The Neon Show

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

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