In this episode, Aprameya Radhakrishna (Co-founder @Koo, Vokal & TaxiForSure), joins our host Digjay, to talk about his path leading up to entrepreneurship, founding TFS & exiting to Ola, founding Vokal & Koo to build the vernacular ecosystem for India, identifying people that can act as a sounding board, retaining talent, fundraising lessons & more.
Koo is a regional language microblogging and social networking platform with >$10mm users, while Vokal is India’s largest vernacular Q&A platform. Prior to Vokal & Koo, Aprameya founded TaxiForSure, a cab hailing platform which was later acquired by Ola for $200mm in 2015. An IIM-Ahmedabad alum, Aprameya is also an active angel investor in the ecosystem & has invested in startups like Pocket Aces, Unacademy, TapChief & Daily Ninja among others. You can connect with him here on Linkedin/Twitter.
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Show notes:
- (01:30) Aprameya’s background & path leading up to entrepreneurship - founding Taxi For Sure (TFS)
- (04:53) Inspiration to start Vokal after the TFS exit
- (07:40) Key challenges faced when building the vernacular ecosystem for Bharat
- (13:42) Learnings as a 2nd time entrepreneur
- (15:45) Decentralizing your organization as you scale; Building a sounding board that can provide you unbiased feedback
- (20:02) Retaining & building a talent pipeline
- (23:10) Lessons on fundraising; Onboarding investors that align with your vision and have the patience & appetite to back you in the long run
- (29:28) Value add from growth stage investors
- (32:15) Rapid fire and closing remarks
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