Venturing into Fashion Tech

VC Series: How I Broke into VC Fashion & Retail Tech Investing with Rohan Bansal

• Beyond Form • Episode 67

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Rohan's journey into the VC industry: 

Rohan Bansal shares his journey into the venture capital world, sharing how his nomadic childhood across eight countries equipped him with the global perspective crucial for successful investing in fashion and retail tech.

What you'll hear about VC investing:

• Living in different countries provided Rohan with unique insights into market idiosyncrasies and consumer behaviours.
• VC roles are highly competitive:  over 450 applications for each associate position and 40% of new VC hires in 2024 came from startup or tech backgrounds.
• Key technologies transforming fashion retail include: AI for shopping personalisation, demand forecasting, and smart factories with IoT solutions for sustainable and cost-efficient production.
• Emerging VCs should focus on long-term trends rather than following hype cycles and being a sector specialist could help outperform generalists in terms of investment returns.

Connect with Rohan on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rohan-bansal-50328179/

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at podcast@beyondform.io. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

Hi, I'm Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, founder and CEO of Beyond Form. Today, we're kicking off the first mini-series of 2025 and it's all about VC investing in the fashion and retail tech space. I'm going to be joined by Rohan Bansal for four episodes where we explore what it's like going into the VC investing world, what's hot right now in terms of deal flow, technology, startups to look at and everything in between. On today's episode, Rohan and I talk about how he got into the VC investing world, sharing his stories of being a nomad traveling around the world when he was younger with his parents, how, by being a nomad, equipped him with the relevant skills to go into the VC world, and what's happening right now in the industry that's exciting him about the space.

Rohan Bansal:

Each country has its own idiosyncrasies and each market has its own idiosyncrasies, and so it's always hard to tell. If you're based in one country and always lived your whole life in one country, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but just your perspective is limited with your experience within that geography, because as an investor, you don't just invest in your reality where you invest in other people's reality as well. So the faster we can understand that is to have lived that reality or experience that reality at some point yourself.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

Let's get the conversation going with Rohan on today's episode of Venturing Into Fashion Tech.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

How are you today, Rohan?

Rohan Bansal:

Doing great.

Rohan Bansal:

What about you, Peter?

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

I'm great, thank you.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

I am looking forward to this conversation because it's about how somebody can make it into the investment world. I think it's one of those jobs that many people see as quite fancy, like Van Rys, and quite a lot of people want to brag about being an investor. I do feel when I come across those profiles as well, but of course, that is not why somebody should get into VC necessarily. It's to hear your thoughts about that in a second, before we get into the conversation. We'll just set a scene for our listeners, for anyone that is listening that wants to be an investor.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

You get to, obviously, meet core startups and founders all day long and you get to brag to your friends about a recent deal that you've worked on. However, what does it take to get into the industry? The VC factory has announced that the VC roles are highly competitive, with hundreds of applicants vying for each position. For example, one firm received over 450 applications for an associate role. So that's lower down the ladder, or essentially entry level, which means that there's intense competition to get into the VC world. Traditional packs like MBAs, for example, are still really popular in the hiring process in terms of skill set and educational background. 40% of new VC hires in 2024 came from startup or tech backgrounds. Recently that, aside from those MBAs you know, the firms are also looking at non-traditional paths as well, showed how diverse edupoints are into this field have become. So let's get into your story. First, though, roh. You have been in the VC world for a number of years now, working in the growth stage. Tell us a bit about your story. How did you get into the VC world?

Rohan Bansal:

Well, it's quite interesting because there's no fixed path to getting into VCs. It's not like investing in banking or consulting, where you go to business school, you make a decision and then you stick with it, like even right now, the answer you're giving is people with tech backgrounds. It's also not like engineering, where you need to get a certain amount of, let's say, degree or whatever. On my side, the way it was was when I was in business school, either investing or consulting was something that was super motivating me at that point.

