71 episodes

Exploring the ideas, investments & strategies behind global Startups. Learn more and stay up to date at thestartupproject.io

Startup Project Nataraj

    • Business
    • 5.0 • 5 Ratings

Exploring the ideas, investments & strategies behind global Startups. Learn more and stay up to date at thestartupproject.io

    #71 Peter Mueller Founding Partner Breakwater VC about Pre Seed Investing in Seattle Tech Startups

    #71 Peter Mueller Founding Partner Breakwater VC about Pre Seed Investing in Seattle Tech Startups

    In this episode Nataraj talked to Peter Mueller who is the founding partner of Breakwater ventures investing in early stage tech startups in Pacific Northwest and Wester Canadian Startups.

    The conversation includes:
    - how to think about angel investing & pre-seed investing?
    - Seattle pre-seed ecosystem
    - learnings from Seachange fund
    - thesis for breakwater
    - Whats making Western Canada an interesting place to invest?
    - investing in AI
    - long tail opportunity in AI

    & more.

    Follow peter on twitter here - https://twitter.com/pjsmueller



    Follow Nataraj on twitter here - https://twitter.com/natarajsindam



    Follow 100 Days of AI here - https://thestartupproject.io/100-days-of-ai/


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    • 48 min
    #70 Brendan Rogers From Founding WAG (NASDAQ: PET) to Investing in India

    #70 Brendan Rogers From Founding WAG (NASDAQ: PET) to Investing in India

    In this episode Nataraj spoke to Brendan Rogers Ex Cofounder of Wag, a NASDAQ listed public company.

    Full conversation includes:
    - Origin story of WAG
    - His journey into investing in India
    - Why he is bullish on Indian startups?
    - Opinion on different sectors & more

    To stay in loop for future conversations check out thestartupproject.io

    For above average opinions on big technology sign up to https://above-average.beehiiv.com/

    Follow 100 Days of AI by Nataraj at
    https://thestartupproject.io/100-days-of-ai/




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    • 35 min
    #69 Direct-to-Consumer Companies & Long Tail Opportunity in AI (Above Average Newsletter)

    #69 Direct-to-Consumer Companies & Long Tail Opportunity in AI (Above Average Newsletter)

    Welcome to 50th edition of the Above Average Newsletter. Your bi-weekly source of Above Average takes on the business of big technology written by Nataraj Sindam.

    Topic 1: What’s with Direct-to-Consumer Companies?What’s common among all these companies?All birdsBrilliant earth groupPelotonRent the runwayThey are all public direct to consumer companies whose stock is down ranging from 80 to 95% in last couple of years.If you are direct to consumer company the best time to go public was in 2021 when the pandemic has fueled an ecommerce spending spree. Once this is over, the markets realized a lot of these direct to consumer companies have no path to profitability and have unsustainable business models.So what can we learn from what is happening with direct to consumer companies -When you are willing to spend on high customer acquisition cost (CAC), you can create a short term non profitable direct to consumer company, even when industry dynamics don’t support it. If you spend enough amount of money on Facebook and Google ads you can sell any decent product.VC money was used to subsidize CAC, that is clear. But that stopped and these companies are not close to profitability and a lot of them are on the verge of bankruptcy. But if I am an investor in such brands the one thing I would look for is that the product innovation should reflect in my customer acquisition cost being low. If you are not able to get very low customer acquisition cost on your product or brand, then technically you are not creating value with your product. Your customer acquisition cost reflects whether the product/brand is actually desired by the customer & if the industry dynamics support it or not.

    Topic 2: Where is the AI opportunity?It’s easy to see big funding rounds in AI for foundation model companies and think AI is all about Fearsome Foursome funding Geoffrey Hinton’s ex-students or ex-open ai employees.But I think the real opportunity in AI for next couple of years is in the long tail of building specific narrow application that solve small problems that were not possible before. There is treasure trove to be exploited by teams of 1-3 developers to build SaaS applications which can generate millions in revenue.LLMs are a super power for full stack application developers. If you want to build something and are looking for such ideas feel free to reach out to me.

    Topic 3: 100 Days of AI experimentsAI is going to impact us all, so as part of 2024’s first 100 days I am going to spend 1-2 hrs a day learning, experimenting, reading & tinkering with the latest AI models, products & content. You can follow along by following me on Twitter or here on my blog . My goal in this 100 days will be focused on what new things we can build using AI and what to expect from AI in future. The series is also published here on hackernoon .

    If you are listening to this and have not subscribed to the newsletter, please go subscribe.

    Till next time, stay above average.

