Meet Outward’s Principals

1. What was your background/ upbringing like?

Andi: “I was born and raised in the UK to Iranian parents who moved here in the late 70s. Like many children of first-generation immigrants who faced a lot of adversity when coming to the UK, I was fortunate to have parents that demonstrated how working hard, taking risks, and most importantly, being kind to others could lead to a happy and rewarding life. This shaped pretty much everything I did. After university I hustled my way into a career in investment banking, which involved working for almost a year on minimum wage (something none of my peers were doing at the time) but it didn’t take too long before I felt the time was right to take an entrepreneurial leap.”

Sanchit: “I was born and schooled in India, with strong ties to the UK, and both places have always felt like home. I grew up as one of four siblings and as a family we’ve always supported each other. They’re a big part of my life and familial values are very important to me. My two biggest passions are sport and music. As everyone on the Outward team would know, I’m obsessed with football and given my skill never matched my enthusiasm, I tried my hand at coaching by attaining my FA Level 1 and 2 badges. Coaching is all about supporting players and teams to develop – I think there’s a lot of similarities with that versus with what I do today as a VC supporting founders.”

2. You joined Outward when it was still a blank sheet of paper, what made you take the leap?

Andi: “Initially I was going to launch a food-related business (story for another day) but for many reasons I parked that idea, and then a chance and timely encounter at the water cooler with Devin (Outward’s co-Founder), a friend and former colleague, led me to the opportunity at Outward. Being able to build a business from scratch and one that helped other businesses being built was, in a way, the best of both worlds. I definitely had blind optimism and a huge dose of naivety that personally I believe is required when starting or joining any entrepreneurial venture, and I’m glad I did because if I had known how long, hard and precarious the journey would be, I might not have taken the leap.”

Sanchit: “I’d been in venture a few years learning my trade as a generalist before my former colleague Kevin (Outward’s co-Founder) asked me to join him in setting up a new fintech fund. Outward provided an opportunity to specialise alongside the appeal of joining a startup with a team I trusted. I had a lot of agency from day one to build and shape the fund strategy, which to this day really keeps my juices flowing.  On top of that, I’ve always enjoyed working in small, scrappy teams and Outward is no exception.”

3. The biggest lesson a founder has taught you?

Andi: “Always be cognisant of the weight your voice can carry as an investor. The Founders who achieve amazing feats do so by being bold and innovative in their thinking, trying things that have never done been done before, or where few have succeeded. Investor advice however tends to based on past experience whether as an operator or as an investor. Sharing this experience is incredibly valuable for founders, but we must not allow these experiences to morph into rigid advice that acts as an inhibitor to innovative thinking, actions and outcomes.”

Sanchit: “People matter way more than products or markets. It’s something I was told when I was a lot younger and more naïve, but didn’t truly understand until I had seen it firsthand working with founders over a long period of time. Having an idea is one thing, successfully executing on it is another.”

4. The thing you are constantly reminding yourself ?

Andi: “It takes a really, really long time to get good at this job, or to even know whether you’re getting good at it. There are no shortcuts, just a whole lot of learning, so work hard and enjoy it.”

Sanchit: “Venture is a long game and it takes years to know whether you’re going to realise successful outcomes or not. This is something both Founders and investors don’t always appreciate in the moment when everything seems about the here and the now.”  

5. What are you looking for when you first meet a founder?

Andi: “I’m mostly trying to get a sense of who they are as person and what is intrinsically motivating them to take on this challenge. In reality they could be doing many things with their lives and careers, but I want to see that in the founder’s own mind there is literally nothing else that they feel would make sense for them to do apart from build this business right now. I’ve seen success happen in many shapes and sizes and the thing that most Founders have in common, is that they have a very deep sense of ambition and motivation, and there’s a very clear reason around the ‘why’.”

Sanchit: “One trait that I specifically look for is self-awareness. As VCs, we expect Founders to have knowledge across pretty much every area, but knowing what you don’t know is just as crucial. Founders who embrace their vulnerabilities are better at navigating the early challenges and surrounding themselves with the right people. The other thing I usually look for is capital efficiency and resourcefulness. A Founder’s ability to do more with less tends to signal outperformance – especially at the early-stage.”

6. What kind of relationship do you strive to build with your founders?

Andi: “With the knowledge of how brutal and unforgiving the founder journey can be, I always enter the relationship with a strong sense of admiration, respect and trust. If you can trust and respect one another, then you can usually get through both good and bad moments of any business. I also aim to get to know founders really well as human beings, to build strong personal connections but also to understand how I can support them. For the founder journeys that have come to a professional conclusion whether successful or not, the thing I’m most proud of is the vast majority have led to really great friendships – all of which I think will be lifelong.”

Sanchit: “At Outward we strive to be a sparring partner on just about any topic – Founders can come to me for absolutely anything as often or as little as they like. My approach is to not interfere, but rather make myself available as a resource as and when needed. To use a Formula One analogy, the Investor Founder relationship is akin to being a race engineer to the driver. The engineer gives advice at predefined checkpoints through the race and provides input and support when the driver needs them. There will be moments where you disagree and you have to take tough decisions, but you are always in it together with a shared end goal.

7. Pick one problem/theme are you most interested in?

Andi: “The future of wealth and financial advice: I still think there is a massive opportunity to create the next  generation of wealth management firm built entirely on a modern technology stack. One that cracks distribution and lower-cost hybrid servicing, retaining a personal touch, and thus increasing the amount of people that seek and benefit from financial advice. Yes, we have seen investing apps and single product asset companies that have done very well. Robo advisors have had some degree of success. But I still don’t think anyone has cracked wealth management in the way that Monzo or Revolut have done so for banking. I think some of the advancements in AI may bring us closer to a solution, and in turn have quite a dramatic impact on people’s lives.”

Sanchit: “Insurtech: the first wave of Insurtech saw innovation in distribution and customer experience, particularly in consumer facing products. I think now there’s increasingly a huge amount of opportunity for Founders to make a dent in the B2B space, to revolutionise areas like underwriting, claims, payment reconciliation, and more – all of which have a direct link to profitability. Additionally, insurers are continually looking to get an edge in new risk areas such as climate, cyber, AI, digital assets and there are those looking to find new sources of capital – startups tackling these problems will experience much quicker growth. Insurtech 2.0 will be fascinating and we will surely see the emergence of a new guard of dominant players.