The Neon Show

When you hear the word Startups & Angel Investing, which cities do you most commonly think they are based out of? Bengaluru, Delhi / Gurugram, Mumbai, or Chennai. The guest of our today’s episode, Abhishek Rungta clearly breaks this stereotype. Back in 1997, when he was still in his graduation, he had two options post college - - Join his father’s family business in Jute Trading- Start something totally unexpectedAnd that’s exactly what he did, he founded Indus Net Technologies from Kolkata, completely bootstrapped, which today has 200+ active clients across Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Retail, Publishing, Media, Government, Healthcare and Entertainment sectors in five continents.Today his company has an ARR of $11Mn, and offers services in verticals such as:- Integrated Digital Marketing Services- Cloud Application Development (CMS, CRM, E-Commerce, ODC, OPD)- Enterprise MobilityIn parallel to this, he also started as an Angel Investor and later as an LP. During the episode, Abhishek talks about the crux of his journey as an investor, his learnings along the way, what mindset he currently carries as an investor and much more.Notes - 01:07 - Family Business Background - Jute Trading03:48 - Acquiring a global client base from Kolkata06:50 - His journey in Angel Investing12:13 - valley of despair in investing15:14 - Thesis: Investing in 2nd time founders22:05 - Diversifying your investments33:01 - Learnings to intake as an LP35:11 - Investors’ whose thesis he looks up toSend us a text

Habits! Our habits make us who we are as a person. Since an early age we’ve been told by our parents and mentors, the distinction between a good and a bad habit. But how often do we skip to the good one’s? Specially as grown-ups, can you confidently say that you have the best habits in terms of - 1. Managing your finance & expenses2. Managing your work life balance3. Having a fruitful & fulfilling daySomething similar intrigued Rajan Singh, the guest of our today’s episode, to start HabitStrong in early 2020.Prior to HabitStrong, Rajan served as a IPS officer, as a McKinsey consultant, and as an investment professional with a private equity fund.​HabitStrong started with him inviting people to join him on YouTube sharp at 5 am, for a 30-day challenge. And the next morning, he was surprised to see several people already waiting. Over the next few months, through several bootcamps, thousands of applicants and several hundreds of volunteers, HabitStrong was on its journey to positively create an impact in everyone’s life.During the episode, Rajan talks about how people run after work, money and luxury lifestyle and how it can lead to a deterioration of mental peace over time, and much more.Notes - 01:18 - Journey to starting HabitStrong05:02 - “Things that sound the simplest are often the most powerful and most overlooked.”11:15 - Why did he make the choices he made? 19:48 - Current scale of HabitStrong29:15 - What does Financial Independence mean for him?33:33 - His definition of happiness - “Ability to step back from what is not making your life meaningful.”Send us a text

# 5M+ Shopping Moments Personalized#400M+ Monthly Active Users Engaged#30B+ Messages Sent Monthly#$10B+ Additional Revenue DeliveredThese are some of the metrics driven by WebEngage, which caters to 400+ global brands as a robust customer data platform, personalization engine, omnichannel campaign manager, and an analytics engine. In today’s episode we have Avlesh Singh, WebEngage’s, CEO & Co-founder, sharing insights on how they’ve built a seamless full-stack Retention OS.During the episode, Avlesh talks about how companies can reach out to their own users, reducing churn and increasing retention, instead of reaching out to third-party ad platforms, and much more.Notes - 01:45 - Intro to Webengage05:06 - “Marketing will only put a certain amount of value to the software, only if we are able to bring more users back to the platform.”13:20 - Current scale in terms of revenue & customers36:51 - Learnings from his experience as a founderSend us a text

