The Indian Dream

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out with Karn Nahata, former Swiggy employee.

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Timestamps:
(0:35) - Social Stock Trading Apps
(9:50) - The Pet Care Industry in India
(20:40) - Interstate food delivery 
(28:03) - Building habits through social accountability

Business Ideas:

1. Social Stock Trading Apps - People in India loving trading stocks and there are a bunch of WhatsApp and Telegram groups that have popped up that just give advice on what stocks to buy and when. Stallion Asset has built their PMS purely on the back of their founder, Amit Jeswani, being a financial influencer. There is a clear demand and supply of this market - how can you organise it and make it more professional? The idea is to get all the influencers giving these stock trading tips onto one platform and incentivise them by adding a transaction layer which easily allows them to monetise their following. 
2. The Pet Care Industry in India - This industry is already 3,000 crores and divided into Pet Food (2000 crores), Pet Pharma (700 crores), Pet Toys (500 crores) and other stuff. The main driver for this industry is the fast growth in the number of pet dogs and cats being adopted by families across India - there were 30 million pet dogs in India in 2019! That was up from 20 million pet dogs just a few years ago. The way to enter this industry would be either in a niche of Pet Food (vegan, healthy, raw meat, etc.) or with high quality pet toys since everything is currently imported from China. You could also start a doggy day care or get into pet sitting because people need to send their dogs somewhere when they go on vacation - but kennels are quite low quality. 
3. Interstate Food Delivery - Who wouldn't love some fresh Rasgulas from Calcutta or Hyderabadi Biryani? This idea is definitely targeted at the premium customer who can pay the high transport cost to get fresh food from one state to another. One go to market strategy for this idea would be to target high end parties where people may want to show off the fancy food that they have. Just my Roots is already doing this in India but the quality of the website clearly shows that they're not able to target the right audience. GoldBelly is a succesful US startup that has figured out this niche - they sell gourmet food with a very upmarket branding. I would love if someone built this interstate food delivery business - I want daily Sondesh delivery from Calcutta. 
4. Building Habits through Social Accountability - This is an idea that Siddharth actually tried to build. Changing habits is really tough - we're generally very easy on ourself and let our bad habits slide even though we know its bad for us. Can you build accountability for yourself either through social or financial accountability where you're socially shamed or lose money if you break your promises of improving your habits? This platform would have some kind of system where you are actually held accountable for the promises that you make to improve yourself. 

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Hey everyone! Welcome to another episode of The Indian Dream. This is where we explore markets and ideas that are set to explode in the next 3-5 years.

This week, we did a deep diver into the word of Space Technology.

Before we talk about the episode, let me give you a high level understanding of Space Tech.  For years, the various government organizations have been sending satellites in space for various use cases ranging from Communication, Navigation, Television and Remote Imaging & Sensing. Organizations like NASA and ISRO have been doing this work. Over the last few years, private players have entered and new use cases have emerged.  We've written a detailed newsletter about the landscape of Space Tech in India, the current players and the opportunities. Link to the newsletter is in the show notes.

In this week's episode, we talk to Narayan Prasad, co-founder & COO of satsearch.  satsearch is a global marketplace for Space Products & Services. Narayan also runs his own space podcast and community called New Space India.

Space Technology has been dominated in India by ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation, since its founding in the early 70's. During these past 50 years, ISRO subcontracted all manufacturing to Indian companies but all intellectual property rested with ISRO or the Department of Space. Also, there was no clear legal framework for space companies to be built in India. As a result, the private Indian Space technology industry in India languished and is barely 1-3% of the Global Space industry.

However, all of this started changing over the past few years. A private marketing arm of ISRO called New Space India Limited was set up in 2019 and IN-SPACe was set up in 2020 as the regulator for the Space Industry. The stage has been set for the explosion of the private space industry in India.

This conversation with Narayan is a primer on the space industry and the entire value chain along with the opportunities in this space. Narayan is passionate about the Space industry and you can really hear it in this conversation.

Lastly, Sahil and I have been producing these podcasts ourselves for the past 10 months and this should be episode number 80. Right from ideation, guest sourcing, editing - we do everything ourselves and it takes up a lot of time. We'd like to hire some more interns and outsource editing so that we can get you better ideas, trends & business opportunities. Here's the razorpay link to support us. We're going to put all the money back into The Indian Dream and try and get you more high quality content.  

Oh, and if you're a young person looking for an internship - we're hiring! Send us an email - we're hiring for research and content distribution at the moment.

