Founder Thesis

In this episode of Founder Thesis we talk Rishabh Chopra, the founder of The Ayurveda Experience (Transformative Learning Solutions). An alum of the prestigious student run global organisation AIESEC, Rishabh started his career here beginning as a volunteer and moving on to be elected to run the local chapter in Delhi, the national chapter from Mumbai & finally as an integral part of their Global offices as the Global VP of external relations. 

Having always aspired to be an entrepreneur, Rishabh returned to India to start a venture of his own. After several failed attempts & a few small wins in the ed-tech sector Rishabh’s hardwork led him to Ayurveda. 

Through Transformative Learning Solutions, Rishabh took the knowledge & benefits of Ayurveda across borders to the West & has since grown the business through diversification into ecommerce, recording a 70 Crore turnover in the last year. 

Tune into Rishabh’s story of taking Ayurveda to the West and operating a successful global business out of India. Here are our key takeaways from this episode: 

• Rishabh’s experience at AIESEC & the impact it had in shaping him as an entrepreneur & leader. 
• Choosing the US as a target market for Ayurveda. 
• How to raise funding & manage the capital raised. 
• How to retain the best human capital & knowledge in an organisation. 

A school drop out, a state level Tennis player, India’s youngest qualifier of the elite “Paris - Brest - Paris” International cycling event, founder of two NGO’s - Sach & Half Glass Full, a Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur and the Co-Founder of Josh Talks - Shobhit Banga can be described in many ways. But what defines him best is his quest for unlocking human potential. 

In this episode of Founder Thesis we sit down for a chat with Shobhit to learn about his fascinating off beat journey right from his small town life of Kullu, to pursuing sports as a career goal - cycling 600kms non stop, his experience at the Harvard Summer School, starting Josh Talks, losing focus & finally re-connecting with his mission of inspiring young minds. 

An incredible journey with lots to learn from. Here are key takeaways from our conversation with Shobhit: 

• How growing up in a small town is advantageous to entrepreneurship. 
• How quitting is harder than it seems. 
• Starting and running an NGO.
• How Josh Talks was monetized.
• Chasing your purpose or mission through your startup.

“I was never governed by fear” - Bijai Jayarajan 

From being a young small town boy in South India to building a Multi Million Dollar company, Bijai Jayarajan is truly a fearless entrepreneur. Bijai founded Loyalty Rewardz in 2008. In his 10 year stint he raised venture capital investment to the tune of USD 26 Million & in 2017 Loyalty Rewardz was acquired for a whopping USD 100 Million! 

By the time Bijai exited the company Loyalty Rewardz was managing loyalty programs for 73% of all debit cards issued in India & was processing over 200 Million transactions a month. 

On a new adventure with Houm, an innovative digital product that will empower internet users to create a digital safe space - A digital home on the internet that will in a true sense ensure the privacy of our data, Bijai is once again on another fearless mission. 

On this episode of Founder Thesis, catch us in a candid conversation with Bijai to know more about his inspiring journey of entrepreneurial adventures. Our biggest takeaway from our chat with Bijai was that we must chase our passions fearlessly. 

Co-founder of Great Learning, India’s largest online learning platform Hari Krishnan Nair is the entrepreneur who made professional education easily accessible to Indians so that they could equip themselves with career critical competencies. 

A trailblazer in the ed-tech segment Great Learning has delivered over 9 Million learning hours & boasts of 15,000+ alumni with a turnover of approx. 300 Crores! 

Catch us in conversation with Hari Krishnan where he shares his entrepreneurial story of triumphs, loses & what led to the genesis of Great Learning. Here are our key takeaways from this episode: 

• Perseverance is the key to success. 
• How to market premium service products. 
• Focusing on quality over growth in the inception phase. 
• Nurturing & engaging audiences through content.

For this week's Founder Thesis episode, we sat down for a conversation with Tonmoy Shingal the co-founder of HF-tech SAAS platform, Mettl. A tech solution that changed the way organisations hire talent. 

We talk to Tonmoy about the genesis of Mettl to its stupendous growth to finally being acquired by Mercer & everything else in between. This has been one of the most exciting entrepreneurial journeys we’ve heard so far on this show - and how could it not be? Mettl’s stakeholders got a 7x on their investments as they exited!!

Here are the key takeaways from our discussion: 

• An 80/20 approach towards enriched learning. 
• How to find your life’s calling. 
• Raising funds for the startup & the two types of VC investors. 
• Adapting your product as you grow to achieve the right product-market fit. 
• Scaling by being frugal on marketing spends. 

Founder of Sheroes - a social networking site exclusively for women, Sairee is a pioneer in building up women at work and future-of-work conversations in India. She has several accolades under her belt, such as Devi Award, Femina Achievers Award, Cartier Award, Editor’s choice for L’Oreal Femina Women’s Award, Business Today and others. She is a tech-entrepreneur who is passionate about women’s internet & has championed the cause of levelling gender disparity in India. 

In this episode, we spoke to Sairee about her journey from her days of being a Russian Literature Major to the inception, growth & future of Sheroes. Here are our key takeaways from this episode: 

• How to build a social networking platform & community. 
• How to monetize a social network. 
• Using a helpline feature as a means to build consumer trust. 
• The truths about networking. 
• How to manage & hire for remote working teams. 

Here is a story of an intelligent boy who grew up in the suburbs of Mumbai with one mantra ‘never take yourself seriously’

But when it came to starting a business, Akash was very serious about helping small and micro-businesses to grow and help them trust the internet. Instamojo started with Payment Links – a simple URL that one can copy and paste anywhere on the internet and receive payments online via any payment mode.  Today Instamojo has 3 Million+ payment links, 50,000+online stores and a 5 million+ monthly reach

Akshay Dutt talks to Akash Gehani about his early days and how the idea for Instamojo was hatched.

Some key takeaways from this show are: 

• How to stick to your vision when faced with fast up-scaling options.  
• Networking the right way to help your business grow. 
• Being persistent with ideas in spite of initial failures; and 
• How to keep constantly learning from your environment