The Neon Show

In this special episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we have Sanjay Swamy & T.N. Hari with us who were once best friends in School. After many years, they reunited again to write a book - “Sailing Through a Storm: Making a Crisis Work for You”.Sanjay Swamy is the Founding Managing Partner of Prime Venture Partners. Sanjay who also co-founded ZipDial and EzeTap is known for his sense of humour and his impeccable expertise over fintech.T. N. Hari is the Chief People Officer at BigBasket. Hari is an advisor and mentor to numerous young entrepreneurs and startups. He is also a Strategic Advisor at Fundamentum, a growth Fund, co-founded by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal.Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:31 - Intro of Sanjay and Hari01:52 - Background story of their friendship03:28 - Idea of writing a book together06:43 - “Socially nobody likes to talks about things which are not going well” - Sanjay Swamy07:31 - Biggest crisis faced in personal lives24:07 - Experiences/Lessons from the crises37:49 - Leadership traits a person must possess to make a crisis workSend us a text

In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Ashwini Asokan, Founder & CEO, Mad Street Den. During the conversation, Ashwini shares how she built the processes for scale while building the team, delivering the best value prop to customers, and more.Listen to this podcast to learn about:00:59 - Serendipity, luck, or intent? What initiated her journey in the creative field of AI?03:11 - Influence of Carnegie Mellon University on her career05:16 - Initial days of Mad Street Den07:51 - Challenges while building an AI startup in India08:08 - Building Vue.ai after 3 years of deep-research11:42 - Essence of storytelling in positioning their offerings14:28 - Building the team to scale to $1 Mn ARR24:32 - Getting Sequoia India, Exfinity, GrowX, and FalconEdge on board27:41 - Building processes to reach from $1 Mn to $10 Mn ARR35:31 - Learnings/Advice to early-stage SaaS founders38:18 - Early-stage founders comparing their journey vs some other founders’46:19 - Has her “Why” behind starting Mad Street Den changed during her journey?Send us a text

“Always make more mistakes but make sure to recover quickly & learn from them.”In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Beerud Sheth, Founder and CEO of Gupshup, the leading smart messaging platform. He previously founded Elance (now Upwork), which pioneered the gig economy and went IPO in 2018.Throughout the podcast, Beerud shares his experience of over 22 years as an Entrepreneur building Elance and Gupshup.Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:30 - His journey from IIT Bombay & MIT to founding Elance & Gupshup05:21 - Transitioning from a Wall-Street trader to an entrepreneur07:55 - How did the idea of Elance come up?10:02 - Key pivotal moments during his early days of entrepreneurship13:57 - Scale at which Upwork was operating when he left & why did he leave?22:56 - How did the idea of Gupshup come up?26:50 - Growing Gupshup to $100 Million ARR and plans of taking it to IPO30:41 - Highlights of the recent partnership with WhatsApp Business45:09 - Grit, perseverance & mental fortitude necessary for an entrepreneur47:23 - Learnings from his mistakes from over 22 years as an entrepreneur49:33 - Looking at resume value vs other soft-attributes while hiringSend us a text

In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Shripriya Mahesh from growing up in Madras (India) to working with eBay & Omidyar Network, making Films, battling cancer while founding Spero Ventures.Prior to Spero Ventures, she led Emerging Tech investing at Omidyar Network. Shripriya has been an active angel investor in, and board member or advisor to, private technology companies throughout her career. Shripriya formerly held several leadership roles at eBay including as Vice President of Product Marketing (US, revenue), and as Vice President of Global Product Management. Shripriya has an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MFA in Film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a B.A. in Economics from Stella Maris College, Madras University.Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:58 - From growing up in India in the early 90s to moving to the US02:50 - Doing MBA from HBS & moving to Bay Area09:26 - After eBay what prompted her to move to NYC to do a film-making Course?15:47 - Joining Omidyar Network and later starting Spero Ventures21:39 - Investing in mission-driven founders23:44 - Battling cancer and building Spero Ventures29:09 - “How technology is designed/biased towards the mainstream audience”.30:51 - Building empathy in technology36:53 - “The mission & business model of a company needs to be perfectly aligned”.37:58 - Her perspective of Gen-Z’s mission-driven attitude to make the world a better placeSend us a text

In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through Jay Vijayan’s journey from working with Tesla, VMware, Oracle to building a Billion Dollar Company, Tekion. Tekion has raised $150 million as part of its Series C financing led by private equity firm Advent International, at over $1 billion valuation.Jay’s insights which we discuss during the podcast are on -Notes - 00:58 - From working at Oracle, VMware, & Tesla to Founding Tekion 05:21 - From bootstrapping to getting VC funding10:25 - Thoughts on Founder & VC alignment13:40 - Challenges for startups in the Automotive retail industry16:13 - Building a single platform for OEMs, dealers & customers22:25 - Getting General Motors, Nissan–Mitsubishi, FM Capital, Exor (Fiat Chrysler, Ferrari) on Tekion’s cap table24:02 - Developing end-to-end solution for Mid-Small Dealers - Automotive Retail Cloud31:08 - ARR growth42:19 - Creating transparency for customers while buying a new car49:52 - “Life is a never-ending journey of learnings”.54:58 - What has always stopped him from settling down?58:19 - “When an egg-shell break from within - Life begins, but when it breaks from outside - Life ends.”- Jay’s philosophy on continuously pushing himself 1:03:25 - What made Elon Musk approach Jay twice in a span of 12 months for the CIO role at Tesla1:14:17 - What core things he learned from working with Elon at Tesla?Send us a text

