The Neon Show

In Sales the stakes are high. And for company’s growth it is important to get it right.

Thanks to multiple options of Sales engagement softwares which streamlines the sales process through integrations which enables companies to combine their sales and marketing efforts to create personalized and automated sales journeys.

In today's episode of 100x Entrepreneur, we have with us Yamini Bhat, Co-founder & CEO, Vymo; i.e An intelligent sales engagement platform for financial institutions.

Started in 2013, Vymo is used by 300,000+ Sales Reps across 65+ Enterprises such as HDFC Bank, SBI Life Insurance, and Sun Life Financial among others.

While most SaaS startups go global from Day 1, Vymo is one of the few Indian SaaS companies which scaled to more than $10M ARR with India Enterprises as clients.

During the episode, catch Yamini sharing why did they chose to focus on BFSI, how did they brought awareness for both their team and customers about their product and much more. 

Notes - 

01:33 - Intro

03:05 - Career background in Sales Transformation at Mckinsey which led her to Vymo

06:48 - Family background and getting into BITS Pilani & IIM Bangalore?

14:58 - Quitting Mckinsey and identifying the problem statement to startup

17:29 - Till Series-A being focused on a horizontal solution

20:53 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?

23:04 - Milestones during Vymo’s journey

26:26 - Key challenges with team and customers early-on

28:56 - Convincing the first few BFSI customers for an average contract value of $350K

31:54 - Building a SaaS behemoth from India and then expanding globally

36:16 - Her 0 to $10 Million ARR playbook for SaaS-entrepreneurs in India

Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!

https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll

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As per a recent article,“About 60% of companies that reach pre-series A funding fail to make it to Series A, so the success rate is only 30%-40%.”

Infact if you check on Crunchbase, in India you’ll find 4300+ startups at Pre-seed or Seed-stage, but only 600+ out of them have managed to reach Series-A, which bring the success rate to even lower at just 15%. 

Apart from this, even in the entire Indian startup ecosystem, there are so many Product Managers, Ex-founders, and many more, who either have an idea around a Problem-statement, but don’t know how to proceed or there are students in college, who are amazed by the startup ecosystem, and want to take their early step, but afraid on how to take the next step. 

In order to solve this we have with us our guest of this episode, Rajiv Srivatsa & Nitin Sharma, Antler India. 

Antler unlike most VC firms bets on the startup ideas at Pre-seed stage with their Antler India Residency or in some cases even earlier with college students via Antler India Fellowship.

During the episode, catch Rajiv & Nitin sharing their First Principles approach and what infrastructure they are building at Antler India to make the founders succeed considering the time constraints at Pre-seed stage and much more. 

Notes - 

03:50 - Intro

04:44 - Why did they choose to build Antler India? 

09:35 - How did Antler happen? 

12:02 - Why kind of institutional mindset do they bring in? 

16:18 - How do they balance the equation of a Founder’s optimism & a VC’s pessimism between them?

18:22 - Background around Antler’s India Portfolio over the last 18+ months

22:08 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?

23:47 - What’s their approach and what’s the general cheque size? 

29:48 - Learnings from the Ups & Downs in Urban Ladder Journey

33:28 - Focusing on building around core foundational use-cases during times of crisis

38:18 - Keeping founders from falling in love with the product and not the actual problem-story

42:12 - Examples of building PeakPerformer & Bookee with Antler

46:47 - How & when do founders get distracted after funding?

50:08 - When do founders have the best chances of succeeding at Seed-stage?

Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!

https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll

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Varun Mayya was in college when he along with his friends started up a t-shirt manufacturing business called SIZR. Later on, he went into building a recruitment platform, Jobspire. And they were one of the youngest teams to raise venture capital of Rs 1.7 crore even before they graduated, and scaled the company to serve 4 million requests in 2016. In 2017, they sold Jobspire to a New York-based company.

Varun also authored a book named Pyjama Profit which is a guide for millennials to get started with an online freelance practice, while developing the skills needed to succeed.

Along with running a youtube channel, Varun also co-founded Scenes, a community platform for creators to manage, moderate, and monetize their communities in one place. 

