Founder Thesis

Our guest today is an achiever in more ways than one. Born and brought up in Chennai in a humble household, he pursued his studies from the prestigious IIT, Madras campus. Well, he tells us that he wasn’t a risk-taker or had an entrepreneurial side to him as a kid but loved to travel and explore new places, people and communities. In this episode of Founder Thesis, we are talking to Bala Parthasarathy, co-founder and CEO of MoneyTap - a fintech consumer lending startup. MoneyTap launched India’s first app-based credit line impacting Indian consumers across 50+ cities who struggled with access to affordable credit options. Bala’s entrepreneurial foundation was laid when he went for a summer job during his IIT days and got into market research to earn some side cash. After completing his engineering from IIT, he went abroad to complete higher education from the University of California where he along with his batchmates deep dived into the entrepreneurial culture and started a company. Having no prior fintech background, MoneyTap was an uncharted territory for him when he started this in 2015 with two of his friends. He worked day in, day out to reach where he is reached today and continues to hustle. He shares interesting insights from taking a loan to buy the ticket to go abroad for higher education, learning different languages, hitchhiking across the Sahara, his travel voyages to the remarkable lessons from building MoneyTap. Tune in to listen to this exciting conversation with Bala Parthasarathy. Key Insights from the episode: Learning through travel experiences.Being adventures and taking challenges head-on. Shaping the Future of Fintech.Lessons on funding from the lens of a venture capitalist. 

He is a performing artist by heart, someone who hit the stage when he was merely 4 years old and guess what, he never got off! A creator, writer, director and entrepreneur, he gets immense joy from words, phrases, and playing with them creatively. When kids his age would play cricket after school, he would be found doing theatre.  He tells us that his mother always aspired for him to study at the best school and be equipped with a wholesome education and thus, he ended up completing his schooling at La Martiniere, Lucknow. As a kid, he thrived on extra-curricular and would never miss a chance to perform. He talks about the contribution of his teachers from La Martiniere who helped him groom at a very early and crucial stage of his life. His foundation was firmly set in childhood and from thereon he never stopped dreaming.Well, serendipity happened, and with finite resources and infinite passion, Roshan Abbas moved to Delhi and pursued his Masters in Mass Communication from Jamia Milia Islamia. Always fascinated by arts and theatre, Roshan joined a professional theatre group in his college. After college, he kick-started his career as a radio jockey and TV host. A storyteller for life, and a multi-faceted personality, he founded his venture Kommune India in 2015, a Performance Arts Collective bringing art, brands and talent together. Tune in to the episode for intimate, personal, unique, and honest stories from Roshan’s childhood, career, his first Radio show, and life as a creative entrepreneur. Key insights from the episode: Influencing people with the power of words.Are creative people good at running companies? Growing a creative agency.Lessons on ‘Brand building’.Writing plays, conducting theatre workshops, and making films.

