The Neon Show

"The world is going through one of the worst recessions, and you plan on starting a Travel venture. You must be out of your mind!"

This was precisely the reaction of everyone around Prashant Pitti, the guest of today's episode, and his co-founders when they decided to launch EaseMyTrip during the 2008 Recession.

In fact, when they approached a few VCs during their early days to pitch for an investment, they received multiple preset filters and nuances -

# A B2B travel venture won't grow big enough

# You're late; there are so many travel startups already

However, proving everyone wrong, they've grown leaps and bounds since inception, so much so that they were one of the first internet companies to go public during Covid.

During the episode, Prashant talks about how they are thankful for not being VC-funded, some of the tough calls they took during their journey, which propelled their growth, and much more.

Notes - 

01:02 - Starting a travel venture during recession

02:52 - Problem statement solved by EaseMyTrip for Travel Agents

05:49 - Impact on growth because of not charging “Convenience Fees”

07:44 - Being extremely efficient and disciplined as a company

13:41 - Decision behind going public

16:59 - How did EaseMyTrip remain profitable even during Covid?

25:31 - Why does EaseMyTrip prefer hiring Non-IITians?

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4.03 billion people!

That’s the most recent reported number of email users worldwide. No platform even comes close to the potential reach of email. The latest Facebook statistics give them over 2.8 billion monthly active users.

As of today there are almost 1 billion and 700 thousand active users of Gmail, being of the most popular email service providers. But it was launched on 1 April 2004. Prior to Gmail, the tech trend of that era was Hotmail, and if you had a Hotmail account, that was something worth showing-off. 

Founded in 1996, by the guest of our today’s episode Sabeer Bhatia and his co-founder Jack Smith, Hotmail was the world's first web-based email when it launched.

Back then, they sold it two years later to Microsoft for an estimated $400m. Since then Sabeer, became the face of tech entrepreneurship, and has been inspiring generations.

Recently last year, in 2020, he’s back with an idea, which might lead to another tech revolution, named ShowReel. Consider this as a short-video version of Linkedin, where your profile, all your posts, and feed will have just videos. 

During the episode, Sabeer talks about his vision with Hotmail, what are his current plans with Showreel, what all founders can learn from his entrepreneurship journey and much more.

Notes - 

01:02 - Right timing as an entrepreneur

03:06 - What led to Hotmail’s acquisition?

09:55 - His journey as an entrepreneur & investor post acquisition

11:27 - Problem statements being solved by ShowReel

17:21 - His opinion about Web 3.0

23:47 - “Only crazy entrepreneurs change the world.”

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A founder’s role is challenging, requiring expertise in multiple enterprises. From funding to hiring, it is entirely the onus of the founder to convert visions into reality. 

In today’s episode, we’ve brought Sameer Guglani, Founder of Supermorpheus, a Community-driven seed investing platform, to simplify the founder’s role and expand it beyond finance to foster the entire Startup team’s well being. Supermorpheus (the evolution of Morpheus) is a curated global community of founders and folks in the startup space focussing on consciousness-driven creation of Startups and wealth with 350+ founders and 40+ investments.  

During this episode, Sameer talks about how startups need to focus on integral growth, optimizing startups for the long run, and prioritizing excellence over the competition. 

Notes:

3:12 Birth of Supermorpheus
29:12 Fundamental Changes in the Indian Startup Ecosystem
33:00 Role of Financial freedom in Sameer's Journey
38:49 Time spent on self-development
43:17 Similar Patterns observed among founders

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A notion amongst most Indian SaaS entrepreneurs is to move to the US to expand or start from the US from Day 1 itself.

However, in today's episode, we've brought Anand Jain, Co-founder of CleverTap, to debunk this myth and shed more light on what an early-stage SaaS founder's roadmap should be in terms of either staying in India or moving to any global market.

CleverTap is a leading customer engagement and retention platform, trusted by over 10,000 apps, including Gojek, AirAsia, Sony, Vodafone, Carousell, and Cleartrip.

During the episode, Anand talks about how a company needs to adopt new market plans to continue growing one milestone after another, his learnings early-stage SaaS entrepreneurs can consider in their journey, and much more.

