SeedToScale | Curated by Accel

Edtech is a category whose time has come. The pandemic and its attendant ramifications have meant that Edtech is now one of the hottest spaces for innovation and growth globally. This also means that a lot of new Edtech startups are coming up, with newer visions and interpretations of what the future of learning and education can look like.

And they have a lot to navigate around and wade through in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Which is why we bring to you this conversation with Bob Meese, the Chief Business Officer of Duolingo, one of the most innovative Edtech companies in the world. You know the company, of course, and we are delighted to be bringing you a glimpse into its history and workings.

Bob is interviewed by my colleague Manasi Shah, Vice-President at Accel. She is deeply interested in the space and has been looking at Edtech startups for a while now.

What resulted from this meeting of minds is a far reaching conversation, about the nature of online education itself, how the world is embracing it, what the challenges are, and what the future will look like.

• 13:10-15:30: Monetization at Duolingo and it's framework; Audience growth more critical than monetization
• 17:52-19:41: Frameworks of monetization and the key areas of focus with each approach
• 23:15-24:52: Perception of experimentation and subsequent failure with monetization
• 28:07-30:00: Empowering teams to come up with newer and better ideas; also taking help from the ecosystem
• 31:10-33:24: Retention metrics and how Duolingo approaches them
• 39:32-41:46: Approaching GTM at Duolingo; how growth of mobile devices helped them scale
• 44:10-46:34: Challenges during Bob's early days at Duolingo; not having the right set of people; setting up ambitious goals and missing out on them consistently
• 48:54-50:56: Future of edtech; how Duolingo saw edtech transform from being a "bad word" to a promising vertical
• 51:55-53:50: Shaping up the product as a key source of customer delight

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Credit cards are one of the most ubiquitous financial products in the world. We all use them everyday, they are part of our lives.

But as the world changes and our spending and consumer behaviour changes along with it,  so have our needs with regard to financial products. We now have different financial behaviors and the exciting field of fintech is ready to serve us according to our own preferences.

Credit cards are the first logical step in this revolution.

Over the last couple of years, several startups in India are trying to disrupt and change the credit card ecosystem in India, and literally all of them are tremendously exciting.

One of the foremost among them is Uni, and Nitin Gupta, the CEO is one of the domain’s most knowledgeable.  

Which is why I’m delighted to present to you this conversation between Rachit Parekh, Vice President at Accel, and Nitin. It’s a far reaching dialogue on the evolution of Indian fintech, what the future holds, global trends, and challenges the field is facing.

The conversation is also insightful in that it makes clear the opportunities that exist in a nascent fintech space like India’s, in which credit cards may be the first step in a boom of new and innovative products the country has never seen. But, and here’s what I think is the more important part of the conversation, Rachit and Nitin also spend time on the regulatory challenges faced by Indian fintech. This is important not just for the fintech and credit card ecosystem, but for anyone who needs to navigate the Indian system.

I learnt a lot from the conversation, and I know you will too. And yes, watch this particular space in fintech. There’s going to be a lot of action here in the decade ahead

• 0:00 - 8:00: Intro
• 8:08 - 9:37: Why go after credit card business?
• 11:35 - 13:36: Global trends in the financial services business
• 26:39 - 29:11: Challenges in the Indian financial services industry
• 31:29 - 32:10: Making customer data available  
• 34:39 - 36:44: How to manage regulators?

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

From lipsticks to hair care to bath and body -- there’s little to nothing that the average shopper cannot find that covers all beauty and personal care needs. And what’s more, the shopper can browse through multiple brands within the same unified platform.

It is to talk about this vision that I am joined today by Prashanth Prakash, senior partner at Accel and the man behind the glam himself -- Darpan Sanghvi, CEO and co-founder of MyGlamm, India’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer beauty brand. 

MyGlamm is one of our more recent investments in the beauty and personal care (BPC) segments that has seen tremendous success with its house of brands model and direct-to-consumer (D2C) business approach. 

It was enervating to hear Darpan’s unique take on the growing BPC market from an entrepreneurial perspective, along with Prashanth's keen and experienced insights into the burgeoning business. 

In this episode we discussed everything from MyGlamm’s journey, building a scalable beauty company using technology, the challenges and opportunities of the Indian market, tackling the COVID-19 crisis, leveraging social media, creating a data engine, and more -- all while keeping an eye on the offline sales game as well. 

