The One Percent Project- Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Resilience

About Pushkar Mukewar:My next guest on The One Percent Project is Pushkar Mukewar, Co-founder and CEO of Drip Capital. Pushkar kicked off his career at Capital One, went to work for Oliver Wyman and Saama Capital. He has a Masters from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Wharton School of Business.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation he talks about:His journey building Drip Capital, going from 0 to 2 billion dollars in transactions on the platform.Getting incubated by Y Combinator when Drip Capital was just two founders with just an idea.Scaling the business across three markets, building a team of 250+ employees, and raising 500M+ in venture funding.Key Take-Aways:Building a startup is about experimentation, understanding the customers’ pain points and launching something - failing quickly - launching again.Your success as a startup depends on how and why you uniquely solve your customer’s pain points.Scaling up a business is like building a scalable machine. You start with generalists who can do everything and bring in specialists who can build specific functions once the business scales.

About David Fallarme:My next guest on The One Percent Project is David Fallarme. Before joining On Deck as their Marketing Director, David was the head of marketing for Hubspot Asia. He has led the product and content marketing initiatives for Electronic Arts, App Annie and ReferralCandy. He also runs the APAC Marketers Roundtable, one of the most active communities of marketers in APAC.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation he talks about:What is marketing and the types of marketers?His content creation frameworkWhy should marketers focus on who should be buying vs who is already buying?How should early-stage founders think about marketing and marketers?How is marketing different in 2021 Vs a decade ago?How Hubspot's strategy may seem weird but it works?Zoom's and Afterpay's product-led growth through the pandemic.Why he joined On Deck, and how will it add value in Asia?Key Take-Aways:There are three types of marketers:  Artist: Marketing = winning hearts and minds.Soldier: Marketing = achieving objectives by working through the system and operational excellence.Gambler: Marketing = finding opportunities with an asymmetric upside.Marketers are multipliers. So if you're a pre-seed or a seed-stage start-up and don’t see a predictable level of traction and don't exactly know who your customer is, you are not ready for a marketer.In future, your social media audience size will be more important than your resume because your followership is an indicator of your influence. 

My next guest on The One Percent Project is Amit Garg. Amit is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Tau Ventures, an AI-focused seed fund. He kicked off his career at Google and then went to work with Norwest Venture Partners and Samsung NEXT- Samsung's investment arm. He has also co-founded HealthIQ, which is valued at USD 450M. He did his bachelor's and masters from Stanford and MBA from Harvard Business School.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation, he talks about:How his professional and personal journey helped him as a venture capitalist?Why did he set up an AI-focused seed fund?What is his venture evaluation and investment framework?When should a founder consider raising from a VC?How should seed-stage founders build their teams?Why is bottom-up market sizing more insightful?His thinking behind investing in nuTonomy and Misfit.Key Take-Aways:Venture capital money is "Rocket Fuel". If you take rocket fuel too early, you will burn in the atmosphere before reaching the moon and the stars. It is not about 'WHAT' you do but about 'HOW' you do it. Team, Technology and Traction are the three most significant aspects a venture capitalist should look for while investing.

My next guest on The One Percent Project is the incredible engineer, inventor, investor and operator Miten Sampat. He kicked off his career in Silicon Valley, then headed strategy for Times Internet, India’s largest digital products company with 600 million monthly users and is now building CRED, one of India’s fastest growing payments apps. He is also a graduate of Virginia Tech.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation he talks about:How his education at Virginia Tech shaped his thinking in analysing and operating new ventures.His views about the Indian Internet Consumer and the impact of the internet in Tier-3 cities in India.His experience building his first startup: What he learnt and why it failed?His experience as Chief Strategy Officer at Times Internet which reaches 600M active users in India every month?What has he learnt from investing in early-stage startups?Key Take-Aways:Underlying conditions will keep changing so capabilities will keep changing and therefore, and user behaviour keeps changing- This is the fundamental principle in building and scaling new ventures.If there are many gatekeepers between you and your customer, the chances of mortality for your startup are very high.If you move when there is broad-based consensus, then the magic is already sucked out. It's already been priced in. Therefore, you have to be right about something ahead of it being a general consensus.

