Association Series #5: Keshav Puri, Investment Associate @ Tripple
Uncovering how interesting minds entered Venture Capital and new aspects of their personality, experiences and processes to light + SPECIAL announcement!
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Welcome back to the Association series, by Curiosity Center!
We profile a new investor each time to bring new aspects of their personality, experiences and processes to light, and in turn help budding investors and founders uncover the mystic world of Venture Capital.
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#5 Keshav Puri, Investment Associate @ Tripple
1/6 Career overview before joining Tripple
I started my career in investment management at a diversified ASX-listed financial services company. That was my first real foray into the world of finance, and in hindsight, it was a really interesting place to start! Being young and curious I soaked up a bit of everything from all business units from superannuation to wealth management and even into the inner workings of financial news.
About two years into the finance role, I met Nikhil, who is now a close friend, and we co-founded a MedTech company called Bheem Health. It was based on Nikhil's personal experience as a young cancer patient who had long periods of bed rest and lost friends to falls and pressure sores. Hospital beds dramatically decreased the risk of falls and pressure sores, but we also learned that they were not always available or economical. One of the first products we created was the Smart Inclining Bed, a device that sits on top of your bed frame and underneath your bed mattress, turning any bed into a hospital bed alternative.
Whilst helping grow Bheem Health, I realised I wanted to pair my passion for finance and startups together. I took some time off to reflect and went to study development economics (study of how we can use economic solutions to alleviate poverty in developing countries) at LSE in the UK. It was my time and conversations in the UK which left me convinced that when I came back to Australia I wanted to work in Venture Capital.
On my journey, I met the team at Our Innovation Fund (OIF) and was really lucky to spend some time working at OIF. Learning first hand about world class B2B Software companies, seeing the growth of some of success stories like Go1, Instaclustr, and Advanced Navigation was truly inspiring!
After OIF, I worked for the federal government’s venture capital team. The role revolved around helping to run the government’s ESVCLP and VCLP programs and helping run the commonwealth's co-investments, the most interesting being the Biomedical Translation Fund, a $500m co-investment vehicle to nurture early-stage health and medical research.
Whilst the role had an extraordinary macro lens, I really felt that I wanted to do more on-the-ground investing, because that's really what I missed. I also really wanted to combine everything together and make sure what I was doing would have some level of positive impact.
I stumbled across Tripple and have been living the impact investing dream since!
2/6 What was the interview process to join Tripple?
As I started my search to do something more investment focused with impact at the core, I couldn't even imagine that Tripple existed. I came across the job listing and was extremely fascinated.
At Tripple, we use Applied (a recruitment platform that reduces bias in the hiring process, also one of our portfolio companies!).
The first step was answering a combination of questions about cultural fit, values and some experience. It was a really refreshing experience!
The next round was a meeting with Bec Milgrom, one of the directors at Tripple, whose vision for Tripple truly inspired me to click into gear about what impact investing can be.
I was given a technical task to analyse a selected public company and create a small investment paper. I had 2 hours to do this and the focus was not just the investment part, but also the nuances of what we like looking for at Tripple (such as an awareness of the impact risks).
Next, there was another meeting with Bec and Adam (two of the three directors at Tripple). It was really an amazing opportunity to learn more about the role and for me to share more about my passion and fit for the role.
The final step was one last meeting before getting an offer!
Tripple, for those who don't know, is a 100% impact private investment company. We are multi-asset and use all of the tools in the financial toolkit to use capital as a force for good. We make impact-focused investments globally across real assets, public equities, fixed income, and alternatives (both VC Funds and directly into companies). We also have an allocation towards grant making, and strive to really push the boundaries of impact investing.
👋 Hey! Before you continue reading the rest of this article….we have a special announcement just for you.
We’re inviting you to join us on the 18th May, LIVE in Sydney for a special limited-edition fireside conversation with Niki Scevak, Partner at Blackbird, widely regarded as one of the best Venture Capital firms globally.
This event is capped and tickets are quickly selling out, with less than 14 remaining.
3/6 Looking back on the past 12 months of being an investor, what two skills have you had to accelerate the most?
I think skill number one is being an interrogative thinker. At Tripple especially, we are impact risk averse, so we spend time understanding and examining all the externalities of an investment (positive and negative).
For example, if we are looking at an investment opportunity focused on decarbonising, is it getting us closer in one sense and further in another sense? This could be related to not having the right packaging, or having animal exposure or perhaps a team that is not thinking about how to reach an exit event whilst preserving the long-term impact of the company.
Much of being an impact investor is being a conscious investor i.e. an investor who makes calculated decisions with the awareness of the impacts - being an interrogative thinker has really helped in making sure we are making decisions we are proud of decades from now.
Working across many different asset classes, geographies and sectors means that we have to constantly change gears. This means I have had to accelerate the ability to understand what information is important, really quickly. We are really fortunate to be able to leverage a really knowledgeable network of advisors, co-investors, area experts and founders who we look to when conducting diligence and ultimately learn from.
4/6 Three specific things you do directly after meeting a founder for the first time?
After an investment meeting, the first thing we do is revisit the impact score we gave the company prior to meeting them and see if we need to make any adjustments. (We have developed our own impact score calculator, based on the Impact Management Project (“IMP”) framework). Usually, after we meet a founder, we learn new things and reassess the depth, scale etc of their impact.
The second thing we do is share internally our views on three main elements - do we believe in the team and their mission? Is it a problem that we want to solve? Do we think the solution is a good fit for the problem? If we have any other key takeaways such as business model views, Go-to-market strategy etc it is a great place to share with the team and communicate immediate thoughts.
The third step would be taking the required time to process and truly form an opinion on the company prior to our deal call meetings. Sometimes this requires some additional work in learning about the market or the problem, and/or thinking about how the investment would sit within our portfolio and also contribute to solutions we want to see the world move towards.
Then we take it to our weekly deal meeting, where we discuss everything the team has seen and make a decision as to where we take the deal next.
5/6 What is your top tip for getting into VC?
I am a big advocate for not painting the picture too fine that it is prescriptive but also in strokes too broad that there is not enough colour. An observation that I do want to draw out from the industry is that there is no ‘ideal’ template experience because a role in a venture is quite broad, quite unique and it requires a diversity of thought and experience. If you are genuinely excited about working within VC or for a particular company, don’t wait for the right moment, apply!
Venture firms and private investment companies, usually consist of small, focused teams. My top tip for people who are beginning to explore the idea of VC is to try and get a coffee with people within the industry and start building networks within the ecosystem, this will help you learn more about the industry and also give you more insight into the different firms. My tip for those who land an interview is to make sure you do your own diligence (and not surface level)! — You should be clear about the company values, the experience of team members, the mandate of the firm, the existing portfolio companies and be clear about why all these factors attract you to work there and why you think you are a good fit.
6/6 What separates the best investors from the rest?
Empathy.
I think all investors have their unique networks, skill sets and ways in which they seek to add value beyond their cheques. Whilst early-stage investing may in some moments seem transactional, it is not remotely as transactional as most imagine, when investing in a company you are typically backing a founder on mission for 10 years, so the ability to be empathic is paramount.
Tim Brown in his HBR mention put it best, empathy is the ability to imagine the world from multiple perspectives. I think for a VC, it’s the ability to imagine the world from the founder's lens, employee’s lens, consumer's lens, and a potential acquirer's lens.
For us at Tripple, it’s also the lens of the environment or future generations who will inherit the world which we leave behind.
Thanks for reading this fifth instalment in the Association Series! Get in touch with me anytime here — to share your thoughts, suggest other questions and/or people we should feature.
Fly high,
Vidit