• 0:00 to  - 6:25: Introductions and beginnings! Darpan isn’t your average CEO, and MyGlamm wasn’t born without some serious on-ground work that began with a keen interest in brands, and a never-say-never attitude. 
• 6:30 to 10:51: Prashanth’s thoughts on the brand space with specific insight into BPC, and what is unique about the sector. 
• 10:53 to 20:45: How Darpan navigated this space from an entrepreneur point of view. How did Darpan decide what product to launch with?
• 20:50 to 24:00: Prashanth gives us the investor perspective. 
• 24:03 to 27:51: What are the challenges and advantages that startups face in this segment, when they come up against the goliath brands that have been around for longer. 
• 27:52 to 30:40: Darpan tells us how he learnt from the foundations of the business, and in the BPC space the challenges that exist, are actually opportunities in disguise. 
• 30:35 to 31:45: Prashanth on how brands and businesses have to look to survive. How they must leverage the offline muscle that they built, to stay relevant in digital times. 
• 31:5o to 34:47: Does Darpan believe in the offline sales concept as well? How does it apply to his D2C brand and platform? 
• 34:50 to 39:20: The impact that COVID-19 has had on this industry and the surprises that came along with it! 
• 39:22 to 46:55 : Internet penetration in India has been far more successful and higher than the BPC penetration. What does this mean for aspiring companies in this space? 
• 47:00 to 55:34 - What does the future hold for BPC brands as well as the broader D2C segment. Our experts have predictions, aspirations, and hope for the future. 

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

In the latest episode of Grit Stories, I spoke with Baskar Subramanian, founder and CEO of Amagi. Baskar has been an internet entrepreneur and startup founder since before either of those terms were really a thing. Having started and sold his first startup in his mid 20s, Baskar, along with a group of friends, started looking for new problems to solve.  

The group set their sights on disrupting television advertising with technology, the startup that became Amagi.

The startup ecosystem, Indian or international, sometimes focuses too much on the loud and the noisy. But there’s another kind of startup, quiet, tough and resilient, focused on their business and their goals. It’s clear which kind Amagi is, and this was a great insight into the people behind it.

Amagi has been in the future since 2008, and we wish them the best with their rocketship.

• 2:44-3:45: Baskars Story; Coming from a small time; being dyslexic but still finding a connect with the computers
• 3:45:20-5:14:09: First business stint in grade 11! Building financial products from small businesses!
• 07:45:23-09:19: Making the decision of leaving Texas Instruments although being a top coder there and thoughts on starting up
• 16:34-19:06: Amagi Story: Empowering the smaller players to advertise on TV!
• 20:30-22:36: Challenges faced operationally; Extensive traveling in tier-2 cities; facing the cable mafia and getting them onboard!
• 25:23-28:34: Facing the problem of scale and changing the targeting through research on larger brands
• 32:48-39:03: Friction with the TV channels; Broadcasters v/s Amagi
• 35:51-38:59: Changing the model and almost starting afresh; tough times as a founder!
• 41:16-44:22: Grit of continuing even during tough times; Unconditional support from the employees

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Aprameya is no stranger to the entrepreneurial journey. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Koo, a microblogging platform catering to the Indian vernacular. Koo was born as an offshoot of Vokal, a vernacular question and answer platform. Within one year, it amassed over a million users and became a force of its own.

Before this, he was at the helm of TaxiForSure, leading it to a successful acquisition by Ola Cabs back in 2015. I was part of this journey, and Aprameya’s clarity and grit has been something I’ve been aware of throughout.

This was among my favourite conversations, and not just because of having known Aprameya for so long. It helped me better understand the fast-shifting world of content, and the directions in which it is headed.

Koo is about to make some noise, and we are excited for it. 
Listen and find out more.

• 00:00 - 3:10 - Introduction
• 6:35-8:38- Parents not agreeing for his startup stint; Shift in his own inclination towards startups and getting conviction
• 9:04-10:24- Grit to start TFS; anyhow getting people from point A to point B
• 10:57-12:32- Angel Investors being very scarce and lack of information
• 12:34-14:25- Market explosion and TFS being not really ready for it
• 18:09-20:05- Grit to build for local language and not English: Vokal story- empowering non-English speaking crowd
• 20:27-22:41- Challenges as a founder of shifting from a transactional business into a non-transactional business
• 27:28-29:05- Pursuing the right person to rope him in as a co-founder
• 32:08-34:04- Atmanirbhar Bharat victory, being just a 3 month old product!
• 34:59-35:57- Moving fast to capture the Nigerian market
• 44:11-45:03- Advice to new founders: Start early & Always trust in your first thought!

Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com

Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India