First Principles

Q: What are the specific ways in which we have helped founders and investee startups?

Nitin will ask you the toughest questions when you are pitching, and be your biggest supporter as an investor. He signifies brutal honesty over hypocritical politeness - which you need the most at an early stage of your startup.

He believed in us when no else did, and we found a great partner in him who makes us smarter with his insights and supports us to dream bigger. Nitin is one of the rare VCs able to bridge the gap between deep tech areas like blockchain and traditional venture capital, with his global network and years of US and India VC experience, at NEA and Lightbox.

With First Principles, Nitin has also built an amazing team around him, which has great empathy for all the founders they work with, and a deep understanding of various sectors they invest in. They have also done a lot on the community, education and policy fronts to build the emerging blockchain ecosystem in India.

If you think you are dreaming too big, have a vision for the future that you are building towards but most investors shrug you off, you need to start thinking from and with First Principles.

Varun Deshpande (OnJuno)

Nitin Sharma believed in us when we had NO SIGNALS, and no commitments from any known names. Very few - literally a handful of such investors with such conviction exist.

Abhishek Kejriwal (Kutumb, backed by Tiger, DST, Sequoia)

Nitin is a very hands-on investor (in the right sense) and someone with the experience of seeing dozens of startup journeys (from seed to growth stage). He is also able to strike the right balance between understanding the ground realities in Indian agri, and a Silicon Valley product growth mindset.

An early stage founder's key questions revolve around the right strategy to reach the next stage by maximising the output from the resources at hand. Nitin has always posed the right questions which have enabled me to take a step back and declutter my mind, away from the grind of daily operations. He has pushed us hard to define why Gramophone can win vs. any other agri inputs player, and where our technology and operational moats will come from.

These kinds of insights keep a founder away from the mistakes around wrong hiring, not setting the right culture or cash discipline. Not many early stage startup founders understand this.

Nitin is also deeply connected in the investor community and helped us build the right strategy for raising our Series A. He has been far more involved than any typical angel investor, and working with him has always been a pleasure.

Tauseef Khan (Gramophone)

Few investors as capable and forward looking as Nitin Sharma. Thanks for your support!

Arjun Bansal (XOKind)

Because Nitin comes from years of rich experience in the startup and venture world, I have found his suggestions to be bang on target. Nitin understood our vision and invested very quickly, and understands the ground realities of the "Bharat" (vernacular) customers we are serving.

We take advice from Nitin on a range of matters, from user positioning and new use cases for the Niki app, to financial metrics or fund raising, and he is always ready to help. I would say Nitin has helped us get to "venture readiness".

The team at First Principles doesn't just offer high level guidance. They work with founders at the ground level, often with hours and hours of effort, and do not shy away from getting into the details. This is extremely coveted if you don't have an army of VCs by your side.

Sachin Jaiswal (Niki)

As an investor and advisor to us at Fynd, Nitin believed in our potential very early on, and especially during the tougher phases. He has been a great sounding board in helping us think through the way we build and position the company.

Nitin comes from a global VC background of investing across multiple stages in multiple countries. Yet, one thing that stands out is his focus on understanding and evaluating business from fundamentals.

His understanding of both consumer and enterprise businesses, along with his hands-on approach around brand building, has been very helpful to us.

Harsh Shah (Fynd, acq by Reliance Jio)

Working with Nitin and Cathy has been a phenomenal experience. They were quick to understand the power of the unique full-stack model we are building across insurance and primary healthcare. Every conversation with them - including sharp, constructive feedback - has been a very positive experience.

Nitin has been a firm believer and a most vocal evangelist for us, and as founders, this has given us a lot of confidence. He has great connections and immense respect in the VC ecosystem, with every introduction from him getting us warm responses. Nitin is very generous with his time despite all he has on his plate, and we have never heard a "no" whenever we need his help.

Nitin's ability to crystalize and articulate complex thoughts in a crisp manner is unmatched. At the same time, given his hands-on experience helping build companies at Lightbox, all inputs come with a solid understanding of operational implications.

Over dozens of hours spent with him, this has really helped us articulate our positioning not only to potential investors but also internally as we refine our subscription model.

