Zehra Naqvi - How to enter into VC without any prior experience.

Yeah, I think the framework that I've always recommended has been pinpointing, first of all, companies that you see as your competitors. I like to work backwards. So I say, especially in an environment like this, getting as specific as possible with the funds and the individuals you speak to are the best things you can do. Go and figure out every one of your competitors, who is on their cap table, whether it's just looking at their portfolios, list all those people out, and then just figure out if there's any other companies within the realm that invested in that are similar to yours. List out all those investors from angel investors, pre-seed to maybe like seed and then pre-Series A. List all those people out on a Google spreadsheet. I think every founder should have an email list of like 50 investors or VCs that they really trust, that they know is like not going to share their information. Send that Google spreadsheet to 50 VCs and investors and ask them to put down like who they know in that list and then get warm introductions.

Hey everybody, uh, welcome again to yet another episode of the Undefeated Underdogs podcast. I'm your host, Sharath. Today I have, uh, an interesting guest, uh, who's into VC, Zahra Naqvi. Welcome to the show, Zahra. Uh, how are you feeling today?

I'm good. I'm super excited to be here. I'm excited to see what your questions are and just, um, share a little bit more about what I've been up to. And then, of course, would love to hear also your answers and responses to all the questions that you asked me.

Absolutely. Yeah. As so many of you know, I keep the conversation more authentic and there is no prep work, but I do have some questions I've prepared for you. But before diving into the questions, I want to just give a brief intro of Zahra. Zahra is a senior investment associate at Republic. Republic. I'm a big fan of Republic. I love what you guys are doing. She grew quickly from being an intern to where she is right now in like, what, less than 2 years? She's also a founder and a community builder. She founded this company called Glow with her sister, if I'm not wrong, which I want to dive into deeper. But yeah, Zahra, thanks for taking time. Appreciate you. I want to keep the conversation more authentic and Again, the guests I have are more diverse. They're not, you know, doesn't belong to like one identity or so. I've had like creators, founders, and, you know, a lot many people in. Super interesting looking at your background. You've done, oh my God, you have done so many things. I've went through your LinkedIn feed and man, I have to tell you, like, I don't know how did you manage getting so many internships and like working at so many different startups. So let's dive into the story. into your story. So right off the bat, I have like this question. Tell me more about yourself. How did you end up in VC? What came, what was like the trigger that came for you where you were like, you know, working at Republic?

Yeah, for sure. I think kind of as you referenced, I got into the space primarily from like the founder perspective. And I think it's interesting because now that I am kind of tangentially involved in the VC space, there's almost this notion that certain businesses that are VC backable are of more value than businesses that aren't. And the first company that I founded was certainly not VC backable. It was an ecommerce company and it was super successful. My younger sister and I ran it, and I think that was the impetus towards being a founder, creating things, just wanting to build. And although that experience was really formative from my founder perspective, I think the internships I did throughout college went anywhere from a pre-seed fintech company all the way to Series B consumer companies. And the constant conversation I was always hearing the founder, the CEO talk about was fundraising. And I knew what VC was, obviously I'd heard about it, but seeing a pre-seed fintech founder and then a CPG Series B founder have the same problems when it came to fundraising was just something that kept coming up over and over and over again. And naturally, from the founder perspective and working with incredible founders, I wanted to understand who were these people on the other side? What were they thinking of? How did they decide what they want to invest in? And what does that entire breakdown really look like. And so that was kind of like why I got interested in VC. And then I think naturally just had a lot of criticisms of the space. I think we can maybe kind of dive deeper into that. But Republic was one of the internships I had when I was at school. And it was such a unique combination of doing what a VC analyst or a VC associate does, like talking to founders, looking at their financial statements, their cap tables, presenting to the investment committee. But at the same time, Republic was a startup when I joined. We had like 50 employees and now we have like 585. And this is like in less than 2 years. So I got to also be part of another startup, be like an operator and understand how the company planned on growing. So long story short, that was just kind of my foray into VC, just really seeing like the same problems that all types of founders were dealing with, wanting to dive into it deeper and then being presented this incredible opportunity. I mean, I did like chase a lot of Republic employees pitching them about me being an intern, which led to my full-time job. But that's really kind of the journey that got me here.