Rohan Bansal:

I wanted something where I enjoyed talking to people, talking to customers or clients, and then also, at the same time, being able to leverage my financial skills and big picture stuff, which is why the VC clicked a little bit and I basically looked into two biggest ecosystems in Europe that were in VCs at that point, which was Berlin and Paris. Yeah, I was very lucky that I started applying for VCs in Paris and Berlin and I had offers from both. So it was just, I guess, the right place, right time as well, simply because this is also when there was a big boom in investing in Europe. So that kind of helped me dramatically, and also my financial skills, and which is why the VC industry kind of clicked for me and like that happened again and in terms of the training that you did like educational background.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

How did you go about navigating that? Get into that position.

Rohan Bansal:

It's a lot of self-learning because, also, five, seven years ago there just wasn't that much. You had a few schools that were doing some entrepreneurship type programs. Five, seven years ago there wasn't necessarily, let's say, a tried and tested or books or let's say courses. So it's just reading a lot, following a few blog posts, sub stacks, living on different bc journals like that's a tech crunch, and all these different things, and then speaking with people. Also, I realized that more founders and the more companies and more industry you speak with, the more it all starts to click in your head where you realize, okay, this is going to work. It's not going to work if you go even further back did you come from europe specifically?

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

you've chosen to be in paris as we're recording this conversation, but actually your heritage is from india. You've got roots in the middle east as well, but you've landed in europe. How does one allergic traveler across the world and gain this position?

Rohan Bansal:

That's such a long answer. To be honest, let's just say that I left India, or where I was born, when I was very young, around the age of 10, and lived in 7-8 different countries across Europe and Asia. I guess it just happens to me that my dad used to get a lot of transfers and a lot of different jobs. Obviously, when you're 12, you can't necessarily say that, hey, dad, I want to stay in this country and be just by myself. You have something to follow. But what it did for me was it kind of gave me a global perspective and also an ability to be able to be comfortable and change, be very adaptable, because constantly, every two or three years, I was changing schools, changing countries, changing languages. So it was a lot of uncertainty, but that kind of developed me as a person and meant that I was quite comfortable in changing scenarios and changing environments very easily Do you think that global perspective or that has helped you on this VC journey?

Rohan Bansal:

100%, because each country has its own idiosyncrasies and each market has its own idiosyncrasies and each market has its own idiosyncrasies and so it's always hard to tell. If you're just based in one country and always lived your whole life in one country, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but just your perspective is limited with your experience within that geography. But if you've lived in a lot of different areas or you've experienced a lot of different cultures, you can understand the peccadilloes of certain geographies and what will work and what will not work, and be able to put yourself in the shoes of other people. Because as an investor you don't just invest in your reality, you invest in other people's reality as well. So the faster we can understand that is to have lived that reality or experienced that reality at at some point yourself. Absolutely, and I completely agree with that statement.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

I always am so surprised. For example, we are in Europe right now and where people approach life with a very Eurocentric view is sometimes quite entertaining. They always forget, for example, the US is literally the entire size of a continent. Yeah, and obviously, where you're from India, the most populated world in the populated country in the world Again, that's a different perspective and they are their own little ecosystem and they don't even care about Europe in some ways. And I think it's so important to have all of those different perspectives as you build a career and I don't think it's necessarily just related to VC investing, but especially if you want to get into fashion and fashion tech. This industry is global and it's really important to make that experience come to life and all that knowledge come together. So you came to Europe, you started investing in Paris. What are those specific skills or knowledge that are crucial for VCs looking could specialize, for example, in fashion and retail.

