Make In India. 

The three words that will define the future of the country. 

We have a trade deficit of close to $100 Bn with China. That's Rs. 83,000 Crores that leaves the country and isn't used for our own development. 

Virtuoso Optoelectronics is a manufacturing company that started in 2015 with the idea of making electronic products in India. Started with circuit boards, then manufactured LEDs and now for the last three years, they've been manufacturing Air Conditioners. 

I talk to Sukrit about this fantastic journey of scaling to Rs. 330 Cr in Revenue in 8 years! 

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Movie Production. It's something that most of us don't know much about. I host Ashi Dua, Founder of Flying Unicorn Entertainment to talk about her work in producing movies like Lust Stories, Bombay Talkies, Paava Kadhaigal and More! 

Episode Timeline: 
(01:09) - Introduction of Ashi Dua

(03:39) - Why did Ashi move to Bombay?

(07:12) - Ashi’s introduction to movie production

(10:10) - Anurag’s role in Ashi’s career

(11:53) - Anurag’s style of making movies

(14:42) - What does production entail?

(17:23) - Producer’s involvement in the finances

(18:27) - Producer’s compensation

(19:15) - Bombay Talkies and bringing 4 directors together

(22:17) - How do producers put projects together?

(24:20) - Skills needed to be a producer

(28:37) - Is the industry segregated for producers?

(31:05) - Predicting Bollywood’s trends

(35:17) - Choosing the right platform for a movie

(38:01) - How does someone find their footing in the industry?

(39:45) - The Dhoom Dhaam Company

India has 64 Million Micro, Small & Mid Sized Businesses (MSMEs) in India. However, only 12% of them have access to formal credit. There's a massive $530 Billion Credit Gap in this market. In simpler terms, the total demand for formal loans by MSMEs in $819 Billion, out of which $530 Billion is unmet. 

The problem is that banks don't have the right products and the right business model to serve the MSMEs. That's where Indifi is revolutionizing the market with its Digital Loans made based on Alternative Sources of Data. 

I host Mr. Alok Mittal, Founder of Indifi Technologies on understanding the problems in the market and how they are solving it. 

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Influencer Marketing. A rapidly growing Industry. I sit down with Pranav, Founder of OpraahFx, one of the first Influencer Marketing Agencies in the country to talk about the rise and evolution of Influencer Marketing. We talk about how Influencer Marketing campaigns get executed, how much do creators get paid, his decision to focus on Gaming Creators and the future of creator led brands! 

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Episode Timeline: 

(00:00) Influencers and sponsorship deals

(03:15) How did Pranav identify the Influencer Marketing opportunity in 2016-17

(07:22) Why the Legacy Marketing Agencies failed to identify Influencer Marketing Opportunity

(10:02) First Bollywood x Influencer Marketing Campaign - Fukrey Returns

(11:45) The Evolution of Influencer Marketing, How do Agencies win new business

(19:29) How is ROI calculated for Influencer Marketing

(24:13) Shein & MamaEarth Case Study

(28:08) How do Creators charge for Campaign 

(31:04) Influencers becoming celebrities 

(33:42) Disrupting the micro influencer space

(39:22) Why did Pranav double down on Gaming Creators?

(45:50) Different Opportunities for Gaming Creators

(50:09) Creator-led brands in India

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About time that Indian Direct to Consumer Brands make a global impact...

I talk to Akshay Ghulati - Co-Founder of Shiprocket, who is currently working with many Indian D2C Brands to help them go global!

Episode Timeline:

(00:00) - Introduction to ShiprocketX & Indian D2C brands going global
(03:01) - Why should Indian brands go global now? 
(07:21) - Experience of taking a Indian brand global.
(19:13) - The product market fit on successful Indian brands in the global market
(24:08) - How to select the marketplaces or which market you want to sell in?
(27:45) - What’s the mindset with the pricing?
(30:01) - Possibilities with the upside of global selling 
(33:04) - Pushback from the entrepreneurs 
(36:49) - Compliance laws of selling oversees
(41:52) - The segments who will want to take the brand global
(42:56) - High potential categories to get high global success
(48:22) - What are the opportunities to build agency type of businesses in this ecosystem?
(52:18) - What are the steps I need to take to run an experiment of taking my brand global?

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Artificial Intelligence will change the way our food is grown. Want to know how?

In this fascinating conversation with Dr. Pratik Desai, a Computer Scientist and Artificial Intelligence Expert, we talk about his startup KissanAI and how it's helping the farmers in India get much needed information about all aspects of farming - from fertilisers to crop diseases to ideal crop to grow given soil conditions. 

If you want to know about the future of humanity powered by AI, this episode is a must listen! 

