How To Raise and Manage Venture Capital for Student Founders ($4M+ Invested) - w/ Prateek

so one of those companies turned out to be successful and then you know where zto right now you picked five of them and then you referred them to why combinator we don't encourage people there but we do realize that some people better without College the vast majority of Americans do not have master's degree you're good at running your compet he but that doesn't mean you might be good at running any other company he's 16 and he's building a hardware drone competing against large multi-billion dollar companies in the world like hey I'm cool give me money what was it that they think of the idea of you know backing student founders ambitious smart people locked together in like not locked but like in one place they push each other more than we can push them I had so many

more than we can push them I had so many ideas in college I never acted on a single one of them that was our first million dollars invested in about 18 companies out of which six have raised their next round and and become quite large how did you first go about acting on that idea once you had it Welcome to The Ready Set do podcast where we learn from journeys of not experts who are just two steps ahead of us us I'm Naman Pand and in this episode my guest is pratique Bara pratique is a co-founder at grat Capital which provides funding for college students in India whose ideas are strong enough to change the world if you're a student with an idea that you believe in or are already working towards that idea grad Capital will invest $40,000 for 4% in you we begin our discussion by going

you we begin our discussion by going over how pratique and his co-founder started gr capital and the journey so far across multiple rounds of raising investment funds we also go over how they short list projects to invest in their contribution to zepto meteoric rise and personally my favorite aspect of it all which is managing 4 weeks long in-person cohorts with state-of-the-art resources gurus and really the creation of that perfect melting pot to enable success for the student Founders pratique also shares some incredible discoveries that he made about the value system of students and some qualities that he looks for before short listing an idea finally we go over some inspiring narratives of some V things that students have built using rat capital's investment including a blood

capital's investment including a blood bank delivery drone to get access to areas which otherwise struggle with getting access to blood for medical purposes this discussion is for anyone who's interested in entrepreneurship or in building and managing investment funds in keeping with a theme of learning from somebody that's just two steps ahead of us instead of an expert I'd like to emphasize that pratique is still building grad capital and the goal of this episode is to share his experiences and knowhow with anyone else willing to walk a similar path this is the ready said do podcast and to support it please subscribe to my YouTube channel and now without any further Ado my friends my conversation with pratique welcome hi nice to meet you it's so good to be talking to you today and really

to be talking to you today and really excited to be covering all the amazing work that you've done with grad capital and as you continue to build and grow that company so to dive off here um and to jump in I I suppose what was it that made you um a think of the idea of you know backing student Founders providing them with um you know a stien or money to build out their projects and B um how did you first go about acting on that idea once you had had it yeah uh this was I think during the onset of covid like like 2020 2020 yeah I was still in my first

2020 2020 yeah I was still in my first job which didn't have much work after Co so I was basically in the morning call and then just I don't know so then uh my friend abishek who was actually my wing mate in in college in bits where I went to do my undergrad he was doing his MBA at that point at IMA okay and he uh and this was his second year and we used to meet once in a while we had different sort of like friend groups in college but we were close to each other we used to share most things so uh and he had happened to call me around May June uh around the same time in 2020 uh to share an idea

same time in 2020 uh to share an idea about a VC Club on campus uh in IMA like not that I was going to do it with him because I'm not in IMA but he was going to do it anyway okay but for some reason that didn't pan out and then uh he uh wanted to do something with students at that point like we did not obviously know if you can set up a fund but uh it was was originally like him trying to just brainstorm ideas with me and then I think in about a couple of weeks I was interested in it and we sort of decided to do it together at that point uh then

to do it together at that point uh then there was uh like we also did not know what a VC is I was just going to say yeah yeah so like so far I'm I'm tracking completely like probably feel myself in your shoes but that Runway ends because what next I have absolutely no idea what I would do from this exact point where you yeah like no idea about how a VC runs or like what exactly it is like is it like a mutual fund is it that so we didn't have much idea there but we knew we can do something with students why because it's historically and geographically true like across all

