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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Insider is putting together a list of the best up-and-coming venture capitalists of 2024.</li><li>We want to spotlight US-based VCs who are skilled at dealmaking at both large and small funds.</li></ul>We are seeking nominations for Insider's yearly list of rising stars of venture capital, and we want to hear from you.Submit your suggestions below or <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://forms.gle/NsfCPK2ruEfRs9Lg8">via this form.</a>We're looking for US-based venture capitalists who are working hard to find and fund the next big startups. These individuals may be early in their careers at big-name funds or managing young funds and wowing their peers in the industry.In the past, we've had people with various roles and experiences from VC funds like Founders Fund, Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tiger Global, and Spark Capital.Take a look at<a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rising-stars-venture-capital-tech-startups-2023-11"> our 2023 list here.</a>Note: Due to the large volume of applicants, we're unable to provide additional guidance on the selection process. Applications submitted after the deadline may not be considered.

Business Insider is seeking nominations for the 2024 rising stars of venture capital

Climate Action 15: 2024's top global innovators powering green solutions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Silicon Valley is split over the best way to run a company.</li><li>An essay called "Founder Mode," inspired by Airbnb's Brian Chesky, says leaders need to be more hands-on.</li></ul>September has started with some navel-gazing in Silicon Valley as tech operators have been forced to confront an awkward question: <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-everyone-in-tech-talking-founder-mode-paul-graham-chesky-2024-9">are they running their companies the right way?</a>There are a few good reasons this question has surfaced. For one, industry veteran Paul Graham — a cofounder of startup accelerator Y Combinator — published an <a target="_blank" href="https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html">essay titled "Founder Mode"</a> at the start of the month that either resonated or struck a nerve with leaders.For the uninitiated, Graham has established a reputation in tech circles as a shrewd and erudite thinker. Over the past two decades, he's regularly weighed in on topics that both would-be entrepreneurs and more established leaders often fret over.Essays on generating <a target="_blank" href="https://www.paulgraham.com/superlinear.html">"superlinear returns"</a> and becoming <a target="_blank" href="https://www.paulgraham.com/ramenprofitable.html">"ramen profitable"</a> have found viral acclaim among startup founders. So, too, have broader ruminations on being stubborn, the art market, and having kids. Famously, Graham was also an early mentor to Sam Altman.In his latest essay, Graham argues that there are two ways of operating a growing company — "founder mode and manager mode" — with those falling into the latter category at risk of seeing their company being driven into the ground.His rationale is pretty straightforward. Manager mode, he claims, involves a more hands-off approach to operations by delegating tasks to direct reports who are left to figure out details alone. Founder mode, he says, is about doing the exact opposite.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-ceo-lessons-former-direct-report-2024-9">Airbnb's cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky</a>, the inspiration behind Graham's essay, sees leaders like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jony Ive, and Hiroki Asai, his global head of marketing, as exemplars of founder mode. A slowdown in capital flowing into tech businesses has made leaders more sensitive to Graham's question. Economic uncertainty has pushed them to think hard about their operations.But as a fierce debate has raged through social media in recent days, it's become clear that the tech world is split on what, exactly, is the best way to run a tech company.<h2 id="c66d1557-b272-4efd-bb24-ba287f7fcc53">Founder mode versus manager mode</h2><div type="image" title="Steve Jobs" height="2113" width="3000" msid="113092368" hostid="261" sizebytes="445370"></div>Filip Dames is one tech figure who has found plenty that resonates with him in the founder mode philosophy.As a founding partner at investment firm <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/early-stage-tech-startups-capture-vc-attention-in-2023-4">Cherry Ventures</a> and part of the founding team of online retail firm Zalando, Dames has seen "efficiency go out the window" for startup leaders who bring in, say, a "super senior sales guy" to solve problems as they grow in size."They will never be as dedicated, they will never have as much skin in the game," Dames told Business Insider. "For them it's a job, and for you as a founder, it's basically your life."The idea gets to the heart of what the pro-founder mode camp prizes. In a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia6Di_ytiSE">podcast</a>, Airbnb's Chesky argued that founders differ from managers by being the "biological parent" of the company they oversee."You can love something, but when you're the biological parent of something, like, it came from you, it is you, there's a deep passion and love," he said.Of course, tech leaders do become encumbered with a growing list of responsibilities as their companies grow. Big Tech firms like Meta and Google went on a huge hiring binge during the pandemic to meet the growing demand for digital services, but they have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-jobs-recession-layoffs-gen-z-students-class-of-2023-2023-2">since laid off layers of middle managers.</a>For Dames, growth doesn't necessarily mean companies and founders must switch to manager mode.In his view, many large companies where the CEO is the founder "manage to run things with the founder DNA" by ensuring the full organization works with the same clear "values" in mind. "I think eventually as the company grows the only way to do it is through values," he said.A value-led approach has been key for tech founders who have managed to maintain success at their companies years after they raised their initial round of seed money. Jeff Bezos, for instance, has famously retained <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/executive-insights/content/how-amazon-defines-and-operationalizes-a-day-1-culture/">Amazon's "Day 1" culture,</a> first established in 1997.Others see a risk in sticking to a single operating mode. According to Hussein Kanji, a founder and partner at venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures, it's easy to end up down the wrong track "if you live just in one mode.""People love making things black and white when the world runs in a lot of different shades of truth," he said. "People have lost their ability to engage with seemingly contradictory ideas at the same time." In his view, the best leaders are the ones who "know when it's time to be binary."It's a view that tallies with Dames, though he sees founder mode leaders having more of an edge during times that call for a shift in approach."If you have more of the manager mindset and you're used to just calm waters, that makes things really difficult if you're in a fast-change environment and you need adaptability," he said. "The reality just changes."That said, some of the most successful tech companies right now are overseen by leaders who weren't their founders. Satya Nadella at Microsoft is one such leader, as is Dara Khosrowshahi at Uber.<div type="image" title="Satya Nadella Microsoft" height="1426" width="2672" msid="113092361" hostid="261" sizebytes="29416"></div>It is unclear how Silicon Valley will resolve this debate. In an <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/chamath/status/1831003871344501069">X post</a> on Tuesday, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya weighed in by dismissing Graham's categories and suggesting instead that there is "first principles management and stupid management.""When your company isn't working, the only solution is to take the time, as laborious as it sounds, to break your business down to its core essentials and rebuild it from the ground up with zero nostalgia or loyalty to people or technology," he wrote.Expect divides on the leadership merits of founders and managers to continue for some time.

