The Neon Show

The Indian Grocery market was at 396 Billion Indian Rupees in 2022. Over 95% of Indian grocery stores are made up of Kiranas or small grocery stores. While supermarkets account for about 4% of total grocery shares, online groceries are not even near one percent. Which stands as a huge potential market for companies like BigBasket, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Zepto, JioMart, and Dunzo to scale.Zepto pioneered 10 min grocery delivery In India. It’s a phenomenon that took India by storm. And this is a unique Indian offering. Nowhere in the world has 10 min delivery been pioneered and scaled like in India.And there are very few businesses born once in a decade that change consumer behavior permanently. Flipkart pioneered e-commerce in India, BigBasket pioneered grocery in India delivered in 3-4 days and Zepto has pioneered grocery delivered in 10 mins. In this episode, we have Aadit Palicha, Founder & CEO, Zepto sharing his journey so far with us.During the conversation, Aadit also mentioned about his first startup, moving back to India during Covid, dropping out of Stanford, and starting Zepto.Notes - 00:00 - Intro01:36 - The life story of Aadit before starting Zepto02:36 - First startup at age 1608:18 - Dropping out of Stanford10:21 - First round of funding from Y-combinator and Nexus12:30 - Growth & Challenges in Zepto’s journey so far17:35 - Is grocery a big enough category to build a large enough business? 20:54 - Is it possible to become profitable in this space? 25:50 - Headwinds in their business28:46 - Going public in India at $10 Bn34:00 - Where does 99%+ of his learnings come from?37:45 - Avoid taking a hit on culture as you scale Send us a text

Alok Goyal, a Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, brings deep insights into the Indian SaaS market. He discusses the explosive growth expected in this sector, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.5% until 2025. Alok highlights the transformation of SaaS in India, detailing success stories like Whatfix and the increasing number of $100 million ARR companies. He also shares how his investment thesis has evolved, focusing on AI automation startups and the importance of reducing burn rates. Tune in for a deep dive into the future of SaaS entrepreneurship in India!

Why the DARLING Edtech in 2021 became a taboo in 2022 for VCs?What do students really expect? Why do Edtech entrepreneurs fail? And what's the most important factor in EdTech Success?Today we talk with Manan Khurma, Founder at Cuemath who answers all these questions for us. During our conversation he shares how building an Education venture is not like building on a rocket ship, but building with trust. He has been building Cuemath for almost the last decade and he highlights that unlike the common notion or FOMO behind going online being an Edtech venture, right before Covid, only 5% of their entire revenue came via Online classes.His first question to any new entrepreneur looking to enter the Edtech space is if they are ready to give atleast two decades to build their educational venture. Further during the episode Manan shares their views on performance marketing in edtech, building trust for students and parents, and much more. Notes - 02:21 - Manan’s journey to becoming a teacher and entrepreneur04:31 - What’s his view of Edtech landscape both in India and globally?08:08 - Which are the institutions that inspire him? 11:55 - Going down the attention span of kids in the last decade17:45 - Certain kids already being great at grasping new things21:19 - Zoho Shoutout23:30 - Getting answers has become really easy27:39 - Real learning happens when a student puts their brain in isolation to a problem29:07 - Increase in the number of screens in our home33:11 - Thesis on how not to build an Education venture39:31 - Mercenary category of Entrepreneur45:15 - Current scale of Cuemath47:55 - Their approach to starting coding courses49:30 - Essence of Analytical thinking50:54 - Goal to build a strong base and system51:52 - Best way to build a 1,00,000 paid students base in Educational venture54:22 - How have the customer acquisition channels evolved? Send us a text

Recently the trend in startups has been around growing fast, scaling faster, and becoming humongous with viral products, ideas & marketing. But in most cases, such ideas come crashing down in a short span of time, because of the lack of depth either in the product or the customer base.In this episode, almost after a year and half since we published NoBroker Founder Amit Agarwal’s episode, we have with us his Co-founder Akhil Gupta to talk more about their journey of building NoBroker with depth in every market and focus on customers over the last 10 years. During the episode, Akhil shares the ups and downs in their journey, along with the initial response they got while they were trying to raise their first round, what are his thoughts about the current & future of the housing market in India, and more.Notes - 01:26 - Early Product Market Fit moment for NoBroker07:19 - Clarity to make NoBroker the largest Real Estate solution in India 08:53 - The most challenging obstacles13:35 - Defining moments in their journey15:19 - Mistakes they made being founders16:46 - Key factors why they succeeded 20:35 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on What does Zoho Payroll do and what’s the story behind it? 21:36 - Future Plans23:41 - How they become the Amazon of Real Estate25:16 - Passion behind starting NoBroker30:40 - Why they got rejected by so many VCs32:29 - Realistic way of building a sustainable growing startup38:07 - Reason behind the sky-rocketing of rentals in Bangalore42:04 - Impact of global factors on the Indian Housing market Also, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

