JasaRodio: Recent Episodes
Nitn Bbinhhani
JasaRodio is a startup podcast channel solely targeted towards Entrepreneurs and Startups, globally for the purpose of sharing "Real Stories with Real Learnings!"
Every single week, Entrepreneurs, Mentors, Investors, etc., share their valuable insights on: ◘ Deep valuable insights shared by experts (to grow from 0 to 10X). ◘ Successes and failures of fellow entrepreneurs like you. ◘ Secret sauce/best practices to emulate.
JasaRodio is available on 5+ platforms with coverage now spread to 15+ countries. We are open to promotions!
In today’s episode, we would deep dive into the ongoing saga of MedPlus Health Services, India’s only listed pharma retailer, and its ambitious yet risky private-label strategy.
Please visit www.jasarodio.com for our previous insightful podcasts!
In today’s episode, we would delve into the sudden shutdown of Kenko Health, an Indian healthtech startup that had raised $13.7 Million, and yet found itself out of cash.
It’s a stark reminder that even with substantial investor backing, the road to startup success is fraught with challenges.
Please visit www.jasarodio.com for 80+ insightful podcasts!
In this podcast, I'll be exploring the rise and fall of ReshaMandi, an agritech startup that aimed to revolutionize India's silk supply chain but recently faced a sudden shutdown.
ReshaMandi has shut down operations, laid off 500 employees, and took its website offline, as reported by Entrackr.
In this podcast, we’ll be talking about "LogiNext Solutions", a global logistics SaaS startup that, despite its tremendous growth trajectory, has reportedly liquidated its assets.
Over the years, it raised a total of $50 million, achieving its peak valuation of $100 million after a $39 million funding by global heavyweights like Tiger Global and Steadview.
In a surprising turn of events, LogiNext has recently liquidated its assets for just $250,000, according to a board resolution on July 8, as reported by the Economic Times.
The podcast covers the key learnings from the LogiNext Journey.
In this podcast, we've dived into the story of 1K Kirana, a startup that aimed to revolutionize the kirana store business in India.
Despite the high hopes and strong backing of InfoEdge and other investors, 1K Kirana is now going through a challenging phase, almost staring at bankruptcy as per a report by Inc42.
The podcast uncovers key 6 areas / reasons behind 1K Kirana's precarious situation, and what entrepreneurs can learn from their journey.
In today's podcast, we will dive into the typical challenges that D2C brands face, when pivoting from an online to an offline model.
We’ll be looking at a real-life example of Clensta, a D2C brand that made waves for its innovations and recent struggles, as reported by The CapTable.
Today, we will dive into the story of mCaffeine, a personal care brand known for its caffeine-infused products.
Despite its initial promise and unique offerings, mCaffeine is navigating a challenging phase, vying for strategic suitors or buyers, as recently reported by VC Circle.
This story is a testament that while achieving profitability is crucial, so is managing burn rates, operational efficiency, adaptability, resilience, and strategic planning.
In today's podcast, we will delve into the captivating journey of Koo, once celebrated as India's answer to Twitter (now X).
We will explore the remarkable rise of Koo in 2021 and dissect the key factors that led to its eventual downfall.
The closures of several startups including Koo that once flourished in recent years, owing to their aggressive growth strategies and the funding winter, highlight the challenges of sustainability and maintaining long-term success.
In this podcast, we will delve into the tumultuous future of the Edtech sector in India, primarily focusing on the dramatic downturns faced by 2 of India's former Edtech giants: Byju’s and Unacademy.
Notably, the core reasons behind the struggling Edtech sector are:
- Struggling to raise fresh capital (funding winter.)
- Depleting demand, post Covid-19.
- Lack of innovation, and
- Business Model, Leadership and Strategic Challenges.
In conversation with Richard Parker, a distinguished M&A expert, who has led successful acquisitions of 13 companies, ranging from $50K to $200+ Mn.
Richard shares his valuable insights on:
- Why should you only buy an existing profitable business?
- How do you source potential businesses, and conduct due diligence?
- Finally, how do you integrate it successfully within your business?
Rachel Turner
- Co-founder at VC Talent Lab, UK
- Author, The Founder’s Survival Guide
Sharing her insights on:
- She shares a brief background about herself and the inspiration behind "The Founder's Survival Guide."
- Key challenges most founders typically face as they scale their businesses from 0 to 1.
- What strategies should the founders apply to navigate these challenges and grow their businesses?
- Why do entrepreneurs lack in this transition from founders to CEOs?
- The board's role in coaching their portfolio founders is to improve their leadership skills.
- A real-world example of a founder, whom she helped in his entrepreneurial journey to build a great business?
In conversation with Blake Hutchison, the CEO of Flippa, where we discussed:
The current trend of buying and selling SaaS businesses.
When and why should founders of SaaS startups consider an exit?