'Founder mode' is the latest fault line in Silicon Valley

Of the billionaires on the 2023 Forbes 400 list — the 400 richest people in the United States — 70% are basically self-made. And 59% came from an upper-middle-class background or below. This phenomenon is even more true the farther you go along the tail of the wealth curve. All of the 10 richest people in America are classified as self-made. (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/09/08/self-made-score/">Forbes</a> treats the question as a sliding scale from 1 to 10; those with scores of 6 or higher were considered self-made).This number is significantly higher than it once was. In 1982, only 40% of the Forbes 400 had started their own business; the majority were simply scions of inherited wealth. Old money is out, new money is in? Well, it's essential to keep in mind that this is not an indication of overall social mobility in the United States. In fact, by most accounts, such as the extremely detailed work of the economist Raj Chetty, overall income and wealth mobility has decreased in the US from a generation ago. The Forbes 400, however, is the extreme right tail of the curve. To wind up there, it helps to have made some extremely risky bets that paid off — ones that you have less incentive to take if you're already rich.Let's say you inherit a $25 million trust fund on your 18th birthday. Are you going to start a business with it? Maybe you should. But it's much easier to withdraw $1 million a year to live off, travel the world and have some wild parties, and put the rest in S&amp;P 500 index funds earning7% a year. By the time you're 65, your expected net worth is about $250 million — plus a whole lot of frequent flyer miles. Nice! You're very, very rich. But you're not sniffing the Forbes 400 list, where the bidding starts at about $3 billion.Conversely, there are about 5 million new businesses founded in the US every year. That's a slightly misleading statistic because it includes things like a self-employed writer/statistician/poker player setting up a personal S corp for tax purposes. Still, if even 1% of those startups have serious potential to scale up, that's 50,000 lottery tickets every year. Some of them are going to hit big, and the payoff for hitting big is so large these days that the lucky few who do are going to leapfrog all the trust fund kids.Now, this certainly doesn't mean that you want to grow up in abject poverty if your goal is to launch a successful startup and get really rich; only a handful of the billionaires on the Forbes 400 list did. It helps to have a comfortable living environment. It also helps to be from one of the demographic classes that VCs like to invest in (e.g., a nerdy young man of European or Asian ancestry). But people who are born on third base tend to be pretty risk-averse. "Why are second-generation kids never that successful?" asked Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya, who moved with his family from Sri Lanka to Canada and worked at a Burger King to help support them. Instead of the entrepreneurial mother or father, who had "only one curve that they were optimizing for, which is the what-have-I-got-to-lose curve," the child starts "with the exact inverse curve working against them, which is the risk of embarrassment," Palihapitiya said. "No matter what the parent says to that child, that person is operating from a perspective where the perception is that they have an enormous amount to lose."It can also help to have something else: a chip on your shoulder. Josh Wolfe, of Lux Capital, is fond of the phrase "chips on shoulders put chips in pockets." Feeling left out, excluded, or estranged can make you extremely competitive. VCs want founders who are willing to commit to low-probability ideas — ideas they think the rest of the world is wrong about — for a decade or more. What motivates a person to do something like that? Wolfe, who grew up in a single-parent home in New York's gritty Coney Island neighborhood, told me he thinks there's a common answer: revenge."It could be because they were left for adoption. It could be a broken home," he said. "It could be being the only minority in a mostly homogenous white neighborhood, or the obese kid in a Friday Night Lights football town. People that out of necessity grow a thick skin with not fitting in and being OK standing out. And feeling a sense of anger that is not leading them to despondence, but to motivated revenge."Let me make two things clear. First, you only want adversity up to a point. There is almost certainly a threshold beyond which there are too many disadvantages to overcome. Elon Musk had a difficult childhood and became estranged from his father; Thiel was gay and closeted; Jeff Bezos was adopted — but they were also privileged in other respects. They had chips on their shoulders, but they had enough social capital to be taken seriously by VCs, employees, and customers.And second, this does not always turn out well. That competitive fire can be channeled in both constructive and self-destructive ways, and childhood trauma almost certainly has negative effects on the life course on average. But we're not talking about the average: We're talking about who winds up on the extreme right tail, the 0.0001%. It's usually going to be people who are either irrationally risk-loving out of a sense of having nothing to lose, extraordinarily mission driven out of a sense of wanting to prove people wrong — or both, as in the case of Musk.All of this is naturally going to lead to some difficult personalities. Some VCs even seem to think of it as an asset when a founder is poorly adjusted. "Who is my real customer? It's a young, disenfranchised, disenchanted entrepreneur-to-be," said Palihapitiya, referring to the sorts of people who might come to him for investment or mentorship. "And I use those words specifically, because if you're comfortable, and you're happy," he continued, "you're not the kind of person I want to work with anyway because you're probably not gonna be successful."This feels like a dangerous game. Successful founders may be disagreeable on average, because disagreeability is correlated with competitiveness and independent-mindedness. But the disagreeability is still a bug, not a feature. If you start to select founders because they're disagreeable, you may get the wrong ones — especially if founders deliberately play into stereotypes that they think VCs will like, as Sam Bankman-Fried did.And yet, if all you care about is the right tail, the selection process gets weird. Let's say you're starting a small business like an ice-cream shop. You just want to sell ice cream at one or two stores and make a decent living — not disrupt the global ice-cream business. You have the money, and you're looking for someone to run the operation. What characteristics should this person have? Words like reliable, trustworthy, hardworking, and agreeable come to mind. They'll give you the highest probability of success.But what if you want a business that could grow by 100x or 1,000x? That's a lot harder to know. I don't think VCs are deliberately picking founders they think are unreliable, although sometimes it seems like it.In August 2022, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) announced its newest investment: It would put $350 million into a company called Flow, which "aims to create a superior living environment that enhances the lives of our residents and communities" — in other words, rental real estate. The company was founded by a charismatic Israeli-American named Adam Neumann. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Neumann was also the founder of WeWork — a company that was once worth an estimated $47 billion before imploding spectacularly amid accusations that Neumann had, among other things, taken a "sizable chunk" of weed across international borders on a private jet, fired a pregnant employee, and — most importantly — expanded far too quickly, leading to enormous annual losses. (Neumann, after directing me to a spokesperson, didn't respond to an interview request.)<div type="image" title="Book cover of &quot;On the Edge&quot; by Nate Silver" height="2850" width="1875" msid="112492876" hostid="261" sizebytes="111762"></div>Would you want to go into business with someone like that? Well, I probably wouldn't, though the plane rides sound like fun. But in Silicon Valley terms, the thinking may go something like this: You'd rather invest in someone who had built a $47 billion company and watched it catastrophically collapse than someone who had never done so at all.And Andreessen Horowitz is proud of its investment in Flow. In February 2023, Marc Andreessen invited me to an A16z conference at the spectacularly beautiful Amangiri hotel in Canyon Point, Utah. I thought it would be worth going for the networking and the snowy desert landscapes even though I expected to be told that the event was off the record. Sure enough, at the first panel, Ben Horowitz said the proceedings were off the record. Fine. But since nothing had been agreed upon up to that point, I'm within my journalistic rights to report on the existence of the conference itself (which has also been reported on elsewhere) as well as the person who was onstage with Horowitz at the time he made the announcement. It was Neumann, as you've probably guessed. In a room full of Silicon Valley's elites, A16z was showing him off — and sending a message."Why would they run out and give a bunch of money to Adam Neumann after everything they've seen? Like, what in the world? Was that all about?" said Benchmark's Gurley. (Gurley brought up A16z's investment in Flow independently in our conversation — we hadn't been discussing the conference and I don't know if he had attended it.) "If I were asked to analyze what they were doing, they wanted to send a signal to everyone."The signal was that they didn't care about reliability — they wanted founders who gave them upside risk. They were embracing variance. "If they're that type of person, they're open for business, the door's wide open, and we're willing to talk to you, no matter what."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/nate-silver">Nate Silver</a> is the founder of FiveThirtyEight and The New York Times bestselling author of "The Signal and the Noise" and "On the Edge." He writes the Substack "Silver Bulletin."From <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/529280/on-the-edge-by-nate-silver/">ON THE EDGE: The Art of Risking Everything</a> by Nate Silver, published on August 13, 2024, by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright (c) 2024 by Nate Silver.

