E151: Leaving VC to Build an AI Startup | Brij Bhasin (Rebright VC / Snow Mountain AI)

Listen to this episode from The Desi VC with Akash Bhat on Spotify. Brij Bhasin is a longtime investor turned founder and the co-founder & CEO of Snow Mountain AI, a company focused on automating business processes in finance, compliance, and legal through AI.Before founding Snow Mountain, Brij was a General Partner at Rebright Partners, and earlier helped launch GSF Accelerator, one of India’s first and largest startup accelerators. He was also part of the early team at Little Eye Labs, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014, and has over a decade of experience building tech products across startups in India and the US.In this episode, Brij shares why he left a successful venture career to become a founder, the challenges of building an AI startup from India for global markets and how he’s navigating entrepreneurship after a long break. This conversation is a must-listen for VCs considering a shift to operating roles, and for founders building deep-tech or AI startups out of India.⌛ Timestamps Trailer (00:00)Brij's journey from 10 years of VC to a startup founder (01:48)What has Brij learnt being an investor for 10 years (04:24)How to build a startup in 2025 (Investor's POV) (05:53)Investor's definition of "velocity" and its importance (08:54)Medibuddy's case study (10:48)Importance of long-term view for a founder (13:43)PhonePe's case study (17:40)Monetary success, purpose, drive and teamwork (21:05)Difference between velocity and momentum (23:15)How do companies manage culture (29:41)Is quitting or pivoting bad? (35:25)What does it really mean to go from an investor to a founder? (48:58)Akash's strategic plan towards trademarking his company's logo (52:06)Thinking outside of the box (55:55)How easy it is to move from being an investor to a founder? (1:03:09)How difficult it is to raise capital as a founder who is a former investor? (1:07:40)What has Brij learnt about himself that surprised him yet transformed him? (1:11:41)Outro (1:15:56)🎥 Subscribe to watch more unfiltered, unscripted conversations that will inspire, educate, and entertain!Support the podcast:🔗 SUBSCRIBE on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🎧 Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📸 Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🐦 Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter/X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠💼 Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🎵 Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠💌 BTS content on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