geographically true like across all geographies that people when they are in the young age like 18 16 25 they tend to outperform then when they are old and this has been true not just in startups it has been true across uh across Noel laats across field medalists across politics like Nashandra BOS was I think in his 20s when he was at his Prime and these are just random examples but even like the top companies in the world right now were started by you know people in the 20s Facebook comes to mind obviously Facebook Apple in fact was started as a garage project just during uh Steve's uh probably one year after his college like you get my point yeah uh and and if you look at uh people who

uh and and if you look at uh people who won like Mel prizes and all like let's say John Nash he won his Nobel Prize for his research that he did during his PhD like his PhD thesis won the Nobel Prize so uh so so so it was kind of evident that people like ambitious people reach their Pinnacle when they are young and like after that is they do more mature stuff but I do think that the boldest ideas come when your 20s or you know in teens and then they take off like you know when we are kids right when we are like in like fifth sixth I'm sure all of us wanted to be like astronauts or something like that and somehow we start adding layers and

somehow we start adding layers and constraints to our own self that and then by the time we are 18 we realize we can't do that anymore right but that's not true with with a lot of kids like there are still kids who end up doing this obviously there are constraints constraints or whatever you say but like historically this has been true yeah so we knew this was going to work so what we did was we ran sort of an experiment you know how before really uh before really starting a company people do sort of a thing called a a minimal viable product like an MVP also yeah uh in in in like in Indian board system you can

in like in Indian board system you can say the pre- boards right like you you you practice an exams like to see if you can actually score it in your board exam so it's it's sort of like that so we did an experiment and the experiment was basically helping students from India who wanted to apply to Y combinator and why and Y combinator is this uh sought after uh accelerator program in the United States that a lot of Indian kids want to go to yeah Paul Graham right is the founder correct yeah yeah yeah Paul Graham is the founder so uh obviously we couldn't help ourselves because we are not xyc uh but we got xyc Founders uh who were in our network from college or

who were in our network from college or from just ping people to just uh help these people and the help was also very very directional it was like you know uh you come you read their application and give them a referral incey just do that like you know read and fix that application and give referral don't give any random other advice so interesting so so that first cohort of companies that we started helping and how did we do this just a basic LinkedIn post we received about 200 100 applications something like that like 100 to 200 we selected like five people to do this five startups and at that point we didn't have Capital yes so one of those companies turned out to be successful like immediately that uh if you're in India you might be using this company called zepto for I'm not in India and I've definitely still heard of them so

I've definitely still heard of them so real quick pratique sorry to interrupt you but what you're saying is from that point you put out a fer on LinkedIn asking for students to submit their kind of projects so that you could back them 200 replies is came in you picked five of them and then you referred them to why combinator is it is is that what was going on yes yes we referred them to the YC Founders who help these people and those YC Founders in turn referred them to YC and they got an interview and all that and uh so zepto at that point it was called Kiran cart they raised for VC contrary Capital at that point uh and then you know what where zto is right

then you know what where zto is right now so uh yeah so this happened in like September of 2020 after which uh abishek and I discussed for a while what we should do and what kind of check would F uh obviously inspired by zepto inspired by YC inspired by other sort of small ACC back then we realized that students is a market where we can take uh small amount of equity and give small amount of money right people don't need a lot of money in India we realized we could give give $25,000 and that would be attractive enough and take 4% in Return of their company so uh that gives a valuation of about about $625,000 for a company which if you Benchmark to a lot of seat stage companies in India and abroad is at

companies in India and abroad is at least five times lower like the valuation that we offered was 5 times lower uh but we could do it because we were giving it to current students and graduates who no who no one would touch uh so so with this in mind and because we had some idea who we want to invest in uh uh abhishek's first fund uh first company he worked at for like a couple of months it is now called uh IMA Ventures it's a about $150 million in size like a a venture Fund in India they gave us a first check and that's how we sort of took off basically I see yeah and so I guess when you were backing the you know the zepto folks I'm assuming you didn't have any uh that 4%

