Building Your Own Multimillion Pound Venture Capital Fund At 30 w/ Sahil Chopra | Simsan Ventures

Sahil Chopra: [00:00:00] We knew that we had 150, 200k aside. Do we put that down for our mortgage or do we start a VC fund? And I remember looking at my dad and my dad was like, why are you doing this in your life? I was like, no, I'm going to do this now so I can buy multiple properties in the future. We spent a hundred K doing five angel investments.

One of them is doing really well. It does take its toll on you. But at the same time, it's been fun

Amardeep Parmar:. Is there any point where you think maybe I should have bought  that house? 

Sahil Chopra: No, not once. Wow. What a story that is.

Amardeep Parmar: Welcome to the BAE HQ podcast. Where we aim to inspire, connect, and guide the next generation of British Asians. Today we have with us Sahil Chopra, who's the founder and GP of Simpson Ventures. How are you doing today?

Sahil Chopra: Very well, thank you Amir. Thank you for having me.

Amardeep Parmar: So let's get started into how you got into this world in the first place.

Sure. And if you go right back, when you were a kid, did you ever think when you were growing up you'd ever be... Dealing with the kind of money that you're dealing with now? 

Sahil Chopra: No, not at all. I mean, growing up, I grew up in Luton, I think, for the first 10 or 11 years. State school, I had a brilliant [00:01:00] childhood and then my parents moved us into private school in Northwest London, one of the well known ones in the country.

And growing up in that private school, I always thought, you know, I'll go down the traditional route of either becoming a doctor, dentist, brain surgeon, or investor and banker, etc. I ended up doing economics. But yeah, growing up, I always wanted to be a movie director. I can believe it or not, but that, that's what I'm going to invest in in the future.

I've decided. So us guys in the fund right now, there's three general partners. And we've always said the third fund that we do, we will do it individually for our own passions. So mine will be in movies. The second GP still figuring his out. And then my brother, who's the other partner, I think he wants to go into music.

So I'm bridging what I wanted to do. And I think venture capital is a one platform that can absolutely transcend you into any career path that you couldn't possibly imagine and that's already happening now, which is brilliant. 

Amardeep Parmar: So why  didn't you become a movie director? 

Sahil Chopra: I mean, growing up, um, which parents would take you seriously if you said you want to go to art school, right?

I think we had some people in our family that went to fashion school, etc. And they [00:02:00] found it so hard convincing our uncles and aunts. About, you know, I want to go down a non conventional route in something which is not that academic, right? I mean, obviously it's a brilliant career path to be in and I think fashion and movies as well as very competitive. I mean VC is as well, of course, but at least an education is still a safeguard, right?

I don't think I don't know. That's just the route that I took really.Doing the undergrad masters and my MBA, it just, time just went on. And it's not that I forgot about my dream as a kid. I just knew that there was another path to it, which I could also fall back on my education as well. 

Amardeep Parmar: And  with venture capital then, so some of the people listening right now might have heard the term, not completely sure what it is.

So I'm going to explain it in really basic terms and you can update it. But essentially what is happening is that people are giving you money to invest on their behalf. Because you've got some kind of an insight that they don't have. So they think that you can manage their money better than they can in this particular sphere.

And your sphere in particular is about looking at underrepresented founders. And what [00:03:00] made you go into that in the first place? Why did you pick that niche? 

Sahil Chopra: So, I mean, yeah, you've summarized venture capital quite well. I mean, it's physically putting capital into new ventures. That's it. And people trust you with their capital because you have access to ecosystems, which they don't, for example, you know, we're a young generation, there'll be people out there that know about crypto, for example, where the seasoned investors of this world wouldn't know, they will just give them the capital and say, invest in the businesses on our behalf.

Um, and then when it came to underrepresented founders, why we picked that, so my younger brother is only one year younger than me. So we've grown up together. He also did economics. He became an accountant just like myself. And we have the same friend circles growing up, et cetera. So working in the city, we realized that,

it's the same type of demographic that wins all the capital, and especially on the VC side as well. I've seen so many GPs who are, it just fits the same profile. So we looked at America, for example, and we saw people who were starting funds at 19, 20, 21, with no track record at all. And they [00:04:00] go on to do phenomenally well, but in the UK that doesn't happen.

Not that I'm being ageist or anything, but SagarSargo and I looked at all the GPs who were raising first time funds, forget established funds for a second, but we saw it was mainly 39, 40 plus elder Asian men as well. I can't say Asian men are well represented. They are and older white men as well. And I thought there's no under 35, under 30, under 25 GPs at all.

And no one's leading that, whatsoever. So I thought SagarSargo means you could do this. It's, and it's going to be tough because I worked at VC fund before this and I already had the exposure. And then on the startup side, I think we were, I worked for this company called Bohus and I joined them as a startup right now they're going to growth company and they're doing phenomenally well and they track all the VC deals in this country.

So when I was working there, not only did I get exposure to VC, all the funds, I was looking at all the deals and I was like, how it's just the same demographic again. Then the data came out, I think three, four years ago. And I saw that less than half a [00:05:00] percent of capital goes to black founders, less than 3 percent goes to female founders.

