Fireside Ventures' Kanwaljit Singh on the decade at Hindustan Lever that gave him consumer, raising half the fund he could have, and keeping a coach in his sixties

1 · Summary

Part 2 of 2. Part 1 laid out the bet: a fund built only for Indian consumer brands, back when the idea sounded absurd, and the anti-power-law machine Kanwal Singh built to make it work. This half is the person. The near-decade at Hindustan Lever that gave him his love of consumer, the Intel years, and the Paper Boat conviction that taught him to back the founder over the idea. Then the man himself: parents who came to India as refugees from Pakistan, a father who kept collecting degrees while feeding the family, the coach he started seeing in his sixties and what separates coaching from therapy, and how he reads a founder by meeting their family. He turned down twice the money he could have raised. He rates his life a 10.

2 · Chapters

0:00 Part 2 intro

1:22 The Hindustan Lever decade that started it all

2:25 Intel Inside, and bringing the inside out

4:22 The Paper Boat conviction: backing the founder

6:38 What he adds as Fireside's "CEO," and value of good

17:53 Capping the fund: turning down 2x the money

20:24 Hiring: read the person, meet the family

27:01 Refugees, and a father who never stopped studying

30:39 Three words, and a 100%-locked calendar