Prevailing exit revenue/profit multiples for the SaaS businesses.
How should SaaS founders maximize the value of their startup, and ensure a smooth transition to an exit?
Finally, the key challenges involved during this process of buying and selling SaaS businesses?
India, being the 3rd largest startup ecosystem is fraught with frauds too.
There have been several instances of corporate governance lapses in startups like BharatPe, Zilingo, Trell, and GoMechanics.
This time it's a cloud kitchen startup, namely Bigspoon Foods.
The fraud was exposed in an article titled "How a cloud-kitchen startup misled investors and left unpaid bills in its wake?" which appeared in the e-magazine The Ken, on 28 August 2023.
The podcast covers, how BigSpoon misled into believing that they had closed a Series A round, when in fact it hadn't.
Things started to spiral downward in the last 2 months, almost leading it to bankruptcy.
JasaRodio | Episode 76 | Venture Debt 101: A Guide on the Why, What, and How!
Guest: Punit Shah, Managing Partner - Alteria Capital.
Sharing his insights on:
- What is Venture Debt, and how it differs from other forms of financing?
- What are the key benefits of Venture Debt for startups, and how can it complement future equity rounds?
- When should startups explore Venture Debt, is it the right choice for specific needs (e.g. bridge rounds)?
- What does a typical Venture Debt term sheet look like (i.e. interest rates, repayment schedules, warrants, collateral/security, etc)?
- Advice for founders/startups exploring Venture Debt as a financing option?
- What do Venture Debt players look for during due diligence?
- Any limitations/drawbacks to Venture Debt that startups should be aware of?
- A brief on Alteria Capital, with some examples of startups they funded with Venture Debt.
A 3-part podcast series, in partnership with OfBusiness, India's youngest profitable unicorn!
The Third (and final) part of this series covers:
- Summary of the journey, and mistakes made by the founders.
- The importance of customer feedback for startups.
- Some of the key challenges that startups usually face?
- How did technology/platform really evolve at OfBusiness?
- Advice for the B2B founders/startups building a marketplace or a 2-sided platform?
- How should founders secure funding from Seed to Series A or subsequent rounds?
- On funding winter and IPO?
A 3-part podcast series, in partnership with OfBusiness, India's youngest profitable unicorn!
This Second part of this series covers:
- Advice to the B2B Founders?
- Create and track 2-3 relevant KPIs for your startup.
- How did OfBusiness achieve Product/Market Fit (PMF)?
- Their strategy for customer acquisition and growth.
- Their Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy to acquire and retain customers.
- How to hire best talent and use ESOPs to create a performance-driven culture?
A 3-part podcast series, in partnership with OfBusiness, India's youngest profitable unicorn!
Background:
- OfBusiness is a B2B procurement and fintech platform, which is the youngest profitable Indian unicorn that has crossed over $2 bn in revenue in FY2022-23.
- The 7-year-old startup which turned unicorn in July-2021 has leapfrogged with a $6+ Bn valuation, operating across 20+ countries. It has impressive backing from top global investors like TigerGlobal, Norwest, Softbank, etc.
- Both co-founders, Nitin Jain and Vasant Sridhar will share valuable insights based on their own journey of building OfBusiness into the profitable unicorn that it is today.
The first part of this series covers:
- How did the idea of OfBusiness evolve?
- Key pain areas/challenges that founders observed in the procurement sector?
- Composition of their founding team and complementary skill sets?
- Some of the challenges founders faced in the early stages, and the way they overcame them?
- Advice for the founders/B2B startups that are at the initial stages?
- Key milestones in the early growth of OfBusiness, and how did they navigate their first fundraising?
Ashish Kumar
- Partner, The Fundamentum Partnership (growth-focused VC Fund)
Sharing his insights on:
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As a part of a VC firm, what got you interested in the healthcare sector?
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You had assessed several players in the pharma space, what were the 3 key factors that stood out for PharmEasy?
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Besides the team, what other factors drove you to commit to PharmEasy?
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In general, what makes a team shine over others when it comes to investment?
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Coming back to PharmEasy, you tweeted about channel relationships, margins, and supply chain as key differentiators, can you elaborate on that?
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So quite a cliche question, did you ever envisage that PharmEasy would turn up as a unicorn someday?
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From the founders' perspective, what should they focus on at the early stage, to become a leader in any sector?
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Finally, tell us about "Fundamentum Partnership," and what's your investment thesis?
Ryan Breslow
- Founder of 2 unicorns: Bolt and Eco.
- Sharing his own experiences, Ryan talks about the 10 Sales Tactics that Truly Work!
Rishav Agarwal
- Founder & CEO, Picxele (Gig Economy)
Sharing his insights on:
- What has changed in the Gig Economy, post Covid-19 pandemic?
- How large is this Gig Market across the globe?
- What are the challenges with Gig Economy?