Immigrants basically have no chance of gaining any VC funding in this country. And then again, Sagar and I were speaking or like, but especially in British Asian families, it was all the immigrants that went on to do phenomenally well. And those days it wasn't startups. It wasn't right. Real estate, grocery shops, uh, cash and carries warehouse.

This is how our uncles, aunts, grandfathers, everybody made money. Right. So we just saw a niche, which nobody was tapping into. And then I looked at all the funds, which were. diversity funds, but everyone's got their own definition of diversity. And I think Simsan and all of us, we have our own definition as well, but we let the founder pick whether they're underrepresented or not, because I don't think you can tell a story, especially when of hardship, unless you faced it yourself.

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah. And that's one of the difficult things about the diversity aspect as well, is that I said, there's so many different ways somebody can be underrepresented and it's difficult. You can't necessarily be the [00:06:00] one who tells them, Oh, you're, you don't count or you count. 

Sahil Chopra:Exactly yeah. 

Amardeep Parmar: Because as we said before, like there's people from like white backgrounds who've come from council estates or places like that.

And like, it's hard for them to get capital too. And how did you actually go about creating a venture capital firm? Because like I'm in this space and I've like looked at it for years, but if I was going to start a VC fund today, I wouldn't know the first steps of getting in touch with people I know and trying to get them to guide me.

Sahil Chopra: We just threw ourselves into it. We knew nobody. I mean, I worked another VC fund before this, but they just specialized in psychedelic medicine. So it wasn't even technology, but the fund did really well. And my bosses and my mentors, etc. They pushed me in the right direction when I was going to events.

But I think Sagar and I just decided, okay, let's hire two associates. Let's just quickly go into the family office circuit, test a thesis to see if it's relevant, learn how to pitch to LPs. And then we'll go from there. And that's exactly what we did. So we started last July. Literally we hired two people, we're just paying them from our, our own salaries, got, um, WeWork office, then just [00:07:00] started developing pitch materials, but it was so bad at the beginning.

We have pivoted our pitches a million times because LPs will pick every single hole in your strategy as they should, because you're managing their capital. 

Amardeep Parmar: Can you explain what an LP is for people who don't know yet? 

Sahil Chopra:  A limited partner, basically. So it's actually, you know, the investor is limited because all the power is in the general partner to manage the money.

Amardeep Parmar: So you’re the General Partner? 

Sahil Chopra: So I’m the General Partner. So I don't know if you've seen the big short. Have you seen it? 

Amardeep Parmar:  Yeah. 

Sahil Chopra: So, you know, that scene where Christian Bale, all his investors are calling him saying, pull the money out. What are you doing? And he said, no, I'm not doing it because their powers were limited. So the same thing happens in venture capital as well.

So. That's what an LP is when we first started, we knew that we basically knew nothing . Limited track record as well. So Saga and I put, I know it sounds like a lot of money, but we were working for 10 years. We knew that we had 150, 200 K on a side. Do we put that down for a mortgage or do we start a VC fund?

And I remember looking at my dad and my dad was like, why are you doing this in your life? I was like, no, I'm going to do this now so I can buy [00:08:00] multiple properties in the future. It was like, okay, fine. So then. We spent a 100 K doing five angel investments. That's what we decided to do. And one of them is doing really well, by the way.

And the other four, yeah, they're just gaining their feet. It's only been two years. So we did that as well whilst we were doing that. And I think we knew that we had to bootstrap this fund. So it's been what? 13, 14 months plus the investments we spent over, yeah, six figures trying to get to where we are.

And I don't recommend that for everyone. I don't because either you have the money or you don't. And it's technically the people that start first time funds, they sometimes get picked by the LPs themselves that they know in their own network and they pay all the fees on their behalf. We did the reverse, which was, yeah, when you go in front of investors like, damn, how did you do that?

Uh, it's impressive on one side, but secondly, no, it's been,iIt's been grueling as well, especially when you've got people to pay and people are also looking at you saying, Oh, when is first close? When's the management fee coming in? So management fees pays our wages and then I can pay [00:09:00] my staff. So it does take its toll on you.

But at the same time, it's been fun. 

Amardeep Parmar: And  in this process, obviously, because you came not from that background and you're going into this first time without the backing of an LP to start off with. Did you ever doubt you made the right decision? Was there any point where you think maybe I should have bought that house?

Sahil Chopra: No, not once. I mean. There's been a couple of times when I've woken up in the morning and I'm about to go to work because me and the other two partners, we, we're not even joking. We rehearse, we rehearse our pitches every day. I do it. I know I do it as well. So there's been a couple of times when I looked and I've been like, okay.

Before we got the first commitment, by the way, yeah, so, uh, which we just have, which is a big institution as well, which is very rare for a first time fund, uh, pre launch as well. Until we got a single penny, and there were times where we were like, have we made the right decision? But we had come too far to say no.

Because we ended up going to South Korea, and then we started making connections there. People started to hear about us. Founders started to approach us. We started to become popular on LinkedIn. Sagar and I started getting a profile. Rancho, who's the third [00:10:00] GP in South Korea, he started into, because people told him no a year ago, you know, now people are starting to recognize who, what he's doing other GPs who want to become first time fund managers are approaching us.

