Avsnitt
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Venture debt was introduced in India 15 years ago. However, it has gained traction in the last decade.
In the last 6 years itself, approximately $4 bn of debt has been deployed across 150+ deals in India.
But, not very often you come across an investor talking proactively about both debt & equity investments in the startup ecosystem!
That’s why in this episode we’ve brought Ashvin Chadha from Anicut Capital.
During the podcast, Ashvin talks about the various debt funding deals he came across at Anicut, and while he considers debt funding to be lucrative over equity investments over a short period, but for people who are willing to stay invested for over 10-15 years, he points out how we are in the golden age of early-stage investing.
He also talks about how a lot of VCs in the Indian Startup ecosystem are already getting 100x returns on their equity investments, we shouldn’t be surprised to see 1000x returns becoming normal in years to come.
Notes -
01:56 - Setting up Anicut Capital
03:24 - Initial equity & debt investments
04:51 - Structuring debt investments by setting up an AIF in 2015
06:04 - Investing in Sharechat during an internal bridge round
09:19 - Exits & thesis with debt investments
10:52 - “In my view it takes 10-15 years to build brands in India and if you don’t stay the course, your compounding doesn’t happen.”
13:55 - Parameters & mental models while making equity investments
15:56 - Learnings from portfolio companies hitting a roadblock
24:12 - “We are in the golden age of early stage investing.”
26:56 - “A good company will last even in a bad market.”
27:07 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Bira 91
30:51 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Wingreen Farms
42:02 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Neemans
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“We don’t think of ourselves as fund managers. The fund manager is someone managing 100s of millions of dollars, your job is largely doing money management.
Our job is not to do money management, our job is to look at the new trends, try to meet the smartest of the smartest guys, and somehow try to convince them to take out money, and be a good part of the ecosystem and make other good people within the ecosystem come and talk to us.”
Can you ever imagine someone who has been an NGO worker for a long time, suddenly switch careers and;
# Setting up a VC firm
# Raising $120.9M+
# Investing in 102+ companies
# Getting 11 exitsWell, that's the story of Madhukar Sinha, Co-founder, India Quotient, and the guest of this week’s episode.
Most of us get comfortable in our jobs post the age of 30, let alone the thought of setting up a VC firm. But that’s exactly what Madhukar, along with his Co-founder Anand Lunia did, back in 2012.
During the podcast, Madhukar talks about his first experience with 3G, how he didn’t let his NGO background limit his career choices, and much more.
Notes -
01:12 - Early life: Growing up in Jamshedpur to working in NGO
06:14 - Understanding what India really is, not only in metros, but in terms of Tier-II & Tier-III cities
06:47 - NGO background stereotyping & limiting his career choices
07:12 - Completing his MBA and joining Aavishkaar
10:55 - Experiencing the potential of smartphones after getting his first 3G phone in 2011
12:32 - Co-founding India Quotient in 2012; at the age of 35
15:51 - Being more of Entrepreneur, less of Fund manager
26:18 - Not continuing what you aren’t comfortable with
32:35 - Making investment decision for early stage companies
43:05 - Talking about portfolio companies - Sharechat, Lokal & BharatAgri
50:28 - Fund return expectation in 5+ year period
57:54 - First Cheque: Investing in unique ideas that don’t directly match India Quotient’s thesis
1:02:34 - Getting personalised deal flow via founders of portfolio companies
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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“Financial independence is nothing but freedom of thought, freedom of action, and I think that’s invaluable. If you have to constantly work in your life to live, then you’ll have all sorts of restrictions.” - quoted by Paras during the podcast.
The term “Financial independence” has gained more popularity in Google searches (i.e. Google Trends) post-2020, and we all know why that is.
When Covid-19 got widespread last year & brought chaos and anxiety in our lives, then a lot of people experienced job losses, business-shutdowns, which as a ripple effect lead to non-payment of loans, and monetary crisis. This represents making the wrong decisions with choosing where to spend your money.
