At Malpani Ventures, our investment philosophy is simple - invest in something you really believe in, and do not be afraid to let go of certain opportunities.

Why is our due diligence process exhaustive?

We sometimes engage with prospective founders and their young ventures for up to a year before we decide to invest. When the venture matures enough to meet our thesis, we begin a formal due diligence process that lasts anywhere between four to six weeks.

During the process, we interact with founders, the key employees, key clients, other investors, industry experts, and sometimes even the founders' college professors (yes!). The motivation to do so is very simple - we want to understand the founder's journey and their life before and in the duration of building their venture. We want to understand their experiences, learnings, failures, and successes.

We evaluate the business model understanding it from both a 30,000 ft broad level view, and also dig deep into the specifics of what, how, and why via unit economics and product demos. We enter the due diligence process with a positive and open mind to fund the venture, and view every single part in the process as a stepping stone. Our final decision to issue the term sheet is the resultant outcome of a satisfactory due diligence.

What is the actual motive of our due diligence process?

But checking things off the list is just one side of the coin. The other side - something we believe is our value add to the entrepreneurs irrespective of our investment decision - is to bring more clarity to their business, and thoughts of the entrepreneur.

By engaging over an email thread that is sometimes longer than fifty replies, we get to the bottom of the business, the future plans, the mindset of the entrepreneurs, and find any opportunities for introductions to our network. We stress on entrepreneurs explaining the business to us in very simple terms, share a one-pager, their growth plans, and sit on a call to discuss the narrative behind the numbers.

This not only helps us understand the founder better, but also helps the founders understand where they stand themselves. There has been a time when an entrepreneur, during our diligence process, realized that he was not ready to scale the venture yet, and requested some time to build the foundation the right way. He kept in touch, shared progress, and requested to re-open the diligence a year later.

It is not an academic exercise!

We believe what is right for the company, should be right for the promoters, and also the investors. And every piece of communication is with this same intention. We do not engage in a lengthy due diligence process just for the sake of it. We want the process to add value to the venture, irrespective of our decision to invest.

The entrepreneurs who believe in this process are the ones we love to work with. And we consciously understand that we would not be the right investors for the ones who feel it is a burden or an academic exercise.