Email us at: [email protected]

We've launched a new show in Hindi in an Exclusive Partnership with Gaana.com. Checkout Founder Journeys on our new show 'Yeh Hai Dhande ki Baat'. The first three episodes with an Export Manufacturer- LNM Auto, Ferns & Petals, and Jiva Ayurveda are out. Check out the show here. 

In this episode of Business Munchies, Sahil and Sid are back with their usual banter and some interesting ideas. Here's what we discuss: 

• The  Business of Rare Plants & Evolution of Gardening in India  (1:47)
• The $1.5 Bn Expert Networks Industry (13:04)
• Subscription of Gourmet Meal Boxes (22:12)

Hey everyone - welcome to The Indian Dream podcast. In this episode we dig deeper into the trend of Plant Based Meats with Abhinav Sinha, co-Founder of GoodDot and GoodDo. Good Dot is a food tech start-up and was one of the first companies to bring plant-based proteins to India - Good do is their Quick Service Restaurant arm that's bringing plant based foot to airports & many other locations.

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Before this conversation, I didn't think plant based meats would work in India. A vast number of people are vegetarian and even the non-vegetarians eat meat only occasionally - why would Indians care about meat alternatives? This conversation changed my mind on the industry. We speak to Abhinav about how Indians view plant based meats and the different market segments that are buying this product. We also go into detail on the pillars for any food business that wants to enter the consumer segment. Overall, our belief is that the plant based meat industry is going to grow fast especially amongst younger folks who're getting more environmentally conscious.

We've put a timeline in the show notes so you can skip directly to the questions that interest you.

Timeline

(02:33) - What was the thesis and story behind Good Dot? It is a story of compassion by reducing animal cruelty by providing an alternative to meat.

(7:20) - Did you do the R&D and build the product development yourself? What did it entail? All proteins are based on just 20 Amino Acids and the sequence of these Amino Acids determines how the proteins fold, etc. If you take the same Amino Acids from plant proteins - shouldn't it give you the same bite as animal proteins - you can denature the protein and then align it similar to animal proteins.

(9:56) - What is your target demographic? Conservative vegetarians, moderate vegetarians, adventurous vegetarians (non-veg curious), borderline non-vegetarians (most of India, eat only occasionally), mainstream non-vegetarians (probably once a week because of cost), hardcore non-vegetarians (daily). Leave the two extremes on either side - focus efforts on the middle 4 sections.

(13:54) - How did you figure out which products do go after? Focus their efforts and make their decisions on 5 pillars:

1. Taste
2. Price - sometimes price is more important in India
3. Nutrition
4. Quality
5. Convenience

(17:25) - What was your Go to Market strategy? and how did you build awareness? RCM - direct selling agents with more than 2 million agents. Cater to the lower middle income market - which is the key market to target.

(20:17) - How are you marketing towards the lower middle income? How do you manage pricing?

(25:31) - How did you build awareness to get people to give it a shot?

(28:23) - Tell us about GoodDo - your Quick Service Restaurant.

(32:22) - What are the opportunities in this space?

(35:11) - What is the entire value chain for Plant Based Meats in India? What are the raw materials and who is manufacturing these in India?

(36:35) - Are you seeing enthusiasm in other kinds of plants based food as you are seeing in plant based meats?

(40:38) - Some large chains like McDonald's and Burger King are adding plant based options to their offerings - what is your experience with it?

(42:01) - Are you still changing the base product?

(43:15) - What are the barriers to entry for a newcomer to get into this field?

(45:27) - What is the implication of the level of processing required for these products?

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) talk to Sajal Khanter, former investment banker and current founder of The Boring News Co - a newsletter that brings you daily news without any sensationalism. Check them out!

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Timestamps:
(0:36) - How do you create trust in SME's using a Social Media or Marketplace model?
(11:04) - Creating Bronze Busts of business leaders like Ratan Tata or other super famous people like Narendra Modi
(20:54) - Discussion about the surprising profitibality of Food Delivery Apps
(24:55) - Food Business Called 50/50 with Unhealthy and Healthy variant of dishes sold through carts.
(33:14) - Course Clubs as replacements for Book Clubs

Business Ideas we Discussed:

