What are some of the valuable learnings and inspirations Siddhartha and Nansi got after recording 200+ episodes with the most successful entrepreneurs, VCs, and creators on the 100x Entrepreneur podcast?The new episode with our duo is out now! Tune in to learn how to start a podcast, what you can expect after a certain number of podcast episodes, how you grow with each conversation, and which guests inspired Nansi & Siddhartha the most!We hope you enjoy this short, crisp and insightful episode from 100x! Notes - 00:22 - Intro01:15 - Learning Consistency: Publishing episodes every Monday02:26 - Learning Networking: Bringing Top-notch guests06:24 - Learnings from Gaurav Munjal, Unacademy: 10000+ Notes on his iPad08:40 - “A Startup Team is Sports Team, not a family.”09:34 - Learnings from Vidit Attrey, Meesho: Listening to your customers12:35 - Realising that you know nothing and absorbing the best of your guests14:02 - Shoutout with Prashant Ganti, Head of Product, Zoho on where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?16:12 - Learnings from creators who’ve cracked distribution17:42 - Being professional with people you work withAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

In 2021, 125 Indian companies raised over $18 Bn through initial public offerings (IPO) in public markets.Out of $18 Bn, over $7.3 Bn was raised by 11 Indian Tech Startups from Nazara to MapmyIndia.In today’s episode, we talk with Abhishek Goyal & Neha Singh, Co-founders, Tracxn, which recently went IPO.But unlike the other major tech startups which went IPO in recent years, at Tracxn, they decided to go IPO at a probably early stage, considering their ARR of $10 Mn.During the episode, they share there view point on why they chose to do it on an initial ARR rather than going IPO, once they’ve grown big enough and more.Notes - 00:37 - Intro to ​​Tracxn01:27 - Feeling of going IPO02:27 - Preparing for an IPO 05:06 - Splitting the roles within team to be prepared from Day 105:41 - Documents which they had to submit to SEBI or any other regulator for the DRHP06:46 - Trendsetter by going public at $10 Mn ARR08:44 - Convincing VCs for going IPO-early11:33 - Mentors from whom they took advice for going public12:59 - Is it possible to time the market for IPO? 14:58 - Raising an Anchor allocation Pre-IPO16:17 - Most stressful part of going IPO: Market Uncertainty18:34 - Rollercoaster set of emotions they went through22:24 - Moments of giving up during the whole process24:16 - How to prepare mentally before entering the IPO-process?24:33 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?26:01 - IPO-Checklist and learnings31:26 - What does it requires for tech companies to go public?35:03 - Playbook where companies can go public and build in long-term35:54 - Founder aspiration beyond becoming UnicornAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

What are those 5 key decisions Siddhartha and Nansi took to building 100x Entrepreneur?The new episode with our duo is out now! Tune in to hear their journey, learnings, and the hard work they put into bringing the best startup podcast to you all! We hope you enjoy this podcast. Make sure to watch it till the very end and share it with your friends!Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

The number of retail grocery retailers across India in 2022 amounted to about 13 million. Grocery retail account for about 65% of India's overall retailers.And the most common problems faced by these retailers on a financial front up until a few years back were - Accepting digital payments such as UPI or CardsEasy & Quick access to loans for expanding business or in the form of working capital for buying new stock.In 2018, BharatPe was started to cater to these problems faced by every day retailers in India. Since then the company has grown to enable 10 million merchants in 400+ cities, processing US$ 20 bn of annualized TPV in payments.During the peak of Covid, they also joined hands with ICICI Lombard to launch Coronavirus insurance cover for shopkeepers. To enable hands-free checking of transactions they also launched Speaker. To know how digital payments turned out as a big break for them, we’ve got BharatPe founder Shashvat Nakrani  & CEO Suhail Sameer on our guest seats this time.In this episode we discuss-How they’ve scaled BharatPe over the past 4 years?Does the age gap between them affect the decision-making at the top level?What do they keep in mind while building or scaling any new product?And much moreNotes - 01:35 - Expectations with BharatPe’s current scale03:17 - Joining a Rocket Ship as a CEO05:10 - Changes in culture and customer offerings in the last 2 years12:19 - Very less attachment to a particular role amongst founders & CEOs16:30 - Dealing and coming out the challenging times at BharatPe18:17 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?19:33 - Helping the team innovate faster and plan Go-To-Market strategy25:37 - Strengths & Weakness of Shashvat29:33 - Strengths & Weakness of Suhail31:03 - Handling the firing decisions35:17 - What are the things they bond over? 36:38 - Processes v/s Hustle in 0 to 1 and 1 to 10 journey40:49 - Secret recipe behind success at 0 to 1 on a product-level44:02 - Idea behind building distribution network47:33 - Suhail’s top priorities while joining BharatPe49:29 - Biases and things Suhail had to unlearn55:21 - Listening to Younger v/s Older Team members while decision making 58:39 - Next Chapter of BharatPe01:01:00 - What is being IPO-ready? 01:07:39 - Things which they could have explored outside of Fintech?Send us a text

As per Statista, Market size of the cosmetics industry across India which was at $3 Bn in 2010 is expected to grow to atleast $20 Bn by 2025.In today’s episode, we talk with Manish Taneja, Co-founder and CEO, Purplle, which was started back in 2012.During the podcast Manish talks in detail about - How he along with his Cofounders have always thought for the long-term?Problems they faced back in 2012 in Vertical Ecommerce.How MOATs against competitors are mostly in the minds of the founders? rather than being actually relevant to Indian customers, who are most price and value sensitive.What’s unique about their culture that has helped them retain as well as hire new talent? And more…Lastly before we dive deeper into the podcast, something that Manish mentioned during the episode - “Our 2nd part of the journey has been about, believing in yourself, doing things that are contradictory to the world but at the same time, we think could create massive value in the future.”Notes - 03:19 - Intro to Manish & Purplle04:57 - Being from a Finance background what got him to start his 2nd venture in Online Beauty space? 10:32 - Challenges in Vertical Ecommerce back in 201212:29 - Challenges in delivery, cash flow and more in the first 5-6 years17:30 - Two defining characteristics in their fund raising journey2!:52 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:55 - Learnings while his exit from Avendus Capital24:18 - Major changes in the 2nd part of their journey from 2016-17 onwards28:34 - Launching their own brands with 65%+ Gross Margin31:08 - How has he evolved as a founder during Purplle’s journey? 33:21 - Shaping Purplle’s culture over the years38:34 - “MOATs aren’t as relevant for consumers, as they are for founders against competition.”42:23 - Opportunity to build a $20-30 Bn FMCG company from India45:26 - Not succumbing to external pressures around GrowthAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

Thinking about Entrepreneurship or Startups which of the following do you think really matters -  # Having Degree from a Tier-1 college?# Having or finding the right Co-founder?# Sky-rocketing your scale up as soon as you secure funding? # Pouring in your resources to get as many customers as fast as possible via Ads?Well the short answer to all the above questions is, IT DOESN’T.In today’s episode we’ve with us Vaibhav Sisinty, Founder, GrowthSchool. And in this episode, while sharing his experiences of building and scaling GrowthSchool, he busts all the above myths one-by-one.For all of you, who’ve been active on Linkedin, in the past few years, especially around themes like marketing and growth hacking, you would have surely noticed a post or an Ad by Vaibhav, or his perfect case of personal branding and self-curated courses on Sisinty.com.During the episode, we talk with Vaibhav about how he learnt and grew his marketing skills during his job at Uber and Klook, how he used a brilliant growth hacking method even while raising his first round and much more.Lastly before we dive deeper into the podcast, something that Vaibhav mentioned during the episode - “True Product Market Fit is, If I shut down my product today, will 25 people line out of my office, requesting to please turn it ON.”Notes - 00:54 - Intro01:55 - Starting in Growth Journey: From his 1st Venture to Uber05:24 - Helping other startups: His playground to learn06:29 - Building Organic v/s Paid Channels of Growth12:02 - Founder-Market Fit towards starting GrowthSchool16:02 - 0 to $1 Mn ARR before first round of funding20:36 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:33 - Running Lean & Shrewd to achieve profitability23:58 - Scale & format of courses before and after the funding29:00 - Growth Hacking his way to raise funding from Sequoia, Owl & 80+ Angels36:15 - “Blitzscaling right after funding will break things.”39:17 - Focus & Internal goals in near future41:46 - What’s his definition of PMF for GrowthSchool?49:15 - Managing his time as a Solo Founder52:55 - Various process which he has built in his lifeAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