assuming you didn't have any uh that 4% that you referenced that wasn't in place at the time right because you would probably be a very happy man right now if probably right right but I mean that's still pretty incredible knowing that you had a hand maybe a small hand but maybe not uh to play in the rise of um zepto so yeah that's that's pretty incredible I actually had had no idea so um I guess from there I'm curious to hear um I guess what are if any your belief systems around what type of projects to back and we will I guess kind of go back to how you continue to build after that first initial um funding that you got from IMA Ventures but just to take a quick break on that

but just to take a quick break on that uh do you have or do you ever decide on a you know like system that this is the type of people we want to back or is it more of just like an ad hoc a case for case case basis uh yeah that's a good question so it's never like a standard system it has evolved over the last three and a half four years and um I think it it'll evolve more naturally what I can share is what we do right now and what I look for right now what what I care for right now so it's funny because my belief system includes the word belief in it like we really look for uh students with extreme

really look for uh students with extreme high amount of self-belief or the potential of having high amounts of self-belief uh because there's nothing else go going by by your side when you're young it's not like you are Ultra talented I mean you could be ultra talented but that's not going to pay play much of a role because you let's say you're studying engineering and we and we are folks when they are 16 17 18 you do not know much Theory at that point you really don't what you know is like basic fundamentals MH MH so uh so it really matters how much you believe that you can do it right so and there could be different points in your life that give rise to it and we have

life that give rise to it and we have noticed that the first such Point usually usually happens uh in your 12th or in your first second year of college first search self-belief point because before that it's really hard for you to Benchmark yourself against like other folks right corre unless unless you're an athlete I think athletes also you know start or rise up very soon in their life but unless you're an athlete it's really hard to find if you can do something great until you are like 18 19 so that becomes one major criteria if people can generate massive amounts of self belief for them and like consequently for the team MH uh so I would say this is number one and number two what we look for like

one and number two what we look for like what really uh a Founder shows us or like a student shows us in any project like we fund various Pro like projects as well not just companies right so we look for uh a very high number of like relevant details like not high number but like we look for Relevant details if you're like if you're really obsessed about a project or something we think uh people are able to come up with uh points or details that are not really visible to everyone I see like yeah almost like kpis in a way that an outsider would not immediately be able to gather from just taking one look at the project it kind of like yeah so uh yeah in a way like you're thinking about it all the time and it's visible when you're talking to me about it like the

you're talking to me about it like the clarity of thought is there in your sort of in your head so uh and and and just that I guess yeah no that makes sense absolutely that tracks I would probably I I mean I may have imagined you have kind of like a checklist almost of sorts like a framework which it sounds like you do it it just sounds like it's a little bit more meta than an actual you know written down checklist which is interesting it is I I I can add a few points like people end up doing a bunch of like stuff in college like it's not just studies uh and that also gives like a good signal as to about their talent or about uh what they can achieve can they move fast right

can achieve can they move fast right like uh like there's a a junior of mine from bits who also helps us out with this project called uh Atomic Fellowship it's like a hardware Grant his name is sh he runs this company called pixel it's a satellite company that's uh that's really big right now actually they have like 100 200 probably more employees I think 300 employees or something like that wow and he he and his co-founder used to be part of this club called I mean it it used to make sat Like Satellites on campus right okay yeah yeah right after that they like started this company which was also much different from what they were do doing at the club that belief sort of increased at that point

belief sort of increased at that point itself so we all also look for like very uh uh like folks who have had projects and what they show through that not not just like it's not necessary to have a project but it gives us some sort of signal about how fast yeah I mean that almost ties in with the theme of this podcast itself where you know you have it's like all about the do like a lot of people have ideas I had so many ideas in college I never acted on a single one of them so which is there go or airgo they're all useless like they don't mean anything ideas aren't int like untangle things unless you like you know act on them so yeah that totally tracks like

them so yeah that totally tracks like why would you want to back somebody that themselves isn't willing to work on their own um ideas so I guess jumping back from there can you I guess give us a little outline of the various series of um funding that you've secured since at that like since that initial funding from IM am Ahmedabad and then I guess kind of how you continue to grow this into such a ginormous uh fund that it is currently at least of the day of recording recording yeah it's not that big right now but anyway uh it's one of the smallest funds out there but we do have a large portfolio size our first fund was a million dollars in size we raed our first million you say that it's not big right now and then you say your first

