Best Joe Ismail Podcasts (2025)

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#55 All-In-One For Founders Ft. Heidi Roizen, Threshold Ventures (Part 2) 59:53

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12M ago59:53

59:53

Heidi is a venture capitalist, a corporate director, a Stanford lecturer, and at heart, always an entrepreneur. She co-founded the software company T/Maker and served as its CEO for over a decade until its acquisition by Deluxe Corporation. After a stint as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple, She entered the VC industry with Softbank, and…

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#54 Luxury On The Hour Ft. Khaled El Sayed & Ismail Al Ghussein 1:06:32

1+ y ago1:06:32

1:06:32

In this episode of Startup Garage, dive into the opulent world of luxury watches as we bring you an hour of wit, wisdom, and wrist candy magic with Khaled, the visionary founder of Timepiece360, and Ismail, a passionate luxury watch enthusiast and a friend of the brand. Episode Highlights: Origins of Timepiece360: Discover the captivating tale of h…

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#53 Sports, Investing and Impact Ft. Florent de Gantès 56:42

1+ y ago56:42

56:42

In this episode of Startup Garage, we dive into the world of venture capital and startup success with our guest Florent, a General Partner at Teampact Ventures. With 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, product management, and executive leadership, Florent brings a unique perspective to the world of investing in startups that are tackling cr…

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#52 Charging Forward With EVs Ft. Adam Ridgway, Founder, One Moto 55:58

1+ y ago55:58

55:58

For the premiere episode of the third season of Startup Garage, we explore how this British expat turned his passion for bikes into a global success story, with One Moto headquartered in Dubai and spreading its influence across 10 countries. From his early career in the UAE's media industry to his bold entrepreneurial pursuits, Adam's path to auton…

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#51 Design & Thinking Ft. Sarah Toukan, Co-Founder, Ziina 46:51

3y ago46:51

46:51

Sarah Toukan comes from a family of entrepreneurs in the middle-east. She attended Stanford for her bachelors and masters in mechanical engineering, post which she worked in real estate and food and beverage industry and currently is the co-founder and leads the product at Ziina. As the UAE’s first licensed peer-to-peer payment app, Ziina is on a m…

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#50 The Mindset Ft. Joy Ajlouny, Co-Founder, Fetchr 35:11

3+ y ago35:11

35:11

Businesswoman, serial entrepreneur and advisor, Joy Ajlouny is a powerhouse of the startup ecosystem. Born and raised in California to Palestinian refugees, Ajlouny has built a reputation for her success in startups and ventures worldwide, all the while aggravating the status quo of women in business. In 2015 Joy Ajlouny co-founded Fetchr, the Sili…

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#49 Shoe Maker Ft. Joe Foster, Founder, Reebok 1:06:02

3+ y ago1:06:02

1:06:02

In 1958, Joe and Jeff left the Foster business to set up a new sports shoe company in an old brewery building in the UK and 30 years later it became the biggest sports brand in the world, Reebok, grossing over $4BN USD in revenues. This is a special episode where we had the honor of hosting the legendary, Joseph William Foster, the founder of Reebo…

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#48 Year In Fin-Tech Ft. Tal Sharon, Managing Partner, Equitech 43:18

3+ y ago43:18

43:18

This episode features Tal Sharon, Managing Partner, Equitech, a fin-tech consulting organization based in the ME region. Tal has been leading dozens of engagements between fin-tech companies and global financial institutions, consulting regulators and government bodies in fin-tech transformation and market education, and supporting the growth of th…

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#47 Travel, Food & YouTubing Ft. Harish Bali, Founder, Visa2Explore 52:30

4y ago52:30

52:30

After spending over 18 years in the corporate, leading large sales teams at HUL, Airtel and Vodafone, Harish Bali started experimenting with travel and food vlogging. At the age of 42! Used up his life-long savings to document his travels, barely breaking even and worked hard to understand his target audience. Today, Visa2Explore has over 1.2M subs…

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#46 Corporate Innovation 101 Ft. Karin Gabriel 49:06

