77. Why This VC is Betting Big ($315M) on B2B Start-ups W/ DNX Ventures Managing Director Q Motiwala

Resource Links: Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/) Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/) DNX Ventures Website (https://www.dnx.vc/) Check out Ep. 68: A Deep Dive Into the Mindset of a B2B Venture Capital General Partner: Who Gets the Money and Why with Tim McLoughlin (https://bretttrainor.com/2020/09/15/a-deep-dive-into-the-mindset-of-a-b2b-venture-capital-general-partner-who-gets-the-money-and-why-with-tim-mcloughlin/) While the COVID-19 pandemic brought down businesses globally, it didn’t stop one venture capital firm from closing a $315M fund. Based in Silicon Valley and in Tokyo, DNX Ventures focuses solely on B2B companies. Today, we have Managing Director Q Motiwala who discusses with us the opportunities in the B2B space and what they look for in startups and their founders.  Q’s perspectives share some consistencies and differences with those shared by Tim McLoughlin of Cofounders Capital which I interviewed in Episode 68. So if you want to pick up some more great insights in identifying the right startup or founder to invest in, tune in to this episode. We’ll be talking about: Q’s professional background [01:55] Why, how, and timings of investments [06:32] Technology adoption in legacy B2B firms [09:29] How pre-COVID born and post-COVID born companies reacted [12:16] Businesses that are worth investing in [15:28] What Q looks for in entrepreneurs before investing [18:27] How a socially distant lunch helps Q understand a founder [20:41] Mistakes that cause blow ups early on [25:48] What early-stage firms do to operationalize processes [30:46] What’s next for Q? [35:38] Q’s perspective on remote work and its effectivity [38:07] The one thing Q highly recommends [44:09] About Our Guest: Q Motiwala is the Managing Director for early stage venture capital firm DNX Ventures. He is primarily focusing on hardtech. Motiwala is on a mission to fund entrepreneurs on their “crazy” startup journey. With more than a decade at Qualcomm trying to figure out his life calling, he is well acquainted with mobile technology from the early 90s. He claims that he is still learning everyday by learning hard lessons in Deep Tech and in the enterprise and cloud infrastructure sectors recently. You can reach Q Motiwala on LinkedIn. If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to subscribe, tune in, and share this podcast.  Connect with B2B Founder:  Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/