During this period, there was another set of people who were able to save more as a result of working from home (i.e their native place) and not having to pay regular expenses like - house rent (of living in a metro city), groceries, commuting costs, etc.
And if you’re wondering, what did most of these people choose to do with their savings?
As per CNBC’s recent article -”15% of current retail stock investors began investing in 2020.”
Probably because as per Paras, “For most people, the way to becoming financially independent, is to hit a jackpot or lottery.”
During the podcast, Paras talks about the money-related choices he made early on in his life. And he doesn’t hesitate to openly talking about the bad choices he made while making his investments and warns our listeners to be cautious of the same.
At the same time, he also recommends how one can educate himself/herself in the right way to build a mindset for achieving financial independence.
Notes -
02:09 - Meaning of “True Wealth” for him
05:15 - “Money creation is obviously not a trivial thing. It requires a non-trivial amount of commitment, intellect, passion, and so on and so forth.”
05:40 - Wingify: 4th attempt of trying to build a startup
06:59 - “If money was a primary motivator, I imagine, I would have gone ahead and we would have raised some funding, but we didn’t.”
10:15 - His definition of financial wealth
13:29 - #1 mistake in investing: Real estate
15:31 - “Chasing safe assets like FD early on is a big mistake.”
18:34 - Having 70-80% asset in equity markets
22:56 - “Diversification is the only free lunch, in finance.”
24:02 - Advice to a 25-year-old on “spending wisely”
26:31 - “If you have to constantly work in your life to live, then you’ll have all sorts of restrictions.”
27:55 - ULIPs: “The more complex something sounds, the riskier it is.”
31:23 - Investing in Index funds
34:37 - His ideal investment: being passive, no speculation, & growing faster than inflation
35:50 - Treasure to read: Warren Buffett's Annual Letters
37:17 - Focusing on what new to do at Wingify
39:59 - Following Deep work principle
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In this episode, we chat with Amit Kumar Agarwal, NoBroker.
NoBroker, as the name suggests eliminates the middle-man/broker most of us have to go through when we look out for our buy/rent a property.
NoBroker handles $2 billion worth of transactions on its platform every year and claims to have helped save brokerage worth Rs 1,100 crore last year.
During the podcast, Amit shares how he built NoBroker while facing troubles from local brokers and brought it into realization as a broker-free platform at a time when larger competitors like Housing.com and Commonfloor still had brokers on their platform.
Notes -
01:39 - Family background & childhood, shifting cities too often
06:36 - Challenges while beginning with your Startup in your 30s
09:54 - Ideating the concept of NoBroker
13:25 - Approaching VCs for initial funding
14:37 - Investors seeking the existence of a US/China counterpart
22:18 - Choosing BTL advertising over ATL considering the ROI at a premature stage
26:02 - Not expanding too fast to multiple cities
37:43 - Listening to what your customers want
42:58 - Bringing premium Add-on services
47:01 - Changes in his personality as a founder in 0 to 1 & 1 to 100 journey
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In this episode, we chat with Sanjeev Kapoor, the famous Indian celebrity chef, Padma Shri-awardee, entrepreneur and television personality.
He rose to fame after hosting Khana Khazana (an Indian cookery show) in the early 90s. It was the longest-running show of its kind in Asia with over 649 episodes over 19 years.
He also holds a Guinness World Record for cooking 918 kg khichdi live at World Food India 2017. In 2017 he was the only chef in Forbes ‘top 100 Indian celebrities’.
Sanjeev’s business ventures range from premium cookware and appliances brand Wonderchef to TV channel FoodFood and 65 chain restaurants under different brands in nine countries.
During the podcast, Sanjeev talks about creating the content that he personally enjoys and running multiple ventures with partners he trusts and is comfortable with.
This conversation is pure gold for someone who’s either currently in or planning to enter the food industry to get a top-level perspective of how things work and what all should you consider and various stages in your journey.