4y ago49:06

49:06

Karen Gabriel has had a fantastic career working with high impact teams across the world. She was a part of the team that launched the Windows phone at Microsoft, she lead program design, development and execution at Dubai Future Foundation, ran 7 cohorts with over 150 startups from around the globe with one of the most ambitious governments in the…

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#45 Education & Entrepreneurship Ft. Alaa Bakhit, Founder, B12 56:18

4y ago56:18

56:18

For this episode, we invited Alaa Bakhit, Founder, B12, a comprehensive education solutions company based in Jordan. Alaa spent over over 14 years in the corporate working with giants like Oracle and Microsoft before quitting to start in the education industry, and is changing the face of modern, hybrid education in the middle east.Alaa is also a p…

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#44 AI, Consulting & Diversity Ft. Paula Newby, Founder, Predixa 54:05

4y ago54:05

54:05

Paula Newby is the Founder of Predixa, an AI tool for corporations to quickly evaluate the key issues and solve for them using a data driven, objective approach. Paula started her first business in textile e-commerce back in the late-nineties and has been an entrepreneur since. She moved to the UAE and started Predixa, and has been working with som…

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Trailer: Innovators Unplugged, Startup Garage & Microsoft For Startups, Middle East 1:07

4y ago1:07

1:07

The official trailer of Innovators Unplugged by Startup Garage & Microsoft For Startups, Middle East

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#43 Buy Now Pay Later Ft. Anuscha Iqbal, Co-Founder, Spotii 30:54

4y ago30:54

30:54

Anuscha Iqbal is the co-founder of Spotii, a Buy Now Pay Later startup based in Dubai, UAE. Anuscha has been working in the investments and private equity space for over a decade with The Abraaj Group. Spotii has grown tremendously in the past one and a half year and recently has been acquired by Zip, a global BNPL leader from Australia. In this ep…

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#42 Turkish SaaS & e-Commerce Ft. Gulsah Gulser 34:28

4y ago34:28

34:28

In this second episode, we have with us Gülşah Gülser, Founder, Quin AI. Gulsah is a strategy consultant with over 10 years of experience mainly in customer and deal strategy. She has worked in retail, e-commerce and travel & leisure and has engaged with leading local and global companies. In this episode, we talk to her about e-commerce and the em…

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#41 Digital Inclusion & Impact Ft. Jose Rubinger, Founder, Key2Enable 33:32

4y ago33:32

33:32

Jose Rubinger worked in the computer-sales industry in Brazil when he identified a global problem: lack of accessible technology for specially-abled children. A few years of research and many MVPs later, he founded Key2Enable, a technology startup that empowers children with disabilities, their parents, caretakers and teachers to accelerate the chi…

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#40 Simplifying Deal Discovery Ft. Abhishek Goyal, Founder, Tracxn 38:52

4y ago38:52

38:52

Abhishek Goyal has worked at Yahoo and Amazon, joined Accel Partners and led Flipkart's first investment round in 2009. He then became an entrepreneur and started Tracxn in 2013, one of the largest private-market data and deal services platform, globally. Today, Tracxn is used by governments, corporates and VCs across the globe to track innovative …

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#39 Think & Talk Smart Ft. Peter Hopwood, Speaking Coach 45:06

4y ago45:06

45:06

Peter Hopwood is an international speaking coach. He travels the world and coaches TEDx speakers, entrepreneurs and corporates on building smart habits for impactful communication and thinking. In this episode, he talks about the foundational aspects of communication, insights on how to share powerful stories and build acute speaking and presence a…

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#38 The Wellness Conversation Ft. Rohit Shah, Co-Founder, Health Horizons 36:39

4y ago36:39

36:39

The hemp industry in India is one of the fastest growing industries with more states legalising cultivation of industrial hemp. There are a lot of myths and taboos around hemp, cannabis and marijuana in India. For this episode, we invited Rohit Shah, Co-Founder & CEO of Health Horizons, a vertically integrated hemp startup from India. Rohit came to…

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#Breakdown8: Inside Saudi's PIF 2:37

4y ago2:37

2:37

Saudi Arabia's PIF - Public Investment Fund is a $347B sovereign wealth fund. It is headed by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and has been an investor in Softbank's Vision Fund. In this episode, Vidit Khendry talks about PIF and the gray areas around it.

