The Neon Show

On the podcast today, we have with us Sandeep Jain, Founder, GeeksforGeeks. GeeksForGeeks is one of the largest online learning platforms for coding enthusiasts, budding engineers, and anyone involved in the tech domain. Sandeep is from Firozabad which is 40 kms away from Agra in UP. He studied in a government school before doing his graduation from UP Technical University, Mathura, and masters from IIT Roorkee. In the year 2009, he created a blog with the intent to help engineering students prepare for placements. What started as a blog is today a 1000 Crore+ annual revenue Edtech company with 250+ team members. Let’s dive deep into his journey from leaving his engineering job to becoming a teacher to 10 Million+ registered 'Geeks' from across the world.Notes - 03:07 - Growing up in Firozabad to growing the love for coding07:20 - Joining D. E. Shaw & Co after graduation09:24 - 30% Salary cut in his first Teaching job v/s being a Software Engineer10:00 - Starting GeeksforGeeks in 200916:03 - Hiring the initial team18:26 - Annual revenue growth to 1000 Crore+24:12 - Learning the skills and growing in the role of a CEO30:35 - Growing against well-funded competitorsSend us a text

March 2019 was when we published our first episode of 100xEntrepreneur. So far we’ve covered 150+ VCs, Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs from the Indian startup ecosystem. Alongside 100xEntrepreneur podcast we’ve so far invested in 30+ portfolio companies via like Airmeet, PlumHQ, Zencastr and Neeman’s. In today’s episode we share our journey so far. We are Siddhartha & Nansi, a husband-wife entrepreneur-cum-content creator duo who started their podcast journey with a purpose to make behind the screen conversations, thought process, and mindset of VCs, Investors and Successful entrepreneurs accessible to thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts like you. We really hope that we have been able to serve you with great content so far and would really appreciate your feedback. How can you share your feedback with us? Reply to this emailComment on our Youtube, iTunes, Castbox or Spotify ChannelNotes - 01:09 - How 100xEntrepreneur was born?09:44 - To Unlock Growth: Start reaching out to people who are better and bigger than you14:19 - What went in the background while recording a podcast?21:01 - Joining AWS to setting up 100x Fund23:33 - Building the team at 100xEntrepreneur27:46 - Our favourite episode so farSend us a text

India’s largest Content Marketplace with 1L+ creators, 2500+ customers, out of which 70+ are Unicorns. Does that ring any bells? We’re talking about Pepper Content, founded by Anirudh Singla, in his 2nd year of undergrad college.Pepper’s journey started when Anirudh during his college decided to take up freelancing and content creation to fund his graduation all by himself. He then realised the potential of content creators in India and decided to organize it by creating an Indian marketplace for the same. In our conversation with Anirudh, we dive into the journey of building and scaling Pepper to $8 Million ARR Content-marketplace in under 5 years and their plans ahead.Notes - 03:06 - Baniya-family background, freelance exposure while at college07:06 - First few steps to building a marketplace11:06 - Splitting equity early-on12:46 - Reaching out to 80+ VCs and Angel Investors while raising their 1st round17:20 - What made them raise their 1st round? 18:43 - Scaling from $500k ARR to $8 Million ARR in 14 months21:20 - Client base: 550+ Active customers and 70+ Unicorns24:20 - Need to focus on a SaaS based approach for Content26:15 - “Hustle doesn’t scale. By the same time what scale’s is the mindset of thinking big enough!”28:25 - “Not building a family, but instead building a high quality sports team.”Send us a text

#1 Smartwatch Brand in India#3 Smartwatch Brand in Asia#9 Smartwatch Brand GloballyAll the above feats are not from Apple, Samsung, or a legacy player in the market, but from our own homegrown Indian brand - Noise.In this week’s podcast, we turn the spotlight on Noise : A brand that’s on a mission to offer quality smart wearables at affordable prices to its customers. In our conversation with Amit Khatri, Co-founder of Noise, he shared how the brand started bootstrapped in 2014, what have been the challenges and how have they scaled over the years.We have tried to summarize some key themes & takeaways from our conversation. Notes - 02:09 - Early Career & Family Background before starting Noise05:45 - Product development & Revenue journey from 2014 to 201808:04 - Finalising the main categories - Smartwatch and Wireless Earbuds09:55 - Why prioritize growing own Website instead of relying on marketplace?12:18 - Testing your idea in the market being bootstrapped13:36 - Vision & plan of the brand early-on14:56 - Initial Learnings for early-stage D2C Entrepreneurs16:16 - Focus on building the brand from Day 118:55 - Building and launching the first product24:15 - Secrets of scaling from Rs.160 Cr+ to Rs.800 Cr+ Revenue26:26 - Key elements of creating a playbook for a Rs.1000 Cr+ D2C brand31:36 - Keeping prices reasonable while ensuring better qualitySend us a text

