Startup Rajat's Podcast Arena: Recent Episodes
Rajat Yadav
I am Rajat Yadav, Founder @ Z2P, one of India's largest micro-lending companies and now moving towards the role of an Angel Investor. From having failed startups to raising multiple funding rounds to selling my company, I have been through a lot.
In my Podcast, we will discuss everything about startups and entrepreneurs and the challenges they face. I will help you increase the chances of your startup being a success. More than anything, I will help you realise that you are not alone in facing challenges that a new entrepreneur faces. Follow me on Instagram: @RajatYadavInsta
This podcast is a conversion of my video upload on the topic on YouTube: RajatYadav
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Note: This podcast is a conversion of the latest video series on YouTube. Language: HindiFor the first 5 months of 2023, Indian startups witnessed a mammoth 79% drop in funding. This is a huge number considering just 2 years back, with the IPOs of multiple startups, the Indian startup ecosystem was on a roll. In this podcast, we decode what caused this shift and how new entrepreneurs can capture the investor's current perspective and attract funding in current times.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rajat-yadav47/message
Because of all the media buzz around big startups raising millions of dollars of funding amount, most founders today consider funding as a critical part of the process of starting up, which is absolutely wrong.
In this podcast, we will learn about what is the right time/stage to apply for funding of your startup that increases your chances of getting funded.
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In this part 2 of the series, I will focus on how I used my time while in college and what caused me to leave the usual high-paying job route and begin the entrepreneurship journey.
The goal of this podcast is to let you all know why going to a college is important towards becoming an entrepreneur and how you should utilise your time inside the college, irrespective of whichever college it is.
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Being an IIT Madras alumnus, I thought of making a series called "My IIT Journey" where I tell you how I prepared for the IIT JEE exam and how was my life inside IIT Madras. The good things I did and the mistakes I made. Why did I leave good-paying jobs and came into entrepreneurship? Answering all this so that no matter which college you are in, you can implement some learnings in your life and hopefully see some positive changes.
This part 1 is all about my school days and how I prepared for the JEE exam.
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During the economic downturn in the pandemic and even otherwise, companies always have to come to mass lay-offs and employees suffer the most in these. In this podcast, I am highlighting the mindset of the companies when they prepare to lay-off and how you can safeguard yourself from it.
Follow me on Instagram to ask direct questions: RajatYadavInsta
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Clearing the air on the different popular investment structures available for a startup - loan, equity and convertible notes. I see a lot of founders running around confused on this. Let me just remove all these confusions.
Message me on Instagram(ID: RajatYadavInsta) if you want me to make a podcast on a specific topic.
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Busting the most absurd advise that you will find on social media - "Start saving now to get rich tomorrow!". Yes, this is the most absurd advise that you can follow as a youngster. Can you name one person who has become financially successful by saving money?
Listen to this podcast about the one financial principle that I follow in my life.
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When founders are ready to launch their startups, there is always this fear that how will they compete against the existing big players. For example, Flipkart in the e-comm space, Paytm in the digital payment space, or even globally, Tesla in the electric vehicle space. Can your small startup flourish in the same sector that these giants are in? The topic of discussion of this podcast.
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Founders are always confused about the best marketing strategy for their startup to get the first 100 users.
Is it Facebook ads, is it Instagram ads, or is it influencer marketing.
Having grown my company, Z2P, to almost 10lac android downloads with almost zero paid marketing, I will tell you the secret of explosive growth.
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This is a series about the mistakes that I had made as an entrepreneur so that you can avoid these and improve your growth curve.
Now, who doesn't love Steve Jobs, an idol for many? But, for me, over-idolising Steve Jobs turned out to becoming a tyrant boss and destroying my company's culture in the early days. Hear how I learnt and changed from that experience.
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Always a topic of discussion - are investors partial towards IIT/IIM founders in giving funds?
Being on both sides of the table - studying in IIT and raising funds while still in college to being an angel investor, let me tell you the reasons of why investors prefer the IIT - IIM tag in founders and what can you do if you are not from these colleges.
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Millions of entrepreneurs in the world. But if you separate out people who have actually executed and not just ideated, you will be left with a handful thousands.
You are not an entrepreneur unless you have executed. You may fail or succeed, that's secondary, but the execution is the primary trait of an entrepreneur and the fear of failure and the quest to achieve perfection is what prevents ideas to turn into real startups.
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Confused? Well, that's the truth. Gone are the days when financial services were only limited to a few banks and NBFCs. Today, Amazon to Ola and Oyo, everyone is readying themselves towards a big fintech future. Let's discuss that in this podcast.
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With "finding passion" almost becoming like a trend today, you see a lot of influencing personalities to talk about finding your passion and then pursuing it. But no one tells you exactly how do you do that? How do you find that passion, that thing that you enjoy doing the most? Let me end the search for the invisible in this podcast!
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I ended up rejecting an investment offer for good and learnt the most crucial lesson of my life.
This podcast is about a life incident in 2017 when I was raising funds for my startup Z2P that shaped who I am today. It taught me that honesty and self-belief can conquer any challenges. And it taught me that even in business, you have to see the goodness and honesty of people before partnering with them.