So you hustled. Well, yeah, I was just joking. But no, that's, that's a very fascinating way of looking at things, which is the number one question I have following up to your answer was, I've kept hearing a lot of these founders turning into VCs or getting into venture capitalists in that business. I kind of have an opinion on that because I want to become like that, like build a venture-backed business, hopefully make an impact eventually, turn into an investor. I see like there are some potential, not doing this for money, but it's about like paying it forward, you know, at least for me, that's my kind of the way I look at things. Founders should become VCs eventually because they actually have skin in the game and whatnot. So I want to hear your take. You're a founder yourself and you mentioned about VCs backing non-venture scaled ideas as well in your answer. So 2 things, like why do you think founders should become VCs, number one. Number 2 is, what's your take on VCs backing non-venture ideas?

Yeah, I think the first, just kind of the notion of like founders becoming VCs and what that path looks like. Every VC that I have spoken to that has been a founder, has been an operator really, really early on in a startup are almost always the VCs who I think resonate with the founder journey at a much deeper level. And these are typically the investors who I think look at the more like pre-seed and seed level. And I really do think that at that phase, having experience in an early stage startup or being a founder is so informative. Because if you compare my experiences to some of my friends who maybe work in consulting or banking, they're not going to have the same perspective of what it means to actually scale and build a startup and what qualities to look for, because it's just like, it's not really transferable. And I think sometimes people forget that VC is an extension of traditional finance. And so there's not always just the intuitive understanding of what it means to build a company. And I think founders obviously have that perspective. And my whole kind of perspective on the VC industry is that it needs to change to be more founder-friendly, which I don't think it is at this point. I think we're at a turning point because of Twitter, because of accessibility, because of just events and community, like a huge fluff word, but— is genuinely because of all of this, founders are becoming more informed about their options and they're becoming more informed on how to understand what a VC is looking for, but also how to protect themselves from deals that might be a little predatory or not giving away too many advisory shares. And so I think founders who become VCs understand the other side versus VCs who don't have that experience. And obviously I don't think it's a hard and fast rule. I think there are VCs who are incredible and they were never founders, never worked at a startup. But I do just think that intuitive understanding almost just makes makes a VC more capable of a deeper understanding of just like who they're investing in. I think the second idea about like venture-backable businesses and what that means, I think in the past decade, we've seen a lot of companies that are getting backed by VCs that maybe like 20 years ago wouldn't have. And I really like that change in the space because I think VC, the VC tech growth model is not the same model that you can apply to a consumer company. And there are VCs who will say like, CPG is a waste, like CPG investing for VCs, like the model doesn't make sense. And I would push back against that. I would say that VC has been developed for these astronomically huge growing tech companies, which is like one subset of it. But there are VCs who have incredibly thoughtful processes when it comes to investing in consumer companies, in CPG companies, who are changing the models that are used to assess different types of industries. And so I just hate the whole notion where people will say that's not a venture-backable idea, as if though it's still not good. It's not a good idea. So I feel like the pedestal and the hierarchy of VC funding being the best and taking out debt being the worst, I think that hierarchy needs to be broken down. All types of fundraising for all businesses should be considered equal. Kind of goes into the conversation about Republic and what we do here, but I think it needs to become more linear and flat as opposed to a hierarchy.

Yeah, I love your take on both answers and I feel Republic is actually enabling that, right? Like, as I saw, I've invested in Gumroad through Republic when, you know, I think back in 2020, I guess, I don't remember, but, and there are like 2 things Republic does it really well. One is like how you mentioned, basically anybody can raise money. And Republic uses community as a leverage, as a tool to open up that investment. You don't have to necessarily go— community investment is always the right investment in my opinion, because of course VC investment is a separate discussion. But that bridge is something Republic is actually building it, number one. Number two is— Yeah. What was the other thing I forgot to mention? You were mentioning about— yeah. So I think it's not just tech or people who are building companies in Silicon Valley, right? Yeah. There are not just only consumer products or sexy products. There are so many other startups that are popping up, which are much more value. I think Ryan, who were invested in— forgot the name, but they empower small businesses like their mom-and-pop shops, and the same way Republic is actually like empowering to invest in anything, right? So I really like that angle. I feel that's what Republic is doing on a different level. So let's actually kind of go back to your origin story, which I want to dive into a little deeper. So I saw you've— you're from Hong Kong, if I'm not wrong. Like, are you born and raised there and then you moved to the US? So how did the whole transition happen and how did you end up in New York City?