As per Statista, globally there are more than 2.6 Mn Apps on Google Play Store, and when you’re building in today’s age of internet, you need as much as visibility possible around - # Accurately measuring the impact of your marketing initiatives# Actionable insights on your user behaviour# Potential Competitors & on what metrics do they compare with you and where do you & your team needs to focus more.To understand mobile marketing analytics better in this episode we’ve with us Oren Kaniel, CEO & Co-founder, AppsFlyer.Founded in 2011, AppsFlyer has grown leaps and bounds and is currently amongst the top choices of marketers to mobile marketing analytics.In today’s episode, we talk with Oren about how they built and grew AppsFlyer where there was almost a free option like Google Analytics available to the masses, also what’s their focus triangle about Privacy, Users Value and Safety.Lastly before we dive deeper into the podcast, something that Oren’s mentioned during the episode - “Do not fall in love with your product, fall in love with the ecosystem, with the problem-statement.”Notes - 03:09 - Intro to AppsFlyer03:55 - Starting with Entrepreneurship05:53 - Identifying the opportunity and starting AppsFlyer09:18 - How well positioned is Israel for capturing Asian and Global markets? 12:55 - $300 Mn ARR from the US & rest of the Global market13:46 - Journey from 0 to 1 and 1 to 1020:13 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:25 - Ensuring faster growth by balancing pricing and revenue model27:53 - Evolving of Go-To-Market insights over time38:19 - Building the team and cultureAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

Today being an entrepreneur and starting with a new idea, you can take either of the two approaches - 1. You can build on top of an existing category in the market and bring your unique offerings2. You can take the riskier bet and create an entire category. In India, companies like Flipkart, Oyo, Ola etc. are the ‘Regional’ first movers. Although their concept was inspired from the global companies, however, being the first mover in the Indian subcontinent region gave them an advantage.In today’s episode we have Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director, Arkam Ventures, who has a great focus on identifying and investing in such Category Creators for Middle India.  Prior to Arkam, Bala, was part of the founding team at Vistaar, which in simple words helps companies like Cisco, Dell, GE, Ford, and Hitachi to make better, faster, and more profitable business decisions.Post that he became one of the founding members of Amba research, which was acquired for $100 Mn by Moody’s. After Amba, he was also with Kalaari Capital for over 3 years, post which he co-founded Arkam Ventures, a Venture Capital firm with a focus on “Category Creators for Middle India” and “Enablers for the Global”.In today’s episode, we talk with Bala about key ingredients of building a Category Creator, Solving for the pricing problem in SaaS startups, taking SaaS to the mass audience in Tier-3 cities and towns and much more.Notes - 02:01 - Intro04:05 - Essential ingredients to build a $10 Mn ARR company06:29 - Why focus on category creators for Middle India? 18:38 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?20:08 - Evolving from a single problem statement to a platform with multiple offerings22:23 - Razorpay’s gameplan for trust building for Small town customers24:06 - His thesis around investing in enablers like Signzy and Spotdraft30:26 - His thoughts on India-focused SaaS with regards to pricing33:24 - Themes and Thesis which didn’t worked out38:42 - What gave him an edge into the middle India consumer?Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

How can an experience being a VC come handy while starting up? To answer this today we’ve with us Divyaanshu Makkar, Co-Founder, Sourcewiz.Prior to starting Sourcewiz, Divyaanshu had already tasted entrepreneurship with his first venture in EdTech space, Connect2Teach in London. Post that after working with EY-Parthenon for a brief period of time, he joined Bessemer Venture Partners in California, United States.At Bessemer he focused on EdTech, Consumer Tech for India/SEA and Enterprise/SMB SaaS being built from India/SEA for the world. In today’s episode, we talk with Divyaanshu understanding his journey from being a Entrepreneur to becoming a VC and then going back for Entrepreneurship, his learnings and networks from his VC-period which came handy while starting Sourcewiz and more. Notes - 02:24 - Intro03:53 - Early Career and background in Venture Capital prior to Sourcewiz07:35 - After VC what made him come back as an entrepreneur?09:38 - Learnings from Mistakes from his previous venture13:02 - Mistakes he observed other founders make while being a VC15:04 - Key criterias for him while selecting a market from a VC’s lens20:03 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?21:58 - Quitting at Bessemer Venture Partners to starting up Sourcewiz31:10 - Connecting with Sajith Pai from Blume Ventures35:02 - Identifying and Focusing on the problem statement within SaaS41:08 - Getting their first paying customer44:45 - Figuring out a scalable GTM for Tier-II customers47:34 - Acquiring 400+ Paid customers in within first year49:20 - Building a marketplace and its current traction53:59 - His path to a $1Mn ARR and then for $10Mn ARR56:16 - Building mechanism for scale 1:00:34 - Unknowns in the market they are still figuring out1:02:12 - Closing their second round of Seed funding with ​​Matrix Partners India1:05:02 - Selection criteria for Angel Investors1:06:44 - Key pointers of Do’s and Don’ts for new foundersAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

The Indian market is seeing several startups offering innovative products in the D2C & FMCG segment. One such innovative brand is Rage Coffee. Founder Bharat Sethi launched Rage Coffee in the year 2018. It offers a variety of vegan-friendly, vitamin-infused instant coffee flavours. The brand is currently present in 2,500+ retail outlets pan-India and plans to expand its offline presence 5X within a year by strengthening its distribution channels.In today’s episode, we talk with Bharat Sethi who has been a serial entrepreneur about his entire journey so far and how does Rage Coffee stands out as a brand, the mistakes he made being a founder and what are his future plans for Rage Coffee. Notes - 02:02 - Intro02:47 - Family background & what led him to entrepreneurship?06:35 - Conceptualising PosterGully in 201211:09 - Exit from PosterGully11:50 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?12:59 - Mistakes and learnings from iDecorama18:45 - Ideating for Rage Coffee25:55 - Milestones & Growth over the yearsAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

Founded in 2013, Portea Medical, India's Leading Home Health Care Company employes over 4000 people and covers 40+ cities in India doing 1,50,000+ home visits every month.Portea has also helped about 5,00,000 COVID-19 patients, working with seven different cities and state governments, including Delhi, Mumbai, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Chennai, Bengaluru and all of Karnataka. Meena Ganesh, Chairperson and Co-Founder, Portea Medical is one of India’s most celebrated entrepreneurs and business leaders.  She sits on the boards of numerous firms like Axis Bank, and has a string of start-up successes to her credit. She co-founded her first company, Customer Asset, in 2000 and later on sold it to ICICI. Then came TutorVista, which she ran successfully till it was acquired by British publishing giant Pearson. Before founding Portea, Meena also served Pearson India as the chief executive officer and managing director. With her incredible career and achievements, she also became part of Fortune India’s ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business’ from 2015 to 2021.In today’s episode, we talk with Meena about her entrepreneurial journey so far, learnings from building a healthcare startup in India and why even getting two large exists previously, she still thinks that journey with her third venture Portea is the most satisfying in terms of learnings. Notes - 01:36 - Intro02:04 - Family background & what got Meena into entrepreneurship08:02 - Brainstorming Ideas during the conception of Portea12:46 - Milestones after Series A till date17:53 - Her thoughts on the notion that - “It’s difficult to create money from healthcare & health-tech startups”21:36 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:37 - How has the pricing model evolved at Portea?24:06 - Learnings from building in healthcare in India27:14 - How has she grown as a founder during her entrepreneurial journey?30:04 - Her fundraising journey at Portea30:33 - Balancing investor-founder relation over the course of a startup’s journey32:07 - Managing her time between GrowthStory, Portea and homeAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