Why VCs love obnoxious founders

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Paul Podolsky's Kate Capital is set to start trading on November 1 with roughly $200 million.</li><li>The manager will be a discretionary global macro fund with 50 to 60 positions at a time.</li></ul>Paul Podolsky is putting his 15-plus years of experience at the world's largest hedge fund to work at his new $200 million firm.Kate Capital will launch on November 1, a person close to the manager told Business Insider, with a team of four, including Tom Bachner, the former president of distressed debt investor Mudrick Capital and longtime Bridgewater fundraiser.Bridgewater's DNA will be throughout the firm. Podolsky, who began his career as a foreign correspondent in Russia after the Soviet Union fell, left the massive money manager in May of 2020. His final responsibilities included head of China research, and he visited the country several times during his tenure working under billionaire founder Ray Dalio.The person close to Kate Capital told BI that it will be a discretionary global macro fund, as opposed to Bridgewater, which invests more systematically. Industry insiders say $6 billion multi-strategy firm New Holland Capital is among its backers; New Holland declined to comment.Kate Capital, which is named after Podolsky's mother, will keep its book smaller than larger macro players — between 50 and 60 positions typically, the person close to the new fund said. The fund will invest across the globe, though does not plan on having significant positions in emerging markets, the person close to the firm said.And, like Dalio, Podolsky plans to share his thoughts on the world as he invests.During his yearslong non-compete, Podolsky began blogging about geopolitics and published two books — one a memoir and another a fictional thriller. A third on money management is coming out later this year.He's hosted podcasts with Dalio and former director of the FBI James Comey, among others, and contributed to Bridgewater's Daily Observations series. He plans to continue writing when the firm launches, the person close to the firm said.And his old boss is cheering him on."Paul Podolsky is a quality man and a quality investor. I'm excited for him and I wish him well," Dalio said in a statement to BI.

A longtime Bridgewater investor is launching a hedge fund. Here's a look inside Paul Podolsky's Kate Capital.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A public offering can lead to sudden wealth creation and leave founders wondering how to manage it.</li><li>A top Goldman Sachs wealth advisor shared key considerations for startup founders.</li></ul>In 1987, Bill Gates became the world's youngest billionaire at 31. His fortune had already ballooned the year prior when his brainchild, Microsoft, went public on the Nasdaq.Like many founders who have taken their companies public, Gates saw a sudden windfall of wealth transform his life and vault him into a new tax bracket. The bank that led Microsoft's initial public offering was Goldman Sachs, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-investment-bank-leaders-lay-out-winning-strategy-2024-6">Wall Street behemoth</a> famed for its leading position in terms of both advising on public issuances and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-2q-earnings-david-solomon-investment-banking-forecast-2024-7">handling private merger transactions</a>.Goldman executives <a target="_blank" href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/dealmaking-and-ipos-are-poised-for-a-revival-in-2024">have forecast in recent months</a> an increase in public offerings this year after a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-bake-offs-back-morgan-stanley-2q-ted-pick-2024-7">slow past two years for IPOs</a>. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/ipo/ipo-market-trends">accounting and tax giant EY found that IPOs were rebounding</a> this year and has tracked 82 public offerings in the US market throughout the first half of 2024, which have collectively generated $18.6 billion in proceeds. It puts this year ahead of last year's tally, at 63 deals producing slightly more than $10 billion in proceeds.So far in 2024, Goldman Sachs' IPO team has worked on 16 public offerings in the US, which generated more than $1.5 billion in value, according to deal-tracking firm Dealogic; that's up from last year's eight IPOs, which resulted in $930 million in value.Founders who go through successful IPOs may find they have a host of new money-management needs, according to Kerry Blum, the global head of the equity-structuring group within private-wealth management at Goldman Sachs."When someone has invested a significant amount of their life in creating a company and establishing a leadership team, we appreciate that there is a lot of emotion tied to that asset," Blum told Business Insider in an interview. "We understand that the decisions they're making are both economically and emotionally important."The team reporting to Blum — a more than 20-year Goldman veteran who was elevated to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-partners-share-investment-banking-oral-histories-2024-7">bank's elite partnership in 2022</a> — supports family offices and high-net-worth clients like the founders of big-ticket companies. Blum's team is separate from the equity-capital-markets group, which advises companies in IPOs and is situated within the investment-banking division.Through the bank's One Goldman Sachs program, which unites various business lines to cross-sell services to clients, Blum and her team share referrals with their colleagues in the firm's investment-banking division. That could mean investment bankers referring clients doing IPOs or mergers to their private-wealth counterparts who work with Blum, or vice versa, for instance.The team is equipped with a tool kit of strategies to help clients with their money-management goals — from trust and estate planning to strategizing when and how founders should sell equity.Blum shared her advice for founders who may be on the cusp of successful IPOs and how they could work with wealth advisors to set themselves and their families up for prosperous financial futures.<h2 id="bbd45c66-0556-42e4-ba5c-85e785043026">Start the conversation early</h2>If you're considering a public offering, it's never too early to broach the topic with an advisor, Blum said.Many pre-IPO founders will have a relationship with a wealth advisor, she said, and it's not unusual for them to have initial discussions several years before an IPO.About three to six months before the IPO listing date, conversations between a founder and their advisor tend to ramp up substantially, according to Blum."We'll be more engaged with clients on a more regular basis to help them understand: What does the landscape look like? What should they be expecting? And what does that final to-do checklist look like as they approach the IPO?" Blum told BI.<h2 id="80043aae-d0fe-44e4-a2f8-8a7b7504176a">Think about messaging and signaling</h2>For many founders who go through an IPO, the milestone may represent the first time they contemplate selling off big stakes of equity in a business they've built from scratch. It's important to be mindful of what such decisions can indicate to other investors and to handle the process accordingly.Indeed, founders' equity sales often come with additional rites like issuing securities filings, "so we want to make sure that we're being mindful of the messaging and signaling considerations," Blum said."You get to take a company public once. You get to make your first sale as a founder once as well," she added, pointing to the importance of being thoughtful and deliberate when making such moves.Her team tracks other companies' regulatory disclosures and information about Goldman's own client portfolio to learn what other founders are doing.With that information, Blum's team can answer clients' questions such as:<ul><li>How do their peers in the founder community think about themselves?</li><li>When are they selling?</li><li>How are they selling?</li><li>How much are they selling?</li><li>Where are they selling?</li></ul><h2 id="a1890d80-961a-40aa-8869-1ddb64c4a409">Know what your priorities are</h2>Managing your money post-IPO is in some ways like managing your portfolio as it's always been, but with more considerations to contend with and more resources at play, Blum said.That means diversification across asset classes becomes even more important, as do other choices, like which philanthropic initiatives a founder may wish to support."We also spend some time helping clients make sure that they've thought through what could their impact and legacy look like," Blum said. "And although it's 10 or 15 years out, it's never too early to think through how to optimize for those events."

A Goldman Sachs financial advisor shares 3 strategies for founders preparing to cash in on IPO wealth

