Every week we share our good reads with the Malpani Ventures ecosystem comprising of Founders and Partners. We thought why not share it with everyone? If you would like to join the mailing list, please drop me a Hi!

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Casper: An Autopsy

https://kjlabuz.substack.com/p/autopsy

Despite Casper having higher gross margins than its peer, a wider offline presence meant its P&L bled. Do note, despite wider offline presence, there was nominal difference between the online:offline mix compared to its peer. This is a warning sign when many Indian D2C players are aggressively trying to increase their offline presence. Failure is a great teacher indeed. And it will help readers to know that Casper is being taken private at 1/4th the valuation of its last private funding round.

What is a Tech Company?

https://stratechery.com/2019/what-is-a-tech-company/

Everyone wants tech company multiples, but do they run tech companies? What is a tech company? A tech company is one that creates ecosystems, has zero marginal costs, improves over time, offers infinite leverage, and enables zero transaction costs. Does your company tick these boxes?

How much runway should you target between financing rounds?

https://medium.com/journal-of-empirical-entrepreneurship/how-much-runway-should-you-target-between-financing-rounds-478b1616cfb5

"Building a product takes time. Finding the right talent takes time. And it turns out that fundraising takes time, too. If it takes you less than 18 months to raise another round then great—keep going—but don’t reduce your probability of success by planning for less than 18–21 months of runway between your financing events."

The Web3/Crypto/Metaverse Ecosystem Guide — From the Minds of Lightspeed

https://medium.com/lightspeed-venture-partners/the-web3-crypto-metaverse-ecosystem-guide-from-the-minds-of-lightspeed-e5c35eebb27d

A great resource to round off your year with some in-depth reading.

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See you in the new year folks! 🥂