Notes -
02:30 - Getting nostalgic with the Khana Khazana show
04:54 - Being a content person at heart via books, website, social media, & TV channel
07:48 - Working with Pharma companies to bring nutritional foods of medicinal value
08:21 - KitFresh via Amazon: Ready to cook fresh meal kit
09:19 - 4000+ employees under Sanjeev Kapoor’s Brand
11:12 - Family background & early career
16:38 - Being comfortable with discomfort
18:57 - Drive to start working on something new
23:45 - “If you continue to do things that give you pleasure, satisfaction, & purpose then it's not work, it's something that you’re enjoying all the time.”
26:34 - Deciding ownership of actionable in a partnership
33:43 - Understanding numbers and building scalable businesses
36:55 - Building comfort & trust prior to entering into a partnership
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In this episode, we chat with Karan Bajaj, Founder, WhiteHat Jr. From being the CEO at Discovery, to being an author with Penguin Random House & HarperCollins Publishers, to curating his Edtech venture Karan has donned many hats.
Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr is focused on helping children between 6 to 14 years in developing commercial-ready games, animations, and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. In August 2020, Whitehat Jr was sold to Byju’s in a $300 million all-cash deal.
During the podcast, Karan talks about how he took 3 breaks in his professional career and how they impacted him as a person, he also talks about what roles should a founder play at various growth stages in a startup’s journey.
For anyone looking to make a planned approach & setting outcomes for sabbaticals, or for any founder confused with prioritizing the impactful things in their journey at various stages, this conversation can be of great value.
Notes -
01:03 - Early childhood & career prior to WhiteHat Jr
03:49 - Taking breaks in a professional career
04:10 - Becoming consistent with writing - “Natural consequence of living what I thought was a very interesting adventure, an experience that I thought that many people should do.”
07:04 - Major career sabbaticals throughout his journey
14:24 - Impact of 1st Sabbatical: Understanding that the world is very boundary-less
15:06 - Impact of 2nd Sabbatical: Productivity as an individual
15:41 - Impact of 3rd Sabbatical: “If I pick up something, I just have to keep at it every day.”
17:00 - Growing leaps and bounds in corporate career after 2nd sabbatical
18:30 - Self-doubts while writing and publishing his books
22:04 - Accepting and realising that growth isn’t linear
28:43 - Ideating and pursuing WhiteHat Jr
34:46 - Initial scale, revenue, and metrics tracked at WhiteHat Jr
38:17 - Top mistakes at WhiteHat Jr while blitzscaling
41:45 - Being mindful as a founder while facing criticism
43:15 - “The founder in a blitzscaling phase has to let some fires burn.”
45:41 - Byju’s & WhiteHat Jr deal: Startup economics for Acquirer, Acquired & Investors
51:19 - Enabling 11000+ women teachers on the platform
52:07 - Karan’s perspective on the Wolf Gupta’s Ad
1:00:14 - WhiteHat Jr’s journey in a book & chapter names for each phase
1:04:32 - One major personality change while building WhiteHat Jr
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Ranjeet Pratap Singh is the Co-founder & CEO of Pratilipi. Prior to Pratilipi, he worked at Vodafone with stints in Marketing, Retail, and Channel Sales.
Pratilipi, is the largest vernacular Indian story-telling platform with over 320,000 writers in 12 languages and over 25+ million Monthly Active Readers.
There are several sub-categories and sub-products within the brand such as - Pratilipi Literature, Pratilipi Comics, Pratilipi FM & their latest acquisition IVM Podcasts.
During the podcast, Ranjeet talks about simplifying the creation of online consumer internet companies, creating their own definition of growth, giving ownership to employees to define their plan of action, and set their individual North star metrics amongst other work culture practices followed at Pratilipi.
