The Indian Dream

Support The Indian Dream Project by contributing here. Hey everyone! Welcome to another episode of The Indian Dream. This is where we explore markets and ideas that are set to explode in the next 3-5 years. This week, we did a deep diver into the word of Space Technology. Before we talk about the episode, let me give you a high level understanding of Space Tech.  For years, the various government organizations have been sending satellites in space for various use cases ranging from Communication, Navigation, Television and Remote Imaging & Sensing. Organizations like NASA and ISRO have been doing this work. Over the last few years, private players have entered and new use cases have emerged.  We've written a detailed newsletter about the landscape of Space Tech in India, the current players and the opportunities. Link to the newsletter is in the show notes.In this week's episode, we talk to Narayan Prasad, co-founder & COO of satsearch.  satsearch is a global marketplace for Space Products & Services. Narayan also runs his own space podcast and community called New Space India. Space Technology has been dominated in India by ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organisation, since its founding in the early 70's. During these past 50 years, ISRO subcontracted all manufacturing to Indian companies but all intellectual property rested with ISRO or the Department of Space. Also, there was no clear legal framework for space companies to be built in India. As a result, the private Indian Space technology industry in India languished and is barely 1-3% of the Global Space industry.However, all of this started changing over the past few years. A private marketing arm of ISRO called New Space India Limited was set up in 2019 and IN-SPACe was set up in 2020 as the regulator for the Space Industry. The stage has been set for the explosion of the private space industry in India.This conversation with Narayan is a primer on the space industry and the entire value chain along with the opportunities in this space. Narayan is passionate about the Space industry and you can really hear it in this conversation. Lastly, Sahil and I have been producing these podcasts ourselves for the past 10 months and this should be episode number 80. Right from ideation, guest sourcing, editing - we do everything ourselves and it takes up a lot of time. We'd like to hire some more interns and outsource editing so that we can get you better ideas, trends & business opportunities. Here's the razorpay link to support us. We're going to put all the money back into The Indian Dream and try and get you more high quality content.  Oh, and if you're a young person looking for an internship - we're hiring! Send us an email - we're hiring for research and content distribution at the moment.Email us at: theindiandream20@gmail.com

We've launched a new show in Hindi in an Exclusive Partnership with Gaana.com. Checkout Founder Journeys on our new show 'Yeh Hai Dhande ki Baat'. The first three episodes with an Export Manufacturer- LNM Auto, Ferns & Petals, and Jiva Ayurveda are out. Check out the show here. In this episode of Business Munchies, Sahil and Sid are back with their usual banter and some interesting ideas. Here's what we discuss: The  Business of Rare Plants & Evolution of Gardening in India  (1:47)The $1.5 Bn Expert Networks Industry (13:04)Subscription of Gourmet Meal Boxes (22:12)