- How are gig platforms like Freelancer, Upwork really differentiating/solving this gap?
- How can founders/startups benefit from the opportunities involved?
- Journey of Picxele, and what gap does it fulfill?
Bonus podcast recorded on a recent Twitter thread by Chris Cantino on the same subject.
Chris is currently the co-owner of Color Capital. Prior to this, he was CMO of Schmidt's Naturals and helped propel the company to $100M+ acquisition by Unilever alongside wife and partner Jaime Schmidt.
Head on to this podcast, to hear 10 pointers recommended by Chris to scale up your venture as a viable/potential acquisition venture!
Purva Aggarwal
- Founder & CEO, Good Good Piggy
- Women in Tech ® India Ambassador
Sharing her insights on:
- The story behind building Good Good Piggy?
- How important is financial literacy for kids?
- How should parents teach financial education to their children?
- Is pre-teen the right age to talk about investments?
- What's the market opportunity like for such a sector?
- Finally, how's Good Good Piggy inculcating financial literacy among kids?
Parag Dhol
- Managing Director, Inventus Capital India
Sharing his insights on:
- Why do corporates/startups acquire other companies (key reasons)?
- When should a founder decide to sell his/her startup?
- Once decided to sell, how should an entrepreneur prepare his/her startup for a possible acquisition?
- Why do acquisitions fail at certain times, and how should one prevent it from happening?
- Based on a portfolio company, what's the journey like from growth to IPO?
- Finally, a brief about Inventus Capital and its investment thesis?
Sameer Sortur
- Regional Director GCC, Founder Institute
- Founder-CEO, SquareCircle Global
Sharing his insights on:
- How is the Founder Institute enabling startups globally?
- What differentiates Founder Institute from the other accelerators?
- What factors/aspects does Founder Institute look for in a startup to shortlist them in the program?
- How does Founder Institute help those entrepreneurs who don't make it?
- What kind of support do entrepreneurs get when they join the program?
- As a Regional Director, what's your vision for the Founder Institute in GCC?
- Finally, tell us a bit about yourself and your venture SquareCircle Global?
Shirish Nadkarni
- Serial Entrepreneur, Author of "From Startup to Exit"
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- How easy/difficult is it to launch and scale up a tech venture?
- What should be the ideal journey for any venture?
- What should tech startups do to succeed in all phases?
- How should founders efficiently raise funding, and when should they start the process?
- His own journey insights from 3 startups, things that went great, and about his failures?
- A bit about his book, "From Startup to Exit" and how to get it?
Saloni Jain
- Founding Partner, SUNiCON Ventures
Sharing her valuable insights on:
- When should founders reach out to Angel Investors for investments?
- What motivates Angel Investors to invest in a startup?
- 8 different types of Angel Investors, with a brief on each?
- How does a founder assess/shortlist the right Angel Investor, who would be a great fit?
- And, how to reach out to these shortlisted ones?
- A bit about yourself and SUNiCON Ventures.
Hassan W. Bhatti
- Prior co-founded, Cryptonumerics (acquired by Snowflake)
- Investor @thecommunityvc
- ProductBD, @snowflakedb
Sanil Sachar
- Founding Partner at Huddle
Sharing her valuable insights on:
- Why should entrepreneurs opt for the accelerators, and what kind of value add should they expect?
- With so many different options available, how should a founder select, who would be a right fit?
- At just a 1-2% success rate, what qualities/skills of an entrepreneur would ensure that s/he gets admitted in a cohort/program?
- What are the most common mistakes that founders do, when applying for the cohorts/programs?
- Most startups look at accelerators as stepping stones to fundraising, what would your thoughts be on this?
- Tell us a bit about Huddle, what do you look for in a startup and what do you offer them at each stage?
- Finally, would you share few success stories from some of your earlier investments?
Shashank Randev
- Founder, VC at 100X.VC
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why does it make sense for entrepreneurs to raise early-stage capital via SAFE notes?
- What is a iSAFE Note, and is it similar/different to a Convertible Note or a Compulsory Convertible Debentures? And, is iSAFE essentially a CCPS?
- What are the various terms that are usually covered in a SAFE note? And, besides valuation cap and discounts, are there any other terms covered in iSAFE, and what are considered to be standard market practices?
- Some founders see great potential risks in using SAFE, how should they be watchful of it?
- How many startups have used iSAFE so far, also if you could share some of the success stories?
Devank Chandak
- Founder at HelpingHands, Social FinTech
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why he chose entrepreneurship at such a young age?
- What made him launch his venture "Helping Hands," and whom (customers) does it caters to?
- The traction, challenges, as well as the learnings!
- The future (vision) of "Helping Hands" in the next 5-10 years?
- How can teenagers really balance between the education and entrepreneurship?