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#37 Middle East, Investing & Crypto Ft. Dr. Marc Nassim, Awad Capital 38:13

4y ago38:13

38:13

Dr. Marc Nassim is the Partner & Managing Director at Awad Capital, one of the top investment banks in the Middle-East region. Dr. Nassim holds a PhD. in Finance and has spent about two decades working and investing across sectors for family offices, sovereign funds and HNIs. In this episode, Kushal and Vaibhav talk to him about the middle east inv…

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#Breakdown7: Network Effects & WhatsApp 2:24

4y ago2:24

2:24

You'll often hear startup founders talk about network effects. Many businesses use strong network effects as a moat to keep competition at bay. In this breakdown episode, Vishal Mehndiratta aims to explain the basics of network effects and how WhatsApp probably has the strongest of them!

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#36 What Winning Looks Like (Part 2) Ft. Robert Hussey 45:44

4y ago45:44

45:44

This is the second part of the chat with Robert Hussey (Bob), CEO, Nirvana Water and Founder, POP Radio. Bob started his company in the early 1980s, took it public on NASDAQ, and then faced a hostile takeover bid which he fought. The company got acquired at an above market Cash-Flow Multiple and Bob has since become a private equity investor. In th…

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#Breakdown6: Mayhem On Wall Street - Archegos Capital 2:18

4y ago2:18

2:18

Some analysts are calling the Archegos Capital margin-call failure, the 'Lehman Fraud' of this decade, and the impact it has had on the wealth of US corporations and banks is way more than the current estimates. Prime bankers lending to high-rollers with levered bets on a select few stocks might just be the bubble we're awaiting.…

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#35 Philosophy & Capital Ft. Cathy Guo, Antler India 32:48

4+ y ago32:48

32:48

Cathy Guo is a founder-turned VC, currently managing investments at Antler India. She has been a part of First Principles and True Beacon, and has started Dunya Labs, a blockchain startup based out of Bangalore, India. In this episode, we talk to her about how philosophy and entrepreneurship are connected, about her journey in China, US and India a…

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#Breakdown5: NFTs Explained 3:12

4+ y ago3:12

3:12

You have most probably heard of NFTs and the frenzy going on around these digital collectibles. Christie's recently auctioned a digital artwork, which was essentially a green signal for the asset class. In this episode, we breakdown and explain NFTs and why are the becoming so valuable and popular! Marketplace for NFTs: www.opensea.io…

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#34 Of VCs & Technology Ft. Dr. Srikanth Sundararajan, General Partner, Ventureast 46:28

4+ y ago46:28

46:28

Dr. Srikanth is currently a General Partner at Ventureast, one of the oldest venture capital firms in India (started around 1997), and has raised and deployed about $400 Million USD. In the past, he has held the post of CTO for HCL and Cognizant and prior to that he was an entrepreneur. Srikanth also is a visiting professor at Indian School of Busi…

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#Breakdown4: Domino's Pizza Turnaround 2:35

4+ y ago2:35

2:35

The Domino's Pizza turnaround is a legendary corporate tale of customer centricity. The company's share, after IPOing in 2004, went down to $3/share in 2008 and currently trades levels of $360/share. In this short episode, let's look at how Patrick Doyle turned the pizza company around.

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#33 The Partying Polymath Ft. Shaun Gold 54:17

4+ y ago54:17

54:17

Shaun Gold, is a former nightlife ninja, where his business was creating and promoting the some of the most exclusive parties and events in Miami. He is a true polymath, has written 4 books, lectures at universities and currently, is starting up again, this time in the mental health space: The Youtopian Journey. In this episode, we talk to Shaun ab…

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#32 VC For Everyone Ft. Jesse Randall, Founder, Sweater 48:15

4+ y ago48:15

48:15

The venture capital asset class has gained immense popularity in the past decade. But still, only a select group of people and institutions have access to it. In this episode, we talk to Jesse Randall, Founder and CEO, Sweater about how he is opening up venture capital for the retail investors. Jesse has started companies in the past and also works…

