Interview/ Article
For tagging my social media handles on your post, they are as below:
LinkedIn: My profile –
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tusharkansal/
My Company profiles –
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kansaltancyventures
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tusharkansal
https://www.facebook.com/Kansaltancy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TusharKansal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tushar.kansal76/
- What is your educational background?
I did studies in Leadership (Executive Education) from Harvard Business School, an MBA in Finance from the University of Delhi, and B.Tech (Textiles) from Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences – Bhiwani, which is affiliated to the “Textile Institute Manchester, UK” and part of the leading Industrial & Education house in India “The Birla Group”. A major part of my Schooling has been at Montfort School, Delhi.
- How did you begin your career? Was it in conjunction with the present role that you have taken up?
I got campus placement from Engineering College at Indo Rama Synthetics, a big poly-staple fiber manufacturing company at Nagpur. But I soon realized that I wanted to be either in IT or Finance. So I prepared hard for MBA Entrance examinations and got through MBA in Finance at the University of Delhi. I got campus placement in M&A division of SBI Capital but post my MBA, I co-founded an Education company called KITES which trained high school students in IIT entrance examinations. The company grew to 800 students and 3 centers in North Delhi and I got a very good exit when we sold it to Narayana Institute in 2006.
For the last decade, I have been in a leadership role, driving Business, with large companies, and as an entrepreneur.
At Deloitte, I executed Private Equity assignments/ Valuations & Financial Advisory. At Brand Capital, I was part of the team investing across companies. At MTS India, as head of the Debt division, I was instrumental in raising almost $2.5 billion of debt in 3 years and handled all round Financial goals as CFO of DLI, including compliances towards the PE Fund Guggenheim, as the main investor and owner.
I am the Founder of Kansaltancy Ventures, an Investment Management firm as also Saffron First, a Startup Network/ Fund, and all the roles played by me have deeply helped me in executing my present professional journey.
- Tell us more about your journey?
My social media links are at Linktree – https://linktr.ee/tusharkansal and Corporate website is www.Kansaltancy.com
I founded a startup Indus B2C Global in 2013. It was a startup into B2B consumer space. The product was Human Hair extensions which are sought after by mostly women of African origin. It was during my time with this startup that I realized the gaps between what startups need and what companies are offering to help the startups.
I quit full-time Management of this startup and became a financial investor. That’s when I launched Kansaltancy Ventures – we assist startups and growth-stage companies with equity fundraising, debt, mergers, and acquisitions, and mentoring. We also help in getting business for the startups which we handhold.
A large part of my work at Kansaltancy Ventures is doing webinars and helping founders and team members of aspiring startups, reach their goals.
Today, I have made a lot of progress in creating an ecosystem in this field.
I am a Mentor and Judge at Entrepreneurship cells of IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Chennai, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT ISM-Dhanbad & such marquee Institutions. I have expertise in Financial & Business Advisory, Fundraising & creation of docs/ collaterals for VC Funding.
I am a Venture Advisor with Loyal VC, the INSEAD-led Canadian VC Fund, having a core portfolio of over 200 investments in more than 35 countries.
Over the years, I have arranged Funding for startups & growth-stage companies in diverse sectors like EdTech, FinTech, Consumer B2C, B2B & D2C, AgriTech, Disruptive & DeepTech as well as non-tech sectors. The full list of 40+ Recommendations are on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tusharkansal/
My expert opinion is often sought by leading business news channels and publications like CNN-News18, VCTV, Business World, Business & Economy, Qrius, and Digital Market Asia. I have come on 200+ talks – Just check on YouTube, VCTV streaming site https://latoken.com/vctv/investor/1040 & Kansaltancy.com!
- What are the offerings of Kansaltancy Ventures?
Kansaltancy Ventures (http://www.Kansaltancy.com and https://www.linkedin.com/company/kansaltancyventures) is an investment management and advisory firm into Equity fundraising, fundraising for VC Funds, Debt, and Mergers & Acquisitions. It has years of experience Growth Companies to prepare for the unknown while meeting their needs. Our verticals:
- Funding: Equity & Structured Debt Planning & Pitching to Investors
- Pitch Deck Preparations & Presentations
- Business Plans & Project Plans Preparations
- Start-Ups & Growth Strategies & Planning
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Financial Strategic Planning & Analysis
- Strategic Planning & Execution Advisory
- Business Valuations Advisory
As an independent Growth delivery firm, we can access many different Funding Options so that the customer can get the right Funding and services
- How to get seed funding for Startups?
For a Founder looking for seed funding, it is imperative to know the sector he or she is operating in. The key is developing a thorough knowledge of the dynamics of the sector including market size, pricing, customer profile, acquisition channels, Go-to-market strategy best suited, the status of adoption of Technology, skills required from the employee base; to name a few.
