hippoBrain

“Most people meet consumers to find solutions. It’s better to meet consumers to understand the problems,” says Prem Narayan, the Chief Strategy Officer at Ogilvy, India. And who would know better than him. After all, he was one of the first few 'planners' at the large agency, who's worked a lot of large projects for the likes of Hindustan Unilever and Tata Motors.

Lots of stories. Lots of annecdotes. And most importantly, lots of gyaan. Definitely worth a listen for those interested in marketing, storytelling and market research. As we always say, these are #conversationsthatmatter with hippoBrains from different sectors and industries.

In 2016, Instagram launched something called as 'Reels', where you create short 30-second videos. At around that time, one Brand decided to share a video of four friends dancing while wearing their products. It got 1 million views. And the products got sold within 24 hours--even before the Brand could promote their collection.   

Today, they have nearly 3.5 lakh followers on Instagram. And they are known for their dance videos where the dancers are dancing in beautiful sarees. Yes, that's too many 'dance' words in one sentence, but that's the key to their whole business model. They are the first Brand to market themselves in such a unique way!  

But like every other story of Entrepreneurship and creativity and innovation, there's so much more to their story. 

So listen to the mother-daughter duo and co-founders--Hetal and Lekhinee Desai from Indian Ethnic Co. speak to Rajesh Jain and Jaimit Doshi in this week's episode of hippoBrain. 

They talk about their start-up story--how Hetal Desai started Indian Ethnic Co at the age of 55; how Lekhinee brings the new-age energy to the Brand; how they stumbled upon the concept of dancing to showcase their collections; how they track success; selling sarees worth Rs 45,000, and so much more. 

P.S.: Don't miss out on their lockdown story and why they called themselves 'bedroom-preneurs'. 

Is Internet no place for women? What do women want--on the Internet, that is? And how do you build a safe eco-system for women online? And importantly, how do you build a cohesive community and brand around the same that caters to real people and solves real problems? Well, there's one woman who has the answers in this episode of hippoBrain. Listen to Sairee Chahal, founder of SHEROES, talk to Jaimit Doshi and Rajesh Jain about unlocking the power of half of India's population--the ones with the X chromosome. It's a classic example of how to convert your ideas into actions.

What does it feel like to be a Cricketer representing India? What does it feel like to be a Cricket selector & administrator? And what does it feel like to be a sports marketeer—working for a large brand like Nike amongst some of the top names in Sports across the world?

Get your answers from the man who discovered Virat Kohli as Jatin Paranjpe, Ex National Selector and CEO & Founder, KheloMore talks to Jaimit Doshi & Rajesh Jain in this episode of hippoBrain.  

Here’s the map of the whole conversation

1) Introducing Jatin Paranjpe

2) What does it take to be a modern-day Indian cricketer?

3) Can Cricketing intelligence be learnt?

4) The dynamics between Captain, Coach and Cricketer

5) How IPL has helped get Cricket talent of all kinds

6) Does the lack of Gully Cricket really matter?

7) What it feels like to represent India in international Cricket

8) How an ankle injury ended Jatin Paranjpe’s Cricket career

9) Is an India-Pakistan match stressful to a Cricketer?

10) Getting in Cricket administration

11) The role of a Cricket selector

12) Rise in Cricket talent in smaller Indian cities

13) Experience as a Sports Marketeer

14) Applying lessons from European Sports in India

15) What does KheloMore do?

16) Building the KheloMore platform

17) How Pandemic affected KheloMore

18) The resilience of Jatin Paranjpe

19) Last words

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,” Maya Angelou quoted.

Here’s another quote to build on this: “Listen deeply to the stories of humans and their lives, their stories hold within it every single vector of brand and consumer strategy.”

But don’t forget to first listen to “the caretaker of stories" speak about Brand Strategy and Story-telling in an almost poetic conversation with Jaimit Doshi and Rajesh Jain. 

