Juniors vs Partner at a VC firm

Rajinder:

As a founder shouldn’t i be meeting directly with a partner at a VC firm or can junior professionals also take decisions and add value?

Avnish:

Absolutely they can take decisions and add value in my view. Look this is a classic dynamic. The people who are starting out think that the partners may take decisions which i would say eighty percent is true but there’s a nuance to it. Partners make the decisions, so if am meeting with a Junior person then it's not going to be worth the time. i just don’t think it could be further from the two. i know that if somebody in Edtech or somebody in Fintech who knows a lot more deeply about that sector and has met companies in that sector, has a point of view on a particular founder or a company. That counts 10x more for me than just my assessment in the meeting with the founder

B you know that our process everybody gets support and there’s a lot of discussion and deal team has no hierarchy right. Everybody you know my vote, your vote everybody’s vote is exactly the same as the people who are may be the younger people in our teams on the sector.

So i actually believe and i repeatedly often answer our questions as a founder is what i would do if i get introduced to a partner. First of all you know partners also are trying to manage their time, so it is well known, it’s well written that you should get a warm intro to a partner.

i think the best guys you know what they do, they write to me and they’ll say this is my idea. i know you probably have a team looking at it. i would love to come and discuss with your team and post that i would love some of your time. i think that’s beautiful. i think that’s the pitch you just can't refuse and then the team feedback is there, your also more motivated to meet with them. So yes please understand that the partners are maybe decision makers because of age and tenure and vintage but not because of knowledge and they rely a lot more on their teams for knowledge and getting the decisions better and most a lot of firms in india, not just us, a lot of these firms are run on everybody having a pretty significant voice.