The Neon Show

The Internet of Things category is not slowing down for anyone to catch up. It is projected to be a $1.1 trillion category by 2027, with the number of active IoT-connected devices ​​expected to reach 30.9 billion units by 2025.Targeting this, we have our guest Yadhu Gopalan, CEO & Founder at Esper, with a vision to power the next billion smart devices. Currently, Seattle-based Esper has more than 200 paying customers and over 2,000 developers using its platform for product development.During the episode, Yadhu talks about his journey building Esper, how he met his cofounder, what learnings he has brought from his stint at Amazon and Microsoft, and much more.Notes - 01:12 - Journey before starting Esper02:20 - Early Childhood and moving to the US03:48 - Problem statement behind starting Esper05:25 - Product offering and clients10:25 - The founding team at Esper15:43 - Attracting the best talent16:50 - Building a team across geographies19:07 - Execute distribution and partnerships at scale20:39 - Work Culture & learnings from Microsoft & Amazon27:51 - Key learnings from his startup journeySend us a text

As per a recent Entrackr report, Indian startups saw over 250 acquisitions in 2021. Edtech startups like Byju’s, Unacademy, and upGrad have been in the headlines for their acquisition spree, and also startups in the e-commerce roll up space such as Mensa Brands, GlobalBees, 10club, Upscalio, and fitness tech platform Cultfit (Curefit) also took over smaller brands, recording the highest number of acquisitions last year. With so much going on around acquisitions, our guest Rohit Anand, Founder, 1digitalstack.ai shares his experience of getting his first venture acquired. During the episode, Rohit talks about bringing in a third-party consultant to assist with the acquisition, his second stint at entrepreneurship, and much more.Notes - 02:12 - Starting his first entrepreneurial venture in 199906:34 - “Importance of going after a problem where you have a natural advantage.”11:39 - What did Value Edge work upon? 12:57 - Value Edge’s ARR at the time of Exit13:39 - Thought process behind the Exit18:46 - Process of identifying the right M&A Advisor and the help an entrepreneur can expect24:00 - Maintaining balance during the stress while acquisition28:57 - Deciding to start 1digitalstack.ai32:31 - Current scale in terms of ARR & top clients35:17 - Taking investor money during his 2nd entrepreneurial stint38:10 - Future plans for 1digitalstack.ai (in terms of ARR & Growth drivers)42:15 - Vision and Ambition of building a large company46:19 - Current practices: Same & Distinct from Value Edge50:32 - His approach towards investingSend us a text

Many founders try to build for large markets. But Saahil Goel, Founder, Shiprocket thinks differently. In his opinion, it’s okay to build small or lesser things and target a core segment of users, instead of jumping into a competition with large players, where you might not stand a chance. In other words - Picking your battles wisely. During this episode, Saahil talks about finding the right investors, current focus of the company, and much more.Notes - 01:56 - Finding his Co-founder & brainstorming around data-driven logistics09:04 - Problem with starting in a large competitive market12:02 - Focus metrics during the initial journey14:12 - Current scale of Shiprocket22:04 - Warehouse as a Service26:24 - Y-o-Y growth of platform27:49 - Approach to fixing broken things & building new32:14 - Raising initial rounds of funding45:01 - “Unless and until you have clarity about something, it won’t work.”48:19 - Ensuring focus within the teamSend us a text

Suppose you're a marketer or have a marketer friend/colleague. During an event like IPL or Diwali, you need to get 100+ variations of creatives with 20-30 sizes for each, within a few days and not weeks, so that you can test campaigns on multiple platforms at the earliest. However, traditional software is time-consuming, especially if you have a small design team with limited bandwidth. Our guest, Satej Sirur, Founder & CEO, Rocketium, solves this for 1200+ brands like Bigbasket, cult.fit, Groww, Meesho, Supr Daily, Urban Company, and many more across 95+ countries.During the episode, Satej talks about how customers differentiate between them and Adobe, the fundamental principles he focuses on to include in Rocketium's culture, and much more.Notes - 00:52 - Initial Intro05:13 - Pivoting in early years of Rocketium09:50 - Metrics around ARR & Customer base11:31 - Customers comparing Rocketium to Adobe18:07 - Company building: Attracting the best talent22:36 - Principles in Rocektium's work culture25:51 - What's 8-4-5? 28:02 - Framework while setting internal metrics30:07 - Playbook behind International expansion33:45 - Importance of deeply knowing who your users are39:08 - Fundraising journey: Finding the right investorSend us a text

"You never know when and where you can be "bitten by the entrepreneurship bug." Something similar happened with our guest Shashank Bijapur. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he was working with a New York-based top-tier law firm; when he came across the news of Elon Musk launching Self-driving cars. He realized his manual work on Legal contracts was easily replaceable by AI automation soon.This led him to start SpotDraft, an end-to-end contract automation platform for companies of all sizes.In this episode, Shashank talks about his initial hiring struggles, getting new clients, some of his mistakes as an entrepreneur, the future plans for SpotDraft, and much more.Notes - 01:19 - Starting SpotDraft and meeting his wife for the 1st time04:51 - First few years of struggle07:28 - Timeline of Shashank & SpotDraft's Journey10:34 - Switch of TG: From Enterprise to Startups12:58 - Early customers: Unacademy & Chargebee amongst others14:36 - Hiring A+ talent: Referrals from existing employees17:01 - Mistakes in 0 to 1 Journey22:18 - Competitive edge over large competitors25:23 - "Let's get SpotDrafted."Send us a text