right now and then you say your first fund was a million dollars inside I mean it's some something doesn't add up there like compared to other funds that are exist in the country so it's sort of like that so from the first fund we invested in like 18 companies what matters to us is more like what kind of spread we are achieving not really the uh the the size of the fund because we started very young too like abishek and I were 23 when we started right so uh uh and we could afford to take that risk like a lot of fund managers today generally are much older so you need to have a larger fund size so that you can afford salaries and we could take that

afford salaries and we could take that risk so a a million dollar fund is actually quite small to run time on it so so Ventures actually helped us with some like operational money at that point so our goal was really to have the right amount of Spread spread meaning how like how many companies are we investing from one single fund so that we have enough like like enough spread to make our fund successful almost yeah exactly correct yes correct correct so so that was our first million dollars invested in about 18 companies out of which six have raised their next round and uh and become quite large so that fund is currently running at a little above 2x uh like the fund value is is doubled in less than three years and uh after

in less than three years and uh after that last year we started deploying from a second fund which I see uh we have raised as first check uh like the first check that we put into companies which is the 40K or the 25k that I talked about is about $3 million so uh So currently we are investing inting from the second fund itself into companies and so yeah I mean first of all that's pretty incredible I mean that's just amazing and then the second I guess question follow up on that is I noticed that and this might just be a dumb question because I have I don't know anything about how any of this works but you reference when you get the funding itself in dollars but when you I guess when you fund those student

guess when you fund those student Founders that becomes in rupees is that just like an industry Norm that just happens or or or is there like a specific reason behind that or am I just missing something no you're right as well as wrong but mostly you're right so it is like where you're right is that it is an industry Norm uh that people do denominate things in dollars in Indian like in India also the funds that raised in rupees have raised in rupees they do denom they do denominate their Fund in dollars okay and not denominate but they publicize it in dollars right and when they invest also when companies raise in rupees it's still talked about in dollars in dollars okay I think because because San Francisco Bay area has been sort of the first place where all of

sort of the first place where all of this started so it just became an or but uh in our case this is not the reason the the reason is we are actually a US dollar denominated fund we are registered in the United States and W 90% of our money comes from the United States States itself so we deploy in dollars as well into companies registered in India mhm but uh but they receive in rupees it's like that makes sense especially from that context of most of that or 90% of that fund coming from the US but I guess that then opens the door to my question which is that for this network to be working in the way it is currently you must have had

way it is currently you must have had to I'm assuming speak to those people in the US that obviously have have never seen you know who who you are so I'm really curious to know how you went about with that specific networking piece where you were probably reaching out I guess how did you go about that whole you know get your foot in the door type thing like hey I'm cool give me money like how does that work yeah yeah so our first fund really helped here that the first fund had just four investors one was IM Ventures and three other folks uh and one of and two two of who were are college alums itself M who had and one of them had built a

M who had and one of them had built a large company and had sold the company so that first four people who invested us we actually didn't really speak to more than I don't think if I remember currently we didn't really speak to more than 10 12 people these were really really strong intros and I mean yeah that really where it was but the second fund the second it was but the second fund I think has currently about 20 25 investors uh and I guess and uh yeah first first we had to perform a bit in the first fund like show that right right like the AAL thing and uh second we it's still a story there's no cash distribution yet so we we yeah so we still had to like I think uh bits really helped us there like I think like roughly about 25

there like I think like roughly about 25 30% or probably a little bit more money still comes from bit alums who have gone on to the US and made built companies and sold them yeah a few and like a decent Chunk from like intros from the investors that have already given us money uhuh so I would put it like that and and we're still not there yet uh with where we can sort of uh yeah but like in the initial days like that like this is how you go about like you you with the little the money that you have you perform a bit you get intros and you tap into your calls Network whatever like that is that that's really helpful prati because I feel like that's extremely actionable and you're not