Notes - 

00:55 - Founding CleverTap

06:57 - $45 Mn ARR and customer growth Y-o-Y

10:43 - “What got you to 45 will not get you 100.”

16:55 - Is moving to the US to expand as a SaaS company necessary?

24:03 - 3 Key points in his $1 Mn to $10 Mn ARR Playbook

27:10 - Mistakes in his journey building CleverTap

40:10 - Game Plan to market your product in newer markets and different ARR levels

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With so many Indian startups achieving unicorn status in 2021, the situation begs an answer to the question:  

# Is this growth sustainable or are we in a bubble?

# What does this mean for foreign and Indian investors? 

#What does this mean for the next decade of VC and Startups? 

To understand this better, in today’s episode, we’ve brought Anjali Bansal, founder of Avaana Capital, that invests in innovation-led start-ups creating sustainability and impact at scale while delivering outsized returns. 

Previously, Anjali has been Global Partner and MD with TPG Growth PE and a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Co. in New York. She’s also the former non-executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, where she successfully led the resolution of the stressed bank.

She has invested in and regularly mentors various successful start-ups including Delhivery, Nykaa, Alpha Vector, Lenskart, Urban Company, Darwinbox, Coverfox and FarMart.

She is closely associated with NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform and Digital Solutions and is on the Expert Advisory Committee for the Start Up India Seed Fund Scheme.

 She has been appointed as President, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and serves as an independent director on several leading boards including Tata Power, Kotak AMC, and Piramal Enterprises.

During the episode, Anjali talks about the volatility in the Indian startup ecosystem, the opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors; she also shares learnings from her portfolio and much more.

Notes - 

00:40 - Intro and background

02:55 - Working at ISRO and early career

04:59 - Ideology behind Avaana Capital

08:22 - Is the Indian startup ecosystem in a bubble?

17:21 - Common patterns and learnings from the winners

20:50 - Mistake: Investing in the idea and not the team

22:44 - Ability to move quickly as a fund

34:49 - Learnings from early-career at Mckinsey

36:29 - Potential in Indian startups

41:01 - What all she prefers to read on a daily basis

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# What is Financial Independence? 

# Does everybody need precisely 10 crore to be happy? 

# Is the process of “Wealth Creation = Cutting out on all your wants & desires completely”?

For the past 2 years, it seems like everyone around us is investing either in stocks or crypto and also making generous profits. 

And you too are probably thinking to jump in right? After all - 

# Markets are at an all-time high 

# Crypto is “The New Thing” and you don’t want to miss out

Well, just wait for a moment, before you begin, in today’s episode we’ve brought Deepak Shenoy, Founder and CEO at Capitalmind (SEBI registered - Portfolio Manager). 

During the episode, Deepak will help you have the right mindset to begin your investment journey, what to and what not to expect off your investments, and how to evaluate an investment opportunity much more.

Notes - 

01:40 - Beginning of his investing journey

04:33 - Where would your 1st crore of wealth come from? 

07:17 - Behavioural changes in growing from 1 to 10 crore wealth

10:29 - True definition of financial independence

14:20 - Are emotional buying decisions hindrances in wealth creation?

24:13 - Has investing become mainstream in 2021?

33:30 - How to find under-valued investment opportunities?

41:43 - His upcoming book “MONEY WISE: Timeless Lessons on Building Wealth”

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Diwali just got over, and following the fatal trend of smog in the nation's capital for the past five years, it is here again.

It is alarming to recognize that India is home to 7 of the top 10 cities globally, notorious for its air pollution levels.

With increasing incomes, more and more people can afford cars, increasing the severity of the already worse air pollution scenario due to fossil fuels.

All this emphasizes the need for greener transportation alternatives. 

Despite the bad news, we have several large companies and startups leading the way to clean modes of travel, be it the prominent players like Tata Motors, MG, and Hyundai or the startups like Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Yulu, and Blu Smart, among others.

In today's episode, we've brought Arpit Agarwal, Director at Blume Ventures, to talk about the current scenario of EV startups in India. 

During the episode, Arpit talks about the various challenges and opportunities for EVs in India, some of Blume's portfolio companies, how they contribute to India's EVs revolution, and much more.

