View from the Top — by Avataar Venture Partners
View from the Top brings you conversations with the people who power venture capital — the Limited Partners. Hosted by Ganesh Nayak, who leads Global Fundraising and Capital Markets at Avataar Venture Partners, the podcast explores how global investors view India and emerging markets, what drives their conviction, and how they navigate opportunities, risks, taxation, and portfolio construction.
Each episode features insights from leading LPs, fund managers, and allocators from around the world, offering a rare inside look at the dynamics shaping venture capital beyond the headlines.
For LPs, VCs, and founders investing in or building from India to the world, View from the Top offers strategic perspectives, grounded in real capital conversations.
🎧 New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe to never miss an episode.
View from the Top — by Avataar Venture Partners
EP3: Investing Through Cycles & India’s Growth Story with Kevin Edwards of CMU
In this episode of View From The Top, Ganesh Nayak, Head of Global Capital and Fundraising at Avataar Ventures, speaks with Kevin Edwards, Managing Director of Investments at Carnegie Mellon University. CMU's multi-billion-dollar endowment invests across global private and public markets.
Kevin shares insights from decades of managing institutional portfolios, reflecting on lessons from the Great Financial Crisis, how liquidity truly works, and what allocators look for in long-term partnerships.
Together, they explore:
- How India became one of the world’s most investable growth stories
- The evolution of its digital infrastructure and capital markets
- Why entrepreneurial energy and regulatory reform make India unique among emerging economies
- What global allocators want from Indian GPs raising capital abroad
- How universities and endowments balance preservation with growth
- Why discipline, risk-awareness, and humility are timeless investor traits
Kevin also offers a rare inside look into how large institutional investors evaluate conviction, liquidity, alignment and what “boots-on-the-ground” investing really means in markets like India.
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