From idea to IPO and beyond. 

What does it take to back a company for nearly two decades?
There are no written rules to navigate one of the most important relationships in a startup. One between a founder and an investor.

This episode is an inside look at how one of India’s longest founder-investor relationships was built and tested, between Yashish Dahiya (Policybazaar) and Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Info Edge).

In 2008, a ₹20 crore cheque was signed for 49 percent of the company, based solely on a powerpoint idea.
What followed were regulatory challenges, shifting business models, new investors on-board, and moments of disagreement. But through 17 years, six funding rounds, and an IPO, they stayed aligned.
These are two entrepreneurs who built their first ventures a decade apart; Sanjeev in 1997, Yashish in 2008 and have seen the Indian startup ecosystem evolve from the ground up.

If you are building or funding startups this conversation will resonate with you for its honesty and give takeaways for your own journey.

0:00 – Infoedge Ventures X Policybazaar
1:08 – Sanjeev’s first memories of Yashish before Policybazaar
5:33 – Pitching of the Policybazaar idea 
11:08 – How Info Edge almost didn’t invest in Policybazaar
15:56 – What shaped Yashish as Founder & Sanjeev as Investor
25:14 – How the founder–investor bond evolved 
27:08 – The Boardroom Dynamics at Policybazaar
31:08 – Moments of Disagreement: ₹840 Cr raised, ₹700 Cr still in the bank
34:38 – What makes an investor-founder relationship work?
46:02 – What We’ve Learned after 17 years of building together
49:03 – How India can build Long-term founder-investor bonds
-------------
India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.
This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.
What is Neon Fund?
We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.
Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.
-------------
Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
-------------
This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

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The global strategy consulting market stands at $39.5 billion, with Asia commanding $9.1 billion. India contributes just $1.09 billion. This is despite having the talent; Indians run global back-offices for McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, and other consultancies. Yet, India continues to outsource strategy to the Big 4.

Sanjeev Sanyal, PM Modi’s Economic Advisor joins us to break this down.

We discuss the factors helping and hindering India’s growth opportunities. Sanjeev has long worked on improving the process reforms with the belief that this country needs small reforms that will bring huge impact.

We also discuss AI, with a policymaker who strongly believes unregulated AI will be catastrophic. Sanjeev shares his opinions on what could be the government’s approach to regulation, with acceptance of the limited predictability of future with AI.

If you want to understand India from a policymaker’s eye this episode is for you.

0:00- Trailer
0:55 – Why India Needs Many Small Reforms
2:50 – Was WFH Technically Illegal Until 2000?
3:57 – India as the GCC Capital for the world
7:02 – How did India go from filing 6,000 to 1 Lakh Patents?
13:45 – Why India Can’t build Its Own Big 4+3
17:40 – When professional bodies in India don't work together
21:05 – What happens when branding is banned?
24:08 – Restrictions That need to stay
27:11 – How India’s IT Sector Grew Without a Governing Body
30:06 – Are we risking catastrophic failure with Unregulated AI?
36:10 – Can We Regulate AI Like the Stock Market?
41:39 – Why India Must Shut down Population Control
47:10 – Will AI Replace Lawyers and Accountants?
49:14 – What India Isn’t Ready For?
51:31 – India as a historically risk taking nation
54:31 – Why are professional bodies holding onto protection?
56:55 – The Business Culture Problem in Kolkata
58:32 – Sanjeev’s Work in Agroforestry
-------------
India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.
This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.
What is Neon Fund?
We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.
Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.
-------------
Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
-------------
This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

Send us a text

This episode is not just about Kerala; it is about how a state with limited land, strict environmental regulations, and a long history of outmigration is approaching investment and growth.

Kerala is a small, densely populated state with limited land to spare, not the typical site for industrial expansion. Yet it’s taking a distinct approach to building a knowledge based economy.
P. Rajeev (Minister for Industries, Law and Coir, Govt of Kerala) joins us to break this down.

We discuss how Kerala rose from the bottom to become the top-ranked state in Ease of Doing Business, what’s behind the ₹1.5 lakh crore in investment pledges, and why the state is prioritizing high-value industries over land and labour-intensive manufacturing. 

We also unpack how Kerala plans to convert MOUs into functioning factories and real jobs, and why startups that once moved away are now beginning to stay. 

Tune in if you’re curious about how Indian states are attracting investment and rethinking their development models.

