The Neon Show

Today most companies around us follow two approaches to presenting their user data via Ads - 

# Company A - We have 60% of our users coming from Tier-I cities with greater than Rs.50,000 monthly income. 

# Companies like Uber - Rahul & Rashmi, a couple from Gurgaon take an Uber to their office everyday and get a background verified driver, with a well-sanitized car, at an affordable price. 

# Companies like Meesho - Sarah, a housewife from Lucknow wanted to support her family, she started her online store with Meesho and now earns Rs.25000 from home. 

Now which of these companies will you feel more attracted towards? Very like towards Uber & Meesho right, because they showcase real people instead of just numbers.  

Well, this is exactly what the guest of our today’s episode, Roshan Abbas also tries to emphasize upon.

Throughout his career he has focused on being best at storytelling for various brands. As per him, in order to be a good storyteller, you need to wrap your data with a real person’s journey & life experiences, rather than making it less life-like and treating people like Cohort A, B & C.

Roshan has been a radio jockey, theatre actor, TV anchor, writer, director, angel investor & entrepreneur over his career.

He credits this to his attitude to - “Listen, Assimilate & Action”.

During the podcast, he shares with us how he kept successfully surfing across multiple roles throughout his career, how he picks the companies he wants to invest in, and how he enjoys life along with constantly achieving his goals. 

Notes - 

03:23 - Mastering multiple skills; Creators are curious people

05:37 - Scale & opportunities from Radio to Television

06:10 - Identifying the next step

11:21 - “You can’t have every skill, then you hire for the right skill.”

13:17 - Importance of accountability in creativity

17:53 - Being a seller of dreams

22:34 - Be interesting or be interested

26:46 - Building Kommune for young creators

28:56 - Being militant with removing distractions

42:15 - Future & the change in media consumption

48:12 - Importance of having a great hook in storytelling

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During the pandemic & lockdown since last year:
# Initially people weren’t able to visit a doctor personally;
# And, currently both the patient & the doctor try to avoid meeting physically unless it's absolutely necessary

During this period, Telemedicine has grown silently and rapidly, revolutionizing Indian healthcare.

Recent report by EY, has predicted robust growth in the country’s telemedicine (e-consults & e-pharmacy) sector between now and 2025 – at a 31% compound annual growth rate, securing up to $5.5 billion.

And today we have Prasad Kompalli, CEO & Co-founder Mfine, which is acing this tailwind with an over 8x growth in users, and adding 250 hospitals to its platform, taking the total partner hospitals to over 550, in just the initial months of lockdown.

Mfine, which was started in 2017, is enabling doctors to diagnose more number of patients, with higher accuracy, thanks to its AI & ML integrations.

During the podcast, Prasad talks about their learnings of a customer’s journey on product, his view on the future of telemedicine in India and his advice to first-time entrepreneurs entering this sector.

Notes - 

02:23 - Growing up in Vijayawada; Engineering background at family

10:06 - Key learnings from working at Myntra

13:59 - mfine thesis: Power of mobile & healthcare being a data-driven business

16:54 - Current Scale: Monthly transactions & Customer journey

18:36 - Early investments from Stellaris & Prime Venture Partners

29:42 - What worked: Primary care & Digitizing specialist care

32:39 - What didn’t work: You can’t inflate the demand

37:55 - Advice to first-time health care entrepreneur

46:34 - Being a Calm vs Aggressive startup CEO

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How often do you see an entrepreneur’s last employer putting equity in their idea? 

Well, this is exactly what happened with the guest of our today’s episode, Shantanu Deshpande, Founder - Bombay Shaving Company.

In 2015, when Shantanu decided to dominate the men's grooming space and he was quitting his job at McKinsey, then his peer’s and seniors didn’t just allow him to leave but decided to back him up with an initial Seed funding.

Last year when the country went into lockdown, the company’s revenues increased by 3x. One of the interesting driving factors behind this was the women employees at the company. 

Their perspective was very straightforward: 

# Problem Statement: During the lockdown, there was a shortage of women's hair removal products and razors. 

# Opportunity: They were working for a company, which made razors for a living. 

# Solution: These women employees then decided to coordinate with the product designers, test the product on themselves, put in their inputs, and get their own women’s razor out in the market.

With this the Bombay Shaving Company, which earlier had 27% women customers buying their products for the men in their life (i.e. partners, father, brother) as a gifting option, now had 50% orders coming in from women with a major share of them buying women’s hair removal products. 

During the podcast, Shantanu shares with us what other tailwinds he leveraged during last year’s lockdown, how he believes in enabling his investors to partially exit from the brand from time to time, and how he derives the best value from his large institutional investors. 