Rohan Bansal:

I think it's, first of all, extremely important to understand the different trends that the industry is facing and going through right now. Having also contacts and relationships with fashion groups and retailers different companies in the industry is also quite helpful. Then, also, at the same time, it's understanding that fashion is a very cyclical industry and understanding which part of the cycle you're in right now and what it's going to look like further down the line. It's kind of history repeats itself, so you need to understand history to then understand what the future is going to look like and at this point, I think, having an understanding of sustainability, traceability, smart retail. There's a lot of different things in the fashion that needs to be focused upon. I'm not saying I'm an expert in any way, but it's just always a learning process. I would say.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

Really understanding the vertical. For example, at BeyondForm, we look at the entire value chain of fashion, like some materials or materials right through to the end of life. We're not necessarily working with all of those categories within the fashion line, for example. Working with stuff within all of those categories within the fashion launch here, for example, materials, is very difficult to retail things, but it's always a good idea to have your finger on the person with the understanding. If these new alternative materials are coming onto the market, the retail store is going to look very different eventually when those materials are commercialized in a scalable way. Even if it's a long way off, it's going to affect the consumer ultimately down the line at some point. So then, thinking about you know we talked about skills, but in terms of the changing landscape of fashion, what has evolved? You know you've been here for quite a number of years now. What are some of the opportunities that you are seeing?

Rohan Bansal:

I think you know, we as consumers um are starting, are starting to become aware of the fact that um 10 of global emissions and pollution is caused by fashion and fashion-related manufacturing. So we as consumers, especially in Europe, we're starting to become much more conscious about this. So there's been a big movement towards impact measuring impact in the fashion space, measuring just what was needed to, let's say, have this top that you're wearing right now. So people really want to understand that. People want to understand how it got to where it is at this point. Traceability, inventory management I think these are something that's really, really hot at this point.

Rohan Bansal:

And then, of course, digital, because the way people buy and the way people do things now is very different as well. So, after COVID finished, people went back to, let's say, shopping at the store, but they still want some retail solutions over there, you know. So maybe something that can help them with body sizing in the store itself, or they can understand, let's say, what is something that's going to suit them? Or CRM, because it's so important now to not just look at your consumer in a retail store as a black box, but understand their preferences, their habits and how to not just upsell them, but how to also retain them for longer. So I think there's a lot of different trends happening in fashion which were not the case five, ten years ago no, and that makes it super exciting.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

And you know, of course, that beautiful rethink there isn't, that this space is getting even hotter and hotter and there are many opportunities there. In 2024, we did estimate that the fashion tech space was roughly worth around $400 billion, so it's not a tiny industry, necessarily, but it's also a very misunderstood category business of fashion tech. So we talked a little bit about the individual skills experience. We talked about evolving landscape of fashion tech. Let's talk about the ecosystem and the whole network that surrounds this sometimes glossy, opaque area. We've seen this thing from my understanding, especially if you're just starting at one fund, for example, it's all about who you know in your network, who teaches you the X, and this, of course, goes for if you're a startup wanting to look for funds as well. How does a VC or a potential VC looking to get into fashion, retail or interesting space in general leverage their networks to make it work for them?

Rohan Bansal:

Yeah, network's the name of the game in the VC space, because you want to understand where the best deals are when they're coming, who the right founders are, who potentially co-investors are. So there's no shortcut to it, I think. Maybe going to industry events, getting more comfortable with the people there, then also just kind of mapping by yourself as well, reading a lot of industry reports and trends that are going and checking the trends that these reports are saying, and then kind of talking to the right people and then also seeing what big corporations, luxury groups, fast fashion groups what are they doing, what are the problems that they're facing and how they're addressing it, or if they're addressing it. I think that is let it. I think that is, let's say, the first way to understand. Obviously there's more steps to it, but this is just the high level.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

And from the time that I've known you, Rohan, I think that you're actually quite good at networking and talking. You make it sound quite easy, but for a lot of people it is quite a difficult thing. It is one of those skills that you do need to hone in on. Okay, For many people, it's not easy to start speaking to strangers, so how do you go about networking?

Rohan Bansal:

It's a little bit of what do you call it? Hating yourself. No, I'm just joking. I think it comes down to a bit of my background as well because, like I said, I never spent more than three years at the same school. So what that meant was that I was constantly networking. When I was very young, I was constantly trying to make new friends, constantly trying to meet new people. What that meant was that I started to network without realizing I was networking.

