Episodes
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Today we have with us Jigar Shah, co-founder 82 Degree East, a skin care brand that he started along with Deepika Padukone.
Jigar's journey, from an investment manager at a VC firm to managing investments for Deepika Padukone and finally co-founding a self-care brand with her, is nothing short of captivating.
Jigar shares how the idea of starting 82°E came to life. Despite having Deepika Padukone as a co-founder, Jigar and Deepika veered away from banking solely on star power.
They concentrated on creating a unique skincare brand committed to satisfying real consumer needs. From establishing an R&D center in Bangalore, catering to a global audience, Jigar also talks about how he and Deepika tackled the design and marketing aspects of their brand to differentiate it in a saturated marketplace.
Subscribe to the 100x Entrepreneur podcast today for more inspiring and informative episodes on the entrepreneurial journey!🚀✨
CHAPTERS: -
00:00:00 - Intro
0:02:21 - 0:04:59 - Jigar's Skincare Routine
0:05:00 - 0:07:58 - Life as a Founder
0:07:59 - 0:13:59 - Indian Entrepreneurs Jigar Admires
0:14:00 - 0:15:11 - How Jigar Met Deepika Padukone
0:15:12 - 0:16:33 - Jigar's First Investment Endeavors
0:16:34 - 0:22:09 - The Birth of 82E
0:22:10 - 0:23:49 - Managing Consumer Expectations with a Celebrity Co-founder
0:23:50 - 0:27:37 - Jigar's Business Relationship with Deepika
0:27:38 - 0:30:43 - Mistakes to Avoid as a Founder
0:30:44 - 0:33:50 - Rapid Fire Questions
0:33:51 - 0:37:41 - Unique D2C Processes at 82E
0:37:42 - End - Unexpected Challenges in the Business Journey -
In today’s episode of the 100x Entrepreneur podcast, we're joined by our very own co-founders, Nansi Mishra, and Siddhartha Ahluwalia.
Did you know that behind the scenes, these founders have been cooking up some incredible strategies? While many listeners might not be aware, Nansi will reveal how Siddhartha's passion for investing led him on an extraordinary journey.
Siddhartha shares his quest of understanding the VC world from close quarters, his struggle to get into the world of VC, and his final landing at Prime Ventures Capital as the community head. Nansi and Siddhartha also throw light on the dynamic landscape of second-time founders , Siddhartha’s preference for companies and why SaaS companies are securing funding with relative ease nowadays.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, an aspiring founder, or just curious about the startup space, this episode is your one-stop resource for all things venture capital. Learn what it takes to attract VC attention and raise that crucial funding.
Subscribe to the 100x Entrepreneur podcast today for more inspiring and informative episodes on the entrepreneurial journey!🚀✨
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In this episode of the 100x Entrepreneur podcast, we have Mr. Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner of Prime Venture Partners, one of India’s top early-stage venture capital funds.
Throughout his career, be it as a business lead at Cisco or as a co‐founder of Snapfish, the world's largest photo site acquired by HP, or at Transarc, which was acquired by IBM, Shripati has combined his passion to build great teams, an extraordinary desire to excel and a keen eye for spotting the tales. He is known for being astute with a razor-sharp intellect and a Zen‐like devotion to data-driven decision‐making.
Shripati has also worked alongside Mr. Nandan Nilekani on the UIDAI project. Having spent substantial parts of working career in the United States and India addressing worldwide markets, Shripati brings a global management perspective.
During the podcast, Shripat shares valuable insights on raising funds,early stage investing, avoiding mistakes as a founder, maintaining a healthy work-life balance and missed investment opportunities too.
If you are an early-stage entrepreneur, we recommend that you tune in to the podcast for a wealth of insights from the startup ecosystem. Be sure to hear the podcast to the end and leave a comment with your favorite parts!
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Welcome to this exciting podcast ep, where we will delve into the world of Prafull Billore, the most famous Chaiwala. In our conversation, we highlight various aspects of his life that have contributed to his success. From understanding how he gets his passion and self-confidence to discussing short-term versus long-term goals, we cover it all!
