285. How This Early Stage VC at a €2.5BN AUM Firm Invests w/ Akash Bajwa | Earlybird

21:01Akash Bajwa:The writing helps me reach an audience for the events and so forth. And the personal brand that I'm looking to build there is just one, first and foremost, that I like to help founders. I think we're all grateful to do in the ecosystem, but especially so as investors. And the way I particularly like to help founders is by helping them think through their business, think through the market that they're in, think through the technologies that they can use to build defensibility. And lately, of course, most people are building agents, agents applied to a certain vertical or a certain function. And they're thinking through what are the infra constraints around memory, around sandboxes, around context management, tool use, and so forth.

21:45Akash Bajwa:And that's exactly the kind of territory where I would love to surface relevant insights to them. And I do that through the writing and through the events. And so I think the personal brand matters because at the end of the day, capital is a commodity. And there are other firms out there who have very large teams of platform support who can help you with hiring and some customer intros and so on. We also do that, maybe not at the same scale as some funds, but what we definitely want, the hill we want to die on is basically that we want to be that partner and board member who is going to be a sparring partner, a thought partner on your business, product, strategy, hiring, go-to-market, every facet of it, unlike any other.

22:37Akash Bajwa:And so therefore, I've leaned into that on the personal branding side, that time that you spend with us, that you give us precious time from a founder's perspective, is time well spent. and especially what they would hopefully come away with is new insights about their business around their market. And I think, as you know well, having done this podcast for so long, I think things of this nature, initiatives like this, they compound. And if you do it consistently for a number of years, you're playing the long game. And in this industry in tech, I think people should play long games and you reap the dividends five, 10, 15 years down the road because people have seen you do something for so long consistently.

23:19Akash Bajwa:and the relationships you build throughout that time. So I just think it's a win-win and it's important if you want to stand out.

23:26Amardeep Parmar:I think the whole element of time here in that too is because I've got a similar mentality, right? Obviously, I spend a lot of time on the content and the podcast and different things by writing a book, for example. And that's time which is more solitude or podcast offices or somebody else there. But a lot of people instead they spend the time on those coffees or calls. And how do you balance that in your head, right? Because the way I look at it is if you write one piece in Substack, that could reach thousands of people, right? Yeah, yeah. But at the same time, to do that and make time for that, you have to say no to people who want to maybe have your time one-to-one.

23:58Amardeep Parmar:Yes. And how's that balance been for you in trying to make that decision of?

24:02Akash Bajwa:Yeah, exactly. As you said, I think you probably grapple with this every day. I grapple with it too. I think the balancing act is sometimes those one-to-one meetings are magical and you meet someone and you have an incredible conversation and you learn a lot from that interaction. And serendipity is a thing. You just don't know who else that person knows that you would want to meet. And you have to allow for some surface area of luck, I guess. But arguably, to your point, I think the kind of scalability of writing or any kind of online content is perhaps, it just has a much wider surface area of luck.

24:45Akash Bajwa:you're reaching so many more people with the same amount of time um that i i would if if i had to like i guess find the right ratio i would definitely prefer doing more of that than the one-to-one meetings and uh yes that means saying no a lot of people but at the end of the day you have to probably going back to the earlier point around personal branding both from a founder's point of view or an LP's point of view or a fellow investor's point of view, I think, and this is at least my intention with my branding, is I want to have unique insights. I want to have views on markets. I want to be well-read about the challenges affecting founders today with their businesses.

25:30Akash Bajwa:And to do that, the writing or content forces me to become aware of those things. The coffees, it's kind of, or the interactions one-to-one with certain individuals, sometimes you learn a lot. And as I say, those meetings are incredible and really helpful. But more often than not, you're probably better off in that solitude learning on your own. And I think now there's an abundance of ways you can learn. And so when I think of what makes a person more valuable to a founder on their board, what makes a person more valuable in general as an investor. I do really believe that writing is a forcing function for being knowledgeable because if you're putting something out there for thousands of people to consume, hopefully you have something interesting to say.

26:21Akash Bajwa:And so that forces you to kind of do that classic sort of Peter Thiel question of like, what's one thing you believe no one else believes? Again, also to that point, if you spend time with your peers all the time, you're probably going to think like them. Groupthink will creep in. You'll end up in kind of a pernicious, subtle way, sort of replicating views that other people have, as opposed to thinking independently and having time for yourself to form a unique view. Not to say that that's all you need to do to have an independent view, but at least a bit more solitude to really think about things from first principles, I think is very important.

