Founder Thesis

"In India, people will never pay for service, but they will always pay for credit."This was the powerful and disruptive thesis that Ashneer Grover used to build BharatPe. He understood that the real money in Indian fintech wasn't in charging for transactions but in using the data from those free transactions to create a massive lending business for the underserved merchant community.Ashneer Grover is the former Co-founder and Managing Director of BharatPe , the disruptive fintech company he scaled into a $2.85 billion unicorn in under three years. Before his entrepreneurial journey, he raised $170 million as CFO for Grofers (now Blinkit) and executed deals worth $3 billion as an investment banker at Kotak. An alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad , he became a household name as a judge on the first season of Shark Tank India.Key Insights from the Conversation: The "Free" Business Model: BharatPe's revolutionary model of offering free UPI QR payments was a "trojan horse" strategy to rapidly acquire merchants and their transaction data, which became the foundation for the real business: lending. "Feet-on-Street" Scaling: The company rejected expensive digital marketing, instead building a massive on-ground sales force to personally visit and onboard merchants. This high-touch model was crucial for building trust and was one of the cheapest acquisition models in the world at ~₹200 per merchant. Founder Conviction: When VCs were skeptical, Ashneer raised the first angel round of ₹1.9 crores from friends and family, pegging the amount to the value of his own house as a personal guarantee to his backers. Branding for B2B Trust: He believes B2B brands, especially in financial services, need strong, mainstream branding to build trust. This led to high-profile campaigns with Salman Khan and a team of 11 cricketers to appeal to shopkeepers across India. Solve a Big Problem: Ashneer advises founders to pick a big enough problem to solve. He argues that the effort required is the same whether the problem is big or small, but the scale of success is determined by the size of the problem.Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:31 - Life at IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad & The Lure of an MBA00:06:21 - 7 Years in Investment Banking at Kotak00:07:54 - Investing in Startups at American Express (MobiKwik, Paytm)00:13:46 - First Startup Role: Scaling Grofers as CFO00:19:46 - Understanding the Merchant at PC Jeweller00:22:48 - The Genesis of BharatPe: Meeting the Co-founders00:25:18 - The First Fundraise: Betting My House on the Idea00:29:50 - The Zero MDR Disruption & Monetizing Through Lending00:48:31 - Scaling to 60 Lakh Merchants: The 'Feet-on-Street' Model00:51:45 - The Science of B2B Branding: Why We Signed Salman Khan01:09:28 - Unfiltered Advice for Aspiring FoundersHashtags:#AshneerGrover #BharatPe #FounderThesis #StartupIndia #Entrepreneurship #FintechIndia #DigitalPayments #UPI #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #Scaling #BusinessStrategy #ZeroMDR #MerchantAcquisition #StartupStory #BusinessPodcast #MakeInIndia #IIT #IIM #SharkTankIndia #FounderAdvice

What you seek is seeking you. This is what describes the story of our guest in this episode.For Pulkit Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO, Trell, a visual blogging app, this search started around six years ago, with a desire to visit local pandals during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, little knowing that this would turn into a business idea which is at present has surpassed international social media giants like Twitter and Pinterest with more than 45 million monthly active users.In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Pulkit tells us that how visiting these local pandals helped him realize the gap of sharing local knowledge, even for people who are not into blogging and founded Trell in 2016 while he was finishing off with his engineering at IIT Bombay.Taking a trip down memory lane, Pulkit talks about how as a fresh graduate and a first-time entrepreneur, he learnt everything from the scratch about starting his venture and attracting investors to believe and guide him on this journey. He further explains the insights which helped him to develop a simple, no-frills platform for storytellers to post their content in the language they are comfortable with.Tune in to this episode to hear Pulkit speak about his exciting journey and how Trell is challenging international social media giants by providing Bharat with a local, Made in India visual blogging platform.What you must not miss!!• The experience of getting funded.• Challenges of scaling up a social media platform to a marketplace.• Impact of the ban on Chinese apps.• Business growth in times of COVID.

