2024 VC Updates, IPO Trends, And Fundraising Advice with Churchill’s Raja Doddala

The Neon Show

VCs Invest in Startups But Who Invests In VCs?
In this episode we host Raja Doddala, an experienced investor and a key figure at Churchill AM a leading Fund of Fund.
Raja shares how he judges the strategy of a VC fund, metrics to evaluate a fund manager, which sectors have yielded the best returns and the differences between the best VC funds and the rest.
We also discuss how funds compete for the best VCs, why old days of fundraising are over, whether Indian public markets are better than the US for IPOs, why he and Churchill are excited about India and much more...
If you are interested in startups, venture capital, fund management, and investment strategies then this is the episode for you.
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
01:11 - From Software Engineer to Investing in VC funds
03:53 - The People Who Invest in VC Funds
05:33 - State of Fund of Fund Ecosystem in the US
06:51 - What Makes Fund of Fund Different from University Endowments?
07:42 - What Makes Someone an Emerging Manager
08:59 - Churchill’s Strategy for Venture Capital Investments
12:56 - How to Choose The Right Fund of Fund Manager
15:10 - How Fund of Fund Compete For The Best VCs
18:10 - Churchill’s Evaluation Criteria for VC Funds
22:34 - At What Stage of Fund Does Churchill Invest
24:17 - Churchill’s Geographical Focus From US to Israel
26:29 - Manager Is More Important Than The Strategy
30:01 - Metrics to Evaluate a Fund Manager: IRR, DPI & TVPI
33:39 - Which Sectors Have Given The Best Return
36:40 - How Raja Judges The Strategy of a VC Fund
38:09 - How The Best Differ From The Rest
39:59 - Old Days of Fundraising Are Over
42:20 - Decide Your Minimum Viable Fund Size
44:03 - The Mortality Rate of Funds
45:02 - Mistakes Funds Make When Building Data Rooms
47:45 - Why Raja & Churchill Are Excited About India
49:57 - Churchill’s Investment Strategy for India
50:59 - Churchill’s Investment Strategy for Israel
53:05 - Are Indian Public Markets Better Than US for IPOs
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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.
Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.
We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
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