[00:00:00 – 00:00:07] Nitin Bajaj

Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Venktesh Shukla. Venk, welcome on the show.

[00:00:08 – 00:00:10] Venktesh Shukla

Thank you. Looking forward to this conversation.

[00:00:11 – 00:00:15] Nitin Bajaj

Likewise. And it’s great to have you here. Let’s start with who is Venk?

[00:00:16 – 00:00:25] Venktesh Shukla

Well, in brief, I’m a reluctant immigrant to the United States and an accidental venture capitalist.

[00:00:26 – 00:00:55] Nitin Bajaj

That’s, like, the smallest introduction I’ve ever had, but I know there is a mountain of data behind that. So let’s peel the layers a little bit as we get into this conversation. Tell us what is Monta Vista Ventures, and I’m always interested in learning more about why someone does what they do. So tell us why you started it, what it is today, and the impact you’ve been able to create through it.

[00:00:55 – 00:01:41] Venktesh Shukla

I used to be, you know, in other places that have serial killers. Silicon Valley has serial entrepreneurs. Yes. And I used to be one of those. And I’ve had some successes and some work in Silicon Valley called valuable learning experience. And my last startup was that. And, so, so at that time, my learning was don’t jump into anything. Do your diligence before taking up anything new. So I told my wife that I’m gonna take 18 months off, and just not do anything. And then I got bored. So I started, Angel Investor Group within TiE.

[00:01:41 – 00:01:41] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:01:42 – 00:04:18] Venktesh Shukla

It surprised me to know that TiE, for all their talk about helping entrepreneurs, didn’t do one thing that entrepreneurs wanted, which is to get money. So I started the first ever venture investor group, an angel investor group within TiE. And, it got started and it got a pretty robust response. Within 2 months, we had 100 investors signed up. And we’re off to the races. But in the process, what I discovered was that, having been in their shoes before, anything that I said to the entrepreneur, they really thought it was valuable because there’s not a whole lot of other investors they run into who have the kind of experience that I did, placing myself in their shoes over and over and over again. So that was one thing. The second thing I discovered was that, that everyone who walks through that door is an expert in some area. And they patiently educate you on what they know because they want your money. And I thought it was fascinating way to learn about lot of things in the world and without having to pay any money to anyone. And it was one of the most efficient way of learning, and that really fascinated me. If you are, if you are intellectually curious, venture business is amazing from that standpoint. And I’m intellectually curious if somebody were to come and tell me that they’re experts on the mating habits of cockroaches. I’ll give you 10 minutes. Please tell me what what you know about the mating habits of cockroaches. So for me, this was like everyday is like a revelation. So I love that thing. And the fact that, that entrepreneurs value you see what I was telling them. I think the combination of the 2, convinced me that, instead of, you know, running yet another startup, I should be on the other side of the fence, and I should be adding value to the entrepreneurs. And that’s how I became a VC. It was purely accidental. If my last startup has been successful, I probably would not have become a VC. It’s only because that gave me pause, and I took some time off. And then this is the best thing I could think of doing sort of to fill my time. I I became a VC.

[00:04:19 – 00:04:31] Nitin Bajaj

Venk, I think I’m gonna add a few more words to your introduction. I’m gonna add you’re curious, you’re humble, you’re humorous, you’re a pioneer, and you are an amazing storyteller.

[00:04:32 – 00:06:15] Venktesh Shukla

So Thank you very much. I didn’t know about the storyteller part, but thank you. Yeah. No. I think, one of the things I’ve felt very strongly that, that in the old days in Silicon Valley, they used to be funds, they’re still around. The iconic funds like Sequoia, like Clannan Perkins, like Excel. And these guys, these, they used to be small funds and they would bet on an entrepreneur from early days, earliest days. They’ll write the first check and then work with the entrepreneur and groom them to greatness. And what has happened is that there has been a disaggregation of Venktesh capital industry. So now they are specialized funds at every stage. And the downside of that is, that now seed and early stage VCs just don’t have the range of skills that are available to groom and help the entrepreneur, go to that level and there is a pass off at every stage. And I thought that that’s a tragedy. You need people, you still need funds like Sequoia and Kleiner and Excel, you know, what they used to be before they became $1,000,000,000 funds. You still need those funds. You need plenty of those, and I didn’t see many of them. So that was my goal to start this and you see to, and to fill the gap in Silicon Valley.

