013 - Sleep Talk With a Venture Capitalist

Surya Mantha is a Senior Partner and Venture Capitalist at Unitus Ventures. Surya has over two decades of experience spanning, business operations, investing and management consulting. He has played leadership roles in startups as well as investment firms. At Unitus, Surya is responsible for all investment operations in India across Unitus' focus sectors including fintech, med-tech, ed-tech, and employability, through the entire lifecycle of the portfolio.

Previously, Surya played leadership roles in several high-growth technology and media businesses including at Web18, Saregama (HMV), Sify and RealNetworks. He also spent several years in investment management roles, including impact investment at Omidyar Network and growth capital investing at Peepul Capital. As a member of the founding team of Omidyar Network India Advisors (ONIA), he led investments in the ecommerce, digital media, education and government transparency sectors. Surya started his career at Xerox Research in Rochester, New York.

This episode is all about "The Startup World, Sleep & Personal Recommendations from a VC"

• Surya's story and journey to being the VC today.
• It is common in the start up world to wear poor sleep and stress like a badge of honour. The Dalai Lama said that man sacrifices his health to make money and then sacrifices money to restore health. Surya shares some stories about how this is actually true in the startup world.
• 90% of Indians are sleep deprived. This is pretty alarming. According to a report by Fitbit, India is one of the least active nations and are the second most sleep deprived nation globally. What actually happens among startups? How do they struggle with stress, sleep, lack of exercise and then ultimately poor health?
• Is it necessary that they ignore sleep so much? Is it possible for them to work smart, efficient and productively in spite of making sleep a priority?
• It is common for startup owners to wake up in the middle of the night with heightened anxiety. It is hard to disconnect from their business. Each person's stress response varies. Yet, having a few strong personalised practices like sleep hygiene and stress management practices can go such a long way in supporting them. Does Surya struggle with anxiety? What does anxiety look like and what can you do about it?
• Surya's personal recommendations to improve sleep and cope with the pressures of having a startup.

For more on Surya Mantha, you can follow him:

Website: https://unitus.vc/team/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/surya.mantha

-For more on Deepa, The Sleep Whisperer, be sure to follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mysleepwhisperer/ and https://www.instagram.com/phytothrive_yogini/ and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/sleepwhisperer and you can also mail Deepa at deepa@phytothrive.com or find her at www.phytothrive.com and www.sleepwhisperer.pro