"The interesting thing was that you have the dream and the vision, but you realize the answer is your grandmother's kitchen."This insight from Shauravi Malik highlights a core theme: sometimes the most innovative solutions involve looking back at traditional wisdom. While aiming to disrupt the children's food market with modern, healthy options, Shauravi and her co-founder realized the true market gap wasn't for Western-style purees, but for bringing back nutritious, traditional Indian ingredients like millets.Shauravi Malik is the Co-Founder of Wholsum Foods, the parent company of the popular children's food brand Slurrp Farm. An Economics graduate from St. Stephen's College and Cambridge University, she spent years in high-profile finance roles at J.P. Morgan and Richard Branson's Virgin Group before launching her venture. Driven by the mission to improve children's nutrition in India using supergrains like millets, Slurrp Farm navigated early manufacturing challenges and a challenging offline distribution landscape before a strategic pivot to digital during COVID-19 saw the company grow significantly, reaching a monthly run rate of approx. ₹1.2 crores.Key Insights from the Conversation: Market Need Discovery: Initial assumptions about market needs (like fruit/veg purees) can be wrong, even with research. Finding the real pain point (lack of healthy, millet-based options) was key. Manufacturing Hurdles: Finding partners willing to innovate and produce genuinely healthy products at scale, rather than variations of existing unhealthy options, was a major early challenge. Ecosystem Impact: Policy changes like GST and Demonetization significantly levelled the playing field for startups by simplifying interstate commerce and financial D2CChapters: 0:00:48 - Intro: Shauravi Malik & The Slurrp Farm Story 0:01:18 - Early Career: From Cambridge to Investment Banking & Virgin 0:10:16 - The Genesis of Slurrp Farm: Identifying the Gap in Children's Food 0:18:40 - Starting Up: Vision vs. Reality & Initial Product Ideas 0:24:25 - Finding the Right Product: The Ragi Cookie Journey & Manufacturing Challenges 0:32:09 - Launching Slurrp Farm: Navigating Pre-GST India & Early Go-To-Market 0:37:07 - The Painful Journey of Building Offline Distribution 0:43:19 - Funding Journey: Friends, Family & Finding the Right Partners 0:45:27 - The COVID Pivot: Embracing Digital & Achieving Profitability 0:59:41 - Product Evolution: From Cereals to Dosas, Pancakes & Beyond 1:09:53 - The Role of Co-Founder Umang & Design-First Branding 1:19:59 - Understanding the D2C Landscape in India Hashtags:#FounderThesis #SlurrpFarm #ShauraviMalik #StartupIndia #D2C #DirectToConsumer #IndianStartups #Entrepreneurship #WomensEntrepreneurship #FoodTech #HealthyEating #Millets #ChildrensFood #FMCG #BrandBuilding #StartupJourney #VentureCapital #BusinessPodcast #MadeInIndia #ScalingUp #DigitalTransformation #ConsumerBrands

"In India, ideas are everywhere, but you get rewarded for execution."This was the core conviction that led Rashmi Daga to build a full-stack food brand, taking on the immense operational challenges of controlling everything from the kitchen to the customer's doorstep—a bet against the asset-light models that dominated the startup world.About The GuestRashmi Daga is the founder of FreshMenu , the pioneering food-tech brand that helped define the cloud kitchen model in India. An alumna of the prestigious IIM-Ahmedabad , she led FreshMenu through a period of meteoric growth, scaling to over ₹122 crores in revenue and clocking up to 20,000 orders a day. After navigating a near-fatal funding crisis that saw revenues plummet by over 60% , she orchestrated a gritty comeback, returning the company to ₹121 Cr in revenue and a clear path to profitability.In this candid conversation with host Akshay Datt, Rashmi unpacks the invaluable lessons learned from her journey of resilience, execution, and brand-building.Key Insights from the Conversation: Full-Stack Conviction: Rashmi deliberately chose an operationally-heavy, full-stack model to control the end-to-end customer experience and long-term margins, believing execution is the ultimate differentiator in the Indian market. The Aggregator's Dilemma: For survival, FreshMenu was forced to pivot from a direct-to-consumer brand to listing on platforms like Swiggy and Zomato, sacrificing significant margins in exchange for visibility in a hyper-competitive market. Resilience & The Comeback: After a funding freeze brought the company to the brink of collapse, a focus on fundamentals—menu re-engineering, supply chain optimization, and improved unit economics—powered a remarkable revival. Data-Driven Innovation: From its early days, FreshMenu leveraged data to power a constantly rotating menu, track customer preferences, and minimize food waste, which was a key driver of operational efficiency.Chapters(00:00) Introduction(01:22) The "No Repeat" Career: Building Skills Across IBM, J&J, and TutorVista(10:06) My First "Practice Run": Invaluable Lessons from a Failed Startup (Afday.com)(17:21) The Founding Thesis: Why FreshMenu Chose a Full-Stack Model Over Aggregation(22:07) Zero to One: How to Hire Your First Chef and Acquire Early Customers(26:05) The Brutal Food-Tech Wars: Navigating Hyper-Growth and a Near-Death Experience(32:52) Data-Driven Menu: The Secret Behind FreshMenu's Constant Innovation(41:45) A Founder's Hardest Job: Tough Lessons in Hiring, Firing & Setting Culture(52:04) The Great Reset: How a Crisis Led to a Stronger, More Resilient Business(58:45) The Road Ahead: FreshMenu's Playbook for 10x Growth and ProfitabilityHashtags#FounderThesis #StartupPodcast #RashmiDaga #FreshMenu #Entrepreneurship #StartupIndia #BusinessPodcast #CloudKitchen #FoodTech #AkshayDatt #FounderStory #VentureCapital #WomenInBusiness #StartupLessons #IIMAhmedabad