In startup ecosystem a lot of people talk about Category creating startups, but it is equally difficult and as it sounds glamorous and exciting. That’s possibly the reason why we don’t see a lot such Category creating startups around us very frequently. And even if they do come up, they don’t sustain very long. In today’s episode we are talking with Vijay Arisetty, Founder, MyGate, i.e. a category creating startup in its space. As of now MyGate cators to almost 4 Million+ homes across India. It is very likely that you would have interacted with MyGate directly, as its installed in your society or indirectly probably when you would have visited to meet a friend or family in a gated community, and you would have experienced the seamless flow it brings to gates of these gated communities.During the episode, catch Vijay sharing what all challenges and opportunities did they come across being a category creating startup in terms of hiring, what to offer to its customers, how to monetize better and much more. Notes - 01:51 - Intro03:11 - Family Background and joining the Armed Forces06:55 - His first startup - PurpleRoad in the Delivery space08:19 - Aha moment which led to starting MyGate?11:53 - Final Scale with his logistics startup and initial scale at MyGate before first funding14:48 - Challenges during the first funding round being a category creator21:25 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?23:13 - Current and operationally capable scale of MyGate24:56 - Evolution of monetary channels29:48 - Challenges during their 0 to 1 journey and then in 1 to 10 journey37:36 - Existential crisis prior to first round of funding42:13 - Journey from Series A to Series B and beyond44:55 - How were the two years of Covid for MyGate?49:02 - Similarities between being in the Armed Forces and being an Entrepreneur54:08 - 30 Million homes untapped market by MyGateAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

In Sales the stakes are high. And for company’s growth it is important to get it right.Thanks to multiple options of Sales engagement softwares which streamlines the sales process through integrations which enables companies to combine their sales and marketing efforts to create personalized and automated sales journeys.In today's episode of 100x Entrepreneur, we have with us Yamini Bhat, Co-founder & CEO, Vymo; i.e An intelligent sales engagement platform for financial institutions.Started in 2013, Vymo is used by 300,000+ Sales Reps across 65+ Enterprises such as HDFC Bank, SBI Life Insurance, and Sun Life Financial among others.While most SaaS startups go global from Day 1, Vymo is one of the few Indian SaaS companies which scaled to more than $10M ARR with India Enterprises as clients.During the episode, catch Yamini sharing why did they chose to focus on BFSI, how did they brought awareness for both their team and customers about their product and much more. Notes - 01:33 - Intro03:05 - Career background in Sales Transformation at Mckinsey which led her to Vymo06:48 - Family background and getting into BITS Pilani & IIM Bangalore?14:58 - Quitting Mckinsey and identifying the problem statement to startup17:29 - Till Series-A being focused on a horizontal solution20:53 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?23:04 - Milestones during Vymo’s journey26:26 - Key challenges with team and customers early-on28:56 - Convincing the first few BFSI customers for an average contract value of $350K31:54 - Building a SaaS behemoth from India and then expanding globally36:16 - Her 0 to $10 Million ARR playbook for SaaS-entrepreneurs in IndiaAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

As per a recent article,“About 60% of companies that reach pre-series A funding fail to make it to Series A, so the success rate is only 30%-40%.”Infact if you check on Crunchbase, in India you’ll find 4300+ startups at Pre-seed or Seed-stage, but only 600+ out of them have managed to reach Series-A, which bring the success rate to even lower at just 15%.  Apart from this, even in the entire Indian startup ecosystem, there are so many Product Managers, Ex-founders, and many more, who either have an idea around a Problem-statement, but don’t know how to proceed or there are students in college, who are amazed by the startup ecosystem, and want to take their early step, but afraid on how to take the next step. In order to solve this we have with us our guest of this episode, Rajiv Srivatsa & Nitin Sharma, Antler India. Antler unlike most VC firms bets on the startup ideas at Pre-seed stage with their Antler India Residency or in some cases even earlier with college students via Antler India Fellowship.During the episode, catch Rajiv & Nitin sharing their First Principles approach and what infrastructure they are building at Antler India to make the founders succeed considering the time constraints at Pre-seed stage and much more. Notes - 03:50 - Intro04:44 - Why did they choose to build Antler India? 09:35 - How did Antler happen? 12:02 - Why kind of institutional mindset do they bring in? 16:18 - How do they balance the equation of a Founder’s optimism & a VC’s pessimism between them?18:22 - Background around Antler’s India Portfolio over the last 18+ months22:08 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?23:47 - What’s their approach and what’s the general cheque size? 29:48 - Learnings from the Ups & Downs in Urban Ladder Journey33:28 - Focusing on building around core foundational use-cases during times of crisis38:18 - Keeping founders from falling in love with the product and not the actual problem-story42:12 - Examples of building PeakPerformer & Bookee with Antler46:47 - How & when do founders get distracted after funding?50:08 - When do founders have the best chances of succeeding at Seed-stage?Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

Varun Mayya was in college when he along with his friends started up a t-shirt manufacturing business called SIZR. Later on, he went into building a recruitment platform, Jobspire. And they were one of the youngest teams to raise venture capital of Rs 1.7 crore even before they graduated, and scaled the company to serve 4 million requests in 2016. In 2017, they sold Jobspire to a New York-based company.Varun also authored a book named Pyjama Profit which is a guide for millennials to get started with an online freelance practice, while developing the skills needed to succeed.Along with running a youtube channel, Varun also co-founded Scenes, a community platform for creators to manage, moderate, and monetize their communities in one place. Scenes has raised funds from some notable investors including Kunal Shah, Gaurav Munjal, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Tanmay Bhat as well Tanglin Ventures, Better Capital, Whiteboard Capital, iSeed Ventures, and Blume Founders Fund.Tune in to this insightful episode with Varun to learn about building a brand, processes around content creation, and leveraging your youtube channel to scale your business. Notes – 03:10 – Intro04:05 – His journey before entrepreneurship06:49 – Getting introduced to oDesk (now Upwork) via his mother and earning his first $10009:10 – Starting a visual version of Naukri in fourth year of college11:09 – Writing an Amazon Bestseller Book – “Pyjama Profit: The Millennial’s Guide to a Sustainable Freelance Career” 12:48 – Starting Avalon Scenes18:07 – Two rounds of funding for building a community space19:22 – Top clients and why do they use Scenes?22:11 – Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?24:09 – What excites him the most about Scenes? 26:40 – Solving a problem really well v/s Building a large business28:41 – What’s their longterm goal with Scenes? 33:02 – Can Scenes eventually replace Discord? 34:36 – Why he continues to a creator with Scenes growing? 41:25 – Learnings on YouTube and Twitter around content creation46:15 – One of his best videos on YouTube52:44 – “I think we live in a trust-deficient economy and content is the only way to beat it.” Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

According to a recent article in Forbes, as per data of ProductLedGrowth.org,“Buyers want to self-educate.” Personalization is expected by customers—not only are 80% of people more likely to do business with a company that offers personalization but Salesforce’s 2017 State of Marketing Report found that 52% of B2C customers would actually switch brands if they weren’t getting a personalized experience. In today’s episode we’ve some Dheeraj Pandey, CEO at DevRev; Board Member at Adobe; Investor & Co-founder at Nutanix. During the episode, catch Dheeraj sharing his experience around Product-Led Growth over the past two decades, taking Nutanix Inc. public within 6 years of inceptio and much more. Notes - 01:44 - Intro02:26 - Achieving Product Market Fit - “What is the journey is not a destination.”05:15 - Identifying the problem statement for first 10 customer at Nutanix07:54 - Main value prop by Nutanix for early customers10:11 - How to identify large problems?13:22 - Whether to find a niche problem and then expand or find a problem statement of the larger market?15:07 - What’s the first Aha moment for customers on DevRev?20:04 - Zoho Sponsored - Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?21:18 - Why have Startups as the target audience v/s Large Entreprises?27:10 - History of Product-led growth32:50 - First principle thought behind Product-led growth with velocity37:49 - Customer Relationship Management v/s Sales First Automation39:07 - How a B2B developer can think like a B2C developer?40:23 - What are risks of failure they need to think about?41:40 - Building an entrepreneurial culture43:47 - Dealing with the most difficult part of an acquisition (i.e. Integration)45:38 - An early childhood in Patna, graduating from IIT Kanpur & Ph.D. dropout from University of Texas50:33 - Why did he chose to startup in a downturn of 2009?54:07 - Milestones in Nutanix’s journey58:31 - Becoming a Public company59:58 - Aspirations for DevRev1:02:29 - What kind of person he is in his personal life?Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