About Shravan Tickoo:My next guest on The One Percent Project is Shravan Tickoo. Shravan is a principal PM at BYJU'S-world’s most valued EdTech startup. Shravan kicked off his career as an entrepreneur by building an app while in college that went viral, and he landed up selling in 2012. Since then, he has worked across industries with India’s leading tech unicorns such as Flipkart, Blackbuck, Time Group and Edureka. He is also a product mentor, influencer and angel investor. Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation he talks about:Why is it essential to think about product and product management in terms of first principles?How to create product defensibility through positioning?Why is engagement a critical aspect of product assessment and how to measure it?How is a product different from a service?Key Take-Aways:First principle thinking is about how you break down complex non-deterministic structures into deterministic structures that don't change with time.Engagement doesn't necessarily mean anybody coming into your product and doing anything. It is about doing the intended activity that you want the user to do because you believe that it is going to add the maximum value to the user.Product positioning is more critical for your success compared to the uniqueness of the idea. Product management is the art of problem-solving at scale.Accessibility differentiates good product managers from excellent ones. 

About Billy Naveed:My next guest on The One Percent Project is Billy Naveed. Billy is the Chief Strategy Officer at Smile Group. He has spent 20+ years in finance with Morgan Stanely and Credit Suisse. He was the Head of Strategy at Zilingo, a fast-fashion unicorn, and he is the founder of the Young Founders School. Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation he talks about:He talks about his 20+ years in finance, including his roles as a founder, CSO, and a Venture-Builder. He describes his career as a process of continuous self-discovery. The willingness to learn, discover and deeply understand things is what drove him to be the person he is today.Leadership Vs People management. Leadership is giving people a sense of purpose rather than micromanaging them with a carrot and stick mentality. His views on disruption in the financial industry. Billy asserts that the financial sector's disruption is much slower in the short term and much faster in the long term than what one would project. That being said, he considers the two most interesting developments to be the mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies and the capacity to buy and sell these digital currencies.Who is a Venture Builder? A venture build helps entrepreneurs focus on building their business by providing them with all the needed resources and removing blockages that might hamper their growth. Venture building is a private equity model in the venture capital space. Building the Young Founders School and what has he learnt from it? The inspiration came from how difficult it was to find good interns with basic entrepreneurship abilities. Putting roughly 4000 children through the programme helped him realize a lot of what he talks about in the conversation.Rapid Fire:The hardest thing about your job? Uncertainty.One book or a blog that has influenced you personally and professionally?Shoe DogBitcoin or another cryptocurrency?Etherrum.Three ways to support the podcast:#1 Share the episode with family and friends on social media with #OnePercentProj using the share button on the site.#2 Take a few seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. This helps new folks find us organically. Rate#3 Leave a review if you feel inclined. We read every single message and love feedback. Review

About Tarun Davda:My next guest on The One Percent Project is Tarun Davda. He is the Managing Director of Matrix, India. Prior to joining Matrix, Tarun was the Co-founder, India CEO and Board Member at StepOut.com, a venture-backed startup. StepOut became India’s #1 online dating site with over 5 Million users. Before that, Tarun established BigRock.com (incubated by the Directi group) - India’s #1 provider of domain name registration and other web services. Tarun started his career at Infosys as an IT consultant. He has an MBA from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad and an Engineer from VJTI, Bombay.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp groupIn this conversation he talks about:His journey building Matrix India, or rather, reviving and strengthening a brand that was established when venture capital was still in its infancy in the nation. He discusses the opportunities and problems that he confronted while also delivering relatable anecdotes making the conversation all the more captivating.His perspective on how to define disruptive ideas/pitches & highlights how the way venture capitalists think and analyse has changed over time. With a deeper understanding of the matter, he now believes that the most disruptive ideas are the ones that are easiest to dismiss, and that it is only right to hold onto them.How the Indian Founder has evolved over the last decade, and how the crowd has changed radically. Says it's one of the best things that's happened in the last decade; people are more prepared and aware, and Tarun thinks it's just going uphill from here.His thoughts on improvisation and innovation. He believes it is subjective to each individual's interpretation of the terms, but in his opinion, no two marketplaces are the same because innovation is always breaking grounds.What VCs look for in a pitch/ deck: Product, Team, and Market. He believes in a country like India, where everything appears to be a vast market on the surface; coursing through it just serves to highlight how narrow the market is in fact.He discusses the influence of Chinese investments on the progression of entrepreneurship in India. He stresses on how the Chinese have been able to open our minds to accommodate the nuances in the market place. This is because they are benefitted from hindsight and a better outlook on what has worked for the companies in their nations.Key Take-AwayEvery investment is a learning opportunity.The most disruptive ideas are the ones that are the easiest to dismiss.An entrepreneur that can change your predisposed view in one, single meeting is the one you need to back.Rapid Fire:The hardest thing about your job? the toughest one is to be proven wrong.One book or a blog that has influenced you personally and professionally?Super Forecasting and 5 AM ClubYour most favourite superhero?Spider-Man.Three ways to support the podcast:#1 Share the episode with family and friends on social media with #OnePercentProj using the share button on the site.#2 Take a few seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. This helps new folks find us organically. Rate#3 Leave a review if you feel inclined. We read every single message and love feedback. Review

