The Neon Show

As per Statista, globally there are more than 2.6 Mn Apps on Google Play Store, and when you’re building in today’s age of internet, you need as much as visibility possible around - # Accurately measuring the impact of your marketing initiatives# Actionable insights on your user behaviour# Potential Competitors & on what metrics do they compare with you and where do you & your team needs to focus more.To understand mobile marketing analytics better in this episode we’ve with us Oren Kaniel, CEO & Co-founder, AppsFlyer.Founded in 2011, AppsFlyer has grown leaps and bounds and is currently amongst the top choices of marketers to mobile marketing analytics.In today’s episode, we talk with Oren about how they built and grew AppsFlyer where there was almost a free option like Google Analytics available to the masses, also what’s their focus triangle about Privacy, Users Value and Safety.Lastly before we dive deeper into the podcast, something that Oren’s mentioned during the episode - “Do not fall in love with your product, fall in love with the ecosystem, with the problem-statement.”Notes - 03:09 - Intro to AppsFlyer03:55 - Starting with Entrepreneurship05:53 - Identifying the opportunity and starting AppsFlyer09:18 - How well positioned is Israel for capturing Asian and Global markets? 12:55 - $300 Mn ARR from the US & rest of the Global market13:46 - Journey from 0 to 1 and 1 to 1020:13 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:25 - Ensuring faster growth by balancing pricing and revenue model27:53 - Evolving of Go-To-Market insights over time38:19 - Building the team and cultureAlso, 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

Today being an entrepreneur and starting with a new idea, you can take either of the two approaches - 1. You can build on top of an existing category in the market and bring your unique offerings2. You can take the riskier bet and create an entire category. In India, companies like Flipkart, Oyo, Ola etc. are the ‘Regional’ first movers. Although their concept was inspired from the global companies, however, being the first mover in the Indian subcontinent region gave them an advantage.In today’s episode we have Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director, Arkam Ventures, who has a great focus on identifying and investing in such Category Creators for Middle India.  Prior to Arkam, Bala, was part of the founding team at Vistaar, which in simple words helps companies like Cisco, Dell, GE, Ford, and Hitachi to make better, faster, and more profitable business decisions.Post that he became one of the founding members of Amba research, which was acquired for $100 Mn by Moody’s. After Amba, he was also with Kalaari Capital for over 3 years, post which he co-founded Arkam Ventures, a Venture Capital firm with a focus on “Category Creators for Middle India” and “Enablers for the Global”.In today’s episode, we talk with Bala about key ingredients of building a Category Creator, Solving for the pricing problem in SaaS startups, taking SaaS to the mass audience in Tier-3 cities and towns and much more.Notes - 02:01 - Intro04:05 - Essential ingredients to build a $10 Mn ARR company06:29 - Why focus on category creators for Middle India? 18:38 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?20:08 - Evolving from a single problem statement to a platform with multiple offerings22:23 - Razorpay’s gameplan for trust building for Small town customers24:06 - His thesis around investing in enablers like Signzy and Spotdraft30:26 - His thoughts on India-focused SaaS with regards to pricing33:24 - Themes and Thesis which didn’t worked out38:42 - What gave him an edge into the middle India consumer?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

Divyaanshu Makkar, Co-Founder of Sourcewiz, shares his journey from being an Entrepreneur to becoming a VC and then going back for Entrepreneurship. He discusses learnings from his previous venture and mistakes observed as a VC, key criteria for selecting a market, and getting their first paying customer. The podcast also explores difficulties SaaS startups face when pitching to VCs, finding customers for an Indian manufacturers marketplace, transition to exploring the manufacturing space, decision-making process, initial pricing strategy, and Matrix's support and alignment with vision.

The Indian market is seeing several startups offering innovative products in the D2C & FMCG segment. One such innovative brand is Rage Coffee. Founder Bharat Sethi launched Rage Coffee in the year 2018. It offers a variety of vegan-friendly, vitamin-infused instant coffee flavours. The brand is currently present in 2,500+ retail outlets pan-India and plans to expand its offline presence 5X within a year by strengthening its distribution channels.In today’s episode, we talk with Bharat Sethi who has been a serial entrepreneur about his entire journey so far and how does Rage Coffee stands out as a brand, the mistakes he made being a founder and what are his future plans for Rage Coffee. Notes - 02:02 - Intro02:47 - Family background & what led him to entrepreneurship?06:35 - Conceptualising PosterGully in 201211:09 - Exit from PosterGully11:50 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?12:59 - Mistakes and learnings from iDecorama18:45 - Ideating for Rage Coffee25:55 - Milestones & Growth over the yearsAlso, 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