0:00 – Trailer
1:18 – Is Kerala Still Fighting Old Perceptions?
5:59 – Kerala to Focus on Value-Added Manufacturing
7:45 – How to Start an IT Firm in Kerala & Where It Missed the Tech Bus
10:35 – What’s Blocking Startups from Scaling in the State?
11:15 – Can Kerala Retain Its Best Talent?
14:20 – Kerala’s Vision for a Free-Thinking Knowledge Economy
16:36 – Repositioning as an Investor-Friendly Destination
19:22 – What the “Nature, People, Industry” Motto Really Means
22:22 – Will Kerala Deliver on Its Investor Summit Promises?
23:42 – Why Vizhinjam Could Be a Game-Changer
26:00 – How Indian States Are Competing for Investments
28:47 – Is Stagnation in Productive Sectors Slowing Development?
32:38 – Is Kerala’s Geography a Barrier to Growth?
33:24 – Are Its Environmental Rules Too Rigid for Industry?
34:22 – Is Communism Holding Kerala Back?
37:48 – When the Communist Govt funded a Private Co.
41:17 – The Real Kerala Story
43:28 – The History Behind Kerala’s Education Revolution
45:14 – What the Kerala Model Must Fix
48:06 – Internet as a Basic Citizen Right
48:56 – Kerala’s Health Workers on the Global Frontlines
51:19 – Can Outsiders Easily Buy Land in Kerala?
53:01 – The State’s Only Unicorn Company
54:21 – Can Startups from Kerala Go Public?
-------------
India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.
This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.
What is Neon Fund?
We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.
Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.
-------------
Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
-------------
This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

Send us a text

AI is changing how companies build and scale. But most pitch decks haven’t caught up.

Karthik Chakkarapani, CIO of Zuora, has heard plenty of startup pitches but only a few stand out. He shares why most pitches fall flat, how to fix them, and how to present both the founder and the company in a way that drives real interest.

We unpack what should go into your 30-second elevator pitch, why “Time to Value” needs its own slide, and how to bring up AI without sounding like everyone else.

SaaS is changing fast and it’s no longer just about features, but about speed, clarity, and proof of value. We explore how the next wave of SaaS companies can truly differentiate themselves.

Building a startup is different in a post-UI world, where users don’t click through screens but simply prompt systems to act. We discuss what it takes to build in a world of API-driven AI agents, along with real lessons on what most founders get wrong about working with large companies.

If you're building SaaS in 2025, this conversation is for you.

0:00 – Trailer
1:05 – How the CIO Role Has Changed
3:21 – How Zuora Enables the Subscription Economy
5:45 – Is SaaS Becoming Headless?
7:55 – Are We Entering a Post-UI World?
10:37 – What’s the New Competitive Advantage?
12:31 – Will Entry-Level Jobs Be Replaced by Tools?
14:05 – What Metrics Will Matter in an Agentic AI World?
15:55 – How to Measure AI Adoption in Your Company
18:38 – What’s the Hype-to-Reality Ratio for AI?
20:19 – What Is the Biggest ROI AI Has Delivered?
23:53 – How Startups Can Get Deployed in Enterprises
27:10 – How Founders Should Use AI in Their Pitch
28:45 – Bolt-On AI vs. Built-In AI
32:26 – Most Common Myth About CIOs
35:03 – Why You Need a Prompt Library
36:04 – What to Avoid in Your Pitch Deck
37:21 – How Atomic Work Came Onboard
42:47 – The Underrated Soft Skills Founders Need
47:55 – 3 Examples of Killer 30-Second Elevator Pitches
51:59 – The “Time-to-Value” Slide Explained
53:46 – What Founders Get Wrong About Enterprises
54:58 – Top SaaS Misconceptions About Enterprise
57:00 – Where Enterprises Adopt AI the Fastest
59:45 – How the Next SaaS Companies Will Differentiate
1:00:33 – Bay Area vs. Bangalore vs. Chennai
1:03:33 – Rapid Fire Round
-------------
​​India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.
This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.
What is Neon Fund?
We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.
Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.
-------------
Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
-------------
This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

Send us a text

Three failed startups. One of India’s biggest B2B exits. Then returning 75% of investor money in the next venture. An entrepreneur who’s lived that arc is bound to have insights for anyone building or thinking of building.

Paras Chopra, founder of Wingify (sold for $200 million), Nintee, and now Lossfunk, joins us this week.

We discuss the small decisions that quietly define your startup: what product to build, how to structure your team, and why setting the right communication culture early can help.

Paras shares what most founders overlook early on : Pricing isn’t about effort you put but about the value you create, why having competitors might actually be better than having none, and how financial metrics often distract from what really matters to customers.

Paras talks about what changed between each attempt of building his startups, and why some lessons only reveal themselves the hard way and what shifts after you’ve seen both failure and success. 

Whether you're launching your first company or planning your next, this conversation will give you the clarity needed to tilt the odds in your favor.

