The Indian Dream

We're going to dive deep into the trend of Internet of things which has seen a huge resurgence in the past few years. We have Kush Mishra with us – he’s the CTO and COO of an IoT company called Senra. Through our conversations with various people in this industry we've actually come across an opportunity for a young business leader to become the business head or CEO of an industrial iot based company - if you or someone you know is interested please send an email.

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Kush Mishra
Senra
IoT Newsletter

I know all of you guys are probably thinking that the Internet of things is more than 10 years old and these guys are stupid to call this trend. just hear me out. This market is already worth billions of dollars in India and is still growing at a rate of 20% per year across the world. there are so many use cases that have still not been solved for specially on the  industrial side of things. the government is really incentivising the entire it boom with so many different programs including the digital India mission the smart city program and so many other things. 

On top of that, before the trade dispute with China last year we were importing a large percentage of our IoT hardware from them. but now there is a large demand supply gap which needs to be filled by somebody.  

Before we delve into the episode I just want to give all of you a basic idea about of what I mean by IoT. The Internet of things essentially means that you take a sensor and connect it to some object, either electronic or not, and then have that sensor send data back to the main server through some kind of communication like WiFi or 4G or whatever else. for example, I could buy a sensor for my running shoes. that sensor will pick up data about how much have run or how I am running and then send that data through Bluetooth to my phone which then sends it back to the central server. later on whenever I'm in the mood look at my running data I can just open the application on my phone and look at all the analytics about how badly I run.

IoT is broadly broken up into consumer IoT and industrial iot with industrial IoT being about 60% of the global market. consumer iot are generally  your wearables like your smart watch or home automation. Industrial iot generally refers to B2b applications of iot such as adding a sensor to a machine or engine so that you know about the health of that machine.  you can also use IoT To track your fleet of trucks for example. 

 We have an interesting discussion with kush about the entire state of IoT in India right now, the opportunities that exist in this space  and this kind of skills that a young person can build right now to get ready for the IoT industry. 

Before we get into the episode, if you are interested by what we're doing at the Indian dream and are looking for an internship - don't hesitate to send an email. we are looking for someone to help with social media and distribution. you would be an early hire and would be great way to learn how Companies are built. Send us an email now. 

Thanks for listening to another episode of The Indian Dream.

Join our WhatsApp group here: https://bit.ly/2LgDN2n

We're looking for social media interns! You can email us at [email protected]

As always, Business Munchies is an exploration of business ideas and how they can be leveraged in order to build new businesses or scale up existing businesses. This week, we had an interesting line up of strange ideas, we hope you like them!

Timestamps:

(0:24)    - Update on the Seasonal Fruit D2C Idea
(2:10)    - Trend of Urban people moving to build High Tech Farms
(5:08)    - Modernising Direct Selling Agents (DSA's) for Bank
(16:02) - Modernising Real Estate Agents
(24:45) -Branding
(34:26) -Zetwerk for Jewellery

Business Ideas Discussed on this Episode:

1. Update on the Seasonal Fruit D2C Idea: Sahil got an update from his friend who built this kind of business in the past. His friend said that, "Indian avocados are seasonal, I had not come up with products to sell in this offseason. There were chances of low quality produce. Last mile delivery was not as established as it is today." These problems can be easily overcome with today's infrastructure and somebody can build this business. The customer base will remain the same across different fruits and seasons.
2. Trend of Urban people moving to build High Tech Farms: Seaweed farming was discussed in the Union Budget and we dug deeper into it and found the largest Indian farmer and processor. We found the 3rd largest Indian farmer of Mushrooms as well. High tech farming of new age crops like Mushroom & Seaweeds are increasing across the country in addition to the latest techniques such as hydroponics. We'll explore all these ideas in detail in future trends episodes.
3. Modernising Direct Selling Agents (DSA's) for Banks: Siddharth has previous work experience in B2B lending and during this time he saw how far behind the technological curve Banks and NBFC's really are. DSA's, who sell unsecured loans for banks, are a market of more than 1000 crores across India, get commissions of about 3-3.5% on the loan size but operate their entire business on paper without any digitisation. There is space for a newcomer to digitise the customer relationships (think policy bazaar but for B2B lending) and streamline the loan disbursement process to make it much simpler.
4. Modernising Real Estate Agents: We were inspired by this tweet which said that "Real Estate Agent has to be, on average, the laziest group of professionals. I guess that's why the few that are highly-competent hustlers clean up." This Tweet was referring to American Real Estate agents but we feel like it applies to Indian agents as well. This is a huge market and it is ripe for disruption in the way it operates, right from CRM softwares for Real Estate Agents (all of them use whatsapp right now) to a new way to sell houses online.
5. Branding: Branding is more important than ever in today's world because it is so simple to build businesses these days. However, there is still a big demand supply gap between good branding/digital marketing agencies and what is actually needed in the market. We discuss the various branding related businesses that you can build including an automated product photography software which allows you to upload a green screen photo of your product and then automatically puts that product in more appealing settings and backgrounds. 
6. Zetwerk for Jewellery: Inspired by a Tweet by Siddharth 

