Building for The World: Decoding The Paradigm Shift Approach

Shifting from an entrepreneur mindset to an investor mindset isn’t as easy as it seems. There's continuous learning involved, a constant mental battle with your own biases, and a never-ending search for ambitious founders who align with your vision.

For Govind Mundhra , former CFO of WeWork India and ex-Finance Director at InMobi, it was a conscious choice. In 2020, he teamed up with Surabhi Washishth and Dhruv Washishth to launch the early-stage VC firm Paradigm Shift Capital .

The tall task ahead of them was to carve out their niche and create a differentiated fund in the crowded VC ecosystem.

Having built three unicorns with a global outlook among them, they decided to build a unique VC firm that exclusively backs founders building tech products for the world.

“We're a unique VC firm with a strong GP-thesis fit—all three partners have built startups for global markets. We believe in being true partners to founders given our operator and entrepreneurial experience. We bring that experience to support founders and back them at a super early stage, the time when they need maximum support,” Govind told The Content House in a recent interview.

"We are one of the rare teams in VC that have previously been pure operators in the Indian Startup ecosystem. Given our own experiences of building startups, our endeavour is to support founders on things they should not do, rather than things they should do, because the moment you start talking about things they should do, you take the freedom or the creativity away from them,” he said.

Paradigm Shift invests up to half a million dollars at the pre-seed & seed stage and participates in follow-on rounds. In his interview with The Content House , Govind spoke at length about how they pick startups, the qualities they look for in founders, and shared crucial advice for entrepreneurs.

This interview is edited for clarity and brevity.

The Content House: What led you to leave WeWork and start Paradigm Shift?

Govind: Exploring the VC landscape, we realised the past decade focused heavily on consumer startups, with about 80% of deal flow in that space. India's startup landscape has been thriving, but building for the world is an advantage that hasn’t been fully leveraged, except in tech services. We believed there couldn’t be a better time for Indian tech startups to build & ship global-first tech products.

All three partners—Surabhi, Dhruv, and I—have known each other for a long time. We have complementary skill sets. I focus on high growth, finance & fund raising strategies; Dhruv brings entrepreneurial insights into marketing, go-to-market and cross-border strategies. Surabhi adds the crucial people aspect because VC is fundamentally a people's business. Investing in early-stage startups is about investing in the founder more than anything else. We have a strong founding team where each of us has a core strength.

Paradigm Shift Capital is India’s first truly global VC fund—we're the only fund that exclusively backs founders building for the world. We've made around 25 investments in the past three years without a single exception to our investment thesis.

The Content House: When startups pitch to you claiming they're building for the world, what are the things you look at?

Govind: We delve deeper into their purpose, their edge, and how they perceive gaps.

We invest at pre-seed & seed stages, hence more often than not, a high degree of emphasis is on understanding the founding team more than the problem they're addressing, their pitch, or any initial traction they might have. It's crucial to determine if the founder or founding team is capable of building a company for the long term.

Whether they truly have the potential to go global is important for us. Founders should have knowledge about global markets—not just the TAM (Total Addressable Market) or the opportunity, but also cultural differences and operational challenges like hiring people. We don't require proof of results, but we do want to understand their thought process, which is very important to us.

We've had to say no to some great founders who either lacked the vision to expand globally or didn't have the operational capabilities to build an international brand.

Most importantly, we evaluate their purpose and understand if they genuinely mean what they're saying. Purpose is very important for sustaining a company over time; without it, obstacles can hinder growth and make founders question their path—a challenge every founder faces.

The Content House: Do you back founders building global products from day one, or those who plan to go global later?

Govind: We want founders to be very clear about why they're targeting a specific market. A lot of founders, unfortunately, view India as a testing ground for their products before taking them global, not realising what works in India might not work in the US or other markets. They shouldn't treat a market launch as a proof of concept when they actually intend to sell in another. Your product should address a logical, research-driven gap, and you should be clear about the market you're building for.

That is where the biggest differentiation with a fund like ours comes into play. Intent becomes super sharp: we like to get to the root of the thought process - this is what this founder wants to achieve, this is why they are going for it, this is why they are targeting that market. Take InMobi, for example; it was a product built in India for a global market from day one.

We try to understand the founder’s vision for their product and its global potential. Understanding the gaps and the customer's pain points, and conducting your own industry research to derive market insights as a founder is critical.

The Content House: At what stage do you come in with your expertise to help startups reach global markets?

Govind: We don't need to hand-hold these founders since they're already determined to go global and have done their research. They're fairly clear on how they want to proceed.

That being said, we work closely and deeply with founders, almost like co-founder investors, whether it is sales and marketing, hiring, building GTM channels, products, or strategies, and fundraising—leveraging our complementary skill sets and operational mindset.

We help them with introductions to the right people and sales channels. For example, in B2B enterprise sales, people use content, SEO, brand building, and performance marketing. But very few founders leverage system integrators. We bring in that perspective.

Then comes hiring, where Surabhi's global experience is invaluable. We analyse specific projects closely, not just give generic, high-level advice. Each startup is unique, so we delve into understanding the exact profiles and people they need. Recently, a founder told us they were trying to hire a business development executive, however, after two days of deep conversation, we realised they needed technical sales folks—a completely different profile.

That's the level of depth we engage in to help founders realise their true needs and identify major issues. We then assist throughout the process. We aim to be that helping hand to ensure they take off smoothly. Once that happens, they'll take flight and flourish.

The Content House: What would be one crucial piece of advice for founders?

Govind: The biggest quality I've always seen in successful founders is that they realise early on what they're not great at. It's crucial to recognise and quickly fill that gap with the best people—not necessarily the best in the market, but those who align with your culture and how you want to build the team.

Another aspect we always encourage is as a founder, you need to do sales. We always advocate that founders handle sales themselves for the first couple of years after the product is ready. If you think about it, as a founder, you're selling 24*7:? you're selling your equity while fundraising. you're selling a dream while hiring, and selling your product while dealing with customers.

You don't need to have innate sales ability, but you must be aware that this is what you've signed up for. There's no backing out once you've realised that. If you don't have the full means to do it, quickly recognise where you're lacking and fill that gap.

The Content House: Does your experience as a startup operator and entrepreneur help you make decisions as an investor?

Govind: I’ve had tremendous learnings from my experience of building two unicorns, and they certainly make me a better investor today as I’m able to understand the startup, its business and most importantly, the founder.

However, the past is usually not a good measure of the future—or else the VC world would purely be a scientific derivation of what’s already happened. Our practical experience aids in long-term thinking rather than sticking to one way of doing things. So while I strongly apply my learnings of the past to help me and assist me as and when I need to draw upon my learnings, I am more excited to learn how the future will change and keep my mind open to new possibilities—so I try to not let the past form any biases or judgements in my mind, but rather as a tool in my armoury that I rely upon when needed.

Building biases from our learnings is something one shouldn't do as a VC, because otherwise, you won't be looking at the future. The way things were built five or six years ago isn't how they'll be built in the next few years. You have to be aware of that— innovation and change is the name of the game. That's a crucial lesson you get as an operator. So we focus not on our biases from the past, but on the bar of excellence we've set.

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