Secret Sauce - A bootstrapped entity with 4x growth in 5 years

In this podcast we have Sameer Nigam, alumnus of Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI)  & Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

Sameer co-founded Stratbeans Learning Solutions , an unsung gem of the Indian Startup Ecosystem - Made in India for the World.

A successful bootstrapped business with a topline that has increased more than four times over the last five years maintaining an enviable profitable track record.

Key Moments:   

( 0:00 - 1:45 ) - Opening Remark

( 1:45 - 4:30 ) - Sameer's entrepreneurial journey and why he preferred to bootstrap his company instead of raising funds.   

( 4:30 - 8:53 ) - Age is just a number, Sameer's venture in his early 30's.  

( 8:53 - 12:30 ) - Early days of building a bootstrapped entity.   

( 12:30 - 16:54 ) - What changes have come along, that brought Stratbeans Consulting to where it is today.  

( 16:54 - 26:30 ) - The role of resilience till the first light of success.    

( 26:30 - 30:00 ) - The power of Manifestation, the fuel for growth. 

( 30:00 - 30:47 ) - A piece of advice that influenced  Sameer and Stratbeans.    

( 30:47 - 33:56) - Closing remarks.

A student of Architecture and having over 15 years of domain expertise in building, scaling and leading global enterprises, Gautam set on the Entrepreneurial journey of building SmartVizX ( thru the product -  Trezi) ,  in 2015 with his co-founder Mrs. Tithi Tiwari.

Trezi is a virtual reality led platform, changing the way the design collaboration has, is and will take place in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction ( ACE) industry. 

Trezi ( an acronym for ‘Transforming Design’)  is building a first of its kind platform that will provide immersive visualization, spatial awareness and interactivity to the users.

With Trezi, the founders aim to create the leading VR platform for architects, designers and building product suppliers.

Key Stamps:

- Let's begin by knowing more about the journey as an entrepreneur for Gautam - The hardships, experiences & learnings

- With Trezi we talk about metaverse, if we were to explain it to a 12 year old, how would it be?

- Let's delve a little deeper and understand what exactly is Trezi and what were the problems it identified that lead to building this platform?

-  How is Trezi a game changer?

- Building V/S adoption - The gap in metaverse?

- Going back to Metaverse as the space, It came with strong tailwinds but soon the buzz faded, how about future?

- In the journey as a founder, Trezi pivoted from a service led model to a product led model, what came along as learnings? 

- On pivot,  how did the ecosystem stakeholders view pivot (team, investors, clients)?

- Did Covid act as a tailwind, headwind or a tailspin for Trezi and how did the team pilot the start-up in these times?

- What is the best unsolicited advice as a founder received by Gautam? 

- One advice for the first time founders?

In today’s podcast we have Mr. Chitranshu Mahant, Founder & CEO of Floydwiz Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Also known as PrimeOS.

IIT Delhi Graduate, entrepreneurial bug hit him early. Shortly after his  degree in Civil Engineering from IIT-Delhi, along with Mr. Aman Verma, started PrimeOS in mid 2018.

PrimeOS was started as an android operating system for laptops to maximize productivity.

The next 5 years have been no less than a rollercoaster ride but with the times the team and the product has evolved to stay relevant in the dynamic markets.

Lets hear straight from the horse’s mouth about his journey and experiences.

Key Stamps: 

(1:40 - 3:12) - Journey as an entrepreneur - Hardships, experiences, learning - most crucial learning in this 4 year journey

(3:27 - 4:50) - What is PrimeOS building?

(6:17 - 7:38) - Did Covid act as a tailwind, headwind or a tailspin for PrimeOS and how did PrimeOS pilot during these times?

(8:08 - 9:12) - Who will be the users of PrimeOS/Primebook and how big is the market?

(9:48 -  10:15) - How can this fuel the growth in the Ed-tech sector

(10:35 - 11:57) - With an android based operating system, PrimeOS was a disruptor in 2018 - 2019 fighting giants like Microsoft. What are the challenges one faces while building a disruptive product’s MVP being a Category Creator, and how did the journey for PrimeOS look like?