27:00Amardeep Parmar:I think it's one of the things people miss too when people simply use AI as a way to make all their content. Because to me, the value isn't necessarily just in what people see about your views. The act of writing itself. And the fact that it's hard and the fact that it's uncomfortable is good. Yes. Because that's what's making you really understand your own opinions. Yeah. And I think for so many people, they can't really explain what they actually think. Yeah. And if you can write something down. Yeah. One of the things I have a problem with a lot of people who say like where they want a call rather than an email.

27:31Akash Bajwa:Yeah.

27:31Amardeep Parmar:I say, oh, I'll just explain it in person. Or I'll just explain it in the course. If you can't explain it in words written down, you probably don't understand it well enough yourself, which means you can then ramble to me. So put it in an email. If you can't put it in an email and make it compelling enough, you aren't clear enough in your thinking.

27:47Akash Bajwa:I totally agree. And famously, Stripe has a writing culture. I'm a big fan of the Collisons, especially lately, even more so John Collison. I was always a fan of Patrick Collison. I didn't say them by a first name basis. This is John Collison recently started this podcast, Cheeky Pine. Really good podcast, by the way. Maybe not as good as this podcast. But they've always had a writing culture because they know, to your point, that writing forces clarity of thought. We've all been in companies and roles where we have pointless meetings. We're inundated with team calls, syncs on things that literally don't need 15-minute catch-up, like you should just be able to just slack each other and their point is like for example if you had to do an onboarding you could do an onboarding where literally you have coffees with everybody in some cases you should obviously get to know your team but at strike for example or at companies where there's a writing culture and you can just become acquainted with how the company thinks about uh the future uh the way it builds product and so on through studying really well-written documentation that's that's i think uh a higher fidelity way to pass ideas down the company than um uh having meetings where things get lost in translation and so on and more generally you can ramble to your point i think writing is just a forcing function for clarity of thought and if you impose that on everybody you'll be so amazed i think by the benefits from that and so it was

29:21Amardeep Parmar:So you're now looking towards the future, right? So how are you trying to discover the people that you're going to invest in? Because as you said, now there's so much noise out there. There's so many different people obviously pitching you. Yeah. What are you looking for? How do you try to find the right people? Where are your hunting grounds to find these people?

29:37Akash Bajwa:Yeah, I'd say... Say, for example, if somebody is a really good writer,

29:41Amardeep Parmar:are you kind of paying attention? Like, oh, they're going to raise soon, for example.

29:45Akash Bajwa:I think it's a proxy for clarity of thought, which is a quality I really value in great founders. I would say the macro answer is, and then I'll give a separate take, but the macro answer is Europe, and especially the UK, has a number of talent pools that are going to produce the next great generation of founders. We have scale-ups like Revolut. Obviously, we have companies like Palantir that have sizable, very strong teams in Europe and London. We also have now scale-ups that are Series B, Series C across the continent that are seeing the zero to one builders decide that they need to start their own companies now.

30:25Akash Bajwa:And so I think the ecosystem is at a really healthy place where we can all on the investor side quickly determine what are the talent pools we really want to be close to. And then to your point, I guess over the years that now I've been doing this, obviously there are some founders or individuals in the ecosystem whose taste I really admire. and whose judgment and people I really admire and respect. If they are telling me that there's someone in their network, a friend of theirs who has not even started the company, but is contemplating starting a company, I would love to talk to them. Even if they end up deciding to join a company or stay at their current company, I have nothing to lose and so much to gain just from spending time with someone like that.

31:10Akash Bajwa:And so my take is still to be just helpful to people and the events and writing are a way to do that too. I kind of think that sort of the top of funnel, let's say that you just help a really wide surface area of people. And somewhere in that top of funnel, there's a few that trickle down that actually want to start companies. And I've been fortunate to meet them through this wider surface area. And then eventually some that we end up investing in. And usually they have these qualities like they're, in my view, they're extremely thoughtful about their market, yet humble enough to admit that assumptions will change.

31:49Akash Bajwa:But they've studied the market really closely, and they know why it was a graveyard for companies in the past, or why the incumbents in that space are not well positioned to win, where the gaps are in the product portfolio, where to chip away at the gaps of the incumbents who've spoken to enough buyers that they maybe were able to get in front of just through cold outreach and not through their own network, which is a sign of resourcefulness and finding the right message market fit, that they found something that resonated on cold outreach on LinkedIn with like enterprises. That's pretty hard.