Stock markets all over the world, including Sensex, Nifty, Nikkei, and NASDAQ fell significantly today, as they reacted to weak US labor market data, with unemployment rates inching up to 4.3%, from 4.1% in July 2024. In response, the Nikkei 225 dipped around 4,451 points, witnessing the worst losses it has seen since 1987. On the other hand, the Sensex plunged over 2,000 points, and the NASDAQ also slipped 417.98 points. Nifty also closed the day at 24,055.60, down by 2.68%. Closer home, the D-Street mayhem wiped of Rs 15 lakh crore worth of investor wealth in a single day. While this might spook even seasoned investors, should this bloodbath drive you to exit the market, or is it time for you to go on a quality stock buying spree? Here's what the experts have to say <h2>Market corrections = Opportunities </h2>Vinnaayak Mehta, Founder, The Infinity Group, a personal finance consultancy says that given the current market downturn, it is important for investors to stay calm, and not make any hasty decisions. "Market corrections can offer opportunities to buy quality stocks at more attractive valuations. Investors should take this time to evaluate their portfolios, focusing on long-term goals and strong fundamentals rather than short-term <keyword id="19908008" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="volatility" source="keywords">volatility</keyword>. This period of correction may present a chance to reassess asset allocations and consider strategic adjustments", he says. <h2>Expect low returns in the short run</h2> Mr. Sandeep Bagla, CEO of Trust Mutual Funds advises investors to keep their return expectations low and realistic, at least in the short run. Invest only if you have a suitably long <keyword id="19895437" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="investment" source="keywords">investment</keyword> horizon. This will help you go through an imminent, upcoming market correction, along with helping you tide over periods of volatility in the interim. "Markets like India, where domestic economy is like more resilient than other economies, could be less affected in the mayhem. However, you should keep systematically investing in the stock markets, and not hit brakes on your investments. Stay invested to reap benefits from growth over the long term", he explains. <h2>Indians markets are relatively safe </h2>As per Siddharth Alok, AVP Investments, Multi Ark Wealth-Epsilon Money Group, investors should consider buying in these dips, but only if their investing horizon is over 3 years. "As valuations further rise, these sudden down moves might become more frequent. Equity markets returns are never linear. However, the direct impact on Indian markets remains limited; this can be seen from the overall relative strength that domestic markets are witnessing, while <keyword id="19908188" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="global-markets" source="keywords">global markets</keyword> are down 10-20%, Indian markets are hardly down 5% including today from their recent peaks", highlights Alok. <h2>Invested heavily in small and mid caps? Time to move </h2> During any market corrections, mid and small caps are the first in line of fire. Given that both of these segments are far more volatile, as compared to their stable, large-cap counterparts, the impact of a correction is far more visible on small cap and mid cap stocks. As Jay Shah, Founder &amp; CEO, Finwisor puts it, "when the markets are at rich valuations, the markets become fragile and look for opportunities to correct. The correction generally happens disproportionately-more in small caps and less in large caps". Amidst today's rout, while Nifty50, an index of India's top 50 companies by market capitalization stumbled about 2.68%, Nifty midcap 50 was down by 3.28%, while midcap 100 plunged by 3.55%. Going a step ahead, Nifty small cap 100, a larger universe of just small cap stocks, dipped by 4.57%. In such a situation, Shah suggests that long-term investors who are sticking to their asset allocation strategies should sit still, while those who are heavily invested in midcaps and small caps should move their investments large-cap stocks. And in case one is sitting on idle cash, this is a good time to start deploying their funds in the market.

Stock market crash: What should your next move be?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Antler India plans to invest in 120 startups over four years with a $75 million fund.</li><li>The firm runs cohorts for individual founders and teams, selecting 100 from up to 5,000 applicants.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rajiv Srivatsa, a partner at Antler India, a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/founders-putting-startup-dreams-on-hold-in-the-tech-downturn-2024-7">pre-seed venture capital firm</a> based in Bengaluru. It has been edited for length and clarity.I'm a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/landed-vc-job-varied-resume-diverse-experience-resume-2024-8">partner</a> at Antler India, an early-stage <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-success-secret-vcs-founders-nate-silver-on-the-edge-2024-8">venture capital</a> fund. We launched the India chapter about four years ago, and it was the firm's sixth location globally. Antler India has a $75 million fund, which we closed in March.Our plan is to invest in 120 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/more-startups-get-bought-up-by-private-equity-vc-2024-8">startups </a>over four years, and we have about 65 to date.The classic Antler model includes running a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-vc-firms-funding-creator-economy-startups-next-phase-2024-6">cohort of individuals </a>who are transitioning from being employees to startup founders. We help them look for their cofounders and give shape to their idea.One thing we do differently in India is we run a cohort for teams as well. We found that there is a social tendency for people to prefer going into business with people they have known from college or work, and we welcome founders who may already have a team or product in mind.My team and I receive about <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-apply-y-combinator-application-down-market-successful-2022-8">4,000 to 5,000 applications</a>, and we select 100 people to join our individual founders' cohort. The program runs for six months, and we end up investing in 20-25 people, or eight to 10 companies. We give them a sum of $250,000 to fund their idea, and another $250,000 once they raise additional capital.I've been a founder myself and have run a company in the 2010s. I have seen two main positive shifts in the Indian startup market.It is a lot easier to attract talent than it was 10 years ago. There was a lot of entitlement and questioning from potential employees, because working for startups instead of long-established companies was seen as a risk. Since the pandemic, there has been a shift, and people are keen to join startups.Founders are getting more mature by the year and have a better understanding of what it takes.They're more frugal because they know capital is tight and they have given their industry more thought. They're not getting into business because something is hot and are instead building for the next five to 10 years. They also assume that their products will need higher traction to raise the same amount of money that would have been invested in them before.Here are five things I look for in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sequoia-partner-jess-lee-advice-for-startup-founders-2022-9">first-time founders</a>:<h2 id="5a01f9b1-7907-4c47-aa10-ead284c40a4d">Five founder traits</h2>Execution and strategy: This is their ability to iterate fast — move between ideas, drop things, and find something new quickly.We also seek people who have ideas that match their skill sets. For example, we don't want to invest in an AI company where none of the founders have solid tech expertise. In the early or "zero to one" and "one to 10" stages, founders have to be able to do things on their own.Grit and tenacity: Either in their personal life or professional life.Customer obsession: We spend the longest time gauging how obsessed a founder is with their customer and problem statement. We want to know if it's just a flash in the pan or if it's something they have been debating over many years. Does the founder really feel the pain of the customer?We want people who are not just armchair experts but have worked with customers and gotten their hands dirty. Someone who has spent their professional life making presentations and in conference rooms may not cut it.Communication: Another thing we look for is a high level of clarity in thinking and how they communicate. At the end of the day, venture capital is a continuous fundraising game — you have to always keep finding good talent, as well as keep telling new investors and the media your story.We try to gauge if the person is getting mixed up, or if they're clear about what they're doing.Ambition and scale: The venture capital industry does not work if you want small outcomes. Even if you don't want to be a unicorn, a startup that is valued at $1 billion, you still need to think in terms of hundreds of millions of dollars of valuation and foresee hundreds of millions of people using your product.<h2 id="019aa888-dfdf-4ac4-bda4-422664c1e934">Plus an X-factor</h2>We don't look for people who score about 80% to 100% on each of these criteria. Instead, we prefer if, for one to two of the five traits, they demonstrate a spike or an X factor — they immediately stand out as someone who is world-class when it comes to execution or communication, for example.We want people who are terrible at some things but exceptional at others.<h2 id="e8cf18ff-f29f-4d97-9753-7fe9d1705a42">Cofounder complements</h2>Most of our participants look for their cofounders after they've entered the cohort, and we spend a lot of time and attention matching people.In my experience, India is not a country where teaching communication is emphasized a lot, so we ask each participant 60 questions to understand their values, working styles, and personality types. We look for complements and see pair-ups between one person with a technical background and one person with business acumen. If a third cofounder is needed, they usually come with operations expertise.One company we recently funded is working on listening to conversations between employees and customers in retail stores, in order to provide retail data to convert more customers. It was the outcome of someone who has worked in retail for years, paired up with a cofounder with tech background.Are you a founder who moved to India to launch their own startup? Please reach out at shubhangigoel@insider.com

I'm a VC in the world's fastest-growing economy. I look for 5 traits in first-time founders.

