Episode 86: Private Communities Are the Future w/Utsav Somani

About Utsav Somani:⁠Utsav is the founder of Offline — India’s most exclusive community of scaled-up tech founders. Early members include co-founders of Zomato, Country Delight, Ultrahuman, Noise, CoinDCX, and many more. He is responsible for bringing AngelList to India. AngelList India became the most active seed investor in the country with 500 investments since it’s launch in 2018. He runs 2 separate funds called iSeed and Galaxy that have around $100M in AUM. Utsav has personally invested in companies like BharatPe, CoinDCX, Pristyn Care, Jupiter, Park+ along with top-tier VC firms.In this conversation, we talk about: 00:00 Intro 02:13 Navigating Introversion 05:40 The Art of Cold Outreach 07:23 Reflecting on a Decade of Investing 10:51 Challenges and Learnings in Angel Investing 12:38 Building the Community 15:21 The Vision for Offline 18:05 Executive Coaching and Community Building 21:14 Building a Strong Cap Table 21:46 The Importance of Monopoly and Control 24:13 Private Paid Communities 30:32 Decision-Making Framework 34:07 Balancing Work and Personal Life 35:57 Defining Success 36:33 Key Takeaways from the Conversation