Venture capitalists live by just a few rules. Go big or go home is one of them. Founders are king is another.

Chiratae Ventures has some different ideas — and they could hold important lessons for a fast-changing VC industry.

The Bengaluru-based firm’s founder and chairman, Sudhir Sethi, often tells colleagues that its main responsibility is towards its limited partners, who should get “customer first” treatment.

That’s led Chiratae to prioritize returning cash to investors in small chunks on a regular basis, rather than holding out for blockbuster exits.

It’s an unfashionable approach, to say the least. But the strategy has enabled Chiratae to return more cash to investors (DPI) than most of its peers even as it’s sacrificed on overall gains, according to financial documents obtained exclusively by Newcomer and interviews with former executives.