Exclusive: Rohan Malhotra , Founding Partner, Investopad Thinks that Building Up Start-ups is Like Managing Sportspeople

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Rohan and Arjun Malhotra are just like any pair of siblings; they fight, argue and even hangout but what sets them apart is that they decided to start a business together that essentially helps early-stage technology companies focusing on India-specific problems.
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We call them a business and not a venture capital firm because Investopad is unique. Over the last 2.5 years, they have invested personal capital in creating large physical hubs in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru, created an extensive operating team and a promising portfolio of nine companies.
The Bro Culture

For these two business-cum-life partners, life has been eerie similar with both of them starting school at St. Columbus in Delhi then moving onto boarding at Malvern College and then graduating from the University of St. Andrews with Masters degrees in different financial fields.

Rohan Malhotra told Business Insider that both of them had similar lives but completely different personalities. He’s the talker and Arjun is the thinker and their partnership works because they cancel each other’s faults out.

Post graduation, Rohan went on to work at the talent management business in London at Wasserman Media Group and handled Athletes, “Since childhood, I wanted to be a part of sports, from playing sports to getting into managing sportspeople, I found that my learning while making sure that a world-class sportsman had the best resources led to me doing the same for entrepreneurs, who need the best support system to get ahead,” says Rohan who believes that good businesses need to be built up and maintained with practice and commitment just like great sportsmen.
Coming Home to Starting-Up

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Born to a father who started on his own with Informatics Computer Systems (ICS) which educated students of over 1,000 schools and institutions across India, the brothers were always synced with the latest technology and also, realizing what great initiatives with emerging businesses can do.

Arjun who is two years younger than Rohan, has built a robust Silicon Valley network gaining experience working on later-stage venture transactions at Capricorn Investment Group.

Always fascinated with the world of entrepreneurship, Arjun and Rohan then worked in the up-and-coming startup ecosystem of Toronto, Canada at Extreme Startups - a seed-stage fund which got them thinking about starting an early stage investment business back home in India which lacked investors who helped new entrepreneurs to set up and get up.

After gaining international experience and realizing that India’s needs had to be specific, the brothers settled back in Delhi to work on Investopad in late 2013 and launched in April 2014.