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<keyword id="1397790" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vani-Kola">Vani Kola</keyword>, MD, <keyword id="1397792" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kalaari-Capital">Kalaari Capital</keyword> got the investment for her start-ups like any typical entrepreneur by the trial and error method. Newly interested in business, she went step-by-step and decoded how to get funding by first making a business plan, then asking for help. “If you have the passion and the perseverance and problem-solving ability, these three Ps can get you anywhere,’’ she told Business Insider in a candid chat in Kalaari Capital's modern office and Incubator in Bengaluru. Genuinely been helped by a lot of people, when Kola successfully sold her company, she didn’t want to stop working. Kola left India in 1985 and felt that the country has completely transformed by the time she left so she decided to see if her home still gave her inspiration. It did. 

 

 

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 Homecoming and How She came back home to India for a month in 2006 to try and reconnect back to her roots and also figure out her next move. After traveling across the country, she decided that she wanted to help the entrepreneurs that never got the kind of exposure that she had been lucky to receive. Kola started <keyword id="4542933" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="indo-us-ventures">Indo-US Ventures</keyword>, which was started with the intent of bridging the two countries by enabling more transactions. She raised a maiden fund of $210 million in 2006 with <keyword id="175777" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vinod-Dham">Vinod Dham</keyword>, who is known for developing Intel’s Pentium chip. Post parting with Dham, she raised another $440 million, making her the second-largest firm in India by assets which is now called Kalaari Capital- the name inspired by Kerala’s highly trained martial arts. One of the first movers in E-commerce space, the Venture fund has invested in companies such as Via, Myntra, Holachef, Zivame, and even Snapdeal. 

 

 

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 First Mover's Outsider Perspective Crediting her outsider’s perspective for betting on start-ups that have blown up, Kola says that her investments are based on calculated futuristic trends that will be mainstream ten years from now. Armed with more than $65 million, she has invested in 60 plus start-ups and growing. Commenting on the volatile e-commerce sector and the recent markdowns and firings, Kola thinks that while the companies might get consolidated, e-commerce is here to stay - “What will win the market is great customer service, the brand name is unimportant. Some companies will fail but the sector will keep growing,” Kola comments on the highly volatile e-commerce sector. 

 

 

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According to reports, Kalaari has already made $100 million from Snapdeal through secondary sales and it is bound to make more. Explaining how Consumer products and solutions create a lot of support structure that encourage more B2B companies, Kalaari remains positive about this sector while also showing interest in <keyword id="6358577" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Digital-Payments">Digital Payments</keyword> and the financial and educational inclusion that technology can bring. “Investors are like parents that have to let the entrepreneurs be, just like my parents did. You have to let the companies discover,” says Kola, who is the most successful woman Venture Capitalist this country has seen.

Exclusive: Vani Kola, MD, Kalaari Capital talks about Her Big Bets and Consolidation in the E-commerce Sector

He invented the first <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Pentium+Processor">Pentium Processor</a> that made <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Intel">Intel</a> the world’s biggest chip-maker. He then invented the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=AMD+K6">AMD K6</a>, popularly known as the ‘Pentium Killer’. 
 
He has the most cracking anecdotes about how <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Robert+Noyce">Robert Noyce</a> (Co-founder, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Intel">Intel</a>) once called him at his desk when he joined <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Intel">Intel</a> as a young engineer, and how he suggested <keyword id="3240418" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Gordan-Moore">Gordan Moore</keyword> (Co-founder, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Intel">Intel</a>) to buy off Knight Ridder to get rid of his newspaper worries. 
 
Today he’s better known as the Executive MD of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IndoUS+Venture+Partners">IndoUS Venture Partners</a>, the VC that funded <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal">Snapdeal</a> back in the days. <keyword id="175777" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vinod-Dham">Vinod Dham</keyword>, 65 is nothing short of a legend. 
 
He believes Innovation is done by cheap labor, and never misses an opportunity to tell <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Narendra+Modi">Narendra Modi</a> to fund College Projects instead of government-driven research. “They haven’t done anything worthwhile after all”, he says! 
 
He ain’t a big supporter of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Ambani">Ambani</a>/Birla model where business is done through subsidies and upfront guarantee of being profitable. “That’s not business. They’re still not profitable”, he dismisses. 
 
He has li’l regard for MBAs, accepts that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Intel">Intel</a> missed the smartphone chip train and loves the thrill of startups. 
 
Business Insider sat down with this kickass inventor-cum-entrepreneur-cum-Venture Capitalist-cum…um, there’s a long list, and got chatting. 
 
The Father of the <keyword id="175778" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Pentium-Processor">Pentium Processor</keyword> was FORCED into Engineering? 
*Laughs* I ultimately followed my passion, and it paid off. You should really do what you want to do, because then work becomes play. 
 