extremely actionable and you're not exactly you know like selling snake oil that there's like a template of intro that if you send to people you you're bound to hear that yeah so that all like think about this just to add on yeah just to add on there people attribute a lot of success to their like colleges like specifically the undergrad College because that's the first time you realize that you are different from a lot of people and for whatever reason but people end up attributing a lot to their undergrad College than their postgrad or any other college no 100% yeah right at least this happens in India I'm not sure about us so if this the case uh the intros in those colleges are a little bit easier to convert and to get than from any other college so

to get than from any other college so obviously if you look at the total Market size of rich people in India it's large but it's hard to convert everyone in the beginning with a new asset class like which like what have I done to sort of raise capital for for a yeah for sure for sure and I I guess to your point about that being the maybe the same or not in the US I I I think it's definitely the same especially because the vast majority of Americans do not have master's degrees most of them really just go for their undergrad and that's it like that's their Alma matter for the rest of their life so that that all tracks um I so I guess then from there shifting gears a little

then from there shifting gears a little bit I'm I'm curious to know do you all play a part at all for these student Founders so once you've you have a vested interest in them and like you funded them do you then continue to Mentor them and you know help them grow their companies or is it more of a you'll point them to the right resources from where they can get help or is it a mixture of both or do you just kind of let them be and be like come back to us in a year how does that Growth work for these student Founders that you help uh it's it's a mix of both in a way I'll I'll cover a bit right now one we

I'll I'll cover a bit right now one we personally do not Mentor or give product advice or feedback on product uh primarily because we invest in so many companies like this year itself we have invested in 10 already uh my skill set is not in running a business or my skill set is just in running my business so uh it's sort of harmful for me to give that advice or forish to give that advice so we what we do is we run a cohort like a 4we cohort in Bangalore which actually starts this July like in a month from now it's like a 4V cohort where all the companies that we' have invested in 10 15 companies we arrange sort of like

15 companies we arrange sort of like they're physically there like in a hostel like we stay in college you know in one way so we B hotels and stuff like that so that two things happen one extremely ambitious smart people locked together in like not locked but like in one place yeah they push each other more than we can push them uh so like they realize like new limits for themselves and second we plug in large amounts of soci like Social Capital into them when they are in Bangalore like it's easier to get people to come and meet with them when they are in Bangalore like for example in the past folks like like in last year anur anur varu who was the founder of nearby and is also quite famous on Instagram right

is also quite famous on Instagram right now everywhere I feel like he everywhere even on LinkedIn and such yeah yeah yeah and then tarun MAA who is like the founder of uh ather energy big basket Founders basically a bunch of like unicorn Founders they come and spend time with our uh portfolio companies and the idea is just that get bombarded with social connects so that when you get out of the cohort you have four five people to rely on as friends and who can push you further so that's the idea and beyond that yeah we do help them with the next round of fundraise uh with intros and everything with with story lining intros Etc yeah I really like what you said about um you what you said where you you're good at running your company but that doesn't mean you you

company but that doesn't mean you you might be good at running any other company I think it's an important distinction one I'm sure I I guess but just out of curiosity is there a part of you that would want to do that you know just to like see how it works and like do you I guess do you have opinions about some of these products or companies that you want to share with these Founders but don't just out of principle or do you just you know willingly keep yourself away from even thinking about um like you know along those those lines as a user sometimes I can like if it's a consumer product and I'm a user I can share

and uh but it's not about a principle thing I I don't think about this like this is not like just because it's not part of my JD or like I just have deeply like internalized this that this is not my job and right if I've internalized this it's not even a principal anymore it's just my dayto day so things that I can help I definitely help yeah yeah that answers my question I guess so from there moving on um I know because you have as your reference such a wide breath of you know companies or projects that you've founded can you walk us through maybe a couple or three or four uh of those that are really you know interesting or unique for various reasons um I'm just really trying to get

reasons um I'm just really trying to get a flavor of the type of projects that um you know you you help back just just so I can get an just so our viewers can get an example of what it takes to cut through and you know make it good sure sure uh so see I mean as an investor we do think a company that is let's say not doing so well right now will end up or can do well later or which is doing well right now may not be doing well at some point in time so it's all about like high momentum low momentum phases so I really don't have