Check out The Book of Clarity by Paras Chopra.

00:00 – Startups Should Be Like Cults
02:25 – Building a Founder’s Value System
03:25 – Bet on What Won’t Change in 10 Years
05:15 – What AI Can’t Do Well (Yet)
10:00 – Do Humans Even Want Accuracy?
10:57 – What Founders Should Not Build or Sell
13:35 – Are many competitors better than none?
19:47 – Why Repeating Success Is Hard
21:20 – Customer Value Metrics > Financial Metrics
23:35 – Why Paras’s Startup after Wingify Didn’t Work
27:00 – What Is Micro Communication?
30:41 – Writing Culture in a Startup
32:50 – Obsess Over Organisational Design
37:15 – Is Luck in Our Hands?
41:24 – Why Bias Is Risky for Entrepreneurs
42:35 – Great Startups Look Like Toys at First
44:00 – Why Deep Tech Startups Struggle to Succeed
46:09 – Paras’s New Venture Lossfunk
49:23 – Why Uncertainty Is a Startup Moat
55:56 – What Most Founders Get Wrong About Pricing
57:36 – Should Price be on Effort or Value?
59:23 – Wingify Innovated on Just One Metric
1:00:25 – What Is Failure for Paras?
1:04:08 – Diversify Your Self-Worth Like a Portfolio
1:05:21 – The Startup Game Is a Mental Game
1:06:43 – Did Wingify Create Wealth or Just Money?
---
​​India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.

This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.

What is Neon Fund?
We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.
---
Check us out on:
Website: https://neon.fund/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/
Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/
Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7
---
This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

Send us a text

50% of products and features built are never used.

To build the right product, every founder must answer two questions:

Are you solving a real problem? And are you solving it the right way?

Technology has rarely been democratic, it’s often elitist. So at times, it ends up solving made-up problems that don’t really exist. Yet, some companies have built truly great products.

What sets them apart? Do they share any similarities? Are there lessons for entrepreneurs?

We have with us Krishna (Vasanth) Namasivayam who has previously worked on AI products at NVIDIA, Meta, and Dropbox.

Vasanth is founder of Featurely.AI. Featurely is fixing how products get built. It does it by simulating users — not as bots, but as human-inspired digital twins.

0:00 – Trailer

02:10 – Why I chose NVIDIA in 2015?
03:55 – Working on integrity at META
04:23 – Rethinking AI for Dropbox
04:51 – NVIDIA builds for the future
05:45 – People loved working for Jensen

08:16 – What makes META so special?
10:57 – Decision-making at META was democratic
11:41 – Dropbox was once the most VIRAL product
12:55 – The power of founder-led companies

14:28 – Tech is Elitist, Build for a Few
16:43 – Silicon Valley trend of Solving Made-up problems
19:27 – A magic wand that Finds the right problem
22:17 – Synthetic users vs. perfect AI agents
25:00 – Why synthetic users can fail (and why that matters)
25:35 – What is the Future with AI agents & synthetic humans?
26:30 – Why openAI can’t/won’t choose User research
27:16 – The simplest explanation of LLMs
28:36 – Why ChatGPT succeeded like no other
31:04 – Bite-sized Info for 6-second attention span
31:37 – The Next Frontier in AI: Predicting Human Behavior
33:55 – Uses of Synthetic Humans from Product to Policy
35:55 – The biggest surprise of building a startup
37:00 – One Mistake Product folks make
38:24 – One emotional truth about startups
39:04 – What does Featurely do?
42:51 – How Featurely will measure success
46:36 – All future software will be hyper-personalized
50:24 – 3 AI companies to admire (one not built yet)
52:28 – How will Work be in 2025?
53:59 – How AI gets things (almost) right every time
57:02 – Why Featurely chose Neon Fund
01:02:51 – What the Bay Area does differently
01:04:54 – Learnings from Fundraising
01:06:49 – The vision to Build a Category defining Company

-------------

​​India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.

This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.

What is Neon Fund?

We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.

-------------

Check us out on:

Website: https://neon.fund/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/

Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/

Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7

-------------

This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

Send us a text

Geopolitics is now measured in Nanometers. Anything with a battery or a plug has a semiconductor inside. But these chips aren’t just tech anymore, they’re shaping who becomes the next Superpower.

In the 1980s, India was just two years behind the world in semiconductors. Today, we’re 12 generations behind. What went wrong?

India’s top semiconductor expert, Raja Manickam, returns to The Neon Show to break it all down.

We discuss how the U.S. lost the chip race it started, China’s strategic rise, and how one visionary turned Taiwan into the most valuable island in the world.