Yeah, um, so yeah, I did grow up in Hong Kong and Singapore, and then really like the transition to New York City was, uh, when I was like younger and I had been running my company. I think like every kid at some point just kind of like I don't know, idolizes New York at some point. And I think for me, this is kind of a funny story, but for me, when I saw, I think, like Spider-Man 2 when I was like 9 years old, I was like, wow, New York. And it was just like something that kind of stuck in my mind. But really, as I got older and I started looking at colleges, I really resonated with Columbia, which is, of course, uptown here in New York City. So when I finished school in Hong Kong, I moved to New York. And part of the motivation was really because I think New York is becoming just like a huge— I mean, now it definitely is, but even just like 10 years ago, New York was starting to just become a huge tech startup ecosystem and a startup scene. And I remember talking about, I think people used to say that Chelsea and Flatiron is where all the startups are, which is so true because I'm literally in the Republic office and we're in Flatiron. But I think that was a huge motivation to come to New York. It was kind of at the edge of all of these things. And I ended up taking a course with Jenny Fielding at Columbia, who was an MD at Techstars. And she's a really huge reason why tech companies moved to New York. And so even being able to like take a class with her. And that was like the first time I ever learned about venture capital and having her teach it was like so incredible. And it was like one of the reasons I wanted to come to New York and go to school there and go to Columbia.

Nice. I love that. I love that. There is always some sort of a passion story for folks who move to the US. You know, I've had the same similar, you know, reason why I want to move to US from India. You want to just like, you know, be with the best folks. in the whole world and do something, some things that are more impactful. So, love that story. By the way, so the startup I'm mentioning about earlier before where it helps people to invest in small businesses, it's called Bondside. You guys definitely check it out. It is really empowering people to invest in like mom-and-pop shops in local businesses. So, going back to your story, I love I love that you're a founder who is getting into VC and you're kind of like growing level by level. So tell me about the story behind Glo. How did you and your younger sister came up with the idea? Tell me about the whole story.

Yeah, I think when we came up with the idea, it was almost at the beginning of the influencer era, which I reference because when we were in Hong Kong growing up, YouTube now democratized all the trends that were happening in America and then were coming to East Asia, like our school in Hong Kong. And we all just kind of realized there was this huge overwhelming demand for products and designs and trends that just did not exist in Hong Kong. Like, we didn't have Topshop, we didn't have Forever 21, we didn't have H&M. So, people were consuming all this content that was now more easily democratized because of YouTube. But there was almost this just like hunger to like get involved in that. And I had always been creative. And I mean, obviously with Pakistani clothing and South Asian clothing, there's so much design that goes into it. So, I was very interested in fashion from a really early age. And because I realized and just kind of noticed these like rising demand in the Southeast Asia region for those types of clothes, my sister and I basically were like, we've had this interest in doing just fashion for a long time. And we wanted to go ahead and start with just like producing very, very simple like demand and supply. Right. Really providing the clothing that we were seeing other like 12 and 14-year-olds really wanting. And it's interesting because we started the company and this was like, I think 2018. 13, and we scaled to like 20,000 followers on Instagram in like 3 months. And this was primarily in the Southeast Asian region. So it was like clear that there was demand for this and people wanted it. And my sister and I then just like continued to investigate influencer stuff. So I like to say that we were like one of the first consumer companies that were doing this whole like influencer, like mailing them products and they would post us and tag us and we would like track how many customers they brought. And this was like literally over 10 years ago that we were doing this. So it was really interesting because it was born out of very simple just need and the desire that we were seeing, obviously, like amongst myself and my sister and all of our friends. And then it became like running this business where I learned so much more than I thought I would have.

That's awesome. I love, I love that story on many levels. I really like that you're kind of like, you started off finding your own passion and eventually found, you know, the VC world. So I love that. So let's switch gears a little bit and we talk about the most— the elephant in the room, which is now people, most people are saying we're almost getting into recession, right? Like, and the market is, of course, it's still down. Not many deals are popping up. Very few startups are actually raising money. How's the situation in Republic? Like, what's like the demand? You know, earlier it's different. Like, I'm assuming like you get more deals like in 2020, 2021, but now that there is like a dip, right? How are you handling internally? You know, if you want to share, what's the situation like?

