The Neon Show

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

What are some of the valuable learnings and inspirations Siddhartha and Nansi got after recording 200+ episodes with the most successful entrepreneurs, VCs, and creators on the 100x Entrepreneur podcast?The new episode with our duo is out now! Tune in to learn how to start a podcast, what you can expect after a certain number of podcast episodes, how you grow with each conversation, and which guests inspired Nansi & Siddhartha the most!We hope you enjoy this short, crisp and insightful episode from 100x! Notes - 00:22 - Intro01:15 - Learning Consistency: Publishing episodes every Monday02:26 - Learning Networking: Bringing Top-notch guests06:24 - Learnings from Gaurav Munjal, Unacademy: 10000+ Notes on his iPad08:40 - “A Startup Team is Sports Team, not a family.”09:34 - Learnings from Vidit Attrey, Meesho: Listening to your customers12:35 - Realising that you know nothing and absorbing the best of your guests14:02 - Shoutout with Prashant Ganti, Head of Product, Zoho on where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?16:12 - Learnings from creators who’ve cracked distribution17:42 - Being professional with people you work withAlso, 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

In 2021, 125 Indian companies raised over $18 Bn through initial public offerings (IPO) in public markets.Out of $18 Bn, over $7.3 Bn was raised by 11 Indian Tech Startups from Nazara to MapmyIndia.In today’s episode, we talk with Abhishek Goyal & Neha Singh, Co-founders, Tracxn, which recently went IPO.But unlike the other major tech startups which went IPO in recent years, at Tracxn, they decided to go IPO at a probably early stage, considering their ARR of $10 Mn.During the episode, they share there view point on why they chose to do it on an initial ARR rather than going IPO, once they’ve grown big enough and more.Notes - 00:37 - Intro to ​​Tracxn01:27 - Feeling of going IPO02:27 - Preparing for an IPO 05:06 - Splitting the roles within team to be prepared from Day 105:41 - Documents which they had to submit to SEBI or any other regulator for the DRHP06:46 - Trendsetter by going public at $10 Mn ARR08:44 - Convincing VCs for going IPO-early11:33 - Mentors from whom they took advice for going public12:59 - Is it possible to time the market for IPO? 14:58 - Raising an Anchor allocation Pre-IPO16:17 - Most stressful part of going IPO: Market Uncertainty18:34 - Rollercoaster set of emotions they went through22:24 - Moments of giving up during the whole process24:16 - How to prepare mentally before entering the IPO-process?24:33 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?26:01 - IPO-Checklist and learnings31:26 - What does it requires for tech companies to go public?35:03 - Playbook where companies can go public and build in long-term35:54 - Founder aspiration beyond becoming UnicornAlso, 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

What are those 5 key decisions Siddhartha and Nansi took to building 100x Entrepreneur?The new episode with our duo is out now! Tune in to hear their journey, learnings, and the hard work they put into bringing the best startup podcast to you all! We hope you enjoy this podcast. Make sure to watch it till the very end and share it with your friends!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

The number of retail grocery retailers across India in 2022 amounted to about 13 million. Grocery retail account for about 65% of India's overall retailers.And the most common problems faced by these retailers on a financial front up until a few years back were - Accepting digital payments such as UPI or CardsEasy & Quick access to loans for expanding business or in the form of working capital for buying new stock.In 2018, BharatPe was started to cater to these problems faced by every day retailers in India. Since then the company has grown to enable 10 million merchants in 400+ cities, processing US$ 20 bn of annualized TPV in payments.During the peak of Covid, they also joined hands with ICICI Lombard to launch Coronavirus insurance cover for shopkeepers. To enable hands-free checking of transactions they also launched Speaker. To know how digital payments turned out as a big break for them, we’ve got BharatPe founder Shashvat Nakrani  & CEO Suhail Sameer on our guest seats this time.In this episode we discuss-How they’ve scaled BharatPe over the past 4 years?Does the age gap between them affect the decision-making at the top level?What do they keep in mind while building or scaling any new product?And much moreNotes - 01:35 - Expectations with BharatPe’s current scale03:17 - Joining a Rocket Ship as a CEO05:10 - Changes in culture and customer offerings in the last 2 years12:19 - Very less attachment to a particular role amongst founders & CEOs16:30 - Dealing and coming out the challenging times at BharatPe18:17 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?19:33 - Helping the team innovate faster and plan Go-To-Market strategy25:37 - Strengths & Weakness of Shashvat29:33 - Strengths & Weakness of Suhail31:03 - Handling the firing decisions35:17 - What are the things they bond over? 36:38 - Processes v/s Hustle in 0 to 1 and 1 to 10 journey40:49 - Secret recipe behind success at 0 to 1 on a product-level44:02 - Idea behind building distribution network47:33 - Suhail’s top priorities while joining BharatPe49:29 - Biases and things Suhail had to unlearn55:21 - Listening to Younger v/s Older Team members while decision making 58:39 - Next Chapter of BharatPe01:01:00 - What is being IPO-ready? 01:07:39 - Things which they could have explored outside of Fintech?Send us a text