Founded in 2013, Portea Medical, India's Leading Home Health Care Company employes over 4000 people and covers 40+ cities in India doing 1,50,000+ home visits every month.Portea has also helped about 5,00,000 COVID-19 patients, working with seven different cities and state governments, including Delhi, Mumbai, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Chennai, Bengaluru and all of Karnataka. Meena Ganesh, Chairperson and Co-Founder, Portea Medical is one of India’s most celebrated entrepreneurs and business leaders.  She sits on the boards of numerous firms like Axis Bank, and has a string of start-up successes to her credit. She co-founded her first company, Customer Asset, in 2000 and later on sold it to ICICI. Then came TutorVista, which she ran successfully till it was acquired by British publishing giant Pearson. Before founding Portea, Meena also served Pearson India as the chief executive officer and managing director. With her incredible career and achievements, she also became part of Fortune India’s ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business’ from 2015 to 2021.In today’s episode, we talk with Meena about her entrepreneurial journey so far, learnings from building a healthcare startup in India and why even getting two large exists previously, she still thinks that journey with her third venture Portea is the most satisfying in terms of learnings. Notes - 01:36 - Intro02:04 - Family background & what got Meena into entrepreneurship08:02 - Brainstorming Ideas during the conception of Portea12:46 - Milestones after Series A till date17:53 - Her thoughts on the notion that - “It’s difficult to create money from healthcare & health-tech startups”21:36 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?22:37 - How has the pricing model evolved at Portea?24:06 - Learnings from building in healthcare in India27:14 - How has she grown as a founder during her entrepreneurial journey?30:04 - Her fundraising journey at Portea30:33 - Balancing investor-founder relation over the course of a startup’s journey32:07 - Managing her time between GrowthStory, Portea and homeAlso, 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 startup ecosystem a lot of people talk about Category creating startups, but it is equally difficult and as it sounds glamorous and exciting. That’s possibly the reason why we don’t see a lot such Category creating startups around us very frequently. And even if they do come up, they don’t sustain very long. In today’s episode we are talking with Vijay Arisetty, Founder, MyGate, i.e. a category creating startup in its space. As of now MyGate cators to almost 4 Million+ homes across India. It is very likely that you would have interacted with MyGate directly, as its installed in your society or indirectly probably when you would have visited to meet a friend or family in a gated community, and you would have experienced the seamless flow it brings to gates of these gated communities.During the episode, catch Vijay sharing what all challenges and opportunities did they come across being a category creating startup in terms of hiring, what to offer to its customers, how to monetize better and much more. Notes - 01:51 - Intro03:11 - Family Background and joining the Armed Forces06:55 - His first startup - PurpleRoad in the Delivery space08:19 - Aha moment which led to starting MyGate?11:53 - Final Scale with his logistics startup and initial scale at MyGate before first funding14:48 - Challenges during the first funding round being a category creator21:25 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?23:13 - Current and operationally capable scale of MyGate24:56 - Evolution of monetary channels29:48 - Challenges during their 0 to 1 journey and then in 1 to 10 journey37:36 - Existential crisis prior to first round of funding42:13 - Journey from Series A to Series B and beyond44:55 - How were the two years of Covid for MyGate?49:02 - Similarities between being in the Armed Forces and being an Entrepreneur54:08 - 30 Million homes untapped market by MyGateAlso, 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 Sales the stakes are high. And for company’s growth it is important to get it right.Thanks to multiple options of Sales engagement softwares which streamlines the sales process through integrations which enables companies to combine their sales and marketing efforts to create personalized and automated sales journeys.In today's episode of 100x Entrepreneur, we have with us Yamini Bhat, Co-founder & CEO, Vymo; i.e An intelligent sales engagement platform for financial institutions.Started in 2013, Vymo is used by 300,000+ Sales Reps across 65+ Enterprises such as HDFC Bank, SBI Life Insurance, and Sun Life Financial among others.While most SaaS startups go global from Day 1, Vymo is one of the few Indian SaaS companies which scaled to more than $10M ARR with India Enterprises as clients.During the episode, catch Yamini sharing why did they chose to focus on BFSI, how did they brought awareness for both their team and customers about their product and much more. Notes - 01:33 - Intro03:05 - Career background in Sales Transformation at Mckinsey which led her to Vymo06:48 - Family background and getting into BITS Pilani & IIM Bangalore?14:58 - Quitting Mckinsey and identifying the problem statement to startup17:29 - Till Series-A being focused on a horizontal solution20:53 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?23:04 - Milestones during Vymo’s journey26:26 - Key challenges with team and customers early-on28:56 - Convincing the first few BFSI customers for an average contract value of $350K31:54 - Building a SaaS behemoth from India and then expanding globally36:16 - Her 0 to $10 Million ARR playbook for SaaS-entrepreneurs in IndiaAlso, 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

