The Startup Operator

Staring as an assistant producer with CNBC TV18, India’s largest business television network, Mihir has over a decade in business journalism focusing on startups. He joined Mint as a Staff Writer in 2012. Currently, he is the Chief of Bureau at Mint's Bangalore Office.  

In 2019, he published the book 'The Untold Flipkart Story'.  

Listen in as Roshan and Mihir engage in a free-flowing conversation around Flipkart's success and how startups & founders have evolved over time.

01:39 - Lesser-known stories of Flipkart's Journey

05:38 - What Flipkart did differently

12:57 - People of Flipkart

14:46 - Three things we can learn from Sachin and Binny

18:38 - Walmart's Acquisition

21:49 - How the nature of startups has changed

34:49 - ESOP buybacks

38:26 - New-age startups & founders

41:46 - Media Coverage for startups

01:02:19 - Things to look forward to in 2021

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Connect with Mihir - 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mihir-dalal-3b602014/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/MihirDTweets

Farmers rely heavily on traditional cropping calendars and their experiences to maximize their yields. But even experienced farmers have not always been able to escape the perils of climate change, losing their crops to unpredictable weather conditions, soil degradation, and unmitigated pest attacks.  

Fasal is an agri-tech platform powered by IoT and A, on the mission to keep the farmers aware of the farm and crop conditions anytime, anywhere on any device.  

Founded by Ananda Verma, its goal is to enable farmers to be proactive instead of reacting to crop diseases, weather conditions, and various other critical situations.  Fasal empowers farmers and Agri institutions by decreasing the input cost, increasing the quality and quantity of the yield, and optimizing resources like fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides, irrigation management, etc.  

In this episode of The Startup Operator Podcast, join Roshan Cariappa in conversation with Ananda, as we understand more about how the agriculture sector in India has evolved, along with -  

- Fasal’s founding story (01:41) 

- Making agriculture viable in India(07:32) 

- Proving ROI case to farmers (18:42) 

- Understanding the business economics (26:07) 

- Making contextual insights available to farmers (30:49) 

- Building farmer-centric solutions (35:32) 

- Making technology economically viable (40:29) 

- Recent agricultural reforms (45:15) 

- Indian agricultural outlook in 2021 (49:22)

Found this episode informative? Let us know by via a  Tweet or DM us on -  

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

Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup

Farmers rely heavily on traditional cropping calendars and their experiences to maximize their yields. But even experienced farmers have not always been able to escape the perils of climate change, losing their crops to unpredictable weather conditions, soil degradation, and unmitigated pest attacks.  

Fasal is an agri-tech platform powered by IoT and A, on the mission to keep the farmers aware of the farm and crop conditions anytime, anywhere on any device.  

Founded by Ananda Verma, its goal is to enable farmers to be proactive instead of reacting to crop diseases, weather conditions, and various other critical situations.  Fasal empowers farmers and Agri institutions by decreasing the input cost, increasing the quality and quantity of the yield, and optimizing resources like fertilizers, fungicides, pesticides, irrigation management, etc.  

In this episode of The Startup Operator Podcast, join Roshan Cariappa in conversation with Ananda, as we understand more about how the agriculture sector in India has evolved, along with -  

- Fasal’s founding story (01:41) 

- Making agriculture viable in India(07:32) 

- Proving ROI case to farmers (18:42) 

- Understanding the business economics (26:07) 

- Making contextual insights available to farmers (30:49) 

- Building farmer-centric solutions (35:32) 

- Making technology economically viable (40:29) 

- Recent agricultural reforms (45:15) 

- Indian agricultural outlook in 2021 (49:22)

Found this episode informative? Let us know by via a  Tweet or DM us on -  

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

Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup

Aviral talks about how Indian firms and startups in the SaaS space can move from an arbitrage business to building unique use cases.

Anand Datta talks about the what hurdles fintech and healthcare sectors face in the near future and how they can overcome them.

Anand Datta Talks about how startups and MNCs can grow together by Learning from each other.

Are consumer tech & enterprise SaaS really that different?  

In this episode of The Startup Operator, Roshan spoke with Anant Vidur Puri of Bessemer Venture Partners to know more about these different, yet similar domains.  

Anant joined Bessemer in 2014 and focuses on high potential opportunities in consumer and mobile technology, along with vertical SaaS in the Bangalore office. He is currently on the boards of Travel Triangle, Cashify, and Remedinet in addition to being involved with UC, Swiggy, and StayGlad.  

Listen to this conversation for amazing insights on -  

- Consumer tech & Enterprise SaaS (00:57) 

- Developing an investment thesis (05:39) 

- What does a typical day look like for a partner? (13:56) 

- How has the ecosystem evolved? (18:57) 

- Balancing an idea with a business plan (22:35) 

- Taking a decision to pivot (28:29)  

- ESOP buybacks (35:25) 

- The  VC competitive landscape (38:04) 

 and  a Rapid-fire round on Venture Capital terms (43:38)

What did you think of this episode? Tweet or DM us on -  

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

Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup

Are consumer tech & enterprise SaaS really that different?  

In this episode of The Startup Operator, Roshan spoke with Anant Vidur Puri of Bessemer Venture Partners to know more about these different, yet similar domains.  

Anant joined Bessemer in 2014 and focuses on high potential opportunities in consumer and mobile technology, along with vertical SaaS in the Bangalore office. He is currently on the boards of Travel Triangle, Cashify, and Remedinet in addition to being involved with UC, Swiggy, and StayGlad.  

Listen to this conversation for amazing insights on -  

- Consumer tech & Enterprise SaaS (00:57) 

- Developing an investment thesis (05:39) 

- What does a typical day look like for a partner? (13:56) 

- How has the ecosystem evolved? (18:57) 

- Balancing an idea with a business plan (22:35) 

- Taking a decision to pivot (28:29)  

- ESOP buybacks (35:25) 

- The  VC competitive landscape (38:04) 

 and  a Rapid-fire round on Venture Capital terms (43:38)

What did you think of this episode? Tweet or DM us on -  

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

Twitter - https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup

The COVID-19 pandemic was a bolt from the blue. The world never expected it; neither was it prepared. This is a kind of crisis that most of us are unlikely to experience more than once in our lifetimes. Individuals and companies are trying hard to cope and adapt. The truth though is that we constantly deal with crises in our lives.

A crisis can be a great opportunity for innovation. Almost every great innovation has been in response to a crisis of some sort. We have seen this in recent times, and we have seen this throughout history.

Sailing through a Storm, by TN Hari and Sanjay Swamy, brings us this hope. An inspiring read, this comprises beautiful stories of women and men who dealt with adversity, how they emerged strong and successful, and how drawing from their lives we too can turn the storm around to make it work for us.  

Join Roshan in conversation with Hari as we try to understand more about the inspiration behind his latest book.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a bolt from the blue. The world never expected it; neither was it prepared. This is a kind of crisis that most of us are unlikely to experience more than once in our lifetimes. Individuals and companies are trying hard to cope and adapt. The truth though is that we constantly deal with crises in our lives.

A crisis can be a great opportunity for innovation. Almost every great innovation has been in response to a crisis of some sort. We have seen this in recent times, and we have seen this throughout history.

Sailing through a Storm, by TN Hari and Sanjay Swamy, brings us this hope. An inspiring read, this comprises beautiful stories of women and men who dealt with adversity, how they emerged strong and successful, and how drawing from their lives we too can turn the storm around to make it work for us.  

Join Roshan in conversation with Hari as we try to understand more about the inspiration behind his latest book.