momentum phases so I really don't have like favorites in our portfolio like I do like all but I will do like I will share some of the highlights from our first fund like there are like six companies that raised capital from like more Capital than us like afterwards from our first fund and their stories are quite inspiring and like I and that was also my first stint at this job and and they and those stories I'll always like remember right so yeah I mean there are couple of s stories first one is uh actually this was the first investment we made I think first or second investment this person was a 16-year-old high school kid from Bombay uh who was just really passionate about building

just really passionate about building drones and a very new kind of drone it's not like a quadcopter drone which has four pans right it's like a VTO drone which takes off vertically and becomes horizontal in air so that it can run fast like 60 to 80 km per hour for about 200 kilometers and this was his idea this was not built this was just like a simulation was he showed us the simulation and he was just ambitious like he wanted to and and and after we invested he could find out ways to like where he could pilot this uh like for example one space that he picked up was like the blood Market in India where uh to deliver blood from a blood bank to a government hospital it

blood bank to a government hospital it takes about 2 to three hours in rural India or more three to four hours and like a car has to deliver because blood needs to be stored in Blood Bank it it needs to be refrigerated right right and this is really expensive way of transporting blood through a car and he can do it in two rupees right like two to like five rupees or something so this is like a market that you do not know the market size of but if this product comes to life which it has right now by the way you can basically bring down Logistics cost by a thousand or more right so yeah and and we were just really excited about like how passionate he is about this he's 16 and he's

he is about this he's 16 and he's building a hardware drone that's that's basically competing against large multi-billion dollar companies that are already present in the world uh but his Tech was new his his ideas were new and so this was like interesting and we also had to speak to his parents to sort of tell like because he didn't want to go to college but he wanted to apply so we had to write my co-founder like like abishek wrote his recommendation letter to us colleges he got in and then he decided to back off and not go wow okay so did he end up not going to college at all for for yeah yeah he's

to college at all for for yeah yeah he's 19 right now he didn't go to college uh awesome awesome wow we don't encourage people that yeah right I was just gonna say but we do realize that some people better off right and it's just hard to not admire that kind of Courage cuz I know when I was 19 there is no way I could have ever you know backed myself that much to give up on something that is so like as you said in like you have to go to college you don't question that you just go to college at least if you're in India so that's really really cool wow I mean that's super super awesome but yeah

that's super super awesome but yeah sorry please tell the like the Second Story which is also uh like equally interesting actually all stories are interesting but this one it's particularly because uh these guys are not Engineers these guys were uh from this college called Wades College in in Delhi University and uh one of them studied English honors for B like bachelors and is now building a SAS tech product which is quite surprising but and there's more to this like these two Founders backstory right so let's say founder one and founder two and both both founder one and founder two met because they were excellent dancers so excellent that one of them was actually in the top 50 of Dance India Dance uh and uh and the and this was founder two

and uh and the and this was founder two and found founder one was was also a professional dancer he was a professional gamer who who used to write for USA Today and such places in college and made upwards of 100 to 200k USD while just writing articles game reviews in college and used to play I don't know what some games that's just unreal wow like this is not it this guy was also like was playing State football like under 19 for harana or or Delhi or something like that and his admission to wenes was actually on the fact that he was one of the best football players in the state not that so like you see a bunch of these factors which increased their self-belief a lot High when they

their self-belief a lot High when they were too young yeah just made us invest in them and their first idea was actually like a Esports fantasy platform like dream 11 for like like Esports and we were just really enthralled by these people's Journey more than what they were building and they pivoted from that to they are building something completely different now they're building like uh it's called nudge it's like a uh uh like how do I put it like uh actually you can edit this part out it's hard to explain it in simple terms but uh I'll let you know about them later but yeah this has been two stories about like from our first one that's amazing I mean I'm just blown up Away by just imagining if those were like just a couple examples what the rest of them

couple examples what the rest of them would be like probably so many amazing cool stories in there I guess before we wrap up what are some advice that you would share um with say a student currently let's just say engineering student although we know that that's not always the case but let's just say any um undergrad student in India that's listening to this and wants to you know have has an idea maybe that they haven't started working on or are just considering working on an idea what is something that you can share that would help them start down that road of eventually having you know having that idea make it big big leaks not necessarily using r capital but you know how like if it's really good it does shine through it's just really hard for it to not you know break the ceiling and