Notes -
01:03 - Pratilipi - Vernacular self-published content platform
02:53 - Problem statement behind starting Pratilipi
05:04 - Onboarding first set of users & building traction on the platform
06:11 - Current scale in terms of authors, stories, & readers
07:19 - Revenue model: Brand advertising for IVM Podcasts
08:34 - Revenue model: Subscription & Virtual gifting for Pratilipi Literature
10:22 - Revenue model: Early access model for Pratilipi Comics
11:45 - Optimising your odds based on a long-term future as a founder
12:49 - Challenges while raising initial funding
16:12 - Transparency & Ownership amongst employees
19:10 - The thought process behind hiring: “We don’t look at people as dots, but we look at people as journeys.”
21:22 - Adopting things from work culture at Freecharge, CRED & Flipkart amongst others
25:31 - Setting product-wise North-star & check metrics
28:44 - Not following the general Growth Playbook
31:22 - Future goals as a platform: Democratizing Storytelling
32:33 - Thesis behind Audio Content: IVM Podcast & Pratilipi FM
39:24 - Things that didn’t work out at Pratilipi
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In this episode, we chat with Malika Datt Sadani & Mohit Sadaani, The Moms Co. which deals with toxic-free products for newborns and mothers.
The Mom’s Co’s journey started from a personal experience. Both the couple’s daughters had skin conditions which made them scourge for natural products that were free of toxins and artificial fragrances.
During the podcast, they talk about how to build trust amongst customers in D2C products, what are the things a first-time entrepreneur in D2C should consider, and how they’ve built a closely knit community to stay connected with their customers, amongst other things.
Notes -
01:12 - Background of The Moms Co.
02:32 - Family & career background prior to The Moms Co.
03:27 - Meeting each other as life partners & co-founders
05:22 - Mindset prior to the launch of the first product
07:47 - Raising initial funding for a D2C brand in 2017
10:22 - Life-changing conversation & insight for Malika in the early days of The Moms Co.
16:12 - “How do we change the definition of what mom’s skin, face & hair care look like and allowing us to play into a lot of other very large categories with a very different proposition.”
17:32 - Consumer journey over the past 5 years
19:04 - Close touch with customers over Whatsapp & Facebook community
22:27 - Brand advocates, including Genelia D'Souza to build brand trust
24:55 - Challenges while setting up distribution channels
29:35 - Advice to D2C entrepreneurs
31:36 - Malika’s experience shifting from a home-maker to an entrepreneur
38:43 - Founders & Mentors they reach out to for brainstorming
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In this episode, we chat with Pravin Agarwala, founder BetterPlace.
Blue-collar workforce management is one of the biggest industries in the Indian economy.
Urbanization and deeper penetration of the internet have helped players like QuikrJobs, LinkedIn, Just Jobs, Aasaan Jobs, and Google to make inroads into this segment.
BetterPlace is India's largest technology platform delivering digital solutions for blue-collar workforce management, throughout the entire value chain.
Pravin started Betterplace in January 2015 as a background verification company. However, they eventually realized the need for an enabler to bridge existing demand and supply gaps in the ecosystem, thus moving to a B2B2C business model and creating a digital platform to enable the ecosystem.
During the podcast, Pravin talks about defining and solving the challenges for the blue-collar workforce in India and also shares the company's vision to go global soon.
Notes -
01:26 - Coming from Dibrugarh (North-east India), working with SAP India
03:15 - Backstory behind starting BetterPlace
05:20 - Defining Workforce Management Solution for blue-collar employees
07:04 - Solving for improving productivity, attrition, time & attendance among other challenges
Ft3 - First step in the product - Onboarding solution with background verification
14:39 - Current key customers, metrics & milestones
16:09 - Challenges while raising funding for a SaaS startup impacting blue-collar workers
19:58 - Global expansion plans for BetterPlace
23:28 - Approach behind the valuation of early-stage SaaS startups
26:35 - Focus on: Customer value, Step-by-step approach, Team building among other elements
30:18 - Bringing an Angel Investor within the company full-time to build on core principles
30:31 - Value addition from investors
34:01 - Things he’ll do differently if he got another shot at building BetterPlace
37:25 - Starting early in your startup journey as a founder
39:40 - Why a founder shouldn’t have a Plan B while starting up?