Founder <keyword id="20198157" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ritesh-Agarwal" source="keywords">Ritesh Agarwal</keyword> has invested Rs 830 crore through his Singapore-based entity Patient Capital in <keyword id="19901637" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="OYO" source="keywords">OYO</keyword>'s latest <keyword id="20080855" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="funding-round" source="keywords">funding round</keyword> -- wherein the <keyword id="21745043" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="travel-tech-platform" source="keywords">travel tech platform</keyword> raised Rs 1,457 crore, sources said. Post the equity dilution in the <keyword id="22756111" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Series-G-funding" source="keywords">Series G funding</keyword>, Agarwal's holdings will increase from 29.97 per cent earlier, to 32.57 per cent post the investment, sources told PTI. According to sources close to the transaction, "Ritesh has invested to protect his ownership dilution in OYO as well as a signal of confidence in the company's prospects. The investment is backed by Singapore-based family offices." <keyword id="20517346" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Oravel-Stays-Ltd" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Oravel Stays Ltd" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Oravel Stays Ltd">Oravel Stays Ltd</keyword>, the parent company of OYO, has raised Rs 1,457 crore from a consortium of investors in the latest funding round. The additional equity issuance was approved by 99.99 per cent shareholders in an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on August 8. The additional fundraise values the company at USD 2.4 billion, as the first Series G tranche issued to InCred in July. The investment is being made through Compulsory Convertible Cumulative Preference Shares, each priced at Rs 29, consistent with the valuation of the recent raise in Series G. The capital will be used to support OYO's growth and its global expansion plans, sources said.

Founder Ritesh Agarwal invests Rs 830 crore in OYO's latest funding round; Platform raises Rs 1,457 crore

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Boba is shifting from a novelty fad to mainstream, with shops popping up across the world.</li><li>The trend began in Taiwan in the 1980s where teahouse Chun Shui Tang was a pioneer of the beverage.</li></ul>Once a novelty beverage, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-bubble-tea-compared-tiger-sugar-gong-cha-2019-10">boba or bubble tea</a> has moved into the mainstream.It's an unexpected turn for Chui Shui Tang, the teahouse in Taiwan that says it pioneered the beverage in the 1980s.Chun Shui Tang started as a traditional teahouse selling tea leaves — a dime a dozen in Taiwan. But, as Liu Han-Chieh, the teahouse's founder, found out, selling tea was harder than loving tea.Speaking to Business Insider at his company's headquarters in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung, Liu was candid about how the move benefited his business."In Taiwan, we need to sell tea leaves with a human touch — customers need to try some tea before buying tea leaves, so some would just be chatting for long hours with you over tea but not buy eventually," said Liu, 72.Furthermore, traditional Chinese tea drinking involves <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/chinese-tea-ceremonies-traditions">multiple steps,</a> which can make the sale pitch long-drawn. And when customers finally do commit to buying a bag of tea leaves, they could brew it for weeks.It's just not the best way to make money.<h2 id="d8e66081-8795-4dbd-99de-af763250d638">From chilled tea to boba milk tea</h2>Inspired by iced coffee on a trip to Japan in the early 80s, Liu went home with the idea for a hand-shaken iced tea — a bold move for the teahouse at the time, as cold tea was generally only served at street food stands, he said.Soon, Lin Hsiu-hui, a young staffer who was managing sales of chilled tea at the teahouse, was outselling his traditional hot offerings."With iced tea, you can sell to anyone from three years old to 80 years old. With hot tea, you can only sell to old people," said Liu.<div type="image" title="The first Chun Shui Tang Teahouse in Taichung, Taiwan." height="3024" width="4032" msid="112363595" hostid="261" sizebytes="1727172"></div>It also helped that the younger customer base would buy one cup of ready-made chilled tea a day instead of one bag of tea leaves a month.Liu knew he had stumbled upon a winner.Liu instructed Lin, who is now the R&amp;D director at Chun Shui Tang, to experiment with adding new ingredients to tea.Lin said she simply added her favorite childhood Taiwanese dessert treat — chewy tapioca balls — to milk tea. Liu coined the term "pearls" for the topping because they reminded him of black pearls.Liu likened the evolution of his tea offerings to coffee giant Starbucks, which was founded in 1971 and started out selling coffee beans. Now, Starbucks sells everything from beverages to meals, coffee mugs, and merchandise.Liu's daughter, Angela — who is now Chun Shui Tang's managing director — acknowledged she would like the Taiwanese tea chain to be like Starbucks is to coffee.But it has a long way to go: The tea company has over 200 outlets globally, compared to Starbucks' count of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://s203.q4cdn.com/326826266/files/doc_financials/2024/q2/2Q24-Earnings-Release-Final-4-30-24.pdf">more than 38,000.</a>And Liu, the teahouse's founder, doesn't appear to be in a rush to expand. He said he's keen on taking a longer-term approach to growing Chun Shui Tang. He's also not looking for external funding."It's a business that can be sustained for a long time. Tea has been around for the last 5,000 years, so it's a long-term game," he said.<h2 id="a7a83563-5292-46ba-9297-58ac703633fc">A controversial start becomes a global phenomenon</h2>Chun Shui Tang's claim about being the founder of boba tea isn't without controversy.A teahouse called Hanlin Tea Room in the southern city of Tainan also claims to have invented the beverage around the same time after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businesstoday.com.tw/article/category/183016/post/202206300005/">Tu Tsung-ho, its late founder,</a> spotted white tapioca balls at a market. Hanlin Tea Room did not respond to a request for comment from BI.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2018/11/13/2003704115">two companies were embroiled</a> in a bitter lawsuit spanning 10 years. The court eventually did not rule in either company's favor, as neither filed a patent or trademark protection.Meanwhile, pearl milk tea and its many iterations were popping up in and outside of Taiwan all the while. Today, the industry is <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/bubble-tea-market">estimated to be worth billions</a> globally.Now a global cultural phenomenon and a symbol of Taiwanese identity, the proliferation of boba tea underscores the island's soft power in an era when news constantly revolves around military threats from China, which claims Taiwan as its territory.Today, boba tea can be easily found in the US — a far cry from when Liu's daughter, Angela, was studying at Purdue University in the US some 15 years ago.<div type="image" title="Chun Shui Tang founder Liu Han-chieh and managing director Angela Liu with a bubble red tea and boba milk tea at their teahouse in Taichung, Taiwan." height="2963" width="3950" msid="112363594" hostid="261" sizebytes="1284266"></div>At the time, Liu had to get her tea leaves and pearls shipped to her. Now, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://portal.sw.nat.gov.tw/PPL/index">Taiwanese government data</a> show exports of tapioca and substitutes — which includes tapioca balls — to the US by tonnage more than doubled in the five years to 2023.In a sign that nearly every drink can now be boba-fied, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-boba-inspired-refresher-drinks-pearls-summer-berry-photos-review-2024-6">Starbucks</a> has a take on boba too, with raspberry pearls and a summer berries mixture. None of Starbucks' boba beverages contain tea.Chun Shui Tang's executives appear unperturbed by the many shapes and forms boba tea takes these days — <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heinz-ketchup-boba-bubble-tea-store-singapore-2022-10">Heinz ketchup</a> boba tea, anyone? — because they've already been there and done that.In 2008, Chun Shui Tang introduced a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.chunshuitang.com.tw/article-detail/creative_bubble_tea_food/">boba tea hot pot</a> with a savory <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.chunshuitang.com.tw/en/bubble-milk-tea/">tea-infused broth.</a> They've also experimented with a boba tea-infused cheese tart and with recipes that incorporate herbs.While such out-of-this-world creations are good for buzz, customers still generally prefer beverages that do not "defy common sense," said Liu.<h2 id="97f9acaa-db96-48a2-800c-b6d665e0c9ef">Father of the teahouse founder refused to speak with him for 3 years</h2>Liu comes from a family of physicians.His father, a medical doctor, cut a stern figure — except when he was drinking tea."I was five when I saw that my father was smiling only when drinking tea, so I thought, 'Tea can really make someone happy,'" said Liu.Liu wasn't cut out for medical school, and after a few years in a corporate job, he started his tea business at the age of 30. His father was supportive and gifted him a teapot, thinking he would do a "proper job" running the business.Upon learning that his son introduced a chilled tea beverage and was adding new-fangled toppings to a traditional beverage, the physician hit the roof."He thought I was fooling around," said Liu.Liu's father refused to speak to him for three years — until Liu finally showed up at the elder man's door with convincing sales figures and a shiny new car.He still keeps the teapot his father gifted close to him in the office to remind him of his first supporter.<div type="image" title="Liu Han-chieh, founder of Chun Shui Tang with a small teapot." height="3024" width="4032" msid="112363599" hostid="261" sizebytes="1180518"></div><h2 id="0ebf6d83-3d03-4f43-b678-31462246ca91">Chun Shui Tang OG shop in Taichung is a tourist hotspot</h2>Today, Liu's OG Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung is on many tourists' checklists.There wasn't much activity around the area in late June when BI visited the shop. It's located on an unassuming street with an apparel shop, a law firm, and a tutoring center.But Chun Shui Tang had a steady stream of travelers heading to its shop fronted by a striking blue tiled roof.Unlike most boba tea shops today, where customers take out their beverages, Chun Shui Tang still retains its original genteel teahouse element where customers could dine in — and most do.There's also much more than boba tea on its menu. Customers can order food including noodles, various side dishes, and breakfast toast. They also still serve traditional Chinese tea.Mark Anthony Villones, a tourist from the Philippines, was at the store when BI visited. He told BI he did not quite expect to see a sit-in dining concept where customers could order more than snacks.Just like other travelers BI spoke to, Villones said he was simply there "to try the original bubble tea" with a group of friends during a holiday to Taiwan.<div type="image" title="A group of young Filipino tourists at Chun Shui Tang in Taichung Taiwan posing with their boba." height="1200" width="1600" msid="112363591" hostid="261" sizebytes="203622"></div>His friend, Kayne Sy, said she found the teahouse and boba tea — served in a tall cocktail glass — "really nice," but wasn't blown over.Her comments sum up one of Chun Shui Tang's biggest challenges: a very crowded marketplace.<h2 id="973176f2-0203-4f29-ab30-f215f6503f92">The competition is tough amid fierce competition from China</h2>Chun Shui Tang will be up for a tough fight in the global boba tea market.While Chun Shui Tang is a familiar name in Taiwan, it — alongside its younger brand, TP Tea — is not the most recognizable brand globally."Nowadays, there are more and more chain bubble tea operations in China that have ambitions to go overseas to expand their global footprint," Jason Yu, the Greater China managing director at Kantar Worldpanel, a consumer research group, told BI.Some of the mainland chains — such as Central China-based Mixue — are also backed by venture capital money, making the competition especially stiff — since the operating model is easily replicated and scalable, he added.<div type="image" title="The sign of Mixue Bingcheng is seen at its shop in Shanghai, China." height="3667" width="5500" msid="112363601" hostid="261" sizebytes="852972"></div>"Taiwan's bubble tea shops are doing well in Taiwan, but they are probably not expanding as fast as their Chinese counterparts," said Yu.As for Taiwanese firms' clout as the first to invent the product, Yu said he isn't sure that's enough to make them frontrunners in the global race."It helps with storytelling, but it's not enough," said Yu. "Being the original can give you a few marks, but it's never the whole thing. It's really about the brand, it's about the product, it's about the supply chain."After all, modern coffee culture was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/italy-invented-coffee-culture-now-its-a-coffee-time-capsule/2019/01/02/aae47a0a-0209-11e9-958c-0a601226ff6b_story.html">popularized by the Italians</a> — but it's Starbucks from the US that has become a massive global phenomenon, Yu said.Chun Shui Tang founder Liu said he isn't worried about the competition, because the market is big enough for everyone.After all, his tea business has only gotten better, not worse with more competitors — because it's through them that they learn about boba tea and his pioneer Taiwanese brand, he said."They are our helpers, not our rivals," said Liu.