We also talk about Prafull's journey post-COVID and how he has been able to recover after facing several challenges that helped him mature with experience despite being only 26 years old. As you listen further, you'll discover why Prafull believes that bigger struggles lead to bigger successes and how he constantly strives towards improvement every day.
So come join us on this thrilling ride where we learn more about what else Prafull is planning in store for the future!
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights of the conversation
01:12 - Prafull Billore, the most famous Chaiwala
03:05 - What makes him so confident
06:58 - Having short-term goals v/s long-term goals
09:25 - Opening his 2nd outlet
12:33 - Recovering post COVID
15:21 - Current scale of opening new outlets
17:58 - Challenges while scaling
21:17 - How do his thoughts become inspiring?
25:42 - Emulating successful people like Jeff Bezos
28:33 - Maturing with experiences at the age of 26
30:09 - “Bigger the struggle, bigger the success.”
32:23 - How is Prafull of today better than the Prafull of yesterday?
34:13 - Best quality - “Learning How to ask for help!”
40:14 - Bias for action - Content creator vs Entrepreneur
42:12 - What more is he planning for?
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Whatfix has a user base of over 10 million people and has been used to create over 1.5 million digital walkthroughs and tutorials. It has 500+ enterprise customers worldwide, including companies like HP, Schneider Electric, and Autodesk. Since its launch in 2014, Whatfix has become a go-to solution for businesses across multiple industries.
The platform has also received the "Best SaaS Product for Web/App Development" at the 2021 SaaS Awards.
In this episode, we have Whatfix founders Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar Namburu share the journey of Whatfix from their first offline Dreamforce event to reaching 10 Million people, their vision, clients, scale, culture and more.
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights of the conversation
02:06 - What’s Whatfix and how it’s unique
04:07 - Strategy of CTO moving to the US and CEO being in India
06:31 - Bringing Vispi Daver as an Angel Investor
10:18 - Avoid falling into the trap of following someone else’s playbook as a first-time founder
14:13 - Getting the first few Enterprise customers
15:57 - Taking Counter-intuitive bets
19:40 - Their first big event Dreamforce
25:02 - Going one step back, would they do a 10-15 member round table for their most interested CIOs post Dreamforce event?
26:49 - Focusing on farming with Account Managers
31:36 - Advice to SaaS founder: When to focus on Brand?
34:10 - Brand-building after their first Dreamforce
36:45 - Their initial Ideal customer profile
37:58 - Challenges & Hurdles in their 1 to 10 journey
39:23 - Examples where the deal got stuck at IT Security or CFO-level
43:55 - Enabling multiple stakeholders in a sales decision
46:30 - Traditional profile of a sales person
47:24 - Hiring profile of their initial senior sales team
49:28 - How to deal with people’s Title expectation?
54:23 - Building their culture early-on
56:28 - Mistakes in their early journey
58:06 - Guiding the early team in current journey
1:00:05 - Time & efforts in recent rounds of fundings
1:04:27 - Raising from Stellaris Venture Partners
1:05:32 - Changing path amongst the founders
1:06:59 - Account plan review with customers
1:08:50 - Having set accounts with every leader to help the customers succeed
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Imagine a social micro-blogging platform like Twitter that allows users to express themselves in their local languages on a large scale. Well, that's precisely what Koo offers. In today's episode, we are joined by Aprameya Radhakrishna, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Koo.
Aprameya's first startup was TaxiForSure, which was acquired by Ola Cabs in 2015. Since then, he has invested in over 30 early-stage startups, including Unacademy, TapChief, and Daily Ninja.
During our conversation, Aprameya discusses his thoughts on Indian startups and tech talent building for global markets, his experience with VCs as a second-time entrepreneur, and much more.