1. Creating Trust in SME's: There is a major trust deficit in the SME space when it comes to dealing with new customers and vendors. You can find them on Trade India but you often don't know whether the company actually exists or if its a random middleman who's popped up with manufacturer contacts. This is especially prevalent in the textile industry which has many different layers. Sajal wants to create some kind of social media or marketplace model which can help create a database of trusted SME's with the information displayed on the platform that is needed to build trust.
2. Creating Bronze Busts of Ratan Tata: Inspired by Berkshire Nerds which is a simple store that has bronze busts of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. This could be done for other leaders in India who've achieved cult like status such as Ratan Tata, Narendra Modi, Aamir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar or more. 
3. Food Business Called 50/50: Restaurants are either healthy or unhealthy with very few mixing both the concepts in one location. Sajal's idea is to have a food cart with both healthy and unhealthy options in one place so that friends can enjoy it together. This cart could also keep a track of people's behaviour and if they've eaten well for a long period of them - they could then be incentivised to eat unhealthy with a coupon. Sajal's long term goal is to automate these carts so that they could roam around business areas by themselves and cook and serve people healthy/unhealthy food.
4. Course Clubs as replacements for Book Clubs: Cohort Based Courses or other online courses are replacing books as the primary place for people to learn new skills. This is especially true for high performing individuals, entrepreneurs and freelancers who are constantly trying to upskill themselves and reach the next level of productivity. 

We host Varun and Nicole from Good Food Institute (GFI) to talk about the Plant Based Meat sector in India.

Our Plant Based Meat Newsletter
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Plant Based Meat products are made out of processing Plants in a way that it resembles the taste, texture and nutrition of real meats. Animal Meat has significant environmental impact and is a big contributor for Climate Change.  These products are highly inefficient - 9 calories of food fed to a chicken gets 1 calorie back out in the form of animal flesh, the ratio is 34:1 in the case of beef!

Then there's the health impact of these Animal Meats on Humans.  Zootonic diseases like Covid, Avian flu originate from people consuming animal Meat. 

Plant Based Meats provide a healthier alternative - both for the environment and humans. Research has been going on for more than a decade around processing plants in a certain way to create products that resemble Animal Meats. 

We're seeing a rise of startups in this space creating interesting products for the Indian preferences. One common thread behind all these startups in India is the work that GFI is doing in enabling them and giving them a platform. 

We speak to Varun and Nicole about the Business, Science & Policy around Plant Based Meat in India. 

Sahil (@sahil071) & Siddharth (@sidbetala) are joined by Raj Kunkolienkar (aka @Kunksed), Co-Founder of Stoa School with us for this episode of Business Munchies.

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We discuss the following ideas: 

1. Data Pooling of Recruiting Data
   • Recruitment is consistently rated as one of the toughest parts of entrepreneurship - finding the right people for the right job can make or break a business. However, recruitment faces many issues from both sides of the desk - the candidate and the business. On the business side, there is an issue of information assymettry where they don't know much about the quality of a candidate except for a few interviews they may conduct. Additionally, a candidate may take an offer letter from a business and use that to shop around for jobs. We discuss various ideas for how recruitment data can be pooled across various businesses to solve this information assymettry and how companies can be incentivised to provide that data. 
2. Meesho for Matchmaking
   • The Meesho business model uses people's networks to help sell products to wider audience. One person sells to their network and gets commissions on those products - this model has been popular amongst homemakers in India who want to earn extra income. Can we use the same model for Matchmaking? Older relatives tend to annoy their younger family with questions about marriage anyway so why not incentivise them and provide them with a platform to make their matchmaking profitable?
3. Economies within Communities 
   • Large Communities are currently being built across various domains in India - Business, Stock Picking, Gardening and a host of other topics. These communities can have more than 10,000 members who are constantly asking for help or helping out of their own desire to help. But can we find a way to provide value to these acts of kindness? An in-community economy - imagine points for helping people with their problems - that can be exchanged for other help that's required within the community.  

Welcome to the 75th Episode of The Indian Dream! Our Diamond Jubilee!

But sadly, India is currently going through a massive covid crisis - if you haven't already, please consider donating to a Covid Relief effort that can help save lives.

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In this episode, we speak to Sridhar Gadhi, the founder & Executive Chairman at Quantela Inc. Quantela provides Smart City solutions to more than 60% of the Smart Cities in India - this was a conversation I've wanted to have for a long time to understand how the Smart City initiative actually works and what the opportunities are for new entrepreneurs entering this space. We have a detailed discussion going into the Go to Market strategy for Smart City startups, the entire value chain of the business and even whether new companies should first focus on the Indian market or export.

