At GSF's #WhereDoWeGoNow conference, redBus co-founder Phanindra Sama and former Disney India MD (Digital) Vishal Gondal talked about their respective entrepreneurial journeys and the current venture ecosystem in the country among others. Here are some notes from the session, moderated by GSF's Rajesh Sawhney: On redBus's initial investment plans: Sama said they were thinking quite small when they initially pitched to SeedFund. They were looking to raise Rs 30 lakh for 30% stake, valuing the company at 1 crore (quirkily inspired by Kaun Banega Crorepati) and were planning to invest the money over the next three to four years to expand to other markets and be profitable. However, Bharti of SeedFund sat with them and made seven iterations of their plans, and they realized that they required an investment of Rs 2.5 crore to spend in the first year and reach a place where they required further capital. On the venture ecosystem: Citing Karthee Madasamy of Qualcomm Ventures, Sawhney said that Indian entrepreneurs are not solving complex enough problems because the venture ecosystem has gone defensive in the country and they want to now see revenues fast. Responding to this, Gondal said that it depends on who the investor is - Strategic investors who are under quarterly pressure, push companies to show revenues while Investors who were entrepreneurs earlier, don't push for revenues because getting revenues from services doesn't help the company. Getting to 100,000 users is more valuable than getting Rs 100,000 in revenue and getting the right quality of revenue or reference-able customers…
