The Neon Show

By Siddhartha AhluwaliaBusiness Entrepreneurship

The Neon Show episodes

January 17, 2021 Inside the mind of Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder, Snapdeal & Titan Capital
Our guest for the 100th episode of 100x Entrepreneur Kunal Bahl is best known as the co-founder of Snapdeal & Titan Capital.

He co-founded Snapdeal back in 2007 along with his high school friend Rohit Bansal. It initially started as a daily deals platform but soon expanded to become one of the largest online marketplaces in India.

Over the years, Kunal has mentored and invested in several early-stage entrepreneurs. In 2011, he decided to formalize it by setting up Titan Capital. Titan Capital has invested in the likes of Ola, Urban Company, Mamaearth, and Bira among others.

In this episode, catch Kunal talking about starting Snapdeal, guiding and investing in early-stage founders, having the drive to keep going as an entrepreneur, and much more.

For anyone looking to explore entrepreneurship, this conversation is worth its weight in gold. From learning from your own mistakes & failures to keep going even when you want to give up your entrepreneurial dream, this podcast will guide you through it all.

Notes -
01:43 - Launching Snapdeal after getting H1-B Visa rejected
03:59 - Pivoting from coupons marketplace to a marketplace for physical products
05:17 - “Identifying the type of businesses Rohit and I like to build”
12:01 - Why not fearing being wrong/failing is important
13:29 - “Our greatest powers will come from our greatest wounds”
15:04 - What drives Kunal even after 13 years as an entrepreneur
18:29 - Tectonic shifts in the Startup ecosystem over the last decade
26:42 - Investing in D2C companies; Beardo, Mamaearth, & OZiva, etc
39:02 - Investing in Urban Company based on their customer-first approach
43:32 - Investing in companies prior to Product-Market Fit
51:48 - Starting up as an Angel Investor and eventually setting up Titan Capital
56:59 - What has changed for Kunal after becoming a parent

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1 hr 3 min
January 11, 2021 Kunal Kapoor on building Ketto, the largest Crowdsourcing platform in India
Kunal Kapoor is someone who dons many hats - an actor, director, and entrepreneur. Some of the well-known movies he has been a part of - Rang De Basanti, Don 2, and Dear Zindagi among others.
In 2012, he joined hands with Varun Sheth & Zaheer Adenwala with a mission to create a change in society and connect people to access healthcare and share happiness and co-founded Ketto.
Over the years, Ketto has emerged as Asia's most trusted crowdfunding platform with a network of over 55 lakh donors who have funded around 2 lakh, online fundraisers. So Ketto as a platform has successfully raised over ₹1100 crore in online donations since its debut in 2012.
In this episode, catch Kunal talking about becoming an entrepreneur, what’s it like running an online crowd-funding platform, gaining the trust of investors in the vision, and much more.
To anyone looking to get into the crowdfunding space, this conversation is a great place to start. From making the right use of technology to building a sustainable business model for investors, this podcast will guide you through all.

Notes -
01:30 - Intro of Kunal Kapoor & Ketto
02:16 - Becoming an Entrepreneur & Co-founding Ketto
03:27 - Democratization of Capital
04:12 - Initial challenges with Ketto
05:17 - Building an online presence for NGOs
09:41 - Future plans at Ketto around medical & health services
12:15 - Ketto’s impact during the pandemic
14:20 - Business model at Ketto (As a Profit venture)
16:46 - “Building a tech company is like bodybuilding, but building a tech company with a celebrity is like bodybuilding on steroids.”
18:47 - Growth & Scaling-up plans at Ketto
23:24 - Essential mental models for Kunal as an entrepreneur
25:31 - “Whether it’s acting or entrepreneurship, it’s not as glamorous as it looks.”