Hey everyone - welcome to The Indian Dream podcast. In this episode we dig deeper into the trend of Plant Based Meats with Abhinav Sinha, co-Founder of GoodDot and GoodDo. Good Dot is a food tech start-up and was one of the first companies to bring plant-based proteins to India - Good do is their Quick Service Restaurant arm that's bringing plant based foot to airports & many other locations.Join The Indian Dream No-Spam WhatsApp GroupBefore this conversation, I didn't think plant based meats would work in India. A vast number of people are vegetarian and even the non-vegetarians eat meat only occasionally - why would Indians care about meat alternatives? This conversation changed my mind on the industry. We speak to Abhinav about how Indians view plant based meats and the different market segments that are buying this product. We also go into detail on the pillars for any food business that wants to enter the consumer segment. Overall, our belief is that the plant based meat industry is going to grow fast especially amongst younger folks who're getting more environmentally conscious.We've put a timeline in the show notes so you can skip directly to the questions that interest you.Timeline(02:33) - What was the thesis and story behind Good Dot? It is a story of compassion by reducing animal cruelty by providing an alternative to meat.(7:20) - Did you do the R&D and build the product development yourself? What did it entail? All proteins are based on just 20 Amino Acids and the sequence of these Amino Acids determines how the proteins fold, etc. If you take the same Amino Acids from plant proteins - shouldn't it give you the same bite as animal proteins - you can denature the protein and then align it similar to animal proteins.(9:56) - What is your target demographic? Conservative vegetarians, moderate vegetarians, adventurous vegetarians (non-veg curious), borderline non-vegetarians (most of India, eat only occasionally), mainstream non-vegetarians (probably once a week because of cost), hardcore non-vegetarians (daily). Leave the two extremes on either side - focus efforts on the middle 4 sections.(13:54) - How did you figure out which products do go after? Focus their efforts and make their decisions on 5 pillars:TastePrice - sometimes price is more important in IndiaNutritionQualityConvenience(17:25) - What was your Go to Market strategy? and how did you build awareness? RCM - direct selling agents with more than 2 million agents. Cater to the lower middle income market - which is the key market to target.(20:17) - How are you marketing towards the lower middle income? How do you manage pricing?(25:31) - How did you build awareness to get people to give it a shot?(28:23) - Tell us about GoodDo - your Quick Service Restaurant.(32:22) - What are the opportunities in this space?(35:11) - What is the entire value chain for Plant Based Meats in India? What are the raw materials and who is manufacturing these in India?(36:35) - Are you seeing enthusiasm in other kinds of plants based food as you are seeing in plant based meats?(40:38) - Some large chains like McDonald's and Burger King are adding plant based options to their offerings - what is your experience with it?(42:01) - Are you still changing the base product?(43:15) - What are the barriers to entry for a newcomer to get into this field?(45:27) - What is the implication of the level of processing required for these products?

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) talk to Sajal Khanter, former investment banker and current founder of The Boring News Co - a newsletter that brings you daily news without any sensationalism. Check them out!Join The Indian Dream WhatsApp group here. Timestamps:(0:36) - How do you create trust in SME's using a Social Media or Marketplace model?(11:04) - Creating Bronze Busts of business leaders like Ratan Tata or other super famous people like Narendra Modi(20:54) - Discussion about the surprising profitibality of Food Delivery Apps(24:55) - Food Business Called 50/50 with Unhealthy and Healthy variant of dishes sold through carts.(33:14) - Course Clubs as replacements for Book ClubsBusiness Ideas we Discussed:Creating Trust in SME's: There is a major trust deficit in the SME space when it comes to dealing with new customers and vendors. You can find them on Trade India but you often don't know whether the company actually exists or if its a random middleman who's popped up with manufacturer contacts. This is especially prevalent in the textile industry which has many different layers. Sajal wants to create some kind of social media or marketplace model which can help create a database of trusted SME's with the information displayed on the platform that is needed to build trust.Creating Bronze Busts of Ratan Tata: Inspired by Berkshire Nerds which is a simple store that has bronze busts of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. This could be done for other leaders in India who've achieved cult like status such as Ratan Tata, Narendra Modi, Aamir Khan, Sachin Tendulkar or more. Food Business Called 50/50: Restaurants are either healthy or unhealthy with very few mixing both the concepts in one location. Sajal's idea is to have a food cart with both healthy and unhealthy options in one place so that friends can enjoy it together. This cart could also keep a track of people's behaviour and if they've eaten well for a long period of them - they could then be incentivised to eat unhealthy with a coupon. Sajal's long term goal is to automate these carts so that they could roam around business areas by themselves and cook and serve people healthy/unhealthy food.Course Clubs as replacements for Book Clubs: Cohort Based Courses or other online courses are replacing books as the primary place for people to learn new skills. This is especially true for high performing individuals, entrepreneurs and freelancers who are constantly trying to upskill themselves and reach the next level of productivity. 