(12:20 - 13:23) - How difficult was managing the supply chain as it forms the core of PrimeOS business?

(13:50 - 15:17) - What will the next 6 months for PrimeOS look like?

(15:24 -16:00) - What is the best unsolicited advice you have received so far

Today India is cynosure of the international community for investing in the Indian financial markets!

India beckons you all!

Harikrishnan S, Founder & Managing partner of Blue Lotus Capital an independent global asset management and advisory firm with assets under management of $ 330 million  in conversation with Brijesh Damodaran, Managing Partner, Auxano Capital taking us through dynamics around the Indian financial markets & India as a asset allocation in both as a geography and asset class for global investors.

Time stamp:

2:27 - 7:55 - Outperformance of Indian equity market w.r.t to S&P index for 3 years in a row! - An indicator for global investors to look at India & have allocation in the portfolio?

9:29 - 15:30 -  Most common talking point among investors “ depreciating Indian rupee” - A global fund manager's approach.

16:20 - 18:06 -   State of economy and stock market movements - are they related?

18:22 - 23:00 -  Difference in the approach of global investors & international investors towards AIF’s - Global fund manager’s experience!

23:32 - 25: 43 - A seasoned venture capital fund manager’s transition to managing funds in the public market - Differences observed in both asset classes!

26:12 - 28:06 -  Asset allocation towards Indian markets in the portfolio - global investors should be allocating!

28:55 - 34:34 -  Constants and changes w.r.t investment world observed by Mr. HariKrishan in his 3 decades of experience.

35:25 - 37:39 -  Concept of first principles of thinking - Personal Insight.

We like to celebrate and can we celebrate with our extended family at all occasions? 

Hear from Nitin who along side Rohan is creating a new category  (Mead) in alco-bev space with the brand Moonshine .       

For our listeners, mead is a 8000-9000 year old beverage found across all ancient civilizations around the world. Mead often gets the middle child treatment in a trio of alcoholic beverages, with beer being the star athlete and wine a musical prodigy even though, Mead has a royal history. (More on the same in the podcast!!) 

A royal craft beverage of history, they are on the mission to bring back the elixir of the Gods (as they like to call it) to our palates with a fresh variety of meads!!

A different kind of podcast this time from Auxano on creating a category creator business in India.

Time stamp:

2:00 to 3:58 -  What is mead? and the real meaning behind the brand name moonshine!

4: 20 to 8:28 -  Indian indegenous craft beverage history & whitespaces observed in Indian Alco-Bev space!!

9:05 to 10:32 - early days of the idea to create mead based craft beverages - moonshine!

10:44 to 12:05 - Insight into why Indian made alco-beverages got less traction.

12:17 to 17:00  - Approach towards Ideation and strategy behind the branding part of moonshine!

17:27 to  21:21 - Marketing Avenues moonshine has explored in line with the generational culture of India!

21:40 to  23:22 -  Approach behind selecting the artistic labels for each moonshine bottle!

23:56 to 26:29  - The ice breaker in the conversation with investors moonshine had!!

26:56 to 32:48  - Lack of innovation in alco-bev space in India -  is it the function of time?

33:16 to 34:49 - Awareness and availability variables to solve to scale in alco-bev space!

35:00 to 36:29 - Presence of moonshine across the country!

36:41 to 38:05 - Tweaking conventional approach of marketing & sales in the modern world!

38:21 to 39:58  - All about the liquid inside the moonshine beverage!

40:05 to 41: 38  - How did Nitin and Rohan start to make the mead!?

41: 55 to 44:03  - Thought of giving up in the long journey of entrepreneurship!!

44:33 to 45:40   - If it is ethically done - You can fix whatever is broken - Personal insight!