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Looking at all the glamour posted by social media influencers, including me, like the costly cars, the bikes, the travel and the happiness, we often get delusional which induces negativity in us towards our own life. Remember, influencers only post positive content. No one posts about the struggles they have faced to reach here or the challenges they face even today - the fight with their friends or their financial problems.
Through this, I want to make you all aware that chasing the glamour of social media is not a path towards success in life. You have to understand the struggles that go behind making the person who they are, and people rarely post the struggles. No matter what I post here, I am as normal a person as you are. I have faced the same, if not more, challenges than you are facing and whatever I am and post today on social media is the result of years of hard work and sacrifices that I do not share.
Remember, if you are not working hard, you are not going to go up.
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Seeing some of the most successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of colleges, dropping out is clearly becoming a trend. However, there are both pros and cons about it and we are going to discuss the best practices if you do plan to drop out.
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I see a lot of entrepreneurs afraid to share their startup ideas thinking that someone might steal it. In this podcast, we dive into the reality of the claim and bust some myths.
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'Analysis Paralysis' a phase of the mind which a lot of entrepreneurs pass-through somewhere in their journey. It hampers the decision-making capabilities and ultimately affects the entire startup and its culture on the whole. In this podcast, we will go deep into the topic and see how should this phase be tackled.
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In today's time where everyone wants to have a massive social media presence, a large number of so-called Startup or Motivational "Gurus" have emerged on the various social media platforms who have no experience and portray themselves as experts. Many young entrepreneurs follow them blindly and end up getting nowhere and even taking some bad decision in their career. In this podcast, we will learn how to identify a fake guru and how to choose your mentor wisely.
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The world has now changed. From business ideas to the way of doing business. How should you, as an entrepreneur plan out your path during these times and how the funding crunch due to the pandemic might affect you.
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These are two important terms which often confuse young entrepreneurs leading to a bad impression on potential investors. Listen to this podcast to learn what USP & Barrier to Entre are and are these the same things?
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Most of the founders that start their company today lack these two skills - design & technology, and as they proceed, find it extremely difficult to create & launch their products and get a good team. In this podcast, I will brief why knowing basic designing and technology skills increases startup's chances to succeed significantly.
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In this podcast, we will discuss the must-have(and also the most ignored) skills that a digital marketer should have to excel in this field. I will not beat around the bush and will be pretty straightforward in explaining this to you. If you have these skills, you may become the best digital marketer. If you don't, you will most definitely not.
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In between the current COVID pandemic situation, a lot of people have either lost their jobs or trying to switch jobs to secure their future. Putting light on certain points that will increase your chances of finding a new job with an exponentially higher salary.
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This podcast rotates around how important, or rather un-important, are design, aesthetics, marketing and social media publicity for early-stage startups.
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In this podcast, we take on the questions asked by my Instagram family about the challenges new early-entrepreneurs face. The questions go as follows:
1) When a startup is doing good, entrepreneurs are all pumped up and energetic. But they get depressed and panic when the startup starts to fail? How to overcome this?
2) People invest their own savings in their business and they keep on investing to drive their business, they may end up investing all their saving, so according to you where should one stop investing and let the working capital work?
3) How much should you trust your team, be it, cofounders or employees?
4) Your thoughts on “Apne passion ko Apna profession banao?”(Make your passion your profession?)
5) Should we get experience and then start a startup or business, or just scooba dive into it?
6) Do you believe one should exaggerate their ideas while pitching to the investors?
7) Many people dream to have their own business or startup, but their condition family, society pressure liability doesn't allow them to move forward. What one should do then?
8) Is it difficult for women-entrepreneurs to raise funding?
9) My Favorite holiday destination?
10) Where the data suggests you apply plan A but as the leader, your experience & intuition tells you to apply plan B. What will be your call then?
11) More spending on RnD or Advertising, what do you prefer?
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Data Science branch has gained immense popularity with people from different fields trying to migrate into this hearing about the great opportunities here. But what actually is data science? Is it data analysis, is it data visualization, is it machine learning?
In this podcast, I will bust a few myths about data science and tell you how do you become a data scientist!
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I am answering the questions that I received from my family on my Instagram story posted on 4th April 2020.
Questions I am answering:
1) I am a blogger and have started writing again. Am I on the right path and how do I grow traffic?
2) I want to be the best data scientist. How?
3) What qualities do I see in a candidate during data scientist hiring?
4)How can I get a good internship?
5) I have a habit of multitasking and end up messing everything. How to deal with it?
6) How to grab your target audience while pitching?
7) What if someone is not sure what they want to do in life but want to do something good?
8) What do I feel about MBA?
9) How to find passion and the right vision for a successful & happy life?
10) When taking a big risk like changing career. What factors shall we consider or should go all out?
11) What's your ambition?
12) How to get like-minded people for the startup? And how revenue should be distributed among co-founders?
13) How to balance family & life in this startup field?
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For everyone, the lockdown might look like a time of Netflix & Chill or even panic to some. But, as an entrepreneur, you should see this as a golden time and use this efficiently to upgrading your's, your startup's and your employees' skills. You have got a once in a lifetime break, use it to your advantage.
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90% of the entrepreneurs who are good at making ideas are bad at communicating their ideas, especially to potential investors. And this is where dreams die. I will tell you the right way to find and approach an investor to increase your startup's chance of getting funded.
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