[00:06:16 – 00:06:40] Nitin Bajaj

So fast forward, give us a sense for, you know, in whatever way you define impact, how many and that could be in the form of how many entrepreneurs or how much investment or how many LPs or GPs you brought on? How many geographies? How many people through these startups have you or and and your team served?

[00:06:41 – 00:06:58] Venktesh Shukla

You know, Venktesh capital is really judged by how many companies that you have touched who have gone on to become great. Yes. You are not judged by your failures. You are judged by the successes that you have.

[00:06:58 – 00:06:59] Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

[00:06:59 – 00:07:43] Venktesh Shukla

And we have been incredibly lucky. In the very first fund, it was a very, very small fund. We have 5 companies now that are doing more than 100,000,000 in revenues each. Wow. It’s so rare for a company to grow, to have 100,000,000 revenues. So there are 5 of them. And there are 4 other SaaS companies that are also doing great. So from the very first one to have 9 companies being so successful Mhmm. I think it’s a matter of pride. And in all these companies, we were the first ones to write a check. Every single one. We didn’t, you know, in some cases, we joined others, but in most cases, we were the only ones.

[00:07:44 – 00:08:04] Nitin Bajaj

I think you started off saying that we are lucky. I don’t think that’s luck. That’s going back to why you started this in the first place to be there to nurture these entrepreneurs into becoming successful. And you have validated data to show that you have achieved your mission to do so. So congratulations on that.

[00:08:04 – 00:08:06] Venktesh Shukla

It’s always a work in progress, though.

[00:08:06 – 00:08:26] Nitin Bajaj

Yes. Again, it comes back to humility. You know, you’re rooted. You’re so rooted, and I’ve known you for a few years now. And that’s one thing I really appreciate about you. Now tell us, someone like you, you know, I’m I’m very curious to hear. What is the biggest challenge you are facing?

[00:08:27 – 00:09:50] Venktesh Shukla

You know, in this business, you need some level of critical mass. And since we started, at a very small level, we are gradually building it up to it. I think the next fund that we’ll raise will probably have the right size, you know, the right size to be able to, to help entrepreneurs through multiple stages. So the first one was so small, we could only write the very first check and then bring them to the next stage, and then the next guy, you know, takes over and stuff. And that has always been a mixed bag because, in terms of venture investors who add true value, the number is smaller than the universe of venture investors. And we have seen that. We have seen some of that. So, ideally, you would want to have enough firepower so that you continue to invest and be engaged and have a voice around the table Mhmm. Until they get to a point where no amount of bad advice can derail them. And, so I think that’s typically the 3rd round of investment.

[00:09:50 – 00:09:50] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:09:51 – 00:10:00] Venktesh Shukla

So we want to have enough firepower so that we invest not only in seed, but also in series a and also in series b.

[00:10:00 – 00:10:00] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:10:00 – 00:10:14] Venktesh Shukla

And at that point, I think that the course of the company is pretty much set. And then it really comes down to just the quality of execution. So bad advice here and there cannot derail the company fundamentally.

[00:10:16 – 00:10:25] Nitin Bajaj

Makes a lot of sense. Now on the flip side of challenges come opportunities, what would you say is the one that’s most exciting for you right now?

[00:10:28 – 00:10:32] Venktesh Shukla

You know, we don’t invest unless we get really, really excited.