Everyone from Starbucks to Chinese giants wants in on the global boba tea craze. Meet the family who started it all.

Sometime in 2022, while working out at an Equinox gym in Miami, Aron D'Souza, a tech founder, overheard gymgoers shamelessly talking about juicing and taking "tren," short for trenbolone, an anabolic steroid.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fitness-influencers-steroids-secret-dangerous-body-dysmorphia">Using steroids</a> — Schedule 3 drugs in the US — without a prescription is illegal but not uncommon. One study estimated that 3 million to 4 million Americans used anabolic-androgenic steroids for athletic or cosmetic purposes.So when people told D'Souza they were indeed on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/corticosteroids">steroids</a>, he had an idea: Why don't I put all these juiced-up folks under one roof and start my own Olympics-style event?D'Souza knew people on social media often described those who took <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/olympics-drugs-banned-affect-athletic-performance-kamila-valieva-shacarri-richardson-2022-2">performance-enhancing drugs</a> as "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-fitness-influencers-steroids-downplay-risks-dangers-2022-7">enhanced</a>." He named his event accordingly: the Enhanced Games.The competition, introduced last June as the "first international sporting event without drug testing," brings up legal quandaries around the drugs and is likely to face pushback from the public and athletes who believe that doping compromises the integrity of sports.In the Enhanced Games, D'Souza said, athletes would be able to use performance-enhancing drugs under "clinical supervision" as they compete and would be paid for their participation with a base salary and a prize pool ranging from seven to potentially nine figures.While the Olympics brought in almost $8 billion in revenue from 2017 to 2021, the International Olympic Committee <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-olympic-athletes-really-get-paid-2012-7">doesn't pay participating athletes</a>. Several countries pay bonuses to medal winners, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/simone-biles-net-worth-how-the-olympic-gymnastics-great-spends-money-2022-11">high-profile athletes</a> may get brand deals and sponsorships, but many <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/winter-olympic-athletes-day-jobs-team-usa-barista-dentist-artist-2022-2">Olympic athletes</a> live quiet lives. Some medalists have said they're <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-olympic-athletes-broke-how-they-make-money-tokyo-2020-2021-7">homeless</a>.D'Souza told Business Insider he believes this gives him the moral high ground.He described the Olympics as "corrupt," run by a cabal of "blood-sucking bureaucrats who earn millions of dollars a year" and "fly around the world in private jets." He specifically called out <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/olympic-boss-bach-slams-wimbledon-ban-on-russian-players-2022-6">Thomas Bach</a>, the president of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/olympics-inc-inside-the-business-of-the-ioc">IOC</a>."The IOC president literally lives in a palace, and the athletes earn nothing," D'Souza said. "So if you want an Olympic gold medal, sure, go and do it, but get financially exploited while you're at it."While Bach, a former foil fencer for West Germany's Olympic team, is considered a volunteer for the nonprofit IOC, the organization said in its 2022 annual report that the IOC president received an annual "indemnity" payment of 275,000 euros. He also receives free accommodation at the Lausanne Palace, a luxury hotel in Switzerland.Bach's role is to maintain the Olympics' relevancy in the world, but his 11-year tenure as president has not been without controversy. His critics have described him as an autocrat because of his <a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/general-news-international-news-484a40aa8d1041c79c9288b111090793">singular influence</a> on the games and condemned his relationships with dictators. In 2021, The New York Times called him "one of the most powerful people in global sports."When reached for comment regarding D'Souza's statements, an IOC spokesperson said in an email to Business Insider, "The idea does not merit any comment."D'Souza dismissed the IOC's statement. "I'm sure when Uber launched, the taxi monopoly said the same thing," he said.<div type="image" title="Aron D'Souza and Christian Angermayer" height="5146" width="4504" msid="108917397" hostid="261" sizebytes="611922"></div>The Enhanced Games announced on January 31, eight months after its unveiling, that the project had received <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-invests-enhanced-games-olympics-without-drug-testing-2024-1">financial backing from venture capitalists</a> including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-peter-thiel-vladimir-putin-russia-christian-angermayer-daniil-bisslinger-2023-11">Christian Angermayer</a>, the founder of Apeiron Investment Group; <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capitalist-balaji-srinivasan-suggested-doxxing-journalist-nyt-2021-2">Balaji Srinivasan</a>, Coinbase's former chief technology officer; and, notably, the former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, a close associate of D'Souza's.Angermayer, whom D'Souza described as deeply committed to the project, told Business Insider that his investment in and cofounding of the Enhanced Games was a "natural extension" of his work in the "field of human enhancement." Apeiron's investments heavily focus on biopharma, psychedelics, and human longevity."I expect to see the Enhanced Games grow into an unmissable event series, with world records regularly broken, athletes performing at new peaks, and a huge community of devoted fans around the world," he wrote in an email to BI.Srinivasan did not respond to a request for comment.An Oxford alum with a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Melbourne, D'Souza describes himself as an "academic lawyer" and venture capitalist who manages his own capital "into a variety of portfolio companies."But D'Souza gained notoriety for quietly spearheading the takedown of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gawker-files-for-bankruptcy-2016-6">Gawker Media</a> in 2016, sparking what would become a fruitful relationship with Thiel.Thiel bankrolled <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hulk-hogan-versus-gawker-lawsuit-explained-2016-3">Hulk Hogan's lawsuit</a> against the media organization alleging invasion of privacy — but behind the scenes, D'Souza provided the blueprint for the billionaire's plans, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/this-is-the-man-who-helped-peter-thiel-demolish-gawker-mr-a">BuzzFeed News reported in 2018</a>."I developed the whole strategy for the Gawker lawsuit," D'Souza told BI.The BuzzFeed News report said D'Souza approached the billionaire VC around 2011 with the idea to either "pay someone or create a company to hire lawyers to go after Gawker."He enlisted the help of an entertainment lawyer named Charles Harder, who would file the lawsuit on Hogan's behalf and then represent the wrestler under a law firm he founded in 2013, Harder Mirell &amp; Abrams, which now operates as Harder Stonerock.A source told BuzzFeed News that Hogan's lawyers didn't know that Thiel funded the wrestler's lawsuit. The report described sources as saying Thiel kept his role under wraps by using D'Souza as a middleman who'd take the money and meet with Hogan's attorneys.The lawsuit was settled for about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gawker-settles-with-hulk-hogan-2016-11">$31 million</a>, and Gawker went bankrupt. The lawsuit's success may have proved financially beneficial for D'Souza.In 2015, D'Souza founded Sargon Capital, a financial-services company his website says is "for the pensions and superannuation industry." Two years later, the Australian Financial Review reported that Sargon claimed in a pitch deck for investors that it had secured millions of dollars in backing from none other than Thiel. "Peter and I are good friends, and we have worked together on many projects," D'Souza said.D'Souza suggested he received