As per a recent article,“About 60% of companies that reach pre-series A funding fail to make it to Series A, so the success rate is only 30%-40%.”Infact if you check on Crunchbase, in India you’ll find 4300+ startups at Pre-seed or Seed-stage, but only 600+ out of them have managed to reach Series-A, which bring the success rate to even lower at just 15%.  Apart from this, even in the entire Indian startup ecosystem, there are so many Product Managers, Ex-founders, and many more, who either have an idea around a Problem-statement, but don’t know how to proceed or there are students in college, who are amazed by the startup ecosystem, and want to take their early step, but afraid on how to take the next step. In order to solve this we have with us our guest of this episode, Rajiv Srivatsa & Nitin Sharma, Antler India. Antler unlike most VC firms bets on the startup ideas at Pre-seed stage with their Antler India Residency or in some cases even earlier with college students via Antler India Fellowship.During the episode, catch Rajiv & Nitin sharing their First Principles approach and what infrastructure they are building at Antler India to make the founders succeed considering the time constraints at Pre-seed stage and much more. Notes - 03:50 - Intro04:44 - Why did they choose to build Antler India? 09:35 - How did Antler happen? 12:02 - Why kind of institutional mindset do they bring in? 16:18 - How do they balance the equation of a Founder’s optimism & a VC’s pessimism between them?18:22 - Background around Antler’s India Portfolio over the last 18+ months22:08 - Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?23:47 - What’s their approach and what’s the general cheque size? 29:48 - Learnings from the Ups & Downs in Urban Ladder Journey33:28 - Focusing on building around core foundational use-cases during times of crisis38:18 - Keeping founders from falling in love with the product and not the actual problem-story42:12 - Examples of building PeakPerformer & Bookee with Antler46:47 - How & when do founders get distracted after funding?50:08 - When do founders have the best chances of succeeding at Seed-stage?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

Varun Mayya was in college when he along with his friends started up a t-shirt manufacturing business called SIZR. Later on, he went into building a recruitment platform, Jobspire. And they were one of the youngest teams to raise venture capital of Rs 1.7 crore even before they graduated, and scaled the company to serve 4 million requests in 2016. In 2017, they sold Jobspire to a New York-based company.Varun also authored a book named Pyjama Profit which is a guide for millennials to get started with an online freelance practice, while developing the skills needed to succeed.Along with running a youtube channel, Varun also co-founded Scenes, a community platform for creators to manage, moderate, and monetize their communities in one place. Scenes has raised funds from some notable investors including Kunal Shah, Gaurav Munjal, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Tanmay Bhat as well Tanglin Ventures, Better Capital, Whiteboard Capital, iSeed Ventures, and Blume Founders Fund.Tune in to this insightful episode with Varun to learn about building a brand, processes around content creation, and leveraging your youtube channel to scale your business. Notes – 03:10 – Intro04:05 – His journey before entrepreneurship06:49 – Getting introduced to oDesk (now Upwork) via his mother and earning his first $10009:10 – Starting a visual version of Naukri in fourth year of college11:09 – Writing an Amazon Bestseller Book – “Pyjama Profit: The Millennial’s Guide to a Sustainable Freelance Career” 12:48 – Starting Avalon Scenes18:07 – Two rounds of funding for building a community space19:22 – Top clients and why do they use Scenes?22:11 – Zoho Sponsored – Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?24:09 – What excites him the most about Scenes? 26:40 – Solving a problem really well v/s Building a large business28:41 – What’s their longterm goal with Scenes? 33:02 – Can Scenes eventually replace Discord? 34:36 – Why he continues to a creator with Scenes growing? 41:25 – Learnings on YouTube and Twitter around content creation46:15 – One of his best videos on YouTube52:44 – “I think we live in a trust-deficient economy and content is the only way to beat it.” 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

According to a recent article in Forbes, as per data of ProductLedGrowth.org,“Buyers want to self-educate.” Personalization is expected by customers—not only are 80% of people more likely to do business with a company that offers personalization but Salesforce’s 2017 State of Marketing Report found that 52% of B2C customers would actually switch brands if they weren’t getting a personalized experience. In today’s episode we’ve some Dheeraj Pandey, CEO at DevRev; Board Member at Adobe; Investor & Co-founder at Nutanix. During the episode, catch Dheeraj sharing his experience around Product-Led Growth over the past two decades, taking Nutanix Inc. public within 6 years of inceptio and much more. Notes - 01:44 - Intro02:26 - Achieving Product Market Fit - “What is the journey is not a destination.”05:15 - Identifying the problem statement for first 10 customer at Nutanix07:54 - Main value prop by Nutanix for early customers10:11 - How to identify large problems?13:22 - Whether to find a niche problem and then expand or find a problem statement of the larger market?15:07 - What’s the first Aha moment for customers on DevRev?20:04 - Zoho Sponsored - Prashant Ganti on Where do founders struggle with Payroll and how can they fix it?21:18 - Why have Startups as the target audience v/s Large Entreprises?27:10 - History of Product-led growth32:50 - First principle thought behind Product-led growth with velocity37:49 - Customer Relationship Management v/s Sales First Automation39:07 - How a B2B developer can think like a B2C developer?40:23 - What are risks of failure they need to think about?41:40 - Building an entrepreneurial culture43:47 - Dealing with the most difficult part of an acquisition (i.e. Integration)45:38 - An early childhood in Patna, graduating from IIT Kanpur & Ph.D. dropout from University of Texas50:33 - Why did he chose to startup in a downturn of 2009?54:07 - Milestones in Nutanix’s journey58:31 - Becoming a Public company59:58 - Aspirations for DevRev1:02:29 - What kind of person he is in his personal life?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