Suraj Baliga (Clinikk Healthcare)

Members of the First Principles team are passionate about blockchain, and have been tremendously helpful in supporting our growth. Through them, we have connected with potential clients, HR thought leaders and key partners like TransUnion. Nitin also helped us close new investors in India and the Middle East, and amplified our PR efforts.

We have benefitted from several strategy discussions, going into topics like how SpringWorks can evolve its place in the ecosystem and deeper dives on new product launches like our Whatsapp based verification product.

It has not been an easy time for public blockchain startups in India due to regulatory uncertainty, so we have appreciated having a sounding board to guide us across both the blockchain-crypto and the conventional HR parts of our business.

Kartik Mandaville (SpringWorks)

I think it’s important for investors to be more like friends during the early days, and Nitin has been more than that. I can take both the good and the bad to him.

The First Principles team members are all personally passionate not only about our coffee, but also about our grand vision and brand experience. Nitin was fast to make his investment decision, and what struck me from the get go was his ability to ask pertinent and deep questions around the industry, business model and growth strategy of the company.

Given his experience helping multiple consumer brand ventures at Lightbox, I have enjoyed spending more time with him around crafting the narrative of the company (which is critical in the early days) as well as thinking through questions around culture and non-linear growth.

Sushant Goel (Third Wave Coffee)

The team at First Principles brings an institutional mind at the angel stage. They make themselves available to founders in any and every way they can - from details like improving the copy text for user communication to customer acquisition, and they are especially good at getting the CEO ready for the next fundraise.

From the earliest days of Mudrex and through tough phases, Nitin, Sumukh and the team have believed in us and improved our thought process. This helped us succeed in many ways, from improving our product, getting into Y Combinator, and attracting additional capital. They have a strong network globally both with Silicon Valley VCs and new blockchain funds. Through the Incrypt community efforts, they have also put in a lot of time over the last couple of years helping many other blockchain startups in India.

Rohit Goyal (Mudrex)

As an advisor, Nitin has been a part of The Better India's journey for over 4 years now, during which he has helped us evolve from a media startup to one of India's most unique platform and brand businesses today. He has always invested a lot of effort in pushing our thinking towards what and how big TBI can become in terms of our impact and scale.

His ability to grasp the core of any business is really valuable to an entrepreneur, by giving the much needed direction and focus. On numerous occasions, he has helped us think through the business models across content, commerce and tech products, and made us more focused on data and analytics.

What helped us, even more, is his unique skill to be able to articulate operational and brand-building challenges really well, not only helping us quickly identify our gaps, but also being hands-on in helping address them with intros to partners or talent.

Nitin is super networked in India and abroad, and having him be a part of your business helps open doors which otherwise would take a lot more time. He has also helped us bring one of India's biggest names as an individual investor.

Dhimant Parekh (TheBetterIndia)

Nitin helped us put together one of the largest pre-seed fundraises on AngelList India. He went well beyond the call of duty to help us close the round effectively with his syndicate, and connections to new investors, and has been a founder-friendly partner and advisor to us as we ready for launch.

Anurakt Jain (KlubWorks)

Nitin is helpful at all stages of the startup journey, and his involvement is much higher than a normal angel investor. He has helped us see the bigger vision beyond the initial SaaS product, and regularly helped me analyse our strengths, weaknesses and key metrics. Working with Nitin has been a very encouraging and empowering journey.

Nitin is well connected in the industry and very helpful with investor connects. He was super helpful during our two rounds of funding, by doing deep dives and helping restructure our pitch for more impactful communication.

Sumit Agarwal (Vyapar)

Nitin bolsters the breadth of areas founders can take on, with his willingness to roll up the sleeve, get stuff moving and staying at it persistently. This is a unique quality borne out of his passion and willingness to help early stage founders. In particular, he has brought in a complementary perspective on strategic topics like network business vs SaaS, regularly challenging our assumptions and aligning our vision with the story that comes out in our pitch. Given his extensive VC experience including NEA in the US, we have also benefited from extensive help with fundraising conversations in Silicon Valley and India.

I have counted on him as a patient friend during hard times, and a go-to resource as we have iterated on the product and business over the years.

Sridhar Ranganathan (B2Brain)