Mano Kulasingam (@manok4) is currently the Founder & Managing Partner for Flair Ventures, a VC firm focused on investing in early-stage startups with at least 1 immigrant founder. Previously, he was the co-founder and CEO of Digiflare which was acquired 10 years into the business by Accedo.tv.
He joins Ara on this week’s episode of #TheTamilCreator to discuss the impact of family (father/brother) in his life, the benefit of being a late entrant into a market, studying in Ottawa (a city that was once considered “Silicon Valley North”), succeeding with Digiflare through failure & eventually exiting, starting Flair Ventures to support immigrant founders, having a long-term mindset as an investor, and so much more.
Follow Mano:
– LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/manok/)
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Timestamps
00:19 – Ara introduces this week’s guest, Mano Kulasingam
00:59 – How he got into entrepreneurship and tech; his father and brother
03:23 – Pop culture’s impact on entrepreneurship, creating Digiflare in 2008
08:29 – Finding the right co-founder; why it’s like a marriage
10:59 – What Digiflare was and why Mano created it
12:48 – How much luck is involved in a company’s success?
14:04 – Apple Benefiting from Blackberry’s work; Mano benefiting from Netflix
15:04 – Why he and his co-founder chose to sell Digiflare
17:20 – The M&A process
18:04 – Why trying to sell a business is like managing two companies at once
20:14 – Minimizing the number of people who knew a deal was being worked on
21:39 – Transitioning from employer to employee upon selling Digiflare
24:23 – The feeling Mano had when he sold his company
26:33 – Launching Flair Ventures; investing in immigrant founders
29:21 – Ventures are relationships and networking; investing in 7 of 400 companies
32:35 – How Mano allocates his time; fundraising, content marketing, and more
34:25 – His 10-15 year plan for Flair Ventures; aiming for 23 companies
37:37 – Being tempted to create again; keeping an open mind for the right opportunity
38:57 – His biggest failure/learning lesson; the Tamil mentality of showing no emotions
42:43 – Advice he would give his 16-year-old self
43:24 – The personal legacy he wants to leave behind
44:07 – Creator Confessions
52:50 – The Wrap Up
Intro Music
Produced And Mixed By:
– The Tamil Creator
– Yanchan
Written By:
– Aravinthan Ehamparam
– Yanchan Rajmohan