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#31 What Winning Looks Like (Part 1) Ft. Robert Hussey, Co-Founder, POP Radio 56:30

4+ y ago56:30

56:30

Worked on the Wall Street in the 70s. Started his own company in the 80s. Went public on NASDAQ. Got acquired. The guest for our episode today is a prolific marketing genius and the co-founder of POP Radio, Robert Hussey (Bob). This is the first part of his story, filled with brave decisions and extraordinary achievements. We talk about it all: his…

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#30 Ethical Leadership Ft. Roberto Croci, Managing Director, Microsoft For Startups 33:10

4+ y ago33:10

33:10

Roberto Croci is the Managing Director at Microsoft For Startups, MENA region. He has previously served as Regional Head, Google Marketing Platforms - EMEA Emerging Markets (Middle East, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Africa) and has been an advisor to startups since 2008. Roberto is one of those leaders who has worked at the cusp of startups and corporat…

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#29 Out-Innovating Ft. Alex Lazarow, VC, Cathay Innovation 28:43

4+ y ago28:43

28:43

Alexandre Lazarow is a venture capitalist with Cathay Innovation, a global firm that invests across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America in a range of startups including Chime, Neon, Terminal, FinAccel, Zola, Rensource, Paga among others. Previously, Alex worked with Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm. He is also the author of 'Out…

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#Breakdown3: The Marshmallow Challenge 2:32

4+ y ago2:32

2:32

The Marshmallow Challenge is a team-based design challenge invented by Peter Skillman which has been a phenomenal experiment in behavioural psychology in groups. The challenge reveals a lot about teamwork and curiosity.

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#28 Raising Money As VCs Ft. Charlie O'Donnell, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures 43:51

4+ y ago43:51

43:51

Our guest for this episode is Charlie O'Donnell. Charlie is the sole Partner and Founder at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. The fund makes seed and pre-seed investments and was the first venture firm located in Brooklyn - where Charlie was born and raised. Brooklyn Bridge invested in the first rounds of The Wing, Canary, Hungryroot, Ample Hills, Clubhous…

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#Breakdown2: First Mover (Dis)Advantage 2:35

4+ y ago2:35

2:35

Is being first in the market always an advantage? Or is there something about second movers since they have been wildly successful? In this short episode, we explore the long-debated idea with a short story of Red Bull.

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#27 Fund Of Funds Ft. Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman, SIDBI 25:13

4+ y ago25:13

25:13

For the second episode of season 2, we have invited Mr. Mohammad Mustafa (IAS), Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI. He has been leading charge of SIDBI's venture capital push in India by acting as a fund of funds to the country's top VCs. His recent book, Demystifying Venture Capital is a fresh take on how the industry is structured, and also ha…

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#Breakdown1: Vanity Metrics & Sanity Metrics 5:17

4+ y ago5:17

5:17

In this short, 5-min episode of Breakdown by Startup Garage, Vishal and Vaibhav chat about why metrics are important for founders, what are vanity metrics and how to avoid the trap.

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#26 The CEO Factory Ft. Sudhir Sitapati, Executive Director, HUL 36:56

4+ y ago36:56

36:56

Did you know: over 400 CEOs in India are ex-HUL? For the pilot episode of season 2, we have invited over Sudhir Sitapati, Executive Director, Hindustan Unilever. Sudhir has spent over 20 years at HUL, wearing multiple hats across categories, functions and regions and has recently distilled his knowledge and observations of all these years into 'The…

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#25 Investing in SE Asia Ft. Jeffrey Paine, Partner, Golden Gate Ventures 40:35

4+ y ago40:35

40:35

Jeffrey Paine is one of the most active startup ecosystem leaders in Asia. He is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, one of the earliest and most active VC funds of South-East Asia. He also started the Singapore chapter of Founder Institute. In this episode, we chat with him about raising money from LPs, about what makes sou…

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#24 Connections Count Ft. Heidi Roizen, Partner, Threshold Ventures 32:54

