The Startup Operator

To learn more about the nuances of early-stage startup investing, we have with us today Prayank Swaroop, a Partner at Accel, who invests in B2B, Consumer Brands, and Fintech. He has invested in multiple startups solving problems specifically for Indian Businesses across sectors.  He focuses on cybersecurity, developer tools, marketplaces, and SaaS investments. Some of the investments led by him are - Aavenir, Bizongo, Maverix, OnsiteGo, Securden, Sintel, Skeps, and Zetwerk.  

Prior to Accel, he worked at Adobe and Standard Chartered Bank in India and Singapore. He held positions across engineering, product marketing, pre-sales, and product management.  

In this episode, we talk about - 

- How has early-stage investing changed? (02:35) 

- Entrepreneurship as a career choice (05:45) 

- Attracting top entrepreneurs (09:10) 

- Mentoring entrepreneurs (12:12) 

- Institutionalising knowledge (15:56) 

- Identifying the right partners (19:23) - Overcoming challenges (27:53) 

- Tackling small market sizes (32:43) 

- Prayank's investment thesis (43:15) 

- SaaS wave in India (48:44) 

- SaaS Valuations (52:12) 

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Found this episode informative? Let us know by hitting the like button & subscribing to our podcast. You can also Tweet or DM us on - 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator

Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup 

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss - 

👉🏽 Hot takes and news from the week that was in the Startup world

👉🏽 India’s first satellite from a Startup 

👉🏽 PM's message to India's Startup founders ​and more...

Enjoy the week's summary with a cuppa as Roshan & Gunjan talk about,

- Top funding deals of the week: Zomentum, Ally.io, Zolve, & KreditBee

- Freshworks Co-Founder starts a new venture fund for SaaS

- Unacademy's acquisition of Tapchief to launch Unacademy Pro

- Shaping India's Digital Future: PM's addresses at NASSCOM's Technology & Leadership Forum

- Pixxel's upcoming satellite launch

- Pawri @ Webengage

Hit the like button on the right if enjoyed this roundup, and do not forget to share among your operator friends! Subscribe to The Startup Operator Podcast for regular interviews and conversations with investors, operators, and founders on your favourite podcast platforms.

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss - 

👉🏽 Hot takes and news from the week that was in the Startup world

👉🏽 India’s first satellite from a Startup 

👉🏽 PM's message to India's Startup founders ​and more...

Enjoy the week's summary with a cuppa as Roshan & Gunjan talk about,

- Top funding deals of the week: Zomentum, Ally.io, Zolve, & KreditBee

- Freshworks Co-Founder starts a new venture fund for SaaS

- Unacademy's acquisition of Tapchief to launch Unacademy Pro

- Shaping India's Digital Future: PM's addresses at NASSCOM's Technology & Leadership Forum

- Pixxel's upcoming satellite launch

- Pawri @ Webengage

Hit the like button on the right if enjoyed this roundup, and do not forget to share among your operator friends! Subscribe to The Startup Operator Podcast for regular interviews and conversations with investors, operators, and founders on your favourite podcast platforms.

Meesho is India's largest social commerce platform, on a mission to enable anyone to start their businesses with zero investment. Our entrepreneurs largely comprise housewives (between 25-45) from middle-income households and/or tier 2+ India.

Chetan leads Meesho’s engineering vertical as the Vice President. A Stanford graduate, Chetan has held multiple engineering roles at the likes of Qualcomm Flipkart, and Circle.ai.

In the first episode of The Startup Operator Manager Series, Roshan is joined by Augustus D’Souza, Founder & CEO of Clergo, to have a chat with Chetan on -

02:20 - His journey so far 

04:09 - Engineering at Meesho 

10:54 - Product & Engineering overlaps 

15:45 - Balancing product roadmap in e-commerce  

18:27 - Hiring & onboarding engineers with domain expertise 

23:43 - What makes a good engineer? 

