Sep 8, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 16 segments
On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we’re sitting down with two leaders operating at the intersection of venture capital, emerging technology, global markets, and media: Radhika Iyengar…
Like I got my pointer going on because I'm Italian and I talk with my hands, so they fly around a lot.
Before the ad fairy came flying through the door, we were talking about the passion, the impact that startups may have.
With all the founders that are listening now looking for insights on startups, fundability, what do you feel is the companies that are ready for funding at this point? And what do you consider fundable? And Piyush, I'll start with you.
think In many ways, when you're betting on a company, a bet is really on the people that are running that company.
And by that, we of course mean the things that these people have done in their prior careers, prior lives, whether it's startups or anything else that they've done in several walks of life, I think, is really where we try and draw a lot of conviction from.
But on top of that, you try and stack the vision that the company has for itself, not the product or the service that the company has currently, but the vision that the company has for itself paired with the opportunities that exists out there in the marketplace.
And for us, it's not as much about whether or not this exact product will find the product market fit.
We are very sure most of the founders that we work with, that we invest in, would pivot from what they have today to something very different or completely different over the course of the next one or two years.
But if we believe that they have identified a need gap that exists in the marketplace, if that market opportunity in itself is large enough to go after, And if we believe that with the right amount of capital and velocity, these founders can do it before somebody else can, that is really where we're making our bets mostly.
So for us, it's all about conviction in people, conviction in the market, and conviction in the idea and the vision that they have.
Like I got my pointer going on because I'm Italian and I talk with my hands, so they fly around a lot.
Before the ad fairy came flying through the door, we were talking about the passion, the impact that startups may have.
With all the founders that are listening now looking for insights on startups, fundability, what do you feel is the companies that are ready for funding at this point? And what do you consider fundable? And Piyush, I'll start with you.
think In many ways, when you're betting on a company, a bet is really on the people that are running that company.
And by that, we of course mean the things that these people have done in their prior careers, prior lives, whether it's startups or anything else that they've done in several walks of life, I think, is really where we try and draw a lot of conviction from.
But on top of that, you try and stack the vision that the company has for itself, not the product or the service that the company has currently, but the vision that the company has for itself paired with the opportunities that exists out there in the marketplace.
And for us, it's not as much about whether or not this exact product will find the product market fit.
We are very sure most of the founders that we work with, that we invest in, would pivot from what they have today to something very different or completely different over the course of the next one or two years.
But if we believe that they have identified a need gap that exists in the marketplace, if that market opportunity in itself is large enough to go after, And if we believe that with the right amount of capital and velocity, these founders can do it before somebody else can, that is really where we're making our bets mostly.
So for us, it's all about conviction in people, conviction in the market, and conviction in the idea and the vision that they have.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.