    Nataraj




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    • 3 min
    #68 Why the new AI button on your keyboard is inevitable? (Above Average Newsletter)

    #68 Why the new AI button on your keyboard is inevitable? (Above Average Newsletter)

    This episode is the audio version of Nataraj's newsletter Above Average.


    Welcome to 49th edition of the Above Average Newsletter. Your bi-weekly source of Above Average takes on the businss of big technology written by Nataraj Sindam.

    1. Why the new AI Button on Your Keyboard is inevitable?Microsoft is adding a new AI button to your PC keyboard. This is the first time Microsoft changed the PC keyboard in last 30 years. If you are a regular user of ChatGPT or its competitors you will notice your own behavior, that you use it repeatedly and it might get lost in the 10s of chrome tabs you have opened.You also realize that its a constant companion on your daily work. Microsoft already realized this and jumped head on into creating Copilots for all its products.The next step in this strategy is to have a dedicated button that will launch bing copilot which uses gpt-4 and is currently free.The move highlights couple of things:Copilots are going to an enduring form factorWe will use copilots so often that it requires its own buttonIts a great use of Microsoft’s distribution power to create a new user behaviorIf this new behavior works its acts as counter to Google search. Your first step for any answer would be to tap that button and start asking the question. A better interface potentially to transition from a search dominant world to answer dominant world.2. Who is the biggest AI VC in town?As some one who closely works with a venture fund and interacted with lots of investors and invested in 20+ startups its important to note that the unseriousness of ZIRP era was prevalent in VC industry as much as it was in any other industry.This meant higher valuations that defy the gravity of the business became common. Chasing each others and asking the question “who else is investing” became the most important criteria. Deals closed faster than ever. Crypto as a sector suck more oxygen in the room that it should. Mostly because too much capital was chasing too few deals and in the process new & some old investors lost track of what is important. Its important for a VC to invest in important things in tech.Now with AI era on us, the biggest investors in AI are not the VC firms but its the fearsome foursome - Microsoft, Google, Amazon & Nvidia.The amount of investment commitments from these 4 companies has already exceeded $20B with a conservative estimate.Big tech companies never really invested in crypto like they are investing in AI.So what’s the take away here - if you think AI hype cycle is similar to crypto hype cycle, you are wrong. AI is an enduring cycle worthy of hype, unlike crypto which was propped up by VCs with out enough depth.Topic 3 - My Experiments with AI:One of the reason this newsletter is less frequent than usual (from now on it will be twice a month) is because I am working on writing more on AI as part of a series I am calling 100 days of AI. If you are interested in gen AI experiments, ideas & trends follow along here. Here are some posts I have written about AI. - Design Thinking using Semantic Kernel - Get Insights from YouTube Podcast Video using Open AI’s GPT 4 - Build Your Own Chat with Data App Till next time, stay above average.Nataraj




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    • 3 min
    #67 What late stage investors got wrong about investing in Startups? (Insight)

    #67 What late stage investors got wrong about investing in Startups? (Insight)

    For more unique insights on technology follow Nataraj on Twitter - ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/natarajsindam⁠⁠ & Instagram - ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/1nataraj/⁠


    What late stage investors got wrong about investing in Startups?


    Confusion in the venture scene, especially with late-stage investments.
    Some firms raising funds for secondaries in startups, but a twist for LP investors: a cautious approach is needed.
    Skepticism about firms claiming expertise in both early and late-stage investments.
    Discussion on the industry mix-up and the need to reconsider how we negotiate prices.
    Emphasizing the importance of aligning return expectations with industry dynamics.
    Concerns about the pricing game not adding up in the long run, even with solid companies.
    Exploration of the industry's potential need for a rethink to optimize returns.
    Join the conversation at thestartupproject.io/nataraj/



    #angelinvesting #youtubeshorts #venturecapital #investing #limitedpartners #vc #startups #tigerglobal








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    • 49 sec
    #66 Why Rivian Will Become 2nd Largest EV Company in the US? (Insight)

    #66 Why Rivian Will Become 2nd Largest EV Company in the US? (Insight)

    For more unique insights on technology follow Nataraj on Twitter - ⁠https://twitter.com/natarajsindam⁠ & Instagram - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/1nataraj/⁠



    Why Rivian will become 2nd Largest EV Player in the U.S?


    Exploring the EV market in the US and the competition between Rivian and Tesla.


    Rivian stands out with a superior product, a more profitable segment, and a less controversial brand than Tesla.
    I predict the future paths of Rivian and Tesla, highlighting the crucial significance of the next three years for their survival and Rivian's growth.



    #EV #electric #predictions #technology #tesla #rivian #elonmusk #elon #electricvehicles








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    • 59 sec

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