Yeah, I think it's a really interesting question because you're exactly right. Like, 2020 and 2021 in the whole VC ecosystem was just this huge boom. You mentioned that you invested in Gumroad. I think Gumroad raised that $5 million in a handful of hours, if I'm not mistaken. And what's interesting is Republic, even though we've been here for 6 years and we spun out of AngelList, that's where our founder was when he started Republic, and we've been building towards this reputability. I think the old school VC mentality that, again, VC fundraising is the best and everything else just comes second. That's something that you have to grapple with. And I think it's interesting because as you referenced, the macroeconomic conditions are kind of worsening. VCs are not writing as many checks. It's really hard to figure out who is an active angel investor. And I've had conversations with lots of founders who get frustrated because they have a conversation with a VC and it's clear they're not writing checks. So it almost just becomes wasted time. It's interesting because I used to talk to at least 40 to 50 founders a week since I've started this and being at Republic and talking to founders. And so many founders are coming back because they have loyal communities, they have family and friends, they have angel investors from earlier in their round, and now they want to do kind of platforms like Republic. Because I think there's almost this demonization of every other type of fundraising that's not VC. And I feel like there's this connotation that founders are afraid of where if they don't do VC, then it's like everything else is second best. So it's interesting because of what's happening in the macroeconomic conditions and the way that VCs are just kind of grappling with it, so many more founders are kind of turning to these alternative fundraising methods, Republic included, debt included. I do a lot of talks about all types of fundraising, so not just Reg CF, but just taking out debt, taking out a loan, angel investing. What does all of that look like? So it's interesting because we are just having this influx coming back, I think, because of the macroeconomic conditions. And it's great because I'm hoping that this moment will allow people to no longer demonize certain types of fundraising and just take VC fundraising off the pedestal. Again, I think everything needs to be considered equal. And so I'm glad to see more founders coming to just Republic's door and kind of wanting to learn more about what it looks like given, I mean, it's a horrible situation, but I think eventually it'll kind of lead to people seeing Republic and taking out debt, doing a loan, doing an SPV, an RUV, a Reg A, Reg D, whatever, and consider it at the same level as

Yeah, I, yeah, you know, like you said, that's, that's, that's a fair point. Uh, it's not traditional anymore, like, you know, with, with debt, debt income, debt in place, you know, Republic, like startups like Republic is enabling more community-oriented investments.

Mm-hmm.

Angel investment is like pretty traditional, but it's not traditional anymore and not, uh, uh, typical anymore, like to get get money, get funded to move the needle.

Yeah.

2 interesting topics you covered, and I want to like dive a little deeper into a couple things. One is Republic is kind of enabling an additional round or additional help to already raised, let's say, a pre-seed startup comes to Republic to get another round, which is not typically a round per se. What's the trend that you're seeing right now in this market? Like, is it still happening? Gumroad is a separate example, right? They've already raised money and they want to like involve communities. So they went Republic. Given the situation we're in— Go

ahead. Yeah, I feel like it still is. And I do think that there is an inclination now to almost look at options that are driven by community. And I think, again, this is not a Republic exclusive thing. I think PartyRound was also talking about raising from your community. There are so many different avenues now that are almost like fundraising tools where you already have a community, you have people who are excited about what you're building, and I think the accreditation status has been so limiting in the past that turning to people who are non-accredited who want to write you smaller checks, but then really in aggregation, it's the same as maybe like one VC could write you. I think that's the perspective people are starting to kind of break down and just appreciate more because of what's happening in the market. Because it's obviously going to be a lot harder to get one person to commit, like, let's say $1.5 million versus if you have like $500,000 to $1,000,000 or even like There are so many companies that are pre-seed that maybe even have like 10,000 users. It's so much more likely to be able to aggregate the smaller check sizes in this recession and in this macroeconomic downturn we're seeing that lead you to actually continue to extend your runway. The company can continue to grow. And I think even the founders who are still raising VC or they just closed a round, they're coming to Republic because I think everyone's anticipating the recession and people want to extend their runway so you can tack on Even if you do a round, you can extend your raise via Republic and get on a few other months of runway to really cushion everything. So I feel like everything is also coming from this perspective of wanting, I guess, protection. Protection maybe might not be the right word, but I guess some sort of cushioning really to start just protecting companies because, yeah, 8, 10 months ago people could raise so much money and obviously we're not in the same— situation anymore.