So it just started all, you know, snowballing into this thing where us three just look to each other and be like, no, there's trillions of capital out there. We're going to raise this fund, even if it takes us another 10, 20 years, but it won't. We know we're going to close it. Uh, yeah. And I think that's where we are today.

Amardeep Parmar: Could you explain the South Korea side of that? Because obviously when you look at most funds, it might be like Europe based or Middle East based or America based. Whereas, coming from, correct me if I am wrong here, you've got Europe, India and South Korea as the main places.

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Sahil Chopra:  That's what we're doing, yeah. 

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Amardeep Parmar: And they don't have a natural link in my head.

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Sahil Chopra:Yeah,  that's, you know, yeah, that's true. But then in our fundraising process up until today, we have realized that there actually is a link, but we didn't realize that until about a month ago, which was our fifth trip. So Sagar and I are British Indians. We had a foothold in India, our family businesses, India, et cetera.

We knew other VC funds there, but the thing is, it wasn't new. So the UK has a relationship [00:11:00] with India anyway, and other people were doing it. And we would have to compete very hard to find the best founders. And then South Korea basically came in seven months into our fundraising. So my MBA, I did my MBA at Warwick Business School.

And by chance, as you can imagine, it's a community of thousands of students, undergrad, postgrad, execs, MBAs, PhD, um, by chance in my accommodation, I was put into A random flat with seven other people, then the seventh room was a South Korean guy who I spent the whole year with, uh, we went out together, became good friends, before business partners, definitely, he went back to South Korea after the NBA in 2019, and he was like, Oh, Sahil, you're in VC.

He was like, I've just started my own accelerator. I'm getting backed by this big bank out there. There's no British VC funder at all. So I was like, damn, he's like, I'm going to pay for your flights. Just get on a plane, trust me and come. So he, they sponsored the whole tickets for the whole team. So five of us went, when I landed them, what he showed us, [00:12:00] the country, music, culture, food, the people, the businesses that have been built there, the tech and the fact that there's no UK VC funder.

Um, we thought this is our opportunity and South Korea is a country where they care about relationships. So it took Tesco, for example, years to get into the country. They had to partner with Samsung to establish that before they sold their business. So we managed to do that in a year purely because of Rancho as well.

And they've welcomed us into their country. So that's how it happened. So when LPs hear our story, they're like, wow, what a story that is. And then it evolved from that. And then the India thing, you'll be surprised. Every South Korean entrepreneur is either wanting to go into India or the investors and VCs, they're investing in India.

So our traditional route was, okay, let's use our connections to invest in India. But no, now we're using our South Korean connections to get into India. So it's become Europe, South Korea, India now. Not Europe, India, South Korea. 

Amardeep Parmar: Are you seeing differences in how people go about trying to get funding? Or is it quite similar across the [00:13:00] board in terms of the strategies people are using or what they value more potentially?

Sahil Chopra: The thing about VCs is unfortunately, um, the best deals and I hate saying deals. I like saying best founders. They do come from other VCs who are either established or just started out. And that's the thing with diversity and underrepresentation. If you take a deal from them, you could inherit their bias.

But if they're a lead investor and they've already done their DD and they've already priced around, it's very easy for us to do the deal quickly. Yeah. Because for example, if you're running a fund and we've known each other for years, but I saw how I'm working with this company, XYZ is investing in the round as well.

This is a price per share. I'll just be like, okay, you've done the DD. Here's my, here's my share in it. But then I probably wouldn't look at who the company founders are. That's how it's been working till today. It is the best route to get returns for investors, which can't be changed because other VCs know the best deals and they've been in the system longer than us.

However, there are other routes as well. So there's accelerators, being proactive, everyone in the team and then inbound applications. So we put a lot of emphasis [00:14:00] on our inbound applications on Simsan as well. And people that, you know, physically come to us in events and got some sort of traction. So when you say per jurisdiction, I think in South Korea, they have demo days a lot.

That's a very good thing as well, because I think it's better to meet investors in person. Nowadays, you can't just DM someone on LinkedIn. Cold outreach doesn't work anymore, right? So we're seeing that, um, being done in South Korea a lot with the government. I want that to be like that here as well, because it's starting to pick up.

In the UK, I don't think many people do that much FaceTime. They really, really don't. I mean, but it's hard as well, because the events usually have competitions and then get in to be selected. To be in the room with investors, there's so many hurdles, which again, I want to try and eliminate through Simsan as well.

And then India, I mean, we just started looking at India right now, they've got a bit of a hybrid, but as you can imagine, um, India, there's a lot more disparity when it comes to entrepreneurship and it's much more about many more barriers that they have to face. Uh, so the best deals usually just come through the VC system anyway.

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Amardeep Parmar: And like what have you learned in the time you've [00:15:00] had so far in terms of what a lot of founders are getting wrong when they're trying to approach you? How could they improve their pitch to you? How can they improve?. The way they should like try to get funding.

Sahil Chopra: VCs in my opinion, can give advice on the fundraising process because obviously I don't discount fundraising at all is very difficult, but pitching to LPs is harder than pitching to for your startup pitching core fund is very, very difficult.