In today’s podcast, we have Ishan Sharma with us! Ishan is a Youtuber, Entrepreneur, and Founder of MarkitUp. He droped out of his college(BITS Pilani, Goa) at the age of 20 and decided to continue his entrepreneurial and content creation journey!Ishan Sharma has around 500k Subscribers on Youtube and about 100K on LinkedIn. He also wrote a  book called "Crush It on LinkedIn" back in Mid 2020 which summarises his experience of using LinkedIn and it is a guide for college students to find opportunities.Ishan will share his YT journey so far,  why he decided to drop out, what motivated him to do so, how MarkitUp was formed, and a lot more!Let’s listen to his inspirational journey so far and what he plans to do next! 0:00 - Intro2:05 - What drives you in your life?2:49 - How did you overcome the pain of Failing in JEE Advanced Exam?6:22 - Do you remember the date you started your YouTube Channel?7:18 - What's the main reason behind starting your YouTube Channel?9:13 - What other skills have you learned after Coding & Content Creation?11:40 - When did you make your First Money?12:16 - How was your YouTube Journey & How did you reach 10,000 Subscribers?13:35 - What are your learnings from YouTube?15:24 - How did you master YouTube Thumbnails?17:47 - What are your other Income Streams beside YouTube?19:56 - What was your income in May?21:44 - When did you get your First Brand Deal & What does it takes to reach here?24:56 - What is the Sales Engine looks like for 'MarkitUp'?26:20 - Where do you want to see yourself in 1 Year in terms of numbers?27:15 - How many Brand Collaborations do you do in a month?28:52 - How much do you pay a Freelancer per month?30:05 - How does a day in your Life look like?33:14 - What made you choose not to spend any more time in college?39:00 - How do you differentiate your income?39:55 - What do you do with the money you are making right now?41:08 - Do you draw any salary from 'MarkitUp'?43:05 - What is enough for Ishan?45:02 - Why does $1 Million in Investment important for you?46:03 - What is one thing that is missing in your life?47:48 - What do you do to make your growth engine proactive?49:32 - Have you explored during 10 Day Meditation or Vipassana?50:43 - What is Your Biggest Fear right now?53:14 - Do you watch Netflix or any other OTT platform?54:16 - Do you believe in Manifestation?55:18 - What's your process for recording a YouTube Video?57:08 - What would you do if your Investment Portfolio reaches $1 Million?59:49 - OutroAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

If you’re a startup enthusiasts, its highly likely that you would have read or atleast heard about the book - Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of Bigbasket by by T. N. Hari & M. S. Subramanian.In today’s episode we have Hari Menon, BigBasket’s founder sharing the his experience in the Indian Ecommerce Ecosystem over the last two decades. In May 2021, Tata Digital invested $375 Mn in BigBasket. They have also recently launched their quick commerce vertical called BBNow and will now compete alongside the existing players such as Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto and Dunzo.During the episode, catch Hari talking about his learning from his first venture, his thoughts on the current market and the investment slowdown, and much more. Notes - 02:20 - Building India’s online grocery market in the last two decades14:37 - Starting BigBasket at the age of 5021:16 - Dividing equity between the founders21:42 - Mistakes & Biases which got carried from his first venture24:15 - Becoming a part of Tata Group and growing bigger27:16 - Top learnings and observations from Tata Group29:30 - His thoughts on “10-minute delivery”33:14 - Any similar patterns between June 2022 and 1999 boom and bust?35:14 - Business which are not building a profitable model will suffer the most38:22 - Indian Startup Ecosystem in the next 5-10 years40:20 - Framework to identify large opportunities: Scale & Profitability42:36 - Culture at BigBasket which keeps people from moving out46:45 - Growing with the business as CEOSend us a text

We’ve heard inspiring stories of founders of Facebook and Microsoft who’ve dropped out of Harvard and even some of the well known Indian Entrepreneurs who’ve dropped out of IITs to build on their dream venture. But in today’s episode we’ll talk with Anish Achuthan, who ran away from his hometown during his Class 11th with dreams to build something big in the Dotcom space and currently is the Cofounder of Open, which recently became Kerala’s first unicorn start-up.Listen to Anish talk about his journey through his various ventures over the last two decades and how he’s building for Open to democratize the Neobanking space in India. Notes - 02:42 - Being born in Govt service-oriented family in Kerala to getting inspired by Dotcom06:11 - Meeting his cofounder & life partner07:49 - Cumulative learnings from his previous companies11:27 - Product Offerings by Open for SMEs, Banks and Fintech Entreprises13:57 - Key milestones in Open’s journey15:49 - Current metrics on the platform16:56 - What are his plans with Open for the long term19:17 - Their moat against other Neobanks and traditional banks23:04 - Product & distribution strategy for the first 100 to 1000 users31:46 - Licenses and certifications needed for Neo Banking33:47 - Challenges while cracking the first banking partner35:27 - Monetizing their services on Freemium model36:55 - Advice to early-stage entrepreneursSend us a text

On the podcast today, we have with us Sandeep Jain, Founder, GeeksforGeeks. GeeksForGeeks is one of the largest online learning platforms for coding enthusiasts, budding engineers, and anyone involved in the tech domain. Sandeep is from Firozabad which is 40 kms away from Agra in UP. He studied in a government school before doing his graduation from UP Technical University, Mathura, and masters from IIT Roorkee. In the year 2009, he created a blog with the intent to help engineering students prepare for placements. What started as a blog is today a 1000 Crore+ annual revenue Edtech company with 250+ team members. Let’s dive deep into his journey from leaving his engineering job to becoming a teacher to 10 Million+ registered 'Geeks' from across the world.Notes - 03:07 - Growing up in Firozabad to growing the love for coding07:20 - Joining D. E. Shaw & Co after graduation09:24 - 30% Salary cut in his first Teaching job v/s being a Software Engineer10:00 - Starting GeeksforGeeks in 200916:03 - Hiring the initial team18:26 - Annual revenue growth to 1000 Crore+24:12 - Learning the skills and growing in the role of a CEO30:35 - Growing against well-funded competitorsSend us a text

March 2019 was when we published our first episode of 100xEntrepreneur. So far we’ve covered 150+ VCs, Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs from the Indian startup ecosystem. Alongside 100xEntrepreneur podcast we’ve so far invested in 30+ portfolio companies via like Airmeet, PlumHQ, Zencastr and Neeman’s. In today’s episode we share our journey so far. We are Siddhartha & Nansi, a husband-wife entrepreneur-cum-content creator duo who started their podcast journey with a purpose to make behind the screen conversations, thought process, and mindset of VCs, Investors and Successful entrepreneurs accessible to thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts like you. We really hope that we have been able to serve you with great content so far and would really appreciate your feedback. How can you share your feedback with us? Reply to this emailComment on our Youtube, iTunes, Castbox or Spotify ChannelNotes - 01:09 - How 100xEntrepreneur was born?09:44 - To Unlock Growth: Start reaching out to people who are better and bigger than you14:19 - What went in the background while recording a podcast?21:01 - Joining AWS to setting up 100x Fund23:33 - Building the team at 100xEntrepreneur27:46 - Our favourite episode so farSend us a text

India’s largest Content Marketplace with 1L+ creators, 2500+ customers, out of which 70+ are Unicorns. Does that ring any bells? We’re talking about Pepper Content, founded by Anirudh Singla, in his 2nd year of undergrad college.Pepper’s journey started when Anirudh during his college decided to take up freelancing and content creation to fund his graduation all by himself. He then realised the potential of content creators in India and decided to organize it by creating an Indian marketplace for the same. In our conversation with Anirudh, we dive into the journey of building and scaling Pepper to $8 Million ARR Content-marketplace in under 5 years and their plans ahead.Notes - 03:06 - Baniya-family background, freelance exposure while at college07:06 - First few steps to building a marketplace11:06 - Splitting equity early-on12:46 - Reaching out to 80+ VCs and Angel Investors while raising their 1st round17:20 - What made them raise their 1st round? 18:43 - Scaling from $500k ARR to $8 Million ARR in 14 months21:20 - Client base: 550+ Active customers and 70+ Unicorns24:20 - Need to focus on a SaaS based approach for Content26:15 - “Hustle doesn’t scale. By the same time what scale’s is the mindset of thinking big enough!”28:25 - “Not building a family, but instead building a high quality sports team.”Send us a text