Why is HUL considered a Leadership factory?“Every great brand is built on a fundamental human insights.”Do you agree that people come before revenue?“Invest in Brand, even as little as possible, and not just Performance Marketing from Day 1.”Listen to Shashank Mehta, Founder of The Whole Truth Foods and a passionate HUL Ex-employee in today’s episode to know his perspective about everything mentioned above. Notes - 03:43 - Definition of D2C market in India context07:11 - His early career prior to starting his entrepreneurial journey09:40 - Post-MBA why he chose Marketing over Finance?11:30 - Why HUL is considered a leadership factory?14:30 - Learnings from his stint at HUL18:48 - Why he joined Faasos (now REBEL Foods) a lesser known startup leaving HUL in 2012?23:40 - Scale of Faaso’s when he joined and left the company24:30 - Why he left Faasos and joined HUL again?28:22 - Learnings from setting up an Ayurveda-brand within HUL34:09 - Consumer insight which HUL was trying to  solve with its AYUSH proposition34:54 - His blog about food and fitness - FIT SHIT41:54 - Raising around 5 Cr+ initial funding during his Notice Period45:10 - Zero to One Phase of The Whole Truth Foods50:02 - Realizing the ‘Aha Moment’ of brand’s journey52:32 - Sales & Revenue Milestones during their journey54:05 - Being a Truth company rather than being a food company57:00 - Key learnings while scaling a brandSend us a text

MobiKwik is one of the largest Mobile Wallet and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platforms in India. Its tech platform has 120  million Registered Users, 25.3 million pre-approved BNPL users and more than 3.4 million merchant partners. MobiKwik's top line grew by 80 percent from INR 300 crore in FY21 to INR 540 Crore in FY22.Tune in to this conversation with Bipin Preet Singh, Co-founder, MobiKwik where we talk about his journey of building and scaling the company for the last 13+ years.During the episode, Bipin also shares about how they started first with a basic problem of the masses with mobile recharge and then scaled over time, how they sailed through the difficult times of Covid and took Mobikwik to 100Mn+ users.Notes - 02:21 - What led him to founding MobiKwik?09:00 - “You can’t build the platform on Day 1, the platform has to evolve.”11:58 - Advice for early-stage entrepreneurs pitching to build a platform14:27 - How did MobiKwik evolve as a platform? 27:23 - What has transformed significantly in the last 1-2 years?30:33 - Current revenue, profits, and scale 36:25 - Is the economy currently going into recession?38:11 - What kept him going for 13+ years?40:33 - Tailwinds which are supporting Fintech in India44:52 - Creating a mental model to build in markets with already existing large playersSend us a text

Any idea what’s common between Flipkart, Ola, Swiggy, Zerodha and 6000+ other Businesses in India and South-East Asia? They all rely on Exotel for their customer communications, no matter the size, scale, or industry within which the company exists; Exotel has the a product-solution for all of them. In this episode, we talk with Shivakumar Ganesan, Founder of Exotel to learn more about his journey and challenges building and scaling the company.During the episode, Shivakumar talks about his experience with VCs & Angel investors, having Ola as a customer and much more.Notes - 03:48 - Early days, Family, background & career06:40 - Entrepreneurial attempts before starting Exotel09:51 - Initial Problem statement and solutions13:50 - Raising money from Blume Ventures18:30 - Scale and Customers at $1Mn ARR30:21 - Cofounders leaving the company37:30 - Dealing with thoughts about quitting41:55 - How did A91 Partners chose to back Exotel?49:38 - Current Capabilities & Scope for growth52:15 - Proving naysayers wrong by building a $60Mn ARR SaaS from India for India53:39 - Key lessons from his journey55:56 - Advice for understanding market size  Send us a text