That's why we do give the best advice in how you can market your company is that is one thing VCs do add value. So what I do see wrong, I think, see, when you look at pitch decks, one person's going to say it's good. Another person's going to say it's bad. One advisor is going to say it's brilliant.

Another LP is going to say it's terrible. There's never going to be a middle ground. The only way you're going to get your business showcase is by going out there and meeting people and pitching verbally, that's it. And showing some traction. Like for us, uh, we invest in pre seed, what we're going to invest in pre seed up to series A.

Pre seed is going to be very early stage, but if someone shows me, Oh, I've won a hundred pound grant funding or a thousand pounds from [00:16:00] Innovate, no, not Innovate UK, a council grant, et cetera. And also now we've got five, 10 customers. I've got this partnership. I'll be like, okay, that's all I have to hit. I don't care what your deck looks like.

And then build a relationship from there. So yeah, the biggest advice I can give is like, look, Simsan, like if I was an entrepreneur, this is what we've done with no capital. Imagine what we can do with your capital. If you get into that position mixed with, okay, am I truly investable? Then you're going to win funding.

For example, last year we asked ourselves, we said, are we investable? I can tell you, honestly, we weren't. Now us as a VC fund. We are because we've done this with no capital. And now we go to LPs and be like, imagine what we can do with financial backing. So I think entrepreneurs need to find that sweet spot and you can't do overnight.You really can't. 

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Amardeep Parmar: I think well, other rewards and things to note for as well, if you see is that the companies you're looking to invest in are the ones that are going to massively increase in size, right? 

Sahil Chopra:  True.

Amardeep Parmar: Whereas it's different to say people invest in smaller companies or small businesses where you're maybe not looking for as crazy a return.

Amardeep Parmar: So sometimes I think people also get it wrong where they're [00:17:00] trying to pitch VCs when it's not really a scalable business, where like for your LPs to get the value out of giving the money to you, you need to have to say like, Oh, one of these companies might get a hundred times, for example. 

Sahil Chopra: Yes. 

Amardeep Parmar: And for like the average company or the people listening right now.

How do they know whether they should be trying to get funding through VCs or what method they should use? 

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Sahil Chopra: I think a lot of pride comes in it when you say, okay, I don't want to give away equity. But what entrepreneurs don't realize is that by the time we exit investment, VCs will be lucky to have 5 percent of the company.

So I think entrepreneurs need to realize, okay, it's okay to give away 20, 30 percent of your company initially just to get off the ground. Because if you end up having 10, 11, 12 percent of a billion, 2 billion, 10 billion company, zthat's still brilliant. You have to take that risk. If you're sitting there arguing with equity, I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that.

I would even give away, I've seen people give away 50 percent of the company, but then they go end up doing phenomenally well because it turns out to be a joint venture and then reality is money makes money. So it's, it's kind of, it's a middle ground because I can't really give that advice [00:18:00] is either you want to give away shares or you don't.So yeah, that, that's a really tough one. 

Amardeep Parmar: And even though it's actually, as you mentioned earlier, it would say with them. VCs backing what other VCs are investing in. So you've got Elon Musk example right, recently, where he said he's gonna buy Twitter, and then people just giving them their money, because they all didn't know who he was.

And rather than, like, needing to do any due diligence, and you can see that, they didn't do any, it was like text messages, and like, oh yeah, we'll give you a billion dollars, just because of his name. Have you found like as you get further on now, do you think it's going to get easier and easier for you to raise more funding?

Or what kind of hurdles do you see like for the venture fund as you go forwards? 

Sahil Chopra: Yeah, well, we can't compare ourselves to Elon Musk. That is physically track record. And you know, he's made a name for himself and then you'd be stupid not to give him your money, right? And anything that he does, but challenges for us was always going to be the first tranche of capital.

So we call it a first close of the first fund. Once you reach that, then the rest of the fundraising process becomes. A little bit easier than fund two, fund three, you should raise very quickly. So I've seen people raise two, 300 million [00:19:00] funds, uh, fund two, fund three, and like three, four months. First time fund is going to take you 18 months minimum.

I'll be shocked if people do it before then in this country, especially, but obviously I'd like to see that, you know, but challenges for us. I think initially we thought that we didn't, we wouldn't get any institutional capital, but our biggest investor now is institutional and he's going to add value to our portfolio company.

So another thing that we have to do is explain to entrepreneurs why they should let us on their cap table. So we say, look, our investors are institutional. If we can't help you, they can. And we've gone cross border as well. So we're experts in doing that. So the entrepreneur's like, yeah, that's very true.

Great. Let's work together. And then obviously we try to promote ourselves as younger VCs as well, which I mean, I'm 32, I'm considered a young GP. We started this when we were 30, 31. Fine. I wanna see people do in their twenties also, but the next wave of tech and the next wave of entrepreneurs are gonna want to work with people like us.I honestly believe that. 

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Amardeep Parmar: So you mentioned before  about, this was a while ago now, but the um, the third fund is gonna be all [00:20:00] your interests. What's the second fund gonna be? 'Cause we missed out that one.

Sahil Chopra: Yeah, so we're already talking to the South Korean government to do a hundred million pound fund in South Korea, which will focus on the Asean region.