Episode Timeline: 
(00:37)  Introduction to KissanAI and AI in Agriculture
(03:05) How did KissanAI start?
(04:26) What kind of problems do the farmers face?
(06:25) Traditional ways a farmer can seek help
(09:42) How KissanAI help the farmers?
(11:40) The backend of KissanAI
(15:17) How did KissanAI get the attraction?
(25:25) Possible ways to monetize it
(33:54) Product market fit of KissanAI
(40:25) Possibilities of how AI will impact Agriculture
(46:58) Success story of a farmer

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Artificial Intelligence will change the way how we live. 

In this episode, I host Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Venture Capital firm Accel, who invests in AI startups in India. We talk about how AI will have a massive impact on Agriculture, Education,  Healthcare, Infrastructure Development and more and fuel India's journey towards a $10 Trillion GDP. 

This isn't a technical episode, it's an episode focus on the use cases and about the startups that are being built in India. 

Episode Timeline: 
3:12 - What is Artificial Intelligence? 
5:43 - AI for Bharat 
6:40 - AI in Agriculture
8:38 - WhatsApp help for Indian Farmers through AI
9:59 - Impact of AI In Agriculture
10:51 - Use case of AI in Agriculture - Image Identification
11:19 - Attention is all you Need- Paper written by Mr.Vaswani
11:38 - Evolution of AI
13:33 - AI in Education 
15:29 - Use case of Khan Academy
17:15 - AI in Creative Fields
18:58 - Use Case of Descript
19:58 - Impact of AI on Productivity
20:16 - Use case of Wokeio
21:40 - AI in Healthcare
23:08 - Use Case of AI in Healthcare in helping a man walk who had never walked before
25:25 - AI as an assistant to a doctor
26:00 - AI for Mental Health
29:10 - The Negative impact of AI
30:26 - AI for Infrastructure Development
31:13 - Use case of AI for Infrastructure
33:06 - Use case of AIDash
34:26 - How can satellite images can be useful
35:15 - AI for Renewable Energy 
37:42 - How can India make sure that we don’t miss the boat for AI?
39:32 - Who should invest in R&D of AI?
41:39 - Can AI function on Regional languages present in India?
45:25 - AI for Defence
48:20 - AI for Businesses 
1:03:50 - Where will be India in the AI race, 15 years from now

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Learn how DrinkPrime, an innovative water purifier company in India, is tackling the country's water crisis. With millions suffering from waterborne diseases, DrinkPrime offers IoT-enabled purifiers that adapt to varying water quality. Trusted by over 200,000 households in three cities, they are scaling profitably with support from leading investors Alteria Capital, Surge, and Omidyar Network India.

Timestamps for Easy Listening: 
1
(00:30) - Intro to DrinkPrime and Water Purifier Market
(02:54) - Why DrinkPrime was started?
(07:00) - Decision to build new Water Purifier rather add Subscription to existing ones
(11:05) - How water quality in India changes across regions and in different seasons
(14:43) - The Current Landscape & History of Water Purifier Market 
(17:33) - Why Celebrities market water purifiers and how DrinkPrime took a different approach
(23:40) - The challenges with doing Hardware Innovation
(28:34) - Cost Structure of the traditional Water Purifier Industry
(34:19) - STOP over-purifying your water
(37:58) - Why the traditional water purifier companies are too big to change
(40:49) - How DrinkPrime is supplying free water to government schools
(47:29) - If you're buying Water Purifier, here's how you should go about it?

If you're building a D2C Brand or want to build one, do NOT miss this episode! Take my word for it, this will be time well spent!

In the last 5-7 Years, we've seen some great D2C Brands scale up to become large profitable businesses. One such brand is Pilgrim, that operates in the Beauty and Personal Care segment, which is estimated to be $25 Billion Dollar Market in India.

I speak to Anurag Kedia, Co-Founder at Pilgrim, to talk about how the scaled to Rs. 180 Cr Annual Revenue Run-rate in 3 Years.

Anurag shares his insights very candidly and goes deep in topics such as Core Pillars to build D2C brand, Brand vs Performance Marketing, Retention, Scaling up a D2C Brand.

Episode Chapters:
00:00 - Intro to India's Beauty and Personal Care Market and Anurag
03:25 - Core Pillars to Build a D2C Brand
06:40 - Growth Hacking for D2C brands, Optimizing Different Marketplaces
12:34 - Finding a white space in Beauty and Personal Care segment in 2019, Brand Positioning
20:45 - Understanding Customer Preferences using Research
26:15 - Brand Positioning for D2C Brands
36:30 - Performance Marketing vs Brand Marketing for D2C Brands, how to evaluate Brand Marketing invesment
44:35 - How Pilgrim looks at Retention
53:47 - Working with Contract Manufacturers as a D2C Brand
58:25 - How D2C Brands have to change between 0 to 1, 1 to 10 and 10 to 100 Journey.
1:08:00 - Entering Offline - Omnichannel Strategy
1:12:00 - What kind of investments are right for D2C Brands

The Pet Care Industry in India... 

