My journey at Matrix Partners india

My journey at Matrix Partners India

From time to time, it is important to reflect on a journey in the past that has shaped one’s personality. While I have lots to learn, I wanted to take time to pen thoughts on my journey at Matrix Partners India & my learnings while I was there.

What am I doing right now?

I am currently an Investor at WestBridge Capital, we are a PE fund focused on India & invest in growth-stage companies across several sectors including tech, which is where I spend most of my time. I am based out of our California office.

So how did I join Matrix partners India?

Well, it is an interesting story as I have known Matrix Partners India and the folks there since my entrepreneurship days (we had interacted while I was raising funds for my startup & had formed a positive relationship with them through that process). So when I was thinking of what next, venture investing excited me but I wasn’t sure if I was the right fit as I wasn’t from the conventional background where VC’s hired from in those days. I ended up interviewing with them & eventually got an opportunity to join them. It was a very important phase as through the interviewing process I built more & more conviction about investing & Matrix, in particular.

What was my early time at Matrix like?

While I was very excited to come to the investing side of the world, I was sure it wasn’t going to be easy. It was particularly intimidating as I was surrounded by all the top performers from consulting firms, while I was as unpolished as it gets! :) Luckily, I had great fellow analysts who were very helpful & eventually I was able to find my footing. A lot of credit goes to senior folks in the team as well who were patient and gave me the time to settle down. It is funny though to note, as a new joinee, I would often be the first one who would have to share my opinion on a company we might be evaluating & with Avnish (founder & MD at Matrix Partners India) looking at you with his big smile, it can surely make you nervous :)!

How did I truly find my gear?

I want to particularly talk about this incident as it will help me describe the culture at Matrix & the reason I really enjoyed my time there. We have an annual off-site where everyone from the team goes to a remote location for 2-3 days to enjoy and most importantly reflect on the past year & the year to come. It was my first off-site and naturally, I was tasked to help organize a fun event. A fellow analyst & me came up with an idea to organize a spoof on an awards programme which was meant to break ice & roast people. I was super skeptical to speak my mind but over the evening I realized people are super cool & we all had lots of fun. That night onwards I grew super comfortable around everyone which eventually helped me in my day to day work as well.

(With the Matrix team at 2017 offsite)

What was transitioning out of Matrix like?

My journey at Matrix was going great but I was always super curious to move to Silicon Valley to explore this part of the world. When I shared this with partners & other folks in the team - I was soimpressed and amazed to see that everyone was extremely supportive. I still remember before my trip to the Valley to network & interview with companies (while I was still at Matrix) - everyone in the team connected me to at least 5 folks from their network. That was a game-changer for me in trying to find my next opportunity in the Valley.

What are my top 3 learnings from my time there?

Hard to pick only three but I have tried doing that regardless, here it goes:

Networking is an input & not an output

At Matrix, we would spend disproportionate time networking with industry folks - entrepreneurs, senior execs from bellwether companies, other VC’s etc - to constantly learn and refine our thinking. Through the process, I realized networking is an input to be a better investor and not the other way around.

As an investor, you have to constantly keep questioning yourself

We would often find ourselves debating and thinking about an industry we are curious about. A lot of time is spent internally to think about what we can do better. All this is a critical component to being a better individual & a better team.

Do right by the Founders

Everyone knows about Matrix’s philosophy about beingfoundersfirst!. What I truly saw in action was never once would there be an instance of going against the founder. That just wasn’t a thing we would do & that in my opinion is super critical as investing (apart from smartness, hard work, etc) is a lot of luck that comes from doing right by others, especially your founders.


The author of this blog, Manthan Shah, is aMatrix alumnusand is currently part of the investment team at WestBridge Capital.