#1 Smartwatch Brand in India#3 Smartwatch Brand in Asia#9 Smartwatch Brand GloballyAll the above feats are not from Apple, Samsung, or a legacy player in the market, but from our own homegrown Indian brand - Noise.In this week’s podcast, we turn the spotlight on Noise : A brand that’s on a mission to offer quality smart wearables at affordable prices to its customers. In our conversation with Amit Khatri, Co-founder of Noise, he shared how the brand started bootstrapped in 2014, what have been the challenges and how have they scaled over the years.We have tried to summarize some key themes & takeaways from our conversation. Notes - 02:09 - Early Career & Family Background before starting Noise05:45 - Product development & Revenue journey from 2014 to 201808:04 - Finalising the main categories - Smartwatch and Wireless Earbuds09:55 - Why prioritize growing own Website instead of relying on marketplace?12:18 - Testing your idea in the market being bootstrapped13:36 - Vision & plan of the brand early-on14:56 - Initial Learnings for early-stage D2C Entrepreneurs16:16 - Focus on building the brand from Day 118:55 - Building and launching the first product24:15 - Secrets of scaling from Rs.160 Cr+ to Rs.800 Cr+ Revenue26:26 - Key elements of creating a playbook for a Rs.1000 Cr+ D2C brand31:36 - Keeping prices reasonable while ensuring better qualitySend us a text

Why is HUL considered a Leadership factory?“Every great brand is built on a fundamental human insights.”Do you agree that people come before revenue?“Invest in Brand, even as little as possible, and not just Performance Marketing from Day 1.”Listen to Shashank Mehta, Founder of The Whole Truth Foods and a passionate HUL Ex-employee in today’s episode to know his perspective about everything mentioned above. Notes - 03:43 - Definition of D2C market in India context07:11 - His early career prior to starting his entrepreneurial journey09:40 - Post-MBA why he chose Marketing over Finance?11:30 - Why HUL is considered a leadership factory?14:30 - Learnings from his stint at HUL18:48 - Why he joined Faasos (now REBEL Foods) a lesser known startup leaving HUL in 2012?23:40 - Scale of Faaso’s when he joined and left the company24:30 - Why he left Faasos and joined HUL again?28:22 - Learnings from setting up an Ayurveda-brand within HUL34:09 - Consumer insight which HUL was trying to  solve with its AYUSH proposition34:54 - His blog about food and fitness - FIT SHIT41:54 - Raising around 5 Cr+ initial funding during his Notice Period45:10 - Zero to One Phase of The Whole Truth Foods50:02 - Realizing the ‘Aha Moment’ of brand’s journey52:32 - Sales & Revenue Milestones during their journey54:05 - Being a Truth company rather than being a food company57:00 - Key learnings while scaling a brandSend us a text

MobiKwik is one of the largest Mobile Wallet and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platforms in India. Its tech platform has 120  million Registered Users, 25.3 million pre-approved BNPL users and more than 3.4 million merchant partners. MobiKwik's top line grew by 80 percent from INR 300 crore in FY21 to INR 540 Crore in FY22.Tune in to this conversation with Bipin Preet Singh, Co-founder, MobiKwik where we talk about his journey of building and scaling the company for the last 13+ years.During the episode, Bipin also shares about how they started first with a basic problem of the masses with mobile recharge and then scaled over time, how they sailed through the difficult times of Covid and took Mobikwik to 100Mn+ users.Notes - 02:21 - What led him to founding MobiKwik?09:00 - “You can’t build the platform on Day 1, the platform has to evolve.”11:58 - Advice for early-stage entrepreneurs pitching to build a platform14:27 - How did MobiKwik evolve as a platform? 27:23 - What has transformed significantly in the last 1-2 years?30:33 - Current revenue, profits, and scale 36:25 - Is the economy currently going into recession?38:11 - What kept him going for 13+ years?40:33 - Tailwinds which are supporting Fintech in India44:52 - Creating a mental model to build in markets with already existing large playersSend us a text

Any idea what’s common between Flipkart, Ola, Swiggy, Zerodha and 6000+ other Businesses in India and South-East Asia? They all rely on Exotel for their customer communications, no matter the size, scale, or industry within which the company exists; Exotel has the a product-solution for all of them. In this episode, we talk with Shivakumar Ganesan, Founder of Exotel to learn more about his journey and challenges building and scaling the company.During the episode, Shivakumar talks about his experience with VCs & Angel investors, having Ola as a customer and much more.Notes - 03:48 - Early days, Family, background & career06:40 - Entrepreneurial attempts before starting Exotel09:51 - Initial Problem statement and solutions13:50 - Raising money from Blume Ventures18:30 - Scale and Customers at $1Mn ARR30:21 - Cofounders leaving the company37:30 - Dealing with thoughts about quitting41:55 - How did A91 Partners chose to back Exotel?49:38 - Current Capabilities & Scope for growth52:15 - Proving naysayers wrong by building a $60Mn ARR SaaS from India for India53:39 - Key lessons from his journey55:56 - Advice for understanding market size  Send us a text

With the emergence of health issues in recent years, most people have started becoming proactive to improve their immune system and diet, rather than being reactive at a later stage when the damage has already been done. Even most doctors agree that if from an early age, we somehow get access to a preservative-free, natural source of nutrients, it might significantly boost our health in the long-run.Our guest Aarti Gill’s OZiva is India's leading Clean, Plant Based Wellness brand. OZiva was started back in 2016 and since then the company has scaled significantly with a large base of repeat customers.During the episode, Aarti talks about how she pivoted from her first venture to OZiva, what are the major challenges she has encountered during her journey and much more.Notes - 05:38 - Initial intro about OZiva08:40 - High-level metrics around customers and revenue09:44 - Building an Omni-channel brand v/s a D2C brand11:26 - Early Education & Career prior to OZiva14:14 - Meeting her co-founder and their first venture18:35 - Deciding the first 4 products21:14 - Market demand of OZiva’s Prime membership22:26 - Challenges during the early years of OZiva24:38 - Building a 20 Cr+ revenue from 2016 to 202026:53 - Building online & offline distribution channels28:03 - Nuances while building distribution channels30:10 - Rapid scale of 5x within a year31:37 - Ensuring repeat purchase by customers36:46 - Funding interest while growing from 0 to 20 Cr+38:45 - Mental model of self-evaluating during each funding rounds40:10 - Deepika Padukone as a brand ambassador42:44 - Framework behind brand positioning campaigns44:37 - Things which didn’t work out & learnings46:19 - Why build new categories apart from nutritionSend us a text

# Can a passionate cricketer become a passionate entrepreneur? # Can you and your spouse be Cofounders without conflict? # How many successful & fulfilling stints can an entrepreneur have? All the above questions get answered during the episode with our guest Ashish Tandon, Founder & CEO, Indusface.Indusface is his 3rd venture after 2 successful exits and a short but successful early-career in Cricket. During the episode, Ashish talks about how his wife has supported him throughout his journey, what led him to start over and over again post his multiple exits and much more.Notes - 03:08 - Early background in Cricket06:30 - 1st venture right out of College08:46 - Getting acquired by SIFY within 2 years09:49 - What led to his 2nd venture? 13:21 - Multi-million dollar Exit to TrendMicro15:16 - Reason behind Bootstrapping his ventures17:55 - What led him to starting Indusface?19:42 - Problem statements solved by Indusface24:32 - Journey from $1Mn ARR to current scale28:10 - Key Levers to doubling their ARR within a year31:32 - Challenges in building Indusface36:58 - Having your spouse as your Cofounder38:50 - Reflecting back how he feels about his journey? 44:09 - Lessons from all his venturesSend us a text