Raja Manickam dives into what the $10B India Semiconductor Mission is getting right and where we may fall behind. He explains why <$5 chips might be India’s best shot, and how founders can enter semiconductors with just ₹1 Crore.

This episode isn’t just about chips, it’s about who gets to shape the next decade of tech, trade, and power. 

From the role of the government to private capital and Mr. Raja’s own vision through his company iVP Semiconductor, this episode tells you how semiconductors are deciding India’s Future.

0:00 – Trailer

1:26 – Masters of Chips will rule the world

8:24 – Why US is falling behind despite its head start

11:22 – Does the US have the talent to win?

12:54 – How Taiwan became World’s most valuable island

18:51 – The US vs China dilemma for Taiwan

22:21 – China’s rise is strategic, not accidental

29:09 – Will India only be a chip-outsourcing hub?

32:41 – Does India want to build for itself or others?

34:07 – Why the US wants to kill the Chips Act

38:21 – US-China chip war for global power

40:16 – How can India win in <$5 chips?

43:31 – Should the Indian govt give grants or take equity?

45:05 – Semiconductor will not create jobs

47:50 – What went wrong for India post-80s?

50:11 – Why Mr. Raja returned to India

52:04 – Can India democratise chips too?

55:23 – How India’s govt is supporting chip startups

58:06 – India’s $10B Semiconductor Mission

1:03:19 – Why Raja is disappointed with Private sector

1:08:48 – iVP’s ambition to be a chip giant from India

1:10:47 – What’s India still missing?

1:16:39 – Is India not ready for 3nm Chips?

1:21:43 – How can new founders enter semiconductors?

-------------

​​India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.

This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.

What is Neon Fund?

We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.

-------------

Check us out on:

Website: https://neon.fund/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/

Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/

Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7

-------------

This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

Send us a text

There are No Checklists or Frameworks on HOW TO BE A VC?
So how do you even know if it’s the right path for you?

Unlike most jobs, venture capital comes with an extremely long feedback loop. It can take years before you know whether the bets you made actually worked out. 

That’s why most seasoned VCs say: only choose this path if you're in it for the long haul.

This conversation will help you think through that choice. Whether you’re considering VC as a career, love building businesses, or just want to understand who really calls the shots on a cap table.

On The Neon Show, we have with us two operators turned investors:

• Gaurav Ranjan, Principal at Prime Venture Partners, has led deals including Dozee, Hitwikcet, Poshn and Gallabox.
• Naman Lahoty, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners has been part of investments like Zouk, Nestasia, Dashtoon and Lumio.

They share lessons from evaluating thousands of startups - what they’ve unlearned about pattern-matching in investing, why Excel projections mostly fail and why founder empathy might be the most underrated edge in venture capital.

It’s truly a conversation between three VCs on what it really takes to be a VC today.

0:00 – Stellaris Partners X Prime Ventures
0:43 – How Founders Turn Into VCs
4:19 – Do VCs Need an MBA or Consulting Background?
6:32 – Why Startup Projections Rarely Come True
8:43 – Are VCs Naturally Good Founders?
11:19 – Startups we Evaluated & Founders we Met
14:51 – From First Pitch to Deal Close
19:02 – Why VC Feedback Loops Are Extremely Long
21:00 – No Checklists. No Frameworks.
25:27 – Why On-Demand Rebranded as Quick Commerce Won?
29:20 – The Stellaris Framework to Evaluate Founders
35:53 – Why Indian VCs Must Think Independently
38:28 – Rapid Fire: The Big One We Missed
39:16 – The One We Loved But Didn’t Back
42:23 – Startups We Wish We’d Invested In
43:55 – Investors We Admire the Most
47:20 – Do We Believe Peter Thiel’s Theory?
52:35 – Startup Stories: Slack, Flickr, Dozee, Rupicard
57:15 – The GTM Hack That Led to Product Discovery
58:15 – Babygogo & Atomic Work
59:55 – All-Nighter Code Sprint for the Demo
1:00:55 – Lessons Founders Taught Us
1:06:30 – What We Miss About Being a Founder
1:10:28 – When Do You Decide If You Are a Good VC?
1:13:28 – Building a Fund V/S Building a Startup

-------------

​​India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.

This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.

What is Neon Fund?

We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.

-------------

Check us out on:

Website: https://neon.fund/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/

Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/

Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7

-------------

This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

Send us a text

Vertical SaaS customers don’t buy software for 10 months, they buy it for 10 years. That’s the opportunity and the challenge. Switching costs are high, which makes it hard to get in but once you’re in, you’re in.

