In this episode, Anirudh Damani, Managing Partner @Artha Venture Fund, joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path to VC, investing in startups through his family office before starting his own fund, benefits & mechanics behind managing a micro VC fund, Artha’s investment thesis, fund allocation & deal sourcing strategies, and how founders can keep their cap tables clean in their initial funding rounds. Artha Venture Fund is an early-stage sector agnostic fund that has been investing in start-ups since early 2012. Prior to launching the fund, Anirudh was an active angel investor in many early-stage startups. Anirudh also owns Artha Energy Resources and is the MD and CEO at Artha Group of Companies. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Board at Venture Catalysts. Anirudh holds a double major in economics and business administration from Austin College. You can connect with him here on Linkedin / Twitter ---- Show notes – 1. (01:37) Anirudh’s background & path to VC 2. (07:55) Returning to India & investing in startups through his family office 3. (13:59) Difference between running a family office & a VC fund 4. (16:47) Benefits of managing a micro VC fund; Preference of managing multiple micro funds vs a single mega VC fund 5. (20:24) Artha’s investment thesis, fund allocation strategy & key investments 6. (28:02) Deal sourcing - Partnering with accelerators, referrals from portfolio founders & co-investors 7. (30:10) Why is it important for founders to keep their cap table clean? 8. (33:21) Learnings from investing in 85+ startups 9. (35:44) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any of the major podcasting platforms like Spotify & Apple iTunes. We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This will help others discover the podcast. You can visit thevcpreneur.com and follow us on Twitter @thevcpreneur_ & Instagram @thevcpreneur for more episodes and interesting insights on the startup ecosystem. You can also follow our host Digjay on Linkedin & Twitter