The Neon Show

Welcome to this exciting podcast ep, where we will delve into the world of Prafull Billore, the most famous Chaiwala. In our conversation, we highlight various aspects of his life that have contributed to his success. From understanding how he gets his passion and self-confidence to discussing short-term versus long-term goals, we cover it all!We also talk about Prafull's journey post-COVID and how he has been able to recover after facing several challenges that helped him mature with experience despite being only 26 years old. As you listen further, you'll discover why Prafull believes that bigger struggles lead to bigger successes and how he constantly strives towards improvement every day.So come join us on this thrilling ride where we learn more about what else Prafull is planning in store for the future!Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation01:12 - Prafull Billore, the most famous Chaiwala03:05 - What makes him so confident06:58 - Having short-term goals v/s long-term goals09:25 - Opening his 2nd outlet12:33 - Recovering post COVID15:21 - Current scale of opening new outlets17:58 - Challenges while scaling21:17 - How do his thoughts become inspiring?25:42 - Emulating successful people like Jeff Bezos28:33 - Maturing with experiences at the age of 2630:09 - “Bigger the struggle, bigger the success.”32:23 - How is Prafull of today better than the Prafull of yesterday? 34:13 - Best quality - “Learning How to ask for help!”40:14 - Bias for action - Content creator vs Entrepreneur42:12 - What more is he planning for?Send us a text

Whatfix has a user base of over 10 million people and has been used to create over 1.5 million digital walkthroughs and tutorials. It has 500+ enterprise customers worldwide, including companies like HP, Schneider Electric, and Autodesk. Since its launch in 2014, Whatfix has become a go-to solution for businesses across multiple industries.The platform has also received the "Best SaaS Product for Web/App Development" at the 2021 SaaS Awards.In this episode, we have Whatfix founders Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar Namburu share the journey of Whatfix from their first offline Dreamforce event to reaching 10 Million people, their vision, clients, scale, culture and more. Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation02:06 - What’s Whatfix and how it’s unique04:07 - Strategy of CTO moving to the US and CEO being in India06:31 - Bringing Vispi Daver as an Angel Investor10:18 - Avoid falling into the trap of following someone else’s playbook as a first-time founder14:13 - Getting the first few Enterprise customers15:57 - Taking Counter-intuitive bets19:40 - Their first big event Dreamforce 25:02 - Going one step back, would they do a 10-15 member round table for their most interested CIOs post Dreamforce event?26:49 - Focusing on farming with Account Managers31:36 - Advice to SaaS founder: When to focus on Brand? 34:10 - Brand-building after their first Dreamforce36:45 - Their initial Ideal customer profile37:58 - Challenges & Hurdles in their 1 to 10 journey39:23 - Examples where the deal got stuck at IT Security or CFO-level43:55 - Enabling multiple stakeholders in a sales decision46:30 - Traditional profile of a sales person47:24 - Hiring profile of their initial senior sales team49:28 - How to deal with people’s Title expectation?54:23 - Building their culture early-on56:28 - Mistakes in their early journey58:06 - Guiding the early team in current journey1:00:05 - Time & efforts in recent rounds of fundings1:04:27 - Raising from Stellaris Venture Partners1:05:32 - Changing path amongst the founders1:06:59 - Account plan review with customers1:08:50 - Having set accounts with every leader to help the customers succeedSend us a text

Imagine a social micro-blogging platform like Twitter that allows users to express themselves in their local languages on a large scale. Well, that's precisely what Koo offers. In today's episode, we are joined by Aprameya Radhakrishna, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Koo. Aprameya's first startup was TaxiForSure, which was acquired by Ola Cabs in 2015. Since then, he has invested in over 30 early-stage startups, including Unacademy, TapChief, and Daily Ninja. During our conversation, Aprameya discusses his thoughts on Indian startups and tech talent building for global markets, his experience with VCs as a second-time entrepreneur, and much more.Notes - 00:00 - Highlights 01:47 - Aprameya Radhakrishna and Koo's story03:23 - Koo's scale in India and Brazil08:30 - Current market headwinds10:59 - Koo's positioning in the audience's mind13:17 - VC and investor perspective being a second-time founder15:13 - Going deeper in India v/s Going Global16:30 - Exiting TaxiForSure17:56 - Focus on product and traction while building a product20:29 - Learnings from TaxiForSure 22:36 - Confidence to go global as a consumer internet company from India26:50 - Self-doubt while starting Koo31:14 - Change in Aprameya's ability to read the market33:22 - Gut feeling about the recession's duration37:04 - Balancing confidence and arrogance as a founder40:17 - Relationship with VCs over time45:00 - Future bets in the next 10 years46:32 - Riskiest bets that paid off48:02 - Financial independence's impact on Aprameya as a person49:57 - Aprameya's other aspirations besides building Koo51:53 - Is the core India shining?Send us a text