That's what we're talking about. Um, but that's obviously two, three years down the line. We have to deploy a lot of the capital and get one more track record to do that. But we've already planned that one already because we knew that even though Simsan is a UK brand, Sagar  and I fell in love with Asia straight away.

I do think UK, there's a lot of opportunity here, but I don't know. I've also studied in Singapore. Uh, we've got, um, presence in India and now being in South Korea, I think our life just took us somewhere else and now everybody that wants to join Simsan, it's like, yeah, we want to work in South Korea and then we're tapping into a different ecosystem into a country, which is becoming so popular now.

And yeah, I want to go live there as well, hopefully next year for a couple of months out the year. So, yeah, we're already talking about the second fund. I think after that, then. Yeah, the third fund, we're all going to do separately. Well, we haven't decided that for sure, but even I tell my whole team who are either interns, associates, and then [00:21:00] future principals, whatever, I want everyone to start their own funds.

So when you start becoming VCs, you should find something which you're passionate about and then target that for a fund. In fact, five, four or five years time, and then build your track record, build your network to do that. So for example, Brianna Vishali, they love, uh, empowering female entrepreneurs. So they will be building their femtech network.

They're bringing deals into the, um, to the SimSun system and making partnerships with other people who are also doing amazing things for female entrepreneurs and, uh, um, investors. Me myself, I'm passionate about empowering emerging VCs, younger GPs. That's what I want to do. So that's another aim for Simsan.

Saga is still figuring his out. So I think, yeah, he, I, well, I'm not sure. Actually, I've never asked him, but I think he is. And Rancho in South Korea, um, he's more, he likes building relationships with people. So he likes to see businesses, which add value to society. Then we've just got another two more interns right now, and they're figuring out their path as well.

But they, VC is a lifestyle, but the second stage is like you get to see the next [00:22:00] wave of tech and who's working on what and who's exciting. And it's, yeah, it's a brilliant industry. 

Amardeep Parmar: And looking at your team there. ‘Cause obviously if you want to empower the next generation of GPs and young GPs, how are you selecting those people to come on board and learn from the experience of working at Simsan?

Sahil Chopra: Yeah, that's a tough one, man. I think everyone that we've hired has proactively come to me. Uh, or Sarga or Rancho, um, because traditionally VC locks out a lot of people because you have to be, uh, investment banker for 10 years. You know, that is all my investment banker for investment bank is very tough by the way.

It's a grueling job and kudos to people that do that. I'm not saying that, but most of my investment bank has friends. They don't know anything about early stage VC. So I don't, and you don't need to know that much about early stage investing. You really, really don't. And I think I've proven that with my team already.

So, yeah, I mean, I'm looking at my team right now. One of them used to be a maths teacher. She applied on LinkedIn. We interviewed her. We're like straight. She was with us from day one. So, and she's still here today and wants to do her own ed tech fund. So we already see that. We've given someone else a chance who knew a lot about VC and already worked out her future [00:23:00] trajectory and has proved it.

And then we have Vishali as well. Um, she, okay, she was a banker, but she, when we met her, we were just like, no, this is one of the best investor relations people we've ever seen. Like she'll just go to events, make relationships. Bring people into the organization. I was more sold on her than her CV. So I didn't even look at her CV and we didn't even know that she worked at Goldman.

So, but she was proactive in working for us. And then interns have approached us. And I think at a young age, it's hard to give everyone a chance. For example, I advertised for LinkedIn just to see a VC internship, um, unpaid on the first day I got 890 applications. And I didn't know how to go through it.

And it was, I gave four interviews to people that DM to me at the same time and said, Oh, we really like what you're doing in South Korea. We read this press release. Uh, we would work for, you know, we really just want to meet you regardless of the job. So that's how they got the job with us.. It's that kind of proactive proactivity that you need. And I think entrepreneurs should use that as well. 

Amardeep Parmar: Yeah, because that's insane, right? Because a lot of people who maybe listen to this [00:24:00] now, they're trying to get into VC, they're not sure how to do it. So is your main advice is being proactive and just going to events and trying to connect with people.

What advice would you give somebody who's maybe a few years away from actually starting their own fund, but trying to build up that. Trajectory. 

Sahil Chopra: Yeah, I, I mean even I have to be honest, if I'm gonna hire someone who's a principal, which, so that's one lower to a partner I do need, you do need an experienced person for that.

But for entry-level VC routes, I would say take uh, the internship and get in and then also go to the events and then make the relationships with the gps. And when the time come, keep the relationship up. Or you'll see on LinkedIn whenever they're hiring, then you dm that person, WhatsApp, that person say, oh, can I be put forward?

I've seen it work a million times. GP's attitudes are changing, especially in the emerging funds. Established funds are still taking bankers and the traditional route, which is, you know, a bit outdated, but every emerging GP I'm working with, they have hired through referrals or people that have been on the GP's case.

No, I have to work for you. I have to work for you. Taking an unpaid route in [00:25:00] some ways and then eventually done it. That's the best way, in my opinion, because it's a relationship game at the end of the day. 

Amardeep Parmar: And you  mentioned how in America, people are going into VC younger and people start their own funds.

Why do you think that isn't the case here? 