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights
01:47 - Aprameya Radhakrishna and Koo's story
03:23 - Koo's scale in India and Brazil
08:30 - Current market headwinds
10:59 - Koo's positioning in the audience's mind
13:17 - VC and investor perspective being a second-time founder
15:13 - Going deeper in India v/s Going Global
16:30 - Exiting TaxiForSure
17:56 - Focus on product and traction while building a product
20:29 - Learnings from TaxiForSure
22:36 - Confidence to go global as a consumer internet company from India
26:50 - Self-doubt while starting Koo
31:14 - Change in Aprameya's ability to read the market
33:22 - Gut feeling about the recession's duration
37:04 - Balancing confidence and arrogance as a founder
40:17 - Relationship with VCs over time
45:00 - Future bets in the next 10 years
46:32 - Riskiest bets that paid off
48:02 - Financial independence's impact on Aprameya as a person
49:57 - Aprameya's other aspirations besides building Koo
51:53 - Is the core India shining?
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A report by Deloitte and Wipro estimated that the value of B2B digital payments in India will reach $700 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 30% from 2020.
The B2B digital payment ecosystem in India has been growing rapidly, driven by factors such as:
# Government initiatives to promote digital payments
# Increasing adoption of mobile devices and internet connectivity
# Growing awareness of the benefits of digital payments among businesses and moreIn this episode we have with us Akash Sinha, Co-founder & CEO, Cashfree payments, talking about B2B Digital payments ecosystem in India.
Cashfree Payments has processed over 200 million transactions as of 2021, with a total transaction value of over $12 billion.
It serves over 3,00,000 businesses, ranging from small startups to large enterprises, across various industries such as e-commerce, travel, hospitality, and fintech such as Dream11, Zomato, Dunzo, CRED, Acko, and Nykaa amongst others.
Cashfree Payments offers various payment solutions, such as payment gateway, payouts, auto-collect, recurring payments, and marketplace settlements. They have also launched new products like Cashgram and Cashfree AI to improve the user experience and prevent fraud.
Let’s deep dive into the episode where Akash has their initial journey with heavy competition in the market, complying with RBI regulations as a payment solution provider, and much more.
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights of the conversation
02:07 - Intro to Akash Sinha, Cashfree Payments and Payment ecosystem in India
03:09 - Journey so far & Indian payment’s landscape
06:37 - Mapping the payment landscape’s online segment
10:05 - Cashfree’s share in B2B payments in India
11:06 - Strengths of Razorpay & Cashfree Payments
13:59 - Larger customers such as - Meesho, Swiggy, Zepto, and CRED among others
14:50 - SME signups and payments insights across India
16:59 - Scaling with a Platform approach
18:14 - Being part of YC early-on
20:22 - Strengths as a CEO & Founder
24:57 - Y-o-Y growth at Cashfree Payments
26:01 - Plans for IPO
26:31 - Emotional Journey of a founder in the last 8 years
27:53 - Steering clear in a competitive market back in 2015
32:05 - Building multiple products to solve multiple problems
34:44 - India’s growing Digital infrastructure
38:03 - Advice for entrepreneurs to choose tough markets with large tailwinds
39:56 - Coming from a Non-fintech background
42:32 - How fast is the Digital payments market growing?
43:35 - How tough is it to be compliant with RBI regulatory changes?
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By end-2019, just before the pandemic, the market for Coworking spaces was spread over some 30 million sq. ft, with 471,782 seats across the top seven markets in India, per JLL Research data.
In December 2022, the numbers grew to 50 million sq. ft and 750,000+ seats. In the next three years, the co-working space market in India is set to cross the 1-million-seats mark spread over 75 million sq. ft.
WeWork India is the leading provider of flexible workspace solutions with almost 70,000+ seats across 44+ locations in India.
In this episode, we have Karan Virwani, CEO, WeWork India, talking about his experience of bringing and scaling WeWork in India, over the past 7 years.
Karan brought WeWork to India in a partnership tie-up with his family's Embassy Group. Starting business operations in the country with 100k sq ft, WeWork India has progressed to 6.5mn sq ft as of today. Within 6 years, WeWork India has grown from 2,200 members in WeWork Galaxy, Bangalore, to 44 locations across 6 cities in India today - Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, and Pune.
During the episode, Karan shares the ups and downs in their journey, especially during Covid, and how they tackled the situation which helped them build goodwill and scale back faster post things normalized.