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From investing all his savings in Sahil Barua's Delhivery in 2011 to becoming an angel investor in 130 Indian startups, the story of Abhishek Goyal, Co-founder, Tracxn is worth listening for everyone in the ecosystem. Being an Ex-Yahoo & Amazon employee, Abhishek stepped into the startup investing ecosystem with Accel Partners in 2008.
Traxcn aims to become the largest platform tracking Innovative Startups, Private Companies & Emerging Sectors globally. They track millions of companies, to enable Investors & global corporates to track sectors of their interest effortlessly.
During the podcast, Abhishek talks about how to identify founders who’ll make category-creating startups, important signals to predict a brand’s success, starting as an Angel investor in the ecosystem.
Notes -
03:06 - Background with Yahoo & Amazon, joining Accel Partners
09:58 - The story behind Accel's investment in Flipkart
16:33 - Identifying patterns and traits in successful founders
18:09 - Unlearning your existing beliefs as an investor
22:01 - Explaining Unicorn startups and the general notion of ownership amongst investors
29:47 - Importance of customer signals at an early stage
31:28 - “Capital doesn’t follow fundamentals, fundamentals follow the capital.”
36:10 - “10 years later we as Indians won’t be celebrating Unicorns.”
37:44 - Sectors he’s bullish for this decade: SaaS, EdTech, and Banking among others
46:42 - Preventing forced exits being an Angel investor
49:36 - Advice to first-time investors in Startups
55:01 - Reading and keeping himself updated with Startup news -
In this episode, we chat with Ashish Jhina & Karthik Venkateswaran, co-founders of Jumbotail, a 5-year-old online wholesale marketplace for grocery and food items.
Jumbotail serves more than 30,000 neighborhood stores (popularly known as kiranas in India) in the country with its full-stack B2B e-commerce model, which includes warehouses, a last-mile delivery supply chain network, and a fintech platform for payment and credit solutions to store owners.
During the podcast, they talk about breaking down a problem to its finest version and then solving for it, they also talk about how capital has wrongly been seen as a golden solution by most entrepreneurs for solving all challenges at a startup.
Notes -
02:44 - Karthik & Ashish’s backgrounds as a Major in the Indian Army and Apple farmer respectively
08:55 - First-principle thinking applied at Jumbotail
13:57 - Core-Engineering Principle: Build for utility, not for the use case
19:24 - Problem statements solved by Jumbotail, for Kirana (Grocery Retailers)
23:18 - Capital cannot be an only moat, where “unit economics” are extremely difficult to figure out
24:32 - Rapid scale-up pushing towards $250 Mn
27:25 - Raising first-funding from Nexus Venture Partners
38:16 - Identifying your co-founders at a mature-career stage
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Harpreet Singh Grover founded CoCubes.com, an online platform for assessments and hiring along with his batchmate Vibhore Goyal in 2007 after completing his graduation at IIT, Delhi. CoCubes was acquired by Aon Hewitt in an all-cash deal in 2016.
Harpreet has also authored a book titled Let’s Build a Company along with Vibhore Goyal. This book is a tale of persistence & grit and about a company built in India by two Indian founders. It is written in the hope that entrepreneurs can avoid the mistakes Harpreet and Vibhore made and learn from what they did right.
Harpreet is also an active angel investor, with his deals including Chaayos, ShopKirana, and Avail Finance.
When it comes to entrepreneurship most people only talk about immersing themselves in the company they’ve been building while ignoring everything else. To contrast with this, during the podcast, Harpreet shares the emotional and personal aspects while making the tough decisions and the importance of spending time with family in an entrepreneur’s life.