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27 min
January 03, 2021 Inside the mind of Krishna Kumar, Founder, CropIn- the largest Agritech SaaS startup of India
In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we chat with Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO, CropIn Technology- a leading "Full-Stack AgTech" organization that provides SaaS-based solutions to agribusinesses globally. CropIn serves 220+ agribusinesses and numerous governments and non-government organizations present in over 52 countries. CropIn has digitized over 5 million acres of farmland, enriched the lives of nearly 2.1 million farmers, and gathered data on 265 crops and 3,500 crop varieties. In this episode, Krishna shares his journey of being the change-maker and being one of the first entrepreneurs to step into Agritech in India.Listen to this podcast to learn about:01:57 - Intro of Krishna & his journey04:08 - Interacting with farmers and key-stakeholders within the Agri-Ecosystem05:10 - Identifying the problem statement06:43 - Building the team at CropIn10:30 - First project with Safal- a subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board15:12 - Pooling initial $10k from his friends19:50 - Scaling up from first few clients to going global in 52 countries28:56 - Enabling banking ecosystem for lending & insurance for farmers34:55 - Tech Products & offerings from CropIn for farmers42:49 - Leveraging AI to transforming agriculture at scale45:15 - Potential for upcoming Agritech startups in India47:18 - Adoption of Agritech offerings by Enterprises
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53 min
December 28, 2020 Shailesh Ghorpade on Exfinity's journey to partner with the best SaaS startups of India
In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we chat with Shailesh Ghorpade, Managing Partner and CIO, Exfinity Venture PartnersThroughout the podcast, Shailesh shares his deep understanding of the SaaS startups building for Enterprises from his close to two decades of experience working at Infosys, Suzlon & Azure Capital, and others.02:31 - Intro of Shailesh03:25 - Background in the VC ecosystem06:07 - Major milestones at Exfinity Venture Partners08:36 - Fund growth over-time & thesis change09:50 - Investing early-on in AI startups like Mad Street Den13:29 - Identifying Mega-trends while looking out for potential portfolio companies17:33 - Differentiating factor between top portfolio companies vs other portfolio companies funded around the same time19:59 - Essential fundamentals to get from 0 to $1Mn ARR early-on22:52 - Standing out amongst thousands of SaaS businesses in India25:47 - Approaching Enterprises to validate problem statements as a SaaS founder35:23 - Challenges restricting founders in between $1Mn to $10Mn ARR39:50 - India market not completely ready for SaaS offerings48:39 - Hiring the right people for Enterprise SaaS startups59:55 - Book Recommendation - Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
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1 hr 1 min
December 20, 2020 Pranav Pai, Founding Partner, 3one4 Capital on making unconventional bets
In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Pranav Pai. He early on in his career implemented learnings from his father’s (Mohandas Pai) in his work and curated new approaches to finding horizontal & uncommon investment ideas. Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:11 - Intro of Pranav & 3one4 Capital01:50 - Influence of upbringing and early career choices05:25 - Background and setting up of Aarin Capital by Mohandas Pai08:17 - Learnings & practices at 3one4 Capital, inspired from Aarin Capital17:25 - Balancing the Venture fund performance & relationship with LPs18:33 - Investing early-on in uncommon ideas like - Licious & Yulu22:17 - Investing in horizontal businesses like Darwinbox27:48 - Fund-III - Lookout for New format for Indian digital citizens29:12 - Changes in Fund-III - More variance & verticals35:42 - “Not enough Indian capital is available for Indian funds to raise.” 38:21 - Top 3 advice from his father - T.V. Mohandas Pai
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45 min
December 14, 2020 Making a crisis work for you with Sanjay Swamy & T. N. Hari
In this special episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we have Sanjay Swamy & T.N. Hari with us who were once best friends in School. After many years, they reunited again to write a book - “Sailing Through a Storm: Making a Crisis Work for You”.Sanjay Swamy is the Founding Managing Partner of Prime Venture Partners. Sanjay who also co-founded ZipDial and EzeTap is known for his sense of humour and his impeccable expertise over fintech.T. N. Hari is the Chief People Officer at BigBasket. Hari is an advisor and mentor to numerous young entrepreneurs and startups. He is also a Strategic Advisor at Fundamentum, a growth Fund, co-founded by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal.Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:31 - Intro of Sanjay and Hari01:52 - Background story of their friendship03:28 - Idea of writing a book together06:43 - “Socially nobody likes to talks about things which are not going well” - Sanjay Swamy07:31 - Biggest crisis faced in personal lives24:07 - Experiences/Lessons from the crises37:49 - Leadership traits a person must possess to make a crisis work
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45 min
December 06, 2020 Inside the mind of Ashwini Asokan, Founder & CEO, Mad Street Den
