Ever experienced smart money? Learn from LogiNext's Journey with its first investor - Sanjay Mehta

I wanted to write this article since a long time but never got a chance to sit down and write. Recently, we crossed a key milestone of 50 Fortune 500 clients at LogiNext across 10 countries and we were feeling humbled by the growth we have seen in the last 4 years. That moment took me back to the basics to think and evaluate what worked and what did not. Out of the long list of decisions we had made and the mentors we were surrounded by, the name which clearly topped the chart was Sanjay Mehta. They say he has the "Midas Touch" - whichever business he touches, flourishes. While starting up, we never paid attention to such quotes until we experienced it ourselves. So here’s a bit about Sanjay from a founder’s lenses for the next generation of awesome entrepreneurs. 

How we met?

We got introduced to Sanjay in 2015 when LogiNext was still in its nascent stage. My Co-Founder, Manisha and I had relocated back to India and we were trying to strengthen our foothold in India's start-up scene. We were primarily focused on building a technology platform for small or large companies having transportation movements to run their core operations in a more people-free or hands-free manner. We had great enterprise background and educational pedigree but zero experience of running a global enterprise SaaS company.

What is "Smart Money"?

From an investment perspective, we were getting enough investor access and interest but were fairly clueless on how to choose the right investors. We have also noticed a similar dilemma in most first time early stage entrepreneurs where all kind of money looks the same as long as someone is willing to offer the money. We were introduced to Sanjay via Indian Angel Network when we were in a similar shoes and were talking to two other seasoned investors - one was a US based early stage VC fund and second was the largest conglomerate of India. Though we had attractive term sheets from these investors, what we were struggling to understand was how the life would look like few months after the investment. The VC fund was fairly hands off from helping on execution side as we were to be one of their 100 bets and the conglomerate wanted to have too much strategic exposure too early in our journey. On the other hand, our pitch session with Sanjay was fairly unconventional because it felt more like a discussion than a pitch. In the very first meeting, he was transparent about their investment model, investment process, value add and has pretty good hold on our space. We were totally captivated by him in our first 30 minutes of chat and that is when we learned our first lesson - how to choose investors. We could clearly differentiate that every investment is not the same and what would take us a long way was someone who really understood the market we are in, believed in the product, could boldly discuss the challenges with us and bring actionable value on the table. Just by how clear and direct he was in his thoughts, we knew that we wanted Sanjay to be a mentor for LogiNext and it was a milestone moment for us when we were able to convince him to join the LogiNext Board of Directors! He also carries a great influence in the investor community which led LogiNext to attract multiple other investors to join the investment round with him. 

What creates the "Midas Touch"?

What makes Sanjay one of the greatest investors across India and US is his killer instinct to determine the right market for the right technology pretty early on in the game. It might sound like a simple statement but it is possibly the most difficult skill to acquire in the word of angel investments and venture capital as the available data around the early success is quite limited.

The best part about Sanjay’s value on the board is that it flourishes over time instead of diminishing. When we started working one first product, LogiNext Mile, we received incredible advice on user experience, buyer personas, B2B business development, our first key hires, budgeting, unit economics, projections, expansion strategies, fundraising and what not and those advice became the cornerstone of our growth story. I still remember the endless discussions with Sanjay around these areas and how promising they were, primarily because most of his suggestions came from his own experience of building an enterprise and not just as an outsider.

Needless to say, we have also made plenty of mistakes on this journey, but fortunately only the small ones. Using Sanjay's vast wealth of business expertise, we were able to dodge a lot of costly mistakes and fasttrack our growth. His innovative ideas and farsightedness helped launch LogiNext from a minimum viable product to a value-delivering company. When one enters the start-up arena, they do not have the luxury of network in the industry, but we were able to leverage his strong network which made us clear out certain hurdles a lot faster. It was only through Sanjay, that we were also introduced to some of our large customers and investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm. 

100X.VC and path to Billions!

I'm really excited for Sanjay's next big venture - actually hundreds of ventures that he is going to invest in via 100X.VC. Enabling young entrepreneurs to bypass the prolonged documentation and tedious paperwork so that they are able to cut to the chase with their business is truly a boon. This is a great opportunity for early stage start-ups across all industries looking for their first round of funding. 

Many of his investments have become top unicorns in the country including his widely known 280x exit with OYO Rooms. I am sure there are many such stories in the works while I write this!