I was forced to shift from Physics. My brother felt I won’t be able to earn enough money in my life. I don’t blame him for that. 
 
I ultimately ended doing my Masters in Solid State Physics, which is basically <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Semi-Conductors">Semi-Conductors</a>. 
 
It’s one of those things where you need to know Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Electronics, Circuit Design, Computer Science, Software, and even Fluid Mechanics. I found it intriguing. 
 
The ‘<keyword id="28115" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Intel">Intel</keyword> Inside’ Campaign catapulted the company into the limelight. Do breakthroughs like that just happen? 
It doesn’t happen overnight. It sometimes takes decades. 
 
Intel had existed since 1969. It was only in 1993-94 that we realized <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Intel+chips">Intel chips</a> were going into 90% of the computers, but no one knew they come fitted with the same processor inside. People just asked for a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Compaq">Compaq</a> or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IBM">IBM</a> PC. That made us very envious. 
 
It was then that we came up with the idea of the ‘Intel Inside’ sticker. We offered lower prices to consumers who let us stick those. Then Bill Gates got his, and so on and so forth. That’s how it started. 
 
You’re the go-to microprocessor guy. Is smartphone heating bad engineering or necessary evil? 
It’s a necessary evil. Physics creates the heat. 
 
The architecture has been scaled over the last 40 years to one billionth of the original. You’ve not scaled only one thing, and that’s the voltage or power supply. It was 12 Volts earlier, soon became 5 Volts, and finally 3.3 Volts. 
 
If you don’t scale everything, heat will be created as a byproduct. You’re at an atomic level. You can’t go beyond that. So you’ll have to live with the heat. 
 
Alternately, you can try chilling and other mechanisms that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Apple">Apple</a> is trying. 
 
India’s Smartphone Boom and the Microprocessors Industry 
It had to happen. It was just a matter of time. 
 
Today, if you want to buy the original Pentium machine I built in 1991, it will cost you $200,000. 
 
The only smartphones that are going to be made are the new ones. You can blame Moore’s Law for that. Amazing guy! 
 
Why doesn’t India have a global Software brand? 
The very fact that we are the ultimate destination for software services in the world is our weakness. In <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IT+Services">IT Services</a> the mindset is of service. We’re waiting to be told what to do. 
 
We have an entire generation of young engineers who’ll do anything you tell them to. They’re very smart kids, don’t get me wrong. However, in the process we’ve not allowed them to be creative. 
 
We need to get out of service mode, and get into problem solving mode. It’ll come. I already see <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Vishal+Sikka">Vishal Sikka</a> steering his big boat into product orientation. I’m sure <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Wipro">Wipro</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=TCS">TCS</a> will follow. 
 
Do you buy into the Startup Bubble Idea? 
There are no bubbles, only pockets. In the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=enterprise+software">enterprise software</a> industry in the US, there are 78 Unicorns. Everybody decided to go on funding them as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IPO">IPO</a> is very hard there. 
 
In the process, if 20-30% of them die, I don’t see a problem. If you want to call that a bubble, you may, but that’s a part of the natural evolution of any business. 
 
Valuation Bubbles 
Greed is human. You work between greed and fear. 
 
Investors are humans too, and they want money. Once everybody’s investing, you don’t want to be left behind, and so you invest. When everybody wants to invest for the same deal, valuations go up, and that’s what’s been going on. However, it has to self-correct. 
 
I won’t worry about it too much. It’s a good time to consolidate, sit back, review and those who can’t make it will go home. 
 
There will be a collective learning. Failures teach you something. You won’t make the same mistakes next time at least. That’s how you learn and grow, and I like it. 
 
VC-funded Startup Ecosystem 
We only get our money’s worth with the home run. 
 
We look at the thousand deals that come to us, and look at a hundred in all seriousness. Out of that we invest in ten, and ultimately invite one. 
 
When you go backwards, there is a very low probability of success in VCs. However, the ones who succeed bring all the goodness into the world. That’s why I’m such a believer. 
 
Big sectors other than E-Commerce 
Data Science, Artificial intelligence and Health Science. 
 
A lot of innovative and creative ideas are coming out of India. 
 
How do you foster innovation at a young age? 
Foster curiosity. 
 
There is a mindset in India that needs to change right from schooling. This change needs to take place significantly at a 6th, 8th and 12th grade level. 
 
We shouldn’t focus on rote learning. Nobody needs 2*2 tables; you have a calculator today for that. Just ask them to be curious and creative in their own way. 
 
Your vision for Mobile Computing 
It’ll become more intelligent. The question is what form it’ll take. 
 
The total computational power of a smartphone will far exceed that of the human brain. It’ll be able to do things that we can’t even imagine. 
 
