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Dwipal Desai
Dwipal Desai
CTO, Theicebreak.com
San Francisco
About Me
I am the co-founder of Theicebreak, which is a platform focused on helping people improve their personal happiness. Prior to Theicebreak I was one of the first engineers at YouTube where I was responsible for building a majority of the early features. Later I went on to start the YouTube Mobile and launched YouTube on all mobile platforms including the iPhone, Android, and Mobile Web. Before joining YouTube, I was an engineer at Paypal and I also hold a Master's degree in Computer Science from USC.
Investment Strategy
I started investing because I met some awesome founders who got me really excited about what they were building. I wanted to get involved with these companies, but couldn't because I was already working on something on my own - investing in the company helps me stay on the top of it without having to leave what I am doing.
Portfolio Companies
I have invested in:
Mashape, Venuetastic, Upverter, Teleport Me, Internmatch, Replybuy, Tapcanvas, Matterport and others.
I am advising:
Viddy, Waywire and others.
My Criteria for Investing in Startups
I change my criteria based on experience, but here is what I look at now:
- Founder/Team - Who they are, why are they the right team to do this, What is the advantage they have over others, How persistent they are
- Product Idea - Is the product they are building useful to me, and will I personally use it
- Ability to build - I invest very early, so a lot of them have not launched the product. However, I still need to see a prototype
- Ability to hire - Recruiting is a *big* problem, so any startup that I invest in should have enough traction / connections that they can hire. This can be either they are working on a problem that everyone wants to be involved into, or the founders know a lot of good people, they have a location advantage, etc.
- Ability to grow - Anyone can launch a website or an app, but not everyone can grow. I have a higher emphasis on this than I used to have in the past, as getting users is a big problem.
Attributes I Look for in an Entrepreneur
- Expert in the domain - they have to know more than everyone else in the space
- Passion - Startups are hard, and have lots of ups and down. The founders have to be passionate about the problem they are solving.
- Ability to attract talent - Hiring is very difficult, so they have to be able to convince others to join their startup and to have the right connections, specially while starting
- Patience - They have to persist through difficult times and not give up.
- Personality - Founders have to be able to influence others to believe in them. This is a lot more important than people think.
Common Mistakes Startups Make and How to Avoid Them
- Growing the team too soon - Hiring employees or growing the team before validating the product.
- Fundraising too soon - once you raise a round, the clock starts ticking. You have to prove the model or die in a small period.
- Not focusing on early growth - A lot of companies tries to build the 'perfect product' before launching. While it’s important, it’s more important to get users & feedback.
- Optimizing for the wrong things - Every startup should identify exactly 1-2 key areas and focus on those, rather than hitting everything at the same time.
- Drinking their own kool-aid - Startup founders talk a lot of positive things about their startups, and most people don't give negative feedback. This makes them believe that their product is the best in the world.
Most Popular Types of Businesses in India at the Moment
I have invested in all different kinds of startups, but have a more narrow focus now:
- Businesses that save time or increase efficiency
- Products that make people happy, or have an emotional connection with the users
- Products related to new-media
Thoughts on First Angel, Follow-on Investments and Offerings to an Angel Investor
- I invest small amount, and am usually amongst the first investors.
- I don't do follow-on investments.
- Typically, angel / seed rounds do not involve board seats, and I don't ask for such.
While raising a seed round, most startups usually do a convertible note at a cap. The cap depends on the traction that they have on product and investors.