But regular SaaS playbooks don't work here. Forget PLG. Forget design partners. These industries have been burned too many times by bad software. Here, Trust defines GTM. Think warm introductions and on-site meetings, not cold emails and Zoom calls.

But for founders building in vertical SaaS, there’s little to learn from. So in this episode of The Neon Show, we bring together three founders who are building in the trenches of Vertical SaaS.

• Omkar Patil, Co-founder of Pienomial, helping biopharma companies run faster clinical research and unlock insights from complex drug data.
• Kumar Siddhartha, Co-founder of Merlin, rebuilding ERP from the ground up for the US construction industry.
• Divyaanshu Makkar, Co-founder of WizCommerce, modernising sales and commerce tools for wholesale distributors.

If you’re building SaaS for niche markets or wondering why traditional playbooks are failing, this episode is for you.

0:00- Pienomial X WizCommerce X Merlin

0:51 – What are we building in Vertical SaaS?

4:29 – Vertical SaaS buyers are sticky by nature

6:57 – How to build for industries used to Below-Par Tech?

10:46 – Fix what your customer hated about the last vendor

12:17 – Why these industries pay billions for implementation?

13:38 – How we got our First customers?

20:03 – Warm intros and word-of-mouth still win

23:56 – Why Design Partners don’t work in Vertical SaaS?

27:17 – Why you should never sell your first product for free?

30:29 – Can you Co-build products with early customers?

34:33 – Building Your Own Platform Vs Building on Top of one

39:33 – Building alongside Legacy players or innovating around them?

44:31 – SaaS isn’t going anywhere, AI will amplify it

46:49 – Can AI agents really be reliable?

48:42 – Which roles shouldn't be automated?

52:16 – How to approach GTM where users guide you?

54:43 – Why trust is everything here?

58:54 – How to sell softwares used for 10 years?

1:01:02 – How to win when the product demo comes last?

1:03:16 – Why NOW for traditional industries with unsolved problems

1:09:17 – Thoughts on agentic workflows

1:13:02 – Why be Bearish on the “AI Employee Concept”?

1:16:57 – Rapid Fire : Google or Perplexity?

1:17:37 – LLMs: Open-source or Closed?

1:18:19 – Favorite work software + We're hiring!

1:19:42 – One business buzzword that should disappear

1:20:55 – A Vertical SaaS company we admire (and why)

-------------

​​India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.

This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.

What is Neon Fund?

We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.

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Check us out on:

Website: https://neon.fund/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/

Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/

Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7

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This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are thos

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Recko's acquisition by Stripe is one of India's biggest B2B exits. 

It's a great headline. But headlines don't tell the full story. They capture one final outcome not the numerous obstacles faced.

In this episode, Saurya Prakash Sinha, co-founder of Recko, tells us what really happened behind the scenes. 

From the early days when no one was buying, no VC was funding, and they had just $500 left in the bank to building a product Stripe couldn't ignore. 

Saurya also shares hard-won lessons about product-market fit, customer validation, and why usage matters more than ARR in early-stage B2B.

Tune in if you want to learn about the full story behind the headlines.

0:00 - Trailer

1:01 - Why Stripe emailed 2 founders in Bengaluru

4:34 - How Recko discovered its core problem

9:34 - What IF customers and investors reject?

12:33 - How to Build with zero validation?

14:18 - Solving what the Big Four couldn’t at Myntra

17:37 - What to expect when building Products in Finance?

19:46 - Bought for the Product, Team or Scale?

21:53 - “Customer voice is the loudest in the room”

25:28 - Why VCs didn’t “get” Recko

28:27 - How to raise when investors follow success playbooks?

30:36 - Why build products to compete with the Best?

33:18 - The First cheque and first customer at Pingsafe

36:45 - How to manage Acquisitions before making them public?

41:02 - How Pricing is led during Buyouts?

42:36 - The culture of Writing at Stripe

44:08 - Why do companies Acquire?

49:16 - Why ARR at early stage is not the right metric?

52:26 - How to find what value your product really adds?

56:38 - Why $100M+ acquisitions are rare?

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​​India’s talent has built the world’s tech—now it’s time to lead it.

This mission goes beyond startups. It’s about shifting the center of gravity in global tech to include the brilliance rising from India.

What is Neon Fund?

We invest in seed and early-stage founders from India and the diaspora building world-class Enterprise AI companies. We bring capital, conviction, and a community that’s done it before.

Subscribe for real founder stories, investor perspectives, economist breakdowns, and a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re doing it all at Neon.

-------------

Check us out on:

Website: https://neon.fund/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/

Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww

Connect with Siddhartha on:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/

Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7

-------------

This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice.

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