Yeah, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding is kind of like a safety net. I mean, in a way, it actually adds more. There are like so many benefits, you know, I'm bullish on, you know, crowdfunding startups like Republic or WeFunder, they like, you know, PartyRound, they're all involving community. So 2 other follow-up questions. So are you suggesting, so what are some interesting things that you're doing from Republic standpoint, which is, are you empowering founders to like, you know, hey, you've raised your seed round, come join Republic. We will help you raise like the safety net round, whatever, you know, the crowdfunding. Are you like, and what kind of features or community initiatives are you taking up to educate you know, a set of founders, because not everyone is aware of the power of crowdfunding or community funding. What are some initiatives you're leading at Republic? I'm just curious.

Yeah, no, I think it's a really important question. And something that we kind of recently realized is Republic's whole mission has been about democratizing access to investing from the investor perspective. And from the founder perspective, it's always been like, allow your community, allow your customers, your users, really whatever the model is, to invest in the company. And so recently we've just kind of started thinking through Republic, like, what does our founder community mean and what does it look like? Because we have a lot of founders who are applying through Republic, who get referred to Republic by our venture partners. And we've never really crafted out what does this community look like. And so this is definitely like a teaser because We're kind of launching some of this in the future in a few weeks. But Republic is actively looking at and kind of working towards building out this founder community. We've done a lot of events at New York Tech Week, South by Southwest, Miami Tech Week, and we're looking to streamline everything largely centered around education. And again, not just education on Republic, but education on all types of alternative fundraising. We're doing a conversation with SVB next Tuesday, for example, all about alternative fundraising. So Republic's founder community, this is like a bit of a teaser again. We're going to launch a little bit more information soon, but our entire objective now is founder education and founder resources, founder guidance. I actually ran a program with Jenny Fielding last fall, and it was like a pilot program with 30 founders, a 6-week course all about fundraising. So we had like

all

these different types of guests come on. Nice. session that was the most popular were founders literally looking at how a cap table dilutes from like pre-seed to like Series C. And it sounds like very granular, but it was literally our most popular event that we hosted because I think like these are the areas that people don't talk that much about. There's a lot of panels about like, how do you cold email? Like, how do you do your pitch?

Right.

There's not a lot of like conversation on like, what does a cap table like dilution look like? Like, how should you set up your cap table? How much equity do you get? What does a term sheet look like? So I think Republic wants to eventually become kind of like that resource, like a reliable community that founders can turn to where of course you're going to get education about what this fundraising looks like, but you're also going to get education on how to cap table, term sheet, everything where you can get those logistics and kind of lean into it and just learn more. So that's something we're working on very actively. I'm working on it at Republic. Awesome. And you should hear more soon when it comes to all those things just on Twitter and on Republic.

I love that. I love founder programs because all you try to do is to basically empower and educate founders, which eventually end up having big businesses, which will eventually open up a lot of opportunities. So it's all positive-sum game in a way. So one question I have is, I think it's kind of like an elaborate discussion, but I want to you know, hear your take. What do you suggest for founders who are like, they're not into pre-seed anymore, or they're trying to get into pre-seed or seed round? And what do you suggest them to, or what's your path you show to founders to raise money in this current situation with all the market, you know, dipping and everything? Do you have like a framework you suggest for founders? You tell, like, you talk to many founders, you advise them in a way. So any tips or any frameworks that you want to share?

Yeah, I think like the framework that I've always recommended has been like pinpointing, first of all, like companies that you see as your competitors. I like to work backwards. So I say in a, especially in an environment like this, getting as specific as possible with like the funds and the individuals you speak to are the best things you can do. Go and figure out every one of your competitors who is on their cap table, whether it's just looking at their portfolios, list all those people out and then just figure out if there's any other companies within the realm that they've invested in that are similar to yours. List out all those investors from angel investors, pre-seed to maybe seed and then pre-Series A. List all those people out on a Google spreadsheet. I think every founder should have an email list of 50 investors or VCs that they really trust, that they know not going to share their information, send that Google spreadsheet to 50 VCs and investors and ask them to put down who they know in that list and then get warm introductions. I think it's super simple to do, but every time I've done a warm introduction for a founder, it almost always turns into a positive relationship, a positive connotation, whether it's a partnership or they actually invest. And so warm introductions are, in my opinion, key to everything. I know cold emails are great. Cold emailing is awesome, but it also is much, much, much less of a hit rate than just getting those warm introductions. So I think a framework of just building out very specific angel investors, very specific funds that you want to reach out to, and then working backwards with your community. Again, there's the community word, but really working with the VC community or investor community, anyone who you know in the space. And if you don't have a VC and investor community, turn to resources like Republic, Brex, On Deck, Day One. There's so many founder communities. Just turn to those and just start to kind of build your network. So I really do feel like those relationships are super important, and that's kind of the framework that I take when it comes to reaching out. I always encourage warm introductions. I could give so much other advice. All I'm going to say is maybe follow me on Twitter for when I explain this. But I really think that's like the best, the best way to do it. Just working backwards and creating that like super targeted list that you want to go after and then getting people to help facilitate warm introductions.