Elizabeth Yin, co-founder of Hustle Fund shares her valuable insights for founders of startups, who are raising early-stage rounds
Snippet: By tranching your fundraising, you can quickly build a momentum to raise the pre-seed and seed funds.
Besides, you don't necessarily need a lead investor too.
A lot more is on the podcast!
Rupam Das
- Founder, CEO of Acculi Labs
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- What is PAIO, and how is it different from Compulsary Convertible Debentures or CCD and Convertible Notes?
- Why didn't you raise funding from any angel platform/syndicate?
- What terms and conditions did you stipulate in PAIO?
- What was your fundraising experience, how many investors participated in PAIO?
- Finally, which kinda startups can emulate/use PAIO for fundraising?
Akriti Gupta
- Founder, Canfem | UN Awardee
Sharing her valuable insights on:
- Let's start with your background and what really motivated you to launch Canfem?
- How large is this problem of breast cancer globally, and what are the key problems being faced by the female patients?
- How did you arrive at launching breast prosthesis as well as brassier i.e. what was your research behind launching these?
- What are the typical challenges that you've across so far, and how did you overcome them?
- What's your vision for Canfem, and can you share 1-2 stories, which kind of inspired you?
Gigi Levy-Weiss
- General Partner, NFX
- Founder & Chairman, Tectonic
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- The 7 Rules of Hiring for the Early-stage Startups!
Source: His Twitter Profile
Rachita Kumar
- PE, Madison India Capital
Sharing her valuable insights on:
- Why should startups remain focused, especially during the early stages?
- 2 contrast case studies, 1 which has drifted away from its core focus, another which has remained focused and benefitted immensely?
- Finally, how should startups really expand, while keeping their core focus intact?
Daniel Lewis
- CEO/Founder, Convoy
Sharing his valuable insights/learnings on building a unicorn startup, Convoy!
Source: Full Podcast.
Immad Akhund
- CEO & Founder, Mercury (Bank)
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- How to Build a Compelling Story or Narrative for Your Startup?
Source: This twitter thread!
Alexandre Covello
- VC Partner, Defrocked VC
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Key reasons behind the failure of over 70% funded startups?
- Journey from Seed to Series A.
- How should founders effectively scale up from Seed to Series A Round?
- When scaling up (from Seed to Series A), what are the pitfalls to watch for, and how to avoid them?
- What should the founders do, when not fundraising?
- Finally, about his venture "Defrocked VC," and its investment thesis?
This podcast is inspired from a post by Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y Combinator on his website, dated back in February 2009.
These 13 wisdom points are so relevant for the Founders, even today.
Chad Fox
- Managing Partner, Fox Ventures
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- What is a Micro VC, and how are they different from a traditional VC fund?
- What are the nitty gritties involved in starting a Micro VC Fund?
- Why should early-stage startups opt for Micro VCs vis-a-vis a traditional VC?
- In comparison to angel groups/syndicates, when does it makes sense for the founders to instead opt for a Micro VC Fund?
- About his venture "Fox Ventures," and it's investment thesis?
Shital Kakkar Mehra
- Executive Presence Coach for CEOs
- TEDx Speaker, Best-selling Author
Sharing her valuable insights on:
- Why is communication so important, especially for entrepreneurs?
- Key signs to indicate if one lacks in communication skills.
- How to improve one's communication skills?
- What does it mean to engage with empathy?
- How to empathetically engage with all key stakeholders (i.e. employees, customers, suppliers, etc?)
- Finally, about her recent book "Executive Presence," and how to get it?
Alex Garcia, CEO & Founder at The Hustle helps companies generate sales & leads using digital platforms.
In a thread on his Twitter account, Alex shared valuable insights on, how should you build a lead funnel and effectively generate sales.
He used a similar approach to help his friends achieve over $25K of eBook sales with barely any ad spend.
Sweta Rau
- Angel Investor, White Ventures
- Member at XA Network
Sharing her valuable insights on:
- Why Angel Investors make more sense at the pre-seed/seed stage?
- Strategy to target the prospective investors, and get a lead investor.
- Her assessment criteria for investing in early-stage startups?
- Her advice for bootstrapped founders, facing a high burn rate.
- An elevator pitch that wowed her?
- A brief on one of her investment success stories.
Janine Sickmeyer founded and built legal startup NextChapter, which she bootstrapped for over 6 long years. As a first-time founder, Janine steadily grew to 20 employees, and was instrumental in achieving 6K customers as well as 14% MoM consistent growth for 3 long years. Eventually her startup was acquired in September 2019 by Fastcase!
This podcast is taken from her thread on Twitter, where she shared her experience on, why being a first-time founder is so hard!
According to her, for the first-time founder it takes 2X time and roughly 3X money to succeed.
