Puneites Get Up Close and Personal With VC Valuation & Termsheets

Last evening, entrepreneurs in Pune came to MCCIA Trade Tower Pune, to listen to Anand Lunia, founder, India Quotient talk about VC funding and demystify the VC termsheet. Anand’s simple and colloquial style of presentation made the subject very interesting and enjoyable for participants. Anand demonstrated with real-life example what differentiates a successful startup, from an also ran. An important point he emphasized on, was the need to be committed to a venture for a long period of time. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes, and returns take a good time to come, said Anand. “Look at MakeMyTrip, Deep Kalra has been there since the beginning and he is not going anywhere soon,” he said. Besides MakeMyTrip, Anand also drew the attention of the audience to Just Dial and Naukri.com – both companies that've been around for a long time.

Anand illustrated most of his points using real life examples, which also made it easier for the participants to understand complex subjects like valuation, VC funding, termsheet clauses and so on. It is important to create disruption in the market said Anand, but also keep in mind the size of the market you are creating this disruption for. “So it is not necessary that you create a totally new thing, but if there is sufficient room to improve what is already available in the market, by providing a better customer experience and enhancing the existing features, then that is an opportunity,” said Anand. Elaborating on his point of disruption, Anand pointed out the examples of Airbnb, Dropbox and Gilt Groupe as some well-known startups who now belong to the billion-dollar club.

Anand then spoke at length about valuation and the various clauses in term sheets. After a brief introduction of what it entails, Anand explained various concepts involved in depth for the benefit of the participants. What followed was a very interactive discussion, where entrepreneurs grilled Anand about all aspects of a VC termsheet.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Pune mixer happening today 5pm at Baner. And for those of you in Bangalore, do not miss the Startup Jobs Fair at MLR Whitefield today.