Join this heart to heart conversation with Harpreet to know how entrepreneurs, while building their dream startup, compromise on their emotional and personal aspects, and how Harpreet’s journey can add value to anyone who is doing a startup and experiencing the ups and downs while building a company in India
Notes -
02:47 - Harpreet’s journey: Lowest point as an entrepreneur
08:42 - “My best investments were done when I had less money.”
15:12 - “At any point in your journey, if you’ve been in a tough spot, talk to someone who has been in that tough spot.”
21:30 - “Companies are not sold, they are bought.”
22:16 - Life after the acquisition
29:12 - Importance of having family time in an entrepreneur’s life
35:19 - What choices he would have changed in life, 10-12 years back?
39:42 - Being an Entrepreneur: Solving for simple problems
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In this episode, we chat with Mitesh Shah, who has headed finance at startups like Ola, BookMyShow & Being Human Clothing, and currently is co-founder at Inflection Point Ventures.
IPV comprises about 4,000 investors, who are CXOs at various top of line brands across the globe. Till date it has been part of 55 deals and these include names like Milkbasket, Blusmart, Truly Madly, and Multibhashi among others.
During the podcast, Mitesh emphasizes how the average early startup mortality rate is generally 70-80% across industry and has been brought down to 30-40% in the case of IPV portfolio companies. And he credits this to the robust support system between startup founders and IPVs extensive network of CXOs who guide and enable them to solve problems across hiring, growth, and monetization amongst others, with their rich experience.
For any early-stage founder looking to raise funding, or CXOs who wish to contribute to the Indian startup ecosystem, this conversation can be of great value, and help them take their first step with a structured approach.
Notes -
02:20 - From being a traditional CFO to becoming a VC
05:47 - What role does Inflection Point Ventures play?
07:01 - Helping the founders with CXOs on platforms
09:35 - Back Story: Investing & exiting from BharatPe
10:56 - IPV Thesis: “Businesses will keep pivoting, invest in great founders.”
19:05 - Portfolio investments in E-vehicles, Healthcare, SaaS among other sectors
28:02 - Message to founders: “Be very selective & critical while choosing the investor you want to have.”
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In this episode, we chat with Ghazal and Varun Alagh, Co-founders, Mamaearth.
Ghazal & Varun’s entrepreneurial journey began when they were expecting their first baby and were on the lookout to ensure that they could use the best childcare products to keep their baby safe. But what came up as a shock for them was that every product out there had some or the other form of harmful chemical component.
This experience drove the duo to create then a babycare brand: Mamaearth.
Mamaearth is Asia’s first brand with MadeSafe certified products and has recently crossed Rs.500 crore revenue run rate.
During the podcast, they talk about how they initially started interacting and understanding their future customers and their concerns. They also share how they built a closely-knit community of parents with a newborn where prior to every product launch, they would take feedback from them, and then they’d launch the product after working on their suggestions.
For anyone looking to start up a D2C brand, this conversation can be of great value. From building a close connection with your prospective customers to earning their trust to building your brand, to differentiating your brand vs other players, this podcast has it all.
Notes -
03:13 - Their personal experience which led to founding Mamaearth
04:30 - Career prior to Mamaearth
07:42 - Things to prioritise early on to build a base for a D2C brand
11:28 - Top-seller product categories at Mamaearth
13:36 - Journey & Challenges from 0 to $1 Mn ARR and beyond
15:34 - Major milestones and fundraises
17:43 - Difference in Mamaearth’s growth strategy vs other D2C brands
21:47 - Future plans with Mamaearth
23:38 - Connecting & Understanding with the first few customers (mothers)
26:51 - Identifying vendors for packing, shipping, and production
29:02 - Bringing Shilpa Shetty on board as a Brand Ambassador & Investor
33:11 - Leveraging Influencer marketing to propel growth
35:01 - What they admire in each other as Co-founders & life partners
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In this episode, we chat with Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Limited Partner with Stellaris Venture Partners & Fireside Ventures, and an active Angel Investor in 25+ companies.
