Entrepreneurship & High Finance: Recent Episodes
Buyside Hippies
Buyside Hippies originated with an intent to give audience a taste of how various levers of high finance & entrepreneurship work towards generating value.
How many buyout investors do you know who quit their enviable high paying jobs to start their venture? A former Blackstone investor, today, Sambhav talks about building Intract: a one-stop SaaS solution for marketers of D2C brands to solve their customer retention problem. He also tells us what were the micro-events in his life that led him to eventually startup.
For the first time, we play an interesting game called "Will you invest" with Sambhav in which we test his investing skills in the private equity-backed startup ecosystem.
Further, Sambhav also touches upon the life of a Buy out investor in India and what it takes to succeed in the role.
Sambhav Jain's profile:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/-sambhav-jain/
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:17 - Sambhav's journey 2:03 - The problem Intract AI is trying to solve 5:20 - Why will Intract AI succeed? 8:46 - What moved the needle for Sambhav 11:25 - Mindset of a successful entrepreneur/investor 16:06 - The game (PayTM vs BharatPe) 19:00 - The game (Tesla vs OLA EV) 20:20 - The game (Big Basket vs Zepto) 21:30 - Life of a Blackstone investor
About Buyside Hippies
Buyside Hippies originated with an intent to give the audience a taste of how various levers of entrepreneurship and high finance work towards generating value. Our podcasts are also available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.
Website: https://www.buysidehippies.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buys...
Instagram: @buysidehippies https://www.instagram.com/buysidehippies/
Team
Aseem Mehra: @arhem97 (https://www.instagram.com/arhem97/)
Ananthu Santhosh: @ananthu.sk (https://www.instagram.com/ananthu.sk/)
Meet Sophiya Khan (Investor at Accel - world's leading VC firm), in a conversation with Aseem Mehra on Buyside Hippies podcast! On the podcast, Sophiya talks about what it takes to crack the Venture Capital interviews. Further, she also shares some interesting insights on the Indian VC landscape along with talking about her dynamic day-to-day job.
Sophiya's profile:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiya-k...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiyak/
Recommended preparation material for VC interviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0E3... https://www.piventures.in/blog/pi-fel...
Recommended headhunters for Venture Capital hiring: 1. Michael Page 2. Native
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:17 - Sophiya's journey to investing 2:14 - What exactly is Venture Capital? 7:02 - Interesting switch to VC from strategy consulting 10:00 - VC interview hiring process decoded 13:30 - Conventional Venture Capital profiles 16:06 - Which headhunter in India runs the hiring process 16:52 - What is Accel's investment job like? 23:45 - Profiles not suitable for VC jobs 25:55 - Types of pre-MBA roles 27:53 - How to prepare for the interviews? 30:35 - Readings on Buyside 32:50 - Investing in Crypto 34:11 - Perspective on Accel investor's life
Mailmodo is a unique SaaS platform that is changing the way marketeers are engaging with their customers through interactive emails. Backed by the legendary VC fund Sequoia Capital, Aquib and his dedicated team at Mailmodo are the pioneers in the AMP email space.
In the podcast, Aquibur Rahman talks about starting up, the future of emails, studying at Super 30 for IIT JEE under the famous professor, Mr. Anand Kumar, and more!
Aquibur Rahman's profile: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aquibur/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aquibur_rah... Mailmodo's profile: Website: https://www.mailmodo.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mail...Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mailmododot... Happy watch!
Time codes:
0:00 - Introduction
0:40 - What inspires Aquib
3:12 - Idea behind Mailmodo
8:55 - Future of emails
11:53 - Co-founders
13:19 - Life before and after starting up
15:32 - Influence of Super 30
18:53 - Marketing career by chance
21:05 - Leaving job
22:42 - On innovative entrepreneurship
25:00 - Key takeaways
Mabel Chacko is a serial entrepreneur with 15+ years of experience in the financial technology space and the founder of multi-million dollar startup - Open (https://www.bankopen.co/). Backed by Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital, Open is Asia's leading "Neo Bank". However, it was not all champagne and roses to start with for her. In the podcast, she covers her aspirational journey, some key learnings coming out of past setbacks while giving us a glimpse of what the future of Fintech looks like in the coming years.
Mabel Chacko's profile: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mabelchacko/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mabelchacko/
Open's profile: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bankwithopen/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bankwithopen/ Happy watch!