With the emergence of health issues in recent years, most people have started becoming proactive to improve their immune system and diet, rather than being reactive at a later stage when the damage has already been done. Even most doctors agree that if from an early age, we somehow get access to a preservative-free, natural source of nutrients, it might significantly boost our health in the long-run.Our guest Aarti Gill’s OZiva is India's leading Clean, Plant Based Wellness brand. OZiva was started back in 2016 and since then the company has scaled significantly with a large base of repeat customers.During the episode, Aarti talks about how she pivoted from her first venture to OZiva, what are the major challenges she has encountered during her journey and much more.Notes - 05:38 - Initial intro about OZiva08:40 - High-level metrics around customers and revenue09:44 - Building an Omni-channel brand v/s a D2C brand11:26 - Early Education & Career prior to OZiva14:14 - Meeting her co-founder and their first venture18:35 - Deciding the first 4 products21:14 - Market demand of OZiva’s Prime membership22:26 - Challenges during the early years of OZiva24:38 - Building a 20 Cr+ revenue from 2016 to 202026:53 - Building online & offline distribution channels28:03 - Nuances while building distribution channels30:10 - Rapid scale of 5x within a year31:37 - Ensuring repeat purchase by customers36:46 - Funding interest while growing from 0 to 20 Cr+38:45 - Mental model of self-evaluating during each funding rounds40:10 - Deepika Padukone as a brand ambassador42:44 - Framework behind brand positioning campaigns44:37 - Things which didn’t work out & learnings46:19 - Why build new categories apart from nutritionSend us a text

# Can a passionate cricketer become a passionate entrepreneur? # Can you and your spouse be Cofounders without conflict? # How many successful & fulfilling stints can an entrepreneur have? All the above questions get answered during the episode with our guest Ashish Tandon, Founder & CEO, Indusface.Indusface is his 3rd venture after 2 successful exits and a short but successful early-career in Cricket. During the episode, Ashish talks about how his wife has supported him throughout his journey, what led him to start over and over again post his multiple exits and much more.Notes - 03:08 - Early background in Cricket06:30 - 1st venture right out of College08:46 - Getting acquired by SIFY within 2 years09:49 - What led to his 2nd venture? 13:21 - Multi-million dollar Exit to TrendMicro15:16 - Reason behind Bootstrapping his ventures17:55 - What led him to starting Indusface?19:42 - Problem statements solved by Indusface24:32 - Journey from $1Mn ARR to current scale28:10 - Key Levers to doubling their ARR within a year31:32 - Challenges in building Indusface36:58 - Having your spouse as your Cofounder38:50 - Reflecting back how he feels about his journey? 44:09 - Lessons from all his venturesSend us a text

# China Accused of cyber-attacks on Ukraine before Russian invasion# Buget 2022: $9.9 billion towards cyber security aims to make Australia a key 'offensive' cyber playerThese are some of the recent headlines around Cyber threats globally. Cyber attacks have been rated the fifth top rated risk in 2020 and continues to grow in 2022 as IoT cyber attacks alone are expected to double by 2025.In this episode our guest Rahul Sasi, Founder CloudSEK, talks about the key challenges in Cyber Security in India today.CloudSEK’s customer list includes Axis Bank, NPCI, Netcore, OLA, Sun Pharma, ICICI Lombard, IndusInd Bank, MakeMyTrip and many more who don’t wish to take a chance with the growing threat of global cyber crimes.  11 of the Fortune Global companies, and 7 of the world’s biggest banks, trust XVigil (one of CloudSEK’s flagship products) to safeguard their security posture.During the episode, Rahul talks about how they started CloudSEK, customer acquisition strategy, and much more.Notes - 04:04 - Background before starting CloudSEK08:55 - Current ARR and scale in terms of customers09:45 - Milestone since launch12:04 - Products and Problem Statements solved by CloudSEK14:44 - How has been the industry response? 20:19 - Challenges with hiring the right people24:40 - Targets for the next 2 years26:17 - Learnings from their fundraising journey28:26 - How to leverage your investors?Send us a text