How Kishore Ravichandran from Plug and Play Backs Deep Tech and the Next $100M Startups

Kishore Ravichandran is the investor at Plug and Play, the ultimate innovation platform. Over the past 15 years, PnP has brought together 35,000+ startups, 500+ world-leading corporations, and hundreds of venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies across 20+ industries In this episode, Kishore Ravichandran, Investor at Plug and Play Tech Center shares how a university program in Singapore sparked his passion for startups and led to a career in venture capital. Kishore explains Plug and Play’s global model—investing in over 2,000 startups, supporting them with a 550+ strong corporate partner network, and operating across verticals from mobility to sustainability.  Kishore also discusses the future of space tech, nuclear innovation, and why lean AI-first teams are poised to build $100M businesses—and much more! Timestamps [01:00] – Kishore shares how he stumbled into the world of startups and venture capital via NUS and internships. [02:30] – The impact of COVID on his original plans and how it rerouted his journey into consulting and startups. [04:00] – Differences between the APAC startup ecosystem vs. Europe and US. [05:40] – Plug and Play’s investment strategy and their emphasis on B2B startups. [07:00] – How Plug and Play leverages its corporate network for startup validation and strategic value. [08:30] – Kishore explains Plug and Play’s corporate innovation model and global network. [10:00] – Reserve investing strategy: how they double down on winners using specific funds. [11:20] – How Plug and Play aligns with startups to avoid conflict and support existing portfolio founders. [12:30] – Mindset shift VCs need to make when investing in deep tech. [14:00] – The difference between incremental B2B SaaS and revolutionary deep tech. [15:30] – Kishore’s belief that the next VC wave will focus more on deep tech and frontier tech. [16:30] – The “Three T’s” framework for evaluating early-stage startups: Team, Technology, Traction. [18:00] – Why team/founder quality often outweighs the market in early-stage investing. [19:30] – Role of traction vs. revenue in pre-seed and seed evaluations. [21:00] – The role of private companies in space exploration and Kishore's views on Elon Musk's SpaceX. [23:00] – Kishore on the cultural risk aversion in APAC and how it limits deep tech startup formation. [25:00] – Advice to scientists and researchers in APAC: “Get out of the lab and build something.” [26:30] – How founders should approach market sizing using both top-down and bottom-up methods. [28:00] – The myth of early-stage TAM/SAM/SOM and the example of Uber and Grab evolving beyond initial markets. [29:30] – Kishore on VC overexuberance in 2021 and why many VCs had to reassess their strategies. [31:00] – Rise of AI-native companies and the shift to agentic AI solutions. [32:30] – Key qualities of successful founders: conviction and “cockroach mentality.” [34:00] – Kishore’s bullish sectors: space tech, small modular nuclear reactors, sustainability. Kishore’s Links  LDN– https://sg.linkedin.com/in/kishore1997 Website – https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/ My Links  Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes Newsletter: https://partner-grow.beehiiv.com/subscribe YouTube:  youtube.com/lifeselfmastery Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit857/ Agency: https://bit.ly/41YuNnx