We have all been lost at some point in our lives, uncertain of things and trying to figure it all out at the same time. Growing up in Mumbai and coming from a business family, today’s guest on Founder Thesis is someone who has a passion for creating stuff and building products. Someone fascinated by the possibilities of the Internet, Mayank Bidawatka, always thought of new things and ideas that can be shaped into reality through the digital medium. He joined a residential MBA program at Asina Institute of Management based in the Philippines. Curious and experimental by nature, Mayank has always worked upon breaking out of his comfort zone. He speaks about his diversified, life-changing experience of living and studying abroad. However, he always wanted to come back to his own country, pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions and establish work in India. Being the co-founder of Koo India, he is giving voice to a billion Indians via the micro-blogging platform. On the other hand, Mayank is providing solutions through the Q&A based knowledge-sharing platform Vokal India, catering to the Indian language user. In this episode, he talks about his early working experiences, media and advertising days, redBus, lessons and takeaways, dreaming big, scaling up, and building tremendous value. Tune in to the full conversation. Key takeaways from the episode: Working in the Startup Culture.Making it easy for businesses to interact with users.Breaking the language barrier and creating multilingual solutions via Vokal. Creating tools that bridge the language gap for the Indian Content Creator.The three main things to focus on as an Angel Investor. For more such inspiring & intriguing leadership stories visit our website at www.thepodium.in We are also on Instagram at @thepodium.in and have a Whats app community of fellow entrepreneurs & startup enthusiasts at www.podm.in/growwithpodium Join us there to stay updated on the latest from The Podium.in 

Today’s episode of Founder Thesis is a story of finding opportunity in adversities & seeking lessons in all the curve balls that life throws at you. In what has been one of the most spirited conversations on the show join in as we catch up with Prateek Singh - Founder of LearnApp.com over tons of infectious laughter & incredible life experiences. Born in Abudhabi and educated in Tanzania, Singapore, Malaysia & India Prateek’s multicultural childhood may come across as a dream come true, but each time having to start life from scratch was not an easy task especially when it had to be done for difficult reasons. But this is when Prateek learnt his people skills. Settling in India after living abroad, the transition was difficult for a young Prateek and he could not pursue schooling any further. This is when the 8th grader turned into a financial trader! A job at a call centre selling travel packages is where Prateek learnt what he considers to be one of the most valuable skills to have - Sales. Odd jobs & after four failed attempts at entrepreneurship, tons of learning along the way Prateek then founded LearnApp.com Tune in as we speak to Prateek about his early years, how he overcame self-doubt, and what led to the genesis of LearnApp - an E-learning platform for high-quality financial education taught by Veterans. His failures building the platform and genie & lamp framework that he used to build a scalable business model. For more such inspiring & intriguing leadership stories visit our website at www.thepodium.in We are also on Instagram at @thepodium.in and have a Whats app community of fellow entrepreneurs & startup enthusiasts at www.podm.in/growwithpodium Join us there to stay updated on the latest from The Podium.in

Investment banker, active seed investor, problem solver and now a founder. Our guest today has worn numerous hats, but her greatest adventure yet is the one that’s allowing her to fulfil her entrepreneurial dreams. Always driven by a passion to do something for other businesses, Founder of Kodo, Deepti Sanghi is making finance simple for startups and businesses. Imagine being a founder of a new startup and being able to get a corporate credit card in less than 3 minutes! Sounds too good to be true right? But that’s exactly what Kodo is all about. Their mission is to empower businesses to scale new heights through their corporate card and integrated expense management tool. In this episode our host Akshay sits down for a candid conversation with Deepti where she shares about her early days as an Investment banker, how she coped with the economic meltdown and finally pivoted towards fin-tech. Do watch out for the part where Deepti shares her fascinating journey through Japan that inspired the name for the fin-tech startup. For more such inspiring and intriguing leadership stories visit our website at www.thepodium.in.  We are also on Instagram at @thepodium.in and have a WhatsApp community of fellow entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts at www.podm.in/growwithpodium. Join us to stay updated on the latest from ThePodium.in.  