# China Accused of cyber-attacks on Ukraine before Russian invasion# Buget 2022: $9.9 billion towards cyber security aims to make Australia a key 'offensive' cyber playerThese are some of the recent headlines around Cyber threats globally. Cyber attacks have been rated the fifth top rated risk in 2020 and continues to grow in 2022 as IoT cyber attacks alone are expected to double by 2025.In this episode our guest Rahul Sasi, Founder CloudSEK, talks about the key challenges in Cyber Security in India today.CloudSEK’s customer list includes Axis Bank, NPCI, Netcore, OLA, Sun Pharma, ICICI Lombard, IndusInd Bank, MakeMyTrip and many more who don’t wish to take a chance with the growing threat of global cyber crimes.  11 of the Fortune Global companies, and 7 of the world’s biggest banks, trust XVigil (one of CloudSEK’s flagship products) to safeguard their security posture.During the episode, Rahul talks about how they started CloudSEK, customer acquisition strategy, and much more.Notes - 04:04 - Background before starting CloudSEK08:55 - Current ARR and scale in terms of customers09:45 - Milestone since launch12:04 - Products and Problem Statements solved by CloudSEK14:44 - How has been the industry response? 20:19 - Challenges with hiring the right people24:40 - Targets for the next 2 years26:17 - Learnings from their fundraising journey28:26 - How to leverage your investors?Send us a text

The Internet of Things category is not slowing down for anyone to catch up. It is projected to be a $1.1 trillion category by 2027, with the number of active IoT-connected devices ​​expected to reach 30.9 billion units by 2025.Targeting this, we have our guest Yadhu Gopalan, CEO & Founder at Esper, with a vision to power the next billion smart devices. Currently, Seattle-based Esper has more than 200 paying customers and over 2,000 developers using its platform for product development.During the episode, Yadhu talks about his journey building Esper, how he met his cofounder, what learnings he has brought from his stint at Amazon and Microsoft, and much more.Notes - 01:12 - Journey before starting Esper02:20 - Early Childhood and moving to the US03:48 - Problem statement behind starting Esper05:25 - Product offering and clients10:25 - The founding team at Esper15:43 - Attracting the best talent16:50 - Building a team across geographies19:07 - Execute distribution and partnerships at scale20:39 - Work Culture & learnings from Microsoft & Amazon27:51 - Key learnings from his startup journeySend us a text

As per a recent Entrackr report, Indian startups saw over 250 acquisitions in 2021. Edtech startups like Byju’s, Unacademy, and upGrad have been in the headlines for their acquisition spree, and also startups in the e-commerce roll up space such as Mensa Brands, GlobalBees, 10club, Upscalio, and fitness tech platform Cultfit (Curefit) also took over smaller brands, recording the highest number of acquisitions last year. With so much going on around acquisitions, our guest Rohit Anand, Founder, 1digitalstack.ai shares his experience of getting his first venture acquired. During the episode, Rohit talks about bringing in a third-party consultant to assist with the acquisition, his second stint at entrepreneurship, and much more.Notes - 02:12 - Starting his first entrepreneurial venture in 199906:34 - “Importance of going after a problem where you have a natural advantage.”11:39 - What did Value Edge work upon? 12:57 - Value Edge’s ARR at the time of Exit13:39 - Thought process behind the Exit18:46 - Process of identifying the right M&A Advisor and the help an entrepreneur can expect24:00 - Maintaining balance during the stress while acquisition28:57 - Deciding to start 1digitalstack.ai32:31 - Current scale in terms of ARR & top clients35:17 - Taking investor money during his 2nd entrepreneurial stint38:10 - Future plans for 1digitalstack.ai (in terms of ARR & Growth drivers)42:15 - Vision and Ambition of building a large company46:19 - Current practices: Same & Distinct from Value Edge50:32 - His approach towards investingSend us a text

Many founders try to build for large markets. But Saahil Goel, Founder, Shiprocket thinks differently. In his opinion, it’s okay to build small or lesser things and target a core segment of users, instead of jumping into a competition with large players, where you might not stand a chance. In other words - Picking your battles wisely. During this episode, Saahil talks about finding the right investors, current focus of the company, and much more.Notes - 01:56 - Finding his Co-founder & brainstorming around data-driven logistics09:04 - Problem with starting in a large competitive market12:02 - Focus metrics during the initial journey14:12 - Current scale of Shiprocket22:04 - Warehouse as a Service26:24 - Y-o-Y growth of platform27:49 - Approach to fixing broken things & building new32:14 - Raising initial rounds of funding45:01 - “Unless and until you have clarity about something, it won’t work.”48:19 - Ensuring focus within the teamSend us a text

Suppose you're a marketer or have a marketer friend/colleague. During an event like IPL or Diwali, you need to get 100+ variations of creatives with 20-30 sizes for each, within a few days and not weeks, so that you can test campaigns on multiple platforms at the earliest. However, traditional software is time-consuming, especially if you have a small design team with limited bandwidth. Our guest, Satej Sirur, Founder & CEO, Rocketium, solves this for 1200+ brands like Bigbasket, cult.fit, Groww, Meesho, Supr Daily, Urban Company, and many more across 95+ countries.During the episode, Satej talks about how customers differentiate between them and Adobe, the fundamental principles he focuses on to include in Rocketium's culture, and much more.Notes - 00:52 - Initial Intro05:13 - Pivoting in early years of Rocketium09:50 - Metrics around ARR & Customer base11:31 - Customers comparing Rocketium to Adobe18:07 - Company building: Attracting the best talent22:36 - Principles in Rocektium's work culture25:51 - What's 8-4-5? 28:02 - Framework while setting internal metrics30:07 - Playbook behind International expansion33:45 - Importance of deeply knowing who your users are39:08 - Fundraising journey: Finding the right investorSend us a text

"You never know when and where you can be "bitten by the entrepreneurship bug." Something similar happened with our guest Shashank Bijapur. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he was working with a New York-based top-tier law firm; when he came across the news of Elon Musk launching Self-driving cars. He realized his manual work on Legal contracts was easily replaceable by AI automation soon.This led him to start SpotDraft, an end-to-end contract automation platform for companies of all sizes.In this episode, Shashank talks about his initial hiring struggles, getting new clients, some of his mistakes as an entrepreneur, the future plans for SpotDraft, and much more.Notes - 01:19 - Starting SpotDraft and meeting his wife for the 1st time04:51 - First few years of struggle07:28 - Timeline of Shashank & SpotDraft's Journey10:34 - Switch of TG: From Enterprise to Startups12:58 - Early customers: Unacademy & Chargebee amongst others14:36 - Hiring A+ talent: Referrals from existing employees17:01 - Mistakes in 0 to 1 Journey22:18 - Competitive edge over large competitors25:23 - "Let's get SpotDrafted."Send us a text

# Marketer of the Year 2018 and 2019 by IAA Leadership Award held by International Advertising Association (IAA)# Most Influential Youth Marketing Professional by Global Youth Marketing Forum 2019# Top 30 CMO's in India 2020 by IAMAI#" Marketer of the year" by The Economic Times ET Brand Equity #SharkAwards2021All of the above recognitions have honored our guest Karan Shroff, Partner & CMO at Unacademy, for his marketing strategies and the stellar brand campaigns time and again.Before joining Unacademy, Karan was Heading Marketing at Xiaomi, and in this episode, he shares his decade-long experience in the marketing domain.During the episode, Karan also talks about his first meeting with Unacademy Co- Founder & CEO, Gaurav Munjal, keeping his learners' emotions at the heart of all his campaigns, and much more.Notes - 03:19 - Early career journey04:39 - Story behind joining Unacademy07:32 - Marketing campaigns close to his heart10:30 - Learnings from Gaurav and Unacademy's culture14:45 - Finding creativity, ideas and tapping into it18:17 - Audacity of ambitions & goals20:38 - Secret Sauce: Keeping the sentiments of the users at the core of the campaign23:24 - How to build an iconic brand?27:24 - What has Karan Unlearnt?31:24 - Changes in marketing strategy as per the dynamic needs of the customers35:36 - His timeless marketing advice for startupsSend us a text

