I shared my favorite Yoda quotes with you in part one of this essay.
Another favourite character, Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings (LOTR), is one of my perennial sources of insights.
“Despair is only for
Tag: Vani Kola
Lessons from Yoda and Gandalf – Part 1
I first discovered JRR Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings when I was 20. I found it fascinating. For me, it was more than just a fantasy novel. It was an allegory, a metaphor for life itself. I have read the …
Should We Celebrate Failure?
Recently, I came upon a report in a newspaper that argued that we should celebrate failure. Quoting an entrepreneur, it lamented that we are obsessed with just a few popular startups. We should pay attention to failures too. “How about …
Home advantage
It has been nearly a decade since Vani Kola, managing director of Kalaari Capital, went from being Silicon Valley entrepreneur to an India venture capitalist. The big move appears to have paid off
“I DIDN’T COME FROM A BUSINESS FAMILY, …
Building a billion dollar company in India
A billion dollar company is still something magical and rare, elusive and exclusive. And hence they have been called the ‘Unicorn club’, named after a mythical animal which doesn’t exist except in legends. Unicorn club is a serious business of …
Social media marketing firm Crowdfire raises $2.5 million from Kalaari Capital
The biggest social media marketing product Crowdfire, formerly known as JustUnfollow, has raised $2.5 Million in Series A funding from venture capital firm Kalaari Capital. 
Crowdfire, one of the few startups in India with a global consumer market, was profitably …
10 Notable Women in the Indian E-Commerce Ecosystem
While e-commerce is still young in India, it has seen a number of startups evolving into big companies in a short period of time. Although no single person or a company has emerged as a single leader, a number of …
Meet venture capital pioneer Vani Kola
Vani Kola left behind a stellar career as an entrepreneur in the United States to gamble on the startup ecosystem in India. She has no regrets.
In 2006, Vani Kola spent a month in India, “travelling, meeting people, sitting in …
E-commerce start-ups do things we don’t even think of: Vani Kola
When Ratan Tata planned to invest in e-tail ventures, he reached Kalaari Capital, whose investments portfolio of 35 companies include names such as Snapdeal, Urban Ladder and Bluestone. While Tata made personal investment in these three companies, he also agreed …