“Building a product and building an organisation are two different things,” says Abhinav Jain, our guest today.  A bunch of people were very excited about technology in school, they created a computer programming club.Somebody who was always up for honing new skills and specialising new crafts beyond engineering, not worried about books. Fundamentally, he always knew that he wanted to set up his venture from scratch. He describes his 5 years at IIT, things he learned and from running different clubs to organising college fests, he shares some beautiful experiences of life at campus. Graduating from IIM Ahmedabad, consulting was something that interested him. He talks about his different projects he explored in the 4 years spent at Bain. From what gave him a nudge to start his entrepreneurial journey at Shop101 and Dash101, the challenges he faced to figuring out innovative solutions in a startup ecosystem, he has some intriguing insights to share. Listen to the entire conversation on building a product from scratch.IG: @thepodium.inWeb: thepodium.inKey takeaways:Life skills an entrance exam teaches.Hacks for polishing communication skills, structuring your thoughts and delivery.Building a product and building an organisation. Consulting as a career and making an impact. What does a consultant bring to the table. Building Social Commerce.

How did Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah turn LEAD School into one of India’s most impactful edtech unicorns transforming affordable private schools? In this episode, they reveal how their mission-driven journey is reshaping the future of K12 education in India.Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah, co-founders of LEAD School, share their journey from corporate careers at Procter & Gamble to building India’s largest school-first edtech platform. LEAD School began as a single school experiment and scaled into a nationwide network serving millions of students through its school-in-a-box model. In this candid conversation with Akshay Datt, they discuss their motivations, early failures, the pivot from running schools to partnering with them, and why they believe equity in education is India’s biggest opportunity. This episode is timely as India’s K12 market undergoes massive change with NEP 2020, funding winter pressures, and edtech consolidation. Listeners will gain unique insights into sustainable scaling, contrarian business models, and the future of affordable education in emerging markets. How LEAD School grew from 1 school to an edtech unicorn Lessons from building during India’s edtech funding winter Why a school-first model beats B2C in K12 education Macro trends like NEP 2020 reshaping India’s education sector Founder insights on teacher training, student outcomes and sustainable growthSubscribe to the Founder Thesis Podcast Follow us on LinkedIn (podm.in/ad) for exclusive content Visit founderthesis.com for more founder stories00:00 - Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah’s early influences 04:30 - From P&G careers to finding purpose in education 13:10 - Sabbatical experiments that led to LEAD School 22:00 - Running Zee Learn and lessons in K12 education 31:50 - Founding LEAD School and the first village school 44:15 - Cracking English learning with the ELGA program 57:20 - Scaling from own schools to school-in-a-box model 1:10:00 - Surviving funding winter and finding mission-aligned VCs 1:18:30 - Competing in India’s fragmented K12 edtech market 1:26:50 - Vision to reach 10 million students#SumeetMehta #SmitaDeorah #LEADSchool #LEADGroup #EdtechUnicorn #K12EducationIndia #AffordablePrivateSchools #NEP2020 #SchoolInABox #EdtechFundingIndia #FutureOfEducationIndia #EducationTechnologyStartups #FoundersInFocus #FounderThesis #AkshayDatt #FundingWinter #IndianStartups #EducationEquity #TeacherTrainingIndia #StudentOutcomes

This week on Founder Thesis podcast host Akshay Datt is in conversation with Hemant Kanoria - Chairman at SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited.A pioneer in the field of infrastructure finance, Hemant started SREI in 1989 and in the last two and half decades has scaled it to be India's largest integrated infrastructure institutions with an asset base of around USD 5.5 billion. But that’s not all, Hemant Kanoria, is also known for his role in creating a wave of rural entrepreneurs through the IT-enabled Sahaj service centre initiative that has created over 50000 village-level entrepreneurs. Tune in as this pioneer & thought leader shares his growth story, enjoying the roller coaster journey of managing businesses and about having a solution-oriented mindset. Our key takeaways from this episode are: * How to build an institution with an engaged & loyal workforce. * Decision-making framework for investing & disinvesting. * How to deal with large scale external set-backs, such as, the Covid-19 pandemic. For more such inspiring & intriguing leadership stories visit our website at www.thepodium.in We are also on Instagram at @thepodium.in and have a WhatsApp community of fellow entrepreneurs & start-up enthusiasts at www.podm.in/growwithpodium Join us there to stay updated on the latest from The Podium.in