now as a future American. I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a I’m an explorer. Meaning when I see problems, I see opportunities. I explore solutions in them. They don’t always have to be business problems or opportunities. They’re just they are. You know, alongside that, just I’m on a on a great journey here in pursuing my, American dream. So I guess I’m a I’m I’m an American dream pursuer.

[00:01:09 – 00:01:13] Nitin Bajaj

Aren’t we all? So tell us what you do for a living.

[00:01:14 – 00:02:22] Nitin Pachisia 

I run a fund called The Unshackled Ventures, which I started with Manan as my business partner, in 2014. We invest in immigrant founded companies. This was, we didn’t know that we’re becoming VCs. This came out of our personal experiences having been building companies while on VCs and then realizing that there’s really no, resources or support structure that has been built specifically for immigrants, who come to the US and who’ve been massively successful, in the past. But they had to figure a lot of things out, not just about immigration, but kinda how they become a part of the mainstream ecosystem. Mhmm. And we saw that as an opportunity to solve an inefficiency in the system. It turned out The VC was the best way to to offer this, solution, and so we became VCs in 2014. We invest at pre seed stage often pre product, pre revenue. And we’ve done about 50, 51 investments now. Very active throughout COVID, with or without COVID. We we’re investing if founders are founding.

[00:02:22 – 00:02:37] Nitin Bajaj

You know, that makes me think immigration is tough. It’s bureaucratic. It’s uncertain, and just riddled with a lot of challenges. When you combine that with entrepreneurship, which tends to have similar challenges. Why do it?

[00:02:37 – 00:03:37] Nitin Pachisia 

So immigrants have been founding companies and been very successful. The immigration landscape changed significantly in the 1st decade of the century. And so, you know, what used to take a few years to get your green card now takes 15. I want a calculation where I would get my green card in a 165 years. I’m not gonna live that long. And so when that shift happens, you really have to ask yourself, what can we do to make it easier for people to start companies or really just do what they wanna do. Right? And and that was kinda that was us 6 years ago starting our companies and, attorneys telling us you can’t do it. So it’s the the energy for us really comes from really brilliant entrepreneurs who want to solve big problems and create American jobs in the process. We can play a small role in kinda helping them do it faster. Right? They will be successful with or without us. We just think we’re in a really fortunate situation where we can help them do it faster.

[00:03:38 – 00:03:48] Nitin Bajaj

I I sense a lot of modesty and humility. So let me take that and put it into perspective. What is Unshackled’s impact on the US economy as of right now?

[00:03:50 – 00:04:32] Nitin Pachisia 

Well, we think it’s what it is right now is a fraction of what it will be in the in the next 10 years. But, you you know, we’ve I mentioned invest in 51 companies. Mhmm. These are companies that are solving, really deep problems. Whether it’s about food, or the future of food, the future of work, the the future of work not just in tech, but in core industries that are the foundation of the American economy. As of right now, we know that we’ve created our portfolio companies have created more than 200 American jobs. We think that number is gonna skyrocket as soon as one of these companies break out, because that’s really the phase where it goes from, you know, when zeroes start getting added to The company’s employee count. And that’s gonna be the fun part to talk about.

[00:04:32 – 00:04:44] Nitin Bajaj

Let me ask you about this current administration’s stance on immigration. How has that impacted your outlook, your investments, and your discussions with your LPs?

[00:04:44 – 00:05:05] Nitin Pachisia 

As far as administration’s view on immigration, there’s so many layers to, you know, what’s bad about it. And and the top aspect of that, in my opinion, is the narrative change. Because right now, we don’t have a clear narrative on where do we stand with respect to immigration.

[00:05:05 – 00:05:05] Nitin Bajaj

Right.

[00:05:05 – 00:05:12] Nitin Pachisia 

Do we want people to come to the US or not come to the US? To study, to work, to start something for their own betterment?

[00:05:13 – 00:05:14] Nitin Bajaj

Right.

[00:05:14 – 00:06:23] Nitin Pachisia 

That is creating a lot of confusion because let’s assume you, a few years ago, if you were choosing where to go to school, are you going to pick US or you’re going to pick a country that’s a little more clear on what the pathway for you is once you graduate? So there’s a chaos from a narrative standpoint, and I think we need to take back that narrative to make it clear that immigration is good for this country and immigrants are good for this country, and they’ve only added positive value to The country. The short term issues are actually much smaller. Right? The visas are still getting approved. Mhmm. Obviously, for some people, it’s at worst because they’ve gotten denied. But at the process, the machine is running. There are changes that are happening slowly like students, for example, are dealing with a lot of confusion right now. So there’s some ground level, personal individual level realities that we have to deal with, but it’s relatively a much smaller risk from a country standpoint than the narrative shift is. You know, we’re recently talking to an entrepreneur who’s a DACA recipient.

[00:06:24 – 00:06:24] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:06:25 – 00:06:36] Nitin Pachisia 

And there’s just a different level of of fear and and uncertainty around that. So at individual level, it’s a much bigger chaos than it is at macro level.

[00:06:36 – 00:06:49] Nitin Bajaj

I’m gonna switch gears and talk about you a little more than we had in the past. Tell us one thing you regret not doing, and as a follow-up, one thing you do regret doing.

[00:06:50 – 00:07:01] Nitin Pachisia  When we started, you know, I wish I had a better emotional understanding of entrepreneurs, and I could, you know sorry. That’s my dog in the background. She wants to be a part of this. Yeah.

[00:07:01 – 00:07:02] Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

[00:07:02 – 00:07:46] Nitin Pachisia 

The there are times when you’re pulling in opposite directions. And I wish I could sense where The where the the emotional background that the founder was coming at, and I I think we would have built an even stronger relationship. Mhmm. So I I that’s one thing that, you know, I learned from that experience, and and and now I try to be more empathetic, more emotionally intelligent. I learned a lot from my wife and my business partner. They’re they’re both very emotionally intelligent people. And so that’s, that’s the one thing where I I say my regrets are I didn’t grow up being emotionally intelligent. And I wish I had because then I would have had even better relationships.

[00:07:46 – 00:07:52] Nitin Bajaj

I have to ask you The. You play cricket. What do you are you an all rounder, bowler, batsman?

[00:07:52 – 00:07:58] Nitin Pachisia 

Oh, that’s that’s easy. You’re either a professional cricketer or you’re an all rounder. There’s no in between.