First Principles represents a portfolio of angel investments led by Nitin Sharma, following his investing and startup journeys at NEA, EverFi, Lightbox Ventures. As a group, we have evaluated nearly 2,000 startups over the last 2 years and backed 40 of them.
Roughly half of the portfolio is focused on the digitization of various spaces and sectors in India, while the other half takes on a global deep tech lens, with a strong focus on blockchain. We also created Incrypt Blockchain to help shape India's emerging blockchain ecosystem through investments, a 400+ strong developer community, and deep policy engagement with the Indian national government.
Keeping it Simple:
Great Themes + Great Teams
Our philosophy
"First Principles" is a philosophy we aspire to live by — both in our passionate work with founders, and in our own lives. We back founders who demonstrate clarity on their first principles, and who are never hesitant to put principles first.
As investors, we practice thematic early-stage investing with a focus on identifying fundamentals, maintaining a global lens and providing highly active, hands-on support to founders.
01
Intellectual rigor and originality
We aim to ask the right questions by simplifying problem statements to key ideas.
We value thinking for ourselves, cutting through hype, and maintaining a high “signal-to-noise” ratio.
02
Thematic, big picture and global
We develop themes that we want to back, and not just react to “deal flow”.
Latitude, global networks and multicultural experiences are assets for us.
Everyday, we strive to read, think and debate more fundamentally about how the world, and especially India, is changing, and what businesses will be needed to meet those opportunities and challenges.
03
Putting the “venture” back in venture capital
We don’t mind being a bit "ahead of time”.
Nitin jumped into US edtech in 2009, India startups in 2012 and India D2C brands in 2014, and all of us delved into real-world blockchain applications - well before these themes were “hot”.
Hence, we meet founders across the spectrum from the “napkin” to the Ser A stage.
04
Over-deliver on "founder UX”
We want to be the humblest and hardest working early investors for “principles first” founders.
We want to especially be there during the toughest challenges and the worst lows.
Walking the talk, speed and transparency, integrity and professionalism, providing the highest quality feedback, and the best connections from global networks - these are things we deeply care about.