Aviral Bhatnagar

I am the Founder and Managing Partner of ajvc, a pre-seed fund investing in Indian startups

If you want to connect with the fund for a company you've started, please apply at ajuniorvc.com. If you would like to speak with me, reach out at aviral@ajuniorvc.com

I graduated top of class from IIM Ahmedabad and built my first few startups at IIT Bombay

Founder

Making startup conversations more accessible - find out more at ajuniorvc.com

Oil giants like Schlumberger would hire for roles in Iraq from IIT Bombay, and pay 40-50L in 2014

Worth 60-70L today, they would pay 2-3x McKinsey

But they also had a clause where they would pay ransom if you got kidnapped once, but not the second time

High pay, life risk

UPSC attempt limit being reduced from 6 to probably 2 would save a lot of grief and better employ a sizeable young population

Incredible that people spend best young years attempting an exam that they may not be fit

JEE keeping attempts limited to 2 years was the best thing

Cousin's friend has a starting salary of 4L per annum

Buys a MacBook, iPhone and airpods together worth probably 4L 

At the same time is renting a 3BHK flat shared with 6 people to save 5K/month of rent

Status more important than functioning life for many young people

My goal is to do 28 pre-seed investments of 1.5 Cr this year, and deploy about 45 Cr in Indian startups

I did 28 investments last year as per my goal, and have already made my first commitment this year in the first week

Given our larger fund, we are capable of investing in more than 2 high quality teams every month

If you know any promising founders, or you plan to raise, please apply to ajvc

Deepinder stepping down as Eternal CEO was not on my bingo card

I guess there has been some cumulative effect of all the non-Zomato projects + the conversation around gig workers spiralling

I'd say one of the best public CEOs in recent times created almost $20B of value

545 Indian students chose Harvard this year, down 30% from 788 last year:

- 1st gen went to Ivy to escape
- 2nd gen for prestige
- 3rd gen asking why play H1-B lottery

IITs easily placing at ₹30L, startups raising at $100M+ valuations, 1 Cr+ jobs rising

Reverse brain drain

Groww bought Indiabulls' mutual fund business in 2023 for about 180 Cr

State Street is now buying 23% of that business valuing the mutual fund at 2,500 Cr

Groww was a minnow acquiring a giant's MF business, but it has delivered a 14x multiple in 3 yrs

Tech distribution power

Books that will help you understand startups, VC and tech a lot better:

- Zero to One: Why competition is for losers
- Hard Things about Hard Things: Reality of running a startup
- Power Law: Why VC works the way it does
- Alex Ferguson: How to manage stars and egos
- Shoe Dog: How to start a disruptive brand from scratch
- VC: How risk capital started with whaling expeditions
- Golden Tap: Starting up in India is both exciting and hard
- Like, Share and Subscribe: How YouTube became the machine it did
- Big Billion Startup: Why Flipkart's story was not as easy as it seems
- Innovator's Dilemma: How to spot a disruptive company before anyone
- Matchmakers: Why platforms like FB, GOOG and AMZN are closer than you think
- Bad Blood: When startup dreams evolve into fraud
- Steve Jobs: Why confrontation drove the biggest innovator of this century
- The Thinking Machine: How Nvidia's overnight success took 35 years
- No Rules Rules: How to build a startup culture

Big gap on Indian startups and tech which I hope to fill, but these will take you very far ahead

India has just 5 firms with a market cap of greater than $100B, with the youngest being Airtel at 31 years old

US has 89 firms, the youngest being AppLovin at 13 years old

China has 17 with the youngest being PinDuoDuo at 10 years

India needs more $100B cos who are also young

Indian towns that are quietly exploding economically:

1. Hosur: Electronics
2. Warangal: Textiles
3. Sri City: Exports
4. Belagavi: Aero
5. Durgapur: Steel
6. Ayodhya: Tourism
7. Neemrana: Manufacturing
8. Deoghar: IT
9. Gopalpur: Port
10. Jabalpur: Vehicles

Engines of growth

India iPhone exports from 0 in FY20:  

FY21: $0.5B 
FY22: $1B 
FY23: $5B 
FY24: $10B 
FY25: $14B
FY26: $28B (P)

India has out of nowhere become an iPhone machine, 50x in 5 years with ~20% of global production

Tech lead at Barclays Global Service Center

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