We host Varun and Nicole from Good Food Institute (GFI) to talk about the Plant Based Meat sector in India. Our Plant Based Meat NewsletterJoin our No Spam Whatsapp Newsletter where we put summaries of the content we create. Join here. Plant Based Meat products are made out of processing Plants in a way that it resembles the taste, texture and nutrition of real meats. Animal Meat has significant environmental impact and is a big contributor for Climate Change.  These products are highly inefficient - 9 calories of food fed to a chicken gets 1 calorie back out in the form of animal flesh, the ratio is 34:1 in the case of beef!Then there's the health impact of these Animal Meats on Humans.  Zootonic diseases like Covid, Avian flu originate from people consuming animal Meat. Plant Based Meats provide a healthier alternative - both for the environment and humans. Research has been going on for more than a decade around processing plants in a certain way to create products that resemble Animal Meats. We're seeing a rise of startups in this space creating interesting products for the Indian preferences. One common thread behind all these startups in India is the work that GFI is doing in enabling them and giving them a platform. We speak to Varun and Nicole about the Business, Science & Policy around Plant Based Meat in India. 

Sahil (@sahil071) & Siddharth (@sidbetala) are joined by Raj Kunkolienkar (aka @Kunksed), Co-Founder of Stoa School with us for this episode of Business Munchies. Join our No-Spam WhatsApp group for Weekly updates on our content!We discuss the following ideas: Data Pooling of Recruiting DataRecruitment is consistently rated as one of the toughest parts of entrepreneurship - finding the right people for the right job can make or break a business. However, recruitment faces many issues from both sides of the desk - the candidate and the business. On the business side, there is an issue of information assymettry where they don't know much about the quality of a candidate except for a few interviews they may conduct. Additionally, a candidate may take an offer letter from a business and use that to shop around for jobs. We discuss various ideas for how recruitment data can be pooled across various businesses to solve this information assymettry and how companies can be incentivised to provide that data. Meesho for MatchmakingThe Meesho business model uses people's networks to help sell products to wider audience. One person sells to their network and gets commissions on those products - this model has been popular amongst homemakers in India who want to earn extra income. Can we use the same model for Matchmaking? Older relatives tend to annoy their younger family with questions about marriage anyway so why not incentivise them and provide them with a platform to make their matchmaking profitable?Economies within Communities Large Communities are currently being built across various domains in India - Business, Stock Picking, Gardening and a host of other topics. These communities can have more than 10,000 members who are constantly asking for help or helping out of their own desire to help. But can we find a way to provide value to these acts of kindness? An in-community economy - imagine points for helping people with their problems - that can be exchanged for other help that's required within the community.  

Sridhar Gadhi, founder and Executive Chairman at Quantela Inc., shares insights on revolutionizing urban life through smart city innovations. He discusses the foundational strategies behind successful smart cities, emphasizing technology integration and engaging communities. Sridhar also explores the vital partnerships needed in the sector, the balance between hardware and software investments, and the critical focus areas for local governments. Additionally, he reveals global opportunities within the Internet of Things and the significance of traffic management innovations.

Sahil (@sahil071) & Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out with Harish Uthayakumar, YouTuber at Curious Harish and co-founder of Clinify, for a special episode of Business Munchies - we look at College Side Hustles.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp group for Weekly updates on our content!Timestamps:(0:45) - Start a YouTube channel as a College Side Hustle.(7:45) - Cookie delivery service(13:45) - One stop shop for all college information(19:00) - Hyper local Omegle for College Campuses(20:00) - Modernising alumni relations(25:00) - Learn No-Code and Freelance(34:15) - The story of Anirudh Singla and Pepper ContentThe College Side Hustles/Business Ideas we discussedStart a YouTube channel or any type of Content Creation - Content creation is the lowest hanging fruit in terms of building a skill or building a business. Anyone can start a YouTube channel or a blog - it doesn't require too many resources. However, you can learn a lot of lessons from these endeavours and it can even open doors for your future career as you gain social capital. Cookie delivery service - In fact, any kind of food delivery service could work in college. It teaches your the entrepreneurial skills necessarily to succeed later in life. Sahil took part in such a business in college and his friend later went on to build a succesful million dollar business with the skills she learnt in college. Modernising Alumni Relations - BITS Pilani & ISB have fantastic alumni networks in India but that's not true of all the top schools and colleges in the country. Improving alumni touchpoints can significantly increase the donations to colleges and also the value that alumni derive over a long period of time. It's a win-win for everyone involved. Freelancing & Learning No-Code: Freelancing is the classice college side hustle. College students should learn a useful skill that they deploy while freelancing - such as learning No Code. If a student can learn Webflow, Bubble, Zapier, etc., those skills will be useful to them for the rest of their lives. Anirudh Singla & Pepper Content: Anirudh Singla, the co-founder of Pepper Content, first started off by just freelance writing for businesses around the world. Freelancing showed him the larger world of content writing that desperately needed a solution and that's when he founded Pepper Content and recently got him a place in the Forbes 30 Under 30 List. 

