My guest is Indian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Kunal Shah who calls on his decades of entrepreneurial experience to discuss what he’s learned about what motivates people, and how observing trends hiding in plain sight has made him a runaway success in business. We also discuss the many cultural differences between India and the West, what he learned growing up in the family business and how he applies it today, observing reality, why he dropped out of an MBA program, strategies for decision-making, and so much more. -- Want even more? Members get early access, hand-edited transcripts, member-only episodes, and so much more. Learn more here: https://fs.blog/membership/ Every Sunday our Brain Food newsletter shares timeless insights and ideas that you can use at work and home. Add it to your inbox: https://fs.blog/newsletter/ Follow Shane on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ShaneAParrish

Discussing the success of Indian immigrants in tech, challenges and opportunities in the Indian market, the Delta 4 product framework, the power of curiosity and second-order thinking, and lessons from building CRED. Also, exploring user acquisition and revenue generation in India, founder's evolution, feedback and curiosity for success, second-order effects and decision-making, and product utility and positioning strategy.

My guest today is Kunal Shah, founder and CEO of CRED. When you think of India as a society, the motivations and psychology of consumers and how they interact with brands is fundamentally different than Western societies. There's a different philosophical value attributed to collectivism versus individualism. Trust finds itself aggregating in large entities and institutions and the Indian society often function in spite of itself versus with the same efficiency and structure in the west. But understanding these elements is critical to understanding what types of businesses succeed in India. And in today's episode, Kunal and I unpacked each of these philosophical elements amongst others, and applied them to different topics in Indian markets. Namely, why is the consumption class aggregated in approximately 1% of the population, why has credit been historically underutilized in India, and what are the characteristics needed to build a platform company for next generation India. Please enjoy my conversation with Kunal Shah.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   ----- Return On India is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Return On India, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @RomeenSheth | @joincolossus Show Notes [00:03:05] - [First question] - Applying Maslow’s hierarchy to collectivist Asian societies [00:05:30] - How cultural conceptions of time and efficiency affect Indian markets [00:08:32] - The influence of status-based values on spending patterns in Indian culture [00:11:42] - How Indians tend to invest in shared spaces and luxury goods [00:13:49] - Why Indian consumption favors soulfulness over standardization [00:18:16] - The importance of trust in Indian society and commerce [00:21:23] - The success of aggregated super-apps in the East as opposed to focused apps [00:23:54] - Heterogeneity of consumption in India across classes, genders, and subcultures [00:27:06] - How CRED is targeting the India 1A market for financial services [00:31:11] - His perspective on the history of credit use in India [00:34:58] - How Indian software platforms are built on utility and trust [00:37:49] - Layering on financial services onto trusted and free non-finance platforms in India [00:40:26] - Infrastructural deficiencies that continue to hold back the Indian tech market [00:43:27] - Business models from outside India that can work well within India [00:44:51] - His predictions on which Indian ideas will succeed internationally Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to episode 16. If you like our deep interviews with some of India’s best known founders across a range of domains, please rate us on your favourite podcast platform. All it takes is just a few seconds.Kunal Shah, the co-founder and CEO of CRED is unapologetic about building products for the top segment of India’s massive consumer pyramid. One would imagine that having raised over $600 million in venture funding puts the pressure on a founder to show a potential market size that’s massive and untapped.And yet, Shah did quite the opposite. He is single minded in his focus on catering to the top 30-odd million consumers in the world’s most populous country. Why? Because they are the ones with enough disposable income to drive the majority of most discretionary spends, he says. CRED currently has over 11 million users, which fit the definition of “California users” put forth by my colleague Praveen Gopal Krishnan way back in 2021.And over the last two years, this has become painfully apparent to most Indian startups and founders.How did CRED and Kunal Shah arrive at this reality ahead of others? I asked him that.Shah has a habit of saying “Good question” before launching into fairly sprawling and vivid answers. Answers that involve analogies, generalizations and psychology.Having been thrust into working to support his family while he was still a teenager, Shah ended up being coached through the school of hard knocks and an accidental exposure to philosophy (it was the only course available in the morning, before he left for work).The result was a curious mix of abilities, knowledge, ambitions and perspective. Chip on the shoulder mixed with the urge to pay it forward. The ability to put himself in another person’s shoes while also being brutally blunt with feedback. Left brain execution and right brain exploration.This has allowed Shah to create a fairly shape-shifting business model with CRED (worth over $6 billion after its last fund raise). When I asked him to define CRED, he described it in terms of its users, not features. He sees CRED as a community, to which features and monetization methods can be tacked on and off over time.In another wide-ranging and reflective founder conversation, we go behind Shah’s thoughts about building businesses, hiring “high-slope” professionals, why one of the biggest crises staring India in the face is the disappearance of working women and why many meetings inside CRED as called “shareholder meetings”.And if you have any questions, thoughts, suggestions, or tips, please email them to podcasts@the-ken.com. We might not be able to reply to all of them but we do read every single one of them.This is episode 16 of First Principles.

Order 'Build, Don't Talk' (in English) here: https://amzn.eu/d/eCfijRuOrder 'Build Don't Talk' (in Hindi) here: https://amzn.eu/d/4wZISO0--------------In today’s episode of Figuring Out, Raj Shamani is in conversation with Kunal Shah. Kunal Shah is an angel investor, founder of CRED and previously founded FreeCharge. CRED is a members-only credit card bill payment rewards platform that incentives and rewards members for clearing their bills on time. He has served as a part-time partner at Y Combinator and an advisor at Sequoia Capital.Kunal dropped out of college to pursue his entrepreneurial journey. In this podcast we discussed why he dropped out of college, why female participation in the workspace is important for India,  we also discuss the secret to creating wealth and how to get rich. Watch the podcast till the end to know complete details.Link to watch the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU0f5GLJMHE-------------Timestamps:00:00 Introduction03:38 Dropping out of college?06:10 The curse of fame09:00 The unlimited ways to create wealth14:20 Spending time and money18:45 Inspiration for your Businesses23:30 Can India create billionaires?26:00 Changing female participation in the workspace28:00 Learning29:40 Kunal's take on content creation35:10 Kunal's reason to get into finance/making money?38:50 Are Credit Cards bad?41:15 Rapid fire with KunalAbout Raj ShamaniRaj Shamani is an Entrepreneur at heart that explains his expertise in Business Content Creation & Public Speaking. He has delivered 200+ speeches in 26+ countries. Besides that, Raj is also an Angel Investor interested in crazy minds who are creating a sensation in the Fintech, FMCG, & passion economy space.To Know More,Follow Raj Shamani On ⤵︎Instagram @RajShamanihttps://www.instagram.com/rajshamani/