From stories about the colour of emotions and truck drivers to houses with gaudy paints in Kerala, he weaves a convincing story of how COG evolved over the years to focus on human stories and unearth Brand strategies. \

Not one to miss, for sure.

“Media does not stand a chance when it comes to the old Ad-supported model,” Samir Patil said in one of our hippoBrains conversations. Our guest in this episode may agree. In fact, he wants to ‘make subscriptions great’.

How does he do that? By looking at journalism through the lens of a Product Manager and optimise it for business. Sounds interesting right? You bet it is.

In this week’s episode of hippoBrain, listen to Praveen Gopal Krishnan, the Chief Operating Officer at The Ken, one of the new breed media companies that uses email as its delivery platform. He talks about how he product-ises journalism every day.

Not one to miss for budding content writers, media professionals and product managers!

85,000-90,000 views — PER DAY

Over 1 million downloads

1,00,000 queries answered

Amazing numbers, right? All of it belongs to one single portal. For financial content.

It’s none other than Zerodha’s Varsity—one of the key pillars of the discount broker’s success.

Listen to Karthik Rangappa, the brain behind Zerodha Varsity, as he speaks to Jaimit Doshi and Rajesh Jain about the success of Zerodha’s content, what sets it apart, their strategy behind Varsity and learnings over the years.

Listen if you want to find out how one man helped Zerodha touch millions of stock market investors.

In July 1991, the Indian economy was on the brink of collapse. It barely had money to pay for a few days' with of imports. 

To raise funds, the RBI pledged 46.91 tonnes of gold with the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan to raise $400 million. 

But it was supposed to be done without public attention. One journalist, however, noticed trunks of gold being taken away. He eventually put together the pieces and broke the story. 

He is Shankkar Aiyar, a political analyst, an author and our guest for this week. Listen to him tell Rajesh Jain and Jaimit Doshi tales about how India has changed over the years, sparked by one crisis over another.

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hippoBrain: https://twitter.com/hipp0brain

Rajesh Jain: https://twitter.com/rajeshjain

Jaimit Doshi: https://twitter.com/jaimitd

Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you—ideas can be found anywhere. Typically, where and how you least expect it.

Our latest hippoBrain guest will agree. He found his idea in the unlikeliest of places. In a sector that he knew nothing about (Tech). And in a country far far away. 

Hear #yourisraelguy, Saket Agarwal, talk to Jaimit Doshi and Rajesh Jain about his journey from CA in Kolkata to becoming the liaison between tech startups in Israel and Indian companies requiring their services. 

It’s an interesting tale of chance, opportunities, and lots of learnings!

Here’s the map of the whole conversation:

00:00 - Introduction

02:25 - From Kolkata to Israel, the journey

08:28 - Marrying the Indian & Israeli cultures

11:55 - Persuading Indian companies about Israeli tech

16:05 - Legacy enterprises vs Startups

18:05 - The Onnivation business model

20:40 - The lifecycle of a deal

27:55 - How Indian, Israeli tech companies differ

32:30 - The Onnivation journey

35:15 - Why is Israel tech & business so strong?

40:42 - Digital transformation tips for entreprises

47:27 - The makings of a good SaaS company

52:50 - How SaaS companies can scale

54:20 - Challenges for Onnivation in near future

1:00:12 - Last words

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Connect with us:

hippoBrain: https://twitter.com/hipp0brain

Rajesh Jain: https://twitter.com/rajeshjain

Jaimit Doshi: https://twitter.com/jaimitd

We all hear tales of the aggressive, ambitious entrepreneur. But what does it really take? How do they think? What drives such an entrepreneur--these are questions we all have.  

This week, enter the mind of a serial entrepreneur, Rajiv Dhingra, and walk in his shoes as he speaks to Jaimit Doshi and Rajesh Jain about his startups, entrepreneurship journey and the story of Watt Consulting, his successful digital marketing agency, and starting his new venture, RD&X.