This podcast is for anyone who wants to have an insider view of India’s growing Flex workspace market.
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights of the conversation
01:34 - Intro to Karan Virwani, WeWork and Global Co-working phenomenon
02:27 - Bringing WeWork to India
09:36 - Why not start under the Embassy brand name and why start with WeWork?
12:16 - Borrowing the DNA of WeWork Global to India
13:37 - Scaling to 40+ WeWorks and 70,000+ Desks in India
15:57 - Back into Growth mode post Covid
17:14 - Having multiple landlords for Pan-India growth
18:39 - Initial investment & roadblocks in their journey
24:43 - Plans for WeWork IPO in India
25:33 - Coworking customer segment in India v/s Global
33:16 - Coworking as a culture amongst Traditional & Legacy companies
34:05 - Operating in a certain price segment
36:44 - Partner-led approach during Covid
40:01 - Sector-wise demand of commercial real-estate
43:07 - Hitting $1 Bn revenue in 3 years
43:38 - Coworking as a % of Commerical Real Estate in India
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As per Tracxn, there are 1100+ SaaS startups in Chennai as of Feb 2023.
Chennai has rightfully gained the title of the SAAS capital of India, thanks to the expansion of companies such as Zoho and Freshworks.
Although these two firms have recently surpassed the $500 million revenue milestone, making them the most prominent success stories in the realm of Indian-based SAAS companies, there are other companies contributing to Chennai's reputation in the market. Chargebee, CloudCherry, HappyFox, and FourKites are among the businesses that are creating a unique space in the industry.
In this episode, we have with us Srikrishnan Ganesan Founder, Rocketlane. Srikrishnan's SaaS journey began with Konotor, which got acquired by FreshWorks and later became Freshchat. He has experienced scaling from 0 to 100 and is now building Rocketlane, a customer onboarding platform that reduces time to value and eliminates hit-or-miss experiences.
During the episode, he talks about his inspiration behind building Rocketlane, Planning and doing GTM early on being a SaaS founder, setting up a base in Chennai, and much more.
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights of the conversation
01:32 - Intro to Srikrishnan Ganesan, Rocketlane and Chennai’s SaaS ecosystem
02:36 - Why do SaaS founders prefer Chennai?
06:09 - Advantages of building prior-product building experience
09:50 - Choosing the domain for Rocketlane
13:12 - Rocketlane’s Pre-Launch setup
18:53 - What works in customer conversation’s Pre-Launch?
22:44 - Why do SaaS founders ignore GTM?
24:35 - Raising their 1st round
26:32 - Choosing to become a Category creator
29:08 - Investing in Brand-building upfront
30:39 - Funding announcement with a Rap video
34:15 - Learnings from his journey
37:54 - Their strategy for Demand-Gen
40:29 - His thoughts on Generative-AI
45:47 - Slowness demand for Rocketlane or similar companies serving SMBs
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Imagine you’re part of an NBFC, how would you lend to a person running a Kirana business? Without any proper credit score, current account or other standard checks.
Finding it difficult to evaluate the credit worthiness of the shop owner. Right? In the age of the internet, UPI, net banking, Jan Dhan Bank account and almost all transaction-related data available with transparency, it seems possible.
Now imagine dealing with the same issue, back in 1984. Seems impossible right?
Well, that’s when Five Star Business Finance, ventured into small business financing.
In this episode, we have with us, Rangarajan Krishnan, CEO, Five Star Business Finance.
Dive into this episode as Rangarajan shares the journey of Five Star, their experience of going IPO recently, how RBI regulates NBFCs, what differentiates them from other NBFCs, Banks Fintech, and more.
This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and anyone looking to learn more about the working, valuation, and scaling of NBFCs in India.
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights of the conversation
01:28 - Intro to Rangarajan & Five Star Business Finance
02:38 - Valuation for NBFCs while going IPO
03:14 - Their IPO journey over three phases
10:29 - Private round valuation Pre-IPO
13:33 - History and background of Five Star
22:03 - RBI’s regulations around deposit-taking NBFCs
23:26 - How does the lending market in India looks like?