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:46 - What is a "Neo bank" 5:10 - The Neo banking sector 6:55 - Story behind Open 10:33 - Evolution of startup community since 2007 14:00 - Starting out and challenges faced 19:00 - Living on the edge (hardships) 22:44 - Why Open clicked and key learnings 28:15 - How to figure out real customers (real life example!) 33:50 - Where is FinTech heading? (Embedded FinTech) 35:54 - Probing questions by investors 38:51 - Parting advice
About Buyside Hippies Buyside Hippies originated with an intent to give audience a taste of how various levers of entrepreneurship and high finance work towards generating value. Our podcasts are also available on Youtube, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
Website: https://www.buysidehippies.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/buyside-hippies/?viewAsMember=true
Instagram: @buysidehippies https://www.instagram.com/buysidehippies/
Team Aseem Mehra: @arhem97 (https://www.instagram.com/arhem97/)
Ananthu Santhosh: @ananthu.sk (https://www.instagram.com/ananthu.sk/)
Apoorva's journey is truly aspirational. An IIT Kanpur alumni, Apoorva is all set to be part of investment team of Insight Partners (world's leading technology focussed PE fund - https://www.insightpartners.com/) in India. He started his career in an operations role at the Indian conglomerate, ITC, before pivoting to take up an investing role in the esteemed impact fund - Omidyar Network India.
Apoorva Goyal's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apoorvago...
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:58 - Inspiration 7:35 - Starting career in operations 13:06 - Interesting switch to Omidyar 18:25 - How is Omidyar different from other VCs? 25:12 - Why go for an MBA? 28:22 - Profiles from India getting admitted 35:12 - Adv. of having pre-MBA PE experience 37:35 - Competitive process for getting post-MBA PE job 40:11 - Take on legacy students at HBS 42:41 - Future plans
Tanishq is currently building Skyber - focused on building a useful; a useful Saas offering for small businesses across India. An NMIMS BBA dropout, he started his first business when he was 15, right out of school. From working in the surveillance industry to learning graphic designing, Tanishq has done it all. Today, we have him on the podcast to understand his unconventional journey.
Tanishq Ambegaokar's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanishqambegaokar/
Timecodes: 0:06 - Introduction 1:04 - Business from an early age 6:30 - On dropping out from NMIMS 9:02 - Finding the right co-founder 10:30 - Lessons as an early founder 13:45 - About Skyber 15:24 - Re-thinking Enterprise SaaS 19: 40 - Flagship product: Dhanda 21:45 - Genesis of Skyber 26:04 - Funding and scaling up
Saumya is the Co-founder of AgriTech startup called Kheyti - which helps farmers in India gain a steady, dependable income through its “Greenhouse-in-a-Box”, a low-cost greenhouse kit bundled with financing and market linkage services.
In the podcast, Saumya takes us through her incredible journey, from leaving IB, starting up, getting the prestigious Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management MBA, paying off student loan and more.
PS: Saumya is currently on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list!
Saumya Sahay's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saumyasahay/
Time codes:
0:00 - Introduction 0:43 - Problem statement for Kheyti 4:04 - Story behind pivot from IB to Social Entrepreneurship 8:25 - Can NPO space offer a comfortable life? 12:03 - Women entrepreneurs in India 15:00 - Synergies between co-founders 17:40 - Leaving YellowLeaf for a Kellog MBA
India's first A.I powered matchmaking app., Betterhalf.ai - India’s most trusted AI matrimony app, recently raised a Pre-Series A round last week from marque investors such as Kunal Shah, S2 Capital and Y Combinator.
Today we are in a conversation with it's CEO & Co-founder - Pawan Gupta. An MIT Sloan School of Management alum, Pawan gives a peek into how his differentiated product is winning the matrimony market from likes of Tinder and Bumble.
Joaquín Rodriguez is the CFO of Frankie The King (https://frankietheking.com/), backed by leading VC firm - Lanai Partners. Today, his startup is dominating the Spanish markets & is planning to expand to other European & South American countries.
Joaquín profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaquinrguez/
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction to startup & product offering 2:41 - Dogs are integrated into Spanish culture 5:45 - How did startup scale-up 8:50 - Leaving Deloitte for Entrepreneurship 11:48 - Convincing Lanai Partners for seed money 13:45 - Top learnings
Private Equity industry is an exclusive close knit community of finance professionals in India which employees a handful of people who manage & invest billions of dollars for their LPs (providers of capital).