Shubham G Dungarwal
- Founder & CEO, GFresh Agrotech
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Challenges of the Onion Farmers
- Role of GFresh in Solving these Challenges
- His Journey Experience
- Using Blockchain in the Future
- His Growth Plans for GFresh
Elizabeth Yin, the co-founder of Hustle Fund VC on her Twitter account, shared a series of tweets on "How to Set the Prices for Your Product or Service?"
This podcast is the extract of that thread.
Prashant Narang
- Co-Founder, Agility Venture Partners
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why is cash flow so important for startups or small businesses?
- How can the entrepreneurs systematically manage their finance?
- What strategy would you recommend for getting payments/accounts receivables on time?
- How can founders create their simple 3-5 year financial projections without hiring an analyst?
- Share a brief about Agility Ventures and the investment criteria for startups?
Karthik Sridharan
- Co-founder & CEO at Flexiple & Remote.Tools
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- You spent $5K each on your 1st and 2nd products but eventually both failed, what really went wrong?
- Then as a masterstroke, you instead used GoogleSheets as a product and went on to generate $100K in revenues, how did that go?
- So, what's the learning here for the founders who're building their first MVP?
- Having bootstrapped Flexiple for 4 long years, tell us about this whole journey of yours?
- What would be your 5 key lessons from your bootstrapping journey that you share with the fellow entrepreneurs?
- How did you gain the first 100 customers for Flexiple?
- Finally, can you share a brief on both your ventures i.e. Flexiple and Remote.tools?
Bhavik Vasa
- Founder at GetVantage, India's first Revenue-Based Financing platform
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- What is Revenue-based Financing (RBF), and Who is it for?
- The major considerations, when opting for RBF?
- What flat fee does GetVantage charge?
- What are the qualifying criteria, and the repayment options involved in RBF?
- How does GetVantage really work?
- 2 success stories of startups that opted for GetVantage's RBF, and gained invaluably?
James Church
- Author, Investable Entrepreneur
- Co-founder & COO, Robot Mascot
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why is it so difficult to raise funding in the early-stages?
- Most common mistakes that entrepreneurs do, while pitching to the investors?
- How does one create a great pitching story for their business?
- How can entrepreneurs make their ventures, truly fundable/investable?
- What all metrics should be tracked by the entrepreneurs, which will make them a credible investment opportunity?
- Let's talk about your book "Investable Entrepreneur," could you share a brief on the same, and how can listeners get it?
Vinod Khosla, the founder of Sun Microsystems and Khosla Ventures, during his Talk at Stanford Graduate School of Business, in May-15 really emphasised on two key skills for all founders i.e. perseverance and conviction. Here are some excerpts of that interview, which is highly relevant even today.
David B Horne
- Award-winning Author of "Add then Multiply"
- TEDx Speaker
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why is the organic growth method quite slow, and limited for any venture?
- What are the perils of scaling-up/growing too fast?
- His advice to the founders of early-stage startups!
- How can entrepreneurs use his "FACE Methodology" to exponentially grow their venture?
- 2 case studies where David applied it to grow exponentially?
Hernan Fernandez Lamadrid
- Cofounder & Partner, Angel Ventures, Mexico
- 17 Investments for a total of $14 Mn
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Brief on Latin America's Startup Ecosystem.
- Challenges and the future of Latin America's Startup Ecosystem.
- His advise to those entrepreneurs, who are at the ideation stage?
- How is Angel Ventures, Mexico enabling the startups across Latin America?
- 2 success stories of startups, invested by him?
John D. Hanson
- Director, Accelerated Revenue
- CX & Winning Consultant
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- What is Customer Experience (CX), and Why is it so Important?
- Role of Customer Love/Obsession in Investors' Funding, and How can CX help?
- How can CX help SaaS Startups Retain their Customers?
- How Customer Experience be a Strongest Moat for the Startups?
- Case Study of Zappos.com, how they engraved CX as its culture, to eventually get acquired for $1 Bn by Amazon!
Yamika Mehra
- Venture Partner, Favcy
- Co-Founder, Refittings.com
Sharing her insights on:
- Why Should Professionals Opt for Angel Investing?
- Risks and Potential Returns Involved in Angel Investments?
- How to do an Initial Due Diligence, before Investing?
- About Favcy Venture Builder, and Investing through them?
Jonathan Siddharth (Founder & CEO, Turing) shares his valuable insights on "Parallel Approach to Fundraising," a breakthrough approach using which he raised $14 Mn seed round for his venture, Turing!
Mark Nadal
- Founder & CEO, Era Inc
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- His Fundraising Journey Experience.
- Mistakes He Made during Fundraising and the Learnings from Them.
- Do Strong VCs Connections or Introduction to VCs from Other Founders' Help?
- Differentiating Factors between the Investors, Who Commit and Those Who Just Drag?
- His Tips for the Founders, Who are in Fundraising Mode!
Raj A. Kapoor
- Founder & CEO, India Blockchain Alliance.