Notes - 

02:40 - Future of EVs in general

06:01 - Adoption by TCO positive segments

07:25 - 5-year use case of an electric scooter

10:13 - Key challenge in EV market

17:22 - Challenge with charging stations

24:30 - Opportunities for EV in India under various sub-segments

32:53 - Large players engaging with the EV ecosystem

34:12 - Funding & duration of developing an EV from scratch

37:28 - Future of mobility C.A.S.E.

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"Don't be afraid of failure. Always optimize for success, but be prepared for failure." - Ashish Singhal.

In today's episode, we've brought Ashish Singhal, Founder & CEO of CoinSwitch, to talk about their journey globally and how they're shaping the narrative around crypto in India. 

Recently, CoinSwitch, caught people's attention when they used the entire front page of The Times of India to simply wish Happy Diwali, bringing back the pure festive joy, instead of bombarding users with bumper-sized Ads and unrealistic offers like 100% cashback and more.

CoinSwitch currently has more than 13 million+ users, with more than 55% of their users coming from Tier 2 and 3 cities.

Last month, they raised over $260 million in its Series C funding round from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, and existing investors. With this, American venture capital firm a16z made its first investment in an Indian unicorn.

During the episode, Ashish talks about the problem-statement CoinSwitch is after, how they are giving an initial flavor of crypto to first-time investors with referrals, and much more.

Notes - 

01:40 - Background prior to CoinSwitch

05:33 - Hackathons and starting CoinSwitch

08:39 - Growing globally and launching in India

12:17 - Choosing the right investors for their journey

15:49 - Success of the pre-launch campaign in India

17:19 - Simplifying the crypto-investing experience

29:57 - Current scale on platform

33:14 - “Users always come first, business comes second.”

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As per a recent article by Economic Times - “Early stage investing is at an all-time high in post-pandemic India with the country averaging one seed round a day this year.”

As of Sept, so far over 240+ companies have secured their first funding in 2021 v/s 302 companies in 2020, and 257 in 2019, and with a few more months remaining, this number is expected to cross last year’s benchmark. 

In today’s episode we’ve brought Kushal Bagia, CEO of FirstCheque, to talk about the current scenario of early-stage funding in India. 

So far with their first fund, they’ve done over 100+ deals, and some of the well know portfolio companies are Giva, Kaagaz, Able Jobs, and Mailmodo among others.

During the episode, Kushal talks about the influx in pre-seed investing post the pandemic, how they’ve created a moat for themselves and much more.

Notes - 

01:19 - Background prior to FirstCheque

03:00 - Various domains where they’ve invested

05:35 - Performance of the companies from Fund-I

07:48 - Change in valuations in early-stage funding

13:18 - Top performing portfolio companies

16:50 - FirstCheque’s edge in early-stage investing

25:49 - Value addition by FirstCheque to founders

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During and post the pandemic, several sectors have seen a dramatic rise in customers & sales, specially the ones which were ready to embrace the new change and leverage the new opportunity of everything going online and remote. 

With 2021 being the most prominent year for Indian startups achieving unicorn status, Edtech isn’t left behind. 

In today’s episode we’ve brought Vamsi Krishna, CEO and Co-founder of Vedantu, India’s 5th and most recent Edtech startup to become a unicorn.

Prior to starting Vedantu, Vamsi, and his team had prior experience in offline education with their venture - Lakshya Institute. This definitely helped them with a lot of learnings and the initial groundwork for building Vedantu.

During the episode, Vamsi talks about the Vedantu’s role being an early entrant and being a category creator, how they’ve built and leveraged organic growth over the years and much more.

Notes - 

02:29 - Co-founding and running Lakshya Institute for over 8 years

05:28 - Pivoting from offline to online and starting Vedantu

08:50 - Prior to scaling, first validate if the solution works

14:47 - Revenue milestones

18:49 - Conscious considerations while building new features

22:41 - 3 Verticals at Vedantu

24:10 - Focusing on Organic vs Paid Acquisition

26:22 - Importance of referrals in Edtech

30:19 - Advice to first time entrepreneurs

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