Founder Thesis

India is on the cusp of a new fintech revolution. Post demonetization, where the sector has witnessed a surge in digital payments and lending, there have been very few fintech companies that focus on resolving the debt recovery opportunity.

In a candid conversation with the host Akshay Datt, Rishabh Goel, Co-founder and CEO, Credgenics, takes us through his inspiring journey. He is an alumnus of the prestigious IIT Delhi and has worked with companies like Deutsche Bank and BlackRock before taking the entrepreneurial plunge.

Rishabh harks back to his days at BlackRock which gave him a better understanding of the lending process, specifically from the collections perspective. This inspired him to dig deeper into the subject leading to the birth of Credgenics in 2019, which is already valued at USD 110 million.

Tune in to this episode to hear Rishabh talk about how Credgenics is resolving India’s $200 billion+ bad debt problem by delivering customized strategies and legal routes to improve the collections of financial institutions.

What you must not miss!

• Effect of COVID and RBI moratorium on collections.
• Funding and subsequent expansion of Credgenics.
• Scope of global expansion for the business. 

“There are always two roads which will emerge for an entrepreneur, and you have to take the one less travelled.” – Dr Ritesh Malik

Our guest today is a person who has donned many hats – an entrepreneur, an investor, a public speaker, and a doctor.

In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Dr Ritesh Malik, Founder, Innov8 Coworking, takes us through his amazing journey. Hailing from a family of doctors, his career was pre-decided. He studied medicine and started practising as a surgeon at Sir Gangaram Hospital in Delhi.

It was in 2012, he decided to quit his medical profession and took the less travelled entrepreneurial route and ventured into an augmented reality start-up AdStuck as its co-founder, an experience that made him learn the art of entrepreneurship in a hard way.

He also founded Guerrilla Ventures, an angel fund, in 2013, with an aim to create a self-sustaining ecosystem of entrepreneurs and has backed 70+ start-ups to date.

Irked by the office conditions in India, Ritesh came up with an idea of coworking spaces and started Innov8 Coworking in January 2016. Soon after the launch, Innov8 was selected by Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator, where he was guided to expand to larger campuses. This attracted investors and since then Innov8 has expanded to 42 campuses across 8 major cities in India.

Tune in to this episode to hear this medicine professional turned entrepreneur and angel investor speak about how Innov8 Coworking is transforming the office going experience in India.

What you must not miss!

• A great product is everything.
• Treat consumers like God.
• The power of community.
• Acquisition by OYO Rooms.
• What he looks for in a venture as an investor.

"In India, people will never pay for service, but they will always pay for credit."

This was the powerful and disruptive thesis that Ashneer Grover used to build BharatPe. He understood that the real money in Indian fintech wasn't in charging for transactions but in using the data from those free transactions to create a massive lending business for the underserved merchant community.

Ashneer Grover is the former Co-founder and Managing Director of BharatPe , the disruptive fintech company he scaled into a $2.85 billion unicorn in under three years. Before his entrepreneurial journey, he raised $170 million as CFO for Grofers (now Blinkit) and executed deals worth $3 billion as an investment banker at Kotak. An alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad , he became a household name as a judge on the first season of Shark Tank India.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

• The "Free" Business Model: BharatPe's revolutionary model of offering free UPI QR payments was a "trojan horse" strategy to rapidly acquire merchants and their transaction data, which became the foundation for the real business: lending.
• "Feet-on-Street" Scaling: The company rejected expensive digital marketing, instead building a massive on-ground sales force to personally visit and onboard merchants. This high-touch model was crucial for building trust and was one of the cheapest acquisition models in the world at ~₹200 per merchant.
• Founder Conviction: When VCs were skeptical, Ashneer raised the first angel round of ₹1.9 crores from friends and family, pegging the amount to the value of his own house as a personal guarantee to his backers.
• Branding for B2B Trust: He believes B2B brands, especially in financial services, need strong, mainstream branding to build trust. This led to high-profile campaigns with Salman Khan and a team of 11 cricketers to appeal to shopkeepers across India.
• Solve a Big Problem: Ashneer advises founders to pick a big enough problem to solve. He argues that the effort required is the same whether the problem is big or small, but the scale of success is determined by the size of the problem.