Do you know about the most interesting headline of all Indian business newspapers on 30 November 1999?It was India's most prominent Internet deal at the time - a $115Mn acquisition of IndiaWorld, founded by our guest Rajesh Jain. After this successful acquisition; Rajesh started Netcore. Yes, the same company is responsible for 75% of India's email traffic and 50% of Asia's email traffic through its Cloud network.During the episode, Rajesh explains how they've been one of the Proficorns at Netcore, all his learnings and experiences over the last two decades, and much more.Notes - 03:17 - Early career and failures09:42 - Learning entrepreneurship from his father11:32 - Starting and scaling IndiaWorld22:04 - "More important than knowing when to enter a business, is to know when to exit a business."24:26 - His perspective about businesses in India31:46 - "StarTech: Great Golden Era of Indian Entrepreneurship."34:33 - Building Netcore after the previous acquisition38:45 - Pivots and growth of Netcore43:45 - What is Proficorn, and why has Rajesh strongly advocated for it?51:48 - 25% ownership by employeesSend us a text

# Does the word 'Compounding' excite you? # Have you always wondered what 'Value Investing' is and how can you follow this approach?# Are you biased in your investment decisions? Then, this is an episode you shouldn't miss. Our guest, Gautam Baid, CFA & Founder at Stellar Wealth Partners, and Founding Creator at Chapter talks about his journey in the stock market from his early days, learning through great books on investing to eventually becoming a writer and fund manager himself. During the episode, Gautam talks about his personal experience of gaining and compounding knowledge, his recommendations (in terms of books, checklists, biases) for first-time investors entering the stock market, and much more.Notes - 03:46 - His family background and childhood09:21 - Compounding of Knowledge: Spent on hours of learnings14:28 - "Nothing teaches you the biggest lessons of life, more than an empty pocket and empty stomach."21:19 - His thoughts about 'Value Investing.'31:35 - Checklists in his investing decisions33:15 - 3 biases every investor should know49:28 - "Time is the new status symbol."50:35 - His book recommendationsAdditional links:Link to Gautam Baid's smallcase: www.stellarwealthpartners.comLink to Gautam Baid's Chapter: https://getchapter.app/@gautamLink to Gautam Baid's book: www.TheJoysOfCompounding.comSend us a text

As per the recent data by Tracxn, there are 1338 AgriTech startups in India. However, with 118.7 million farmers, who contribute to a mere 17-18% of Indian GDP, many problem statements are left to be solved at a larger scale.In March 2020, we interviewed Vaibhav Domkundwar from Better Capital, where he mentioned their then-recent investment in Bijak - their first interaction with the founders and their thesis behind the investment. In today's episode, we're interviewing Nukul Upadhye, Co-Founder at Bijak, where he talks about how and why he started Bijak. Bijak is a one-stop agriculture marketplace where sellers and buyers can find trustworthy, reliable, and transparent counterparties. Bijak processes transactions worth more than Rs 1.5 billion on a monthly basis. During the episode, Nukul also talks about their initial challenges, leveraging the pre-existing offline supply chain, and much more.Notes - 01:48 - Creating a B2B marketplace - Bijak05:55 - Alternate ideas while starting Bijak09:24 - How does Bijak differentiate itself from traditional offline marketplaces? 17:33 - Challenges during the initial journey31:42 - How has he personally evolved over the past two years?Send us a text

Since early 2020, we've noticed numerous startups becoming Unicorn one after another. But something a bit unnoticed by the wider audience is the valuations of startups at Seed-stage, which has grown multiples in the last two years. Bipin Shah, Partner at Titan Capital and this week's guest, says, "Till 2019, a great startup idea with an awesome team would be valued around $2Mn to $3Mn, which has now gone up to $10Mn+."So far, Titan Capital has made more than 250+ investments in early-stage startups. Bipin shares his experience and the thesis around identifying, mentoring and investing in seed-stage founders.Notes - 01:18 - Joining Titan Capital06:10 - Finding Soonicorns and Unicorns08:27 - How did they manage to make 90+ investments in a year?12:02 - What support does Titan Capital offer to portfolio companies?15:58 - Thesis: Focus on bottom 50% of companies28:10 - Change in valuation at the Seed stage31:20 - Learnings in the last six years as an investorSend us a text

When you hear the word Startups & Angel Investing, which cities do you most commonly think they are based out of? Bengaluru, Delhi / Gurugram, Mumbai, or Chennai. The guest of our today’s episode, Abhishek Rungta clearly breaks this stereotype. Back in 1997, when he was still in his graduation, he had two options post college - - Join his father’s family business in Jute Trading- Start something totally unexpectedAnd that’s exactly what he did, he founded Indus Net Technologies from Kolkata, completely bootstrapped, which today has 200+ active clients across Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Retail, Publishing, Media, Government, Healthcare and Entertainment sectors in five continents.Today his company has an ARR of $11Mn, and offers services in verticals such as:- Integrated Digital Marketing Services- Cloud Application Development (CMS, CRM, E-Commerce, ODC, OPD)- Enterprise MobilityIn parallel to this, he also started as an Angel Investor and later as an LP. During the episode, Abhishek talks about the crux of his journey as an investor, his learnings along the way, what mindset he currently carries as an investor and much more.Notes - 01:07 - Family Business Background - Jute Trading03:48 - Acquiring a global client base from Kolkata06:50 - His journey in Angel Investing12:13 - valley of despair in investing15:14 - Thesis: Investing in 2nd time founders22:05 - Diversifying your investments33:01 - Learnings to intake as an LP35:11 - Investors’ whose thesis he looks up toSend us a text

Habits! Our habits make us who we are as a person. Since an early age we’ve been told by our parents and mentors, the distinction between a good and a bad habit. But how often do we skip to the good one’s? Specially as grown-ups, can you confidently say that you have the best habits in terms of - 1. Managing your finance & expenses2. Managing your work life balance3. Having a fruitful & fulfilling daySomething similar intrigued Rajan Singh, the guest of our today’s episode, to start HabitStrong in early 2020.Prior to HabitStrong, Rajan served as a IPS officer, as a McKinsey consultant, and as an investment professional with a private equity fund.​HabitStrong started with him inviting people to join him on YouTube sharp at 5 am, for a 30-day challenge. And the next morning, he was surprised to see several people already waiting. Over the next few months, through several bootcamps, thousands of applicants and several hundreds of volunteers, HabitStrong was on its journey to positively create an impact in everyone’s life.During the episode, Rajan talks about how people run after work, money and luxury lifestyle and how it can lead to a deterioration of mental peace over time, and much more.Notes - 01:18 - Journey to starting HabitStrong05:02 - “Things that sound the simplest are often the most powerful and most overlooked.”11:15 - Why did he make the choices he made? 19:48 - Current scale of HabitStrong29:15 - What does Financial Independence mean for him?33:33 - His definition of happiness - “Ability to step back from what is not making your life meaningful.”Send us a text

# 5M+ Shopping Moments Personalized#400M+ Monthly Active Users Engaged#30B+ Messages Sent Monthly#$10B+ Additional Revenue DeliveredThese are some of the metrics driven by WebEngage, which caters to 400+ global brands as a robust customer data platform, personalization engine, omnichannel campaign manager, and an analytics engine. In today’s episode we have Avlesh Singh, WebEngage’s, CEO & Co-founder, sharing insights on how they’ve built a seamless full-stack Retention OS.During the episode, Avlesh talks about how companies can reach out to their own users, reducing churn and increasing retention, instead of reaching out to third-party ad platforms, and much more.Notes - 01:45 - Intro to Webengage05:06 - “Marketing will only put a certain amount of value to the software, only if we are able to bring more users back to the platform.”13:20 - Current scale in terms of revenue & customers36:51 - Learnings from his experience as a founderSend us a text

