The Indian Dream

In this episode we have Himanshu Arora from Social Panga which is a 360 degree Digital Marketing Agency. The pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of traditional brands and has led to the growth of many D2C brands. All of us are now our own tiny digital marketing agencies, trying to build either our company or personal brands in the new digital world – just like us with this podcast. Join Our WhatsApp GroupHimanshu Arora LinkedInSocial Panga WebsiteIn this context, understanding the functioning of a digital marketing agency and how social panga was scaled up was an enlightening discussion. In the last 10 years, starting a digital marketing agency has almost become a cliché. However, Himanshu and his Co founder Gaurav, focused on hiring and training the best people to differentiate themselves. The team is the essence of any successful service based industry and thus we talk to Himanshu in detail about his hiring practices and how he builds a culture of excellence. All of this focus on hiring and cultural fitment has led to Social Panga scale up extraordinarily fast in the 6 years since their founding led by customer satisfaction and thus strong referrals. In this episode, we scratch the surface of digital marketing and we're going to go deeper into digital marketing for Direct to Consumer brands in a future episode with Himanshu. Join our whatsapp group to know more about everything we’re doing.Music by Ben Sound

Altigreen is an electric vehicle manufacturer that was started in 2011 with a retrofit product to convert light commercial vehicles to hybrid. Today, they sell their own 2,3, & 4 Wheel Electric Vehicles. We talk about this journey and the kind of opportunities (a TON!) that exist in the EV space. Altigreen's Website Dr. Amitabh Saran's Linkedin Trends #6: Electric Vehicle Newsletter

We talk to Bharat Goenka, Founder of Tally Solutions, maker of ERP and Accounting Software for SMBs since 1986. We cover the journey of building Tally, go deeper into their unique point of views on Customer Empathy, Distribution, Piracy and some philosophy across the entire episode :)We also go through the ups and downs that the business has gone through in the last 30 years and how it weathered the different storms to build a business that's thriving today. Tally's WebsiteTally's TwitterThe Indian Dream WhatsApp GroupWe have a long and a fantastic episode lined up today. One that details the journey of a company that was founded more than 3 decades ago and is still going strong. If you run your own business or if you've studied accounting, chances are, you would've heard of Tally Solutions already. Tally is the OG when it comes to homegrown Software Products. For those who are not aware, Tally is an Enterprise Resource Planning & Account Software that's used by 2 million customers across more than 100 countries. They've a strong presence in India, Middle East and Certain parts of Africa. Supported by a distribution network of 28000 Partners, Tally has really cracked distribution like no other software company has been able to.Founded in 1986, by Late Shyam Sunder Goenka and his son Bharat Goenka, Tally has had a roller-coaster ride full of ups and downs. But, the strong culture and value system that's been put in place has helped the organization steer through multiple storms along the way. In the episode today, we discuss a wide range of topics from distribution, customer empathy, pricing and some philosophy too! This was one of the most interesting conversations for me because I'd seen my dad use Tally more than 2 decades! It's hard to think of many software products that stand the test of time like Tally has been able to do!

Happy Diwali to all our listeners! We hope you have a great Diwali Weekend and a new year filled with Joy. We've had great fun doing this podcast and newsletter over the past few months and hope you've had as much fun listening to it. We have some exciting episodes lined up for you - can't wait to share it! We'd love to hear from you - send us an email at theindiandream20@gmail.comMusic: www.bensound.com

 Today's episode is part of a series about New Mobility which includes self driving cars, car sharing , Internet connected cars and obviously the always talked about Electric Vehicles. The Indian Dream Newsletter - Subscribe to our newsletter!The Indian Dream WhatsApp GroupSachin's LinkedInSachin's Newsletter Car Talk Car Talk Issue where Sachin talks about a new form of Car Ownership - Highly recommended reading.When you think about the future of cars what's the first company that comes to mind? Tesla right? it was the same thought process for us and thus when we started researching the topic we reached out to Sachin Seth from Tesla. Sachin is the Finance manager for model S and model x, the finance manager for the new factory in China and much much more at Tesla. Sachin has an MBA from the Wharton School of Management and a PhD in electrical engineering - giving him insights into both the financial and product side of the new mobility revolution.You can take this episode as a primer for understanding new mobility. We discuss the state of technology of the various parts of new mobility, and the opportunities that lie within the space both in India and abroad.  Sachin is able to understand the direction of the industry in the US and articulate how it will eventually affect India as well. we are still far behind Western countries and China on adoption and development off new mobility technology but we can look at these other markets as a guide for the possible direction of Indian electric vehicles and other technology. obviously India is a unique market and our own dynamics will dictate its evolution - for example electric adoption in India is most likely going to be led by 2 and 3 Wheelers where Bajaj may face a big challenge to its dominance.Other Links:McKinsey Report on EV in IndiaEV Services Based company from Chennai becoming a UnicornThe Problems with Hydrogen in New Mobility