it to not you know break the ceiling and Rise so any that you've learned from your interactions with all of these Wonder talented students that you maybe something a common trait that you've seen amongst all of them other than the some of the ones that you referen already which is that belief system and um knowing that they're different they're special and really that ability to back themselves any other call outs outside of those would be really um you know know appreciated yeah it's one thing that has helped me actually quite a lot and also people around me uh so like you know as we grow up our parents or our friends you usually point out when we do the wrong thing or like when we make a mistake or something it's pointed out and we are told that this is supposed to

and we are told that this is supposed to be done in this way but things that we do right or well at least in my case and I've seen a lot more people this quite common it's not pointed out things that you do right is not really oh like okay you do this right so let's fix all your mistakes uh but I have a different philosophy like I don't like to give feedback because I do think that first I'm good at finding what you are good at or what people are good at and second if people start doing this for themselves or students start doing this for themselves you will have weaknesses okay you like you will have things that you do badly now if you spend the next five years fixing your

spend the next five years fixing your weaknesses you will become just average in all of those traits or skills yeah and now if you identify that one thing you are doing exceptionally well or different from others and you hone that skill again and again for the next 5 years you just become exceptionally good at it and and that that you can't like being Irreplaceable is much more valuable than just being good at a lot of things or like absolutely and and this a hard thing because we keep give we keep getting advice right from people don't do this like you know if if you make a mistake it's always called out like you know you shouldn't do this or let's say you write an email and the email is a bit off or it doesn't have

email is a bit off or it doesn't have the right salutation you'll be pinged by a manager saying that you should have done this so these words these thoughts just take over a brain a lot more than you think so when you have like an environment where this is not called out at all and only the things that you do well is called out I think it works much differently and works wonders for people you just become the best at it I love that call out especially because I've been reading this book it's called Master reads by Robert Green and in that he kind of references something very similar and and I guess his POV in the

similar and and I guess his POV in the book is that we have so much external noise that is put on us as we grow up that our own voice basically is just drowned out and by the time we become adults what all of all of the things that we believed in things we were good at all of those have now just been replaced by our whatever our environment pushed on us be it our parents teachers like they mean well obviously like they they're not trying to harm us but in doing that we lose what we stand for so basically what he recommends in the book is like if you're trying to figure out a path in your life and if you're in like your 20s or 30s or even older just think

your 20s or 30s or even older just think back to what you used to do as a child that made time stop that you you know could just do for hours without even realizing that you were doing something and that probably is something that will point you to you know your purpose so to speak so it sounds like what you're saying is very almost parallel to that exact concept which is why it rings you know it rings home frati it's been so great listening to your experiences and really learning how you've grown not only this company but also yourself into you know not only helping these student Founders but also you know driving the India growth story because a lot of things that you hear online about is that real is that really a thing that's

that real is that really a thing that's happening it's just conversations like these that just reinforce my belief that not only it is definitely happening but it's happening at such a great scale that a lot of it almost feels undocumented or you know under reported so before I guess we close out here do you have any final thoughts on you know the India growth story that you're personally helping contribute to not sure what India growth story definitely I think like we do see a lot more colleges nowadays uh coming up and see the total like if you just count the iits and bits or something that's very few and and they won't be the only ones contributing to India story and our portfolio also

to India story and our portfolio also has been grow growing like outside of these colleges in the recent past and I do think it's not like you know it's not too long from now that we'll have a lot more colleges in like building companies and doing a lot of things so I do think that the market that India present right now is far greater than any other country so I wouldn't want to move out yeah there you go that's that's I guess what I was meaning by the India growth story but awesome thanks so much pratique that brings us to the end of episode 17 of The Ready Set do podcast thank you all for sharing these episodes with those who continue to benefit from them if you would like to support me the

them if you would like to support me the easiest way to do that is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and by leaving me up to a festar rating on Spotify catch you all in the next one new episodes every Wednesday