Empathy towards founders a key value that operator-led VCs bring to the table: CaratLane founder Mithun Sacheti

(From Left to Right) Chandra R Srikanth, Girish Mathrubootham and Mithun Sacheti

Mithun Sacheti, who sold his remaining stake in CaratLane and has been backing startups in the D2C space, said that empathy towards founders is what operator-led venture capital investors bring to the table.

“Tiger Global was an exception in the way they transact, but, all around me, I have seen how long things can take, how things can fall apart and as operator-led VCs, we look at building empathy towards that which can solve some of these problems,” Sacheti said.

He was speaking during a panel discussion with Girish Mathrubootham, Founder and Chairman of Freshworks, at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave in Bengaluru on August 9. They were discussing “Chennai Super Kings: Building, scaling, stepping back: The founder arc” in a session moderated by Chandra R Srikanth, deputy executive editor at Moneycontrol.

After selling CaratLane, Sacheti had told Moneycontrol that he assesses startups that are in the Rs 100-150 crore revenue range and consider backing them in his personal capacity as D2C (direct to consumer) is in his DNA.

In December 2023, Sacheti announced joining the Singularity Growth as a general partner. The venture capital firm that largely backs consumer tech startups has also roped in Sacheti as a co-sponsor

Sacheti was also a limited partner (LP) in Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal’s 021 Capital and Singularity Ventures.

Adding to what Sacheti said, Freshworks’ Mathrubootham said that operator-led VCs often provide experiential knowledge to startups.

“While we may not bring that Ivy league capability or the knowledge to access the market, as we are also learning that, as operators what we bring is experiential knowledge for startups,” he added.

Several top executives have launched a firm or joined an exiting VC firm to help back startups in the industry they operate in.

Also Read: I'm an advocate for founders taking money in secondary sale, says Freshworks founder Mathrubootham

Mathrubootham Founded ‘Together Fund’ in 2021 as a global fund set up in Mauritius, along with Eka Software founder Manav Garg. It follows a founder-first approach to investing.

The VC firm also counts Shubham Gupta, who led SaaS deals at Matrix Partners until last year, and Avinash Raghava, a founding member of SaaSBoomi and former iSpirt and Nasscom fellow, as its founders.

Similarly, former BharatPe Chief Operating Officer Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl founded Eternal Capital.

“The advantage for a young founder, wanting to take money from an operator VC is that if they have a problem they can get a real-time advice,” Mathrubootham said.