[00:10:33 – 00:10:33] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:10:34 – 00:11:57] Venktesh Shukla

And so in every case, when we have invested, we have been really, really thrilled to do that. And this check that we wrote last week is the latest one, which is, you know, promises it delivers the promise of quantum computing today without the availability of quantum hardware. So there’s a team that has figured out how to map the quantum algorithms Mhmm. To the current set of processors, the NVIDIA GPUs and Intel CPUs, and still get 10 to 40 x kind of acceleration. And when the real quantum hardware shows up, they are called cubits. When they show up, then they can deliver a 1000 to a 10000, times acceleration with no change to the underlying software. And we are pretty excited about that. So we are 2 young kids from Bombay. Who did their graduate work here? They happen to work in the aerospace industry. And they have come up with this, and, we have a lot of processor people and a lot of some quantum experts kind of, grill them. Mhmm. And they came through.

[00:11:58 – 00:12:10] Nitin Bajaj

Wow. That is super exciting on multiple counts. Obviously, the tremendous potential, but also the fact that I feel proud they’re from my hometown. So very exciting.

[00:12:12 – 00:12:12] Venktesh Shukla

Yes.

[00:12:14 – 00:12:20] Nitin Bajaj

So, you know, as I say, in many of these cases, I don’t take any other credit, but I do take all the pride.

[00:12:21 – 00:12:42] Venktesh Shukla

So Well, you know, all of us, I see, you know, when when somebody becomes a CEO of Microsoft, when somebody wins an Olympic medal, and, you know, if somebody ends up going to the White House or receiving the when we a great team, you know, becomes world champion

[00:12:42 – 00:12:43] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:12:43 – 00:12:47] Venktesh Shukla

We all vicariously participate in that pride.

[00:12:47 – 00:12:49] Nitin Bajaj

Yeah. As we should.

[00:12:49 – 00:12:50] Venktesh Shukla

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:12:51 – 00:13:16] Nitin Bajaj

Now as we look forward, I’d love to pause and reflect and ask you to share 2 moments. 1, where things didn’t work out as you had expected, and you kinda hinted about that, a few minutes ago. But if there’s another example, I would love that, it can be from your personal or your professional life. And then another one where things exceeded your expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

[00:13:18 – 00:14:03] Venktesh Shukla

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, one of the, one of the companies we invested in one of the very first companies we invested in from the first one. This Chinese woman, and she was from Cisco, and she went to some big funds. And they won’t fund her because she didn’t have a team, and she didn’t have any background in business. So somehow, you know, we ran into her SCN, and we thought that this is exactly the kind of entrepreneur we should bet on. So we bet on her. We didn’t think it would ever become that big. Now the company is called Aviatrix. Last round evaluation was $2,000,000,000.

[00:14:04 – 00:14:05] Nitin Bajaj

Amazing.

[00:14:05 – 00:14:15] Venktesh Shukla

We invested at 6,000,000 evaluation. The company is 2,000,000,000. They’re doing more than 120,000,000 in revenue per year. Wow. And they still have no competition.

[00:14:16 – 00:14:17] Nitin Bajaj

That’s fascinating.

[00:14:17 – 00:14:39] Venktesh Shukla

It’s 10 years later and still no competition. I’m just to say, you know, amazed that good spaces tend to have a lot of competition. Mhmm. We like to invest in areas that are not very crowded. We tend to invest in companies that are one of a kind. Mhmm. And this is a good validation that even one of a kind companies could get very, very big.

[00:14:39 – 00:14:49] Nitin Bajaj

Congratulations again, and kudos to staying focused on that mission and finding those gems and really stepping up where no other fund typically does.

[00:14:50 – 00:15:12] Venktesh Shukla

Yeah. Yeah. No. I think that’s and she, you know, now she’s starting another company. She left that company. She was getting bored because the company was successful already. So she started another company. She refused to take money from any other VCs. She came to us. We gave her the first check, and she has become a CA investor in the fund herself.

[00:15:12 – 00:15:17] Nitin Bajaj

Amazing. So That’s what we call a full circle.

[00:15:17 – 00:15:35] Venktesh Shukla

Yeah. That’s what we call that’s exactly what the full circle is. That’s a validation that Yes. That she perceives that we added enough value. Okay. More than what she got from any other VC who put 10 to 20 times as much money as we did. And yet to say, she preferred to work only with us.

