At Blume, we get a lot of requests from passionate founders seeking time for mentoring / advice / brainstorming / picking our brains / advice on products etc. We do try to help where such help is a single-shot event, say resolving a doubt or query. However for longer-term mentoring engagements we typically say no, unless there is a strong possibility that this will move to funding.

There are multiple reasons for this. Time is the biggest factor. All of us in the early stage venture fund business are really starved for time. I get 7-8 pitches a day now. Then there are my half-dozen portfolio cos that i need to support. Then there are internal meetings on platform initiatives that I support. Then there is the writing that I need to do. Given all of this, taking out 30-45 mins for a meeting which is not linked to funding makes it challenging.

Secondly, if I had an extra 30-45 mins in a day, why would I not want to allocate it to my portfolio cos? After all, my long-term career success depends on them succeeding. And they have also paid for Blume and my time by diluting capital to us*****. Given this, I feel the opportunity cost of spending time on meetings which don't have a portfolio or future portfolio impact (by future portfolio impact, I mean funding discussions which lead to an investment and a company becoming a portfolio co) is high.

Third, VCs in general aren't domain experts. Some of them may well be. I am not. I haven't run a division and haven't managed teams > 10. I have spent time in edu and media but in more general management roles. Given this, I find it challenging to weigh in on business strategy and product advice for an industry I am not familiar with. I find it is best for me to weigh in, in regards to strategy and product, or even marketing and tech, in the context of fundraising. After all, VCs are here for a reason. They are there to gauge your startup's risk and to price it in your funding / investment round, and thereby make sure you get to the next round. A fund like Blume understands the Seed to Series A risk curve the best, and our promise is to help you get to PMF and Series A fastest and in the best shape. Our expertise is at the intersection of business ops and funding.

Given all of the above, I therefore try to avoid, or at least minimise, meetings which don't have a funding angle. Hence, I will have to decline the request for advise, mentoring, product inputs etc., if you are not a portfolio co, and I will not be able to provide inputs outside of a fundraising discussion. That said, happy to answer 1-2 specific questions if you mail me at [email protected] When you mail, please be superdirect in your conversation. Ask me 1-2 questions that I can answer in 5-7 mins and you will almost always get a response from me, typically in 24 hours, latest in 72 hours. Occasionally, very occasionally, I might miss out on replying to a mail. If so, please resend the mail with 1-line reminder. I will almost always reply. Even after that if I don’t reply it means that I am not interested. I apologise if the above comes across as rude. That is / was not my intention. My communication style is direct and in high context Indian culture I realise that can come across as rude. But that isn't at all me:) Thank you for your understanding!

*There is an old joke that consultants give advice and take money, and that VCs (Venture Capital funds) give money to give advice:) This is very true. The venture business is less about investing money and more about the long-term mentoring and support to the enterprise. As we say in our lingo, it is less about the finding and more about the minding. The latter is truly what makes the ventures successful.

In fact many startups specifically chose Blume (or an equivalent VC) because they want the Partner or Principal at Blume to mentor them. Taking the VC's capital is the easiest way to make sure that you have the VC available to you for tapping into for advice and inputs. Given this we try to make sure that every single extra mentoring hour that we have is allocated to our portfolio. Our portfolio companies need our mentorship capital:(