Scenes has raised funds from some notable investors including Kunal Shah, Gaurav Munjal, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Tanmay Bhat as well Tanglin Ventures, Better Capital, Whiteboard Capital, iSeed Ventures, and Blume Founders Fund.

Tune in to this insightful episode with Varun to learn about building a brand, processes around content creation, and leveraging your youtube channel to scale your business. 

Notes – 

03:10 – Intro

04:05 – His journey before entrepreneurship

06:49 – Getting introduced to oDesk (now Upwork) via his mother and earning his first $100

09:10 – Starting a visual version of Naukri in fourth year of college

11:09 – Writing an Amazon Bestseller Book – “Pyjama Profit: The Millennial’s Guide to a Sustainable Freelance Career” 

12:48 – Starting Avalon Scenes

18:07 – Two rounds of funding for building a community space

19:22 – Top clients and why do they use Scenes?

22:11 – Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?

24:09 – What excites him the most about Scenes? 

26:40 – Solving a problem really well v/s Building a large business

28:41 – What’s their longterm goal with Scenes? 

33:02 – Can Scenes eventually replace Discord? 

34:36 – Why he continues to a creator with Scenes growing? 

41:25 – Learnings on YouTube and Twitter around content creation

46:15 – One of his best videos on YouTube

52:44 – “I think we live in a trust-deficient economy and content is the only way to beat it.”

Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!

https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll

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According to a recent article in Forbes, as per data of ProductLedGrowth.org,“Buyers want to self-educate.” 

Personalization is expected by customers—not only are 80% of people more likely to do business with a company that offers personalization but Salesforce’s 2017 State of Marketing Report found that 52% of B2C customers would actually switch brands if they weren’t getting a personalized experience. 

In today’s episode we’ve some Dheeraj Pandey, CEO at DevRev; Board Member at Adobe; Investor & Co-founder at Nutanix. 

During the episode, catch Dheeraj sharing his experience around Product-Led Growth over the past two decades, taking Nutanix Inc. public within 6 years of inceptio and much more. 

Notes - 

01:44 - Intro

02:26 - Achieving Product Market Fit - “What is the journey is not a destination.”

05:15 - Identifying the problem statement for first 10 customer at Nutanix

07:54 - Main value prop by Nutanix for early customers

10:11 - How to identify large problems?

13:22 - Whether to find a niche problem and then expand or find a problem statement of the larger market?

15:07 - What’s the first Aha moment for customers on DevRev?

20:04 - Zoho Sponsored - Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?

21:18 - Why have Startups as the target audience v/s Large Entreprises?

27:10 - History of Product-led growth

32:50 - First principle thought behind Product-led growth with velocity

37:49 - Customer Relationship Management v/s Sales First Automation

39:07 - How a B2B developer can think like a B2C developer?

40:23 - What are risks of failure they need to think about?

41:40 - Building an entrepreneurial culture

43:47 - Dealing with the most difficult part of an acquisition (i.e. Integration)

45:38 - An early childhood in Patna, graduating from IIT Kanpur & Ph.D. dropout from University of Texas

50:33 - Why did he chose to startup in a downturn of 2009?

54:07 - Milestones in Nutanix’s journey

58:31 - Becoming a Public company

59:58 - Aspirations for DevRev

1:02:29 - What kind of person he is in his personal life?

Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!

https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll

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In today’s podcast, we have Ishan Sharma with us! Ishan is a Youtuber, Entrepreneur, and Founder of MarkitUp. He droped out of his college(BITS Pilani, Goa) at the age of 20 and decided to continue his entrepreneurial and content creation journey!

Ishan Sharma has around 500k Subscribers on Youtube and about 100K on LinkedIn. He also wrote a  book called "Crush It on LinkedIn" back in Mid 2020 which summarises his experience of using LinkedIn and it is a guide for college students to find opportunities.

Ishan will share his YT journey so far,  why he decided to drop out, what motivated him to do so, how MarkitUp was formed, and a lot more!

