The Neon Show

With the emergence of health issues in recent years, most people have started becoming proactive to improve their immune system and diet, rather than being reactive at a later stage when the damage has already been done. Even most doctors agree that if from an early age, we somehow get access to a preservative-free, natural source of nutrients, it might significantly boost our health in the long-run.Our guest Aarti Gill’s OZiva is India's leading Clean, Plant Based Wellness brand. OZiva was started back in 2016 and since then the company has scaled significantly with a large base of repeat customers.During the episode, Aarti talks about how she pivoted from her first venture to OZiva, what are the major challenges she has encountered during her journey and much more.Notes - 05:38 - Initial intro about OZiva08:40 - High-level metrics around customers and revenue09:44 - Building an Omni-channel brand v/s a D2C brand11:26 - Early Education & Career prior to OZiva14:14 - Meeting her co-founder and their first venture18:35 - Deciding the first 4 products21:14 - Market demand of OZiva’s Prime membership22:26 - Challenges during the early years of OZiva24:38 - Building a 20 Cr+ revenue from 2016 to 202026:53 - Building online & offline distribution channels28:03 - Nuances while building distribution channels30:10 - Rapid scale of 5x within a year31:37 - Ensuring repeat purchase by customers36:46 - Funding interest while growing from 0 to 20 Cr+38:45 - Mental model of self-evaluating during each funding rounds40:10 - Deepika Padukone as a brand ambassador42:44 - Framework behind brand positioning campaigns44:37 - Things which didn’t work out & learnings46:19 - Why build new categories apart from nutritionSend us a text

# Can a passionate cricketer become a passionate entrepreneur? # Can you and your spouse be Cofounders without conflict? # How many successful & fulfilling stints can an entrepreneur have? All the above questions get answered during the episode with our guest Ashish Tandon, Founder & CEO, Indusface.Indusface is his 3rd venture after 2 successful exits and a short but successful early-career in Cricket. During the episode, Ashish talks about how his wife has supported him throughout his journey, what led him to start over and over again post his multiple exits and much more.Notes - 03:08 - Early background in Cricket06:30 - 1st venture right out of College08:46 - Getting acquired by SIFY within 2 years09:49 - What led to his 2nd venture? 13:21 - Multi-million dollar Exit to TrendMicro15:16 - Reason behind Bootstrapping his ventures17:55 - What led him to starting Indusface?19:42 - Problem statements solved by Indusface24:32 - Journey from $1Mn ARR to current scale28:10 - Key Levers to doubling their ARR within a year31:32 - Challenges in building Indusface36:58 - Having your spouse as your Cofounder38:50 - Reflecting back how he feels about his journey? 44:09 - Lessons from all his venturesSend us a text

# China Accused of cyber-attacks on Ukraine before Russian invasion# Buget 2022: $9.9 billion towards cyber security aims to make Australia a key 'offensive' cyber playerThese are some of the recent headlines around Cyber threats globally. Cyber attacks have been rated the fifth top rated risk in 2020 and continues to grow in 2022 as IoT cyber attacks alone are expected to double by 2025.In this episode our guest Rahul Sasi, Founder CloudSEK, talks about the key challenges in Cyber Security in India today.CloudSEK’s customer list includes Axis Bank, NPCI, Netcore, OLA, Sun Pharma, ICICI Lombard, IndusInd Bank, MakeMyTrip and many more who don’t wish to take a chance with the growing threat of global cyber crimes.  11 of the Fortune Global companies, and 7 of the world’s biggest banks, trust XVigil (one of CloudSEK’s flagship products) to safeguard their security posture.During the episode, Rahul talks about how they started CloudSEK, customer acquisition strategy, and much more.Notes - 04:04 - Background before starting CloudSEK08:55 - Current ARR and scale in terms of customers09:45 - Milestone since launch12:04 - Products and Problem Statements solved by CloudSEK14:44 - How has been the industry response? 20:19 - Challenges with hiring the right people24:40 - Targets for the next 2 years26:17 - Learnings from their fundraising journey28:26 - How to leverage your investors?Send us a text

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