- Recognised Expert, Writer & Speaker on Blockchain.
Sharing his insights on:
- Difference between Blockchain and Bitcoins.
- How can Startups and SMEs leverage Blockchain to enhance their processes or other areas?
- How can HealthTech and EdTech sectors benefit from Blockchain?
- How can the Agriculture sector leverage from Blockchain?
- A Brief about his venture India Blockchain Alliance!
The hybrid legal software and law firm startup Atrium despite raising $75 million in venture capital, had to shut down in March 2020 after it failed to figure out how to deliver better efficiency than a traditional law firm.
Months later in January 2021, the serial entrepreneur Justin Kan who was the CEO of erstwhile Atrium shared in his several tweets, some of his biggest lessons learned from the mistakes they made along the journey of Atrium.
This podcast highlights all the key lessons that Justin learned along his journey of Atrium.
It has all the amazing insights on, "what not to do?"
Pradeep Krishnakumar
- Co-Founder & COO, Zouk
Sharing his insights on:
- Short introduction on Zouk, and how the idea was mooted?
- Key Challenges due to Covid-19, and how did they pivot?
- Big Mistakes made during the journey, and Learnings from them?
- Their Bootstrapping experience for over 2 years now?
- Key 3 things for every startup founder to build a long-term venture!
Meenu Bhata
- Co-Founder, VANS Skilling and Advisory
Sharing her experiences on:
- Her Preparation for Fundraising.
- Her Story and How She Pitched?
- Key Challenges and Lessons Learned During Fundraising.
- Her Advice to Women Founders on Fundraising!
Tushar Kansal
- Founder, Kansaltancy Ventures
Sharing his insights on:
- What is a Term-sheet, when is it issued, and by whom?
- How do entrepreneurs value their startup, and arrive at the equity stake to be offered to the investors?
- What are the financial terms and conditions, usually incorporated in a term sheet?
- What are the legal terms and rights of the investors, which founders must understand?
- Finally, what factors/aspects are considered extra-ordinary or outside the industry norms?
Julian Hearn
Founder at Huel
Shares his valuable insights for the founders, on "How he built Huel from 0 to £70 million" in flat 6 years.
These are excerpts from his LinkedIn post.
Shabia Walia
- Founder, Wild Earth
- Media Producer - OTT, TV, Films
Sharing her experiences on:
- Idea/Motivation behind launching Wild Earth.
- Key Challenges & Triumphs of her journey at Wild Earth.
- Her Advice to Founders on Storytelling or Pitching to Investors.
- Her Big Mistakes and the Learnings from it.
- Why are Women Born for Entrepreneurship?
Roberto Croci
- MD at Microsoft for Startups, Middle East & North Africa!
Sharing his insights on:
- What has been the impact of Covid-19 on the startup ecosystem, in MENA region?
- How is Microsoft for Startups helping/enabling startups in the region?
- Could you share success stories of 2-3 startups that were enabled/funded by Microsoft in this region?
- How can frugal/bootstrapped startups benefit from Microsoft?
- His personal experience in driving the Microsoft for Startups?
Sushil Sharma
- Founder & CEO, Marwari Catalysts Ventures
Podcast: In Hindi, हिंदी मै
Sharing his insights (in Hindi) on:
- Unique Challenges of Tier-2 & Tier-3 Startups!
- How should Founders Solve such Challenges?
- Why only 5% of Tier-2 & Tier-3 Startups get Funded?
- How should Founders Attract Early-stage Capital?
- 1-2 Startups Accelerated & Funded by Marwari Catalysts, along with Advice for First-time Founders!
Ramsri Golla
- Founder, Questgen.ai
- Co-Founder & CTO, Aurora (Prior venture)
Sharing his experiences on:
- Idea behind starting up Aurora i.e. AI-assisted assessments, and it's validation.
- His way of validating the Product-Market Fit.
- His fundraising experience, and advice for the first-time entrepreneurs, looking to raise funding.
- Reason behind closure of Aurora, and it's learnings.
Armaan Kapoor
- Investor at January Capital
- Investor in EMQ Inc, BukuKas, CoLearn, Hypotenuse AI
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- 3-4 characteristics, every startup should meet before attract investors?
- Pre-requisites before even founders start pitching to Investors?
- How should pre-revenue startups prepare for raising funds?
- 2 success stories of startups funded by you, and why did you invest in each of them?
Alex Diep
- Senior Growth Advisor
- Helping SaaS and Online Services Scale Up Fast!
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Key mistakes most founders do while creating and selling their products/services?
- Pre-requisites must for startups before they scale-up?
- How should founders effectively scale-up by way of marketing and sales?
- Insights on his proven system, using which he helps startups grow from 0 to $1M within a year?
- 2-3 success stories, of how startups swiftly grew their ARR!