We hit 50 Episodes last week! (We didn't even realize!). Consider this as the 50th Episode Special: Our take on The 2021 Union Budget.

At The Indian Dream, our goal is create a community of knowledge seeking founders who are looking to build Profitable Businesses. A big part of building these businesses is being aware of the direction the government is focusing on. It always helps to be building in industries that the government is focusing on. Consider the example of Baddi and the Pharma boom that happened there. By understanding the governments future plans and intentions, you can start executing for the future and get help from Tailwinds. That's the lens we used to make sense of the Union Budget. We host Sarthak Ahuja (ISB Alumni, CA, CS and more!) on the Podcast to make sense of the budget. 

Our focus is Businesses & Startups, but we covered other sections such as Infrastructure as it has significant downstream impacts.

Sarthak's Website
Sarthak's Email

This by no means is a complete in-depth review of the Budget, we'll be honest, it's a lot of information to put in 40 minutes, but the intent is to show that there is merit in trying to go deeper and understanding the budget to spot upcoming opportunities in sectors that might be relevant to you. We've covered the ones that have the most impact and some extremely unique ones too. Goa's having a party and Tamil Nadu is becoming a Sushi State. Have I stopped making sense? Go checkout the podcast, you'll know what I'm talking about. 

This was our first topical podcast, do tell us what we could've done better :) Email us here. 

P.P.S: We're thinking of building our team and are looking for interns. Checkout our podcasts and more about us here. If you vibe with what we're trying to do (even we're yet to figure it out, you'll be that early!), we are looking for some full-time/part-time interns. We are looking to put some fuel to The Indian Dream and see where this goes. Our biggest weak point is the  Social Media Distribution. We create way more than we efficiently distribute. Come help us fix this? 

Thanks for listening to another episode of The Indian Dream.

Join our WhatsApp group here: https://bit.ly/2LgDN2n

As always, Business Munchies is an exploration of business ideas and how they can be leveraged in order to build new businesses or scale up existing businesses. This week, we had an interesting line up of strange ideas, we hope you like them!

Timestamps:

(0:00)    - Introduction
(2:06)    - AI Powered Writing Tools
(9:35)    - Productizing Your Services
(15:30) - Luxury Direct to Consumer Fruit Brand
(23:45) - STEM Toys for Parents & Kids
(25:40) - Content Website Business

Business Ideas Discussed on this Episode:
1) AI Powered Writing Tools - there are many websites already doing this like Copy.ai & Nichness and many other services. However, this is a very new field and we believe that there are still a lot of use cases for which you can build companies. For example, can you build content writing for different geographies or different industrial niches.

2) Productizing Your Services - are you already selling a service like graphic design or coding or some other kind of consulting service? Can you convert this service into a product of some kind? For example, graphic designers can make different designs and sell t-shirts/mugs/posters, etc.. A personal finance coach could make a paid online or in person course that they then sell as a product.

3) Luxury Direct to Consumer Fruit Brand - Build a luxury brand that gets you the freshest fruit from different corners of the country only when they are the ripest. This idea would require you to build the supply chains very slowly because agri products have very difficult supply chains. Maybe you can start with one product like fresh Apricots or Mangoes and build up a customer base who you can then sell the next fruit when it is in season.

4) STEM Toys for Parents & Kids - Sell STEM based toys for kids to learn more about science and technology.

5) Content Website Business - This is for people who at least understand the basics for SEO. Use tools like Ahrefs or Ubersuggest or any other keyword research tools and figure out high frequency, low search difficulty keywords where you can create significant content. For example, all the keywords associated with Shopify are very high volume but have significantly lower search difficulty. 

Today's show is a result of a phone call that I got after one of our listeners heard our Business Munchies episode. As we got talking, I realised his line of work is extremely interesting and operates in a niche. As our regular listeners might know, we love NICHE businesses. As they say, Niches build Riches. 