In 2013, when Anand Jain left Network18, he knew one thing for sure: Communication in the digital world needs to be timely and quick. This led to the birth of CleverTap, a SaaS-based mobile analytics and mobile marketing company.Today, Anand is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of CleverTap, working on larger strategic goals of helping brands leverage user data, automation, and personalization techniques on CleverTap. But his rendezvous with technology began when he was in his early teens.In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Anand harks back to his early years, when a life-altering moment made him take up part-time jobs to support his family. During these testing times, one thing he passionately held on to was tinkering with electronic appliances and this curiosity led him to learn numerous computer languages, despite being from a non-engineering background.He further recalls how a meeting with a successful Bay Area entrepreneur paved a way for him to land a job in the States and then in China. But he moved back to India in 2005 to start Burrp!, which was later acquired by Network18. At Network18, he met his future co-founders Suresh and Sunil and in 2013, the trio quit to start CleverTap.Tune in to this episode to hear Anand speak about how CleverTap is making the lives of numerous brands easy by providing them with meaningful data, which helps create successful strategies concerning their user bases.Key takeaways:• Perseverance is the key to success.• Significance of customer insights.• Customer targeting is important, so is doing it in a timely and quick fashion.• How did CleverTap get their first client which led to several opportunities.

"We understood that logistics wasn't just a back-end function—it was a core component of customer satisfaction."This was the pivotal realization inside FirstCry that sparked a billion-dollar idea. By reframing a major operational problem into a strategic opportunity, Amitava Saha didn't just fix a bottleneck for his company; he built an entirely new one, Xpressbees, to serve the whole e-commerce industry.Amitava Saha is the Co-Founder and CEO of Xpressbees and the Co-founder and former COO of FirstCry. He is one of the few entrepreneurs in India to have built two unicorn companies from the ground up. Under his leadership, Xpressbees has grown from handling approximately 50,000 shipments a day to over 3 million and is valued at over $1.4 billion. An alumnus of IIT (BHU), Varanasi, and IIM Lucknow, his journey from financing his own MBA with a bank loan to becoming a celebrated two-time unicorn founder is an inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere.In this episode, Amitava Saha sits down with our host Akshay Datt to discuss his incredible journey.Key Insights from the Conversation: Solving Your Own Problem: Xpressbees was born out of the logistical frustrations faced by its parent company, FirstCry. This "inside-out" approach gave it a battle-tested product from day one. The Power of Assortment: A key strategy for FirstCry's initial success was its relentless focus on creating a wider product assortment than any physical store could offer, directly addressing a major customer pain point. Operational Excellence as a Moat: Amitava built his logistics arm with a mandate of zero CapEx and extreme efficiency, a principle that remains core to Xpressbees today. Pragmatic Technology: Technology at Xpressbees is not built for its own sake but is a tool to serve the two most important pillars of logistics: cost and quality of service. The Asset-Light Model: The business was intentionally designed to be asset-light, using a hybrid model of owned hubs and franchise partners to maintain flexibility and scale efficiently.Chapters:(00:00) - Intro(01:12) - Early Career: Why a Stable Job Was More Important Than Entrepreneurship(04:11) - The Path to Tech Sales & Navigating the Dot-Com Bust(11:53) - The Brainvisa Story: From a B2C Pivot to a Profitable Exit(23:41) - Founding FirstCry: Solving a Personal Pain Point for Parents(33:11) - The "Accidental" Funding of FirstCry(35:10) - The Birth of Xpressbees from FirstCry's Biggest Operational Crisis(40:40) - The Strategic Decision to Spin Off the Logistics Arm(43:23) - Scaling Xpressbees with an Asset-Light, Tech-First Model(45:33) - The Future: Expanding into B2B Logistics and BeyondHashtags:#FounderThesis #StartupPodcast #AmitavaSaha #Xpressbees #FirstCry #Logistics #SupplyChain #Ecommerce #Unicorn #FounderStory #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #ScalingABusiness #OperationalExcellence #StartupIndia #MakeInIndia #AkshayDatt

Every problem has a solution. You just have to be creative enough to find it. Our guest in thisepisode is a problem solver at heart, who has used the art of coding to solve real-life problems.Brace for the resilient journey of Nischal Shetty, Founder and CEO, WazirX, India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.In a candid conversation with Akshay Datt, Nischal talks about his fascination for computers and his coding journey. It was in the second year of engineering when he was bitten by the coding bug and since then there’s been no looking back. From building the Knightloader App for a college project (the App helped in downloading reading material from the Internet at night) to transforming his weekend passion project to Crowdfire which helped users to unfollow people on Twitter, Nischal has found logical solutions to problems via coding.He further talks about how a major setback with Crowdfire inspired him to build something that no one else can control. He found his calling in cryptocurrency and this is where the journey of WazirX began.Tune in to this episode to hear Nischal speak about how cryptocurrency has the power to disrupt the well-established and archaic BFSI sector, with WazirX being the torchbearer of this change.Key takeaways:● Cryptocurrency 101● India’s response to cryptocurrency● The association between WazirX and Binance (the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange).● Cryptocurrency as a means to diversify investments

