Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

what is the reason Garuda Ventures Managing Partner Rishi Taparia raised a $31 million fund?

12 Dec 2023 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Rishi Taparia, Managing Partner of Garuda Ventures, explains the origins of the firm and the motivations behind raising a $31 million fund. He describes how he and his co‑founders, all former operators and founders, naturally began advising and connecting with other founders during their own startup journeys. This led to the creation of Groot Ventures in 2018 as a weekend‑side, micro‑fund MVP, raising just under $3 million to act as “glorified angels” with other people’s money, making $50‑$100 k checks to prove the concept. The experience of supporting founders with advice, time, and capital laid the foundation for Garuda’s larger fund‑raising ambition.

Chapters

Walk me through kind of like the hours of deliberating on like, okay, I'm gonna go raise a fund.
It was, you know, the genesis of Garuda largely was how do we support founders in the ecosystem with advice, time, and capital? You know, my co-founders and I are all former operators, founders, and when we were building companies, we, you know, naturally as one does, you get called, hey, what do you think about this? Hey, I'm raising this money, can you make this introduction? And so on. And so, you know, Groot Ventures started in 2018 really as a micro fund MVP proof of concept. It was a nights and weekends passion project. And so we raised just under $3 million for this like baby fund, essentially to, uh, act as glorified angels, but with other people's money and then taking it very seriously since we had other people's money, investing $50,000 to $100,000 into founders.