32:21Akash Bajwa:All of these things add up and some others, but first and foremost, I think my philosophy is just to help people. And then if I've actually done a good job of that, hopefully they'll want me to help other people in their network. And then there are those people who I trust that if they're telling me that this is someone I should talk to, I would love that.

32:40Amardeep Parmar:It's interesting what you said about understanding incumbents as well, because you probably have the same thing. The same people will be like, I'm building this. It's like, do you know about all these competitors? And worse is if they haven't even heard of them. And that means you haven't even done a Google search of like what you're trying to solve. But the other thing is when people are like, oh, but we're just way better than them. It's like, how? What exactly is it about it that you're going to break down? What is it that they can't just pivot and just eat you alive? And we're going to have to go to a quick five questions in a second.

33:10Amardeep Parmar:Yeah. But what's been the proudest moment of your investing career so far?

33:15Akash Bajwa:That's a great question. I think the proudest moment for me probably has been seeing, this is a bit of a cop-out answer, but it's seeing the portfolio companies thrive, some of them, both from our last fund and from this current fund, raise up rounds for some companies. Hopefully that will be this year. But it's just seeing the success of the portfolio companies. It's not even when we wire the money, when we become part of the company. It's more seeing us actually enable their success. It's not down to us, obviously. It's all the founders. They deserve all the credit. But when they're able to win a big deal, like when I see investor updates and it says, oh, we landed our biggest contract yet, or we just closed this phenomenal hire, and we were able to help them close that candidate, for example.

34:03Akash Bajwa:Nothing makes me happier than that because you can see the pieces falling in place for the company's success. when a pre-sede, you know, it's just an idea. And then finally, like, they move into an office and the milestones start to add up. I think there's just something magical about seeing something go from just incorporated on Companies House to, like, I don't know, a year later, like, many people, job ads out there and, like, growing super fast, demand you can't serve. I think, yeah, that's some of the magic, I think, of being in this ecosystem.

34:32Amardeep Parmar:So this episode is going to be 280-something. Okay. And what we're saying is every two years, we can get people back on again. So 200 episodes later. Yeah. And I don't know how we're going to do now. We've got a bookcase. We're going to get like a little TV up here to like replay this moment next time you come on. In the next two years, what would you love to say you've been able to achieve between podcast episodes?

34:52Akash Bajwa:I would love to have more or less continued the mission that I've been doing for the last couple of years, which is to back great founders or partner with great founders. The founders I've already partnered with to see them continue succeeding And of course, raising capital is a part of that, but it's more so growing sustainably, but also in a way that allows them to build defensibility in the future. And that doesn't always mean that it's the top line growth that indicates that, but it's getting unique insights on the market. And so seeing the portfolio succeed there would be amazing. and then I would love for us as a firm and myself to become even more embedded in the European ecosystem in a way that people come to think of us as one of the first two or three people in London as well as other parts of Europe but for me in London especially that they want to talk to when they want to start a company and that's ambitious obviously but I really think it's meritocratic you can work towards that kind of mind share in the ecosystem if you help people and have that kind of genuine mindset of first helping people and seeing where it takes you.

36:08Akash Bajwa:But yeah, I think eventually the proof will be in the numbers because you'll be able to tell what companies you were able to meet very early and if you had the chance to invest very early. So that's the goal. And if that was pulled off even remotely in two years, I'll be very happy.

36:25Amardeep Parmar:So thanks so much for coming on. So it's the wrap-up questions now. So who are free Asians in Britain you think are doing incredible work? And do you want to shout them out?

36:33Akash Bajwa:The first would be Uday Meera, who is a VC lawyer and genuinely one of the kindest people I know. He's been such an angel to people across the ecosystem, from operators to founders to investors. And he does this all out of the goodwill of his heart, honestly. And I think people like that are multipliers in an ecosystem. If you have people like that, that's when there's goodwill being generated across the ecosystem and people help each other without expecting anything. And Uday really exemplifies that. The second is Reese, who is one of the founding GPs at Concept Ventures, who I really respect and look up to.