# Marketer of the Year 2018 and 2019 by IAA Leadership Award held by International Advertising Association (IAA)# Most Influential Youth Marketing Professional by Global Youth Marketing Forum 2019# Top 30 CMO's in India 2020 by IAMAI#" Marketer of the year" by The Economic Times ET Brand Equity #SharkAwards2021All of the above recognitions have honored our guest Karan Shroff, Partner & CMO at Unacademy, for his marketing strategies and the stellar brand campaigns time and again.Before joining Unacademy, Karan was Heading Marketing at Xiaomi, and in this episode, he shares his decade-long experience in the marketing domain.During the episode, Karan also talks about his first meeting with Unacademy Co- Founder & CEO, Gaurav Munjal, keeping his learners' emotions at the heart of all his campaigns, and much more.Notes - 03:19 - Early career journey04:39 - Story behind joining Unacademy07:32 - Marketing campaigns close to his heart10:30 - Learnings from Gaurav and Unacademy's culture14:45 - Finding creativity, ideas and tapping into it18:17 - Audacity of ambitions & goals20:38 - Secret Sauce: Keeping the sentiments of the users at the core of the campaign23:24 - How to build an iconic brand?27:24 - What has Karan Unlearnt?31:24 - Changes in marketing strategy as per the dynamic needs of the customers35:36 - His timeless marketing advice for startupsSend us a text

Do you know about the most interesting headline of all Indian business newspapers on 30 November 1999?It was India's most prominent Internet deal at the time - a $115Mn acquisition of IndiaWorld, founded by our guest Rajesh Jain. After this successful acquisition; Rajesh started Netcore. Yes, the same company is responsible for 75% of India's email traffic and 50% of Asia's email traffic through its Cloud network.During the episode, Rajesh explains how they've been one of the Proficorns at Netcore, all his learnings and experiences over the last two decades, and much more.Notes - 03:17 - Early career and failures09:42 - Learning entrepreneurship from his father11:32 - Starting and scaling IndiaWorld22:04 - "More important than knowing when to enter a business, is to know when to exit a business."24:26 - His perspective about businesses in India31:46 - "StarTech: Great Golden Era of Indian Entrepreneurship."34:33 - Building Netcore after the previous acquisition38:45 - Pivots and growth of Netcore43:45 - What is Proficorn, and why has Rajesh strongly advocated for it?51:48 - 25% ownership by employeesSend us a text

# Does the word 'Compounding' excite you? # Have you always wondered what 'Value Investing' is and how can you follow this approach?# Are you biased in your investment decisions? Then, this is an episode you shouldn't miss. Our guest, Gautam Baid, CFA & Founder at Stellar Wealth Partners, and Founding Creator at Chapter talks about his journey in the stock market from his early days, learning through great books on investing to eventually becoming a writer and fund manager himself. During the episode, Gautam talks about his personal experience of gaining and compounding knowledge, his recommendations (in terms of books, checklists, biases) for first-time investors entering the stock market, and much more.Notes - 03:46 - His family background and childhood09:21 - Compounding of Knowledge: Spent on hours of learnings14:28 - "Nothing teaches you the biggest lessons of life, more than an empty pocket and empty stomach."21:19 - His thoughts about 'Value Investing.'31:35 - Checklists in his investing decisions33:15 - 3 biases every investor should know49:28 - "Time is the new status symbol."50:35 - His book recommendationsAdditional links:Link to Gautam Baid's smallcase: www.stellarwealthpartners.comLink to Gautam Baid's Chapter: https://getchapter.app/@gautamLink to Gautam Baid's book: www.TheJoysOfCompounding.comSend us a text

As per the recent data by Tracxn, there are 1338 AgriTech startups in India. However, with 118.7 million farmers, who contribute to a mere 17-18% of Indian GDP, many problem statements are left to be solved at a larger scale.In March 2020, we interviewed Vaibhav Domkundwar from Better Capital, where he mentioned their then-recent investment in Bijak - their first interaction with the founders and their thesis behind the investment. In today's episode, we're interviewing Nukul Upadhye, Co-Founder at Bijak, where he talks about how and why he started Bijak. Bijak is a one-stop agriculture marketplace where sellers and buyers can find trustworthy, reliable, and transparent counterparties. Bijak processes transactions worth more than Rs 1.5 billion on a monthly basis. During the episode, Nukul also talks about their initial challenges, leveraging the pre-existing offline supply chain, and much more.Notes - 01:48 - Creating a B2B marketplace - Bijak05:55 - Alternate ideas while starting Bijak09:24 - How does Bijak differentiate itself from traditional offline marketplaces? 17:33 - Challenges during the initial journey31:42 - How has he personally evolved over the past two years?Send us a text

Since early 2020, we've noticed numerous startups becoming Unicorn one after another. But something a bit unnoticed by the wider audience is the valuations of startups at Seed-stage, which has grown multiples in the last two years. Bipin Shah, Partner at Titan Capital and this week's guest, says, "Till 2019, a great startup idea with an awesome team would be valued around $2Mn to $3Mn, which has now gone up to $10Mn+."So far, Titan Capital has made more than 250+ investments in early-stage startups. Bipin shares his experience and the thesis around identifying, mentoring and investing in seed-stage founders.Notes - 01:18 - Joining Titan Capital06:10 - Finding Soonicorns and Unicorns08:27 - How did they manage to make 90+ investments in a year?12:02 - What support does Titan Capital offer to portfolio companies?15:58 - Thesis: Focus on bottom 50% of companies28:10 - Change in valuation at the Seed stage31:20 - Learnings in the last six years as an investorSend us a text