Notes - 

01:38 - Growing up in Florida (US) and moving back to India

06:50 - Leaving McKinsey & starting Bombay Shaving Company

09:18 - “The richest source of information is a conversation with people who are in it all the time.”

17:13 - Tailwinds which enabled 3x revenue post-lockdown in Mar’20

19:50 - Channel-wise revenue break-up

21:47 - Raising initial seed-round from McKinsey

23:30 - “My belief was always, that we should never raise money to buy revenues, we should always raise money to build a brand.”

26:24 - Core-target metrics since launch

30:02 - 3 Crucial things to winning customers early-on

33:07 - Enabling exits for early Angel investors

39:57 - “Having good organic traffic is a proxy for brand strength.”

44:32 - Deriving best value from financial investors

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# Saffola - Cooking Oil

# Parachute Advansed - Hair Oil

# Nihar Naturals - Hair Oil

# Set Wet - Hair Gel

# Livon Hair Serum and many more... 

You must have seen or used at least one of these names in your house, on TV, or in Newspaper Ad right? 

Do you know what connects all these names? Its Marico Ltd, one of India’s leading consumer products companies operating in the global beauty and wellness space. 

Marico touches the lives of 1 out of every 3 Indians, through its portfolio of brands. 

In today’s episode, we have with us Harsh Mariwala, the man behind building Marico over 30+ years, with a Market Cap. of 68,000cr+ and making it a common name in every Indian home.

During the podcast, he shares with us how he experienced the Ins & Outs of business from childhood at family’s dinner-table discussions and how he joined the family business - Bombay Oil Industries at an early age, and built Marico, a Fortune India 500 company. 

Notes - 

02:02 - “When business topics get discussed in your presence, then even if you may not be able to add value, you’ll get a good understanding of the business.”

04:15 - Early exposure to the brand & business at the age of 20

06:02 - Forming Marico as a separate entity in the 1990s

11:27 - Building the team at Marico

13:50 - “Involvement brings in commitment, and you have to involve people in some organizational issues if you want their commitment.”

17:46 - Thought process behind Brand-Building

19:54 - First taste of success with Parachute & Saffola oil

22:15 - Personal Social Responsibility initiatives by Marico

26:19 - Reduction in entry barriers for consumer brands

27:47 - Levers of growth as an individual

30:11 - Treating your employees as Brand Ambassadors

34:33 - Advice to entrepreneurs to pioneer in their segment

36:11 - Source of learnings: Books & Thought leaders

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In a recent report as per KPMG, “Online gaming industry in India is going to be worth Rs.29,000 crore by FY25.”

Have you heard about Nazara Technologies?

Probably Yes, when its IPO came in March 2021, as it was very well highlighted in the News, being one of the portfolio companies of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

Nazara’s founder and the guest of our today’s episode, Nitish Mittersain probably saw this coming much early, almost 20 years back.

With its IPO, Nazara gave 80%+ as listing gains to its IPO applicants, this reflects how well the Indian stock market has reacted to a gaming company, and also highlights the potential of India’s gaming industry in years to come.

During the podcast, Nitish talks about his journey of building a gaming company in India, when no one believed that gaming as a domain was properly monetizable. 

He also shares how Nazara got listed in NSE & BSE and how it impacts the company's future growth plans.

Notes - 

01:14 - Textile business family background; coding games in BASIC

02:33 - Started Nazara in 1999 while he was 1st year in college

04:27 - 2000 Dot-Com Bubble - “I often say, I did an expensive but enriching MBA, sitting here in Bombay.”

06:54 - Focus on Cash Flows; not chasing vanity metrics

07:13 - Raising funds & Friends of Nazara

07:59 - Acquisition since 2015 - NODWIN Gaming & Nextwave Multimedia among others

08:44 - Synergy between the acquirer & the acquiree company

10:14 - “Over a 20+ years journey gaming always looked like a mirage in the desert.”

13:10 - “Just trying to run a profitable business today may not be good enough.”

14:56 - Advantage of being the only listed gaming company

20:09 - Source of Revenue: In-app purchases vs Advertising

20:51 - What convinced Rakesh Jhunjhunwala to invest?

24:53 - Getting listed in Indian markets being a startup

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Would you dare to create a TEDx version from scratch for the Indian audience
-Right out of college? 
-Without any good-paying job?
-And living on a shoestring budget?

Well, that's the story of Supriya Paul, Co-founder, Josh Talks, and the guest of this week’s episode of 100x Entrepreneur. 

She along with her Co-Founder, Shobhit Banga started Josh Talks in 2015, with a vision to bring access to the right role models for the audience in Tier-II & Tier-III cities. 

