In this episode, Pearl Agarwal (Founder & Managing Director, Eximius Ventures), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Eximius Ventures, the investment thesis & key focus areas at Eximius, the Web3 opportunity, marquee portfolio startups at Eximius, parallels between a founder and a first time venture capitalist, winning the trust of LPs & founders, building the foundation to scale up to a larger fund and more. Founded in 2020, Eximius is an early-stage micro-VC fund that invests in startups across sectors like fintech, healthtech, gaming & web3. The fund has already made investments in marquee startups like Eka.care, Jar, Stan, Kala Gato and Fego among others. Prior to Eximius, Pearl spent ~10 years across investment roles in the US and UK, facilitating multi-billion dollar mergers, helping companies raise capital, and more. You can connect with Pearl here on Linkedin / Twitter. ---- Show notes – (01:32) Pearl’s background & path leading up to Eximius Ventures (07:52) Genesis of Eximius; Investment thesis & key focus areas (15:34) The Web3 opportunity (19:57) Marquee portfolio startups at Eximius (24:18) Raising a venture capital fund in the middle of a pandemic (32:17) Winning the trust of LPs & founders; dealflow strategy as a first time VC (37:07) Importance of having mentors & advisors for a fund manager (40:27) Building the foundation to scale up to a larger fund (45:00) Rapid fire and closing remarks ---- If you liked our episode, you can subscribe to our podcast on any podcast platforms of your choice (like Spotify & Apple iTunes). We would appreciate if you could leave us a review on Apple iTunes. This helps others discover the podcast organically. 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 here on Linkedin & Twitter