Sahil Chopra: Well, there's two things about America. America actually is a land of opportunity. There's so much capital out there, but the flip, the bad side about it is there's a VC on every corner. So tomorrow, if I started a VC fund in America, I wouldn't do it because it'd be too hard to compete.

There's too many. But in America, I think they're just taught to be entrepreneurs at a young age. And so many prestige universities, I mean, it's not like we don't have them as well, but you know, like Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, they seem to, if you go there, you seem to be raised capital anywhere. So people are doing that for funds as well, even for internationally.

And I think there's just more trust as well. And Americans may be a bit more risk averse. I don't know. In the UK, everyone's got a bit more conservative culture. 

Amardeep Parmar: So  how do we change that culture to get more young GPs here? 

Sahil Chopra: Yeah. People like us. That's exactly why we're building Simsan Academy supplementary to the fund as well, where we're just going to create a hub for aspiring VCs, emerging fund [00:26:00] managers, first time fund managers, and then teach socially disadvantaged people at a young age to become investors.

That's what we're going to do. So we're also talking about that with South Korea and now we're trying to implement that in the UK, but the thing is about South Korea is you can get a meeting with an institution just like that. In this country, that doesn't happen. Sometimes stakeholders don't even respond to you.

In South Korea, everyone does. Like we, I've landed in South Korea before and I have a meeting with the CIO of Samsung the next day. It's just really, really simple to have the culture there. Of course, it's not practical every single time, but I want to see that happen in the UK because institutions are the way.

To change investing. And then if you want to make change, it has to change on the LP level, then the GP level, then everything's going to change in terms of entrepreneurship. So, yeah, I think there needs to be other funds, which actually just push younger emerging VCs. And make investors out of other people that actually want to, you know, make a difference.

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Amardeep Parmar: And if you  go down to that, like, bottom level there, so after the institutions, LPs, GPs, you've got the founders there, right? And they've got to try and like get the attention of everybody above them. What are some of the [00:27:00] founders you've worked with who maybe you can showcase about their stories and like why you invested in them?

Sahil Chopra: Yeah. So we invested in five companies. Um, so far, one of them was actually a subsidiary of our, one of our investors and partners in South Korea. So he was from India and now he wants to build a crowdfunding platform in India and, uh, give access to deal flow to investors worldwide. And now in South Korea, that's what he's doing with us.

So he did that from nothing as well. And then he got that investor involved. So obviously we were aligned. It was a no brainer. So I was like, Hey, we're going to invest in you. And also you give us some founders and you can also help the GPS manage the relationships in India. So that was one reason.

Another one that we invested in was beyond bamboo and it was run by a team of three fantastic ladies, um, and they were building. And Amazon, but for sustainability products. So like, um, you know, renewable clothing, eco friendly dishwashers, et cetera. And they started getting contracts for hotels. And I was like, wow, how are you doing this?

And they again showed, look what we have [00:28:00] done with no money. Imagine what we can do with yours. So I was like, okay, fine. And now we built a relationship with them where they're also going to do our CSR. So every investment that we do, we try to look out all around the picture for the future going forward and what other projects we can do.

So for CrowdInvest, which is run by Nakul, we knew that he was going to work on the India piece. Beyond Bamboo, we knew that they were going to help us with the socially disadvantaged people, our CSR, and help younger people get into VC. So it's that value add that you can add to us as well for a lifelong journey.

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Amardeep Parmar: It's something you've mentioned a few times. It's quite validating for what we're trying to do here about that. This is what we can do without anybody investing in us. Yes. And now when we go to investors and we've got more people to back us and people to either sponsor us or give like patronage, we can say like, look, we've done all of this with our own money.

We've got people like you on board to come and be interviewed. And that's the strategy we're going for. I was like, let's do amazing stuff. And then we can get to people and say, look, this is what we've got. Do you want to support us? If you don't want to support us, like we can work in other ways is that's the strategy we're going for as well.

And I [00:29:00] think sometimes people think. You need to have the money on day one. And there are some companies where that's the case. If it's like heavy infrastructure, you need to get off on to get yourself going. But for many people, they can start by themselves. First, try to get a bit traction, like you said, and then get investors on board.

And when you say, when, when you started with this, this fund and you got that initial range of investments yourself and it's put a lot of money into itself. What about people who maybe don't have that money? What could they do? 

Sahil Chopra: Well, I've come from a privileged background. That's very tough. I can't imagine how difficult that is, but I have heard people tell their stories.

Of course, there's so many entrepreneurs that have had it unfair from the beginning and trying to build a business, of course, because you do need money to you know, by technology, by software gets customer acquisition. Of course you do, but those people again have found ways to make it happen because at the end of the day, if you want to build a business, you're going to find a way to do it.

And there are applications and help out there where you can get non VC funding, a couple of thousand pounds. And if you really do use that money wisely, [00:30:00] then you can do it. And then bootstrapping as well. People do that a lot. People do work two jobs, three jobs, and then start their startup like that. It's really tough for me to say, because that comes down to individual situation, because you have to build some sort of track record.

I hate the word track record, but it's so applicable to everything, right? So getting some customers, you've shown track record, right? You're going to get some followers and you're going to get more guests who can obviously reach out to the community and build an ecosystem. That's still track record, not track records, just not financially at all.