[00:15:35 – 00:15:45] Nitin Bajaj

That is so beautiful. Now something that did not work out as you’d expected and turned out to generate some lessons for you?

[00:15:46 – 00:16:03] Venktesh Shukla

You know, there’s one company that we invested in, and, normally, we invest to see by consensus in the fund. But I do have what we call a golden yes, which means if, you know, being in the founder, I have some privileges.

[00:16:04 – 00:16:05] Nitin Bajaj

Oh, me too, Paula, maybe.

[00:16:06 – 00:16:49] Venktesh Shukla

And one of my privileges says that a golden yes, which means even if everyone disagrees and I say yes, you know, that deal goes through. There’s only one deal that we have done in which I had to use my golden yes. And it turned out exactly the way the partner SCC had suspected. The founder was too hard to deal with. And, you know, he ‘s so proud of his technology that he was not very open to listening to the market feedback. So yeah. But a brilliant guy. I mean, technologically, brilliant.

[00:16:50 – 00:17:02] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you for being vulnerable for sharing that. I know those moments, those experiences, and just those memories may not have been easy. So appreciate you being so open and transparent about that.

[00:17:03 – 00:17:06] Venktesh Shukla

Well, these are all, as I say, about the valuable learning experiences.

[00:17:07 – 00:17:08] Nitin Bajaj

Well, thank you for sharing that.

[00:17:09 – 00:17:09] Venktesh Shukla

Yeah.

[00:17:09 – 00:17:19] Nitin Bajaj

Now I would love to hear from you 2 things. 1, what do you do for fun to kick back, relax, enjoy, de stress?

[00:17:19 – 00:17:21] Venktesh Shukla

You know, I come from Bhopal.

[00:17:22 – 00:17:22] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:17:23 – 00:17:53] Venktesh Shukla

And in Bhopal, there’s an expression called. And a good one is 1. You know, in old Bhopal, there, you know, there was this, the Nali used to run. On top of the Nali, So after the shops were shut down, you said 8 o’clock or something. All these people is who had idle time, they would gather around all sit on those patios

[00:17:54 – 00:17:54] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:17:54 – 00:17:55] Venktesh Shukla

And they will just talk.

[00:17:56 – 00:17:56] Nitin Bajaj

Okay.

[00:17:58 – 00:18:22] Venktesh Shukla

And, and some of the finest conversations, they were really, really good recon tours. They were good conversationalists. So my idea of fun really is to have a group of friends where you just sit around and talk about nothing in particular. Yes. But just have sort of a stream of consciousness kind of a conversation.

[00:18:23 – 00:18:23] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:18:23 – 00:18:35] Venktesh Shukla

And, and and be with people who have their own mind, who think original, and, just have fun. That’s one thing that I like to do. And the second thing is just reading.

[00:18:35 – 00:19:30] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm. You know, I’ll come back to the reading part in a second, but I do wanna acknowledge that, some of the best conversations are had when you have no agendas. And, unfortunately, we’ve come to a place where all of us are very pointed. And even when we show up for events, we are wearing our sales hat or fundraising hat, and those are required and important. But that also does not allow us to come as a whole person. And the beauty of just sitting down and talking to friends or or even strangers is without any agendas if you’re speaking your mind. You’re not afraid of being judged or being called names or what have you. So, yeah, I would love to join you one of these days for one of these sessions and just soak in all of the wisdom that comes from it. Yeah.

[00:19:30 – 00:19:52] Venktesh Shukla

I don’t know about the wisdom part, but some of these conversations are fun. You get to know about people. You get to know about their viewpoints. You get to know about what drives them. You get to know about what they’re worried about, and so on and so forth. Just having this kind of idle conversation, that by itself is a blessing.

[00:19:53 – 00:20:04] Nitin Bajaj

I agree. And I would love to be a part of that. Now coming to the reading part, any book or a podcast that you would want to share with our audience?