Let’s listen to his inspirational journey so far and what he plans to do next! 

0:00 - Intro
2:05 - What drives you in your life?
2:49 - How did you overcome the pain of Failing in JEE Advanced Exam?
6:22 - Do you remember the date you started your YouTube Channel?
7:18 - What's the main reason behind starting your YouTube Channel?
9:13 - What other skills have you learned after Coding & Content Creation?
11:40 - When did you make your First Money?
12:16 - How was your YouTube Journey & How did you reach 10,000 Subscribers?
13:35 - What are your learnings from YouTube?
15:24 - How did you master YouTube Thumbnails?
17:47 - What are your other Income Streams beside YouTube?
19:56 - What was your income in May?
21:44 - When did you get your First Brand Deal & What does it takes to reach here?
24:56 - What is the Sales Engine looks like for 'MarkitUp'?
26:20 - Where do you want to see yourself in 1 Year in terms of numbers?
27:15 - How many Brand Collaborations do you do in a month?
28:52 - How much do you pay a Freelancer per month?
30:05 - How does a day in your Life look like?
33:14 - What made you choose not to spend any more time in college?
39:00 - How do you differentiate your income?
39:55 - What do you do with the money you are making right now?
41:08 - Do you draw any salary from 'MarkitUp'?
43:05 - What is enough for Ishan?
45:02 - Why does $1 Million in Investment important for you?
46:03 - What is one thing that is missing in your life?
47:48 - What do you do to make your growth engine proactive?
49:32 - Have you explored during 10 Day Meditation or Vipassana?
50:43 - What is Your Biggest Fear right now?
53:14 - Do you watch Netflix or any other OTT platform?
54:16 - Do you believe in Manifestation?
55:18 - What's your process for recording a YouTube Video?
57:08 - What would you do if your Investment Portfolio reaches $1 Million?
59:49 - Outro


Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! 

https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll

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If you’re a startup enthusiasts, its highly likely that you would have read or atleast heard about the book - Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of Bigbasket by by T. N. Hari & M. S. Subramanian.

In today’s episode we have Hari Menon, BigBasket’s founder sharing the his experience in the Indian Ecommerce Ecosystem over the last two decades. 

In May 2021, Tata Digital invested $375 Mn in BigBasket. They have also recently launched their quick commerce vertical called BBNow and will now compete alongside the existing players such as Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto and Dunzo.

During the episode, catch Hari talking about his learning from his first venture, his thoughts on the current market and the investment slowdown, and much more. 

Notes - 

02:20 - Building India’s online grocery market in the last two decades

14:37 - Starting BigBasket at the age of 50

21:16 - Dividing equity between the founders

21:42 - Mistakes & Biases which got carried from his first venture

24:15 - Becoming a part of Tata Group and growing bigger

27:16 - Top learnings and observations from Tata Group

29:30 - His thoughts on “10-minute delivery”

33:14 - Any similar patterns between June 2022 and 1999 boom and bust?

35:14 - Business which are not building a profitable model will suffer the most

38:22 - Indian Startup Ecosystem in the next 5-10 years

40:20 - Framework to identify large opportunities: Scale & Profitability

42:36 - Culture at BigBasket which keeps people from moving out

46:45 - Growing with the business as CEO

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We’ve heard inspiring stories of founders of Facebook and Microsoft who’ve dropped out of Harvard and even some of the well known Indian Entrepreneurs who’ve dropped out of IITs to build on their dream venture. 

But in today’s episode we’ll talk with Anish Achuthan, who ran away from his hometown during his Class 11th with dreams to build something big in the Dotcom space and currently is the Cofounder of Open, which recently became Kerala’s first unicorn start-up.

Listen to Anish talk about his journey through his various ventures over the last two decades and how he’s building for Open to democratize the Neobanking space in India. 