Where was the Indian Startup Ecosystem back in 2010-12, where is it now in 2022 and where is it headed 5 years down the line, in terms of - # Digital Infrastructure# Tech Talent# Innovative mindset amongst founders# Investments from VCs and Angel Investors and more. In this episode, we will talk about all of it, with our guest, Santosh Panda, Co-founder, Foundership where he is Incubating & Accelerating Top Founders & Builders Launch Defining Web3 Startup of tomorrow.Tune in to hear Santosh share his insights on the importance of finding a Co-founder, the opportunities of the Indian Startup Ecosystem in the years to come, the past, present & future of Web3, and much more.Notes - 00:00 - Bhai tu Co-founder banega?01:55 - Meeting with Santosh for the first time06:40 - Being compassionate09:05 - Convincing someone to become your Co-founder16:22 - Being within the Startup Ecosystem since 200819:57 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on how is Zoho Payroll solving problems beyond payroll. 23:35 - Thoughts about the current Indian Startup Ecosystem31:00 - How would 2025-2030 be like for Indian Startups?34:47 - Tech Innovation in India for last mile connectivity37:09 - The essence of having a Digital Infrastructure in India41:18 - What is there for India in Web3?Send us a text

As of today, only 15% of India’s population lives in the top 50 cities, and the remaining 85% which accounts to around 119 crores, live in towns or villages. According to an ASER survey, the availability of smartphones in rural India was 67.6 % in 2021, primarily bought for kids’ studies amid the pandemic.With this, we can make out that even in towns and villages, the penetration of smartphones and the internet is huge and people in villages are driven to spend higher to provide better learning resources to their children. This exact learning is what drove our guest, Lal Chand Bisu, Founder, Kuku FM, to build a product for Bharat.In today’s episode, we talk with Lal Chand Bisu to understand, how he was able to build a subscription model product for the mass Indians and what have been his learnings over the years while scaling Kuku FM.Notes - 01:50 - Intro 02:20 - Do the mass Indians pay for subscriptions?03:46 - How do Indians define value? 05:37 - How is Kukufm an aspirational product for the masses? 08:05 - Indians consuming aspirational content11:33 - Split of content on Kuku FM12:36 - Starting Non-series content in form of Mini-episodes16:25 - Popularity of Personal Finance on Kuku FM18:24 - Family Background and the entrepreneurial path he chose20:26 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on what makes Zolo Payroll different from its competitors? 28:46 - How was he motivated to do something out of his league?32:36 - Why do people in towns or villagers aspire for Government jobs?36:44 - Convincing Indian consumers to pay for Non-fictional content subscriptionsAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

The direct-to-consumer market, known as the D2C market had a size of about $33 billion in India in 2020. By 2025, the total addressable D2C market is forecast to grow almost threefold and reach $100 billion.In today’s episode, we have with us, Abhishek Goenka, Head of Investments, RPSG Capital Ventures.RPSG Capital Ventures is an early-stage consumer VC fund focused on investing in the D2C ecosystem including food & beverage, personal care, and lifestyle goods.Some of their portfolio companies are mCaffeine, Plixlife, and The Souled Store among others.In today’s episode, Abhishek shares the differentiating factor of what led them to invest in Plixlife, one of their portfolio’s profitable exits, and more. Notes - 01:07 - Intro to RPSG and its investments in D2C space02:42 - Largest portfolio companies and what helped them reach there03:45 - What’s D2C from his perspective?05:04 - What has helped D2C in India to have explosive growth?13:51 - How does a D2C brand differentiate itself in today’s time?20:39 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on what is their long-term vision with Zoho Payroll.22:23 - Thesis which didn’t work out29:41 - Why don’t we see many D2C unicorns in India?32:14 - What are the moats for a D2C brand? 34:54 - Doubling down on the Hero productAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