Image Credit: WizIQ Edtech

Exclusive: The ‘Father of Pentium
Processor’ Vinod Dham talks about Startups and where India is headed

<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/trendsfestival" data-type="tilCustomLink">Global Trends Festival</a> is one of the world's most prestigious events which will be live from Oct 19-23.</li><li>While nobel laureates, some of the biggest political and corporate icons will provide thought leadership, it's a great platform to network with CXOs from around the world.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/trendsfestival" data-type="tilCustomLink">Global Trends Festival 2020</a> is presented by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/trendsfestival" data-type="tilCustomLink"></a><a href="https://aws.amazon.com/" data-type="tilCustomLink">AWS</a>.</li><li>Get your tickets now from <a href="https://in.bookmyshow.com/events/business-insider-global-trends-festival/ET00137578" data-type="tilCustomLink">BookMyShow</a>.</li></ul> Scaling new heights comes easily for serial entrepreneur Vani Kola. After all, she had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro a decade back. However, she is better known for her penchant to start, grow and sell companies in the Silicon Valley. What got this middle-class engineering graduate from Hyderabad to make a mark in Silicon Valley is pure grit and determination. As the founder of RightWorks, a web enterprise computing company in the 90s, she sent her pitches to Fortune 500 CEOs on a <a href="https://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jan/22us1.htm">large sized cardboard</a>. It’s too big to throw away and impossible to crumble! She later sold the company for a whopping $657 million in 2000, and repeated the same success story with yet another company she founded, Certus Software. In 2006, Kola made a life-changing decision to come back to India. It was tough since she has been living there for 22 years with her husband Srinivas Kola with whom she travelled to the US for masters degree, and two daughters. But Kola who is now based out of Bangalore, during a visit to India and saw ‘how much’ it had changed since she left it. A cab ride that brought her back home The epiphany came when she was taking a cab ride. Her cabbie told her that he is planning to take his family to Bangkok for a holiday, which shocked her. “I have never heard my own father (who is an accountant) say that he has been working hard and needs a vacation,” she said in an <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/meet-venture-capital-pioneer-vani-kola-115030500583_1.html">interview to Business Standard</a>. After looking at how consumer behaviour was changing and that India was ripe for innovation, she set up Indo-US Venture Partners in 2006 with yet another serial entrepreneur Vinod Dham and former head of Intel India Kumar Shiralgi. The venture went through management changes to be rebranded in 2011 as Kalaari Capital, named after Kerala-based ancient martial art form Kalaripayat. Breaking the boy’s club Since inception, Kalaari Capital has invested in many e-commerce firms like Snapdeal, Myntra and Urban Ladder. Among her top investments are YourStory, Dream11 and Curefit. Among her top investments and exits is one of India’s first online lingerie stores, Zivame. In the founder of the startup, Richa <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/meet-venture-capital-pioneer-vani-kola-115030500583_1.html">Kar’s own words</a>, Kola had grasped the concept in half an hour. With others, it would have taken two weeks across many meetings. It also helped that Kola was one of those rare women in the boy’s club of venture capitalists, and she was the first that Kar came across. Even now, the number of women who seek investments from Kalaari are a mere two percent of the total number. Yet, Kola believes things will change. In the 1980s, she was part of another boys club, called engineering. She was amongst one of the six girls in a batch of 400! Now the ratios are much well balanced and these women, she hopes will become CEOs, investment bankers and also venture capitalists and the so-called boys club will not remain so anymore. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/india-has-its-eyes-and-hopes-pinned-on-adar-poonawalla-the-worlds-biggest-vaccine-maker-who-will-be-at-gtf-2020/articleshow/77977949.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">India has its eyes and hopes pinned on Adar Poonawalla⁠⁠— the world’s biggest vaccine maker who will be speaking at the Global Trends Festival 2020</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/the-leadership-from-asia-and-india-in-particular-will-be-at-the-heart-of-global-trends-festival-2020/articleshow/77971081.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">The leadership from Asia, and India in particular, will be at the heart of Global Trends Festival 2020</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/largest-global-event-in-2020-trends-festival/articleshow/77461047.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Business Insider's Global Trends Festival is coming to India — and it's gonna be huge!</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/reed-hastings-to-speak-at-the-business-insider-global-trends-festival/articleshow/77550576.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Reed Hastings to speak at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival</a>

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Exclusive: Vani Kola, MD, Kalaari Capital talks about Her Big Bets and Consolidation in the E-commerce Sector

Tanya Dubey

Exclusive: The ‘Father of Pentium Processor’ Vinod Dham talks about Startups and where India is headed

Saikat Pyne

Meet Vani Kola, the unicorn hunter, at Global Trends Festival 2020

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