Abhay Bhattad

Private equity firms will focus on turnarounds by buying distressed debt, file for protection from creditors under insolvency law, and lead a restructuring. Venture capitalists will historically invest in seed stage fundamentally strong businesses. PE's will change the existing management and hire either a consulting firm or their own team to act as top management in the interim. On the other hand, VC's obviously believe in the entrepreneurs whom they funded and hence they dont alter with the operating management but they generally sit on the boards of such firms. For the PE, an exit will generally mean appointing a permanent top management and either sell it completely or partially to achieve a target of anywhere from 15 to 80 percent returns. For the VC, an exit generally means taking the firm to a successful IPO and venture out with similar returns.

The day I landed in Paris was a very hectic one. I had a morning 6 o' clock flight from Mumbai and I hadnt slept almost the whole night before. Infact the situation was not too different from the time of the GMAT....... The exam preparation, exam, the app' ing, the calls, interviews, conversions, scholarships, edu loans, packing, forced shopping, resigning from TCS..... The process was already taking a toll on me. After finalising the packing until 3 AM, I still had an hour before I had to leave. I decided to use it productively by sleeping. I was also counting on the time during the journey to fullfill my quota of sleep. But I could barely sleep and the clock moved on. It was 04:30 already. In between cursing myself for careless-ness & checking the luggage for the last time, I hurried towards the airport. It was a boring flight with people asking for an exchange of seat citing the reason of their kids. The sight of a lady with 2/3 kids looking furiously for a potential hun...

Few years ago and until last year, it was the time of software engineers. Every Ram, Shyam and Ghanshyam in the neighourhood wanted to be a software engineer because of the attraction of high bucks  and trips abroad. These  Ghanshyams  didn’t know where their own mind or strength lies. They just felt happy to follow the aspirations of the herd. They spoke excitedly about latest trends in open source, neural networks and artificial intelligence. The wave was so intense in the period of 1998 that software engineers were seen as demigods. This phenomenon lasted quite long until 2005/06. Then the herd collectively changed its mind and thought that oh, actually finance is also a good profession, isn’t it? Now the same Ghanshyam in the neighbourhood started talking about balance sheets, hedge funds & private equity. He still didn’t know where his own mind or strength lies. He was again following the herd. It became muted after the GFC. Then it was the turn of Medicine ...