Vani Kola is the Founder and Managing Director of Kalaari Capital, one of India’s leading early-stage venture capital firms!
In her recent LinkedIn post, Vani shares about "7 Tips to Pick a Right Co-founder?"
This podcast, is the excerpt of that post.
Karan Verma
- Co-Founder & Director, Faad Network
Sharing his insights on:
- Key mistakes, most founders do during fundraising, and how to avoid/correct them?
- 3 portfolio startups, which have been immensely successful, and their underlying reasons?
- 1-2 portfolio startups, which eventually failed, and its underlying reasons?
- Story behind Faad Investor Network Meet?
- 2 startups, whom Faad gave a miss but eventually they became hugely successful?
Naval Gupta
- Lead Generation & Webinar Specialist
- Founder, DigiArise
Naval, sharing his insights on:
- Why is a lead funnel on autopilot mode an absolute necessity for any venture?
- Key mistakes that most entrepreneurs do in terms of lead generation, and how does it impact them?
- His strategy and framework to generate leads and sales on automation?
- His 1-2 success stories, of clients who used his services and immensely benefited?
- His secret sauce for earning $3K-$4K a month, as a freelancer?
Rupam Das
- Founder, CEO at Acculi Labs
- Entrepreneur since age, 11
[Founders' Yatra series] Sharing his experiences on:
- Impact of Covid-19 on Acculi Labs.
- How he pivoted his product to create new demand?
- His experience on Kawach Grant, and how can startups apply for grants?
- How he streamlined processes and operations and gained benefits?
- How he raised funding at various levels?
- According to him, 3 key traits of entrepreneurship?
Dr. Ganesh Natarajan
- Chairman - 5F World
- Visionary Leader, ex CEO Aptech & Zensar Technologies
- Independent Director, State Bank of India
- Ph.D - IIT Bombay, Harvard Business School Alumni
Sharing his valuable insights on
- When should startups think of scaling up globally? And, how can they assess themselves, if they are ready for it?
- 5 essential elements to be in place, for any startup to scale-up globally?
- How should entrepreneurs plan for aggressive marketing strategy and build up resources to scale-up globally?
- 4 examples of the startups, who've successfully scaled-up globally!
- Pitfalls of scaling up too fast, and how should the startups scale up sustainably.
- Key aspects you look for in a startup, to invest in them.
Sagar Sheth
- Co-founder at goDutch (YC W20)
- ex-VC at Eight Roads, IIT Bombay
[Founders' Yatra Series] Sharing his experiences on:
- Why barely 25-30 Startups make it to any of the YCombinator programs i.e. YC's stringent qualifying factors for startups?
- His own YC W20 Journey / Experience?
- What changes goDutch made, while going through YC W20 program?
- How was the subsequent funding raised?
- If not being an entrepreneur, what would he've been doing?
Dhruv Nath
- Professor @ MDI, Angel Investor & Director (Lead Angels Network)
- Best Selling Author, Funding Your Startup & Other Nightmares!
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why > 90% Of Early-Stage Startups, Don't Get Funded?
- Post Covid-19, How Do Investors Now Assess the Startups?
- Stories of 2 Startups, Which Failed & their Key Reasons.
- How can Startups be Funding-Ready (His Persistent Framework)?
- On his Book "Funding Your Startup And Other Nightmares", Its Journey & Success Story.
Kyle Vamvouris, Best Selling Author - Cold to Committed, Expert & Coach: B2B Sales
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why, the Inside Sales is the most dominant sales model, especially for B2B Tech & SaaS Startups?
- Difference between Inside Sales and Telemarketing.
- Relevance of Inside Sales, post Covid-19 pandemic.
- His own experience on driving a startup's sales growth by 600% in just 2 years.
- On his book, "Cold to Committed" and its success story.
Podcast with Rajeev Manjrekar
- Startup Mentor & Investment Banker
- Chief Advisor, Datakatalyst.com
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why is now the best time to launch a startup?
- How should entrepreneurs locate a problem, which hasn't been effectively resolved yet, by the existing players?
- How should entrepreneurs figure out, any unmet needs?
- Strategy to figure out loopholes in your competition!
Legal Aspects of an Startup!
Pooja Terwad
- Startup Lawyer Pooja Terwad & Associates
- Mentor for Change - Atal Innovation Mission
Sharing her valuable insights on:
- Importance of Founder Agreements during Fundraising.
- Her advice to founders on ways to offer ESOPs.
- Why founders should be very careful, while drafting legal agreements on their own?
- How can she helps startups during the due-diligence process?
Guest Speaker: Piyush Surana, Principal-Tomorrow Capital
Prior to this stint, Piyush has held key leadership positions in unicorns like Zomato, Ola and Uber.
