New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- When it comes to startup investing, Dinesh Pai, head of investments at Rainmatter and VP at Zerodha, knows the odds. Most angel or seed bets don't work out. For him, investing isn't about chasing the next big trend but about backing founders who obsess over solving real problems.

In a fireside chat at the Mint Money Festival, he spoke about why execution matters more than ideas, how failure can be a lesson, and what retail investors should know before jumping in.

It always comes down to the person. There's no "typical" background. What we care about is the depth of thought and the time a founder has spent obsessing over a problem. You can sense very quickly if someone is chasing a buzzword, like AI just because it's...