37:15Akash Bajwa:And it's just been so heartwarming to see the journey that Concept's been on in just five years to become such an established household name in pre-seed in the UK and soon Europe. And the successes they've already had, sticking to what they know really well. And I think they deserve all the credit they're getting. And then last, Kanishka Narayan, who's I think now the Minister for AI and Online Safety. But specifically in that first part of his remit, I think has been doing a great job. And I think he's been a breath of fresh air when it comes to politicians who are trying to imbue positive energy into the ecosystem when everyone is quite cynical.

37:55Akash Bajwa:And you don't have to tell a Brit to be cynical. By disposition, people are generally cynical anyway. But he's been doing a really good job at reminding us of everything that's good about being in London, why people shouldn't leave, everything that the government's doing to make it a more attractive place for the future leading AI companies of the world. And I think that work deserves more recognition.

38:20Amardeep Parmar:On that last point, it's like, so I'm born and raised in London, right? So I'm like Londoner through and through. And some of the LinkedIn, some of the discourse about how London's going to crap or stuff, it's like, have you been to the rest of the world? And I find it quite frustrating because it's so negative. But it's like, London isn't perfect. But then nowhere is. And if you look at the rest of the big hubs, they've all got different problems and things going on. And I think sometimes the challenge is that people can't see through the negativity. And actually, there's so many incredible people doing incredible things here.

38:51Akash Bajwa:Yes.

38:52Amardeep Parmar:But if you're just constantly being put down and you're seeing that on LinkedIn, like, oh, you have to move to Sanfran. And especially when people say it now, it's like, Sanfran has always been ahead. But like, I don't know why all of a sudden it's like you have to move away and all this stuff. And it's just one of the things that strikes me quite a lot about how there's so much of this tool at the same time as there's people who are saying it still being here and still building great companies.

39:15Akash Bajwa:Yeah, I agree with that. And I think it's important people like yourself and myself that we then give the other side. I think the people who do well on social media are the ones who are angry and upset and complaining. And obviously, a lot of these complaints are very legitimate. But as you said, every place has trade-offs. And on balance, do you want to be somebody who's trying to fix things or just diagnose problems? I think we should try to fix things or at least take more of a glass half full view. I at least believe that's the only mindset that allows things to improve. Otherwise, we would all be a bit despondent and just accept things for what they are.

39:55Akash Bajwa:And I actually, I'm very proud of, what I'm most proud of and always probably will be, hopefully, is that London is the most diversity in the world. It's welcomed me and all these immigrants I know with open arms and it allows people from any background to come and work hard and make really wonderful lives for themselves here. And that's something to be proud of. And very few other cities, I think only New York can give you that kind of mobility. And there are issues, but we can address them.

40:27Amardeep Parmar:I assume that as a core entrepreneurial mindset, right, is that complaining about problems is easy. Anybody can complain about problems. The bit that's supposed to make us different is that we try and find solutions. We try and do something about it. And that's what they look at when people are complaining online. is like, but what are you doing? Yes. Are you actually doing anything about it? Yes. And if you call yourself an entrepreneur, you should be doing something about it. You can't just be complaining. Yeah. And the reality is that we can all, and I think sometimes people, they put themselves down in terms of what they're able to do in terms of who they're able to reach.

40:59Amardeep Parmar:And we can, especially if you've got a company at series A, series B, you can reach people.

41:04Akash Bajwa:Yeah.

41:05Amardeep Parmar:Like you have the ability to get in touch with people. You can make these changes. You can get into those rooms.

41:09Akash Bajwa:Yeah.

41:10Amardeep Parmar:Go and do it. Yeah. And if you can go and do it, then we all work and see if we can make things better, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. I'm about to say, we might get into a rant here. So let's go into the next question.

41:23Akash Bajwa:If people want to find out more about you and what you're up to, where do they go to? I am on LinkedIn and Twitter. I have a sub stack as well. And yeah, any of those channels, please reach out. Also my email. It's myfirstnameakash at earlybird.com.

41:38Amardeep Parmar:And do you know where other people could help you who are listening?

41:40Akash Bajwa:Honestly, it would be just similar to how I like to help people. If there's anyone out there who is just considering becoming an entrepreneur or even joining a company, but just generally wants to take the plunge into the zero-to-one world of building the early days of a company, I would love to talk to you and help you. And thanks so much for coming on. Any final words? Only final words. Please continue what you're doing. I think it's so important for the diaspora to continue being proud of all the work that we're all doing, supporting each other and just making this become like a bedrock for each other's support systems.

42:20Akash Bajwa:And yeah, I'm excited to see where this goes this year and coming years.