Claude understands the civic sense in Indian investors so well! 😂

On a serious note, here's my understanding of why so many Indian investors don't have basic etiquettes...

They operate with a survivalist mindset in a survivalist market born in a survivalist post-colonial culture. In Hindi, there is a saying, "Andho mein kaana raja": even if you take one step above the others, in terms of how much capital you are authorized to control, you start believing that you are a class apart. I've never faced such challenges with any U.S.-based investors. They treat you with respect, they hear you out, they ask thoughtful questions.

Indian investors often seem to be very defensive, but with a serious attitude problem, and their questions seem like they've just read that these questions are supposed to be asked, so they shoot them without context. This is about a lot of investors, especially the ones I met very early in my life, but obviously there are some really good ones out there with whom I've loved working.

Another reason is that... it's rare that they misbehave with an Indian startup, and that startup goes into their anti-portfolio, which is not the case in America. Their investors respect their founders because founders there are doing better, and it's a fact. We can very easily list out the reasons why that ecosystem and that environment is more favorable for the founders to do better in the first place, but this is what happens. So, on average, an Indian investor sees a new incoming startup with a degree of skepticism, especially if they're not IITians, have less traction, or don't come via referrals. On the contrary, if you bring traction, you'll find the power dynamics shift just as rapidly.

Claude roasts realistically