Warren Buffett's wisdom echoed by Vinod Khosla during challenging funding climate

From job-seekers to a land of entrepreneurs, India has made a big shift in the last few years, IDFC First Bank MD and CEO V Vaidyanathan said on July 7, shining light on the role played by startups in the transformation.

Billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla on July 7 acknowledged that the funding environment is down, but all it means is your competition is also not getting funding.

Speaking at Moneycontrol Startup Conclave via video conferencing, Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures and early investor in OpenAI, exuded confidence, saying the capital efficiency will go up. And with all retrenchments across sectors, it is a perfect time to hire for entrepreneurs.
Ace investor Warren Buffett always says that you should be "fearful when others are greedy …,” Khosla said, explaining the existing funding environment.

“We have to make the best of the really unfortunate events such as Covid-19 as it has created a huge opportunity for India because everyone is trying to not bank on China,” he emphasised.
The billionaire venture capitalist further elaborated that India is best positioned to take advantage of Chinese management of Covid-19. Also, India has so much technical talent to take advantage of that opportunity.

However, national government priorities are different from startups, he pointed out.
India is very aligned with Western values … India can have more global companies and what is happening with China will actually enhances the interest in investing in India, he stated.
Moneycontrol Startup Conclave aims to highlight the resilience and determination of entrepreneurs and their unwavering commitment to overcoming obstacles.

This event was brought to you by our presenting partner IDFC First Bank, powered by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia Capital India & SEA), in association with Reliance Industries, Amazon Web Services, Cisco, PWIP and Span Communications. Our broking partners were Mstock and Mirae Asset, while our gifting partner was WickedGud.

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