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:01:31 - Life at IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad & The Lure of an MBA

00:06:21 - 7 Years in Investment Banking at Kotak

00:07:54 - Investing in Startups at American Express (MobiKwik, Paytm)

00:13:46 - First Startup Role: Scaling Grofers as CFO

00:19:46 - Understanding the Merchant at PC Jeweller

00:22:48 - The Genesis of BharatPe: Meeting the Co-founders

00:25:18 - The First Fundraise: Betting My House on the Idea

00:29:50 - The Zero MDR Disruption & Monetizing Through Lending

00:48:31 - Scaling to 60 Lakh Merchants: The 'Feet-on-Street' Model

00:51:45 - The Science of B2B Branding: Why We Signed Salman Khan

01:09:28 - Unfiltered Advice for Aspiring Founders

#AshneerGrover #BharatPe #FounderThesis #StartupIndia #Entrepreneurship #FintechIndia #DigitalPayments #UPI #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #Scaling #BusinessStrategy #ZeroMDR #MerchantAcquisition #StartupStory #BusinessPodcast #MakeInIndia #IIT #IIM #SharkTankIndia #FounderAdvice

What you seek is seeking you. This is what describes the story of our guest in this episode.

For Pulkit Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO, Trell, a visual blogging app, this search started around six years ago, with a desire to visit local pandals during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, little knowing that this would turn into a business idea which is at present has surpassed international social media giants like Twitter and Pinterest with more than 45 million monthly active users.

In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Pulkit tells us that how visiting these local pandals helped him realize the gap of sharing local knowledge, even for people who are not into blogging and founded Trell in 2016 while he was finishing off with his engineering at IIT Bombay.

Taking a trip down memory lane, Pulkit talks about how as a fresh graduate and a first-time entrepreneur, he learnt everything from the scratch about starting his venture and attracting investors to believe and guide him on this journey. He further explains the insights which helped him to develop a simple, no-frills platform for storytellers to post their content in the language they are comfortable with.

Tune in to this episode to hear Pulkit speak about his exciting journey and how Trell is challenging international social media giants by providing Bharat with a local, Made in India visual blogging platform.

What you must not miss!!

• The experience of getting funded.

• Challenges of scaling up a social media platform to a marketplace.

• Impact of the ban on Chinese apps.

• Business growth in times of COVID.

In 2013, when Anand Jain left Network18, he knew one thing for sure: Communication in the digital world needs to be timely and quick. This led to the birth of CleverTap, a SaaS-based mobile analytics and mobile marketing company.

Today, Anand is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of CleverTap, working on larger strategic goals of helping brands leverage user data, automation, and personalization techniques on CleverTap. But his rendezvous with technology began when he was in his early teens.

In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Anand harks back to his early years, when a life-altering moment made him take up part-time jobs to support his family. During these testing times, one thing he passionately held on to was tinkering with electronic appliances and this curiosity led him to learn numerous computer languages, despite being from a non-engineering background.

He further recalls how a meeting with a successful Bay Area entrepreneur paved a way for him to land a job in the States and then in China. But he moved back to India in 2005 to start Burrp!, which was later acquired by Network18. At Network18, he met his future co-founders Suresh and Sunil and in 2013, the trio quit to start CleverTap.

Tune in to this episode to hear Anand speak about how CleverTap is making the lives of numerous brands easy by providing them with meaningful data, which helps create successful strategies concerning their user bases.

Key takeaways:

• Perseverance is the key to success.

• Significance of customer insights.

• Customer targeting is important, so is doing it in a timely and quick fashion.

• How did CleverTap get their first client which led to several opportunities.

"We understood that logistics wasn't just a back-end function—it was a core component of customer satisfaction."

This was the pivotal realization inside FirstCry that sparked a billion-dollar idea. By reframing a major operational problem into a strategic opportunity, Amitava Saha didn't just fix a bottleneck for his company; he built an entirely new one, Xpressbees, to serve the whole e-commerce industry.