Rohan Bansal:

And then the other thing as well is the thing that clicked for me was whenever you're talking to a new person, you're just so much in your own head that you don't sometimes hear what the other person is saying. Just realizing that it's not about what the other person is saying but how the other person makes you feel, which is quite important as well. So I think, just kind of putting yourself out there talking to people. It gets easier with time. I think nothing can be an experience and just doing it a few few times. I think it also helps if an extrovert as well. Fortunately, introversion and networking it does not go hand in hand, but I guess you can kind of fake it till you make it in a way I know that introverts want to be like a wallflower in the side of the room.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

It is difficult, as you say that it is about who you know, especially if you you want to get onto that VC fundraising train. You need to make shit happen with talking to people, essentially. So then we talked about the VC side of things. We talked about the opportunities in terms of fashion. Let's talk techno. What technologies, or emerging technologies specifically, do you believe are going to be great investment opportunities in the near future?

Rohan Bansal:

I think, yeah, this is such a boring answer, but AI and machine learning is obviously something that's super important at this point, and I think one of the biggest use cases is personalization. Nowadays, everyone's looking for individual experiences, everyone's looking for more individuality. So having solutions that can personalize, let's say, your experience on e-commerce platforms, for example, I think that's quite important, because customers now that are shopping, are increasingly having very high expectations, so there's the need of delivery for that. Then, another thing as well is forecasting demand forecasting. It's extremely important to know how much inventory you need, how, what are the right products that you'd be needing at the right given point of time, because otherwise you just have huge balance sheet costs and you're just wasting a lot of money, working capital for no reason, you know.

Rohan Bansal:

So that's one thing, and then also something in manufacturing as well, and design, because we consume a lot of fashion at this point, because people love to go on holidays and post them on Instagram and they love to always wear new outfits and something new, different, you know, kind of vibrant. So there is kind of a need for new designs and new production, and there's a lot of tools that are coming in now that are automating samples, automating design, automating even production to a certain extent as well, because now you have, which links me to the next point, which is factories and smart factories. You need to understand what's going on inside your factory, how they're using fabric, where they're sourcing fabric from, and then how much fabric are they using for these items, and so iot solutions within this as well, which can help you become much more sustainable in production, lower your cost of operations and also become more efficient, both environmentally but also fiscally.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

Let's go back to becoming an investor, then the topic of this conversation. I see so many websites or hear so many VCs saying we give more than just capital. We are actually operating with the startups, supporting them beyond money. Of course, we know a lot of that is rubbish as well. So if we really break that down, for a beast to actually provide value and beyond the capital, what does that actually look like?

Rohan Bansal:

all right. So majority of the vcs, like you said, are um, kind of a virtue signaling in that sense, um, but there's a lot of different things that can be done. Also depends on the stage as well. One of the things is, um, connecting them them with the right people, the right people that can be clients for them, doing pilot programs for them, by connecting them with fashion groups that can use the solution. That's one potential use case or example.

Rohan Bansal:

Then, another thing as well is building them a roadmap of where to expand maybe product expansion, geographical expansion and linking them with experts within the industry that they normally would not know or don't know how to get access to, which VCs might be able to because they use them in a much more holistic manner.

Rohan Bansal:

And another thing is that, connecting them with big groups that can help them scale into new geographies and new countries so that they can grow to the top line to a certain extent. And then just also helping them with hiring, because many times startups have small teams but they do need to hire more and more people, so VCs can be the ones that can connect them with the right profiles. So let's say they now raise a CVSP and now something they need to see on a dedicated basis, finding the right profiles, connecting them with the headhunters, or just people that they know within their network. That could be the right people. I think there's a lot of different ways VCs can add value, but it needs a concerted approach from the VC as well, to not just give you money, but to give you smart money.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

Absolutely, and I think on that point, for any start listening, you have to be a little bit more cognizant.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

