ILLUMINATING INNOVATION
“I LOOK FOR FOUNDERS THAT OBSERVE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY”
SANDEEP MURTHY, PARTNER Lightbox has been a major investor in the Global Consumer-
failed, and failed big young, I can safely say I wasted a lot of time in
Tech industry, making the right decisions with several
that world of anguish... that being said, after a few months of that, I
investments to position yourself as a market leader. What are
finally did reflect on things and did take away learnings that have been
the key aspects you look for when investing in these startups.
invaluable.
Unbridled passion matched with a deep understanding of the consumer
In our fast paced world, the speed at which you can move through the
that allows them to see a gap that few others see. I look for founders
cycles makes all of the difference. I am all for failing and learning, but
that observe the world differently and have an optimistic craziness
the key is to get over the failure, learn from it and move forward - FAST.
that makes them want to risk everything based on an insight to create something very different and very ambitious.
As of late Lightbox has raised $54 mn, expanding your existing fund of 8-10 portfolio companies. Do you believe it is
What are the key learning’s you would like to share
imperative to be hands on with your portfolio companies, as
with upcoming startups, who are embarking on this
opposed to spreading yourself too thin?
entrepreneurial journey considering that survival rate is low. We are not money managers. It’s not about writing a big cheque. We Focus on making your product difficult to replicate. This is “magic”
often say we’re building, not betting. It best describes our concentrated
that is not easy for someone else to copy or spend their way into.
approach to investing. We love dreaming big and then committing
Sometimes that magic is so powerful that even your business model can
wholeheartedly to make that version of the world a reality. While all of
come later... those cases are almost always evidenced with metrics of
that fluffy stuff sounds great, the reality is that we love to get our hands
amazing organic growth.
dirty and deal with difficult day-to-day situations. Sometimes, we get so
Know what you don’t know. This is a big part of ensuring that you are
role reporting to the CEO and we’re absolutely up for that. We’re in this
focusing your energy in the right place.
to build great businesses and have no issues about which seat we need
involved in the operations of our portfolio companies that we are in a
to sit in to make that happen. Take the long view. You’re building this for the next 30, 50 or 100 years. Things will blow up everyday. There will be a crisis everyday.
One of the companies we recently invested in has great product instinct,
But don’t let that define your way of working and living. You can’t
but the team is just learning how to run a business. So the real priority
control everything all the time. Be prepared, imagine the outcomes but
to back the investment is to get operating expertise in there. We’ve
understand that things won’t always go the way you planned.
put financial systems in place. That’s building. Identifying the needs, helping to hire, creating priorities. If you do that right upfront, it sets
Look at failure differently. Learn quickly and move on. The entire
the DNA right.
ethos of entrepreneurship is experiment, fail, learn, repeat. Failure is inevitable when you stick yourself out there. The thing though is how
But then we’ve also had times that we have sat down in our company’s
you deal with it. We all know that failure is the best learning experience
office for a week to figure out what is not working. Helping the team
and all that kind of stuff, but the reality is when you have failed, the
understand how to optimize their marketing spend. Or what their gross
last thing you are thinking about is learning. The opportunity to learn
margin should be and what they are spending.
is fantastic, but at that point the only thing you can think about is “how the hell did I let this happen, I can’t believe how I didn’t see this
We get that the adventure can be lonely and want to be the first call our
coming, I should have done this or that” and the worst of all “maybe all
founders or the teams make when they’re in trouble. It’s only because
those people who said I was crazy for trying this were right”. Having
we know their businesses inside out that we can understand the
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