So that's very interesting, right? Like I'm a, I have like a different opinion on warm introductions, but I'm more, more into like cold, cold DMs and cold emails because that's always worked for me well. Couple follow-up questions there. One is when you talk about warm introductions, so it's more of like network effects, right? You know someone and you kind of like place an ask to get an intro to someone who you are targeting. And do you have like a formula there for founders so they can actually use it? Like how do they place the ask? It's always awkward. Right? Like, because you know someone and you're kind of asking them to share your, what do you call, your debt, you know, your social capital. You want to, like, they want to share your social capital, which is kind of okay, I guess. But how do founders navigate that? Like, hey, Zahra, would you love to have an inch of for Naval? That's like a plain simple ask, but what do you, what do you see and what makes a warm intro work?

Yeah. So I think like when it comes to just like asking a VC or asking an investor to facilitate an introduction, or even just like proposing that and sending over that spreadsheet, I think framing it from the founder perspective to the investor behind like you We've had this conversation in the past. You've added this value to me. Here's a spreadsheet. No pressure if you don't know anyone or no pressure to actually go into the spreadsheet and add stuff. Because I mean, I think at the end of the day, people forget that half the reason that I'm able to talk to so many VCs and refer so many deals is because I get a lot of founders asking me to do this. And then I will make introductions to VCs and then those conversations will just snowball. So I almost think from the founder perspective, think about it less from just using the social capital, but also think about it more like you are also facilitating, you're helping that VC because deal flow and referring deal flow and introductions is also a way that VCs start to rely on one another and create their own network effects and strengthen their own bonds. I have a bunch of VCs that I've referred deals to started as just very very like acquaintance levels. And now because I've referred a lot of deals to them where founders ask me to introduce, like send their deck over to them, we have a better relationship. So I feel like almost reframing it and thinking about it from that perspective where like VCs also benefit from this is a way to kind of frame it. And then also just like find people who are advocates for you. I, okay, here's my opinion. I think you should only, like, I really think that people, especially VCs, should lead with kindness. And if you are feeling like there's even a slight level of like they're insinuating you're using them. I feel like that's just not even a relationship to like bolster because I think the people who care about founders like myself, like yourself, like a lot of people want to help and want to pay it forward. Obviously that doesn't mean that it's always going to happen. People are busy. Right. But I think even just like framing the ask, keeping it very simple and realizing that if they decide to engage with it or not, it's completely up to them. But I would always phrase it around just like you can see and how people respond and then choose to engage with the ones who respond positively accordingly to that behavior that you're seeing.

That's absolutely true. I wanna like highlight a couple of things which you mentioned, which is always have an exit door, offer an exit door so that the receiver won't feel obliged. Like they're like, we're insisting them to like, hey, do it or pressurizing them to like make it happen. So that itself means like you're okay with having zero expectations. So it kind of builds a good rapport between you and the receiver. And again, I feel most of the people, at least I know in tech and startups, they genuinely want to help founders. They want the founders to win. So, and I feel, you know, it's about like Breaking that awkwardness and actually placing a specific ask. So I love that a lot. And the other point you mentioned is always like start with sharing a value, sharing some sort of value to the receiver so that it won't feel like a simple ask per se. So have like, just to summarize, have like a, you know, have some sort of value for the receiver. Keep it, keep the ask very simple. And at the end, open, open an exit door so that they can actually, you know, like say, hey, this is like, this can't work, and you're okay with that. So I love that framework. Uh, thanks for sharing. You should, you should maybe like write more about, uh, how to do like, uh, you know.

