After working in the family business (Onida group) in various roles, Sasha Mirchandani started his own venture, then was the India head of a Valley-based venture capital firm. He is the Managing Director and Founder of Kae Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm. It raised its first fund of $25 million in 2012, which it has more or less invested, barring for some follow-on investing.

Kae Capital is a sector agnostic fund and invests in companies that use innovative solutions to bridge gaps in the market. The sectors that it looks at are mobile, e-commerce, education, healthcare and consumer interest.

Education: Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Strayer University, USA, and MMDP programme at IIM-Ahmedabad.

Prior experience: Worked in multiple capacities, including as a Sales Manager, in Onida. When the family decided to professionalise the management, by separating ownership from management, Sasha started a venture in the BPO space that he sold after a few years. He was then India head for Blue Run Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invested in start-ups in the mobile space. Sasha was also instrumental in helping found Mumbai Angels, a network of wealthy individuals that invests in and mentors start-ups.

Sectors interested in: Any sector with a strong technology differentiator, because tech capital efficient.

Investments: Have done three buckets of investments – one, between 2002 and 2004, which I did in my personal capacity; then during 2006-11, mainly through Mumbai Angels, but again my personal funds; and, now through Kae Capital. The companies include InMobi, Fractal Analytics, Healthkart, TrulyMadly, SysCloud and The Porter.

Typical working day: Three days a week, I work out. Three days I play squash and the seventh day, I swim. I am in office by 8-8.15 every morning and get back home by 8-8.30. During the day, it is meetings with portfolio companies, looking at new ventures, conference calls with founders of portfolio companies. These conference calls continue even after I get back home.

Hobbies: I read a lot. I travel so much that it gives me time to read. It can be on anything. A recent book I read was about the Versace family and another one on the founder of NetApp. It is diverse. I like to mix it up.

Gadgets: I had a bad habit of buying all gadgets that came into the market, till I realised that I had a whole lot of stuff that I had never even used. After that I have completely changed and stopped buying gadgets for the sake of buying them. Now, it has to be utilitarian and I have to use them regularly. But it has to be the best. My phone is an iPhone6 as I use it constantly.

Advice to entrepreneurs: I can only recall a powerful quote of Tony Hsieh (CEO, Zappos), “chase the vision, not the money.” People should not get into entrepreneurship for the wrong reasons.

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