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Off Balance #55
๐๏ธ Nothing Ventured - Aarish in conversation with Manish Patel, Founding Partner at Nava Ventures
Aarish Shah
October 29, 2024
In partnership with
๐๐พ Hi friends!
Something quite bizarre happened over the last few weeks. Iโve been building Nothing Ventured since May 2021 and whilst itโs had a lot of support and love from individuals, we hadnโt seen that pulling through in the numbers - that is until a couple of weeks agoโฆ
On October 7th, we had just over 540 subscribers on YouTube and it had taken us 20 months to get there, and thenโฆ
WE 10Xd in 2 weeks ๐คฏ
We got to over 5k subscribers by around the 21st of the month and, as of today weโre sitting at over 6.6k.
Whilst you can definitely argue that this is a bit of a vanity metric, it nevertheless feels great to see some feedback after putting in the hard work for so long!
As you know, Iโm well underway writing about all the things Iโve learned from the last couple of decades as founder, CFO and CEO, so sign up for early access to Off Balance - The Book and feel free to share with anyone else you think might enjoy it ๐. Iโm setting myself the target of getting through a large portion of it whilst Iโm away in Italy during August - wish me luck!
Now letโs get down to businessโฆ
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ต ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฟ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฎ ๐ด๐ผ๐ผ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐ถ๐ป๐๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ต๐ผ๐น๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ผ๐๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฎ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐
This week on Nothing Ventured, I spoke to Manish Patel, founder and Managing Partner of Nava Ventures, an early-stage investment firm aimed at working with companies that endeavor to create new markets, change industries, and positively impact the world.
He is a faculty member at Stanford University where he teaches introduction to Design Thinking and with over a decade in venture capital, he focuses on investing in companies that seek to solve deep human needs through technology.
Previously, Manish was a product leader at Google, working on key initiatives such as Google Ads, Maps, and TV and latterly worked with Larry Page and ran OKRs, Googles famous objectives and key results management system.
A graduate of Stanford with degrees in Engineering and Economics, he is also a Fellow at the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab, where he advises and mentors startups focused on developing products and services which leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Here's what we covered:
๐คท๐พ People are people everywhere - you find red necks everywhere, even in Silicon Valley.
๐ค Weโve got to stop equating wealth with brilliance.
๐๐พโโ๏ธ What it means to be a brown man in America.
๐ฅ How google went from the 50th search engine to number one.
๐งฑ โWe shape our buildings and therefore they shape us.โ Churchill was talking about actual buildings, today the corollary is the products in our pockets.
๐ฅบ Building products that see the emotion behind the edge users.
๐ Unlocking experience over efficiency in product design.
๐ฉท The best products sit at the intersection of technology, business and human needs.
๐ฅ How Manish became an accidental VC.
๐ค Rethinking the investment committee putting Kindness, Truth and Hustle at its heart.
โ๏ธ Manish's contrarian advice - Itโs ok to say I donโt know.
Check it out on YouTube!
If you have any feedback, or if thereโs something youโre desperate to see me include, just reply to this mail or ping me online - Iโm very open to conversations.
(If you are trying to connect with me on LinkedIn, maybe read this post I wrote and make sure to start your request with โOff Balanceโ and, more importantly, tell me why youโd like to connect ๐ช๐พ)
Donโt forget to like, rate and subscribe to Nothing Ventured on Apple, Spotify or YouTube, it really helps more people see what weโre doing - you can find links to these (and more including my Office Hours) right here!
This edition of Nothing Ventured is brought to you by EmergeOne.
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If youโre a CFO working with venture backed startups and want to join a team of incredible fractional talent, drop us your details here.
If youโre a growing startup that knows it needs that strategic financial knowhow, drop your details here to see how we can support you as you scale ๐
As always, my office hours are open, if youโd like to chat about anything finance, tech or venture releated, just grab some time ๐.
I hope you found Off Balance #55 valuable. As always, Iโd love to get your feedback and understand the sort of topics you would love to hear about.
Just hit reply to this mail or drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know ๐
๐And thatโs a wrap for this edition of Off Balance - Iโd appreciate your feedback so just reply to this email if youโve got something youโd like to say.
๐จ If you think someone else might love this, please forward it on to them,
๐ง Finally, if youโre a fan of the Nothing Ventured podcast, please donโt forget to like, rate and subscribe wherever you get your pods - it really helps us spread the word.
Thatโs it from me so until next timeโฆ
Stay liquid :)
Aarish
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