She wanted to create an Indian version of TEDx, that could be accessible in multiple regional languages and bring such stories on the platform which could be easily relatable by their Indian youth.

Today Josh Talks has grown leaps and bounds and some of its milestones include -

# 2000+ stories
# 10 vernacular languages

# No-cost career-guidance under Josh Kosh to 500000+ people/month
# 1 Mn+ app installs & 100k+ paid users of their e-learning platform, Josh Skills

During the podcast, Supriya talks about her journey of building and growing Josh Talks over the years and also shares her insights on what keeps her team aligned and focused on delivering their best.

Notes - 

02:18 - Starting Josh Talks straight out of college

05:27 - Revenue growth over time

10:13 - “I think vulnerability & purity in storytelling is what has gotten us this far.”

11:52 - What works on YouTube: Consistency, Authenticity, & Packing as per its algorithm

14:55 - Moments of self-doubt

20:11 - Core metrics for Josh: Talks, Skills & Kosh

24:12 - Business targets over the next 2-3 years

25:23 - Hiring & retaining quality talent

26:01 - All You Need is Josh: Inspiring Stories of Courage and Conviction in 21st Century India

27:58 - Defining work-culture & core values at Josh Talks

29:25 - Strengths & weakness of both the co-founders

31:26 - Connecting with Ankur Warikoo as Mentor & Investor

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Have you ever heard about Infotel Broadband Services Limited (IBSL)? 

Even if you haven’t, I’m very much sure that you can’t deny that you don’t know its current rebranded form. 

I’ll give you a hint; this company currently has the largest market share in terms of wireless subscribers (i.e. telecom) in India, even greater than Airtel. 

Yes, you’ve got it right, it's Jio. 

Before getting rebranded as Jio, the original company IBSL, was the only company that won broadband spectrum in all 22 circles in India in the 4G auction in 2010.

And later that year Reliance Industries acquired the company. 

After Jio’s official launch in September 2016, it gained the first 50 million customers in just 83 days of launch and currently has an overall subscriber base of 414.9 million customers. 

“That’s the Reliance way of doing things”, quoted by Farooq Adam, during the podcast. 

What he means is that at Reliance, just the sheer scale at which they launch and operate their product and make their marketing strategy, ensures the success of the product.

And when Reliance approached him in 2019 after he had raised the Series-C led by Google, this is exactly what convinced him to combine Fynd with Reliance and support the rollout of JioMart.

During the podcast, Farooq talks about the early days at Shopsense (rebranded as Fynd), getting rejected by investors during the first round, and his experience being an Angel Investor. 

Notes - 

01:18 - Early childhood in Kuwait; getting into IIT Bombay 

05:01 - Initial stint with Adsale; adding another sale by recommendations & coupons

10:12 - Visiting Diesel (clothing store) on Juhu Tara Road (Mumbai)

14:58 - Problem statements solved by Shopsense

17:24 - Getting benchmarked against Capillary Technologies by investors

22:40 - Rebranding Shopsense as Fynd to cater to hyperlocal marketplace

31:26 - “How & when you collect your NPS is very interesting.”

32:08 - Acquired by Reliance after getting Google-led Series-C funding

51:39 - Experience as an Angel investor

52:10 - Co-investing with First Cheque VC

57:47 - Advice to his portfolio companies

59:44 - Book recommendations for founders

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Venture debt was introduced in India 15 years ago. However, it has gained traction in the last decade.

In the last 6 years itself, approximately $4 bn of debt has been deployed across 150+ deals in India. 

But, not very often you come across an investor talking proactively about both debt & equity investments in the startup ecosystem! 

That’s why in this episode we’ve brought Ashvin Chadha from Anicut Capital. 

During the podcast, Ashvin talks about the various debt funding deals he came across at Anicut, and while he considers debt funding to be lucrative over equity investments over a short period, but for people who are willing to stay invested for over 10-15 years, he points out how we are in the golden age of early-stage investing.

He also talks about how a lot of VCs in the Indian Startup ecosystem are already getting 100x returns on their equity investments, we shouldn’t be surprised to see 1000x returns becoming normal in years to come.

Notes - 

01:56 - Setting up Anicut Capital

03:24 - Initial equity & debt investments

04:51 - Structuring debt investments by setting up an AIF in 2015

06:04 - Investing in Sharechat during an internal bridge round

09:19 - Exits & thesis with debt investments

10:52 - “In my view it takes 10-15 years to build brands in India and if you don’t stay the course, your compounding doesn’t happen.”