It's about everything that you do. So that's why it's really hard at the early stage. It's very, very difficult, especially when you've got a good value proposition. But again, there are also competitions that you can apply for. And if you pitch it right, because I'm being completely honest, there's people raising millions, hundreds of thousand pounds, absolutely.

Crap companies, you know, and it's not their fault because they believe in their vision, whatever, but they go on to do phenomenally well. It's not for me to say that it's bad, but it's because they're selling themselves better than their company, right? That's what it's about and that and there's so many VC funds.

There's so many routes to funding in this country. Yes, there is [00:31:00] bias. There is inequality fine, but that you can at least find one backer I really do think so But that's still hard for me to say because I haven't gone through that myself because I know it's a tough journey.

Amardeep Parmar: And you mentioned there are a few things about, so you said you had a privileged background and mentioned about the bias in this country.

How do you try to combat your own bias? How do you work on that and make sure that you're, you're trying to invest in underrepresented founders, but trying to do it without say people from like a privileged background too, they're underrepresented. How do you try to work through that? 

Sahil Chopra: So another thing as well, I think when we think of underrepresentation, we always think of underprivileged people.

It's not necessarily that as well. The underrepresented of this country also the youth as well. So we're taught work for 10 years for a brand, then maybe start your business. So that's what I focus on personally. We have 17 members. We have four venture partners. We have four advisors. Now our team is growing. Each, every person in part of the Simpson is an investor on some level.

So they're representing the underrepresented, if that makes sense of what they've experienced. So for me, yeah, I can't say how [00:32:00] hard it is for underprivileged people to back them, et cetera. Because I grew up with having everything. I can't say that. But I was underrepresented in the fact of being a young GP.

So it's everyone's individual representation of that underrepresented factions, which exists right now. 

Amardeep Parmar: And it's interesting as well, because like you said, there's so many different ways to look at that. And is there any areas in the future where you, so you said you're in fund to do movie directing, but any other areas where you're looking to grow or to maybe even with other GPs you want to bring on board in the future of specific niches. Have you got any ideas around that? 

Sahil Chopra: I mean, every VC talks about trends, etc. But the thing is, it never works out the way you thought it would until you start investing. So for example, I'm investing in deep tech and the investment period starts next year.

What I'm going to know, four years is the typical investment period after we deployed all the capital. What I'm going to know, actually physically investing in these companies is going to be completely different to what I thought it would be. It always happens. It's always the case. But if you say, would there be another something which will come out, which needs to be invested in, I'm not sure [00:33:00] yet, but I do know for now is scientific technology coming out of universities and founders who are building companies, which are tailoring solutions to underrepresented communities.

For example, the other day I was speaking to a neo bank that was targeting the LGBTQ community. Yeah. So that fits out thesis and plus is FinTech. Another thing for us, plus we love the founders. So it wasn't necessarily the founders is also the companies who are figuring out solutions, even ESG products, for example.

So this is what's coming now. I don't know what's going to come ahead of that, uh, because the investment period hasn't started yet, but for me right now, all I'm seeing is Taylor's solutions, which are going to fix something in society. That's the biggest thing right now that needs to be done. 

Amardeep Parmar: And like, obviously VC is a very intense world, right?

And it's very hard to like raise the money for your fund. And it's not going to get easier once you're starting to invest in other people and you're going to be having founders you need to support. That's going to grow and grow. How are you going to manage that? How are you going to keep yourself sane as you go through this

very intense cycle? And there's so much money at play in this [00:34:00] people's lives, like with the, how much the founders care about their companies. 

Sahil Chopra: I mean, nowadays for us, I mean, we're doing a first time fund. I mean, I don't hide away from it when I was pitching towards LPs and even the other guys and girls as well.

But nowadays, fortunately we live in a world where everything can be managed by a third party technologically as well. So for example, our DD is outsourced, right? So that saves us a lot more time. The FCA guys who. We have to piggyback off the regulation license. They sit on the investment committee, again, de risk.

So they take a lot of the compliance work off. Then thirdly, we have fund admins who watch all the pennies coming in and out of the fund. So realistically, all we're doing is the relationship and being the face of the business that frees up more time. But in the past, yeah, there would have been no time to do that.

And then the investment period is four years. And then the six years after that. Uh, which is the harvest period. So that's when you actually begin to scale the companies with the founders who are doing well. So a 10 year VC fund is the norm. Four year investment period, six year harvest. So the timing's already been split already.

[00:35:00] Uh, but we know even as GPs, like I'm about to launch, I'm super busy now. So is Rancho, so is Sagar. Um, after launch, that's when the real job starts. I know physically we'll be too busy. We will. And to give founders the time it has to be with our junior team. And then obviously they recommend them to us, but I've always told my junior team from the beginning.

If you find people that super passionate customer obsessed have realized that they, you know, they want to build something that's a brand, not just exit. That's what I get turned off when people say, Oh yeah, we're going to IPO in two years. You can't say that, man, you can't say you're going to be the next biggest thing that everyone's going to hear about you.

The money's going to come after. So that's another thing which people should say to, uh, investors. And I guarantee you, that's how your race. So, I mean, yeah, the challenges are there, but I know they are, but uh, maybe this time next year, we can talk about exactly what we faced. Right. When it becomes a reality.

