How many buyout investors do you know who quit their enviable high paying jobs to start their venture? A former Blackstone investor, today, Sambhav talks about building Intract: a one-stop SaaS solution for marketers of D2C brands to solve their customer retention problem. He also tells us what were the micro-events in his life that led him to eventually startup.  

For the first time, we play an interesting game called "Will you invest" with Sambhav in which we test his investing skills in the private equity-backed startup ecosystem.  

Further, Sambhav also touches upon the life of a Buy out investor in India and what it takes to succeed in the role.

Sambhav Jain's profile: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/-sambhav-jain/

Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:17 - Sambhav's journey  2:03 - The problem Intract AI is trying to solve 5:20 - Why will Intract AI succeed? 8:46 - What moved the needle for Sambhav 11:25 - Mindset of a successful entrepreneur/investor 16:06 - The game (PayTM vs BharatPe) 19:00 - The game (Tesla vs OLA EV) 20:20 - The game (Big Basket vs Zepto) 21:30 - Life of a Blackstone investor    

About Buyside Hippies 

Buyside Hippies originated with an intent to give the audience a taste of how various levers of entrepreneurship and high finance work towards generating value.  Our podcasts are also available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.  

Website: https://www.buysidehippies.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buys...  

Instagram: @buysidehippies https://www.instagram.com/buysidehippies/  

Team 

Aseem Mehra: @arhem97  (https://www.instagram.com/arhem97/) 

Ananthu Santhosh: @ananthu.sk (https://www.instagram.com/ananthu.sk/)

Meet Sophiya Khan (Investor at Accel - world's leading VC firm), in a conversation with Aseem Mehra on Buyside Hippies podcast! On the podcast, Sophiya talks about what it takes to crack the Venture Capital interviews. Further, she also shares some interesting insights on the Indian VC landscape along with talking about her dynamic day-to-day job.  

Sophiya's profile: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiya-k...

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiyak/ 

Recommended preparation material for VC interviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0E3... https://www.piventures.in/blog/pi-fel... 

Recommended headhunters for Venture Capital hiring: 1. Michael Page 2. Native  

Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:17 - Sophiya's journey to investing 2:14 - What exactly is Venture Capital? 7:02 - Interesting switch to VC from strategy consulting 10:00 - VC interview hiring process decoded 13:30 - Conventional Venture Capital profiles 16:06 - Which headhunter in India runs the hiring process 16:52 - What is Accel's investment job like? 23:45 - Profiles not suitable for VC jobs 25:55 - Types of pre-MBA roles 27:53 - How to prepare for the interviews? 30:35 - Readings on Buyside 32:50 - Investing in Crypto 34:11 - Perspective on Accel investor's life

Mailmodo is a unique SaaS platform that is changing the way marketeers are engaging with their customers through interactive emails. Backed by the legendary VC fund Sequoia Capital, Aquib and his dedicated team at Mailmodo are the pioneers in the AMP email space.   

In the podcast, Aquibur Rahman talks about starting up, the future of emails, studying at Super 30 for IIT JEE under the famous professor, Mr. Anand Kumar, and more!  

Aquibur Rahman's profile: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aquibur/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aquibur_rah... Mailmodo's profile:  Website: https://www.mailmodo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mail...Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mailmododot... Happy watch!

Time codes: 

0:00 - Introduction 

0:40 - What inspires Aquib  

3:12 - Idea behind Mailmodo 

8:55 - Future of emails 

11:53 - Co-founders 

13:19 - Life before and after starting up 

15:32 - Influence of Super 30 

18:53 - Marketing career by chance 

21:05 - Leaving job 

22:42 - On innovative entrepreneurship 

25:00 - Key takeaways

Mabel Chacko is a serial entrepreneur with 15+ years of experience in the financial technology space and the founder of multi-million dollar startup - Open (https://www.bankopen.co/). Backed by Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital, Open is Asia's leading "Neo Bank". However, it was not all champagne and roses to start with for her. In the podcast, she covers her aspirational journey, some key learnings coming out of past setbacks while giving us a glimpse of what the future of Fintech looks like in the coming years.  

Mabel Chacko's profile: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mabelchacko/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mabelchacko/ 

Open's profile:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bankwithopen/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bankwithopen/ Happy watch!  

Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:46 - What is a "Neo bank"  5:10 - The Neo banking sector 6:55 - Story behind Open 10:33 - Evolution of startup community since 2007 14:00 - Starting out and challenges faced 19:00 - Living on the edge (hardships) 22:44 - Why Open clicked and key learnings 28:15 - How to figure out real customers (real life example!) 33:50 - Where is FinTech heading? (Embedded FinTech) 35:54 - Probing questions by investors 38:51 - Parting advice  

About Buyside Hippies Buyside Hippies originated with an intent to give audience a taste of how various levers of entrepreneurship and high finance work towards generating value.  Our podcasts are also available on Youtube, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.  