Amitava Saha is the Co-Founder and CEO of Xpressbees and the Co-founder and former COO of FirstCry. He is one of the few entrepreneurs in India to have built two unicorn companies from the ground up. Under his leadership, Xpressbees has grown from handling approximately 50,000 shipments a day to over 3 million and is valued at over $1.4 billion. An alumnus of IIT (BHU), Varanasi, and IIM Lucknow, his journey from financing his own MBA with a bank loan to becoming a celebrated two-time unicorn founder is an inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere.

In this episode, Amitava Saha sits down with our host Akshay Datt to discuss his incredible journey.

• Solving Your Own Problem: Xpressbees was born out of the logistical frustrations faced by its parent company, FirstCry. This "inside-out" approach gave it a battle-tested product from day one.
• The Power of Assortment: A key strategy for FirstCry's initial success was its relentless focus on creating a wider product assortment than any physical store could offer, directly addressing a major customer pain point.
• Operational Excellence as a Moat: Amitava built his logistics arm with a mandate of zero CapEx and extreme efficiency, a principle that remains core to Xpressbees today.
• Pragmatic Technology: Technology at Xpressbees is not built for its own sake but is a tool to serve the two most important pillars of logistics: cost and quality of service.
• The Asset-Light Model: The business was intentionally designed to be asset-light, using a hybrid model of owned hubs and franchise partners to maintain flexibility and scale efficiently.

(00:00) - Intro

(01:12) - Early Career: Why a Stable Job Was More Important Than Entrepreneurship

(04:11) - The Path to Tech Sales & Navigating the Dot-Com Bust

(11:53) - The Brainvisa Story: From a B2C Pivot to a Profitable Exit

(23:41) - Founding FirstCry: Solving a Personal Pain Point for Parents

(33:11) - The "Accidental" Funding of FirstCry

(35:10) - The Birth of Xpressbees from FirstCry's Biggest Operational Crisis

(40:40) - The Strategic Decision to Spin Off the Logistics Arm

(43:23) - Scaling Xpressbees with an Asset-Light, Tech-First Model

(45:33) - The Future: Expanding into B2B Logistics and Beyond

#FounderThesis #StartupPodcast #AmitavaSaha #Xpressbees #FirstCry #Logistics #SupplyChain #Ecommerce #Unicorn #FounderStory #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #ScalingABusiness #OperationalExcellence #StartupIndia #MakeInIndia #AkshayDatt

Every problem has a solution. You just have to be creative enough to find it. Our guest in thisepisode is a problem solver at heart, who has used the art of coding to solve real-life problems.

Brace for the resilient journey of Nischal Shetty, Founder and CEO, WazirX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Nischal talks about his fascination for computers and his coding journey. It was in the second year of engineering when he was bitten by the coding bug and since then there’s been no looking back. From building the Knightloader App for a college project (the App helped in downloading reading material from the Internet at night) to transforming his weekend passion project to Crowdfire which helped users to unfollow people on Twitter, Nischal has found logical solutions to problems via coding.

He further talks about how a major setback with Crowdfire inspired him to build something that no one else can control. He found his calling in cryptocurrency and this is where the journey of WazirX began.

Tune in to this episode to hear Nischal speak about how cryptocurrency has the power to disrupt the well-established and archaic BFSI sector, with WazirX being the torchbearer of this change.

Key takeaways:

● Cryptocurrency 101

● India’s response to cryptocurrency

● The association between WazirX and Binance (the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange).

● Cryptocurrency as a means to diversify investments

"We are a technology company that sells chai."

This single sentence from Nitin Saluja captures the disruptive core of Chaayos. It’s not just about tea; it’s about using technology—from custom-built IoT robots to a proprietary tech stack—to solve the problem of delivering a perfectly consistent, personalized cup of chai at massive scale. In this conversation, Nitin reveals how this engineering-first mindset allowed him to build a premium brand for one of India's most traditional beverages.

In this episode, host Akshay Datt sits down with Nitin Saluja, the founder of Chaayos. An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Nitin left a corporate consulting job in the US to build Chaayos from a single outlet into a dominant, 200+ store chain with revenues of over ₹248 crore. He is a pioneer in using technology to disrupt the food and beverage industry in India.