Kashica Agarwal, an Ex-McKinsey BA & St. Stephen's College alum, on the podcast, talks about how to land the coveted buyside offer while covering finer aspects of the process such as recruiting cycle, involvement of headhunters, common Q&As etc.
Kashica Agarwal's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kashica-a...
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 1:19 - What is PE & why it's prestigious 3:28 - Choosing PE over consulting 5:48 - How does buyside hiring work 11:10 - Understanding interview rounds & preparation 17:38 - Number of new hires annually in a fund 18:52 - Tips for PE aspirants 20:44 - Why 2+ years of work ex is not viewed positively 22:37 - Converting pre-MBA role to track role? 23:35 - Do PE firms fund MBA
Divyanshu Damani has it all - fame, success, a multi-million dollar startup called TagMango (https://www.tagmango.com/) backed by some of the most respected investors in the startup world including Y-Combinator, Twitch Founder & XRM Media.
However, there is an element of immense struggle, major heartbreaks & frequent setbacks to this Dosco & Xavier graduate’s story which doesn’t meet the eye. On our podcast, Divyanshu shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey while exploring important themes such as right way to network, hustler’s mindset and the power of execution to find success.
Divyanshu Damani's profile:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divyanshuda...
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyanshu...
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:50 - On TagMango & growth 4:10 - Idea behind name 7:54 - Process behind onboarding Micro Influencers 9:37 - Differentiation from other platforms 12:30 - Future growth & business model 14:01 - Incredible journey to becoming an influencer 16:36 - Divyanshu discovering "INFLUENCE" 19:30 - Sharing setbacks & creating opportunities 24:34 - Story behind convincing YC for funding 28:44 - Top 3 learnings from YC program 33:05 - Turning point 35:46 - How to Network 40:12 - Skill needed to succeed
Have you ever thought what it takes to build a consumer business from scratch? If no, then you are in here for a treat.
Aditya Kaji, a Harvard Business School Alum, is redefining healthy snacking experience with his startup - Taali Foods (https://www.taalifoods.com/), backed by Y-Combinator (https://www.ycombinator.com/companies...). In the podcast, he shares his incredible journey while emphasizing on pivotal skills he picked up at Booz & Company and Reliance Jio, which are useful to him for running his million dollar venture. Further, Aditya provides a fresh perspective and insights on Harvard Business School & what makes it different from other top B-Schools.
Aditya Kaji's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-ka...
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:29 - Idea behind Taali Foods 1:58 - On scaling up the business 4:17 - Why name "Taali Foods" 5:25 - Understanding FMCG with Booz & Company 6:20 - Extraordinary experience at Reliance Jio 9:32 - Secret recipe to success in Entreprenuership 11:42 - Changing strategy due to Covid-19 13:39 - Why Entreprenuership over Job 16:18 - What differentiates Harvard MBA 19:42 - Who gets admitted to HBS 21:17 - HBS for career switchers & explorers? 23:21 - Entrepreneurship Pre MBA vs Post MBA
An investor with Onnivation (part of the founding team) by profession and a music artist by passion (https://soundcloud.com/mudit-dugar), Mudit decodes in the podcast what it takes to have a shot at any of the world's top MBA program.
Listen to Mudit Dugar share interesting insights on Israeli business landscape, learnings from investment Banking while answering questions around preparation for a stellar MBA application.
Time code 0:00 - Introduction 1:15 - I-Banking 3:04 - Importance of inner circle 4:12 - Exploring beyond banking 6:07 - Starting up & Israel exposure 7:33 - Why is Israel a pioneer in tech? 9:20 - Synergies between India & Israel 12:04 - Foreign B-Schools vs Indian B-Schools 15:55 - MBA for entreprenurship? 18:02 - Rationale for pursuing MBA 19:19 - Tips for starting MBA prep 22:50 - Take on MBA consultants 26:31 - How B-Schools view work exp.? 30:40 - Value of startup experience 33:39 - Corporate experience before startup 36:05 - What the future holds
Rathin Shah is the Co-founder and CEO of Spenny (https://spennyapp.com/), a Y-Combinator backed startup building a one-stop asset management solution for millennials.
The idea of Spenny is that every time a user make any digital transaction, they round off the amount to the nearest 10 INR and invest it into a diversified portfolio, automatically. Previously, Rathin founded one of India’s fastest growing clean-tech startups, and won multiple Government of India awards and grants, eventually leading to an exit. Before moving into entrepreneurship he had a brief stints at JP Morgan Chase and KPMG.