"We are a technology company that sells chai."This single sentence from Nitin Saluja captures the disruptive core of Chaayos. It’s not just about tea; it’s about using technology—from custom-built IoT robots to a proprietary tech stack—to solve the problem of delivering a perfectly consistent, personalized cup of chai at massive scale. In this conversation, Nitin reveals how this engineering-first mindset allowed him to build a premium brand for one of India's most traditional beverages.In this episode, host Akshay Datt sits down with Nitin Saluja, the founder of Chaayos. An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Nitin left a corporate consulting job in the US to build Chaayos from a single outlet into a dominant, 200+ store chain with revenues of over ₹248 crore. He is a pioneer in using technology to disrupt the food and beverage industry in India.Key Insights from the Conversation: Technology as the Core: Chaayos operates as a technology company first, having built its entire tech stack in-house, including IoT-enabled "Chai Monk" robots to ensure consistency across 80,000+ customization options. The Founder's Grind: Nitin spent the entire first year as the manager of the first Chaayos store, providing him with unparalleled ground-level insights into customer needs and operational challenges. The Power of Customization: The core brand promise of "Meri Wali Chai" (My Kind of Tea) came from the insight that no two people like their tea the same way, creating a powerful moat against competitors. The Profitability Pivot: The company made a deliberate strategic shift from a "growth-at-all-costs" mindset to focus on sustainable unit economics, successfully achieving positive EBITDA. Disrupting a Commodity: Chaayos successfully built a premium brand for a low-cost, everyday product by solving the unorganized market's core problems of inconsistent quality, poor hygiene, and lack of a modern experience.Chapters:[00:00] - Coming Up[01:22] - Nitin's Early Life & Upbringing[02:35] - The IIT Bombay Experience: Realising Everyone is Smarter Than You[05:26] - First Startup: Building a Robotics Company While in College[09:43] - Learning 'Problem Structuring' in Corporate Consulting[15:54] - The "Aha" Moment: Why Isn't There a Starbucks for Chai?[20:46] - The Leap: Quitting a US Job & Bootstrapping the First Store[25:06] - The Grind: Launching the First Chaayos Outlet with Friends[30:42] - The First Year: Working as a Store Manager to Learn the Business[33:47] - Scaling Pains & Securing Funding from Tiger Global[38:16] - The Core Insight: Why Chaayos is Built on 'Meri Wali Chai'[46:44] - Building a Tech Company that Sells Chai[50:51] - How 'Chai Monks' Deliver a Perfect Customised Chai Every Time[54:00] - Nitin's Advice for Aspiring EntrepreneursHashtags:#FounderThesis #NitinSaluja #Chaayos #StartupIndia #Entrepreneurship #BusinessPodcast #D2C #FoodTech #Retail #IIT #StartupStory #AkshayDatt #MakeInIndia #Disruption #Technology