• Technology as the Core: Chaayos operates as a technology company first, having built its entire tech stack in-house, including IoT-enabled "Chai Monk" robots to ensure consistency across 80,000+ customization options.
• The Founder's Grind: Nitin spent the entire first year as the manager of the first Chaayos store, providing him with unparalleled ground-level insights into customer needs and operational challenges.
• The Power of Customization: The core brand promise of "Meri Wali Chai" (My Kind of Tea) came from the insight that no two people like their tea the same way, creating a powerful moat against competitors.
• The Profitability Pivot: The company made a deliberate strategic shift from a "growth-at-all-costs" mindset to focus on sustainable unit economics, successfully achieving positive EBITDA.
• Disrupting a Commodity: Chaayos successfully built a premium brand for a low-cost, everyday product by solving the unorganized market's core problems of inconsistent quality, poor hygiene, and lack of a modern experience.

[00:00] - Coming Up

[01:22] - Nitin's Early Life & Upbringing

[02:35] - The IIT Bombay Experience: Realising Everyone is Smarter Than You

[05:26] - First Startup: Building a Robotics Company While in College

[09:43] - Learning 'Problem Structuring' in Corporate Consulting

[15:54] - The "Aha" Moment: Why Isn't There a Starbucks for Chai?

[20:46] - The Leap: Quitting a US Job & Bootstrapping the First Store

[25:06] - The Grind: Launching the First Chaayos Outlet with Friends

[30:42] - The First Year: Working as a Store Manager to Learn the Business

[33:47] - Scaling Pains & Securing Funding from Tiger Global

[38:16] - The Core Insight: Why Chaayos is Built on 'Meri Wali Chai'

[46:44] - Building a Tech Company that Sells Chai

[50:51] - How 'Chai Monks' Deliver a Perfect Customised Chai Every Time

[54:00] - Nitin's Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

#FounderThesis #NitinSaluja #Chaayos #StartupIndia #Entrepreneurship #BusinessPodcast #D2C #FoodTech #Retail #IIT #StartupStory #AkshayDatt #MakeInIndia #Disruption #Technology

"When you say to someone, my business plan is to create a brand, it's very hard for anyone to understand or digest... the harder it is for someone to digest, the more excited one should be about doing it." This powerful insight from Rohan Mirchandani encapsulates the conviction needed to build something truly disruptive, especially when introducing a new category to a market. It speaks to the entrepreneurial spirit of seeing opportunity where others see ambiguity.

Rohan Mirchandani (1982-2024) was the Co-founder of Drums Food International, the parent company of Epigamia, India's first Greek yogurt brand. An MBA from The Wharton School, he returned to India from the US to build a pioneering FMCG company. Under his leadership, Epigamia raised approximately $81.4 million, achieved a valuation of around ₹1,250 crore ($150 million), and expanded its reach to over 25,000 retail outlets, targeting revenues of ₹250 crore.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

• The Eureka Moment: Rohan's realization of the untapped potential for innovation in the Indian FMCG sector came from a business school lecture, which became the seed for Epigamia.
• Pivoting with Purpose: The strategic shift from their initial ice cream brand, Hokey Pokey, to Epigamia Greek yogurt was driven by observing the limitations of seasonality in ice cream sales and a rising health consciousness among Indian consumers.
• On-the-Ground Insights: Rohan emphasized the invaluable lessons learned by directly engaging with customers and understanding their preferences, even by working at their own ice cream parlor in the early days.
• Building a Cold Chain Moat: For a perishable product like Greek yogurt, Epigamia had to build its own robust cold chain and distribution network, a significant operational challenge that became a competitive advantage.
• Strategic Partnerships for Growth: The collaboration with Danone provided not just capital, but crucial operational knowledge and access to global best practices, significantly accelerating Epigamia's learning curve.
• Navigating the Indian Market: Rohan believed that succeeding in India required immense adaptability and having multiple contingency plans (Plan C, D, and E) due to the market's unique complexities.