"The world is going through one of the worst recessions, and you plan on starting a Travel venture. You must be out of your mind!"This was precisely the reaction of everyone around Prashant Pitti, the guest of today's episode, and his co-founders when they decided to launch EaseMyTrip during the 2008 Recession.In fact, when they approached a few VCs during their early days to pitch for an investment, they received multiple preset filters and nuances -# A B2B travel venture won't grow big enough# You're late; there are so many travel startups alreadyHowever, proving everyone wrong, they've grown leaps and bounds since inception, so much so that they were one of the first internet companies to go public during Covid.During the episode, Prashant talks about how they are thankful for not being VC-funded, some of the tough calls they took during their journey, which propelled their growth, and much more.Notes - 01:02 - Starting a travel venture during recession02:52 - Problem statement solved by EaseMyTrip for Travel Agents05:49 - Impact on growth because of not charging “Convenience Fees”07:44 - Being extremely efficient and disciplined as a company13:41 - Decision behind going public16:59 - How did EaseMyTrip remain profitable even during Covid?25:31 - Why does EaseMyTrip prefer hiring Non-IITians?Send us a text

4.03 billion people!That’s the most recent reported number of email users worldwide. No platform even comes close to the potential reach of email. The latest Facebook statistics give them over 2.8 billion monthly active users.As of today there are almost 1 billion and 700 thousand active users of Gmail, being of the most popular email service providers. But it was launched on 1 April 2004. Prior to Gmail, the tech trend of that era was Hotmail, and if you had a Hotmail account, that was something worth showing-off. Founded in 1996, by the guest of our today’s episode Sabeer Bhatia and his co-founder Jack Smith, Hotmail was the world's first web-based email when it launched.Back then, they sold it two years later to Microsoft for an estimated $400m. Since then Sabeer, became the face of tech entrepreneurship, and has been inspiring generations.Recently last year, in 2020, he’s back with an idea, which might lead to another tech revolution, named ShowReel. Consider this as a short-video version of Linkedin, where your profile, all your posts, and feed will have just videos. During the episode, Sabeer talks about his vision with Hotmail, what are his current plans with Showreel, what all founders can learn from his entrepreneurship journey and much more.Notes - 01:02 - Right timing as an entrepreneur03:06 - What led to Hotmail’s acquisition?09:55 - His journey as an entrepreneur & investor post acquisition11:27 - Problem statements being solved by ShowReel17:21 - His opinion about Web 3.023:47 - “Only crazy entrepreneurs change the world.”Send us a text

A founder’s role is challenging, requiring expertise in multiple enterprises. From funding to hiring, it is entirely the onus of the founder to convert visions into reality. In today’s episode, we’ve brought Sameer Guglani, Founder of Supermorpheus, a Community-driven seed investing platform, to simplify the founder’s role and expand it beyond finance to foster the entire Startup team’s well being. Supermorpheus (the evolution of Morpheus) is a curated global community of founders and folks in the startup space focussing on consciousness-driven creation of Startups and wealth with 350+ founders and 40+ investments.  During this episode, Sameer talks about how startups need to focus on integral growth, optimizing startups for the long run, and prioritizing excellence over the competition. Notes:3:12 Birth of Supermorpheus29:12 Fundamental Changes in the Indian Startup Ecosystem33:00 Role of Financial freedom in Sameer's Journey38:49 Time spent on self-development43:17 Similar Patterns observed among foundersSend us a text

A notion amongst most Indian SaaS entrepreneurs is to move to the US to expand or start from the US from Day 1 itself.However, in today's episode, we've brought Anand Jain, Co-founder of CleverTap, to debunk this myth and shed more light on what an early-stage SaaS founder's roadmap should be in terms of either staying in India or moving to any global market.CleverTap is a leading customer engagement and retention platform, trusted by over 10,000 apps, including Gojek, AirAsia, Sony, Vodafone, Carousell, and Cleartrip.During the episode, Anand talks about how a company needs to adopt new market plans to continue growing one milestone after another, his learnings early-stage SaaS entrepreneurs can consider in their journey, and much more.Notes - 00:55 - Founding CleverTap06:57 - $45 Mn ARR and customer growth Y-o-Y10:43 - “What got you to 45 will not get you 100.”16:55 - Is moving to the US to expand as a SaaS company necessary?24:03 - 3 Key points in his $1 Mn to $10 Mn ARR Playbook27:10 - Mistakes in his journey building CleverTap40:10 - Game Plan to market your product in newer markets and different ARR levelsSend us a text