It is estimated to be a Rs. 4000 Crores Market in India, growing annually at about 20% which makes it a great industry to start a new business as there is double digit growth! 

The industry can be roughly broken down into Pet Foods which is about 60% of the market, Pet HealthCare (20% of the market), Pet Toys and Accessories (15%) and Pet Day Cares and Hostels about 5% 

Currently there are about 30 million pets in the country, which growing at 10-11% annually. 

And that's why, Varun, Aman, and Vineet Started Supertails in early 2021. 

Supertails is on track to achieve Rs. 100 Crores in Annual Revenue Run-Rate in the next few months and have raised $10 million last year in a tough fundraising environment. 

Deepika Padukone is also an investor in Supertails! 

On this episode, I talk to Varun about: 
- The Pet Care Industry & it's Value Chain
- The Export Potential of Pet Care Products out of India
- The focus on Customer Experience at Supertails
- How Supertails leverages Content & Community to build Brand Awareness
- Why it's important to embrace failure as a founder

Timestamps for quick viewing: 

(00:00) - Overview of the Pet Care Industry in India & Intro to Varun Sadana, Founder of Supertails

(2:55) - Why Varun Quit as the Founder of Licious and the thesis behind Supertails

(8:54) - How Supertails was able to raise $10 Mn in a tough environment and why fundamentally good business often find the capital needed to scale

(21:47) - The Import & Exports of Pet Care Products in India

(26:53) - How Supertails focuses on Customer Experience and how they've made it part of their culture 

(34:56) - The Importance of Embracing Failure as a Founder 

(48:38) - How Supertails leverages Content & Community to build a Brand

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On this episode, we talk to Prateek Shukla, Co-Founder and CEO at Masai School

Prateek is an IIT Kanpur Graduate, a Teach for India Alum and Ex-Founder of Grabhouse, a real-estate tech startup that was acquired by Commonfloor and subsequently by Quikr. He’s a second time entrepreneur who is picking up his first love of teaching. 

India has 444 Million People that are in the 0-18 Years Age Bracket. That’s 400 Million people coming into the workforce over the next 15 to 20 years. For them to be contribute to India’s economic growth, we have a mammoth task of giving them the right skills.

We have over 45000 College and Institutes in the country and you would think we are slowly but surely building capacity to educate and train the 400 million people over the next 2 decades.

But, the grim reality on the ground that a large majority of students graduating from these institutions have NO employable skills. For example, of the 1.5 Million engineers that graduate, only 3% secure high paying technology jobs. The situation is even worst in Business and Humanities courses. The education industry is a money-making, recession proof business that’s being run purely on the fact that every parent wants their kid to hold a ‘degree’. It doesn’t matter if it’s useful or not, the societal shame from not having one is good enough reason to pour money into getting your child through college for 3 to 4 years.

The lack of employable talent coming out of college is HUGE problem to solve if we want to achieve The Indian Dream of becoming a large developed economy with a high per capita income. And to solve this problem, whatever we done so far isn’t working. The core reason why colleges suck in India is because there’s no incentive alignment. The college gets their fees regardless of the fact that the student might not even get a decent job after graduating. But, what if colleges got paid only after the graduating students earned.

And that’s where I find the model of Outcome driven education or Income Share Agreements very very interesting. It’s a model where the institute only gets paid after students start earning a baseline salary. What this also does is it opens up education to talented students who previously who couldn’t afford high fees of these colleges.

On the episode today, we have Prateek Shukla, Co-Founder and CEO of Masai School who is pioneering the Income Share Agreement or outcome driven model of education India. Masai is a 3 year old startup that helps students learn coding for free in a 6 months, military style coding bootcamp. They work with students with no coding or computer science background, and train them through their rigouros program. They have an income share agreement where they can make up to 3 Lakhs as a cost for the education, only and only if the students get a salary of more than 5 Lakhs per annum.

There’s no doubt Vocational Training is key to make large sections of society employment ready and productive. Only on the back of skilled talent, can you build large industries that contribute significantly to the GDP of the country. We’ve seen this play out in China where they used skilled labor and technology to build the world’s Manufacturing hub.

For India, a similar opportunity lies in being the Software hub of the world. And for that to happen, we need to train millions of students every year. Over the next 50 minutes, I talk to Prateek about the thesis behind Masai School, how they teach students, what are the execution challenges of training 7000 Students, and about their partnership with National Skill Development Coloration.