About Mahi de Silva:My next guest on The One Percent Project is Mahi de Silva. Mahi is a serial entrepreneur. His company AdMarvel was acquired by Opera, and within the first month of acquisition, AdMarvel 10xed Opera’s browser monetization. His latest entrepreneurial stint, Amplify.ai recently merged with Triller. Mahi is a University of Kansas and Stanford graduate. He kicked off his career at Apple and later was a part of the core startup team at VeriSign. He eventually became the company’s VP (Engineering) and, later, GM of its Wireless Services. In this conversation he talks about:His journey from Apple to Ampllfy.ai.How he thinks about building a business.Customer Acquisition Vs Customer Retention, which is more important and why?How valuable has it been for him be a business leader with an engineering background?Key Take-Aways:How to identify problems that no one is adequately addressing and how to go about it.How to absorb complex problems and situations and express them in the simplest form so that the consumer is able to understand.Innovation is driven by getting to more and more customers and adapting your offering based on their needs.Rapid Fire:The hardest thing about your job? I'm both a psychologist and a babysitter.One book or a blog that has influenced you personally and professionally?Jim Collins, from good to great.Will AI ever take over human interactions?I don't believe so.Your most favourite superhero?Batman.Three ways to support the podcast:#1 Share the episode with family and friends on social media with #OnePercentProj using the share button on the site.#2 Take a few seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. This helps new folks find us organically. Rate#3 Leave a review if you feel inclined. We read every single message and love feedback. Review

About William Mcquillan:My next guest on The One Percent Project is William Mcquillan. William is a founding partner at Frontline Ventures. Frontline is an early-stage venture capital fund with €250M under management and over 100 investments across Europe and the US. He was the youngest Partner of a European VC fund when Frontline was founded. In this conversation, he talks about:Why he wears square and circular spectacles? The US Vs European VC industry and how it correlates to the Asian VC landscape.Building a brand: Firm Vs Personal.When should founders reach out to VCs and why timing matters?The learnings from Frontline’s gender study report.Key Take-Aways:Why founders are the actual customers of a VC fund?How one should think about building a brand? The importance of self-awareness and how it helps leaders to build big companies.Three ways to support the podcast:#1 Share the episode with family and friends on social media with #OnePercentProj using the share button on the site.#2 Take a few seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. This helps new folks find us organically. Rate#3 Leave a review if you feel inclined. We read every single message and love feedback. Review

About Christina Lopes:My next guest on The One Percent Project is Christina Lopes. Christina is the CEO and co-founder of The One Health Company, leaders in precision medicine leader for dogs with cancer. The One Health Company is a YC incubated start-up backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Tau Ventures. Christina has been also been recognized as Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.In this conversation, she talks about:Building a Bio company in Silicon ValleyLearning from Y Combinator and who should apply?Why have the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and Tau Ventures invested in The One Health Company?Building a business in a market with established incumbents.What does it take to build an effective multidisciplinary team?Key Take-Aways:Build business competitiveness by focusing on a hard problem to solve and solving it with the smartest people available.Before you start building something new. First, do it manually and document your observations. Once you have got your head around it bring the tech and other teams to building it.How to think and build a business from available technology and data and create a business distribution. Rapid Fire:The hardest thing about your job? Dealing with folks, that are really negative on us because we're a new thing and don't understand it really. It's for mission people. It's really hard. One book or a blog that has influenced you personally and professionally?I love Ben Horowitz's, the hard things about hard things. Chapter Four, and then lots of the a16z blogs and podcasts about creating a market is amazing. More in our field, the bio podcast talking about real-world data versus traditional clinical trials. Goes on and on. But they’re amazing.Your most favourite superhero?Superwomen.Three ways to support the podcast:#1 Share the episode with family and friends on social media with #OnePercentProj using the share button on the site.#2 Take a few seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. This helps new folks find us organically. Rate#3 Leave a review if you feel inclined. We read every single message and love feedback. Review