26:29 - The simplest way to define a customer of Five Star
31:51 - Branch presence across major geographies in India
37:10 - RBI scale-based regulations for 10,000+ NBFCs
39:45 - What differentiates them from other NBFCs?
42:41 - Do they aspire to be amongst the Top 10-15 NBFCs in the next 2-3 years?
44:11 - Prerequisites from RBI for starting an NBFC
46:16 - Do they want to become a Fintech eventually?
49:20 - Being a CEO and a Non-founder
51:39 - His interaction while joining Five Star
56:53 - Managing his & promotor's responsibilities
57:46 - Things he has changed & retained in the company in the last 7+ years
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In this episode, we talk with Mithun Sacheti, the founder of CaratLane, who has disrupted the traditional jewellery industry in India by leveraging technology and innovation. He started CaratLane in 2008 with the vision to provide access to beautiful jewellery designs at an affordable price.
Mithun Sacheti comes from a Marwari family and joined the family jewellery business, Jaipur Gems, after graduation. He started its stores in Chennai. Later, he founded CaratLane in 2008 after being inspired by the online jewellery retailer, Blue Nile. CaratLane aims to solve the problem of limited access to beautiful and affordable jewellery designs for the middle class in India.
The conversation dives into his entrepreneurial journey, his insights on the Indian D2C startup ecosystem, and the challenges he faced along the way. Mithun recalls the struggles he had in convincing Bluedart to be their shipping partner and how it took them almost a year and a crore to build their website.
Tune in now to know Mithun’s journey of building CaratLane from scratch, his belief that in life, the harder thing is not to find answers but to find the right questions and what are the next questions for him in life.
Notes -
00:00 - Highlights of the conversation
01:45 - The idea & Need of CaratLane
01:55 - Disrupting the underserved jewellery market in India
03:19 - The first one to bring jewellery at low prices
03:33 - The designs should be democratised
03:55 - Becoming the Market Maker
04:04 - The reality of the Jewellery Market in India
06:08 - Why 25% of your wealth should be in form of gold?
06:47 - The effect of the Ukraine War on the purchase of gold
07:05 - Quitting family business to start Caratlane
08:30 - Life of kids born in families running big businesses
08:58 - Inspiration behind starting Caratlane
10:36 - First few pivots in their product journey
13:38 - Initial phase of building and growing Caratlane
17:57 - Raising funding & building for Titan
21:57 - Journey after Tiger Global’s funding
24:12 - Getting advice from Raamdeo Agrawal at Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s dinner
31:48 - Why do people really buy jewellery?
39:13 - Tata group being able to marry the Entrepreneur to the business post-acquisition
43:03 - Learnings while working with Tata
46:15 - What are the next questions in life for him? -
Manish Mundra is an Investor, a film producer, and a man whose story is an inspiration for all the small-town people with big dreams.
Manish was born in a Marwadi family based in Deoghar, Jharkhand. He along with his family experienced a difficult time when his father’s business suffered a setback. From selling sarees to cold drinks, he had done it all to support his family. Manish later on focused on his education and did his MBA from a college in Jodhpur. He, later on, moved to Nigeria to join a multinational Petrochemicals firm and rose up to become its CEO.
In 2013, Manish responded to a tweet by actor-director Rajat Kapoor, offering to produce a movie based on his script—Ankhon Dekhi (2014).
After that, Manish founded Drishyam Films to back socially relevant films like Masaan, Newton, Ankhon Dekhi and more becoming one of the most promising filmmakers of Indian cinema. Recently, he also released his first movie Siya as a director.
In our conversation with Manish, he shares his journey from his early days in Deoghar to moving to Nigeria and then finding a way to produce and direct movies.
He also opens up about his passion for promoting diversity and inclusivity in cinema and why it's so important to give a voice to underrepresented communities.
Manish's infectious energy and inspiring story that he has will definitely make you think that when it comes to dreams, the sky's the limit for him.
Notes -
02:08 - Intro to Manish Mundra
05:48 - Moving out of India
10:33 - Initial life in Middle-class families
20:34 - Working hard early in career to scale faster
23:50 - His experience with his first film - “Ankhon Dekhi” with Rajat Kapoor
35:33 - Slow compounding throughout his journey
39:18 - Being a filmmaker who has no background of movies
42:47 - More screens for independent film-makers
52:02 - Dealing with your inferiority complex?
56:35 - More evolved and More Spiritual
57:14 - What’s the purpose that’s driving Manish at the age of 49?
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In the recent episode of Shark Tank India which went viral, we saw Ganesh Balakrishnan, the Co-Founder of Flatheads Shoes, pitch his sustainable and ethically-made footwear brand to the Sharks.
Although Ganesh faced some initial skepticism from the Sharks, he didn't give up and continued to present his vision with confidence and determination.
And through his pitch, he made everyone realize that entrepreneurship is not only Unicorns, fundraisers, and large secondaries for the founders. It's mainly about the fight that goes on within an individual and with the outside world.
Ganesh's tenacity and perseverance in the face of rejection are an inspiration to all entrepreneurs, and his story is a reminder that success doesn't come easy and entrepreneurship is a long journey.
In this episode, we talk to Ganesh about his journey as an entrepreneur, the inspiration behind Flatheads Shoes, and the challenges he's faced along the way.
Listen to the full episode to learn more about Ganesh’s new Mantra for Entrepreneurship "Down but not out"
Notes -
01:22 - Intro to Ganesh
02:42 - Getting into Shark Tank
05:02 - What happened once the episode aired?
07:32 - The Joy of Creation
14:12 - Emotional Journey with family as an Entrepreneur
20:51 - Impact of Covid on Flatheads
28:44 - What’s next for Flatheads?
33:15 - Pandemic-driven thought process: Offline vs Online
35:28 - What else was discussed in the Shark Tank pitch that wasn’t aired?
38:12 - Why didn't he take the Shark Tank offer?
39:45 - What brings humility to an entrepreneur?
43:50 - Knowing what he got to know after Shark Tank, what would he have done differently in Flatheads' journey?
47:11 - His focus in 2023
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The Indian Grocery market was at 396 Billion Indian Rupees in 2022.
Over 95% of Indian grocery stores are made up of Kiranas or small grocery stores.
While supermarkets account for about 4% of total grocery shares, online groceries are not even near one percent.
Which stands as a huge potential market for companies like BigBasket, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, JioMart, and Dunzo to scale.
Zepto pioneered 10 min grocery delivery In India. It’s a phenomenon that took India by storm. And this is a unique Indian offering. Nowhere in the world has 10 min delivery been pioneered and scaled like in India.
And there are very few businesses born once in a decade that change consumer behavior permanently. Flipkart pioneered e-commerce in India, BigBasket pioneered grocery in India delivered in 3-4 days and Zepto has pioneered grocery delivered in 10 mins.
In this episode, we have Aadit Palicha, Founder & CEO, Zepto sharing his journey so far with us.
During the conversation, Aadit also mentioned about his first startup, moving back to India during Covid, dropping out of Stanford, and starting Zepto.
Notes -
00:00 - Intro
01:36 - The life story of Aadit before starting Zepto
02:36 - First startup at age 16
08:18 - Dropping out of Stanford
10:21 - First round of funding from Y-combinator and Nexus
12:30 - Growth & Challenges in Zepto’s journey so far
17:35 - Is grocery a big enough category to build a large enough business?
20:54 - Is it possible to become profitable in this space?
25:50 - Headwinds in their business
28:46 - Going public in India at $10 Bn
34:00 - Where does 99%+ of his learnings come from?
37:45 - Avoid taking a hit on culture as you scale
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SaaS startups in India have seen significant growth in recent years. The country's SaaS market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 22.5% from 2020 to 2025, reaching a value of $6.3 billion.
A few of the factors driving this growth are:
Increasing adoption of cloud computingAvailability of advanced tech infrastructure in IndiaSupport from the Government of India for funding, mentorship, and other resources to entrepreneurs.In India, there are Investors and founders who have witnessed the evolution of SaaS in India. With his notable investments like Whatfix, LimeChat, GTM Buddy, Alok has built his own thesis for SaaS over the years.
Tune in to hear Alok sharing about the top SaaS companies in India, what all has changed in his investing thesis, the categories he’s most bullish on, and why SaaS sector is only going to rise in the coming years.
Notes -
01:53 - How Alok got into investing
02:44 - Evolution of SaaS in India
08:16 - Definition of global category leaders in SaaS
10:02 - Is there a known pattern in the US for his portfolio companies in India?
13:23 - SaaS investments in 2022
14:02 - Next 3-4 years for SaaS in India
19:03 - Building a GTM engine in the US with a seed round in India
23:00 - Focus on reducing burn
24:51 - Growth in more & more $100Mn ARR companies in India
29:14 - The Edge India has in creating successful SaaS startups
31:28 - Major shift in his thesis in the past years
38:21 - His focus on AI automation startups
43:55 - Thesis on Developer-Centric Softwares
48:50 - Backing founders at Idea Stage
58:34 - What he looks for in founders?
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Why the DARLING Edtech in 2021 became a taboo in 2022 for VCs?What do students really expect? Why do Edtech entrepreneurs fail? And what's the most important factor in EdTech Success?
Today we talk with Manan Khurma, Founder at Cuemath who answers all these questions for us.
During our conversation he shares how building an Education venture is not like building on a rocket ship, but building with trust.
He has been building Cuemath for almost the last decade and he highlights that unlike the common notion or FOMO behind going online being an Edtech venture, right before Covid, only 5% of their entire revenue came via Online classes.
His first question to any new entrepreneur looking to enter the Edtech space is if they are ready to give atleast two decades to build their educational venture.
Further during the episode Manan shares their views on performance marketing in edtech, building trust for students and parents, and much more.
Notes -
02:21 - Manan’s journey to becoming a teacher and entrepreneur
04:31 - What’s his view of Edtech landscape both in India and globally?
08:08 - Which are the institutions that inspire him?
11:55 - Going down the attention span of kids in the last decade
17:45 - Certain kids already being great at grasping new things
21:19 - Zoho Shoutout
23:30 - Getting answers has become really easy
27:39 - Real learning happens when a student puts their brain in isolation to a problem
29:07 - Increase in the number of screens in our home
33:11 - Thesis on how not to build an Education venture
39:31 - Mercenary category of Entrepreneur
45:15 - Current scale of Cuemath
47:55 - Their approach to starting coding courses
49:30 - Essence of Analytical thinking
50:54 - Goal to build a strong base and system
51:52 - Best way to build a 1,00,000 paid students base in Educational venture
54:22 - How have the customer acquisition channels evolved?
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Recently the trend in startups has been around growing fast, scaling faster, and becoming humongous with viral products, ideas & marketing.
But in most cases, such ideas come crashing down in a short span of time, because of the lack of depth either in the product or the customer base.
In this episode, almost after a year and half since we published NoBroker Founder Amit Agarwal’s episode, we have with us his Co-founder Akhil Gupta to talk more about their journey of building NoBroker with depth in every market and focus on customers over the last 10 years.
During the episode, Akhil shares the ups and downs in their journey, along with the initial response they got while they were trying to raise their first round, what are his thoughts about the current & future of the housing market in India, and more.
Notes -
01:26 - Early Product Market Fit moment for NoBroker
07:19 - Clarity to make NoBroker the largest Real Estate solution in India
08:53 - The most challenging obstacles
13:35 - Defining moments in their journey
15:19 - Mistakes they made being founders
16:46 - Key factors why they succeeded
20:35 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on What does Zoho Payroll do and what’s the story behind it?
21:36 - Future Plans
23:41 - How they become the Amazon of Real Estate
25:16 - Passion behind starting NoBroker
30:40 - Why they got rejected by so many VCs
32:29 - Realistic way of building a sustainable growing startup
38:07 - Reason behind the sky-rocketing of rentals in Bangalore
42:04 - Impact of global factors on the Indian Housing market
Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll
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Where was the Indian Startup Ecosystem back in 2010-12, where is it now in 2022 and where is it headed 5 years down the line, in terms of -
# Digital Infrastructure
# Tech Talent
# Innovative mindset amongst founders
# Investments from VCs and Angel Investors and more.In this episode, we will talk about all of it, with our guest, Santosh Panda, Co-founder, Foundership where he is Incubating & Accelerating Top Founders & Builders Launch Defining Web3 Startup of tomorrow.
Tune in to hear Santosh share his insights on the importance of finding a Co-founder, the opportunities of the Indian Startup Ecosystem in the years to come, the past, present & future of Web3, and much more.
Notes -
00:00 - Bhai tu Co-founder banega?
01:55 - Meeting with Santosh for the first time
06:40 - Being compassionate
09:05 - Convincing someone to become your Co-founder
16:22 - Being within the Startup Ecosystem since 2008
19:57 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on how is Zoho Payroll solving problems beyond payroll.
23:35 - Thoughts about the current Indian Startup Ecosystem
31:00 - How would 2025-2030 be like for Indian Startups?
34:47 - Tech Innovation in India for last mile connectivity
37:09 - The essence of having a Digital Infrastructure in India
41:18 - What is there for India in Web3?
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As of today, only 15% of India’s population lives in the top 50 cities, and the remaining 85% which accounts to around 119 crores, live in towns or villages.
According to an ASER survey, the availability of smartphones in rural India was 67.6 % in 2021, primarily bought for kids’ studies amid the pandemic.
With this, we can make out that even in towns and villages, the penetration of smartphones and the internet is huge and people in villages are driven to spend higher to provide better learning resources to their children.
This exact learning is what drove our guest, Lal Chand Bisu, Founder, Kuku FM, to build a product for Bharat.
In today’s episode, we talk with Lal Chand Bisu to understand, how he was able to build a subscription model product for the mass Indians and what have been his learnings over the years while scaling Kuku FM.
Notes -
01:50 - Intro
02:20 - Do the mass Indians pay for subscriptions?
03:46 - How do Indians define value?
05:37 - How is Kukufm an aspirational product for the masses?
08:05 - Indians consuming aspirational content
11:33 - Split of content on Kuku FM
12:36 - Starting Non-series content in form of Mini-episodes
16:25 - Popularity of Personal Finance on Kuku FM
18:24 - Family Background and the entrepreneurial path he chose
20:26 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on what makes Zolo Payroll different from its competitors?
28:46 - How was he motivated to do something out of his league?
32:36 - Why do people in towns or villagers aspire for Government jobs?
36:44 - Convincing Indian consumers to pay for Non-fictional content subscriptions
Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll -
The direct-to-consumer market, known as the D2C market had a size of about $33 billion in India in 2020. By 2025, the total addressable D2C market is forecast to grow almost threefold and reach $100 billion.
In today’s episode, we have with us, Abhishek Goenka, Head of Investments, RPSG Capital Ventures.
RPSG Capital Ventures is an early-stage consumer VC fund focused on investing in the D2C ecosystem including food & beverage, personal care, and lifestyle goods.
Some of their portfolio companies are mCaffeine, Plixlife, and The Souled Store among others.
In today’s episode, Abhishek shares the differentiating factor of what led them to invest in Plixlife, one of their portfolio’s profitable exits, and more.
Notes -
01:07 - Intro to RPSG and its investments in D2C space
02:42 - Largest portfolio companies and what helped them reach there
03:45 - What’s D2C from his perspective?
05:04 - What has helped D2C in India to have explosive growth?
13:51 - How does a D2C brand differentiate itself in today’s time?
20:39 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on what is their long-term vision with Zoho Payroll.
22:23 - Thesis which didn’t work out
29:41 - Why don’t we see many D2C unicorns in India?
32:14 - What are the moats for a D2C brand?
34:54 - Doubling down on the Hero productAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll
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