November 21, 2008

The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed. —William Gibson

in|vest

About in|vest

in|vest is a discovery of investors interested in India. This site publishes profiles of angel investors and venture capitalists who want to invest in promising ventures targeting the Indian market. Please feel free to reach out and connect. This site was created by Vishy Venugopalan and was launched in mid-2008.

The full archive of investor profiles on this site is available here.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Why are you doing this?
Social networks are ineffective channels to learn about and meet new people. The goal of this site is to facilitate networking among entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and anyone with an interest in startups and innovation related to India. This site is greatly inspired by Portland on Fire, a similar project done by my colleague Raven Zachary to encourage networking in the technical and creative communities in the American city of Portland, Oregon. A blogging platform such as Wordpress enables free-form and naturally flowing profiles.
Why is the site named in|vest?
The name in|vest combines the country code top-level domain for India (.in) with the intent to invest in India, a market with vast potential.
How do I get listed on this site?
Take a look at the Participate page for detailed instructions.
How do you decide who to include?
Any angel investor or venture capitalist who is actively seeking to do deals targeting the Indian market is eligible to participate. Note that profiled investors do not need to be based in India. I don’t intend to restrict this site only to those seeking to invest in IT, e-commerce and Internet-enabled services, but these sectors may be represented quite a bit early on simply because those sectors are strongest in my network. I am asking early profilees to refer me to others who might be interested in being profiled. As the readership of this site grows, I hope to get tips from readers as well. India is a growing investment market that generates a lot of interest. Eventually participation will exceed the weekly rate of posting. When this happens, please be patient — it may take months for a submitted profile to appear on the site.
Why are comments disabled on the profiles?
Each profiles will contain ways of reaching out to the profiled person directly with comments. An individual profile isn’t the type of content I want to open up to potentially rude or inappropriate comments from readers at large (if you want to vent, try TheFunded). Moreover, I don’t do this full-time–moderating and filtering out spam comments will take away from the limited time I can use towards this project.
Is this a for-profit initiative?
No, generating revenue isn’t the primary purpose of this site. Any ads that may be displayed pay only for bandwidth and hosting.
How do I contact you? How can I help?
My email address is vishy DOT v AT gmail DOT com for anything other than a submission. If you are looking to get profiled, please send me your info via the Participate page, as this will make it easier both for you and for me. The best way you can help me is to spread the word to your friends and business associates about this resource.