A report by Deloitte and Wipro estimated that the value of B2B digital payments in India will reach $700 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 30% from 2020.The B2B digital payment ecosystem in India has been growing rapidly, driven by factors such as: # Government initiatives to promote digital payments# Increasing adoption of mobile devices and internet connectivity# Growing awareness of the benefits of digital payments among businesses and moreIn this episode we have with us Akash Sinha, Co-founder & CEO, Cashfree payments, talking about B2B Digital payments ecosystem in India. Cashfree Payments has processed over 200 million transactions as of 2021, with a total transaction value of over $12 billion. It serves over 3,00,000 businesses, ranging from small startups to large enterprises, across various industries such as e-commerce, travel, hospitality, and fintech such as Dream11, Zomato, Dunzo, CRED, Acko, and Nykaa amongst others.Cashfree Payments offers various payment solutions, such as payment gateway, payouts, auto-collect, recurring payments, and marketplace settlements. They have also launched new products like Cashgram and Cashfree AI to improve the user experience and prevent fraud.Let’s deep dive into the episode where Akash has their initial journey with heavy competition in the market, complying with RBI regulations as a payment solution provider, and much more.Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation02:07 - Intro to Akash Sinha, Cashfree Payments and Payment ecosystem in India03:09 - Journey so far & Indian payment’s landscape06:37 - Mapping the payment landscape’s online segment10:05 - Cashfree’s share in B2B payments in India11:06 - Strengths of Razorpay & Cashfree Payments13:59 - Larger customers such as - Meesho, Swiggy, Zepto, and CRED among others14:50 - SME signups and payments insights across India16:59 - Scaling with a Platform approach18:14 - Being part of YC early-on20:22 - Strengths as a CEO & Founder24:57 - Y-o-Y growth at Cashfree Payments26:01 - Plans for IPO26:31 - Emotional Journey of a founder in the last 8 years27:53 - Steering clear in a competitive market back in 201532:05 - Building multiple products to solve multiple problems34:44 - India’s growing Digital infrastructure38:03 - Advice for entrepreneurs to choose tough markets with large tailwinds39:56 - Coming from a Non-fintech background42:32 - How fast is the Digital payments market growing? 43:35 - How tough is it to be compliant with RBI regulatory changes? Send us a text

By end-2019, just before the pandemic, the market for Coworking spaces was spread over some 30 million sq. ft, with 471,782 seats across the top seven markets in India, per JLL Research data.In December 2022, the numbers grew to 50 million sq. ft and 750,000+ seats. In the next three years, the co-working space market in India is set to cross the 1-million-seats mark spread over 75 million sq. ft.WeWork India is the leading provider of flexible workspace solutions with almost 70,000+ seats across 44+ locations in India.In this episode, we have Karan Virwani, CEO, WeWork India, talking about his experience of bringing and scaling WeWork in India, over the past 7 years.Karan brought WeWork to India in a partnership tie-up with his family's Embassy Group. Starting business operations in the country with 100k sq ft, WeWork India has progressed to 6.5mn sq ft as of today. Within 6 years, WeWork India has grown from 2,200 members in WeWork Galaxy, Bangalore, to 44 locations across 6 cities in India today - Bengaluru, Mumbai, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, and Pune.During the episode, Karan shares the ups and downs in their journey, especially during Covid, and how they tackled the situation which helped them build goodwill and scale back faster post things normalized. This podcast is for anyone who wants to have an insider view of India’s growing Flex workspace market.Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation01:34 - Intro to Karan Virwani, WeWork and Global Co-working phenomenon02:27 - Bringing WeWork to India09:36 - Why not start under the Embassy brand name and why start with WeWork? 12:16 - Borrowing the DNA of WeWork Global to India 13:37 - Scaling to 40+ WeWorks and 70,000+ Desks in India15:57 - Back into Growth mode post Covid17:14 - Having multiple landlords for Pan-India growth18:39 - Initial investment & roadblocks in their journey24:43 - Plans for WeWork IPO in India25:33 - Coworking customer segment in India v/s Global33:16 - Coworking as a culture amongst Traditional & Legacy companies34:05 - Operating in a certain price segment36:44 - Partner-led approach during Covid40:01 - Sector-wise demand of commercial real-estate43:07 - Hitting $1 Bn revenue in 3 years43:38 - Coworking as a % of Commerical Real Estate in IndiaSend us a text