funding for the Enhanced Games in the "single-digit millions" but declined to specify the amount. He added that other VCs had floated term sheets — nonbinding agreements that express serious interest in investment — for more backing. He declined to share which VCs had shared term sheets, saying they're "confidential."Thiel hasn't publicly said why he's interested in the Enhanced Games. D'Souza described all the investors as "willing to go against the grain." Thiel did not respond to a request for comment.D'Souza told BI that none of the athletes would be expected to take performance-enhancing drugs. The competition, he said, is coming from a "very freedom-first libertarian attitude" in which "everyone is entitled to healthcare privacy."D'Souza contrasted his games with countries that mandated <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-vaccines-compared-vaccine-pfizer-oxford-moderna-astrazeneca-side-effects-2021-2">COVID-19 vaccination</a> for certain groups, suggesting that people who declined to get vaccinated were wrongly "excluded from society." And he likened the games to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/online-communities-roe-leak-tiktok-pro-abortion-2022-5">abortion-rights movement</a> and its mantra "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anti-vaxxers-mask-skeptics-invoked-bodily-autonomy-support-overturning-roe-2022-5">My body, my choice</a>.""No one, no government, no sports federation should be telling individuals what they have to do with their own bodies," he said.So far, it's unclear what kind of talent Enhanced Games will attract. D'Souza said his team was in talks with "several Olympic medalists whom we're going to guarantee minimums to come and compete on our side."<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/swimmer-agrees-to-juice-gills-1m-steroid-olympics-prize-2024-2">James Magnussen</a>, an Australian swimmer and Olympic gold medalist, recently said on a podcast that he'd come out of retirement and "juice to the gills" if the Enhanced Games put up a $1 million prize for the 50-meter freestyle.D'Souza told BI his team was "very excited to have James involved" and later said he'd write Magnussen a million-dollar check if he broke the race's world record.The monetization plans he described were broad but vague; he told BI the games would monetize through "traditional sports rights: broadcasting, sponsorship, and ticket sales."Angermayer told BI in an email that he expected the Enhanced Games to become a "significant and profitable revenue generator that pays those who compete fairly, and, possibly most importantly, act as a catalyst for extending the evident benefits of human enhancement science to the wider population."D'Souza also said he'd been approached in commercial negotiations to host the games at several professional-team stadiums, removing the need to spend billions of dollars to build elaborate stadiums as some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-lasting-legacy-of-the-olympics-2012-6">Olympic host cities</a> have done. He didn't specify which stadiums had been considered.The founder envisions hosting popular sports that are already featured at the Olympics — such as aquatics, athletics, gymnastics, and weightlifting — as well as some that aren't, such as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-mma-trainer-khai-wu-unsure-win-musk-fight-2023-6">mixed martial arts</a>."The UFC has done an amazing job of pushing boundaries about performance enhancements," D'Souza said, pointing to the MMA promoter's split last year with the US Anti-Doping Agency.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-rogan-suspects-conor-mcgregor-weight-could-be-drugs-ufc-2022-12">UFC</a> still conducts drug tests through its own program, but D'Souza said he felt the breakup was a "very public condemnation" of the broader <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamila-valieva-people-who-dope-child-athletes-evil-wada-chief-2022-2">World Anti-Doping Agency</a>.The UFC has said its new anti-doping program enlists Drug Free Sport International to obtain "no-notice sample collections" from athletes. That organization's partnerships include the NFL, the NBA, and MLB.D'Souza said Enhanced Games would closely examine its athletes, but for entirely different purposes.He described <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/olympics-drugs-banned-affect-athletic-performance-kamila-valieva-shacarri-richardson-2022-2">drug testing at the Olympics</a> as about fairness of competition, not athlete safety. He said that at the Enhanced Games, athletes would get comprehensive health checkups to monitor the effects of "whatever enhancement protocols" they're on and ensure they're fit to compete.The International Testing Agency, an IOC affiliate that administers anti-doping programs, pushed back on some of D'Souza's claims and his proposal.In an email to BI, Marta Nawrocka, a spokesperson for the ITA, listed risks that could come with an event that promotes drug enhancements."It encourages risky behavior and ignores the clear scientific evidence that doping is clearly harmful to the athlete's body," she wrote. "It ignores the impact that such an event could have on young people and children, encouraging them to prioritize results over their health, potentially leading to a culture of doping that goes beyond professional sport. It also ignores that athletes with greater financial resources or access to better doping techniques would have an unfair advantage over those who cannot afford or do not have access to such improvements."She added, "There are many more arguments against an event that allows and encourages doping."Health experts told BI's Gabby Landsverk in 2022 that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bodybuilding-steroid-use-leads-to-deaths-sport-experts-say-2022-4">using performance-enhancing drugs like steroids</a> could come with a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/side-effects-of-steroids">litany of health risks</a> — including hair loss, erectile dysfunction, liver damage, and heart disease — that can increase as an athlete ages.The Enhanced Games could also face legal hurdles, especially if the games are based in the US, where <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bodybuilding-steroid-use-leads-to-deaths-sport-experts-say-2022-4">anabolic steroids</a> are classified as Schedule 3 drugs and illegal to use without a prescription.Jim Walden, the lawyer for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/drugs-used-in-russian-doping-scandal-2016-6">Grigory Rodchenkov</a>, the whistleblower who led the state-sponsored doping program in Russia, told CNN last year that the Enhanced Games seemed to be "advertising their disregard of the law" on its website."They wrap themselves up in what I will call the cloak of legitimacy by using phrases like body autonomy and coming out as an enhanced athlete," he told the outlet. "I hope they're thinking hard about how they're going to pull this off in the world in which the FBI has a specific unit that is called the Sports and Gaming Initiative that's focusing on these very issues."An FBI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.When asked about legal issues, D'Souza said his team was looking at the "many opportunities and challenges in numerous jurisdictions."He also suggested that some performance-enhancing drugs were "available under clinical supervision," pointing to synthetic testosterone, part of some gender-affirming hormone therapies. He added that anabolic steroids are legal in several countries.In D'Souza's view, the challenge for getting the Enhanced Games off the ground isn't the critics; he insisted that most were just "bureaucrats who are earning big salaries" and are on the "gravy train." Instead, it's been funding.With the recent round of VC investments, though, D'Souza said some investors who'd previously ignored him were circling back. The buzz on social media, he added, has been nonstop.D'Souza said he planned to announce more details about the Enhanced Games this summer — right around the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tickets-paris-2024-olympics-opening-ceremony-sticker-shock-sold-out-2024-1">Paris Olympics</a>."We see that as a major platform for us to highlight the moral superiority of our event," he said.