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Amardeep Parmar: And what  excites you the most about what you're going to face?

Sahil Chopra: We are at this pivotal period now, but we're about to close more investors. I mean, it's taken his time, but I think the biggest high for us is when we get the, yes, that's for sure. I mean, I can't wait to [00:36:00] give my personal GP check to the first entrepreneur from the Simsan fund that will also make me so happy as well as looking at our portfolio and be like, damn, we gave so many people a chance and now they're doing well, look what they have done.

And they remember us. And then also they're part of our fund two fund three. That's for me as the GP. There's three of us. I think Rancho and Sagar are figuring out their own thing, but us combined. Yeah. When we got the first, yes, that was, that was incredible. So that's what's driving us again. We want to keep, um, closing institutions because that's the hardest investor to close.

And yeah, we're looking forward to doing that. 

Amardeep Parmar: So I'm going to move on to the quick fire questions now for the ending. 

Sahil Chopra: Yeah, sure.

Amardeep Parmar: So the first one is,who are three British Asians that you'd like to shout out and give them the platform that we have here. 

Sahil Chopra: Yes. So Nakul Garg, as I mentioned from CrowdInvest, um, he came over here from India, built this crowdfunding platform is about to launch in India.

I would suggest following CrowdInvest on LinkedIn and Instagram. So there's another one as well. It's women are wearables network. Yeah. The founder is not British Asian, but it's a membership of 20, 000 members. And there's a lot [00:37:00] of British Asian entrepreneurs and investors in that community. So I would recommend any female entrepreneur or aspiring VC to join that network.

So that's again, women are wearables and it's led by Maria, but there is access a lot to British Asian, any stakeholders that you want to find there. So, yeah, but it is run by Maria. And she's a lovely lady and she's our venture partner now as well. So she's doing a lot of interesting work with us in India and South Korea.

Then thirdly, I would, I mean, I hope he will be a guest on your podcast. Um, is the CEO of red ribbon. So that's Suchit, um, he's running a real estate, British Indian real estate asset management fund, and he's doing a lot of impact and ESG work right now. Um, and he's doing phenomenally well, one of our partners as well.

So I hope that people can follow him on LinkedIn. I don't think he's on Instagram, et cetera, but they should follow Red Ribbon to see what they're doing. 

Amardeep Parmar: And the  BAE HQ is all about community. Sure. So first of all, what can people reach out to you about where you can help  them? 

Sahil Chopra: Yeah, sure. So in the last [00:38:00] six months, et cetera, I have met every single person who has reached out to me on LinkedIn and said, Oh, um, we're going to be in Baker Street, for example, that's where our office is on Thursday, Friday, next week.

Do you mind, um, if we meet and they can give some advice on how to break into VC? I have said yes to every single person, every single one, but yeah, come over for coffee, come swing by the office. And I've always given 15, 20 minutes to that person. So I think that's been about 20, I think 25, 26 people. And of which I'm glad I did that as well, because they ended up helping us as well.

Um, so one of them made an introduction to another fund of funds investor. I didn’t seek to do that at all. I mean, obviously I would want it to help them, but you know, once you help somebody else, then the universe naturally just bring something back to you. And it could just be an introduction. It's not necessarily about getting money or whatever, but you've built another connection through someone that you've helped.

Amardeep Parmar: And then on the flip side. What's something that you're looking for help with right now? What's something Simsan is looking for?

 Sahil Chopra: I guess we're also looking for more scouts. So we're also, that's another way that people can break into VC. So if somebody [00:39:00] approached us and be like, obviously it's not a full time job, but they're part of a university network or they're seeing some sort of ecosystem with entrepreneurs and they want to pass on

deals. And if we end up investing in those deals, that becomes their track record. So if there are VC scouts out there, they want to break into VC and want to start by doing that because they've got access to a unique ecosystem where founders are not being represented enough, by all means, that's something that we would always seek help for.

Then secondly, we're also looking for help for our content creation and our online presence. So all our attraction online has been completely by, what's the word? I wouldn't say organic. I would say possibly just by mistake or just, it just happened. Right. Um, I think if we actively did it just to, uh, reach out and say, you know, we're trying to build something more than a fund by all means.

Um, if anyone can help us with that, that'd be great. 

Amardeep Parmar: And perfect. So really enjoyed today. 

Sahil Chopra: Great. 

Amardeep Parmar: Have you got any final words for the audience? 

Sahil Chopra: Yeah. I mean, never make assumptions. So when we first started Simsan, I made the biggest assumption that. We will never get institutional capital. That's all we're getting interest [00:40:00] from right now, purely because we won one institution, just throw yourself into it because you can't build something overnight.

You really can't go through the hardship and it makes you better as well. Because then as you're going, you're pivoting, you're building your strategy and your message becomes clearer. You grow your team. You realize the faults in your product or your company. This can only happen once you learn it yourself.

Amardeep Parmar: Thank you for listening to the BAE HQ podcast today. In our mission to inspire, connect, and guide the next generation of British Asian entrepreneurs, it would mean so much to us if you could subscribe to our channel, leave a review, and share this with your friends.

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