13:55 - Parameters & mental models while making equity investments

15:56 - Learnings from portfolio companies hitting a roadblock

24:12 - “We are in the golden age of early stage investing.”

26:56 - “A good company will last even in a bad market.”

27:07 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Bira 91

30:51 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Wingreen Farms

42:02 - Backstory & thesis of investing in Neemans

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“We don’t think of ourselves as fund managers. The fund manager is someone managing 100s of millions of dollars, your job is largely doing money management. 

Our job is not to do money management, our job is to look at the new trends, try to meet the smartest of the smartest guys, and somehow try to convince them to take out money, and be a good part of the ecosystem and make other good people within the ecosystem come and talk to us.”

Can you ever imagine someone who has been an NGO worker for a long time, suddenly switch careers and;
# Setting up a VC firm
# Raising $120.9M+
# Investing in 102+ companies
# Getting 11 exits

Well, that's the story of Madhukar Sinha, Co-founder, India Quotient, and the guest of this week’s episode.

Most of us get comfortable in our jobs post the age of 30, let alone the thought of setting up a VC firm. But that’s exactly what Madhukar, along with his Co-founder Anand Lunia did, back in 2012.

During the podcast, Madhukar talks about his first experience with 3G, how he didn’t let his NGO background limit his career choices, and much more. 

Notes - 

01:12 - Early life: Growing up in Jamshedpur to working in NGO

06:14 - Understanding what India really is, not only in metros, but in terms of Tier-II & Tier-III cities

06:47 - NGO background stereotyping & limiting his career choices

07:12 - Completing his MBA and joining Aavishkaar

10:55 - Experiencing the potential of smartphones after getting his first 3G phone in 2011

12:32 - Co-founding India Quotient in 2012; at the age of 35

15:51 - Being more of Entrepreneur, less of Fund manager

26:18 - Not continuing what you aren’t comfortable with

32:35 - Making investment decision for early stage companies

43:05 - Talking about portfolio companies - Sharechat, Lokal & BharatAgri

50:28 - Fund return expectation in 5+ year period

57:54 - First Cheque: Investing in unique ideas that don’t directly match India Quotient’s thesis

1:02:34 - Getting personalised deal flow via founders of portfolio companies

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“Financial independence is nothing but freedom of thought, freedom of action, and I think that’s invaluable. If you have to constantly work in your life to live, then you’ll have all sorts of restrictions.” - quoted by Paras during the podcast.

The term “Financial independence” has gained more popularity in Google searches (i.e. Google Trends) post-2020, and we all know why that is.

When Covid-19 got widespread last year & brought chaos and anxiety in our lives, then a lot of people experienced job losses, business-shutdowns, which as a ripple effect lead to non-payment of loans, and monetary crisis. This represents making the wrong decisions with choosing where to spend your money.

During this period, there was another set of people who were able to save more as a result of working from home (i.e their native place) and not having to pay regular expenses like - house rent (of living in a metro city), groceries, commuting costs, etc. 

And if you’re wondering, what did most of these people choose to do with their savings?

As per CNBC’s recent article -”15% of current retail stock investors began investing in 2020.”

Probably because as per Paras, “For most people, the way to becoming financially independent, is to hit a jackpot or lottery.”

During the podcast, Paras talks about the money-related choices he made early on in his life. And he doesn’t hesitate to openly talking about the bad choices he made while making his investments and warns our listeners to be cautious of the same. 

At the same time, he also recommends how one can educate himself/herself in the right way to build a mindset for achieving financial independence.

Notes - 

02:09 - Meaning of “True Wealth” for him

05:15 - “Money creation is obviously not a trivial thing. It requires a non-trivial amount of commitment, intellect, passion, and so on and so forth.” 

05:40 - Wingify: 4th attempt of trying to build a startup

06:59 - “If money was a primary motivator, I imagine, I would have gone ahead and we would have raised some funding, but we didn’t.”

10:15 - His definition of financial wealth 

13:29 - #1 mistake in investing: Real estate

15:31 - “Chasing safe assets like FD early on is a big mistake.”

18:34 - Having 70-80% asset in equity markets

22:56 - “Diversification is the only free lunch, in finance.”

24:02 - Advice to a 25-year-old on “spending wisely”

26:31 - “If you have to constantly work in your life to live, then you’ll have all sorts of restrictions.”

27:55 - ULIPs: “The more complex something sounds, the riskier it is.”

31:23 - Investing in Index funds

34:37 - His ideal investment: being passive, no speculation, & growing faster than inflation

35:50 - Treasure to read: Warren Buffett's Annual Letters

37:17 - Focusing on what new to do at Wingify

39:59 - Following Deep work principle

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