In this episode, we talk to Vinay Chhajlani about his 3 decade long journey as an Entrepreneur building multiple profitable businesses. We talk to him about the following businesses: 1. Webdunia - India's first Vernacular platform with products and services in Hindi and other regional languages. They were the creators of World's first Hindi Email Service and went on to raise VC funding back in 1999. Post the dot com bubble, they pivoted to being a services company and served the likes of Reliance to build a profitable businesses. 2. Naidunia - The Newspaper publishing business that he took over and turned around after it was struggling in mid 2000's. He scaled it to multiple cities and states and eventually had a successful exit. 3. Other Ventures - Cable television, Jewelery E-com, and Convention Center. All of this didn't turn out to be successful and we talk to him about his learnings from these businesses.  We also talk about the principles/values that he has used across these businesses, the role of spirituality in business, and how has he navigated his son's introduction in the family business, given the challenges that he faced when he entered the family business back in late 80's. 

If you like what we do, consider supporting the The Indian Dream Project at this link. We're joined by a special guest today,  Saurav Arya.  Saurav is the founder of Small World, WorkStays and Impressive Infographics. He's a digital nomad and has travelled to 90+ Countries. Timestamps:(0:35) - Hacker House in Tier II/III Cities (12:00) - Airbnb for services targeted towards Digital Nomads (20:45) - Building Global Media Properties out of India (28:00) - A Service to Settle in a new city Business Ideas:Hacker House in Tier II/III Cities: There is a lot of untapped potential in Tier II/III cities of India. Often, the young kids don't get the same opportunities and exposure due to limited resources. What if you could setup Hacker House where you bring talented folks, teach them necessary skills and give them a platform to participate in Gig/Creator economy. This could be applied to Gaming, Content, Coding and various other skills. The way to make money would be take a certain share of the earnings they make once they are trained (Income Share Agreements) and ready to monetize their skills. The Soul Gaming Clan has done this with a Gaming house. Check it out. Airbnb for Digital Nomads: The Pandemic has resulted in the rise of Digital Nomads, people who work remotely and travel. These people generally stay in one location for a few weeks/months and then move to another place. They have specific requirements in terms of Internet speeds, Cafes in walking distance, Gym etc. What if you build a curation service where you list out these places basis crowdsourcing this information from other digital nomads.Building Global Media Properties out of India: India has all the resources and Infrastructure to become a global media hub. We have the talent to create content, animators, and a large section of English speaking population that could be leveraged to build Global Media Properties. If American Media is about Glitzy Shit, what if India could be about Aspirational content that is relatable to other developing countries? Around uplifting sections of society, career progression, entrepreneurial ecosystems etc. Service to settle in a new city: Relocating to new cities is hard. It's hard to meet the right set of folks, understand how the city functions, and can be a difficult experience overall. What if you had a service where you could have an assigned person helping you settle into a new city. A website where you can choose the right person basis their profile and interests. This could be a way for Airbnb Hosts or Couch surfers to earn additional revenue while a great way for new people to settle in a new city.