Our first Speaker Series with Sameer Brij Verma on The Making of an Entrepreneur provided unique insights into the Venture Capital (VC) world and what factors influence the mind of a successful venture capitalist.

Venture Capitalists are pure risk investors and do not have collaterals like banks to support them. They are looking for people who can build a team of passionate, motivated, edgy, and optimistic people. A team that not only ideates but has the potential to lead those ideas into fruition.

Sameer spoke to students about the traits of a successful entrepreneur. What he looks for before investing in a founder or his company, and how to disrupt markets as nascent entrepreneurs.

Key Takeaways

• The need for entrepreneurship to be taught to students
• Learning how to solve problems with the available resources
• Character and experiences trump pedigree
• The importance of domain skills but also the need to be a multidisciplinary person
• The need to have an end goal and continue educating yourself to achieve that goal
• Being comfortable with taking risks and failing

Sameer Brij Verma

Sameer Brij Verma is a Venture Capitalist, and MD of Nexus Venture Partners. He is also an advisor to AngelList India & Microsoft Ventures India and has been one of the founding investors for established start-ups such as Postman, PayTM, Zolo, Zomato, Liscious, and more. Sameer has been a VC for the last 12 years and has invested in about 38 companies over the years.

Books Recommended by Sameer

• Zero to One- Blake Masters and Peter Thiel
• Influence: Science and Practice- Robert Cialdini
• Benjamin Franklin Autobiography
• Books by Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett