Episodes
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{Karthik Venkateswaran, Co-founder & CEO of Jumbotail}
Karthik served with the Indian army in hard combat and had successful stints with marketplaces such as eBay in the US and Flipkart in India before launching Jumbotail along with his Stanford University batchmate Ashish Jhina.
On this episode I chat with why Karthik & Ashish united behind this problem, and we deep dive into the business & the inspiration for Karthik to leave the military service and pursue entrepreneurship.
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→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Jumbotail was founded with the objective of enabling the Kiranas or corner stores by envisioning a full stack experience; creating a wholesale marketplace and new retail platform to help retailers with inventory management, a digital PoS, working capital and retail as a service to make them modern convenience stores.
Jumbotail’s endeavour to build products, platforms, and services for the next billion people of India has landed them in over $55 million in funding from Venture Capital funds such as Nexus VP, Kalaari Capital & Heron Rick fund.
Enjoy another classic episode! Jumbotail is hiring massively across verticals, reach out to Karthik & the team via [email protected]
Stay safe!
— V {i’m on Twitter @varunvummidi }
Timeline:
00:00 - Introduction to Jumbotail
03:45 - Moving to Entrepreneurship from Military service
06:38 - Challenges building Jumbotail
10:20 - Battling competition in the food & grocery market
15:46 - Distribution is king?
20:28 - Differentiating in a supply rich market
26:45 - Post pandemic user behaviour
31:24 - Managing many business under the umbrella
37:22 - Hiring
39:10 - Learning from combat applied to business
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{Jitendra Chouksey, Co-Founder of FITTR}
The latest episode is with Jitendra Chouksey, aka JC, Founder & CEO of FITTR. FITTR has a highly engaged 2 million strong community focused on getting healthy and transforming themselves with the help of FITTR coaches, using the resources available. On this episode we chat about the journey from a small WhatsApp group that was created to assist a few friends and colleagues to becoming the platform it is today.
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→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Founded in 2016, JC a software engineer transformed himself while working a 12-hour a day IT job. He created and shared a training methodology through his free book “Get Shredded” to prove that anyone can get fit with the knowledge of Quantified Nutrition. Now that has spawned into a fitness company that has a vision of making millions of people across the world fit and to create meaningful career opportunities in the fitness industry.
We discuss:
Building Fittr’s highly engaged community
Growing the user base & finding the missing pieces in achieving fitness goals
Choosing Sequoia’s Surge program over Y-CombinatorPlease do share the episode, and do spread the word!
Hope you and the family are well.
- V { Twitter @varunvummidi }
Timeline:
01:15 - Introduction to FITTR
05:10 - Journey to getting FITTR
08:39 - Transitioning from a Hobby project to a business
12:10 - Transitioning Groups to the mobile application
15:25 - Managing FB groups
17:00 - Engaging users
27:45 - 60% of coaches were clients of FITTR
33:25 - Joining an accelerator program having positive cashflows
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Missing episodes?
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EP54: {Ashish Singhal, Co-Founder of CoinSwitch}
Hi Stars!
Apologies for the sporadic episodes and the long gap between the last episode! Hope you and your family are safe and well during this crazy time. Go get vaccinated, please don’t wait.— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Founded by 3 friends Govind, Vimal & Ashish, friends from NSIT in 2017, CoinSwitch is now backed by bluechip fin-tech investors like Ribbit Capital, Paradigm and Sequoia India, raising $15 million in their Series A round. In April 2021, they raised another $25 million ( ₹181 crore) from Tiger Global - valuing Coinswitch at more than $500 million.
Buoyed by the massive interest amongst Indians for cryptocurrencies, the platform has witnessed 350% growth in its user base since January this year. The most actively transacting age group on the platform is between 25-35 and the platform is witnessing a huge demand from Tier 2 and 3 cities. Investors from Tier 2 and 3 towns account for as much as 54% of Coinswitch’s user base.
Do spread the word!
- V { Twitter @varunvummidi }
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EP53: Pivots and the story to selling a majority stake to Reliance {Harsh Shah, Co-Founder of Fynd}
Are you enjoying the new episodes of S&S? Do write to me! Also, do recommend amazing founders & stories that are worth spreading from the Startup scene in India.
On the episode, I speak with someone I have known a while from the early days of ecommerce. I chat with Harsh Shah, an alumnus of the IIT, Bombay, and a co-founder of FYND. Harsh is also an angel investor with over 19 investments.
In this conversation I chat about the many pivots FYND made to find their mojo, the business models in retail commerce for Indian retailers and what brought FYND to Reliance.
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→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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FYND offers a technology solutions to retail merchants that helps them manage their inventory and sales across various demand channels. Founded by Farooq Adam, Harsh, and Sreeraman MG, Fynd had raised more than $7 million from investors including Google, Kae Capital, IIFL, Singularity Ventures, and GrowX, among others.
FYND has pivoted and made major changes since its launch in 2012. Initially, it was called Shopsense, which provided brands with different products to improve customer experience. Some of its clients included Lee, Satya Paul, Anita Dongre, Flying Machine, and Being Human (along with other 330 brands, these are still FYND’s clients).
In 2019 Reliance acquired a majority stake in the company buying out all investors.
Spread the word!
- @varunvummidi
Timeline:
01:00 - Intro to FYND and Harsh
06:01 - Shopsense, the solution
12:30 - Why did retailers adopt Shopsense, what were they buying?
19:19 - The second pivot
23:01 - Choosing to go down a specific path vs supporting retailers with technology
30:30 - Evolution of FYND into pure tech Ominchannel stack
35:02 - Choosing the type of client to go after
38:15 - Supporting Reliance brand stores & the future with Reliance
46:20 - Explosion & democratisation of e-commerce
50:10 - Angel investor
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EP52: 600k users & creating a Brand for Generations {Ankit Garg, Co-Founder of Wakefit}
Ever wondered what the deal was with foam mattresses? Is it better that coir? Listen in.
Ankit Garg of Wakefit is on the show this week, Wakefit is a mattress brand that has been offering Indian customers the ability to buy a mattress online and have it home delivered at a very affordable price. Bringing down the cost while making it convenient to upgrade old mattresses.
In the conversation we chat about the size of the mattress market, building a brand for generations & a lot more about mattresses!
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→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
→ Avail a Wakefit.co discount using code: WFSTARS27 for a 27% discount on MRP and applicable to online orders on their website website only [terms: discount applicable 3rd March to 31st March only on orders above INR 1000]
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Wakefit identifies itself as a sleep and home solutions company, and has raised ₹185 crores as a part of its Series B funding in 2020 with investments from European investment firm Verlinvest & existing investor Sequoia Capital India.
The company has been profitable since inception with its revenue growing from ₹80 crore in 2018-19 fiscal to ₹199 crore in 2019-20 fiscal, as per audited financial statements. With almost 35% of the demand from tier 2 and tier 3 markets. Wakefit is playing in the furniture segment in India that is currently worth $17 billion and is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15-17%.
Do spread the word!
- V { Twitter @varunvummidi }
Timeline:
02:07 - Reviews on Amazon
05:36 - Iteration process
10:54 - How does customer interactions translate into products?
16:54 - When does one diversify?
19:40 - Selling a touch-and-feel product via the Internet
24:00 - What’s special about foam tech?
29:40 - Is foam mattress better than coir mattresses?
39:01 - Do mattresses need to be replaced?
40:24 - Raising funds for Wakefit
45:02 - Does depending on Amazon carries a platform risk?
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Yes, been a while but we're back with a packed episode!
On this episode, episode 51, I speak with Rajiv Srivatsa a co-founder of a well loved consumer brand in the digital age, UrbanLadder.
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→ Don’t forget to subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Youtube links: https://anchor.fm/stars-and-startups
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Super fun chat with Rajiv on building a consumer brand in India. UrbanLadder was likely the big daddy of the Direct 2 Consumer trend in India. No retail stores, creating a brand, selling only private labels with only UL branded products. We discuss how using NPS in different areas of the business can help retain customers, the UL journey & solid advice for brands starting up now.
Rajiv has recently joined the Singapore-based early-stage venture capital and private equity firm Antler as head of India and local partner. Do reach out via Linkedin, he's extremely helpful!
Do share the episode, would be awesome if you did!
— Varun
{host is on Twitter @varunvummidi }
Timeline:
00:15 - Intro to Rajiv & UL
07:17 - Early days of building a customer centric brand
09:02 - Using new channels for creating low cost marketing
12:40 - Scarcity & authenticity to drive user demand
13:30 - Genesis for Urban Ladder
15:40 - Keeping NPS as the North Star for Urban Ladder
21:48 - Tracking & setting up NPS
24:22 - Aligning & setting Brand values
26:43 - Learnings from the downswing of UL
32:00 - Is India ready to buy furniture online*
37:00 - Reflecting on experiences and getting into the habit of writing & being vulnerable
40:24 - Real Reasons to Startup
43:46 - Intro to Antler
47:40 - Closing thoughts
Urban Ladder had raised Rs 770 Cr since 2012 and was acquired by Reliance for Rs 182 Cr in November 2020. Urban Ladder had raised capital from likes of Steadview, Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital. The company had been struggling for the last two years of existence to find new backers whereas existing investors had not backed the company in follow on rounds. Urban Ladder and Pepperfry promised to disrupt the unorganised furniture and home decor market during the 2012-13 period. However some believe that Urban Ladder struggled for several reasons including challenges in supply chain management and believe that Ikea’s entry had dried up the investors’ confidence in the segment. With the acquisition of Urban Ladder, Pepperfry is the only independent large player in the online furniture segment, recently raising a $40 million round led by Pidilite at a valuation over $460 million.
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EP50: {Rahul Bhardwaj, Co-Founder & COO of Junglee Games}
On the blockbuster 50th episode, we chat with my friend and mentor Rahul of Junglee. Junglee Games has seen tremendous success in eights years since founding in 2012, with millions of users across multiple skill based games on Web and Mobile. Junglee today has over 25 million users and clocks more than $600M GMV
Prior to Junglee Games, Rahul was the co founder and Product Mango at TwoMangoes.com, a leading dating site for South Asians, and Vayyoo, a web to mobile solutions company, both of which he successfully exited.
This episode is full of interesting nuggets about gaming, biohacking & Naval Ravikant.
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→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast will be available on my YouTube Channel
→ Checkout Beandeck.com to discover a range of curated Indian coffees & brewing equipment, use code STAR to get a discount on your order!
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Stays Safe
- V (@varunvummidi)
Timeline:
01:00 - Gaming's place in the world
03:50 - Growth of gaming in the last 8 years
12:00 - Business models for mobile gaming
18:51 - Neuroscience & feedback loops in gaming
21:20 - Should India building games for India?
26:30 - Importance of familiarity in building popular games
32:19 - Naval Ravikant as an advisor
37:10 - Biohacking advice for founders
44:29 - 5 things to change your life
47:45 - Learnings from exiting 2 startups -
EP49: {Rohan Bhargava, Co-Founder of CashKaro}
I speak with Rohan on building a business offering cashbacks that works with over 1500+ e-commerce websites. Famously, Cashkaro is a Ratan Tata backed startup. Rohan shares why he & his wife Swati gave up lucrative jobs in finance, moved back to India from London in the early days of starting up, how affiliate businesses operate and a lot more on this extremely intriguing conversation!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
→ Checkout Beandeck.com to discover a range of curated Indian coffees & brewing equipment, use code STAR to get a discount on your order!
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As a category leader, CashKaro has made cashbacks an attractive way to save money for online shoppers, while offering marketers a high ROI acquisition and retention channel. Other Cashkaro properties includes Pouring Pounds, one of largest player in the UK, and Earnkaro which enables its users become entrepreneurs to make some additional cash by sharing deals.
CashKaro is India’s largest Cashback & Coupons site. The only venture capital backed Cashback site, funded by Kalaari Capital and Mr. Ratan Tata. More recently received $10 M in a Series B funding round led by Korea Investment Partners (KIP).
Hope you enjoy another S&S special. Have a listen, share feedback and share the episode!
Stay Safe!
- V ( @varunvummidi )
Timeline:
1:00 - Introduction to Cashkaro & starting up
09:07 - The Cashkaro journey
12:45 - Convincing the wife to join the journey
15:40 - Starting off as a B2B service
19:21 - Transitioning Cashkaro to the Indian audience in 2014
23:15 - Raising money for Cashkaro & moving to India from London
26:24 - How has affiliate marketing budgets have changed since 2015
31:15 - Choosing Affiliate marketing vs Performance marketing
34:43 - Does affiliate marketing cannibalise an existing user?
36:00 - Can you build a moat in with cashbacks
41:40 - Launching Earnkaro - enticing entrepreneurs
47:03 - Biggest challenge of building CK
49:20 - What’s the future for deals platforms?
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EP48: {Sudarshan Lodha, Co-Founder of StrataProp}
On the episode I have Sudarshan to chat about Strata. The startup is bringing a new innovative approach to investing in real estate, one that is data-driven and allows the investor to own a fraction of a highly desirable asset and also a way to make it the most accessible real estate investment you could have.
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→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
→ Checkout Beandeck.com to discover a range of curated Indian coffees & brewing equipment, use code STAR to get a discount on your order!
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Strata is based out of Bengaluru and has raised $1.5 million funding led by SAIF Partners and Mayfield India, including a strategic investment from a real estate data analytics platform, PropStack. 150 investors participated in the first investment opportunity on the platform.
The transparent and a data-driven approach to investment in real estate was so well received that their first investment opportunity was sold out within 7 days of going up on the platform, for a total of INR 26 crore from 74 investors. What sets this apart is the exclusive CRE intelligence and analytics from PropStack and the ability for investor to commit small sums of money, which is a huge deal for real estate investments.
Have a listen, share feedback and share the episode!
Stay Safe!
- V ( @varunvummidi )
Timeline:
00:00 - Introduction to Strata
02:55 - Affordability of property in India
06:22 - Why 2nd home owners make best clients for Strata
09:19 - Commercial Real Estate vs other asset classes
13:00 - Fractional ownership of assets
18:35 - Data in Real Estate
20:45 - HavingPropStack as a Strategic
23:32 - Small CRE owners should rather invest in Strataprop
26:15 - Building a business in a segment that is not regulated
30:36 - Operationalizing Strata
33:54 - Getting Venture Investors into a business
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EP47: {Nishith Rastogi, Co-Founder of Locus}
Nishith is a BITS Grad and was an engineer at Amazon where he met his co-founder Geet, an IIT grad. They set out to launch a chat network that morphed into what is today Locus.
Locus is a tool that plugs into the supply chain of an enterprise and starts automating all human decisions in the process; they automate route planning, traffic management, address correction, network planning, etc.. Locus is backed by some stellar investors and also service some of the top CPG companies in the world. Locus has become so integral to the operations of their clients that they had been offered hard cash by those who wanted to ensure Locus survived when COVID19 struck. Hope you enjoy my super intriguing session with Nishith.
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→ Go Subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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About Locus:
The Locus platform uses deep machine learning and proprietary algorithms to offer smart logistics solutions like route optimization, real-time tracking, insights and analytics, beat optimization, efficient warehouse management, vehicle allocation and utilization. Locus also helps companies optimize their end-to-end supply chain network with its strategic consulting offering. Locus works with top clients across Southeast Asia, North America, Europe, and India, with offices in the USA, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
The company has so far raised $29 million from Tier-1 investors including Tiger Global, Falcon Edge, Blume Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners & GrowX ventures.
Stay Safe & do share the episode!
- V { @varunvummidi }
Timelines:
00:00 - Introduction
05:45 - Finding the path to Locus
11:28 - Creating decision making systems for Big Basket
13:45 - Learning from Partners while building for them
18:02 - Complexity between geography & business types
24:21 - Pricing based on Total Cost of Ownership
27:55 - Building & Selling Enterprise SaaS
32:45 - Build vs Buy decision
35:06 - Challenges building logistics SaaS
38:15 - Having Falcon & Tiger as part of the journey
41:50 - BITS vs IIT & hiring
45:50 - 100M ARR
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EP46: {Beerud Sheth, Founder of Elance & Gupshup}
On this episode I speak with Beerud Sheth, who was the co-founder & CEO of the poplar freelancing work platform Elance in 1998, that is now Upwork. Beerud went on to found Gupshup a could messaging platform that has seen its share of twists and turns in the messaging and communications space since 2004 and now processes over 4 billion messages a month. Beerud joined us from his home in California for this chat.
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→ Don’t forget to subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Elance was co-founded by Beerud who moved to the US after graduating from IIT Bombay, to pursue his Masters at MIT followed by a stint in investment banking on Wall Street. Elance was the poster boy of the freelancer economy. Beerud was the CEO and top executive till 2007 and later a board member until the merger with Odesk in 2014.
Gupshup is among the cloud messaging platforms in the world with revenue upwards of Rs. 600 crore and has over 39,000 businesses including Ola, Flipkart, Zomato, HDFC, Google, Paytm. Processes over 4.5 billion messages a month and recently expanded their services to South East Asia, Middle East and Europe.
Hope you enjoy the episode!
Stay tuned & stay Safe!
- V @varunvummidi
Timeline:
00:00 - Introduction
05:08 - Founding Elance
08:00 - Solving for supply
10:33 - Managing challenges building a marketplace
12:45 - Solving for Remote Work
14:20 - Took 6 months to build the business case for Elance
16:02 - Meeting co-founders & raising money
17:51 - Stock Markets were irrational in the 2000s that helped with fund raising
18:23 - Raising over $ 62M for Elance & the Odesk merger
19:50 - Transitioning out of Elance
23:28 - Reasons Gig Work is gaining popularity & the moment is now
27:23 - Gupshup - messaging & communication
30:21 - Messaging is the original super app
36:01 - iMessage Vs RCS
38:45 - Gupshup IP messaging
40:51 - Resident Message apps on OEMs
45:40 - Next phase of Messaging
48:30 - Mobile SPAM
51:25 - Plans & Hiring
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EP45: {Shruti Kapoor, Co-founder & CEO of Wingman}
Wingman offers a virtual assistant that assists sales reps close deals faster, guiding the rep with exact information they need in real-time. Shruti Kapoor, an IIM alumn, chats with me about sales and ofcourse Wingman.
We discuss how Wingman is humanizing the sales process, where the sales person can focus on listening rather than being distracted with other aspect of a sales call How the AI tool enables a sales team play offence Enhancing all human conversation with AI might be the way ahead— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
→ Don’t forget to subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Bengaluru HQ'd Wingman was founded by Shruti, Muralidharan and Srikar in 2018. Wingman enables real time assistance to sales folk by telling them what to ask and say to a prospective customer. The tool records, transcribes and analyses calls, and picks out trends on what’s working and what’s not in pitches made by salespersons. Allows managers to set up cue cards to automatically coach the people when they are on the call. A bot will show a cue card if a prospective customer asks a question on how a product is different from a competitor’s.
The company is currently targeting B2B clients who sell to the US market. It has on-boarded a few SaaS companies such as Chargebee, Synup and Capital Number. They have raised $2.2 million in the seed round, led by Venture Highway, Speciale Invest and Y Combinator.
Shruti & team are hiring and can't see a reason for you not to explore the opportunities in a fast growing startup! Checkout their careers page.
Stay Safe & Spread the word!
- V @varunvummidi
Timeline:
00:00 - Intro 02:35 - What ails sales in India 07:24 - Training for outbound processes 10:20 - Salesman are born not made? 13:00 - Intro to Shruti from moving from Analytics to Sales 16:18 - Feedback loops & importance of Voice of customer for marketing 18:45 - Origin of Wingman & meeting co-founders 21:54 - Graduating from the IIM 25:15 - Intro to Wingman 19:15 - the Wingman Note-taker 32:02 - Evolving playbook ensures the product will not hit a plateau 36:45 - Consulting for SaaS success 38:45 - Making every human conversation better 40:50 - Challenges of building Wingman 44:15 - Monetizing & pricing 49:23 - Traction, growth & hiring -
EP44: {Vikram Chachra, Co-Founder of 8i Ventures}
We’ve had 4 of Vikram’s portfolio companies on this show already. Madhu of YAP, Ankit of Signzy, Rajan of Slice and Matt of BlueTokai!! Vikram’s in the process of launching his $ 50 million fund and took the time to have a chat with me about his investment philosophy and the journey being a founder.
Vikram is a SRCC, XLRI & NYU grad who started up a mobile shopping startup in early 2000's and later went on to run the mobile division @ Snapfish ( acquired by HP ). He invests in India and across the world.
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→ Don’t forget to subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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He has seeded over 28 seed to early stage startups over the last decade that have created more than a billion dollars of value for their shareholders. These include several category leaders like Carwale.com, HCG Global (NSE: HCG), EzeTap, Blue Tokai, MoneyTap, Online Tyari, Eatigo, Signzy, amongst others.
Vikram is easy to reach, and if you need someone to hear your consumer or fintech idea, strongly suggest you reach out!
Stay Safe & Spread the word!
- V @varunvummidi
Timeline:
00:00 - Journey in as an entrepreneur
10:17 - Early check in PayTM
14:00 - Impact of COVID on the portfolio
15:01 - 8i and investment philosophy
19:00 - Founders becoming investors
22:45 - IPO’s will start happening in challenger brands
27:04 - Getting deal flow
31:09 - Investing in Signzy
33:45 - BlueTokai
35:42 - Carwale
37:21 - Investing in a hot sauce company { Naagin }
39:50 - Making a decision in early stage companies
42:20 - Not all investments do well
46:01 - Cold emailing Vikram
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EP43: {Amit Kumar, BusinessHead of OLX CashMyCar}
On this episode I catch up with Amit to discuss the state of the Used Car business in India and its increasing relevance to the audience while organizing an unorganized segment.
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→ Don’t forget to subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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OLX Group is a Naspers company, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world! Take a look at CashMyCar, who offers one of the many services in India that uses a structured approach to assisting those who want to sell their cars.
Would love to hear from you on how you liked the episode! So son't forget to write to me!
Stay Safe!
- V {host is on Twitter @varunvummidi }
Timeline:
02:14 - Used car market in India is growing faster than New car business!
05:00 - Ownership is going up but the need for travel will go down
09:40 - Many businesses are giving up workplaces
13:45 - Trends in Car Ownership
19:05 - Why used cars have a good resale value?
22:31 - Frontier Car Group & the revolution in the used car business
26:20 - Importance of having an Omnichannel process
30:29 - Straddling diff business models
34:05 - Building the market place
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EP42: {Ankit Ratan, Co-Founder of Signzy}
Regulation is probably one of the key pillars of banking. Sometimes it does become an excuse for being the thing that ails the experience. All that is changing now with the emergence of Reg-Tech. The use of Video KYC, Aadhar authentication layer, digital lockers & the India Stack is enabling a lot of that change. One of those companies that is quietly enabling the BFSI sector is Signzy.
Ankit, a silver medalist from IIT Delhi (2011), had worked in New York deploying fraud analytics solutions at Citi Bank and Metlife. In 2013, started an analytics company that worked with large private banks in detecting fraud, in India before founding Signzy along with Ankur Pandey, and brother Arpit Ratan.
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Signzy currently offers a digital on-boarding solution for banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions, enabling them to go digital. Signzy solves for the poor consumer experiences in managing regulatory compliance by handling workflows. Their no-code AI model builder and Fintech API Marketplace of over 200+ APIs have enabled them to verify more than 3M documents per day without compromising on quality & security. Over 90+ FIs globally including the 4 largest banks in India and a Top 3 acquiring Bank in US trust Signzy.
Signzy has raised funds from Stellaris Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. Angel investors like Rajan Anandan, Amrish Rau, Dilip Khandelwal, and Vikram Chachra..
Stay safe & share the episode!
- V (@varunvummidi)
Timeline:
01:00 - Identifying the problem statement
04:45 - Educating and working with Bankers
07:27 - Stopped using the word Blockchain
10:21 - Working with BFSI on problems that they are not building for themselves
12:29 - What is Signzy today?
16:24 - Involvement of the Regulator & supporting clients with legal interpretations
19:03 - Advantages of having a Lawyer as a Sales co-founder in RegTech
23:30 - Change helps RegTech players
26:05 - Understanding when to "build" Product?
30:39 - Being part of Accelerators (K-Start, Google Launchpad & Mastercard StartPath)
41:36 - Selling to Global clients from India
46:05 - Business Model of Signzy
47:23 - On Premise vs Cloud for FIs
51:00 - Growth
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EP41: {Rajan Bajaj, Founder of Slice}
On the episode I speak with Rajan Bajaj, the founder of Slice, an IIT grad who spent a few months in Flipkart before wanting start out on his own. He went on to start a business that morphed into what is today Slice - a credit line that caters to first time job seekers.
Slice is targeting 5 million first time credit seekers every year who have little access to credit products designed specifically for them. We chat about how India’s first payment card startup focussed on the millennials is doing and what young Indian’s are spending on.
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→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Slice (formerly known as SlicePay) on announced in June 2020 that it has raised Rs 46 crore in a Pre-Series B round led by Japan-based investor Gunosy. The round also saw participation from US-based EMVC, Kunal Shah of CRED, Better Capital, and existing investor Das Capital. Read more
Book recommendation from Rajan: The CEO Within - Matt Mochary - Full book available here for a free read
Stay Safe and do spread the word!
- V(@varunvummidi)
Timelines:
01:10 - Introduction & impact of moratorium
05:24 - Where young people are spending
06:31 - Starting up right after graduating
10:01 - Going through the diff avatars
11:45 - Sharing economy
14:04 - Trends in spends
17:50 - What is Slice?
21:15 - Business model of Slice
27:40 - KYC & Collections
28:44 - Going through pivots,
35:14 - Diversifying
40:54 - Getting support & advice
41:59 - Using Twitter properly
43:45 - Book Recommendation
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EP40: {Shwetank Verma, General Partner of Leo Capital}
Shwetank Verma is a General Partner and co-Founder of Leo Capital, an early-stage venture investor operating in India and SouthEast Asia. Leo Capital focuses on Digital Health, InsurTech and FinTech. Shwetank, prior to founding Leo Capital he headed open innovation at MetLife Asia, where he created and led (Collab), and was entrepreneur who created a healthcare and education ventures in India.
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→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Shwetank opens up about investing, few of his investments & trends he has seen in the Insurance space.
Timeline:
01:55 - Introduction
05:55 - Metlife Collab - the post accelerator
08:10 - Corporate innovation is learned helplessness
11:05 - Seeing patterns in industries across the world
14:40 - Timing the market
17:45 - Regulators enabling insurance
20:45 - Insuretech Association of India
22:50 - Having billions in Gross Underwritten Premiums
31:00 - Leo Capital Investments
31:44 - Cover Genius - APIs for insurance
36:10 - Functioning of the fund
37:10 - Beato App - Diabetes Management
46:08 - WayForward - Mental Health
49:24 - Meeting portfolio companies - choosing an investment
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EP39: {Dhruv Suyamprakasam, Co-founder & CEO of iCliniq}
I speak with a founder who moved his company from Bangalore to his hometown Coimbatore to start health care venture iCliniq. We talk about Telemedicine, starting up in Coimbatore, the struggles of to signing up the first doctor in India and convincing thousands of doctors from across the world to embrace their platform. More recently, COVID has helped with a massive upsurge with over 5x growth post lockdown.