"When you say to someone, my business plan is to create a brand, it's very hard for anyone to understand or digest... the harder it is for someone to digest, the more excited one should be about doing it." This powerful insight from Rohan Mirchandani encapsulates the conviction needed to build something truly disruptive, especially when introducing a new category to a market. It speaks to the entrepreneurial spirit of seeing opportunity where others see ambiguity.Rohan Mirchandani (1982-2024) was the Co-founder of Drums Food International, the parent company of Epigamia, India's first Greek yogurt brand. An MBA from The Wharton School, he returned to India from the US to build a pioneering FMCG company. Under his leadership, Epigamia raised approximately $81.4 million, achieved a valuation of around ₹1,250 crore ($150 million), and expanded its reach to over 25,000 retail outlets, targeting revenues of ₹250 crore.Key Insights from the Conversation: The Eureka Moment: Rohan's realization of the untapped potential for innovation in the Indian FMCG sector came from a business school lecture, which became the seed for Epigamia. Pivoting with Purpose: The strategic shift from their initial ice cream brand, Hokey Pokey, to Epigamia Greek yogurt was driven by observing the limitations of seasonality in ice cream sales and a rising health consciousness among Indian consumers. On-the-Ground Insights: Rohan emphasized the invaluable lessons learned by directly engaging with customers and understanding their preferences, even by working at their own ice cream parlor in the early days. Building a Cold Chain Moat: For a perishable product like Greek yogurt, Epigamia had to build its own robust cold chain and distribution network, a significant operational challenge that became a competitive advantage. Strategic Partnerships for Growth: The collaboration with Danone provided not just capital, but crucial operational knowledge and access to global best practices, significantly accelerating Epigamia's learning curve. Navigating the Indian Market: Rohan believed that succeeding in India required immense adaptability and having multiple contingency plans (Plan C, D, and E) due to the market's unique complexities.Chapters:[0:00:00] - Podcast Introduction[0:01:40] - Rohan's American Upbringing & Father's Entrepreneurial Influence[0:06:08] - Pre-MBA Journey & The "Discovery" Phase[0:07:36] - The Accidental Start: Investing in an Indian Ice Cream Parlor (Hokey Pokey)[0:12:30] - The "Ganti Bajge" Moment: Identifying the FMCG Innovation Gap in India[0:17:45] - The Leap: Moving to India & The Conditions for Mentorship[0:23:45] - From Parlor Insights to Packaged Goods: The Birth of Epigamia[0:34:54] - Scaling Challenges, Building the Team, and the Strategic Pivot to Greek Yogurt[0:46:58] - Funding the Dream & The Danone Partnership Learnings[1:02:23] - Future Vision for Epigamia & Navigating the Indian vs. US Business Landscape[1:08:24] - Rohan's Advice to Aspiring Brand BuildersHashtags:#Epigamia #RohanMirchandani #FounderThesis #IndianStartups #FMCGIndia #DairyDisruption #GreekYogurt #Entrepreneurship #StartupJourney #BuildingInIndia #FoodBusiness #BrandBuilding #VentureCapital #StartupFunding #D2CIndia #MakeInIndia #Innovation #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #AkshayDatt

"It takes much longer than you think. Everybody thinks that things can be changed big time in three to five years. It probably takes more, you know, seven to ten years." This powerful insight from Dinesh Agarwal underscores the journey of building IndiaMART, a testament to perseverance and a long-term vision that began when the internet was nascent in India. It's a crucial reminder for founders that enduring businesses are marathons, not sprints.Dinesh Agarwal is the Founder and CEO of IndiaMART.com, India's largest online B2B marketplace. Starting with a modest seed capital of just Rs 40,000 in 1996, he steered IndiaMART to become a publicly listed company that surpassed Rs 1000 crore in revenue in FY2023 and facilitates nearly 1% of India's GDP. His journey spans over 25 years, building a platform that now employs thousands and serves millions of SMEs.Key Insights from the Conversation: The Internet Spark: Witnessing the Mosaic browser in the US sparked the vision for an interconnected digital marketplace for India. Bootstrapped Beginnings: IndiaMART's foundation was built with immense "sweat equity," including manually mailing free listing forms to exporters. Resilience Through Crises: The company navigated the dot-com bust by maintaining profitability and weathered the 9/11 impact on exports by adapting and focusing. The Game-Changing Pivot: Shifting focus from exports to the domestic Indian B2B market around 2007-08 was a masterstroke that tapped into a burgeoning opportunity. Learning from Scale & Failure: The aggressive "52 offices in 52 weeks" expansion taught crucial lessons about sustainable growth, and the Tolexo venture provided insights that strengthened the core IndiaMART platform. Values as Bedrock: Core principles derived from Indian epics and leaders like Gandhi guided decisions, especially during tough times, emphasizing commitment and simplicity. Long-Term Vision: Building a significant enterprise is a lifelong journey, requiring passion and adaptability beyond initial financial goals.Chapters: 00:00:00 - From US Internet Boom to India: The Spark 00:08:15 - Rs 40,000 & a Fax Machine: Starting IndiaMART 00:17:30 - Surviving the Dot-Com Bust as a Profitable Venture 00:26:45 - 9/11 Crisis & The Critical Pivot to Domestic B2B 00:35:10 - "52 Offices in 52 Weeks": Lessons from Hyper-Growth 00:44:05 - When a $100M Funding Fell Through: Back to Basics 00:52:50 - The Tolexo Experiment & Strengthening IndiaMART Core 01:01:20 - Leveraging Demonetization & Jio Wave for Growth 01:09:40 - The IPO Journey: Resilience, Timing, and Wealth Creation 01:18:15 - Future Vision: Building a B2B Ecosystem for India 01:25:30 - "Takes Longer Than You Think": Advice for FoundersHashtags for YouTube Description:#DineshAgarwal #IndiaMART #FounderThesis #IndianEntrepreneur #StartupIndia #B2Becommerce #Bootstrapping #IPOjourney #BusinessLessons #MakeInIndia #DigitalIndia #Entrepreneurship #StartupStory #TechIndia #Leadership #IndianStartups #SME #Marketplace #OnlineBusiness #Motivation