In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Priya Mohan, Startup Sensei, Venture Highway. She became a VC after exiting her Edtech Startup - Vidyartha to Byju’s.During the podcast, Priya shares her story of breaking the glass ceiling, being one of the few women leaders in the Indian Venture Capital industry. Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 06:23 - Problem Statement solved by her first venture Vidyartha11:30 - Having clarity to become a VC post-exiting as a founder14:56 - Investing experience in Swiflearn being a parent & ex-Edtech founder16:58 - Portfolio companies where she has led investments 19:36 - How does Venture Highway differentiate itself from other VC firms?23:03 - “Having the opportunity to learn from Failures”.23:48 - “The biggest bias is Confirmation Bias”.25:52 - Pros & Cons of being a VC with a background as an Entrepreneur34:01 - “There’s no good or bad news, there’s just news”41:38 - Recommended read for listeners - “Principles” by Ray DalioSend us a text

In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the journey of Aloke Bajpai building ixigo over the last 13 years.Aloke is one of the few founders who experienced & survived the 2008 crisis. During the podcast, he shares how ixigo applied similar strategies and learnings to tackle the current pandemic. Aloke’s insights which we discuss during the podcast are on -00:28 - USP of ixigo - Built its major user base organically01:36 - Building quirky sharable content around travel03:56 - Where does ixigo stands in terms of net profits & GMV for FY20?07:26 - Launching ixigo assured & TARA assistant (i.e. Travel agent of the future)10:42 - How travel is going to open up in the next 6-12 months?13:50 - His lessons from surviving the 2008-crisis22:35 - 20% of ex-ixigo employees becoming entrepreneurs24:50 - Key-value props which have pushed ixigo into a higher orbit against its competitors28:49 - “ixigo Train App” having higher numbers of users vs all of its travel competitors apps combined31:19 - Pursuing Ph.D. in Survival Sciences32:39 - Identifying organic growth hacks to tackle Zero-budget marketing42:50 - Raising capital after the 2008-crisis50:45 - Destination for ixigo ahead: Becoming the most loved OTA in India56:33 - Mentoring first-time entrepreneurs & supporting them as an Angel InvestorSend us a text

In this episode of 100xEntrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the investment thesis opted by Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, behind investments in SaaS platforms like - Postman, Druva, & Observe.AI among others.Jishnu began his stint in the VC world with Nexus VP in 2008, and since then he has been part of many cross-border investments in SaaS startups.Jishnu’s insights which we discuss during the podcast are on -Notes - 00:28 - Joining Georgia Tech for MS & Ph.D.03:02 - Finding his first job offer based on his Ph.D. research paper05:32 - Joining Business school to move-out of his regular desk-job06:10 - Connecting with Naren during the early days of Nexus10:52 - Why did he choose to focus only on SaaS?15:27 - Journey of his first SaaS investment, Gluster which later got acquired by Red Hat17:33 - Discovery of Postman23:49 - Nexus being one of the few VC firms to have a common cross-border investment team & fund25:41 - “Product-first thinking” the common trait of all the SaaS investments by Nexus VP33:30 - How did organic growth come early for companies like Druva & Postman?43:37 - Key aspects influencing Postman’s valuation going forward51:37 - Broadening the horizon being an Entrepreneur- “Think broadly but act narrowly”58:22 - Thesis for future investments in SaaSSend us a text

In this episode, we bring Shanti Mohan, Founder, LetsVenture on the 100x Entrepreneur podcast who has been enabling Investors & Entrepreneurs to meet each other and make the best investments happen.Shanti with her experience at LetsVenture of seeing over 260+ funding rounds, helps us understand what distinguishes the good vs bad in terms of founders, investors, and deals in great detail.Listen to this podcast to learn about:Notes - 00:28 - Building LetsVenture being a 2nd-time entrepreneur 05:35 - Solving the problem of ACCESS15:05 - Serving as a marketplace for founders to fundraise16:12 - Enabling first-time investors to co-invest with Lead investors 17:42 - Building LetsVenture Plus for family offices and HNIs18:58 - Building MyStartupEquity for founders to manage their Cap. table & ESOP 23:31 - Helping founders and investors with legal compliance and due diligence 31:12 - What leads to failed transactions38:22 - Insights for angel investors40:39 - On competition from platforms like AngelList46:07 - Angel Investing as an asset-class then and nowSend us a text

In this episode of 100x Entrepreneur Podcast, we take you through the investment thesis of Rahul Chowdhri, behind investments in D2C, E-commerce & Edtech platforms like - Mamaearth, Shop101, & Swiflearn respectively.We also discuss the common question a new founder thinks about while entering the Edtech sector, “Is the Indian Edtech sector saturated with the large players like Byju’s, Unacademy, and other presents in the market?”.Rahul’s insights which we discuss during the podcast are on -Notes - 00:56 - His journey from working at BCG to joining Helion Ventures & then founding Stellaris Venture Partners03:25 - Sectors at which he looks after - Consumer Retail, Edtech, Agritech, Horizontal Content & Social Network platforms04:07 - Thesis behind investing in Mamaearth - Founder’s understanding of brand-perspective & online-thinking11:14 - Can digital-first D2C brands achieve $100M+ ARR & achieve $500M+ Valuation?12:10 - Moats which digital-first D2C brands can build to stay ahead of competitors14:10 - Indian D2C brands which he admires and why - OZiva, FableStreet, Yoga Bar16:35 - Are there still opportunities left for new players in Edtech, with large businesses like Byju’s & Unacademy already present?20:10 - Thesis behind investing in Swiflearn and the problem they are solving? 25:56 - Thesis behind investing in Shop101 & the company’s growth so far30:21 - Investments where their thesis didn’t work out and what were their learnings from it?36:53 - Biases among VCs & founders about “What models & monetizations would work out?”Send us a text