In today’s podcast we have Dr. Rachana Patni, Founder, The Matrix of Enquiry. She is a leader who coaches and guides in the realm of - integrating emotional and mental wellbeing for individual and organizational development.

In developing her role at “The matrix of enquiry”, she has worked as a consultant with Aperian Global, Ikea (China), Price Global (Japan), MCGS (India) and a host of educational establishments including  NIFT (Delhi), GIM (Goa) and AUD, Delhi.

Join in for an interesting conversation between Dr Rachna Patni and Dr Archit Shah, Auxano Capital as they take us through the art of effective decision making & how qualities such as  resilience, grit, emotional quotient are important for entrepreneurship and team building.

Time stamp:

1:50 - 3:12 : Common traits observed in founders!!

3:34 - 7:13 : Science behind emotions and its origination and integrated approach of understanding it!

7:23 - 7:50 : Emotion: An element to focus upon!

8:31 - 10:51: How can one control emotions and propel ahead?

10:56 - 11:49 : Taking the bird's eye view: To process situations better!!

11:58 - 14:37 : How much is resilience correlated with emotional quotient?

15:04 - 18:51 : Improving upon emotional quotient: An Insight

19:19 - 21:10 : Maintaining authority and ownership of emotions..

21:59 - 25:11 : How to mitigate the defensive approach towards decision making!

25:40 - 27:49 : Does having skills hold the key differentiator for attaining success in entrepreneurship ?

28:08 - 31:08 : Social environment experience : A common thread shared by successful entrepreneurs

32:01 - 33:31 : For investors: looking beyond the conventional way for gauging potential of the founder's mindset!!

33:23 - 38:24: How are resilient teams formed?

39:12 - 40:48: Micromanagement: Is it contextual?

41:06 - 42:46: We are all work in progress - Personal Insight.

In today’s podcast we have Mr. Saurav Chawla ( ex- IBanker & coffee enthusiast) , Co-Founder, Okaygo (Acquired by Betterplace) He along with Tomonaga Tejima -San Co-Founded OkayGo. Okaygo is a job tech startup that matches businesses with millions of gig, part time and full time blue and grey collared workers. 

Join in for an interesting conversation between Saurav Chawla and Brijesh Damodaran, Founding partner, Auxano Capital as they take us through the journey of starting a tech enabled venture with an International Co-Founder in an informal sector to successfully exiting it in less than 3 years by getting acquired to Betterplace. 

The key highlights of the episode are as follows: 

2:53 to 5:35  - Solving a problem in the informal sector with technology and with an International Co-Founder!!

6:07 to 7:34 - Key learnings of scaling a venture made for Bharat of India! 

7: 59 to 11:11 - An event that reinforced the conviction for scaling okaygo in the first 6 months?

 11:23  to 13:07 - Diversity in founding team and its positive impact on building blocks of startup’s culture. 

13:31 to 14:30 - Diversity brings difference of opinion too - How okaygo dealt with it? 

14:55 to 16:11 - Attracting the right set of talent: Okaygo’s perspective.

16:37 to 18:25  - Creating Job-tech venture for blue collared (Gig) work force ? - Okaygo’s experience! 

18:38 to 20:55 - An Insight - for businesses solving supply-demand mismatch for job opportunities of the blue collared (Gig) sector!! 

21:03 to 23:40  - Pivoting the business and more specifically timing it correctly! 

23:42 to 24:31 - Bootstrapping and starting up or raising a round while starting up - Disciplined approach is necessary! 

24:46 to 26:13 - looking back at the 0-10 journey - what could have been done differently at okaygo! 

26:55 to 28:51 - Successfully getting acquired in less than 3 years - What went behind arriving at this decision!! 

29:22 to 30:43 - I created value and someone else will run it - A founder’s perspective. 

31:05 to 32:44 - Personal Insight: Execution is more Important than strategy! 

32:57 to 33:55 - Advice for budding entrepreneurs - Take that leap of faith!