How did ex-Google leader Rahul Garg build Moglix into a category-defining force in India’s B2B procurement and industrial supply chain? In this Founder Thesis episode, we unpack the playbook, from procurement SaaS to working-capital rails via Credlix, that powers factories across India and beyond.From IIT Kanpur to Google to founder, Rahul traces the insight that the world would shift from discovery to transaction platforms, and how that led to Moglix’s build in 2015. We dive into why the company registered in Singapore to execute a global ambition, how enterprise procurement differs from B2C, and why payment terms (30–60 days) and supplier credit shape the economics of B2B. We also discuss the buyer-side software that locks in large accounts, the Credlix finance flywheel, and Rahul’s candid view on timing for public markets once scale thresholds are met. Timely for operators navigating India’s China+1 manufacturing moment, funding winter discipline, and the rise of embedded finance in supply chains.– How Rahul built Moglix for manufacturers, not consumers, plus what “India’s largest & fastest-growing B2B commerce company” really means in practice. – Why transaction platforms beat discovery in B2B, and how that shaped product, pricing, and ops. – Enterprise payment terms (30/60 days), supplier credit, and the working-capital flywheel behind Credlix. – Building a procurement OS: software + catalog + logistics for long-tail MRO. – Going global from Singapore: why the hub matters for cross-border B2B. – When to go public: scale thresholds and IPO readiness in industrial B2B.Subscribe to the Founder Thesis Podcast Follow Akshay Datt on LinkedIn for exclusive content Visit founderthesis.com for more founder stories00:00 – Rahul Garg’s founder journey 02:10 – From discovery to transactions (B2B) 14:40 – Quitting Google; choosing Singapore hub 25:00 – Building the procurement OS (MRO SaaS) 33:30 – Enterprise payment terms & credit cycles 48:45 – Offline-to-online procurement playbook 56:00 – Credlix and working-capital finance 1:04:00 – Scale first, then public marketsTags: Rahul Garg, Moglix, Mogli Labs, Credlix, B2B procurement India, industrial supply chain, MRO marketplace, procurement SaaS, embedded finance, working capital India, China+1 manufacturing, funding winter strategies, enterprise payments 30 60 day terms, cross-border B2B, Singapore startup hub, procurement software India, supply chain digitization, Founder Thesis podcast, Akshay Datt, Indian startup ecosystem

For the love of travelling, he would take international trips and immensely enjoy exploring diverse backgrounds. Growing up, he would travel to different destinations with his family, his first foreign trip being that to Italy.  Today, he has changed the trend of car ownership with a car subscription model providing tremendous appeal and flexibility to the millennials. We are talking about Greg Moran, the co-founder and CEO of India’s first and largest self-drive mobility platform, Zoomcar. Zoomcar is present in 45+ cities across India.After studying management from USC Marshall School of Business, LA, California, Greg Moran came to India. He disrupted the way India rents a car. Being a foreigner with no roots in India, carving a niche for himself in a new country was no easy job for him. He always wanted to do something big in business but didn’t have a clear idea of what it was. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and studied International Business. He shares some of the enjoyable moments from UPenn and how the four years impacted him and broadened his perspective.Sustainability has always been a major part of his work ethic. He was the founder and president of the energy club at USC. Before going to business school, Greg worked as an investment banker with Fieldstone Private Capital Group. He also held the position in energy policy formulation at the City of New York. He talks about his first impression of India, travelling around cities for research and business intelligence, staying at budget accommodations, and relishing the experience of building a business from scratch. Tune in to this diverse conversation with Greg Moran and get to know his process behind building the first self-drive business in India. Enjoy the episode!Key takeaways from the episode:Building a successful mobility business in India.Academic Flexibility at an Ivy League school. Why is Urban Sustainability so crucial? Scaling up Zoomcar. What it is like to be a foreigner living and working in India.