He’s Ex-President at SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud business and came closer to the startup community in late 2016.
He has keen interest in D2C, Consumer-Tech and B2B SaaS. Some of his portfolio companies include Whatfix, Signzy, Moglix, Yellow Messenger, Credgenics, and Pepper Content among others.
During the podcast, he shares how he initially got introduced to investing in startups and began building his portfolio.
For anyone looking to begin investing in startups either by their own-self as an Angel Investor or as an LP with a VC firm, this conversation can be of great value. From building your own thesis to curating an exit strategy, this podcast will really help you through it.
Notes -
00:59 - From a Traditional Rajasthani business family to Investor in Early stage
04:28 - First interaction to Startups via Alok Goyal - Stellaris Venture Partners
07:12 - Change in perspective; investing in startups
08:51 - Thesis: Solving small but focused & specific problem statements
11:15 - Scaling can only work with the overall fundamental mechanism of the Org
15:09 - Making a product scalable is different vs adding more features
18:11 - Exit strategy as an Angel Investor
27:30 - Importance of deeper understanding with a sectoral perspective
28:14 - Upcoming trends over the next decade
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In this episode, we chat with Arun Venkatachalam, who comes from the Murugappa Group - family, and is also an active Angel Investor.
Arun has invested in 25+ companies including Posist, ZoomCar, ZestMoney, AdPushup among others. And he has also got successful exits from companies like Innov8 CoWorking (acquired by OYO Rooms), Yourbus (acquired by Naspers/Ibibo Group), Endless Robotics (acquired by Mojay) etc.
During the podcast, he also shares how he initially invested in equity markets to build his own capital, which he later invested in his studies and his portfolio companies.
For anyone looking to start up as an Angel investor, this conversation can be of great value. From gaining a deep understanding of a particular space, to sourcing potential deals, to making your first investment, this podcast will really help you start and build.
Notes -
00:55 - Belonging to Murugappa Group (Family Enterprise); starting in Investment Banking
04:56 - Initial investments as an Angel investor
07:42 - “In order to be an expert down the line, someone has to start somewhere.”
12:50 - Creating an impact on Cap-table
25:21 - Investing in Recykal; creating impact because of ESG
28:01 - Advice for a first time Angel investor
32:12 - Having a conservative approach as an Angel investor
34:32 - “Opportunity isn’t in running with the herd, it's always in running against the herd.”
36:51 - Finding investment deals as a first-time investor
39:17 - Having a nuanced view while investing in Fintech
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In this episode, we chat with Nishith Rastogi, Founder of Locus.sh; a startup that uses technology and proprietary algorithms to provide smart logistics solutions to businesses such as route optimisation, real-time tracking, insights, and analytics, vehicle allocation, and utilisation.
In 2015, Nishith along with his former AWS-colleague Geet Garg, built RideSafe, a real-time route deviation detection, for passenger safety in cabs. However, they eventually realised the potential of this concept in logistics & supply chain, which led to pivoting to Locus.
Apart from India, Locus.sh is present in Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh, San Francisco, and the East Coast.
For anyone looking to explore horizontal pivot or growth strategy, this conversation can add great value. From identifying the problem statement to creating customer-focused solutions, by leveraging a committed team & inward focus for efficiency, this podcast will guide you through it all.
Notes -
01:55 - Graduating from BITS Pilani, joining Amazon
03:11 - Creating RideSafe, a geo-tracking app for women’s safety
04:26 - Identifying the problem statement in supply chain & logistics
05:53 - Early adopters of Locus.sh
09:30 - Having more PhD’s in the team than engineers early-on
11:58 - Onboarding experience with Unilever; as first enterprise customer
17:56 - Scale up journey from India to 20+ countries
22:15 - Clarity of purpose both as a startup & founder
30:40 - Inward focus on efficiency in terms of capital
31:20 - Cultural shift with the growth of Locus.sh
31:35 - Focus while hiring: Ambition, Commitment & Integrity
36:48 - Concept of “Yes process, but no policy”.