Ayurveda 2.0 Trends NewsletterDr. Vaidya's Website Arjun's Podcast on AyurvedaIn this episode, we discuss the Ayurveda 2.0 Trend. We speak to Arjun about his journey building Dr. Vaidya's, the role of the government in promoting Ayurveda and the business opportunities that exist in this space.Arjun Vaidya started Dr. Vaidya's in 2017, with the goal of taking his family's long history with Ayurveda and bring it to the modern consumer. Arjun's great grand father and grand father practiced Ayurvedic medicine out of a small clinic in Mumbai. Over the years, their deep research into Ayurvedic Medicine resulted in proprietary formulations that are now being packaged and marketed to the modern consumer. Dr. Vaidya's has 50+ SKUs across the Ayurvedic Medicines & over the counter products for things arthritis, diabetes, weight reduction etc.To be honest, it was only after talking to Arjun we coined the term Ayurveda 2.0. Because the science behind it has always existed and what we're seeing now is the modernisation of it. As we already established in the last two episodes with Kiku and Stuti, there's a greater awareness amongst the modern consumer about wellness. Make it natural and organic, and have you a large enough audience who cares about this to build a sustainable business. Ayurveda has a chance to corner some of this wellness market, not just in India, but globally. Dr. Vaidya's is trying to do just that. 

Welcome to another episode of the Indian Dream Trends. With Trends, we aim to explore new markets and ideas that can explode in the next few years. We look at the Market Gap, the current players and the opportunities that exist. It comes out as a Newsletter as well as a Podcast wherein we record our conversation with Industry experts and startup operators in the Trend that we are coveringThis week, we're covering Ayurveda 2.0 wherein we're seeing the modernization of a 5000 year Tradition. Here's the newsletterAyurveda is going through some very interesting times. The current government has been very bullish on Ayurveda, and has also setup the Ministry of AYUSH to promote Ayurveda and other forms of natural and holistic treatment. While this has happened in the last few years, Covid-19 is the black swan event that's pushed Ayurveda's popularity significantly.To understand what's happening in the Ayurveda space, we caught up with Stuti of Amrutam. Amrutam Pharmaceuticals was started in 2006, by Mr. Ashok Gupta. He worked with a few Ayurvedic companies before setting up his own distribution business for Herbal Products. Realising that these so called herbal products barely had any herbal ingredients and were rather full with chemicals and preservatives, he took matter in his own hand and started experimenting different types of products.Malts, also Called Avales, focused on better health were his first set of products. Since then, he expanded into other products for brain, immunity, and other general well being products. In 2017, Stuti and her brother, Agnim, joined the business and made it into a D2C Brand with their online presence and expanded into other product lines like Personal Care and lifestyle products. They've built a community of about 1L people across the globe and are currently retailing across India.In this episode, we talk to Stuti about the current status of the Ayurveda Industry and the various business opportunities that exist. We also discuss about Amrutam's Community and their recent launch of the consultation platform, Amrutam.global. Check out their products at Amrutam.Co.InBefore we jump to the episode, we'd like you to leave us an honest rating and review on the podcast player that you're using. It'll help us understand if we can improve on anything. If you have detailed feedback or if you'd like to colloborate with us on the newsletter, drop us an email at theIndianDream20@gmail.comAmrutam Website Amrtuam's InstagramTrends Ayurveda 2.0 NewsletterTID Trends WhatsApp Group

Today's episode is part of our Micro-SaaS edition of the Trends Series.Micro-SaaS NewsletterThis is a story about how a 16 Yr Old's quest for pocket money lead to a multi-million dollar software business. , Based out of Calcutta in 2002, Pallav needed all the extra cash he could get to spend at the Bowling Alleys. He came across an opportunity to write a technical article and get paid for it. He set out to write the longest article possible since it paid by the number of words. That technical article would garner enough interest that Pallav would soon be working on the first version of the product which we today know as Fusion Charts. Fusion Charts is a charting tool for developers to use for their websites & apps. Back in 2002, the graphs and charts that we take for granted in our programs like excel today weren't really that common. The existing solutions had limited functionality and poor aesthetics. That's the problem that Pallav set out to solve in 2002.If you think about it, he was the OG in the whole Niche Software game, what we today also refer to as Micro-SaaS. Going through Pallav's journey makes you realize he did a bunch of innovative things back in the day which we now assume as part of the basic playbook. For example, Content Marketing at Scale, Optimizing for Time to First Value for the User etc.At its peak, Fusion Charts had revenues of $10M/year with extremely high profit margins. However, the journey wasn't all smooth sailing for Pallav. There were periods in the entire journey where the growth stalled and the company saw heavy attrition. In true entrepreneurial spirit, Pallav rebuilt and made a comeback. This year, Fusion Charts was acquired by Iderra Inc of the US.We go through the journey of building Fusion Charts while going deeper into topics such as content marketing, customer support and close it out with a discussion on Bootstrapped vs Venture Funded paths of entrepreneurship. If you have any aspirations of building a technology product company, you don't want to miss this one.Pallav's TwitterCharts.com - Pallav's New VentureEmail us  at theindiandream20@gmail.com

