E107: Rahul Chowdhury (Managing Partner, N+1 Capital)

The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Mar 20, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 107

--:--

Listen in podcast apps:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Download

Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app

Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

Rahul Chowdhury is the Managing Partner at N+1 Capital, India’s first revenue based debt fund. He brings 18+ years of intensive entrepreneurial and operating experience. He is a two-time founder, having founded and sold DenuoSource, a Chicago-based data analytics firm, in 2011. He later founded Reboot, India's first refurbished IT asset lifecycle management firm.

How does revenue-based-financing (RBF) work?

N+1 will provide startups access to capital, at a premium, without taking any equity share or collateral from the company. Further, it collects a percentage of the borrowing entity’s monthly revenues to pay the capital back, and gives steady returns to its limited partners on a quarterly basis. Unlike venture debt firms, N+1 isn’t dependent on future fund-raise of the startup, but will invest on the basis of its revenue outlook.

Episode Notes:

1. What motivated Rahul to pursue a career as a venture capitalist? (3:38)

2. The impact of Rahul's operator journey on his venture capital journey (6:02)

3. With whom does Rahul do business? (12:50)

4. Key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs (15:41)

5. Rahul’s decision making process (23:10)

6. How important are metrics and numbers in investment decision making? (35:40)

7. How does Rahul view black swan events and their impact on predicting the trajectory of startups seeking revenue-based financing? (38:18)

8. Evaluating businesses of varying sizes with respect to revenue based financing (45:31)

9. How significant is TAM to a revenue-based-financing investor? (55:20)

10. Challenges of revenue based financing in India (58:38)

11. Why VCs like to collaborate with a revenue-based-financing firm? (1:04:20)