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/)
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