As per Tracxn, there are 1100+ SaaS startups in Chennai as of Feb 2023. Chennai has rightfully gained the title of the SAAS capital of India, thanks to the expansion of companies such as Zoho and Freshworks. Although these two firms have recently surpassed the $500 million revenue milestone, making them the most prominent success stories in the realm of Indian-based SAAS companies, there are other companies contributing to Chennai's reputation in the market. Chargebee, CloudCherry, HappyFox, and FourKites are among the businesses that are creating a unique space in the industry.In this episode, we have with us Srikrishnan Ganesan Founder, Rocketlane. Srikrishnan's SaaS journey began with Konotor, which got acquired by FreshWorks and later became Freshchat. He has experienced scaling from 0 to 100 and is now building Rocketlane, a customer onboarding platform that reduces time to value and eliminates hit-or-miss experiences.During the episode, he talks about his inspiration behind building Rocketlane, Planning and doing GTM early on being a SaaS founder, setting up a base in Chennai, and much more.Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation01:32 - Intro to Srikrishnan Ganesan, Rocketlane and Chennai’s SaaS ecosystem02:36 - Why do SaaS founders prefer Chennai?06:09 - Advantages of building prior-product building experience09:50 - Choosing the domain for Rocketlane13:12 - Rocketlane’s Pre-Launch setup18:53 - What works in customer conversation’s Pre-Launch?22:44 - Why do SaaS founders ignore GTM?24:35 - Raising their 1st round26:32 - Choosing to become a Category creator29:08 - Investing in Brand-building upfront30:39 - Funding announcement with a Rap video34:15 - Learnings from his journey37:54 - Their strategy for Demand-Gen40:29 - His thoughts on Generative-AI45:47 - Slowness demand for Rocketlane or similar companies serving SMBsSend us a text

Imagine you’re part of an NBFC, how would you lend to a person running a Kirana business? Without any proper credit score, current account or other standard checks. Finding it difficult to evaluate the credit worthiness of the shop owner. Right? In the age of the internet, UPI, net banking, Jan Dhan Bank account and almost all transaction-related data available with transparency, it seems possible.  Now imagine dealing with the same issue, back in 1984. Seems impossible right? Well, that’s when Five Star Business Finance, ventured into small business financing.In this episode, we have with us, Rangarajan Krishnan, CEO, Five Star Business Finance.Dive into this episode as Rangarajan shares the journey of Five Star, their experience of going IPO recently, how RBI regulates NBFCs, what differentiates them from other NBFCs, Banks Fintech, and more. This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and anyone looking to learn more about the working, valuation, and scaling of NBFCs in India.Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation01:28 - Intro to Rangarajan & Five Star Business Finance02:38 - Valuation for NBFCs while going IPO03:14 - Their IPO journey over three phases10:29 - Private round valuation Pre-IPO13:33 - History and background of Five Star22:03 - RBI’s regulations around deposit-taking NBFCs23:26 - How does the lending market in India looks like? 26:29 - The simplest way to define a customer of Five Star31:51 - Branch presence across major geographies in India37:10 - RBI scale-based regulations for 10,000+ NBFCs 39:45 - What differentiates them from other NBFCs? 42:41 - Do they aspire to be amongst the Top 10-15 NBFCs in the next 2-3 years?44:11 - Prerequisites from RBI for starting an NBFC46:16 - Do they want to become a Fintech eventually? 49:20 - Being a CEO and a Non-founder51:39 - His interaction while joining Five Star56:53 - Managing his & promotor's responsibilities 57:46 - Things he has changed & retained in the company in the last 7+ yearsSend us a text

