From Jeff Bezos to Tencent, entrepreneur Nipun Mehra has a wealth of investors backing his Indonesian e-commerce start-up, Ula.
But as a former start-up investor himself, he had a head start when it came to pitching for funding.
Having been an early backer of Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Gojek and other regional start-ups during his time at venture capital firm Sequoia India, Mehra said there were three key questions he always asked each company.
Here are the questions.
Vision
"One, what is the vision?" Mehra told CNBC Make It.
Investors are keen to know what a founder wants their company to be, and whether their target market is big enough to support that vision, he said. So, would-be founders should be prepared to share their big idea — and the market data to back it up.
In Mehra's case, Ula was creating an e-commerce service for Indonesia's millions of neighborhood street kiosks, known as warungs, which are used daily by local residents. In a country with a population of over 270 million people — and therefore, potential consumers — that was a big addressable market.
Team
"Second, is the team that is going to drive this good enough?" said Mehra.
"Good enough" means a founder is both "hungry enough and smart enough" to achieve their vision, he explained.
Ula co-founders Riky Tenggara, Derry Sakti and Alan Wong.
Ula
But it also implies that they should be conscious of their weaknesses as well, and be able to bring in others to balance those out.
For instance, while Mehra had 15 years of experience working in e-commerce and investments, he was less familiar with the Indonesian market, and called on co-founders to supplement that knowledge.
Track record
"Third, what is the track record?" said Mehra. "If you have to [reach] there, the track record has to be able to back up the fact that the vision can someday be realized."
That involves demonstrating the company's successes so far, through a combination of customer feedback, data analysis and financial reports, he said.
Luckily and happily we ended up on the right side of that conversation.
Nipun Mehra
co-founder and CEO, Ula
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November 05, 2021 at 07:28AM
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He founded a multimillion-dollar start-up. Here's what this former investor looks for in a winning business idea - CNBC
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