"The world is going through one of the worst recessions, and you plan on starting a Travel venture. You must be out of your mind!"This was precisely the reaction of everyone around Prashant Pitti, the guest of today's episode, and his co-founders when they decided to launch EaseMyTrip during the 2008 Recession.In fact, when they approached a few VCs during their early days to pitch for an investment, they received multiple preset filters and nuances -# A B2B travel venture won't grow big enough# You're late; there are so many travel startups alreadyHowever, proving everyone wrong, they've grown leaps and bounds since inception, so much so that they were one of the first internet companies to go public during Covid.During the episode, Prashant talks about how they are thankful for not being VC-funded, some of the tough calls they took during their journey, which propelled their growth, and much more.Notes - 01:02 - Starting a travel venture during recession02:52 - Problem statement solved by EaseMyTrip for Travel Agents05:49 - Impact on growth because of not charging “Convenience Fees”07:44 - Being extremely efficient and disciplined as a company13:41 - Decision behind going public16:59 - How did EaseMyTrip remain profitable even during Covid?25:31 - Why does EaseMyTrip prefer hiring Non-IITians?Send us a text

4.03 billion people!That’s the most recent reported number of email users worldwide. No platform even comes close to the potential reach of email. The latest Facebook statistics give them over 2.8 billion monthly active users.As of today there are almost 1 billion and 700 thousand active users of Gmail, being of the most popular email service providers. But it was launched on 1 April 2004. Prior to Gmail, the tech trend of that era was Hotmail, and if you had a Hotmail account, that was something worth showing-off. Founded in 1996, by the guest of our today’s episode Sabeer Bhatia and his co-founder Jack Smith, Hotmail was the world's first web-based email when it launched.Back then, they sold it two years later to Microsoft for an estimated $400m. Since then Sabeer, became the face of tech entrepreneurship, and has been inspiring generations.Recently last year, in 2020, he’s back with an idea, which might lead to another tech revolution, named ShowReel. Consider this as a short-video version of Linkedin, where your profile, all your posts, and feed will have just videos. During the episode, Sabeer talks about his vision with Hotmail, what are his current plans with Showreel, what all founders can learn from his entrepreneurship journey and much more.Notes - 01:02 - Right timing as an entrepreneur03:06 - What led to Hotmail’s acquisition?09:55 - His journey as an entrepreneur & investor post acquisition11:27 - Problem statements being solved by ShowReel17:21 - His opinion about Web 3.023:47 - “Only crazy entrepreneurs change the world.”Send us a text

A founder’s role is challenging, requiring expertise in multiple enterprises. From funding to hiring, it is entirely the onus of the founder to convert visions into reality. In today’s episode, we’ve brought Sameer Guglani, Founder of Supermorpheus, a Community-driven seed investing platform, to simplify the founder’s role and expand it beyond finance to foster the entire Startup team’s well being. Supermorpheus (the evolution of Morpheus) is a curated global community of founders and folks in the startup space focussing on consciousness-driven creation of Startups and wealth with 350+ founders and 40+ investments.  During this episode, Sameer talks about how startups need to focus on integral growth, optimizing startups for the long run, and prioritizing excellence over the competition. Notes:3:12 Birth of Supermorpheus29:12 Fundamental Changes in the Indian Startup Ecosystem33:00 Role of Financial freedom in Sameer's Journey38:49 Time spent on self-development43:17 Similar Patterns observed among foundersSend us a text

A notion amongst most Indian SaaS entrepreneurs is to move to the US to expand or start from the US from Day 1 itself.However, in today's episode, we've brought Anand Jain, Co-founder of CleverTap, to debunk this myth and shed more light on what an early-stage SaaS founder's roadmap should be in terms of either staying in India or moving to any global market.CleverTap is a leading customer engagement and retention platform, trusted by over 10,000 apps, including Gojek, AirAsia, Sony, Vodafone, Carousell, and Cleartrip.During the episode, Anand talks about how a company needs to adopt new market plans to continue growing one milestone after another, his learnings early-stage SaaS entrepreneurs can consider in their journey, and much more.Notes - 00:55 - Founding CleverTap06:57 - $45 Mn ARR and customer growth Y-o-Y10:43 - “What got you to 45 will not get you 100.”16:55 - Is moving to the US to expand as a SaaS company necessary?24:03 - 3 Key points in his $1 Mn to $10 Mn ARR Playbook27:10 - Mistakes in his journey building CleverTap40:10 - Game Plan to market your product in newer markets and different ARR levelsSend us a text

With so many Indian startups achieving unicorn status in 2021, the situation begs an answer to the question:  # Is this growth sustainable or are we in a bubble?# What does this mean for foreign and Indian investors? #What does this mean for the next decade of VC and Startups? To understand this better, in today’s episode, we’ve brought Anjali Bansal, founder of Avaana Capital, that invests in innovation-led start-ups creating sustainability and impact at scale while delivering outsized returns. Previously, Anjali has been Global Partner and MD with TPG Growth PE and a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Co. in New York. She’s also the former non-executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, where she successfully led the resolution of the stressed bank.She has invested in and regularly mentors various successful start-ups including Delhivery, Nykaa, Alpha Vector, Lenskart, Urban Company, Darwinbox, Coverfox and FarMart.She is closely associated with NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform and Digital Solutions and is on the Expert Advisory Committee for the Start Up India Seed Fund Scheme. She has been appointed as President, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and serves as an independent director on several leading boards including Tata Power, Kotak AMC, and Piramal Enterprises.During the episode, Anjali talks about the volatility in the Indian startup ecosystem, the opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors; she also shares learnings from her portfolio and much more.Notes - 00:40 - Intro and background02:55 - Working at ISRO and early career04:59 - Ideology behind Avaana Capital08:22 - Is the Indian startup ecosystem in a bubble?17:21 - Common patterns and learnings from the winners20:50 - Mistake: Investing in the idea and not the team22:44 - Ability to move quickly as a fund34:49 - Learnings from early-career at Mckinsey36:29 - Potential in Indian startups41:01 - What all she prefers to read on a daily basisSend us a text

# What is Financial Independence? # Does everybody need precisely 10 crore to be happy? # Is the process of “Wealth Creation = Cutting out on all your wants & desires completely”?For the past 2 years, it seems like everyone around us is investing either in stocks or crypto and also making generous profits. And you too are probably thinking to jump in right? After all - # Markets are at an all-time high # Crypto is “The New Thing” and you don’t want to miss outWell, just wait for a moment, before you begin, in today’s episode we’ve brought Deepak Shenoy, Founder and CEO at Capitalmind (SEBI registered - Portfolio Manager). During the episode, Deepak will help you have the right mindset to begin your investment journey, what to and what not to expect off your investments, and how to evaluate an investment opportunity much more.Notes - 01:40 - Beginning of his investing journey04:33 - Where would your 1st crore of wealth come from? 07:17 - Behavioural changes in growing from 1 to 10 crore wealth10:29 - True definition of financial independence14:20 - Are emotional buying decisions hindrances in wealth creation?24:13 - Has investing become mainstream in 2021?33:30 - How to find under-valued investment opportunities?41:43 - His upcoming book “MONEY WISE: Timeless Lessons on Building Wealth”Send us a text

Diwali just got over, and following the fatal trend of smog in the nation's capital for the past five years, it is here again.It is alarming to recognize that India is home to 7 of the top 10 cities globally, notorious for its air pollution levels.With increasing incomes, more and more people can afford cars, increasing the severity of the already worse air pollution scenario due to fossil fuels.All this emphasizes the need for greener transportation alternatives. Despite the bad news, we have several large companies and startups leading the way to clean modes of travel, be it the prominent players like Tata Motors, MG, and Hyundai or the startups like Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Yulu, and Blu Smart, among others.In today's episode, we've brought Arpit Agarwal, Director at Blume Ventures, to talk about the current scenario of EV startups in India. During the episode, Arpit talks about the various challenges and opportunities for EVs in India, some of Blume's portfolio companies, how they contribute to India's EVs revolution, and much more.Notes - 02:40 - Future of EVs in general06:01 - Adoption by TCO positive segments07:25 - 5-year use case of an electric scooter10:13 - Key challenge in EV market17:22 - Challenge with charging stations24:30 - Opportunities for EV in India under various sub-segments32:53 - Large players engaging with the EV ecosystem34:12 - Funding & duration of developing an EV from scratch37:28 - Future of mobility C.A.S.E.Send us a text