The Neon Show Rahul Chowdhri, Stellaris Ventures on surge of Direct to Consumer brands in India
Oct 11, 2020
42:58
In this episode of 100x Entrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the investment thesis of Rahul Chowdhri, behind investments in D2C, E-commerce & Edtech platforms like - Mamaearth, Shop101, & Swiflearn respectively.We also discuss the common question a new founder thinks about while entering the Edtech sector, “Is the Indian Edtech sector saturated with the large players like Byju’s, Unacademy, and other presents in the market?”.Rahul’s insights which we discuss during the podcast are on -Notes - 00:56 - His journey from working at BCG to joining Helion Ventures & then founding Stellaris Venture Partners03:25 - Sectors at which he looks after - Consumer Retail, Edtech, Agritech, Horizontal Content & Social Network platforms04:07 - Thesis behind investing in Mamaearth - Founder’s understanding of brand-perspective & online-thinking11:14 - Can digital-first D2C brands achieve $100M+ ARR & achieve $500M+ Valuation?12:10 - Moats which digital-first D2C brands can build to stay ahead of competitors14:10 - Indian D2C brands which he admires and why - OZiva, FableStreet, Yoga Bar16:35 - Are there still opportunities left for new players in Edtech, with large businesses like Byju’s & Unacademy already present?20:10 - Thesis behind investing in Swiflearn and the problem they are solving? 25:56 - Thesis behind investing in Shop101 & the company’s growth so far30:21 - Investments where their thesis didn’t work out and what were their learnings from it?36:53 - Biases among VCs & founders about “What models & monetizations would work out?”