Around 2009-10, Rishabh & Pranav wanted to start an Electronics Accessories brand and upon more research, they realized it was difficult to compete with existing brands without a solid marketing budget. That's when they came across the idea of Corporate Brand Licensing. Under this, an existing brand licenses its name to other companies that are creating products that can serve as an extension to the brand's current products. For example, JCB makes construction and mining equipments. A natural extension to it would be Hand and Power Tools. Now, JCB could invest capital, do product development for this new line of products, OR it could tie up with an existing manufacturer of power tools and lend them the JCB Brand by doing a brand licensing agreement. Under this agreement, JCB gets certain % of the revenues. This is a win-win for both the partiers as JCB didn't have to invest and do product development and the manufacturer builds credibility by using the JCB Name. 

This model is extremely popular in the western markets and is estimated to be a market of 280 Billion Dollars. This is primarily dominated by Entertainment and Films, Fashion and Corporate brands.

Rishabh and Pranav saw the opportunity back in 2011 and co-founded LicenseWorks.They pivoted from their orginal idea and started An agency that helped brands match with manufacturers in India. Clients of Licenseworks were able to generate $70 million in revenue in 2019. 

In our show today, we host Rishabh and talk to him about the Brand Licensing Market and the workings of it. If you're manufacturing products out of India, you HAVE to listen to this to understand the opportunity that it presents. They've had multiple success stories in India where companies were able to double the turnover in a couple of years. 

In fact, LicenseWorks is now one of the Top 25 Global Licensing Agencies (on the basis the revenue generated for its clients), and the only agency from India among the top 25 global agencies.

LicenseWorks represents a wide range of International brands including leading Corporate trademarks, Electronics, Fashion and Sports brands such as Stanley Black & Decker, JCB, Schneider, Kodak, Thomson, Blaupunkt, Carrera Jeans, Karl Lagerfeld, HEAD Sports, Harvard, Santa Barbara Polo Club etc.

At the same time, several Indian companies also approach LicenseWorks with specific brand requirements. In such cases, LicenseWorks team works with them and helps them identify suitable brand licensing opportunities relevant to their categories, which could help grow their business.

Rishabh's email address: [email protected] 

Before we jump on to the episode, I'd like to invite applications for Internships at The Indian Dream. We have exciting plans for the year ahead and are now looking to build a team of interns who are interested in growing a business media company. We're looking for interns to manage our Social Media, community and content production. All of these are going to be paid internships. We don't care where you studied at or what your degree is, as long as you're interested in learning more about building profitable businesses in India and are open to learning new things. So, if you're interested, drop us an email at [email protected] or text us from the link in the show notes. 

With that, let's jump into the episode and learn more about the world of brand licensing. 

Thanks for listening to another episode of The Indian Dream.

Join our WhatsApp group here: https://bit.ly/2LgDN2n

As always, Business Munchies is an exploration of business ideas and how they can be leveraged in order to build new businesses or scale up existing businesses. This week, we had an interesting line up of strange ideas, we hope you like them!

Timestamps:

(0:00)    - Introduction
(1:17)    - Clout Kitchens
(5:50)    - Virtual influencers
(10:25) - High End Ice
(14:45) - Cohort Based Learning
(24:10) - Transparent Pricing with Car insurance
(26:51) - Jewellery Insurance
(30:41) - Legal Micro SaaS

1. Clout Kitchens: Mr. Beast Burgers launched in 300 locations across the US in a single day. Why can't the same thing be done in India? Create a brand of Biryani around SRK or Salman Khan and give them equity. HRX and Wrogn have already done this with apparel and it's easier than ever to do this with food.

2. Virtual influencers: Lil Miquela is not a real person but this virtual persona brings in $12 million in revenue every year. There's no one doing this on a large scale in India. You can also do this for different niches: music, sports, fashion, etc. and use build economies of scale in design/animation, cross promotion, etc.

3. High End Ice: Where does the ice in your fancy whiskey come from? You have no idea, nor do I. I think there's a play to build a high end ice brand bringing assurance of high quality ice to people through a consumer campaign on social media. The main means of distribution would be bars and restaurants. In general, consolidating a disaggregated market can be a large potential business.

4. Cohort Based Learning

5. Transparent Pricing with Car insurance: MetroMile and the Good Better Best Newsletter

6. Jewellery Insurance

7. Legal Micro SaaS - A micro-SaaS business that helps take away the hassle of super basic and standardised legal documents such as NDA's, Lease Agreements, etc. so that you can just focus on the important parts of running your business. Example: The Legal Capsule

I'm really excited for this episode where we interview Vidur Gupta From stranger and sons – a brand of craft gin. This episode is a continuation of our deep dive into the Trend of craft alcohol in India. You should also listen to our previous episode with Brew Whale about the craft beer scene in India.