In this podcast, Piyush shares his valuable insights on:
- Importance of Founder-Market Fit for Startups
- 3-4 Key Signs Indicating Strong Founder-Market Fit
- Questions He Asks to Gauge a Startup's Founder-Market Fit
- Advice to Startups, Who Lack in Founder-Market Fit
- Example of Startup, in which Tomorrow Capital Invested Purely because of a Strong Founder-Market Fit
Raj Swaminathan, Founder, Stratumhub Consulting and Mentor for SaaS on Go-To-Market, Sales & Growth Strategies.
Shares his valuable insights on:
- Why Crossing the Chasm is Critical for SaaS Startups i.e. Free Trials to Paid Subscription
- Ideal Conversion Rates for SaaS Startups
- Efficient way to manage the Leads Funnel
- Effective Strategies to Convert Free Users to Paid Customers
- Tactics and Strategies effectively used by few SaaS Startups
Mahavir Pratap Sharma
- Chairman, TiE Global Board of Trustees
- Chairman & Co-founder Rajasthan Angels
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- How Has Startup Ecosystem Evolved In Tier-2 & Tier-3 Cities?
- Unique Challenges Faced By Tier-2 & Tier-3 Startups, And How To Overcome Them?
- 4-5 Key Parameters He Looks For, To Invest In Startups!
- Some Success Stories Of Tier-2 & Tier-3 Startups!
- His Advice For Entrepreneurs, Deeply Impacted Due To Covid19?
Aarav Bhatia
Co-founder, Pocketly, Fastest growing Micro-lending Platform for Students in India
[Founders' Yatra Series] Aarav shares his experiences on:
- Idea Validation & Product-Market Fit using Customer Feedback
- Go-To-Market Strategy for Organic Growth of Pocketly
- Why a Co-founder is at times Essential for a Startup?
- Fundraising Journey via 100X.VC & Angel Investors!
- Evolution of Pocketly, Post Covid-19 Pandemic
Ninad Karpe,
- Partner, 100X.VC
- One of the most recognized experts and veteran of India's Startup Ecosystem!
He shares his valuable insights on:
- Post Covid19, the New Normal and How to Grab the New Opportunities?
- Resilience & 3C Formula for the Entrepreneurs, in order to Survive and Flourish, post the Covid19 pandemic.
- Adaptation Advice for the Hospitality & Travel Related Startups.
- How 2 of 100X.VC Incubated Startups Pivoted to take Advantage of the Covid19 Lockdown?
- 5 traits that will enable you to make it to the Class 2 of 100X.VC!
- 3 most common mistakes that the first-time entrepreneurs do?
Interview with Rashmi Deshpande, Co-Founder of Crafting Capability, 25 years in Corporate HR, a Business Mentor & Executive Coach!
Rashmi shares her valuable tips and insights on:
"How should the business owners / founders, sensitively handle the layoffs and pay-cuts?"
Interview with Yamika Mehra, AGM - "Neotec Hub", an Corporate / Business Incubator Program, run by the Ambuja Neotia Group!
Yamika shared her valuable insights on:
- What benefits do the early-stage startups gain, when they're incubated by Neotec Hub?
- Success story of a startup, incubated by Neotec Hub!
- Pre-requisites / criteria of selection for startup incubation?
- How does Neotec Hub supports other non-incubated startups?
- Finally, her advise to the entrepreneurs, who are looking to raise funding, during the covid-19 pandemic?
Aditi Sinha
- Co-Founder, Locale.ai
- Raised Pre-seed funding during the Covid-19 lockdown period
[Founders' Yatra Series] Sharing her experiences on:
- How an idea led to the creation of locale.ai & how she validated it?
- Her Fundraising Journey Eexperience during the COVID19!
- Why she raised the pre-seed funding & for what purposes?
- Challenges she faced during fundraising & how she mitigated them?
- How did she arrive at the valuation of her Startup & the equity stake to give away to the Investors?
Ravi Kikan, the author of ebook "How to Validate Your Startup Business Idea?"
Sharing his valuable insights on:
- Why entrepreneurs don't validate their startup idea?
- What are the implications of not validating an idea?
- Differentiate between Idea Validation and Product-Market Fit?
- A gist of his book, "how to validate your startup idea"?
Meheryar Tata
- Co-founder, EazyLeazy, a Online Rental Startup.
- Peak Achievements: Bootstrapped for 2 years.
- Completed over 2,800 rental transactions and had a peak revenue run rate of USD 100k while being unit economics positive.
- Until it's eventual closure in Dec-17.
[Founders' Yatra Series] Meheryar shares his experiences on:
- What motivated him to start EazyLeazy?
- His experience of bootstrapping for more than 2 years and achieving peak revenue rate of USD 100K?
- Key reasons responsible for EazyLeazy shutdown?
- His advice to budding entrepreneurs on his failure (what not to do)?
- How did he incorporate the learnings from EazyLeazy into his new venture?