In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Ashwini Asokan, Founder & CEO, Mad Street Den. During the conversation, Ashwini shares how she built the processes for scale while building the team, delivering the best value prop to customers, and more.Listen to this podcast to learn about:00:59 - Serendipity, luck, or intent? What initiated her journey in the creative field of AI?03:11 - Influence of Carnegie Mellon University on her career05:16 - Initial days of Mad Street Den07:51 - Challenges while building an AI startup in India08:08 - Building Vue.ai after 3 years of deep-research11:42 - Essence of storytelling in positioning their offerings14:28 - Building the team to scale to $1 Mn ARR24:32 - Getting Sequoia India, Exfinity, GrowX, and FalconEdge on board27:41 - Building processes to reach from $1 Mn to $10 Mn ARR35:31 - Learnings/Advice to early-stage SaaS founders38:18 - Early-stage founders comparing their journey vs some other founders’46:19 - Has her “Why” behind starting Mad Street Den changed during her journey?
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51 min
November 29, 2020 Beerud Sheth on building Elance (now Upwork) & Gupshup
“Always make more mistakes but make sure to recover quickly & learn from them.”In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Beerud Sheth, Founder and CEO of Gupshup, the leading smart messaging platform. He previously founded Elance (now Upwork), which pioneered the gig economy and went IPO in 2018.Throughout the podcast, Beerud shares his experience of over 22 years as an Entrepreneur building Elance and Gupshup.Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:30 - His journey from IIT Bombay & MIT to founding Elance & Gupshup05:21 - Transitioning from a Wall-Street trader to an entrepreneur07:55 - How did the idea of Elance come up?10:02 - Key pivotal moments during his early days of entrepreneurship13:57 - Scale at which Upwork was operating when he left & why did he leave?22:56 - How did the idea of Gupshup come up?26:50 - Growing Gupshup to $100 Million ARR and plans of taking it to IPO30:41 - Highlights of the recent partnership with WhatsApp Business45:09 - Grit, perseverance & mental fortitude necessary for an entrepreneur47:23 - Learnings from his mistakes from over 22 years as an entrepreneur49:33 - Looking at resume value vs other soft-attributes while hiring
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54 min
November 22, 2020 Inside the mind of Shripriya Mahesh, Founding Partner, Spero Ventures
In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Shripriya Mahesh from growing up in Madras (India) to working with eBay & Omidyar Network, making Films, battling cancer while founding Spero Ventures.Prior to Spero Ventures, she led Emerging Tech investing at Omidyar Network. Shripriya has been an active angel investor in, and board member or advisor to, private technology companies throughout her career. Shripriya formerly held several leadership roles at eBay including as Vice President of Product Marketing (US, revenue), and as Vice President of Global Product Management. Shripriya has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MFA in Film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a B.A. in Economics from Stella Maris College, Madras University.Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:58 - From growing up in India in the early 90s to moving to the US02:50 - Doing MBA from HBS & moving to Bay Area09:26 - After eBay what prompted her to move to NYC to do a film-making Course?15:47 - Joining Omidyar Network and later starting Spero Ventures21:39 - Investing in mission-driven founders23:44 - Battling cancer and building Spero Ventures29:09 - “How technology is designed/biased towards the mainstream audience”.30:51 - Building empathy in technology36:53 - “The mission & business model of a company needs to be perfectly aligned”.37:58 - Her perspective of Gen-Z’s mission-driven attitude to make the world a better place
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45 min
November 15, 2020 Inside the mind of Jay Vijayan, Founder & CEO, Tekion, Ex-CIO, Tesla
In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through Jay Vijayan’s journey from working with Tesla, VMware, Oracle to building a Billion Dollar Company, Tekion. Tekion has raised $150 million as part of its Series C financing led by private equity firm Advent International, at over $1 billion valuation.Jay’s insights which we discuss during the podcast are on -Notes - 00:58 - From working at Oracle, VMware, & Tesla to Founding Tekion 05:21 - From bootstrapping to getting VC funding10:25 - Thoughts on Founder & VC alignment13:40 - Challenges for startups in the Automotive retail industry16:13 - Building a single platform for OEMs, dealers & customers22:25 - Getting General Motors, Nissan–Mitsubishi, FM Capital, Exor (Fiat Chrysler, Ferrari) on Tekion’s cap table24:02 - Developing end-to-end solution for Mid-Small Dealers - Automotive Retail Cloud31:08 - ARR growth42:19 - Creating transparency for customers while buying a new car49:52 - “Life is a never-ending journey of learnings”.54:58 - What has always stopped him from settling down?58:19 - “When an egg-shell break from within - Life begins, but when it breaks from outside - Life ends.”- Jay’s philosophy on continuously pushing himself 1:03:25 - What made Elon Musk approach Jay twice in a span of 12 months for the CIO role at Tesla1:14:17 - What core things he learned from working with Elon at Tesla?
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1 hr 26 min

About The Neon Show

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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start…

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