The foremost skills required by the Founders are a passion for the problem they are solving and their conviction in developing a solution with a sound Business Model behind it. The Founder has to know the narrative inside-out as to what is he creating in the future and a certain amount of story-telling skills are a must in this endeavor.
A passionate Founder will talk about the problem he is solving, write about it on blogs like Medium.com, and also be seen in events. All this works very well for the Seed round Fund-raise, as Investors are likely to search about him and the Startup on Google! Hence, one must have a good Google presence
Once the MVP (Minimum-Viable-Product) is established, the Investors have comfort in the fact that they can see the product. However, being pre-revenue, there is a lot of uncertainty and the more a Founder moves towards establishing a PMF (Product-Market-Fit), the better chances he will have for securing the seed capital.
It would be great to get letters of support from potential Distributors, potential Manufacturers, and other key areas which can show visibility of cash flows immediately post-infusion of Capital by the Investor
We have been seeing that in instances where there is an FMF (Founder-Market-Fit), it not only becomes easy to get seed but the ticket size which Founders can raise can be very high. For example, 10club raised $40 million seed capital on the back of the legacy success of its Founders. Kunal Shah raised $30 million for CRED after he sold Freecharge to Snapdeal.
- What are the Investment strategies for Angel Investors?
Angel investors are of many types. A Banker working in Singapore or Dubai or an Industrialist from a traditional industry or even a housewife, all are Angel investors if they invest money in Startups. A successful investment strategy for an Angel investor would call for segregating potential great products and companies from the good ones and spotting the right talented team from amongst the also-rans.
It also helps that the Angel invests in the same sector he is from; as that will allow him a greater appreciation of the investment opportunity and also give much-needed mentorship to the Startup from his experience.
In case the Angel wants to reap the benefits of Angel investing but doesn’t have the time to put in understanding a new, sunrise sector, he can invest indirectly, by first putting his money in our Angel Network platform, which, in turn, will invest in such Startups.
In terms of getting conviction to invest in a particular company, we, as an Angel Network, deploy a confidence-building strategy – we take the lead in investing in a particular Startup after analyzing all the facets – product, team, market size, etc. The Angel can come in at the same valuation at which the Network is investing, which provides a safety net and builds confidence in the valuation.
In terms of checking hygiene factors in any deal, we conduct local due diligence which checks on-ground situations in terms of product/ service being in place, the team being properly hired, we talk to distributors, call on some select main partners, check addresses, and ex-teammates of the Founders, maybe from the city they come from, and so on. All this gives huge confidence to the Angel investor that there are no loose ends in the investment.
- When should a Startup raise funding?
The best time for a Startup to raise funding is when it has already achieved PMF (Product-Market-Fit) – meaning Primary and Secondary market research has been completed, the Customer preferences have been mapped and inbuilt in Product/ Service features, types of offerings and their pricing has been finalized, the Go-to-market strategy and Distributor/ Supply-chain tie-ups have been done and Strategic roadmap is in place.
With the start of early revenue, the potential Investors are confident and can put in money for marketing and other scaling-up activities.
At this stage, the Founder can also enjoy the fruits of his hard work, in the form of good valuation.
Many times, Founders are early in the game, as in, they created something which Investors are yet to develop a fancy to; or the market is not matured enough, to accord cash flows to the product/ service. This happened with IndiaMart, after many years of which, came Udaan, and became a Unicorn. This happened on many products of Pearson Education, which had a definitive leadership in EdTech but missed out on the huge rally in EdTech space, with multiple Startups getting huge funding. But both IndiaMart and Pearson still made a name and business for themselves and rewarded their Founders nonetheless!
- What are the strategies for a VC firm to evaluate Startups?
To simplify – VC’s really like a team that has this capacity to recruit world-class skills, and to capture the hearts and the minds of the people that really matter in their industry. One can diligence that even remotely. But you sort of feel it immediately when you sit in a room and talk to someone who really knows their stuff.
Second – the market is big enough that it can create a massive business over time.
Third – VC’s would like to see a fundamentally different shaded product, one that has the capacity to really stand out with just a modest amount of marketing.
Those three very simplistic arguments were held many years ago, and they still hold for many VC’s today.
- What’s your take on the pandemic situation – whats the survival method?
What I’ve learned: People have practiced self-care in a multitude of ways during the pandemic as they were forced to adjust to different work methods and schedules, change their running routines, and decrease socializing. Many started seeking out new strategies to counter the stress.
Pandemic taught all of us digital transformation and learned all the different technologies to work from home. Overcoming obstacles is part of life.
Many people are vaccinated by now and I think we have all learned how sail through this
Pandemic taught us to eat healthy food and practice hygiene by using sanitizers.