In this episode, we talk with Mithun Sacheti, the founder of CaratLane, who has disrupted the traditional jewellery industry in India by leveraging technology and innovation. He started CaratLane in 2008 with the vision to provide access to beautiful jewellery designs at an affordable price. Mithun Sacheti comes from a Marwari family and joined the family jewellery business, Jaipur Gems, after graduation. He started its stores in Chennai. Later, he founded CaratLane in 2008 after being inspired by the online jewellery retailer, Blue Nile. CaratLane aims to solve the problem of limited access to beautiful and affordable jewellery designs for the middle class in India.The conversation dives into his entrepreneurial journey, his insights on the Indian D2C startup ecosystem, and the challenges he faced along the way. Mithun recalls the struggles he had in convincing Bluedart to be their shipping partner and how it took them almost a year and a crore to build their website. Tune in now to know Mithun’s journey of building CaratLane from scratch, his belief that in life, the harder thing is not to find answers but to find the right questions and what are the next questions for him in life.  Notes - 00:00 - Highlights of the conversation01:45 - The idea & Need of CaratLane01:55 - Disrupting the underserved jewellery market in India03:19 - The first one to bring jewellery at low prices03:33 - The designs should be democratised 03:55 - Becoming the Market Maker 04:04 - The reality of the Jewellery Market in India06:08 - Why 25% of your wealth should be in form of gold?06:47 - The effect of the Ukraine War on the purchase of gold07:05 - Quitting family business to start Caratlane08:30 - Life of kids born in families running big businesses08:58 - Inspiration behind starting Caratlane10:36 - First few pivots in their product journey13:38 - Initial phase of building and growing Caratlane17:57 - Raising funding & building for Titan21:57 - Journey after Tiger Global’s funding24:12 - Getting advice from Raamdeo Agrawal at Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s dinner31:48 - Why do people really buy jewellery?39:13 - Tata group being able to marry the Entrepreneur to the business post-acquisition43:03 - Learnings while working with Tata46:15 - What are the next questions in life for him?Send us a text

Manish Mundra is an Investor, a film producer, and a man whose story is an inspiration for all the small-town people with big dreams.Manish was born in a Marwadi family based in Deoghar, Jharkhand. He along with his family experienced a difficult time when his father’s business suffered a setback. From selling sarees to cold drinks, he had done it all to support his family. Manish later on focused on his education and did his MBA from a college in Jodhpur. He, later on, moved to Nigeria to join a multinational Petrochemicals firm and rose up to become its CEO.In 2013, Manish responded to a tweet by actor-director Rajat Kapoor, offering to produce a movie based on his script—Ankhon Dekhi (2014).After that, Manish founded Drishyam Films to back socially relevant films like Masaan, Newton, Ankhon Dekhi and more becoming one of the most promising filmmakers of Indian cinema. Recently, he also released his first movie Siya as a director.In our conversation with Manish, he shares his journey from his early days in Deoghar to moving to Nigeria and then finding a way to produce and direct movies.  He also opens up about his passion for promoting diversity and inclusivity in cinema and why it's so important to give a voice to underrepresented communities.Manish's infectious energy and inspiring story that he has will definitely make you think that when it comes to dreams, the sky's the limit for him.Notes - 02:08 - Intro to Manish Mundra05:48 - Moving out of India10:33 - Initial life in Middle-class families 20:34 - Working hard early in career to scale faster23:50 - His experience with his first film - “Ankhon Dekhi” with Rajat Kapoor35:33 - Slow compounding throughout his journey39:18 - Being a filmmaker who has no background of movies42:47 - More screens for independent film-makers52:02 - Dealing with your inferiority complex? 56:35 - More evolved and More Spiritual 57:14 - What’s the purpose that’s driving Manish at the age of 49? Send us a text

In the recent episode of Shark Tank India which went viral, we saw Ganesh Balakrishnan, the Co-Founder of Flatheads Shoes, pitch his sustainable and ethically-made footwear brand to the Sharks. Although Ganesh faced some initial skepticism from the Sharks, he didn't give up and continued to present his vision with confidence and determination.And through his pitch, he made everyone realize that entrepreneurship is not only Unicorns, fundraisers, and large secondaries for the founders. It's mainly about the fight that goes on within an individual and with the outside world.Ganesh's tenacity and perseverance in the face of rejection are an inspiration to all entrepreneurs, and his story is a reminder that success doesn't come easy and entrepreneurship is a long journey. In this episode, we talk to Ganesh about his journey as an entrepreneur, the inspiration behind Flatheads Shoes, and the challenges he's faced along the way. Listen to the full episode to learn more about Ganesh’s new Mantra for Entrepreneurship "Down but not out" Notes - 01:22 - Intro to Ganesh02:42 - Getting into Shark Tank05:02 - What happened once the episode aired? 07:32 - The Joy of Creation14:12 - Emotional Journey with family as an Entrepreneur20:51 - Impact of Covid on Flatheads28:44 - What’s next for Flatheads?33:15 - Pandemic-driven thought process: Offline vs Online35:28 - What else was discussed in the Shark Tank pitch that wasn’t aired?38:12 - Why didn't he take the Shark Tank offer? 39:45 - What brings humility to an entrepreneur? 43:50 - Knowing what he got to know after Shark Tank, what would he have done differently in Flatheads' journey? 47:11 - His focus in 2023Send us a text