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→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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iCliniq is a part of the Digital Health Providers Association (DHPA) that includes the likes of Lybrate, Meddo, Visit, DocOnline, mFine, and DocsApp who have come forward to support the Telemedicine bill floated by the government.
About iCliniq:
iCliniq offers a high quality online consultation, where the quality assurance team ensures right diagnosis happens and doctors are supported at the right time for better health outcomes. They aim to be the go-to second opinion platform for the world.
Timeline:
01:00 - Starting up from Coimbatore & hiring tech talent from across the country
04:11 - Choosing to startup in Healthcare
11:10 - Acquiring first set of doctors onto the platform
15:36 - First version of iCliniq
19:25 - Getting patients on the platform
22:28 - Most revenue is international, 101 countries, 3800 doctors from around the world
24:30 - Medical Second opinions
28:00 - 70% of all queries can be solved online without having to meet the patient
30:52 - Telemedicine guidelines from the government
32:08 - JIO partnership & the TM Forum
36:35 - Monetization for online consultations
38:45 - Impact of COVID - 5x growth in queries
41:00 - Vision for iCliniq
43:00 - 2,500 consultations per day
46:15 - Selling Value Added Services
48:30 - Hiring! We’ll grow 3x by 2021
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EP38: {Bharath Devanathan, SVP of Bounce}
On this episode, EP38 of the podcast we chat with Bharath about Electric Vehicles and how India is on the path to start seeing a lot more action in the EV space as governments have now stepped in to accelerating the switch from ICE to EVs. We also chat a little about Bharath’s time at Yahoo! On the email team as well as as playing Ultimate frisbee.
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→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Bharath is an accomplished professional who built Groupon India, and managed business and operations for Groupon APAC Emerging markets. Spent a little time in Management and Strategy Consulting, and had a long career at Yahoo! Now at Bounce with the goal to make mobility green and clean (electric vehicles).
#NewThingLearntToday Well to Wheel Ratio - cost of production to operating a vehicle for an EV is much lower; over the lifetime as compared to an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle.
Hope you guys enjoy the episode! Do spread the word.
- V (@varunvummidi)
Timeline:
02:45 - COVID has created the tail winds for shared mobility
07:23 - EV Adoption in India is imminent
10:26 - Sustainability for Incentives for EV adoption
14:01 - Should India be doing more on policy?
19:42 - Cost of going Electric
27:00 - Conversion of fleets to EV in India
30:50 - Consumer preference for EV
32:35 - Time at Yahoo! & 6MB mailboxes
37:31 - Email of choice today -> Hey.com
41:39 - Playing Ultimate Frisbee with the co-founders of Whatsapp
48:45 - Quick thoughts on deal sites
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EP37: {Arjun Majumdar & Sandhya Chandrasekharayya, Founders of IndiaHikes}
On this episode, I’m changing it up a little as I catch up with the founders of India Hikes. India’s premier hiking company that started way back in 2008. With the hope of making hiking accessible to more Indians so that they can enjoy the nature that India has in abundance, right from the western ghats to the mighty Himalayas. Yes, this is not much of a tech conversation but a story that I wanted to share. Hope you enjoy it.
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→ Don’t forget to subscribe to the Newsletter via stars.substack.com so that you can receive future podcast releases delivered to your inbox!
→ Full episode of the podcast is available on my YouTube Channel
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Timeline:
03:17 - Genesis of IndiaHikes 09:50 - Educating the Hiker 13:27 - Creating content, winning with credible content 16:02 - DIY Treks 17:10 - Customers becoming employees 18:18 - Trekking culture in India 22:07 - Running remote teams 26:31 - Handling 20,000 trekkers 31:05 - Green Trails Initiative 38:53 - Future of Hiking in India 40:34 - World of Hikes 45:34 - Favourite Treks 48:16 - Impact of COVIDThey're hiring! Do check them out.
About:
Indiahikes in 2008 brought trekking to a new generation of Indians, with deep knowledge and by opening up new parts of country to hikers of any age and ability. The Indiahikes' website is a treasure of trekking information in India. Including a wonderful set of content displayed via various channels.
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