The pandemic has given each of us an extraordinary and unprecedented encounter with uncertainty and novelty. This has not been welcome. It has driven home the message that we are not in control of very much. It has taught many of us that we need to develop strength in handling adversity and coping with uncertainty. It has acquainted us with our limitations.
Pandemic also taught us that life is short and one should take a pause and reflect on the assumptions on which one is leading one’s life – if you are ignoring health and by the time you turn 45, you will necessarily have to take stock of health vs other priorities and focus on things that truly matter.
- How and why did you start this venture and how were your Company and Brand created?
Kansaltancy Ventures was started with a mission to solve myriad challenges by Investors and Corporates on their Investment side. There are a number of Startups and Growth-stage companies which might be knowing their Engineering i.e their Tech, but are unaware of the myriad possibilities which Financial-Engineering creates! Venture Capital is a way of scaling at a speed at which traditional return-based companies can only dream of, and time and again, one can read media to know the power of a Balance sheet over Profit & Loss accounts! Topline, Bottomline, or Operating profit – all multiplied many times, produce the Valuation of the Company on the Balance-sheet side. So, if one is not unlocking Equity value and just replying on Business cash flows, then he or she may lose out on lightspeed scalability!
Look at D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) companies like Mama Earth, Boat headphones, Bombay Shaving Company, Licious, Lenskart – all scaled so rapidly that the business they achieved was achieved in decades by their legacy competitors!
Other aspects of Financial Engineering, like M&A’s (Mergers & Acquisitions), IPO (Initial Public Offering), use of cutting-edge technology to solve Financial problems – all are becoming mainstream in today’s times and we, at Kansaltancy Ventures, are at the forefront of adopting them.
The Brand “Kansaltancy” is an eponym from my surname “Kansal”
- What are the problems that Startups usually face?
There are 150 million Startups in the world today with 50 million new Startups launching every year. On average, there are 137,000 Startups emerging every day. These are huge numbers by any standards.
But the question remains, how many Startups tend to survive the violent waves of change that have completely transformed the very nature of today’s Startups?
Yes, there is a huge paradigm shift. And that shift has challenged the overall functionality of Startups.
Challenges are everywhere. And businesses – in general, and Startups in particular – are no exception to a myriad of challenges that we face today.
Some specific problems which Startups face are:
- Ever-increasing competition
- Unrealistic expectations
- Hiring right candidates
- Decision-making amongst Co-Founders
- Cash-Flow Management
- Cyber Security in case it is a Tech company
- Winning trust of consumers
- Where do you see yourself 10 years down the line?
I see Kansaltancy Ventures, evolve to have invested $2.5 billion across 500+ Startups from across the world, apart from having accelerated 10,000 select Startups from our Cohorts. through our soon-to-be-launched Accelerator. We would also have more than 10,000+ Angel investors/ Family Offices/ VD Funds/ PE Funds as our partners from across the world and have a presence in all continents, in Singapore, India, UAE, US, UK, and Europe.
We will be THE Go-to platform for any Investor or Startup looking to solve any fundamental problem faced by Human beings or this planet!
- How do people benefit from your venture?
I have met over 6,000+ Startups and Growth stage companies in the past 21+ years! It has been a crazy but very exciting and learning journey! Startups from all sectors – be it FinTech, AgriTech, FoodTech, EdTech, DeepTech, AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning), Robotics and even Non-Tech companies have benefited deeply in terms of fine-tuning their Business Plans, getting their documentation like Project report, Pitch Deck, Financial Model, Valuation, etc in order, getting access to Equity Funding and learning practical aspects of Management.
Many Investors have also benefitted from my venture. I am a Venture Advisor with Loyal VC, the INSEAD-led Canadian VC Fund with more than 200+ investments in more than 60 countries.
I am also a Mentor and Judge at the Entrepreneurship cell of top Academic Institutions – the Indian Institutes of Technology – IIT-Mumbai, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Chennai, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT ISM-Dhanbad & such marquee Institutions.
I was awarded “Business Leader of the Year in Investment Management” in an event “Asian African Business Summit” which was held by the “Asian African Chamber of Commerce & Industry” in 2021.
Please see Recommendations on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tusharkansal/ and on Corporate website https://www.Kansaltancy.com
My expert opinion is often sought by leading business news channels and publications like CNN-News18, VCTV (Venture Capital Tv), Business World, Business & Economy, Qrius, and Digital Market Asia. He has come on 200+ talks – Just check on YouTube, VCTV streaming site https://latoken.com/vctv/investor/1040 & on Corporate website https://www.Kansaltancy.com !
I am connected with 350+ investors globally, picking up global deals while being sector agnostic. My ticket size is USD 200k-50 million.