4+ y ago32:54

32:54

Heidi Roizen is a venture capitalist, a Stanford University lecturer, and an entrepreneur. She co-founded the software company T/Maker, served as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple, entered the VC industry with Softbank, and currently is a partner at Silicon Valley-based Threshold Ventures. She is a corporate director for a bunch of publi…

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#23 Recession Proof Leadership Ft. Victor Cheng 38:22

4+ y ago38:22

38:22

"The world is no more the same", is probably going to be the most overused phrase of the decade. Or is it? Our guest for this episode is Victor Cheng, a celebrated business coach to Inc. 500 CEOs and a bestselling author. Victor is a Stanford University graduate, a former McKinsey consultant, and also serves as an expert source for media outlets in…

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#22 Growth Stage Investing Ft. Ashish Kumar, Partner, Fundamentum 29:43

4+ y ago29:43

29:43

Ashish Kumar is a partner at Fundamentum Partnership - a Series B/C focused VC Fund based out of India. Prior to this, he was a serial technology entrepreneur and had started multiple tech companies with successful exits including one to a publicly listed entity. At Fundamentum, Ashish invests $10M-$25M, alongside Nandan Nilekani (Founder, Infosys)…

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#21 Alpha Portfolio Ft. Saurabh Mukherjea, Founder, Marcellus 45:46

4+ y ago45:46

45:46

Saurabh Mukherjea is a prolific equity markets investor, an author and an entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marcellus Investment Managers and the former CEO of Ambit Capital. Prior to Ambit, Saurabh was co-founder of Clear Capital, a London-based small-cap equity research firm that was created in 2003 and sold in 2008.…

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#20 Pitching 101 Ft. Serap Ipek, RocketX Group 33:02

4+ y ago33:02

33:02

Pitching is one thing that startups do throughout their life cycles, it is how people perceive your idea, your passion and information about your company. Today, on our podcast, we have invited Serap Ipek, a professional pitch coach from Amsterdam. Serap was leading the Startupbootcamp Amsterdam, and currently trains founders at Rocket X. In the ep…

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In Remembrance - Steve Jobs - Bonus Episode 9:19

4+ y ago9:19

9:19

This is a bonus episode where we feature some rare audio clips and celebrate the life and learnings of Steve Jobs, today, on 5th October, 9 years after he passed away. This stitched-together clip has Steve talking about leadership, managing people, recruitment, he talks about the art of product design and about Apple. All the copyrights of these cl…

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#19 The Business Of Wealth Ft. Varun Sridhar, CEO, PayTM Money 39:48

4+ y ago39:48

39:48

In this episode, we have with us, Varun Sridhar, CEO of PayTM Money, the biggest digital wealth management platform of India. Varun has spent over a decade in financial services, especially in retail banking with Citibank, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. Now, at the helm of PayTM Money, he has recently lead the launch of their stock broking platform…

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#18 Carrying The Fire Ft. Srinath Ravichandran, Agnikul Cosmos 26:32

5y ago26:32

26:32

How does a guy in financial services, working in New York move to Chennai, to build and launch rockets?Well, our guest for this episode is Srinath Ravichandran, Former Director at AXA and AIG, US, and now the co-founder of Agnikul Cosmos, an aerospace engineering startup which designs, manufactures and launches orbital vehicles for satellites. In t…

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#17 Digital Logistics Ft. Gautam Kumar, Co-Founder & COO, FarEye 45:09

5y ago45:09

45:09

In this episode, we have invited over Gautam Kumar, Co-Founder, FarEye, one of the fastest growing digital logistics startup from India. FarEye serves more than 5 million transactions every day across 20 countries. It is backed by Microsoft, SAIF Partners and Fundamentum (Nandan Nilekani), and is bringing efficiencies to the trillion dollar logisti…

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#16 Of Deals & Diversification Ft. Anurag Ramdasan, 3one4 Capital 33:21

5y ago33:21

33:21

In this episode, we have invited Anurag Ramdasan, Principal, 3one4 Capital. Anurag leads the investments team at 3one4 Capital, managing a corpus fund of over $200 million and has invested in over 50 startups across early stage. We had a chat about sector-focus at a venture capital fund, about picking the right founders and about deal evaluation. T…