Notes - 

02:42 - Being born in Govt service-oriented family in Kerala to getting inspired by Dotcom

06:11 - Meeting his cofounder & life partner

07:49 - Cumulative learnings from his previous companies

11:27 - Product Offerings by Open for SMEs, Banks and Fintech Entreprises

13:57 - Key milestones in Open’s journey

15:49 - Current metrics on the platform

16:56 - What are his plans with Open for the long term

19:17 - Their moat against other Neobanks and traditional banks

23:04 - Product & distribution strategy for the first 100 to 1000 users

31:46 - Licenses and certifications needed for Neo Banking

33:47 - Challenges while cracking the first banking partner

35:27 - Monetizing their services on Freemium model

36:55 - Advice to early-stage entrepreneurs

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On the podcast today, we have with us Sandeep Jain, Founder, GeeksforGeeks. GeeksForGeeks is one of the largest online learning platforms for coding enthusiasts, budding engineers, and anyone involved in the tech domain. 

Sandeep is from Firozabad which is 40 kms away from Agra in UP. He studied in a government school before doing his graduation from UP Technical University, Mathura, and masters from IIT Roorkee. In the year 2009, he created a blog with the intent to help engineering students prepare for placements. What started as a blog is today a 1000 Crore+ annual revenue Edtech company with 250+ team members. 

Let’s dive deep into his journey from leaving his engineering job to becoming a teacher to 10 Million+ registered 'Geeks' from across the world.

Notes - 

03:07 - Growing up in Firozabad to growing the love for coding

07:20 - Joining D. E. Shaw & Co after graduation

09:24 - 30% Salary cut in his first Teaching job v/s being a Software Engineer

10:00 - Starting GeeksforGeeks in 2009

16:03 - Hiring the initial team

18:26 - Annual revenue growth to 1000 Crore+

24:12 - Learning the skills and growing in the role of a CEO

30:35 - Growing against well-funded competitors

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March 2019 was when we published our first episode of 100xEntrepreneur. 

So far we’ve covered 150+ VCs, Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs from the Indian startup ecosystem. 

Alongside 100xEntrepreneur podcast we’ve so far invested in 30+ portfolio companies via like Airmeet, PlumHQ, Zencastr and Neeman’s. 

In today’s episode we share our journey so far. We are Siddhartha & Nansi, a husband-wife entrepreneur-cum-content creator duo who started their podcast journey with a purpose to make behind the screen conversations, thought process, and mindset of VCs, Investors and Successful entrepreneurs accessible to thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts like you. 

We really hope that we have been able to serve you with great content so far and would really appreciate your feedback. How can you share your feedback with us? 

1. Reply to this email
2. Comment on our Youtube, iTunes, Castbox or Spotify Channel

Notes - 

01:09 - How 100xEntrepreneur was born?

09:44 - To Unlock Growth: Start reaching out to people who are better and bigger than you

14:19 - What went in the background while recording a podcast?

21:01 - Joining AWS to setting up 100x Fund

23:33 - Building the team at 100xEntrepreneur

27:46 - Our favourite episode so far

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India’s largest Content Marketplace with 1L+ creators, 2500+ customers, out of which 70+ are Unicorns. 

Does that ring any bells? 

We’re talking about Pepper Content, founded by Anirudh Singla, in his 2nd year of undergrad college.

Pepper’s journey started when Anirudh during his college decided to take up freelancing and content creation to fund his graduation all by himself. He then realised the potential of content creators in India and decided to organize it by creating an Indian marketplace for the same. 

In our conversation with Anirudh, we dive into the journey of building and scaling Pepper to $8 Million ARR Content-marketplace in under 5 years and their plans ahead.

Notes - 

03:06 - Baniya-family background, freelance exposure while at college

07:06 - First few steps to building a marketplace

11:06 - Splitting equity early-on

12:46 - Reaching out to 80+ VCs and Angel Investors while raising their 1st round

17:20 - What made them raise their 1st round? 

18:43 - Scaling from $500k ARR to $8 Million ARR in 14 months

21:20 - Client base: 550+ Active customers and 70+ Unicorns

24:20 - Need to focus on a SaaS based approach for Content

26:15 - “Hustle doesn’t scale. By the same time what scale’s is the mindset of thinking big enough!”

28:25 - “Not building a family, but instead building a high quality sports team.”

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