Indian Silicon Valley

In this episode, I (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Jivraj Singh Sachar⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) speak with Saahil Goel, Co-Founder & CEO of Shiprocket.  Shiprocket is building India’s largest E-Commerce Enabler, with the wedge of being the leading player in logistics and now expanding into other ancillary categories that simplify the lives of independent e-commerce merchants.  Shiprocket is a special company and we decode much of their 10+ year journey to get here. I ask Saahil questions around the pivots, the behind the scenes in logistics, the culture and many more aspects that help us understand more around the business model of Shiprocket.  This was a special conversation as Saahil brings a lot of clarity and structure to company building. Tune in for a great one, But before we get started,  here is a quick word on our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://strideventures.in/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Hope you liked the 134th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Building India’s Largest E-Commerce Enabler! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (⁠⁠⁠⁠@Jivraj Singh Sachar⁠⁠⁠⁠) speak with Bala Sarda, Founder & CEO of Vahdam India. Vahdam is one of India’s first consumer brands to go global from Day 1 and establish an incredible presence across global markets. Almost 90% of Vahdam’s revenues continue to come from international geographies with heavy presence in the US & Europe. With this global presence as the central theme, I chat with Bala, a very illustrious founder with built in Entrepreneurial DNA. His early influences of seeing business within the family and then starting out very early as a student provide a glimpse into what the early founder sparks look like.  Through the episode, we discuss what it means to build an international supply chain and expand geoprahically, while building trust and confidence with foreign consumers. The story of Vahdam is a playbook for any aspiring founder, looking to someday establish a brand from India for the World. This conversation has been pending for long and I am so glad we could finally get it in! To all consumer brand lovers, you will thoroughly enjoy this one. But before we get started,  here is a quick word on our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - ⁠⁠⁠https://strideventures.in/⁠⁠⁠ Hope you liked the 133rd Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Building a Global Consumer Brand from India! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (⁠⁠⁠@Jivraj Singh Sachar⁠⁠⁠) speak with Asad Khan, Co-Founder & CEO of Lambda Test. Asad is one of the most fascinating founders I’ve had on the show, as he exhibits the founder experience from both a bootstrapped mindset, having built a multi-million dollar services business and the venture mindset, building a global product giant currently. Lambda Test is working towards becoming the AWS of Testers, covering more than a million developers and 500 enterprises currently! They are one of the most disruptive DevTools companies being built from India.  Considering the innovative nature of what Asad is building and the massic scope ahead, I tried to be mindful of the insights we could derive from his journey. Through the episode, we focus on tactical aspects around hiring senior leaders, looking out for great talent, the importance of storytelling internally at a growth oriented fast-moving company, GTM strategies that worked and that did not, trying to uncover how Lambda Test got here. I thoroughly enjoyed Asad’s insights on the show and strongly recommend sticking around till the end. But before we get started, here is a quick word on our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - ⁠⁠https://strideventures.in/⁠⁠ Hope you liked the 132nd Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Building the AWS of Testers! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (⁠⁠@Jivraj Singh Sachar⁠⁠) speak with Manish Chowdhary , Co-Founder of WOW. Manish is one of the OG Consumer Founders in the country, having built a very purposeful consumer brand in and from India, pioneering many of the brand building concepts that many Indian companies now follow. WOW has become a leader in the space, not just nationally but also internationally - proving the potential of homegrown consumer brands in global markets.  Breaking down the journey through this episode was absolutely insightful, we discovered how Manish has built WOW, going deep into the brand building process, including global expansion, new product development and focus areas for brands. This is an absolute gem of an episode, stay tuned till the end for some very actionable learnings. Before we get started, here is a quick word on our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - ⁠https://strideventures.in/⁠ Hope you liked the 131st Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Pioneering Brand Building in India! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Rangarajan Krishanan, CEO of Five Star Finance. Rangarajan’s persona is a bit beyond the norm on the podcast, as he is not a direct founder nor an investor. Rangarajan is the CEO who joined Five Star Finance as an outsider, but in the 7 years that he has been around he has led the company to a Public Listing on the NSE and is gearing up for a phenomenal run as the CEO of a Public Company in India. His thoughts around starting up, company building, talent & culture are very fascinating in a world of venture funded startups. This conversation is very different from the usual episodes on the show as it displays some very interesting old economy + new economy insights. Five Star Finance is a MSME lending company with almost 6000 crores in disbursements through a brand led model mostly prevalent in the south of India currently. Interestingly, Five Star holds the unique badge of being the Oldest Unicorn in the country having started almost 34 years back as a traditional business. I chat with Rangarajan on how this journey has unfolded and his learnings along the way. We discuss some very fascinating aspects of company building and lending in FinTech. This mostly revolves around the underwriting, collections and expansion process at Five Star - decoding the business model in depth. Further, we understand how starting up needs to be organic and what alternative ways to blitzscaling, talent curation and founder growth might be. This episode is very interesting to say the least, stick around for some phenomenal insights from the CEO of a Public Company in India! But before we get started, here is a quick word on our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 130th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Being the CEO of an Indian Public Company! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

Today is 1st January and I felt it would be best to have a breezy message rather today & continue the series next Sunday onwards. As we get started with 2023, I am figuring out what I can do differently with the podcast. One exciting bit that I have been working upon is building Indian Silicon Valley Capital, more on that soon! Beyond ISV Capital, I am convinced that there should be more formats on the podcast. So what we’re going to do very soon is have video content, recorded in great set-ups and re-purposed in a lot of shorter format content. This is a format I’ve been meaning to try out for a while and I am glad to share that hopefully by the end of Q1 this year, we should have something to show for. I also want to try more vertical series on the podcast, so maybe we do a 4-6 series dedicated to certain themes - Public Company CEOs, C Suite Operators at Indian Unicorns, Angel Investors, etc. There is lots that can be done, and I would love to implement what you would like to consumer. Do share with me your thoughts on these ideas, and I’ll keep brewing fascinating content from the world of Indian Startups. This year is probably going to be the bear run, but bull or bear - the Podcast is here to bring some of deepest insights from the Indian Startup Ecosystem. Stay Tuned & Keep Building! Wishing you all again, a Very Happy New Year!

In this Episode, we take a look back at 2022, revisiting the year that it has been and some of the best episodes on the show.  Wishing everyone listening, Merry Christmas and a great close to the year, 2022. It’s been another year since the podcast has been running and I could not be more thankful to all of you for listening and supporting this journey. As we conclude the year, I figured it would be interesting to try a different format and summarise the year, instead of a new Episode! And so through the episode, I go ahead and share a brief recap of the year that it has been for the Podcast, along with some very interesting best episodes + learnings through the year.  We published 51 Episodes through the year before this one, which included 3 masterclasses and 48 episodes as a part of the general series without missing a single week of publishing through the year.  From covering Gaming to Logistics to FinTech to Real Estate, this year had some of the most mature conversations on the podcast! Looking back, I have so many favorites - highlighting some is very difficult, but let me try. We had some great Venture Episodes through the year, including the one with Vikram of Matrix, Hemant of General Catalyst, Deven of Insight, Mridul of Elevation, Vaibhav of Better. The common learnings through these episodes around business cycles, sustainably winning, building culture at VC Funds and pattern recognition are a gold mine of insights. If you're looking to understand the Venture World better, this is a great place to dive deeper.  I hosted some of the best Founders in the ecosystem through the year. Some unforgettable episodes include the ones with Vasanth of smallcase, Rohit of Darwinbox, Sai of MPL, Ankush of ShareChat, Ankit of CureFoods, Shashank of The Whole Truth, Gaurav of Yubi, Awais of Pixxel, Pratham of Masters’ Union and Ruchi of Oxyzo. All of these episodes and the others, highlight distinct founder traits and learnings from journeys’ which exhibit great perseverance, grit and passion for building. I am so grateful to have started the podcast and I continue to cherish each & every new conversation on the show. I would like to thank you all for supporting us through another very interesting year for the Startup Ecosystem and hope I can add value to your lives via the podcast, with each new Episode. Thank you, Stay Tuned & Keep Building. Wishing you all a great close to 2022! --- Special thanks to our sponsor for these episodes, Stride Ventures. Here is a quick note on them: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Mohit Sadaani, Co-Founder of The Moms Co.  The Moms Co. is one of India’s OG Consumer Brands, which has now gone through the entire circle of starting up, scaling and now exiting. I speak with Mohit on how this journey has unfolded and what it means to have gone through this roller coaster ride in full. Considering his vantage point, there were a bunch of aspects to touch upon. From Brand Building in the 2017s to what is now. From D2C being a sales channel to realising the need for greater synergies in order for the brand to outlast the founders and team members. From the integration of employees to the role of Luck. We uncover some very fascinating insights from Mohit through the conversation, which are super relevant for consumer founders and operators. Stick around till the end for some very practical and tangible learnings. Here is a quick word about our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 129th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - The Full Circle of Building a Consumer Brand in India! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Pratham Mittal, Founder & CEO of Masters' Union.  Pratham is transforming the face of Indian Higher Education by establishing a premier institution, which is championing the most advanced form of practitioner led education globally. Masters’ Union is an MBA equivalent for candidates who have completed under graduation and some years of corporate experience, and are now looking for the next jump in terms of career advancement, understanding of entrepreneurship by grasping actionable skills taught by professionals who have been there done that. MU is one of the most disruptive education companies in a long time and Pratham shares his learnings of building an Educational Institution from scratch. The next 90 odd minutes capture some of the most interesting insights on Education at large, as I deeply question the ways in which Pratham is approaching this transformation. We uncover a bunch of topics through the episode, this includes what’s broken in Education, what MU is currently doing, why and how is that method is not scalable, what’s next for MU, how to be outcomes focused, what student obsession and transformation looks like, and how founders can best upskill themselves, amongst a bunch of other fascinating things. This is one of my favourite episodes on the show, and I strongly hope you stick around till the end to understand why. Here is a quick word about our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 128th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Transforming Indian Higher Education! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Raj Sarkar, Marketing Legend who has served as the ex-CMO at 1Password, Marketing Head at Atlassian and Google earlier.  In today’s ecosystem, while there are un-ending trade secrets to the world of B2C Marketing, B2B Marketing remains to be a black box. Raj has had a very interesting journey in the world of Marketing, standing out significantly in Silicon Valley. I chat with him through the episode uncovering his learnings from being an incredible Marketer. In the next couple of minutes, I ask Raj about his journey to break in to Marketing, about his day to day as a CMO and in the process uncover what it means to crack it as a Marketer, what skills are required and can be learned and how to navigate a career in Marketing. This is an absolute gold mine of lessons when it comes to Enterprise Marketing, and there could be no better person to share insights on the subject. Before we get started, here is a quick word on our sponsor for the episode: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 8th Masterclass on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast @Marketing with Raj Sarkar! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Ankit Mehrotra, Co-Founder & CEO of Dineout ($200 Mn exit to Swiggy). Dineout is of the pioneers of the Indian restaurant industry having digitised multiple aspects of the value chain, uncovering massive restaurant footprint and value add. Ankit along with his co-founders has gone through a very interesting decade long journey to build out Dineout. In 10+ years they have added multiple companies to their business suite, expanded product offering on both the B2C and B2B sides, fought the COVID wave and finally gotten acquired by Swiggy, recently. The next 60 minutes is an absolute masterclass for anyone fascinated by the restaurant industry. Ankit shares the entire story of Dineout, including the early days, the ups and downs & the eventual acquisition. We also discuss what it means to run a restaurant and understand the components required to scale it. And we decode how Dineout managed inorganic growth both as an acquirer and an acquired org, alongside many other very interesting business lessons. $200 Million Exit after 10 years of Business Brilliance, this episode is a true testament to the building journey and what happens in the background. Stick around for the entire episode for incredible insights, but before we get started here is a quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 127th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Transforming the Indian Restaurant-Tech Ecosystem! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder of Polygon. Sandeep & Team are leading the Web3 wave from India for the World. Polygon is by far the largest protocol built out of India, and it continues to raise the bar by leading many innovative breakthroughs in the Crypto Ecosystem. Through the next 60 minutes, we uncover how Sandeep & team have gotten this far. This journey has been massively challenging, but we are finally at the forefront of leading tech thanks to Polygon. We discuss the continuous innovation evident at Polygon, understand how to build brilliant teams, decode what it was like earlier and what it is like now, while going deeper into the impacts of incidents like the recent FTX crash. Sandeep has been super candid throughout this conversation, and I can assure you a plethora of brilliant insights through this entire episode. But before we get started, here is a quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 126th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Leading the Web3 wave from India for the World! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Vaibhav Domkundwar, Founder of Better Capital. Vaibhav is India’s leading Solo General Partner, having founded Better Capital and leading it to become one of the most promising early stage venture funds in the country. Built on top of fundamentals such as early conviction, phenomenal speed in decision making and compounded network effects, Better has successfully invested in more than 250 companies to date, some of which include the incredible institutions such as Open Bank, Slice, M2P, Rupeek, Teachmint and many more! Through the next 90 minutes, we uncover how Vaibhav has established Better Capital in the ecosystem and paved the way for the next generation of Solo Capitalists in the country. We discuss his framework of investing, building conviction, process of identifying relevant markets with a forward looking lens, the importance of systems thinking in building scalable mechanisms and understand deeply how he thinks about portfolio construction, portfolio support at scale and building a brand by writing in public. This episode has Vaibhav share a plethora of compounded learnings in the most candid manner I have heard and I have cherished each part of the conversation. I am certain you will too, but before we get started, here is a quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 125th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Becoming India's #1 Solo GP! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with MSR, CEO of T-Hub. T-Hub is India’s leading Innovation Hub paving the way for multiple ecosystems to connect and interact with each other in order to ensure the sustainable growth of startups coming from Hyderabad and around. Srinivas Rao Mahankali, popularly known as MSR has been a serial entrepreneur, having built successful companies in the past. His experience over 3 long decades in the ecosystem is incredibly valuable and we decode much of that and more through this insightful conversation. Through the episode, we uncover MSR’s journey, the T-Hub fundamentals of startup building, the nature of collaboration T-Hub facilitates and the programs that keep fueling the energy & passion. T-Hub has now completed 7 years since inception and it is exceptional how far it has come. To understand on a deeper note what it stands for and how MSR is leading the team to make it the world’s leading incubator was phenomenally wonderful. I am certain all of you listening will feel the same, but before we get started, here is a quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 124th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Building India's Leading Innovation Hub! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Amit Lakhotia, Founder of Park+ Park+ is disrupting the way we interact with the auto industry and lead day to day lives. When owning a 4 wheeler of any kind, there are multiple nuances on an everyday basis like parking, washing, identification, etc. Park+ is building the entire suite that solves for these problems and has soon emerged as a leader in the space. Amit is a career operator, having built incredible products, leading brilliant teams. He was at MakeMyTrip, Paytm and Tokopedia before starting Park+. All of these companies eventually went public and Amit shares with us the learnings from each and the journey to building Park+ We chatted for almost an hour, decoding the very fascinating nature of this problem statement and business. We understand how Amit cracked partnerships initially with the multiple stakeholders Park+ deals with, how they build a strong operational engine with hardware excellence, how they launch new cities and expand, how they structure the organization and how to scale effectively. I absolutely loved the granular practical insights from Amit and I am sure you will too, but before we get started, here is a quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 123rd Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast -  Disrupting the Day to Day Auto Industry! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Aniket Jindal, Co-Founder of Biconomy. Biconomy is building the infrastructure that shall enable Web3 to reach the masses. It is a cross-chain relayer infrastructure and transaction network that aims to help DApp users avoid complexities of the crypto ecosystem. Aniket started Biconomy with the vision of making crypto accessible by all in a simple, convenient manner. I chat with him and decode his journey of getting entrenched into the ecosystem and building Biconomy. Through the conversation we understand the turn of events that led him to get where he has, his fascination for the blockchain technology, his vision of the future and how Biconomy is achieving it bit by bit, navigating multiple interesting components including community, talent and partnerships. This was a fantastic conversation and I am sure all of you listening will have a great time. Before we get started, here is quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 122nd Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Enabling Web3 to reach the Masses! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Gaurav Mangla, Co-Founder & CEO of Pickrr. Pickrr is one of the largest logistics software companies in the country, having recently been acquired by Shiprocket for a whooping 200 Million Dollars. The Pickrr journey has been filled with a lot of twists and turns. Starting off as a core logistics player owning the fleet, then surviving with very little cash and doing an emergency angel round to stay afloat, pivoting the model and then finally finding scalable PMF, growing at an incredible velocity and eventually being acquired completing the full circle. I chat with Gaurav, the CEO of Pickrr to decode this phenomenal journey. We discuss his previous stint at company building, along with decoding the nuances of building a logistics business, the culture at Pickrr, as he shares with us his learnings in the most candid way I have witnessed. This has been a brilliant conversation and I am sure all of you listening will take back some very tactical learnings for company building. But before we get started, here is quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 120th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast -  Building the Most Efficient Lending Business! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Ruchi Kalra, CEO of Oxyzo and Co-Founder of OfBusiness. Oxyzo is the FinTech lending business built on top of OfBusiness. It is now a unicorn, raising a large Series A and having been self-funded by OfBusiness Cash-Flow for the longest time. Ruchi was a partner at McKinsey before starting OfBusiness. She comes from a core financial services background and was tailor made to have built a business like Oxyzo. I sit with her and chat about how they got here. We cover a bunch of aspects around the strong fundamentals at Oxyzo, the core insights, the culture and the seamless process that contributes to the efficient operational engine required to build a lending business. I thoroughly enjoyed this deep dive and I am sure all of you listening will have a great time. But before we get started, here is quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 120th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast -  Building the Most Efficient Lending Business! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Rishi Vasudev, Co-Founder of G.O.A.T Brand Labs. GOAT Brand Labs is a unique model to scale consumer brands under one umbrella via the roll-up model popularized largely last year. There was a surge of companies in this space but GOAT has managed to build its individuality and emerge as a leader. Rishi Vasudev, the founder of GOAT has been an incredibly prolific operator and leader of brands across verticals and companies. He has spent 20 years in the industry including a stint at Flipkart, starting GOAT as a seasoned practitioner. I sit with him to unravel the journey and understand how to scale D2C Brands. Through the conversation we discuss the playbook of scaling, the GOAT model of building brands, the org structure that facilitates a roll-up play and multiple aspects of differentiating the model & being deliberate about curating a world-class team. This was a fantastic conversation and I am sure all of you listening will have a great time. Before we get started, here is quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 119th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Scaling D2C Brands! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.

In this Episode, I (@Jivraj Singh Sachar) speak with Pawan Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Fashinza. Fashinza is a managed B2B marketplace in the fashion vertical, aggregating Indian SMEs on the supply side and selling to large international retailers on the demand side. It is disrupting the global fashion supply chain landscape and has soon emerged as the leader in the space. The company is valued at approximately $300 Million Dollars and is backed by some of the most prolific investors in the country such as Accel, Elevation Capital, WestBridge Capital and others. Pawan has previously built Curofy, which exited a couple of years back and this is his 2nd journey as a Founder. What Fashinza is building is extremely fascinating and more so because of how far it has come in a brief time span. I speak with Pawan through the next 50 minutes and uncover how they make it happen. We discuss the core aspects of what makes a marketplace successful and how teams can approach the same. We understand what A+ Talent Means, what growth stands for and how sustainable growth is a more adequate measure, alongside decoding the serial entrepreneur persona, and the operational processes that go behind building Fashinza. This is a special one as it reinforces multiple core principles as well as instills great global ambition as a listener. I am sure you will enjoy it a lot, but before we get started here is a quick word about our sponsor: Stride Ventures, which is one of India’s leading Venture Debt Funds, becoming synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. Stride provides comprehensive solutions, going beyond venture debt, to cater to distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading institutions. The fund has a portfolio of over 60+ diversified companies, having deployed more than Rupees 1500 Crore to date. In just over two years, Stride Ventures has emerged as the preferred venture debt lender in the Indian Ecosystem. To know more about this phenomenal fund, visit - https://strideventures.in/ Hope you liked the 118th Episode on the Indian Silicon Valley Podcast - Indian Fashion Manufacturing To The World! That was it from this Episode, thanks again for tuning in! :) If you liked the episode, do share with your friends or drop us a quick review! Also, do follow us on social media to stay updated with all new episodes: Twitter: https://twitter.com/isv_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/indian-silicon-valley-podcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiansiliconvalleypodcast/ Gallery of all Episodes: https://airtable.com/shrTOFf1z5UT0q9p8 You can also subscribe to the YouTube Channel of the Podcast : https://www.youtube.com/c/IndianSiliconValley/ "If you never try, you never know" Stay Tuned, Keep Building.