39:21 - Implementation & Ideation OKRs
42:01 - Helpful books & resources
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In this episode, we chat with Bhaskar Majumdar, Founder of Unicorn India Ventures; an early-stage fund with portfolio companies such as - Inc42, OPEN Bank, and VLCC’s VanityCube among others.
Bhaskar spent his early career in various Media companies like - Zee Network & Times Group. He also had an entrepreneurial stint with Recreate Solutions in 2001, which he later sold to US systems integrator.
He has since been an investor in several early-stage technology startups over the years, in India and the UK.
For anyone looking to start up in unconventional sectors, this conversation can add a great value. From identifying the problem statement to creating digital solutions, by leveraging trends & technology, this podcast will guide you through it all.
Notes -
02:04 - Early career in Media domain and founding Unicorn India Ventures
04:25 - Traditional mistake - “Finding a Co-founder whose skillset is exactly complementary to your own”.
06:26 - Identifying portfolio companies in uncommon sectors
08:04 - Thesis behind investments: Digitization of old, rugged & broken systems
11:07 - Investing in Neo Banks based upon the trend shift in large banks abroad
16:59 - Enabling Indian portfolio companies to go global
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In this episode, we chat with Geetha Manjunath, Founder of NIRAMAI; one of India’s most awarded health tech startups using AI to solve the detection of early-stage breast cancer.
Prior to NIRAMAI, Geetha has made her mark at CDAC, HP & Xerox, with her 25+ years of research and innovation background.
Set up in 2016, NIRAMAI is India’s only startup among CB Insights’ 100 most promising AI startups.
For anyone exploring health tech, this conversation would be of great value. From identifying the problem statement to creating affordable solutions for the end-user, by leveraging AI & technology, this podcast will guide you through it all.
Notes -
01:33 - Her belief in “Karma Yoga”
05:11 - Family background and upbringing
06:20 - Getting into IISc, learned - “Enjoying the newness of something”
07:36 - Joining CDAC - Member of the team that developed the First Indian Supercomputer
10:23 - NIRAMAI’s cause - Enabling early-stage detection of Breast Cancer
15:16 - Identifying problem statements and creating solutions
20:11 - Partnering with hospitals and health startups
21:54 - Mammography vs NIRAMAI screening (in terms of OpEx & CapEx)
29:06 - Challenges while fundraising as a Healthcare startup
34:33 - Opportunities for Healthcare startups in India
36:10 - Challenges Healthcare startups should brace up for
42:53 - Future plans at NIRAMAI
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In this episode, we chat with Viraj Sheth, Co-founder, Monk Entertainment and the man behind one of the fastest-growing Influencer marketing agencies in India.
At the age of 24, Viraj started his entrepreneurial journey with his college senior Ranveer Allahbadia who is better known as BeerBiceps on social media.
In this episode, catch Viraj talking about starting Monk Entertainment, getting their first few clients, achieving their current scale, working with companies like Nykaa Men, MamaEarth and much more.
For anyone looking to explore influencer marketing, this conversation would be of great value. From building an audience by sharing about your niche, to having a long term vision when working with a brand, this podcast will guide you through it all.
Notes -
01:14 - Starting Monk Entertainment with Ranveer Allahbadia
06:33 - Working part-time on acquiring clients and Quitting a stable job
08:07 - Growing the startup at the age of 25
10:11 - Current scale at Monk-E
15:35 - Building monetization & business model with creators
19:39 - What differentiates them from other Influencer Marketing Agencies?
22:16 - Setting the right practices for influencers while interacting with brands
23:40 - How is India’s influencer market space evolving?
26:27 - Segmenting creators
30:51 - Two rules to grow the audience on Twitter
35:22 - Structuring and organizing the workflow at Monk-E
39:50 - Learnings from Ranveer Allahbadia
- Visa fler
