When an organization grows from 10 to 100, how to scale communication, team & culture along with it?

While there’s a lot of knowledge out there on what to do in the early stages of a company, there’s little on taking the next big step such as hiring, product management, funding or raising money, among others.

In this episode of Building It Up, Pankaj Makkar- Managing Director of Bertelsmann India Investment, shares insights on this elusive growth journey of a start-up, why some startups shouldn’t raise VC money, boards role, India’s next big tech idea and of course, why he launched this growth-focused podcast.

Pankaj Makkar on Building it Up from 10 to 100

Honest, candid and to-the-point…Building It Up with Bertelsmann is India’s first business podcast that focuses on entrepreneurship and growth-pangs of a Start-up. Listen to leaders of the start-up community share what goes behind taking a company from 10 to 100 and how to solve some of the biggest growth challenges. After all, they’ve been there, done that!

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In a country like India, where age is the gold standard of experience and wisdom, how do you win credibility for a new institution, university or school?
How do you overcome the intimidating stature of traditional brick and mortar institutions that have stood the test of time.

For Pramath Sinha, Founder & Chairman of Harappa Education and India’s ed-tech ambassador, the answer lies in employing an outcome driven approach.

“Focus on ensuring outcomes in your initial years. This does more for your institution’s credibility, than your curriculum, faculty, or board.”

Getting students the right jobs may help in the first phase, but what then? How do you sustain this credibility? How do you build institutions that last beyond you? Tune in to this episode of #BuildingItUp with Bertelsmann to find out.

9: Pramath Sinha on building self-sustaining new-age institutions

In a country like India where parting with your money is like a painful trip to the dentist, how do you scale lending? How do you forgo the traditional approach of extending loans, where meeting and accessing clients is second nature?



“We’ve given out 70,000 loans across India, but 99% of my borrowers haven’t even seen me!”


For Lendingkart’s Co-founder and CEO Harshvardhan Lunia, data was the ultimate answer to lending at scale.


How did he overcome the historic red tape around loans? Especially in the non- collateralized space of MSME lending. Tune in to this episode of Building It Up with Bertelsmann to find out how he revolutionized the FinTech industry with his trust-first approach.

8: Harshvardhan Lunia on leveraging data as the new fintech collateral


“2 or 3 campaigns will not make your brand! You have to be consistently at it for years”

Content marketing is critical, whether you’re chasing sales or website traffic. It isn’t as easy though, especially for a startup where change- across product, people and placement- is the only constant. And when you’re caught by these waves of change, you either sink or swim unless, of course, you’re smart enough to build a boat and turn a profit by offering rides.

Influencer, content entrepreneur and internet sensation Tanmay Bhat did just that as he built India’s first viral content business. From engaging a room full of comedy enthusiasts to winning millions of subscribers on YouTube, Tanmay has literally defined the formula for user engagement and retention.


 “Virality isn't science! It’s a product of experimentation," says Tanmay.


With social media gaining more popularity by the day, your company’s valuation is definitely linked to customer validation. So if you want to scale your brand love, tune in to this episode of #BuildingItUp with Bertelsmann to catch his definitive guide on creating viral content. 

7: Tanmay Bhat on Viral and Influencer Marketing for Startups

How do you thrive in low margin super competitive cohorts? What do you do when your startup is up against really established players -those that are really institutionalized or well-funded or have been in the business for a really long time?



“2010 was the worst year ever for the broking industry. That’s when we started.”


When Zerodha was started, no VCs had ever invested in a stockbroking firm. Yet, this did not stop the team from building India’s largest stockbroking firm, successfully navigating a market with poor financial knowledge and well-funded competition. They bootstrapped and built their product focusing on the customer rather than what will please the investors. All this with minimal spends on advertising and marketing.


In a startup world obsessed with speed and growth hacking, co-founder Nithin Kamath believes that growing at their own pace helped them build a great product. Tune in to this episode of Building It Up with Bertelsmann to find out how Zerodha built a massive business and lived up to the meaning of its name which literally means “zero barriers”.   




6: Nithin Kamath on Bootstrapping in a low margin highly competitive market

What does it take to overcome regulatory hurdles, build a loyal community of 50 million users and scale-up the business to a billion dollars?


It's grit, passion and focus.


Starting-off as a fantasy sports platform, then accidentally evolving into a sports social network and then pivoting back into fantasy gaming, the journey of Harsh Jain and his team at Dream11 has been nothing but incredible. By turning couch captains into strategic game players and achieving product market fit within a year, the team has truly hit it out of the park.


Curious about how Harsh navigated these critical decisions about business models and product offerings? Or how Dream11 manages to drive a 30% growth average while maintaining an ethos of experimentation? Tune in to this episode of Building It Up with Bertelsmann to hear Dream11’s ‘playbook’ on success.




Pankaj Makkar on Building it Up from 10 to 100

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