The Solo GP Journey & Navigating Hype Cycles - Sunil Nagaraj on the Venture Unlocked podcast
Explore the process of launching a solo GP firm, investing in deeptech over 10+ years, and where the VC market is going
This morning, the Venture Unlocked podcast with Samir Kaji interviewed Sunil Nagaraj to talk about a variety of subjects:
The major left-turn in Sunil’s career all based on a single comment from his internship at Microsoft (2:30)
Sunil’s own entrepreneurial journey founding an online dating company, triangulating on who you really are by looking at what you do online (3:40)
Why Sunil left Bessemer Venture Partners after 6 years (and the real reason anyone anywhere starts anything) (5:00)
The “Solo GP” model of venture capital and its tradeoffs - for anyone thinking of starting a new firm (7:05)
The 2 HUGE mistakes Sunil made when pitching LPs for his first fund in 2017 (11:10)
The various types of LPs and how to “speak LP” (13:13)
What makes Ubiquity “nerdy and early” (17:00)
What is “software beyond the screen” (17:55)
Lessons from successful investments (19:30)
Lessons from investment failures (22:20)
Why deeptech startups don’t need more capital than mainstream tech startups (28:28)
How Sunil’s wife’s PhD dissertation on organizational over-reliance on risk frameworks impacts his investing (39:18)
The state of today’s VC market (41:15)
Sunil’s biggest career learning: authenticity matters (44:45)
Click below to listen to the latest episode of the Venture Unlocked podcast
Ubiquity Ventures — led by Sunil Nagaraj — is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on startups solving real-world physical problems with "software beyond the screen", often using smart hardware or machine learning.
If your startup fits this description, fill out the 60-second Ubiquity pitch form and you’ll hear back within 24 hours.