Craft Alcohol Newsletter
Brew Whale Episode

I'm not gonna lie, Gin and Tonic has recently become my favourite drink after beer. I was first introduced to Stranger and Sons as a birthday gift and I fell in love with it. BUT I did not believe my friend when they told me it was an Indian brand. The packaging was so modern, the taste was so good and I just didn’t think that Indian brands were making such high quality spirits – especially gin. 

Stranger & Sons has broken that mould though. In this episode, we have a fascinating discussion with Vidur on how they thought about building a gin brand, their entire process of getting the precise flavour profile they wanted and how they market the brand. We even speak about nerdy stuff like alcohol licenses, working capital and distribution for those of you who want to know more about the business side of building an alcohol brand in India. 

If you’re interested in building a new business, you should read our latest newsletter – 21 Awesome Business Ideas for 2021 – the link is in the show notes. 

We hope you enjoy our discussion with Vidur!

Welcome to another episode of Business Munchies at The Indian Dream. We explore different business ideas on this segment of our podcast.

We had a friend of the show with us on this episode: Animish Gadve from The Wandering Band, an indie video game publisher. Having worked with Zynga games & EA in the past - Animish was able to provide us with a lot of insights into how the gaming industry is shaping up in India and what opportunities still exist for people looking to enter.

Animish also gave us two Promo Codes for his game, Airborne Kingdom, on the Epic Game Store. You can get it for Free!

Don't miss out! We only have two Promo Codes and whoever uses it first, gets the game for free:

7Z824-C38ZH-LQCPM-EH6LT
MSSJB-72GU8-R5GV3-BB3HX

Business Ideas Discussed on this Episode:
1) The Toy Industry in India (1:50)
2) The Gaming Industry in India (13:41)
3) WhatsApp Privacy changes & its implications for Commerce & Micro-SaaS (23:24)
4) The model of an NGO running a business (Wikipedia, Bosch, Signal, etc.) (29:00)

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Our guest today  is an ex- Merchant Navy Officer who, through an interesting sequence of events, became an Insurance Executive and eventually an Entrepreneur. He currently runs a Global Products & Services business in the Insurance Domain with a team 1900 people spread across 9 countries. This journey began little over 7 years ago when Arun Balakrishnan was heading the Berkshire Hathway's Indian Insurance Business. When Berkshire decided to wind up the India business, Arun spotted an interesting opportunity that would eventually lead to his company, Xceedance. And he's used the bootstrapped entrepreneur playbook of starting with services and then building products very effectively. 

Arun's had an interesting journey, and it fits perfectly with the saying, you can only make sense of your life when you look backwards. He's often found himself in situations that might not have worked out in that moment, but it has all led up to him building a global business that started out of India. It all started post his MBA from IIM ahmedabad, where him and a friend of his decided to build internet businesses. Due to bad timing in the fundraising market, they couldn't get the necessary resources required to scale up their venture. The ideas they worked on would even turn into billion dollar ideas eventually, albeit executed by different people in a more favorable market. 

You'll often hear him say, he was lucky, and while there is some truth to that, he undermines the action he took and the decisions he made to get where he is today. Join me in this conversation as we talk more about his Internet business days, building Berkshire's Insurance business in India, and how he has been able to scale up Xceedance over the last few years. We talk what it takes to build a global business starting out of India, how they've been able to scale the hiring and org culture to build a team of 1900 people across the globe.  

Welcome to the 5th episode of Business Munchies. This will now be a regular segment of the show with Sahil and I hosting the show with other guests (friends of the show).

If you're not familiar with our Business Munchies episodes, I'd urge you to start with the first one 4 weeks ago. We continue a few discussions from the previous episodes.

For our episode today, we discuss the following topics:
1) Update on the E-Com business in US that we are trying to acquire (3:11)
2) Using a portfolio of entrepreneurial bets to build wealth (4.14)
3) IoT and Wearables Manufacturing in India (12:02)
4) Fire Safety Equipment (18:00)
5) Competing with Amazon in the Retail Market (24:00)

If you're keen on coming on the show as a friend of the show, would love to talk to you and see if we can make something happen. Love geeking out with people on different trends, ideas and industries. Text us here

With all that said, Execution > Idea :)