The Enhanced Games wants to take on the Olympics by embracing steroids and athlete pay. Meet the founder.

Jamnagar (Gujarat) [India], February 28 (ANI): The pre-wedding festivities of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh <keyword id="19898589" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ambani" source="keywords">Ambani</keyword>'s youngest son Anant Ambani, who is set to tie the knot with industrialist Viren Merchant's daughter, Radhika Merchant, have started with 'anna seva'. At Jogwad village near Reliance Township in Jamnagar, Mukesh Ambani, Anant Amband other members of the Ambani family, including Radhika Merchant, served traditional Gujarati food to the villagers. Radhika's maternal grandmother and parents - Viren and Shaila Merchant - also took part in the 'anna seva'. Food will be served to about 51,000 local residents, which will continue for the next few days. The Ambani family has organized 'anna seva' to seek the blessings of the local community for the pre-wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant. After the meal, the attendees enjoyed traditional folk music. Famous Gujarati singer Kirtidan Gadhvi stole the show with his singing. Sharing food is an old tradition in the Ambani family. The Ambani family has been serving food on auspicious family occasions. When the country was grappling with coronavirus pandemic, Reliance Foundation, under the leadership of Anant Ambani's mother Nita Ambani, ran a large food distribution programme. Taking forward the family tradition, Anant Ambani has started his pre-wedding functions with anna seva. The pre-wedding functions are expected to be traditional and grand. Guests will get to experience the beauty of Indian culture at the pre-wedding festivities. The guests at the occasion will receive traditional scarves made by women artisans from Kachchh and Lalpur in Gujarat. Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Queen of Bhutan Jetsun Pema, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, and Saudi Aramco Chairperson Yasir Al Rumayyan are among those invited for the celebrations scheduled between March 1-3. The guest list also includes former Prime Minister of Sweden Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, President of Google Donald Harrison, former President of Bolivia President Jorge Quiroga, former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd and Chairperson World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab. CEO and MD ADNOC Dr Sultan Al Jaber, CEO bp Murray Auchincloss, Chairman and Founder Colony Capital <keyword id="20770673" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="thomas-barrack" source="keywords">Thomas Barrack</keyword>, , CEO JC2 Ventures John Chambers, former CEO bp Bob Dudley, President of Global Development at BMGF Christopher Elias, Executive Chairman at Exor John Elkann, and CEO of Endeavor Ari Emanuel are also expected to be in Jamnagar next month. Chairman and CEO BlackRock Larry Fink, CEO Brookfield Asset Management Bruce Flatt, Co-chair Board member BMGF Bill Gates, COO BlackRock Rob L Goldstein, Managing Director Morgan Stanley Michael Grimes, Chairman Hilton &amp; Hyland Richard Hilton, Vice Chairman Berkshire Hathway Ajit Jain, Board Member Mandarin Oriental Archie Keswick, Scientist Dr Richard Klausner, Businessman Jared Kushner, Founder <keyword id="20626887" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="thrive-capital" source="keywords">Thrive Capital</keyword> Joshua Kushner, Former CEO bp Bernard Looney, Former Governor Businessman Terry McAuliffe, Scientist and Entrepreneur <keyword id="20770671" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="yuri-milner" source="keywords">Yuri Milner</keyword>, Founder and CEO Lupa Systems James Murdoch, President and CEO Aramco Amin H Nasser, Founder NV Investments <keyword id="20770672" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vivi-nevo" source="keywords">Vivi Nevo</keyword>, Former Dean Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria, COO Meta Javier Olivan, Vice Chairman Bank of America Purna Saggurti, , Founder and CEO Steel Perlot Michelle Ritter, Founder Schmidt Futures Eric Schmidt, Founding and Managing Partner Sherpalo Ram Shriram, CEO Sanmina Corp Jure Sola, CEO Enterprise GP Jim Teague, Group Chairman HSBC Holdings Plc Mark Tucker, and journalist Fareed Zakaria are among some of the other expected guests. Recently, Reliance Foundation posted a video on their Instagram handle in which women from Gujarat can be seen curating Bandhani scarves for the wedding functions of Anant and Radhika. In the clip, one can also see Nita Ambani, the founder and chairperson of Reliance Foundation, meeting the artisans and expressing her happiness for their hard work. "These women pour their hearts and souls into the craft, preserving age-old techniques and breathing life into stories as ancient as the land itself. Swadesh is empowering communities and preserving age-old craftsmanship," Reliance Foundation captioned the post. Ushering in the much-awaited wedding, the Ambani family has also facilitated the construction of new temples within a sprawling temple complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Featuring intricately carved pillars, sculptures of Gods and Goddesses, fresco-style paintings, and architecture inspired by generations of artistic heritage, the temple complex keeps India's rich cultural and spiritual identity at the heart of the wedding festivities. Brought to life by master sculptors, the temple art employs age-old techniques and traditions. The initiative highlights the incredible skills of local artisans, reflecting Nita Ambani's vision of preserving and promoting Indian heritage, tradition and culture. Anant and Radhika got engaged in a traditional ceremony in January 2023 at the family's residence Antilia in Mumbai. Isha Ambani, Akash Ambani and Anant Ambani, the three children of Mukesh-Nita Ambani, have been closely involved with and are leading and managing key businesses of RIL over the last few years including retail, digital services and energy and materials businesses. They also serve on the boards of the key subsidiaries of Reliance Industries. While Isha M Ambani has been driving the expansion of Reliance Retail, Akash M. Ambani is serving as the Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) since June 2022 and Anant M Ambani is driving the expansion of energy and materials businesses of Reliance Industries. Isha and Akash got married in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Anant Ambani is also involved with several compassionate initiatives to rehabilitate at-risk animals and provide them care and dignity in their residual life. Reliance Industries and Reliance Foundation this Monday launched Vantara, a paradigm-shifting initiative for animal welfare in the heart of Gujarat's green belt. Vantara (Star of the Forest), an ambitious programme is dedicated to the rescue, treatment, care, and rehabilitation of animals in need. (ANI)

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