Yeah, I feel like I should. I feel like I should. Um, and I mean, I know the like cold intro versus warm intro thing is such a point of contention in like the VC Twitter ecosystem. But honestly, the last thing that I'd add is don't underestimate the impact of analysts and associates because analysts and associates are going to be taking your deals to the investment committee and like advocating for you. So sometimes if there's like a GP, a partner, VP, whatever that you really admire, figure out like who the associates and analysts are at the fund and they're more likely to respond to you and shepherd your deal as opposed to like— cold emailing, or even getting a warm introduction to someone who's higher up, just because they tend to be busier. And analysts and associates like myself, like, we have the time and want to like go through everything and be helpful, and it helps bolster our careers too. So that's the last piece of information that I'd probably recommend.

Yeah, that's a— that's an amazing hack. I love that. I love that so much. So, uh, I have like one last question before we wrap things up, which is, uh, what are some lessons you want to pass along to folks who want to get into venture capital? Being a senior associate at Republic, becoming— going from intern to where you are, what are some things you feel that people should pick? Like going from traditional investing to like, you know, the thing you did?

Yeah, I think a huge part of it is really like figure out what you want and it doesn't have to be like so specific. Like I want to do like pre-seed fintech investing. It can be, really as generic as I want to learn about how to present something to an investment committee, or I want to learn how to do due diligence, or I want to learn how a balance sheet can inform an investment decision. It can be really generic or overarching statements like that. And I think going in with a perspective of what do you want to learn, it could be I want to learn how to deal source, I want to learn technicality, and most funds funds have like a structure like that where some funds rely like a lot on just like sourcing and getting a lot of companies referred to them. Some focus a lot more on like technicalities, TAM, looking at balance sheets, looking at financial statements. Right. So figure out like which direction you want to go into, what you want to learn, and then figure out what firms focus on that. Because I think VC, people often forget that VC is an industry, but there's like very, very granular, like you could go from like a pre-seed fintech fund that does super focused diligence and has an investment committee. But you could also do a seed stage consumer fund that focuses a lot more on, I don't know, a product and cares most about that. There's so many different avenues. So figuring out what that avenue you're looking for, I think from a surface level is something that I would recommend. I knew that I had no ideas and Republic was kind of the perfect company to start working at because I like to talk to so many different types of founders. I'll talk to like B2B SaaS pre-seed founder and then like Series B consumer social founders like 30 minutes apart. And that's been super informative to my career because I've looked at all their different balance sheets, all their financials, and I've learned so much about various industries. So this is why Republic was the perfect fit for me and just kind of figure out what's the perfect fit for you? What do you want to spend your time doing? Do you want to spend more time doing diligence? Do you wanna spend more time talking to founders? And so many funds will make it very clear on their websites, like which direction they prioritize. So that's just something I highly recommend. And I knew I had no idea. So Republic was like the perfect opportunity. And I was like, there's no other company where I can do VC stuff and be a startup operator at the same time. So it was such a perfect opportunity for me.

I love that. I think in short, what you're suggesting is niche down. It's down to what you really like. If you are into like crypto, you know, just focus on that. If you're into SaaS, focus on that. I feel Republic is like a buffet where you have pretty much everybody is like, you know, on it. So Zahra, thank you so much for your time. This has been great. I mean, you know, kind of like almost gave a masterclass about raising money in recession. How to raise money in recession, or what are some tips and, you know, some frameworks. I love those frameworks, especially I think the love, love the way you specifically pointed out how to do like a warm intro, you know, and get, get the ball rolling and so many other things. So lastly, what you're up to, if you want to like share, you know, where people can find you, just, you know, take it away.

Yeah, you can find me on my Twitter. My username is Zara_Nakvi with an underscore after it. I think the one thing that I'll say is I think this whole conversation is kind of like a teaser, like, look into everything that Republic has kind of happening. I'm really excited to be working on our founder community. I care a lot about supporting founders. And so just stay tuned there for a lot of the things that we're planning to do across the country, but then hopefully internationally. Awesome.

I love that. I'm rooting for you big time. Yeah, folks, just stay tuned for the big announcement coming from Zahra and Republic. But thanks for taking time, Zahra. This has been so much fun talking to you about VC and everything else.

Yeah, of course. It was really nice being on, and thank you so much for having me.

Awesome. All right, guys, that's the end of this episode. Stay tuned for the next one. Cheers.