In the interview he touches upon how he made a life changing decision of rejecting an MBA admit from INSEAD to join EF, a startup accelerator where he met his Co-founder Gaurav Arora. That crucial decision ultimately opened doors to Y-Combinator that became a launchpad for Spenny. He also explains two crucial mistakes made at each of his ventures that became huge learning lessons for him.
Time codes 0:00 - Introduction 1:00 - The genesis of Spenny 3:52 - Vision as a founder 5:48 - Life at BITS Goa and corporate jobs 7:15 - Interesting sabbatical 14:15 - Meeting his Co-founder 16:15 - What if you can't make it to YC 23:10 - Mistakes as a founder
Mudit is the latest addition to Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his groundbreaking and inspiring work in the Indian HealthTech space. He is heading India's leading startup focussed on building life saving health monitoring device - @Dozee Health (https://www.dozee.io/).
Before donning his entrepreneurship hat, Mudit (An IIT Bombay graduate) started his professional journey as a race car engineer. He has an understanding of Healthcare industry like no other and his team uses their expertise in Artificial Intelligence with an aim to save millions of lives daily. In 2020, Dozee had 2 seed rounds totalling about $2m from the leading Indian VC firms such as 3one4, Prime Venture and YourNest, which represents the confidence the market places on this innovative and revolutionary product.
Time codes 0:00 - Introduction 1:15 - How does Dozee work 9:15 - On Healthcare & post Covid-19 world 15:22 - Dealing with uncertainty & failure 19:41 - Perspective after major setback 22:13 - Vision for Dozee & Self 25:53 - Thoughts on MBA
Co-founder and CEO of Credgenics, Rishabh Goel shares his incredible journey on the podcast. A number crunching enthusiast, he was passionate about entrepreneurship since his early days at IIT Delhi. It was what led him to seek certain experiences and skills in his professional career at Deutsche Bank and BlackRock. After years of ideations and iterations, today Rishab is heading a million dollar high growth B2B startup which is set to revolutionize debt recovery and NPA management in India. Credgenics prides in being India's leading recovery and collections platform with the aim of 'Converting Bad Debts into Good Assets'. It is a brilliant amalgamation of litigation, finance and technology to create exceptional value in the financial sector. Credgenics has recently raised ₹27cr from leading investors such as Accel India, Titan Capital and Kunal Shah of CRED in their pre-Series A round, which sends a strong signal to the market that they are here to stay for the long game. Towards the end, he also addresses the buzz around Credgenics' intention to raise money in the future.
Time codes 0:00 - Introduction 0:44 - Credgenics' genesis & tackling NPA crisis 4:35 - How Credgenics contains bad debts 10:47 - Covid19 induced growth for Credgenics 11:52 - Rishabh's journey to entrepreneurship 16:22 - On taking calculated risks in life 20:50 - Imp. of pivoting for product market fit 22:30 - Co-founders & the chemistry decoded 26:38 - Buzz around fundraise for Credgenics
Sagar is the Co-founder of goDutch (https://www.godutchpay.in/), which is changing the way group payments are settled among people. goDutch recently raised $1.7mn from top VC firms such as Matrix Partners and Y Combinator. An IIT Bombay alumni, Sagar started his professional career with a consulting stint at A.T Kearney and followed it up with an envious investing experience at Eight Roads Ventures.
Time code: 0:00 - Introduction 0:48 - Idea behind goDutch 3:26 - DIfferentiation from other popular apps (Eg. Splitwise) 5:20 - Sagar's professional jounrey 7:53 - Work at Venture Capital 9:31 - Upskilling for entreprenuership 13:13 - Venture Capital vs Consulting 16:03 - Advice for future entrepreneurs
Today, we were in conversation with CA Dhruv Bakshi - Associate at a Global Investment Bank. On the podcast, Dhruv decodes his journey from being a CA with KPMG to making an important pivot to Investment Banking.
Time codes: 0:00 - Introduction 1:19 - What is PE & why it's prestigious 3:28 - Choosing PE over consulting 5:48 - How does buyside hiring work 11:10 - Understanding interview rounds & preparation 17:38 - Number of new hires annually in a fund 18:52 - Tips for PE aspirants 20:44 - Why 2+ years of work ex is not viewed positively 22:37 - Converting pre-MBA role to track role? 23:35 - Do PE firms fund MBA