Welcome to the Indian Dream Podcast and thanks for listening! Today's episode is part of a series about the resurgence of Ayurvedic brands over the last few years. Because of a host of reasons including increased focus on preventive medicine and Wellness, rising incomes in India and new models such as direct to consumer, the way that ayurveda has been experienced for thousands of years is suddenly changing. You can read our report for a detailed explanation on the changes and the opportunities that lie within.Ayurveda ReportTID Trends WhatsApp GroupShaz & Kiks WebsiteShaz & Kiks InstagramIn this episode we speak to Kiku choudhary  who is the founder of Shaz & Kiks, an Ayurvedic hair care company in the US. Some of you may be thinking, “Why is a podcast called the Indian dream interviewing a founder in the US?” The answer is quite simple we believe that the opportunity to build an Ayurvedic brand in the US or other Western countries is immense. Or just simply exporting Ayurvedic products. What we want our listeners to take away from this conversation is that attitudes towards ayurveda are changing all over the world and that they should not restrict themselves to India when they think about opportunities in Ayurveda. Our conversation with Kiku is wide ranging - extending from her initial ideation, the changing attitudes and  to the supply chain issues that she faced while trying to source raw ingredients. Towards the end, Kiku also provides some fantastic ideas on opportunities that exist in the Ayurvedic space in the US. One thing that really surprised me was the popularity of these Ayurvedic hair care products with people with Afros. It just goes to show that the appeal of Ayurveda and the market size is much bigger than we might have imagined.

Today's episode is part of our Micro-SaaS edition of the Trends Series. Micro-SaaS NewsletterOur guest today is Preetam Nath from SuperLemon who also recently started new product called DelightChat. Preetam NathSuperLemonDelightChatThis is our longest episode yet and this was after cutting out at least 30 minutes of Siddharth and Preetam discussing life philosophy, finances, and other stuff. Preetam and his co-founder built SuperLemon as an app for the Shopify store. The reason they became well known in the software development  circles is because they were able to scale up a simple idea of a WhatsApp integration into the Shopify ecommerce store. This generated $30,000 or about 20 lacs per month of recurring revenue in less than 14 months.The team was just the two of them and they accomplished it without any external funding. In this episode, we go in detail through how Preetam thought about building and then built Super Lemon but also talk about the factors that are the foundation of success for a Micro-SaaS company such as finding your niche, thinking about distribution and much more. SaaS has become a very popular term the last few years. it stands for software as a service - you can just think of it as a subscription model for software. so let's say that somebody is giving you value on a regular basis and you want to pay them on a regular basis for the value they are providing. that is a subscription – Preetam has a great blog article called Subscription is Eating the World. Now just think about the most basic software that you get as a subscription on your web browser or anywhere else. Netflix comes to mind - they provide a service off TV shows and movies on a regular basis and I pay them around ₹500 a month. On the business side you can think about Office 365 where you pay around ₹200 a month for access to the entire office software suite.  So saas is just software for which I pay a monthly fee. Micro SaaS, or Niche SaaS or Vertical SaaS is just a SaaS product which is looking at a very small niche. For example if your ambitions are to earn only $3000 or 2 lacs per month as a side business then you can make a focused product for which you charge $30 per month and all you have to do is find 100 people love what you made. Considering that the Internet now has 5 billion users, It is much easier now to find a niche and figure out how to serve those people. it doesn't hurt that you will be charging in dollars.Micro-SaaS Is referred to as the modern lifestyle business Which is set up by its founders to earn a certain amount of money and no more. It gives you the money that you need to enjoy the lifestyle that you want without the stresses of scaling up start up. Lastly, I’d like to just make an open call for anyone who’d like to help us write our Trends newsletters on any topic that interests you. Next week, we’re looking into Ayurveda and then Electric Vehicles, Direct to Consumer. Email us  at theindiandream20@gmail.comPreetam Nath's Blog on Micro-SaaSHow I grew my Shopify micro-SaaS to $25k MRR and 20k users in 14 monthsGuide: Make money building Shopify micro-SaaS appsThe Mom Test by Rob