[00:20:05 – 00:20:28] Venktesh Shukla

You know, the book, there are very few books that have made you see a huge impression on me. Lot of books are topical, and they are, you know, they make a good impression on you today, but you forget about them 2 years from today. But there’s one book that has sort of stayed with me. I read it in college. It was a book by Bertrand Russell.

[00:20:29 – 00:20:29] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:20:30 – 00:21:25] Venktesh Shukla

And the name of the book was In Praise of Idleness. And he was a rationalist thinker. It was not really as much of praise of idleness as it was a debunking of dogmas. Yes. And how do you be skeptical, how to be an independent thinker. And, that has stayed with me. That has been, you know, that’s one book. It’s a very small short book, but I recommend everyone to read it. And, there’s another book which surprisingly turned out to be very good. It was by a physicist, Fenman. Mhmm. He was a Caltech physicist. Mhmm. And his book, called You Must Be Joking, Mister Fenman.

[00:21:25 – 00:21:26] Nitin Bajaj

Yes.

[00:21:26 – 00:21:46] Venktesh Shukla

It’s a remarkable book. It’s, again, a very, very brief book Mhmm. With a remarkable book. I I think Fineman also got the Nobel Prize, but I’m not sure. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So these two books, you see, have left a very lasting impression on me. And these are the books that I go back to again and again.

[00:21:46 – 00:21:58] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you for sharing those. Now coming back to those moments where a lot of knowledge is shared. Venk, I would love for you to share your one line life lessons with us.

[00:21:59 – 00:25:33] Venktesh Shukla

One of the things that I have, I have seen over and over and over and over and over and, when I dealt with, you know, really smart people, really smart ambitious people. And what I discovered is that some of those people are the biggest obstacle in the way of their greatness. And it’s their own personalities, their own quirks that limit their potential. So if I have to reduce Nitin one line, you are the biggest block to your own success. That’s one thing. The second thing is the second one you see, that is, you know, the idle time. What I discover is that when I don’t have an agenda, when I’m just kind of, sitting around, I’m not watching television, I’m not reading books, Not working on email. Just lazing around. Some good ideas come then. So idle time is not really a waste of time for me. That’s the second one liner if I can think of. And the third one is just to be curious. It’s amazing, you see, how people respond to you if you show that you are interested in them, like what you’re doing right now. So, so be curious about, you know, you know, I find people to see who have I don’t find people to be as interesting if they or if they have a if if they have a lot of, sort of preset, you know, ideas about how things work, how world works, and and their place in the world and everybody else’s place in the world. And the more certainty they have, the more sure they are, the less interesting they are to me. And so the most, you know, some of the some of the leaders, so called leaders who said who have a lot of confidence and who have you know, that’s because they’re working out a lot of certainty. You know, this is the way the word works. I don’t find them interesting, and I don’t follow them. So being curious is one thing. And and and related to that is, you know, how do you make judgment? You should listen to everyone. Ultimately, make your own decision. But, listen to everyone. Don’t be in don’t be in awe of someone giving advice just because of who they are. Ultimately, you have to find your own path, And you’ll find it, you see, if you listen to a lot of people. Some of those things will resonate more than others. So, I mean, these are I don’t know if they pass your test of life lessons.

[00:25:34 – 00:26:18] Nitin Bajaj

There’s no test. It’s, you know, how do we distill that wisdom and make it simple enough for anybody, maybe even a 5, 7 year old that can help them change their life. Yeah. So, yes, thank you for sharing these online life lessons with us. They are extremely helpful and I resonate with them. And thank you for sharing your journey and story with us and for being who you are and for helping that entrepreneur that needs that skill, that push, that wisdom, that environment where they can truly flourish. So thank you for being you and doing what you do. Really appreciate it.

[00:26:19 – 00:26:35] Venktesh Shukla

Well, I appreciate you having me on your show. And these are some very interesting questions. These are not the run of the mill questions that I face. So it made me think and enjoyed this conversation.