Shark Tank India judge and executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals Namita Thapar on Tuesday heaped praises on investor Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder of Info Edge that owns Naukri, Jeevansathi, and 99 Acres, for his humility and generosity. She was joined by Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal who lauded Bikhchandani for giving complete autonomy to founders of companies he invested in.
"I have known him for seven years when I cold-called him to speak at my entrepreneurship academy," Thapar wrote on LinkedIn. "He spoke with such humility, vulnerability, and passion. His guidance on corporate governance on the cusp of Emcure going public will always be my moral compass." She added that she witnessed him donate generously to causes without being named.
Thapar also pointed out that Info Edge invested in Zomato in 2010 and Bikhchandani stood by them in their low times, invested in multiple rounds and didn’t panic or sell when the share dipped 45 percent below IPO price. Same philosophy with Policy Bazaar. "Today this $86 million investment in both is worth $5 billion and he’s in no hurry to sell!" she said.
The Shark Tank India judge also shared a quote from fellow Shark, Deepinder Goyal. "Sanjeev Bikhchandani is a founder first, and then an investor - and knows how companies get built," Thapar quoted the Zomato boss as saying.
According to Goyal, the Info Edge founder understands that giving a founder complete autonomy, and living with the upside and downside of it is the only way to generate large outcomes for an investor -- something that "most other professional VCs don’t".
"He doesn’t act like a founder’s boss, and continues backing the founder through the ups and downs. Not once in the last 14 years has he ever imposed any opinion on us, or come back with a 'I told you so' when we ended up being wrong in disregarding his advice," Goyal reportedly said.
Responding to this and talking about his principles as an investor, Bikhchandani told Thapar that he aims to invest early stage into companies that eventually become great.
"We are not in the business of earning IRR (internal rate of return). Our quest is to invest early stage into companies that go on to become great. IRR is the happy incidental outcome of that," he said, adding that the credit goes to the entrepreneurs and the management team. "We respect all the entrepreneurs we back, including those where things did not turn out the way we would have liked.”
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