Kunal Shah, Founder of CRED, and Mukesh Bansal, Founder of Myntra and Cult.Fit, discuss topics such as risk-taking, goal-oriented mindset, navigating crises, and the influence of culture on entrepreneurship. They also touch upon personal growth, the importance of truth seeking, and the evolving dating culture in India.
Entrepreneurship requires sacrificing peace for extreme goals and embracing crisis as opportunities for growth.
Prioritizing product quality over valuations and celebrating craftsmanship creates a culture of pride and excellence.
Insights are crucial for success, requiring strong opinions, interdisciplinary knowledge, and making broad connections.
The pursuit of excellence involves valuing product quality, thinking beyond boundaries, and using analogies for insight generation.
Deep dives
The Importance of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is a challenging journey that involves solving hard problems and becoming the absorber of uncertainty. It requires sacrificing peace for the pursuit of extreme goals and embracing crisis as opportunities for growth. The celebration of valuations and unicorns is pointless, as success should be measured by profitability and creating value. India's biggest job problem is the status-driven culture that makes it difficult for people to be shameless and take risks. Maturity, rather than success or failure, is guaranteed in the entrepreneurial journey.
Product Craftsmanship and Attention to Detail
Product craftsmanship is a key focus for successful entrepreneurs. It involves obsessing over the small details to create consumer delight and constantly seeking unique insights for strategy and communication. Prioritizing product quality over quick fundraising and celebrating valuations is crucial. By setting high standards and attracting people who share the same commitment to excellence, companies can create a culture of pride and craftsmanship. Product obsession requires an understanding of consumer insights and marrying different domains to generate impactful ideas.
The Importance of Insights
Having deep insights into Indian consumers and society is vital for entrepreneurs. Insights are the intersections of different domains and can drive product features, strategies, and decisions. To develop good insights, it is necessary to have a strong opinion and pursuit of truth. Seeking connections between different topics, thinking in analogies, and having exposure to diverse fields can help generate valuable insights. Insights require reflection, interdisciplinary knowledge, and the ability to make broad connections.
The Pursuit of Excellence
The pursuit of excellence is a driving force for entrepreneurship. It involves embracing craftsmanship, valuing product quality over valuations, and attracting people dedicated to excellence. A commitment to excellence creates a culture of innovation, attention to detail, and constant improvement. Sharing and celebrating the pride of creating exceptional products helps retain talented individuals. The pursuit of excellence requires thinking beyond conventional boundaries, seeking connections, and valuing analogies as powerful tools for insight generation.
The Importance of Insights and Testing
Insights are crucial in determining successful ideas, and a genuine moment of realization often indicates an insight. However, insights need to be tested for effectiveness. For example, stand-up comedians may think a joke is hilarious, but it may not receive the expected reaction from the audience. The application and testing phase is vital in determining the viability of an insight.
Observation and Pattern Recognition
Observation and finding patterns are key elements in understanding the factors that lead to certain outcomes. By closely observing behavior and situations, patterns can be discovered, providing insights into how and why things happen. For instance, the observation of people who take risks in judgment led to the discovery that some of them had also cheated on exams, indicating a connection between risk-taking behavior and judgment.
Importance of Second-Order Thinking
Second-order thinking involves considering the long-term implications and potential consequences of decisions and actions. Early exposure to strategic games enhances the development of second-order thinking skills. Although other activities that foster second-order thinking are not as prevalent, leveraging technology, such as using GPD, can aid in generating and testing complex questions and ideas.
In this episode, Mukesh Bansal (Founder Myntra and Cult.Fit) is in conversation with Mr. Kunal Shah, Founder of CRED, one of India’s leading fintech company that disrupted the market ever since it launched in 2018. Being one of the most successful people in the business today, Kunal has established a top spot amongst the Indian consumer base.
He reflects on studying Philosophy and his love for creating good products. From angel investing in early start-ups to believing in the power of compounding habits, Kunal shares some of his insights of how to work towards your goals and ultimately reach your dream target.
Be sure to tune into this insightful conversation between these two leading founders and gain some insider information on cracking your entrepreneurial journey!
00:00 - 1:00 Sneak Peak of the Episode! 1:01 - 2:00 Introducing our Guest: Kunal Shah! 2:01 - 7:01 Kunal’s takeaways from Elon Musk’s biography by Walter Isaacson 7:02 - 11:27 Does creating an artificial sense of emergency help a business? 11:28 - 13:48 Giving it your all for your goals 13:49 - 20:52 “Playing safe is a risky strategy”…Kunal on risk taking 20:53 - 22:43 Navigating risk taking and crises 22:44 - 27:54 Kunal shares about his difficult teenage years 27:55 - 33:03 ‘Feedback Repellers’ & ‘Feed Attracters’ 33:04 - 37:40 Learning life lessons from Entrepreneurship 37:41 - 42:08 Kunal looks back on studying Philosophy 42:09 - 43:30 Importance of ‘Truth Seeking’ in every aspect of life 43:31 - 51:35 Kunal’s love for product finesse 51:36 - 54:05 Making a good product reflects in your pride 54:06 - 58:13 “Reading your market”: Understanding the analytics to make a fit product 58:14 - 1:04:00 Kunal’s take on ‘acquiring exposure’ 1:04:01 - 1:11:57 Your adversities shape the kind of person you’ll be 1:11:58 - 1:16:57 Compounding Habits: Your best bet for the right path 1:16:58 - 1:21:02 Kunal explains Why Angel Investing? 1:21:03 - 1:23:00 Mukesh & Kunal on importance of free time 1:23:01 - 1:29:17 Core values required for a Start-Up 1:29:18 - 1:31:19 Choosing your level of work and opportunity 1:31:20 - 1:36:19 Kunal and Mukesh take up some case studies in the Indian Market 1:36:20 - 1:40:25 Kunal highlights on the lacking aspects of India’s industrial growth 1:40:26 - 1:43:51 Kunal shares some of his insights
About SparX by Mukesh Bansal
SparX is a podcast where we delve into the cutting-edge scientific research, stories from impact-makers and tools for unlocking the secrets to human potential and growth. We believe that entrepreneurship, fitness and the science of productivity is at the forefront of the India Story; the country is at the cusp of greatness and at SparX, we wish to make these tools accessible for every generation of Indians to be able to make the most of the opportunities around us.
In a new episode every Sunday, our host Mukesh Bansal (Founder Myntra and Cult.fit) will talk to guests from all walks of life and also break down everything he's learnt about the science of impact over the course of his 20-year long career. This is the India Century, and we're enthusiastic to start this journey with you.
Follow us on Instagram: @sparxbymukeshbansal Website: https://www.sparxbymukeshbansal.com You can also listen to SparX on all audio platforms Fasion | Outbreak | Courtesy EpidemicSound.com
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