With so many Indian startups achieving unicorn status in 2021, the situation begs an answer to the question:  # Is this growth sustainable or are we in a bubble?# What does this mean for foreign and Indian investors? #What does this mean for the next decade of VC and Startups? To understand this better, in today’s episode, we’ve brought Anjali Bansal, founder of Avaana Capital, that invests in innovation-led start-ups creating sustainability and impact at scale while delivering outsized returns. Previously, Anjali has been Global Partner and MD with TPG Growth PE and a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Co. in New York. She’s also the former non-executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, where she successfully led the resolution of the stressed bank.She has invested in and regularly mentors various successful start-ups including Delhivery, Nykaa, Alpha Vector, Lenskart, Urban Company, Darwinbox, Coverfox and FarMart.She is closely associated with NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform and Digital Solutions and is on the Expert Advisory Committee for the Start Up India Seed Fund Scheme. She has been appointed as President, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and serves as an independent director on several leading boards including Tata Power, Kotak AMC, and Piramal Enterprises.During the episode, Anjali talks about the volatility in the Indian startup ecosystem, the opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors; she also shares learnings from her portfolio and much more.Notes - 00:40 - Intro and background02:55 - Working at ISRO and early career04:59 - Ideology behind Avaana Capital08:22 - Is the Indian startup ecosystem in a bubble?17:21 - Common patterns and learnings from the winners20:50 - Mistake: Investing in the idea and not the team22:44 - Ability to move quickly as a fund34:49 - Learnings from early-career at Mckinsey36:29 - Potential in Indian startups41:01 - What all she prefers to read on a daily basisSend us a text

# What is Financial Independence? # Does everybody need precisely 10 crore to be happy? # Is the process of “Wealth Creation = Cutting out on all your wants & desires completely”?For the past 2 years, it seems like everyone around us is investing either in stocks or crypto and also making generous profits. And you too are probably thinking to jump in right? After all - # Markets are at an all-time high # Crypto is “The New Thing” and you don’t want to miss outWell, just wait for a moment, before you begin, in today’s episode we’ve brought Deepak Shenoy, Founder and CEO at Capitalmind (SEBI registered - Portfolio Manager). During the episode, Deepak will help you have the right mindset to begin your investment journey, what to and what not to expect off your investments, and how to evaluate an investment opportunity much more.Notes - 01:40 - Beginning of his investing journey04:33 - Where would your 1st crore of wealth come from? 07:17 - Behavioural changes in growing from 1 to 10 crore wealth10:29 - True definition of financial independence14:20 - Are emotional buying decisions hindrances in wealth creation?24:13 - Has investing become mainstream in 2021?33:30 - How to find under-valued investment opportunities?41:43 - His upcoming book “MONEY WISE: Timeless Lessons on Building Wealth”Send us a text

Diwali just got over, and following the fatal trend of smog in the nation's capital for the past five years, it is here again.It is alarming to recognize that India is home to 7 of the top 10 cities globally, notorious for its air pollution levels.With increasing incomes, more and more people can afford cars, increasing the severity of the already worse air pollution scenario due to fossil fuels.All this emphasizes the need for greener transportation alternatives. Despite the bad news, we have several large companies and startups leading the way to clean modes of travel, be it the prominent players like Tata Motors, MG, and Hyundai or the startups like Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Yulu, and Blu Smart, among others.In today's episode, we've brought Arpit Agarwal, Director at Blume Ventures, to talk about the current scenario of EV startups in India. During the episode, Arpit talks about the various challenges and opportunities for EVs in India, some of Blume's portfolio companies, how they contribute to India's EVs revolution, and much more.Notes - 02:40 - Future of EVs in general06:01 - Adoption by TCO positive segments07:25 - 5-year use case of an electric scooter10:13 - Key challenge in EV market17:22 - Challenge with charging stations24:30 - Opportunities for EV in India under various sub-segments32:53 - Large players engaging with the EV ecosystem34:12 - Funding & duration of developing an EV from scratch37:28 - Future of mobility C.A.S.E.Send us a text