As per Statista, Market size of the cosmetics industry across India which was at $3 Bn in 2010 is expected to grow to atleast $20 Bn by 2025.In today’s episode, we talk with Manish Taneja, Co-founder and CEO, Purplle, which was started back in 2012.During the podcast Manish talks in detail about - How he along with his Cofounders have always thought for the long-term?Problems they faced back in 2012 in Vertical Ecommerce.How MOATs against competitors are mostly in the minds of the founders? rather than being actually relevant to Indian customers, who are most price and value sensitive.What’s unique about their culture that has helped them retain as well as hire new talent? And more…Lastly before we dive deeper into the podcast, something that Manish mentioned during the episode - “Our 2nd part of the journey has been about, believing in yourself, doing things that are contradictory to the world but at the same time, we think could create massive value in the future.”Notes - 03:19 - Intro to Manish & Purplle04:57 - Being from a Finance background what got him to start his 2nd venture in Online Beauty space? 10:32 - Challenges in Vertical Ecommerce back in 201212:29 - Challenges in delivery, cash flow and more in the first 5-6 years17:30 - Two defining characteristics in their fund raising journey2!:52 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:55 - Learnings while his exit from Avendus Capital24:18 - Major changes in the 2nd part of their journey from 2016-17 onwards28:34 - Launching their own brands with 65%+ Gross Margin31:08 - How has he evolved as a founder during Purplle’s journey? 33:21 - Shaping Purplle’s culture over the years38:34 - “MOATs aren’t as relevant for consumers, as they are for founders against competition.”42:23 - Opportunity to build a $20-30 Bn FMCG company from India45:26 - Not succumbing to external pressures around GrowthAlso, 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

Thinking about Entrepreneurship or Startups which of the following do you think really matters -  # Having Degree from a Tier-1 college?# Having or finding the right Co-founder?# Sky-rocketing your scale up as soon as you secure funding? # Pouring in your resources to get as many customers as fast as possible via Ads?Well the short answer to all the above questions is, IT DOESN’T.In today’s episode we’ve with us Vaibhav Sisinty, Founder, GrowthSchool. And in this episode, while sharing his experiences of building and scaling GrowthSchool, he busts all the above myths one-by-one.For all of you, who’ve been active on Linkedin, in the past few years, especially around themes like marketing and growth hacking, you would have surely noticed a post or an Ad by Vaibhav, or his perfect case of personal branding and self-curated courses on Sisinty.com.During the episode, we talk with Vaibhav about how he learnt and grew his marketing skills during his job at Uber and Klook, how he used a brilliant growth hacking method even while raising his first round and much more.Lastly before we dive deeper into the podcast, something that Vaibhav mentioned during the episode - “True Product Market Fit is, If I shut down my product today, will 25 people line out of my office, requesting to please turn it ON.”Notes - 00:54 - Intro01:55 - Starting in Growth Journey: From his 1st Venture to Uber05:24 - Helping other startups: His playground to learn06:29 - Building Organic v/s Paid Channels of Growth12:02 - Founder-Market Fit towards starting GrowthSchool16:02 - 0 to $1 Mn ARR before first round of funding20:36 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:33 - Running Lean & Shrewd to achieve profitability23:58 - Scale & format of courses before and after the funding29:00 - Growth Hacking his way to raise funding from Sequoia, Owl & 80+ Angels36:15 - “Blitzscaling right after funding will break things.”39:17 - Focus & Internal goals in near future41:46 - What’s his definition of PMF for GrowthSchool?49:15 - Managing his time as a Solo Founder52:55 - Various process which he has built in his lifeAlso, 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