Sridhar is also a Member of the Global Internet of Things (IoT) Council at the World Economics Forum and thus at the end he also gives us a perspective on the Global opportunities that exist in IoT and Smart Cities.

For the first time, we've put a detailed timeline in the show notes so that you can skip to exactly the question that interests you.

Lastly, if you haven't already, please join our No Spam WhatsApp group for the latest updates on everything about The Indian Dream - we have more than 1600 founders & entrepreneurs learning new business ideas & opportunities on our group every week and we'd love to have you too!

(0:00) - What is Quantela, what inspired you to start Quantela?
(3:55) - What is a Smart City?
(7:00) - What is the Go to Market Strategy to introduce a Smart City product and how did you get 60% of Smart Cities in India as clients?
(11:15) - How do Smart Cities fund their project and measure ROI of the project?
(16:15) - What are the new Funding Models that cities are using to fund their Smart City projects?
(23:30) - What is the value chain of Smart City Projects - Software vs. Hardware?
(25:45) - What are the focus areas by the Government for the Smart City Programme?
(29:00) - How do you identify the problems that need to be solved and enter the Smart City Space?
(32:20) - What are the profit margins in the Smart City space?
(33:10) - What are the infrastructural requirements for the Smart City Programme to really take off in India?
(35:05) - Should you focus on exports or domestic supply if you're a new business in the Smart City space?
(36:20) - What insights have you derived from being part of the World Economic Forum for Smart IoT and Smart Cities?
(37:50) - What are the necessary skills and minimum readings for new entrepreneurs entering the Smart City space?

Sahil (@sahil071) & Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out with Harish Uthayakumar, YouTuber at Curious Harish and co-founder of Clinify, for a special episode of Business Munchies - we look at College Side Hustles.

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Timestamps:
(0:45) - Start a YouTube channel as a College Side Hustle.
(7:45) - Cookie delivery service
(13:45) - One stop shop for all college information
(19:00) - Hyper local Omegle for College Campuses
(20:00) - Modernising alumni relations
(25:00) - Learn No-Code and Freelance
(34:15) - The story of Anirudh Singla and Pepper Content

The College Side Hustles/Business Ideas we discussed

1. Start a YouTube channel or any type of Content Creation - Content creation is the lowest hanging fruit in terms of building a skill or building a business. Anyone can start a YouTube channel or a blog - it doesn't require too many resources. However, you can learn a lot of lessons from these endeavours and it can even open doors for your future career as you gain social capital. 
2. Cookie delivery service - In fact, any kind of food delivery service could work in college. It teaches your the entrepreneurial skills necessarily to succeed later in life. Sahil took part in such a business in college and his friend later went on to build a succesful million dollar business with the skills she learnt in college. 
3. Modernising Alumni Relations - BITS Pilani & ISB have fantastic alumni networks in India but that's not true of all the top schools and colleges in the country. Improving alumni touchpoints can significantly increase the donations to colleges and also the value that alumni derive over a long period of time. It's a win-win for everyone involved. 
4. Freelancing & Learning No-Code: Freelancing is the classice college side hustle. College students should learn a useful skill that they deploy while freelancing - such as learning No Code. If a student can learn Webflow, Bubble, Zapier, etc., those skills will be useful to them for the rest of their lives. 
5. Anirudh Singla & Pepper Content: Anirudh Singla, the co-founder of Pepper Content, first started off by just freelance writing for businesses around the world. Freelancing showed him the larger world of content writing that desperately needed a solution and that's when he founded Pepper Content and recently got him a place in the Forbes 30 Under 30 List. 

In this episode, we talk to Vinay Chhajlani about his 3 decade long journey as an Entrepreneur building multiple profitable businesses. 

We talk to him about the following businesses: 
1. Webdunia - India's first Vernacular platform with products and services in Hindi and other regional languages. They were the creators of World's first Hindi Email Service and went on to raise VC funding back in 1999. Post the dot com bubble, they pivoted to being a services company and served the likes of Reliance to build a profitable businesses. 

2. Naidunia - The Newspaper publishing business that he took over and turned around after it was struggling in mid 2000's. He scaled it to multiple cities and states and eventually had a successful exit. 

3. Other Ventures - Cable television, Jewelery E-com, and Convention Center. All of this didn't turn out to be successful and we talk to him about his learnings from these businesses. 

We also talk about the principles/values that he has used across these businesses, the role of spirituality in business, and how has he navigated his son's introduction in the family business, given the challenges that he faced when he entered the family business back in late 80's.