Karthik Jagannathan, after working for more than two decades across cross-functional experience in Telecom and Internet businesses, with a specific focus on SMBs, decided to build a solution to help SMBs scale faster with Gallabox.In today’s episode, Karthik shares the backstory of what led him to starting up at the age of 50, building something for SMBs, and more. Notes - 01:36 - Serving a business like it's your own04:10 - Where do the roots of ownership come from in his life? 06:27 - What other significant events in his life lead him to here today? 08:58 - Building and growing sustainably in crisis12:06 - India wasn’t a place of - “Grow fast, Break fast.”18:34 - Landscape out there in Small & Medium Businesses in India24:33 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?26:44 - Zeroing down on an idea to solve for SMBs36:22 - Leveraging Whatsapp with Gallabox39:06 - Themes that he wanted to solve for40:49 - Scaling to over 500+ business49:39 - Learnings from their journey so far51:50 - What helped them grow faster?57:49 - Advice for entrepreneur building for SMBsAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text

With so much happening in our work and personal lives on a daily basis, how do you keep track of things?  Which one of the following do you generally practice? 1. Just try to remember all of it with your brain2. Save reminders or alerts with a calendar or events management app3. Maintain a daily diary4. Some other way! As argued and mentioned by most founders and VCs on our podcast so far, like Gaurav Munjal, Founder Unacademy, its futile to put so much pressure on your brain to try and remember everything all the time.  Instead, its best to take notes of all the things that matter to you or you think would matter to you down the line, store it somewhere and refer it when needed, and just use your brain as a processor, rather than a hard drive. In today’s episode, we have with us, Tiago Forte, Founder, Forte Labs and we’re going to talk in-depth about his book - “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organise Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential”. In simple words, taking and processing notes in an effective and efficient way. During the episode, Tiago talks about our mental blockers which hold us back from taking effective notes, how to get back at reviewing them later, how to get started with step 1, and more. Notes - 00:36 - Intro01:24 - Key takeaways from his book for a layman03:30 - What’s his why behind writing his book and creating this system?06:01 - Why or how do health issues triggers to write such an unconventional book? 07:04 - Initial system of note-taking and how it has evolved. 08:34 - What’s the App-stack that he relies on? 10:00 - How has this journey transformed him as a person?11:36 - First set of things anyone can do to get started? 16:13 - How to review or revisit your notes effectively?18:14 - His daily schedule: Between first brain & second brain20:20 - Why is it difficult for people to take this 1-extra step?22:26 - What can help our listeners help overcome procrastination and start note-taking?25:39 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?26:55 - How to manage accountability in note-taking? 31:23 - How to make note-taking frictionless?34:18 - Three personas from his book where note-taking made a significant change to their lifeAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur! https://zoho.to/zoho-payroll  Send us a text

There’s been a high rise in global data breaches for several years, and 2022 has been littered with information thefts. As per Analytics India magazine, the data breach cost averaged Rs.176 million in 2022, reaching an all-time high.In July, Twitter suffered a data breach of 5.4 million accounts, and throughout the year so far, there have been several cases of data theft of various scales.Our today’s guest, Jaspreet Singh, Founder & CEO Druva, has built and scaled the company since 2008 to provide a solution in this space.Druva is trusted by over 4,000 global organizations. The company has such strong faith in these data-protection systems, that they even offer a Data Resiliency Guarantee up to $10 Mn against five key data risks.In today’s episode, Jaspreet shares with us the backstory of what led him to start Druva, move to the US, and more. Notes - 00:42 - Intro01:13 - Conceptualizing Druva04:06 - What kept him going in the first 5-years?05:37 - Reaching $1 Mn ARR07:08 - Druva’s revenue till 2013 before getting their first large customer07:49 - What were they building in the first 5 years and what did they transition into after 2013?10:46 - Letting go of $8 Mn revenue 11:45 - Milestones and evolving for revenue growth14:19 - Critical requirement to shift to the US for scale17:19 - Is a India Product-Market-Fit exactly replicable in the US?19:26 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?20:26 - What worked well for Druva in the 10 to 100 journey? 24:52 - His advice to SaaS entrepreneurs to reach $20 Mn ARRAlso, try out a 30-day free trial of Zoho Payroll, and simplify your Payroll journey as an entrepreneur!https://zoho.to/zoho-payrollSend us a text