Chapters:

[0:00:00] - Podcast Introduction

[0:01:40] - Rohan's American Upbringing & Father's Entrepreneurial Influence

[0:06:08] - Pre-MBA Journey & The "Discovery" Phase

[0:07:36] - The Accidental Start: Investing in an Indian Ice Cream Parlor (Hokey Pokey)

[0:12:30] - The "Ganti Bajge" Moment: Identifying the FMCG Innovation Gap in India

[0:17:45] - The Leap: Moving to India & The Conditions for Mentorship

[0:23:45] - From Parlor Insights to Packaged Goods: The Birth of Epigamia

[0:34:54] - Scaling Challenges, Building the Team, and the Strategic Pivot to Greek Yogurt

[0:46:58] - Funding the Dream & The Danone Partnership Learnings

[1:02:23] - Future Vision for Epigamia & Navigating the Indian vs. US Business Landscape

[1:08:24] - Rohan's Advice to Aspiring Brand Builders

Hashtags:

#Epigamia #RohanMirchandani #FounderThesis #IndianStartups #FMCGIndia #DairyDisruption #GreekYogurt #Entrepreneurship #StartupJourney #BuildingInIndia #FoodBusiness #BrandBuilding #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #D2CIndia #MakeInIndia #Innovation #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #AkshayDatt

"It takes much longer than you think. Everybody thinks that things can be changed big time in three to five years. It probably takes more, you know, seven to ten years." This powerful insight from Dinesh Agarwal underscores the journey of building IndiaMART, a testament to perseverance and a long-term vision that began when the internet was nascent in India. It's a crucial reminder for founders that enduring businesses are marathons, not sprints.

Dinesh Agarwal is the Founder and CEO of IndiaMART.com, India's largest online B2B marketplace. Starting with a modest seed capital of just Rs 40,000 in 1996, he steered IndiaMART to become a publicly listed company that surpassed Rs 1000 crore in revenue in FY2023 and facilitates nearly 1% of India's GDP. His journey spans over 25 years, building a platform that now employs thousands and serves millions of SMEs.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

• The Internet Spark: Witnessing the Mosaic browser in the US sparked the vision for an interconnected digital marketplace for India.
• Bootstrapped Beginnings: IndiaMART's foundation was built with immense "sweat equity," including manually mailing free listing forms to exporters.
• Resilience Through Crises: The company navigated the dot-com bust by maintaining profitability and weathered the 9/11 impact on exports by adapting and focusing.
• The Game-Changing Pivot: Shifting focus from exports to the domestic Indian B2B market around 2007-08 was a masterstroke that tapped into a burgeoning opportunity.
• Learning from Scale & Failure: The aggressive "52 offices in 52 weeks" expansion taught crucial lessons about sustainable growth, and the Tolexo venture provided insights that strengthened the core IndiaMART platform.
• Values as Bedrock: Core principles derived from Indian epics and leaders like Gandhi guided decisions, especially during tough times, emphasizing commitment and simplicity.
• Long-Term Vision: Building a significant enterprise is a lifelong journey, requiring passion and adaptability beyond initial financial goals.

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 - From US Internet Boom to India: The Spark
• 00:08:15 - Rs 40,000 & a Fax Machine: Starting IndiaMART
• 00:17:30 - Surviving the Dot-Com Bust as a Profitable Venture
• 00:26:45 - 9/11 Crisis & The Critical Pivot to Domestic B2B
• 00:35:10 - "52 Offices in 52 Weeks": Lessons from Hyper-Growth
• 00:44:05 - When a $100M Funding Fell Through: Back to Basics
• 00:52:50 - The Tolexo Experiment & Strengthening IndiaMART Core
• 01:01:20 - Leveraging Demonetization & Jio Wave for Growth
• 01:09:40 - The IPO Journey: Resilience, Timing, and Wealth Creation
• 01:18:15 - Future Vision: Building a B2B Ecosystem for India
• 01:25:30 - "Takes Longer Than You Think": Advice for Founders

Hashtags for YouTube Description:

#DineshAgarwal #IndiaMART #FounderThesis #IndianEntrepreneur #StartupIndia #B2Becommerce #Bootstrapping #IPOjourney #BusinessLessons #MakeInIndia #DigitalIndia #Entrepreneurship #StartupStory #TechIndia #Leadership #IndianStartups #SME #Marketplace #OnlineBusiness #Motivation