26:24 -  Focusing on quality 

31:06 - Evaluating the right-fit engineer  

35:19 - Transitioning from an engineer to an engineering leader 

40:22 - Biggest challenges 

42:57 - Remote operations

Connect with Chetan -

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetan-kalyan

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Found this episode informative? Let us know by hitting the like button & subscribing to our channel. You can also Tweet or DM us on -

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator

Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup

Meesho is India's largest social commerce platform, on a mission to enable anyone to start their businesses with zero investment. Our entrepreneurs largely comprise housewives (between 25-45) from middle-income households and/or tier 2+ India.

Chetan leads Meesho’s engineering vertical as the Vice President. A Stanford graduate, Chetan has held multiple engineering roles at the likes of Qualcomm Flipkart, and Circle.ai.

In the first episode of The Startup Operator Manager Series, Roshan is joined by Augustus D’Souza, Founder & CEO of Clergo, to have a chat with Chetan on -

02:20 - His journey so far 

04:09 - Engineering at Meesho 

10:54 - Product & Engineering overlaps 

15:45 - Balancing product roadmap in e-commerce  

18:27 - Hiring & onboarding engineers with domain expertise 

23:43 - What makes a good engineer? 

26:24 -  Focusing on quality 

31:06 - Evaluating the right-fit engineer  

35:19 - Transitioning from an engineer to an engineering leader 

40:22 - Biggest challenges 

42:57 - Remote operations

Connect with Chetan -

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chetan-kalyan

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

Found this episode informative? Let us know by hitting the like button & subscribing to our channel. You can also Tweet or DM us on -

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator

Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup

Indus Khaitan is a serial entreprenuer, he founded one of the earliest startup accelerators in India "The Morpheus Gang", he was the head of growth at ChargeBee and is now the Founder-CEO of Quolum, a company that helps optimize software spend. In this episode Roshan and Indus talk about the founding stories, how businesses and startups in the SaaS space have evolved and more!  

If you liked this episode, don't forget to like, share and subscribe.

Indus Khaitan is a serial entreprenuer, he founded one of the earliest startup accelerators in India "The Morpheus Gang", he was the head of growth at ChargeBee and is now the Founder-CEO of Quolum, a company that helps optimize software spend. In this episode Roshan and Indus talk about the founding stories, how businesses and startups in the SaaS space have evolved and more!  

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss -

👉🏽 hot takes on the week that was in the startup world,

👉🏽 what they learned this week from executing hard &

👉🏽 best recommendations of articles & Twitter threads.

What we covered in this week's Roundup-

- Key Takeaways from the week's episodes (01:15)

- Recent Fundings of India Quotient, BharatPe, & Hiver (03:15)

- How Koo is taking India by storm (11:00)

- Swiggy vs Zomato: Who will become India's first startup IPO of 2021? (17:55)

- Vembu's Wisdom on growing as a community (22:13)

- What's next in The Startup Operator (25:30)

Hit the like button on the right if enjoyed this roundup, and do not forget to share among your operator friends! If you liked this episode, do not forget to like and subscribe to The Startup Operator Podcast. Listen to our interviews and conversations with investors, operators, and founders on your favorite podcast platforms.

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss -

👉🏽 hot takes on the week that was in the startup world,

👉🏽 what they learned this week from executing hard &

👉🏽 best recommendations of articles & Twitter threads.

What we covered in this week's Roundup-

- Key Takeaways from the week's episodes (01:15)

- Recent Fundings of India Quotient, BharatPe, & Hiver (03:15)

- How Koo is taking India by storm (11:00)

- Swiggy vs Zomato: Who will become India's first startup IPO of 2021? (17:55)

- Vembu's Wisdom on growing as a community (22:13)

- What's next in The Startup Operator (25:30)

Hit the like button on the right if enjoyed this roundup, and do not forget to share among your operator friends! If you liked this episode, do not forget to like and subscribe to The Startup Operator Podcast. Listen to our interviews and conversations with investors, operators, and founders on your favorite podcast platforms.