The Neon Show

In today’s podcast, we have Ishan Sharma with us! Ishan is a Youtuber, Entrepreneur, and Founder of MarkitUp. He droped out of his college(BITS Pilani, Goa) at the age of 20 and decided to continue his entrepreneurial and content creation journey!Ishan Sharma has around 500k Subscribers on Youtube and about 100K on LinkedIn. He also wrote a  book called "Crush It on LinkedIn" back in Mid 2020 which summarises his experience of using LinkedIn and it is a guide for college students to find opportunities.Ishan will share his YT journey so far,  why he decided to drop out, what motivated him to do so, how MarkitUp was formed, and a lot more!Let’s listen to his inspirational journey so far and what he plans to do next! 0:00 - Intro2:05 - What drives you in your life?2:49 - How did you overcome the pain of Failing in JEE Advanced Exam?6:22 - Do you remember the date you started your YouTube Channel?7:18 - What's the main reason behind starting your YouTube Channel?9:13 - What other skills have you learned after Coding & Content Creation?11:40 - When did you make your First Money?12:16 - How was your YouTube Journey & How did you reach 10,000 Subscribers?13:35 - What are your learnings from YouTube?15:24 - How did you master YouTube Thumbnails?17:47 - What are your other Income Streams beside YouTube?19:56 - What was your income in May?21:44 - When did you get your First Brand Deal & What does it takes to reach here?24:56 - What is the Sales Engine looks like for 'MarkitUp'?26:20 - Where do you want to see yourself in 1 Year in terms of numbers?27:15 - How many Brand Collaborations do you do in a month?28:52 - How much do you pay a Freelancer per month?30:05 - How does a day in your Life look like?33:14 - What made you choose not to spend any more time in college?39:00 - How do you differentiate your income?39:55 - What do you do with the money you are making right now?41:08 - Do you draw any salary from 'MarkitUp'?43:05 - What is enough for Ishan?45:02 - Why does $1 Million in Investment important for you?46:03 - What is one thing that is missing in your life?47:48 - What do you do to make your growth engine proactive?49:32 - Have you explored during 10 Day Meditation or Vipassana?50:43 - What is Your Biggest Fear right now?53:14 - Do you watch Netflix or any other OTT platform?54:16 - Do you believe in Manifestation?55:18 - What's your process for recording a YouTube Video?57:08 - What would you do if your Investment Portfolio reaches $1 Million?59:49 - OutroAlso, 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

If you’re a startup enthusiasts, its highly likely that you would have read or atleast heard about the book - Saying No to Jugaad: The Making of Bigbasket by by T. N. Hari & M. S. Subramanian.In today’s episode we have Hari Menon, BigBasket’s founder sharing the his experience in the Indian Ecommerce Ecosystem over the last two decades. In May 2021, Tata Digital invested $375 Mn in BigBasket. They have also recently launched their quick commerce vertical called BBNow and will now compete alongside the existing players such as Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto and Dunzo.During the episode, catch Hari talking about his learning from his first venture, his thoughts on the current market and the investment slowdown, and much more. Notes - 02:20 - Building India’s online grocery market in the last two decades14:37 - Starting BigBasket at the age of 5021:16 - Dividing equity between the founders21:42 - Mistakes & Biases which got carried from his first venture24:15 - Becoming a part of Tata Group and growing bigger27:16 - Top learnings and observations from Tata Group29:30 - His thoughts on “10-minute delivery”33:14 - Any similar patterns between June 2022 and 1999 boom and bust?35:14 - Business which are not building a profitable model will suffer the most38:22 - Indian Startup Ecosystem in the next 5-10 years40:20 - Framework to identify large opportunities: Scale & Profitability42:36 - Culture at BigBasket which keeps people from moving out46:45 - Growing with the business as CEOSend us a text

We’ve heard inspiring stories of founders of Facebook and Microsoft who’ve dropped out of Harvard and even some of the well known Indian Entrepreneurs who’ve dropped out of IITs to build on their dream venture. But in today’s episode we’ll talk with Anish Achuthan, who ran away from his hometown during his Class 11th with dreams to build something big in the Dotcom space and currently is the Cofounder of Open, which recently became Kerala’s first unicorn start-up.Listen to Anish talk about his journey through his various ventures over the last two decades and how he’s building for Open to democratize the Neobanking space in India. Notes - 02:42 - Being born in Govt service-oriented family in Kerala to getting inspired by Dotcom06:11 - Meeting his cofounder & life partner07:49 - Cumulative learnings from his previous companies11:27 - Product Offerings by Open for SMEs, Banks and Fintech Entreprises13:57 - Key milestones in Open’s journey15:49 - Current metrics on the platform16:56 - What are his plans with Open for the long term19:17 - Their moat against other Neobanks and traditional banks23:04 - Product & distribution strategy for the first 100 to 1000 users31:46 - Licenses and certifications needed for Neo Banking33:47 - Challenges while cracking the first banking partner35:27 - Monetizing their services on Freemium model36:55 - Advice to early-stage entrepreneursSend us a text

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