A VC be saying to you that they can give you more than just money. I think you have to test them a little bit, especially if you're after smart money, as you say that as somebody more strategic, it's very difficult to quantify what they will do and how they will add value to your company, and I do think that founders should be aware of that element that okay, if you want just the money, that's fine, but if you want something more, you also have the choice as well, and hopefully you're in a position where you can choose if that investor is right for you, which I think is super important as a statement there. So then, of course, sometimes these investors get it wrong as well. As we know, money starts well every year, even if they have fund raised, and they can have fund raised quite far, and they still go bust, for example. So, in fashion and mutual tech specifically, what are some of the common challenges or pitfalls that you see happen and how can emerging VCs avoid those?

Rohan Bansal:

So that's a great question. I don't know how to answer that. What was the question? How?

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

can they avoid like essentially bad deals?

Rohan Bansal:

A lot of different ways. So, first of all, one of the things was realizing I'm not following the hype because, like we just discussed previously as well, fashion follow cycles and hype and just making sure that you're looking at the long term rather than just thinking of the short term. Because during COVID, everyone thought e-commerce was here to stay, that no one's ever, ever going to go back to physical retail or shops. But you know what People like to hold the item that they're purchasing, they still like to do physical retail. Making sure that you aren't being too following the hype or whatever is hot at that particular point of time and seeing does this have legs to it that's super important. Then, also understanding that it's a long-term game A good deal is not made or a good investment is not something that happens over six months, 12 months. It can happen over three, five, seven years. Even being able to trust the founder to execute in the right way, I think it's super important as well.

Rohan Bansal:

And not falling into the term sheet game. Many times people VCs and funds and emerging managers they get very emotionally involved because they really believe that this is a great company that they need to invest in at all costs. So what that means is that they over-examine themselves, give term sheets at a multiple or a valuation which is not justified, and what it would mean is that the company is now having to raise that increasingly higher valuation which they might not in the further future, and then just having 11th man or 11th person, someone who can be the devil's advocate in a way and challenge you in a lot of different ways, because I personally believe that having something that can challenge you, kind of question your own thinking, will also improve your thinking of the long term as well, because you will then start to um, start to not just validate your first thesis but also your final piece of the for investment absolutely.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

And on your point about hiring them, one really good example that I can think of is digital fashion. During covid and you mentioned it several times that everyone thought that digital fashion the non-physical guns and digital assets, web3, all that type of stuff was going to be huge, and we saw the acquisition of companies like Artifact by Nike. That was definitely a hype cycle. I'm not saying it's completely disappeared, however, it was so busy to the point where we were seeing those mega acquisitions got something like Artifact. Funnily enough, at the start of this year, nike announced they're closing down the artifact solution, which just showed you how much of a hype cycle that was within the space of three years. I just want to finish off this conversation with a quick fire round of questions. The first answer comes to your head are you ready, rohan? Yeah, ready. What's better, as an emerging manager, general or sector?

Rohan Bansal:

specialist. I think sector specialists generally overperform generalists in terms of IR and rate of return.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

What's more important? An MBA or startup experience?

Rohan Bansal:

I think you can argue the startup experience is almost like an MBA, but in a physical and a much more, let's say, realistic and practical alignment. More emotionally, oh, 100% 100%.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

Pick your fashion tech VC superpower, predicting trends or fixing failing startups.

Rohan Bansal:

Predicting trends, because I'm more of the opinion that you double down on winners rather than always constantly trying to be the guy who's trying to douse fires.

Peter Jeun Ho Tsang:

What's better for dipping your toes into the investing world? Angels investing or joining a syndicate Syndicate Big firm or boutique VC, a pros and cons to both.

Rohan Bansal:

You learn more at the boutique, but a big firm, let's say you might be having access to more, bigger network and bigger deal flow, you know. So it just depends on what you value personally. Thank you so much for your time, rohan. Yeah, thank you.

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