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Karan Mohla
General Partner @ B Capital | VC Investments
Karan Mohla is a General Partner at B Capital, focusing on investments in South and Southeast Asia.1 Here are some key details about his background and role:
Professional Experience
- Currently serves as General Partner at B Capital, with a focus on early-stage investments12
- Has nearly 15 years of experience in technology-focused venture investing1
- Previously worked as a Partner and Executive Director at Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India)1
- Prior experience includes roles at QVT Finance LP and Jefferies & Company in Silicon Valley1
Investment Track Record
- Has invested in over 30 companies across sectors like ecommerce, healthcare, SaaS/B2B, logistics, ed-tech, agri-tech, and gaming1
- Investment sizes have ranged from $500k to $10M1
- Notable investments include FirstCry, Xpressbees, GoodGlam Group, HealthifyMe, and CropIn13
Education and Recognition
- Earned a BBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan1
- Holds an MBA from INSEAD1
- Recognized as one of the 40 under 40 leaders by Business World Magazine1
- Selected as one of the 40 under 40 Alternate Investment Professionals by the Indian Association of Alternative Investment Funds (IAAIF)14
Current Role at B Capital
- Involved in managing B Capital's Ascent Fund II, a $250 million early-stage fund focused on pre-seed to early Series B investments3
- Emphasizes being a value-added partner to founders and making investments with a long-term perspective3
- Based between Singapore and India1
Karan Mohla's extensive experience in venture investing, particularly in the South and Southeast Asian markets, positions him as a key figure in B Capital's investment strategy for the region.
Highlights
I had an engaging and thoughtful discussion with Priya Ramachandran and Nishit Garg along with Deepa Sapatnekar during #SaaSCon24 by SaaS Insider on the topic the founder-VC fit. It is such a critical topic and is different for every founder but there are some aspects that can be applied in most situations.
Support and guidance from investors play a crucial role. Being a founder can often be lonely - few are able to empathize with the unique challenges while employees look to founders for strength. In such times, having a partner whom you can talk to, bounce ideas off, have open and often tough conversations with becomes necessary. Additional capital is critical, especially in challenging times when the vagaries of running a startup lead to business challenges. In such times, the right investor fit will help getting access to sustenance capital. Conversely, in good times, having investors that understand and back the founder’s vision paves the way for larger pools of capital, which are often necessary for sustained growth and scaling
Industry knowledge, shared values, and objectives are vital components of a successful founder-investor relationship. These factors contribute to aligning visions, building trust, and fostering collaboration towards common goals. Timing is key, as the right investor at the right time can provide the necessary support and resources tailored to each stage of a startup's journey. Seed investors have a different perspective and set of strengths that they bring to the table compared with growth-stage investors. Naturally there is more trust and a longer association with early investors, but it is building out relationships along the way with a varied set of people that enables founders to leverage folks around the table accordingly. A well-aligned founder-VC partnership not only secures access to capital but also enhances the ability to navigate market complexities through strategic guidance and operational support. Establishing personal and professional trust is fundamental in fostering a long-term and fruitful founder-investor relationship.
Being a founder is exceptionally tough and requires superhuman efforts sustained over long periods of time. Combination of resilience, grit, focus, empathy etc are all needed but what stands out to me is the will to succeed against all odds. One such founder who has exemplified this over the years has been Supam Maheshwari. I was fortunate to come across him in early 2011 while evaluating the babycare ecommerce market. Everything about him stood out and the decision to want to invest in FirstCry.com (BrainBees Solutions Ltd.) was quite straightforward. Only challenge was he had just received an offer for his Series A round. And, while the market opportunity in that sector was compelling, it was Supam’s vision that one really wanted to back. And so, waited for a few months, stayed in touch and when he was ready to have conversations for the next round in Nov 2011, we closed the Series B termsheet on my wedding anniversary. What followed was a 8 year association with the company and folks including Amitava Saha, Gautam Sharma, Sanket Hattimattur, Anuj Jain, who have built the behemoth that is FirstCry with that vaunted single minded focus and will to succeed. It was a privilege to watch a masterclass in company and institution building. There are too many examples to put into a post here – that deserves to be in a bestseller book someday. An overnight success over 14 years was built achieved by relentless and world-class execution. Value creation, to which I don’t have a parallel example, included spin-outs which resulted in Xpressbees and Globalbees.
The promise to build an enduring company is something Supam voiced very early on in the journey. Few people get to live out their stated dreams; fewer still achieve it in such a industry defining manner. Success is easy to celebrate but celebrating victory achieved by going through the toughest obstacles is sweeter still. Venture investing is a great example of reflected glory and success; it is to Supam and team FC, to whom much gratitude is owed for giving the world the FirstCry platform and for the honor to partner with them. Today is truly Day 1 of FC in it’s avatar as a public company!
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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