Mahesh Murthy – Trust but Verify Startup Founders

BIO: Mahesh Murthy has helped launch Amazon, over 60 startups, a few hundred brands, and a few satellites. He’s a marketer, entrepreneur, and investor. STORY: Mahesh invested close to $400,000 into a startup only to discover that one of the founders was siphoning money via his sister and mother. LEARNING: Verify startup founders before investing in them. Hire someone to monitor your investments if you cannot do it yourself. Invest in a minimum of 10 startups instead of just one.   “Never give your entire investment to one person.”Mahesh Murthy  Guest profilehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/maheshmurthy/ (Mahesh Murthy) has helped launch Amazon, over 60 startups, a few hundred brands, and a few satellites. He’s a marketer, entrepreneur, and investor. As a marketer he: Worked on Amazon, Pepsi, and Nike Helped launch MTV and its rival Channel V. Founded ad firm Pinstorm. Wrote ads, including ‘Asia’s best ad of the decade.” As an entrepreneur he: Failed in his first three ventures. Is taking a company public soon Has taken another into space: Asia’s first private firm to launch satellites As an investor he: Has run three venture funds Was voted India’s “Best VC of the Year.” Twice. Worst investment everMahesh was lucky to be in the US at the start of the Dotcom revolution working at one of the early digital advertising firms in Silicon Valley. He read about a small startup in Seattle that wanted to sell stuff online. Mahesh went to his boss and told him about the startup, but he dismissed him. But he prevailed, and finally, the boss allowed him to meet the startup’s founders. The startup was Amazon. Mahesh started working with Amazon, and in the process, he learned a lot from Jeff Bezos. After a few years, Mahesh decided to return to India and take his e-commerce knowledge there. He also started doing a lot of angel investing. Through this, he met two founders who wanted to teach students outside India online. Mahesh was very excited about the idea and was ready to invest. The two foun