Website: https://www.buysidehippies.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buyside-hippies/?viewAsMember=true 

Instagram: @buysidehippies https://www.instagram.com/buysidehippies/ 

Team Aseem Mehra: @arhem97  (https://www.instagram.com/arhem97/) 

Ananthu Santhosh: @ananthu.sk (https://www.instagram.com/ananthu.sk/)

Apoorva's journey is truly aspirational. An IIT Kanpur alumni, Apoorva is all set to be part of investment team of Insight Partners (world's leading technology focussed PE fund - https://www.insightpartners.com/) in India. He started his career in an operations role at the Indian conglomerate, ITC, before pivoting to take up an investing role in the esteemed impact fund - Omidyar Network India.  

Apoorva Goyal's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apoorvago... 

Time codes:  0:00 - Introduction 0:58 - Inspiration  7:35 - Starting career in operations 13:06 - Interesting switch to Omidyar 18:25 - How is Omidyar different from other VCs? 25:12 - Why go for an MBA? 28:22 - Profiles from India getting admitted 35:12 - Adv. of having pre-MBA PE experience 37:35 - Competitive process for getting post-MBA PE job 40:11 - Take on legacy students at HBS 42:41 - Future plans

Tanishq is currently building Skyber - focused on building a useful; a useful Saas offering for small businesses across India. An NMIMS BBA dropout, he started his first business when he was 15, right out of school. From working in the surveillance industry to learning graphic designing, Tanishq has done it all. Today, we have him on the podcast to understand his unconventional journey.  

Tanishq Ambegaokar's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanishqambegaokar/ 

Timecodes:  0:06 - Introduction 1:04 - Business from an early age 6:30 - On dropping out from NMIMS 9:02 - Finding the right co-founder 10:30 - Lessons as an early founder 13:45 - About Skyber 15:24 - Re-thinking Enterprise SaaS  19: 40 - Flagship product: Dhanda 21:45 - Genesis of Skyber 26:04 - Funding and scaling up

Saumya is the Co-founder of AgriTech startup called Kheyti - which helps farmers in India gain a steady, dependable income through its “Greenhouse-in-a-Box”, a low-cost greenhouse kit bundled with financing and market linkage services.

Saumya Sahay's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saumyasahay/ 

Time codes: 

0:00 - Introduction 0:43 - Problem statement for Kheyti 4:04 - Story behind pivot from IB to Social Entrepreneurship 8:25 - Can NPO space offer a comfortable life? 12:03 - Women entrepreneurs in India 15:00 - Synergies between co-founders 17:40 - Leaving YellowLeaf for a Kellog MBA

India's first A.I powered matchmaking app., Betterhalf.ai - India’s most trusted AI matrimony app, recently raised a Pre-Series A round last week from marque investors such as Kunal Shah, S2 Capital and Y Combinator.

Joaquín Rodriguez is the CFO of Frankie The King (https://frankietheking.com/), backed by leading VC firm - Lanai Partners. Today, his startup is dominating the Spanish markets & is planning to expand to other European & South American countries.  

Joaquín profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaquinrguez/ 

Time codes: 0:00​ - Introduction to startup & product offering 2:41 - Dogs are integrated into Spanish culture 5:45 - How did startup scale-up 8:50 - Leaving Deloitte for Entrepreneurship 11:48 - Convincing Lanai Partners for seed money 13:45 - Top learnings

Private Equity industry is an exclusive close knit community of finance professionals in India which employees a handful of people who manage & invest billions of dollars for their LPs (providers of capital).  

Kashica Agarwal, an Ex-McKinsey BA & St. Stephen's College alum, on the podcast, talks about how to land the coveted buyside offer while covering finer aspects of the process such as recruiting cycle, involvement of headhunters, common Q&As etc.

Kashica Agarwal's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashica-a...

Time codes: 0:00​ - Introduction 1:19​ - What is PE & why it's prestigious 3:28​ - Choosing PE over consulting 5:48​ - How does buyside hiring work 11:10​ - Understanding interview rounds & preparation 17:38​ - Number of new hires annually in a fund  18:52​ - Tips for PE aspirants 20:44​ - Why 2+ years of work ex is not viewed positively 22:37​ - Converting pre-MBA role to track role? 23:35​ - Do PE firms fund MBA