In today’s podcast we have Mr. Anupam Kaul, Principal ,Technology Consulting EPAM systems, Germany.

He has over 20 years of technology experience in digital strategy, roadmap creation, product engineering, and cross-functional program management for global rollouts. He has worked across sectors such as Management consulting, Defense, IT, Alco-bev, Healthcare managing geographically distributed multi-cultural & multilingual teams in countries such as Germany, France, Netherlands & India.

Join in for an interesting conversation between Anupam Kaul and Dr. Archit Shah, Auxano Capital as they take us through the evolution of technology over the decades & how Investors can go about evaluating startups leveraging technology to deliver commercial value.

The key highlights of the episode are as follows:

 1:00 to 4:27 - A short comparison on technology and human evolution.

 4:42 to 6:56 - How has technology evolved in India!!

 7:21 to 11:42 - Why has India done exceedingly well in fintech & enterprise SAAS but not in other sectors?

 12:43 to 16:08 - Non-tech background investor’s guide towards evaluating tech startups!

 16:37 to 20:26 - Addressing the big question -  Why can’t big tech players replicate the tech business of startups!!

 20:59 to 22:41 - Business Model and Technology: who should adapt the other?

 23:16 to 26:06 - What does “ AI- Enabled technology” really mean?

 26:23 to 28:04 - How tech startups can build the differentiator & Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

 28:24 to 29:56 - Personal Insight - If you want to progress, people need to like you!

Follow us on https://anchor.fm/auxano to tune into more Auxano Bytes Episodes

In today’s podcast we have Mr. Krishna Saraswati, Co-Founder of Private Circle.

He along with Avinash Co- founded PrivateCircle with the primary objective of enabling companies to find the right investors and vice versa, efficiently, and with optimum use of time .

Join in for an interesting conversation between Krishna Saraswati and Dr. Archit Shah, Auxano Capital as they take us through the core of tech enterprise which is reimagining the private markets with data!!

The key highlights of the episode are as follows:

1:49 - 13:55  -  The reason behind the inception of the private circle!!

14:22- 21: 27 -  Private Circle, the market leader?

21:55 - 25:38 -  Private Circle connecting the dots in getting all the information in one place!!

26:01 - 29:49 - Market Trends Private Circle is observing from both companies & Investor’s side with their data driven platform!

30:09 - 33:47 - How is Private circle enabling constructive communication between investors?

34:00 - 40: 32 - Private Circle - Markets? What is it?

40:51 - 46: 56 - Can disruption of financial information in private markets happen?

47:10 - 50: 06 - Good data and smart insights can make dumb guy look really smart!

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In today’s episode, we would be sitting down for a conversation with business leader Ms. Suchismita Burman,  Founder - 'Be Inspired'.

Ms. Burman has over two decades of experience working across consulting, corporate, HR, CoE &  talent , business advisory roles across industry sectors.

She has worked with top level management personnel across geographies and have led multiple change management interventions and people transformation goals.

A minimalist practitioner, NLP master and Certified Life coach she is driven by purpose to build people's capabilities, harness human potential and explore possibilities of mind.

It's a pleasure to have her with us today at Auxano Bytes- and we look forward to our conversation with her today.

The key highlights of the episode are as follows:

2:01- 3:55:  Founders mindset -  need of going fast to succeed in the venture ??? 

4:21- 8:01: Common risk-taking traits observed which correlates to founders facing mental health issues in the future.

8:57- 13:04: A minimalist practitioner’s guide towards doing one thing at a time.

14:01- 17:22: How can a startup create more inclusive atmosphere for their employee’s.?

17:36- 21:33: Does the burden of expectations of being successful in new ventures affect the resilient minds of founders? 

21:59- 25:00: Importance of communication between Investors & Founders.

25:37- 28:09: Stigma around startup founders rejoining their full-time job?

28:37- 31:24: Hybrid work model the future of work for better mental health? 

Follow us on https://anchor.fm/auxano to tune into more Auxano Bytes Episodes