The Startup Operator

Amit is the founder and CEO of iMocha, a skills assessment solution API platform that helps organizations with their hiring. Previously he was the founder of Radix Business Models, an IT services and outsourcing company. In this interview Amit spoke about his journey as a founder, transitioning from services to products company, the nuances of building an assessment product and more with Roshan Cariappa. Key highlights of this conversation: 00:00 Introduction 00:53 Founding journey and key milestones  11:53 Transitioning from Services to products 18:02 Nuances of achieving product market fit 24:08 Standing out in the crowded recruitment space  29:07 Nuances of building an assessment product 37:58 Closing the loop on quality of hire  41:08 Pros v/s Cons of working with the HR function 44:22 High level Challenges Amit is solving now  48:03 Nuances of going from $1-10M in SaaS  51:01 Improving ACV and Customer Marketing 54:57 The Indian SaaS ecosystem 57:27 Optimism for the future ------------------------------------- Connect with Amit: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitdmishra/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/amitdmishra ------------------------------------- Connect with Us:  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupoperator ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​ ------------------------------------- If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Rahul is the founder and CEO of Flobiz, a company that primarily builds billing and inventory management softwares for Indian SMBs and works towards digitizing the SMB space. Rahul is a serial entrepreneur whose previous startups were Zaaika and Koinex. In this interview he spoke about building for SMBs, building trust with SMBs and more! Key highlights of this conversation: 00:00 Introduction 01:23 Rahul's entrepreneurial journey so far 03:58 Market to Idea to Company 07:16 Building for SMBs 11:35 SMBs' perception of software 14:20 Flobiz's popular use cases 18:16 Building for the Bharat User  23:49 Pricing a SaaS product 28:27 Building Trust with SMBs 34:13 Digitizing SMBs through covid 37:37 Flobiz's opportunities for expansion 39:28 Rahul's take on Atmanirbhar Bharat  43:08 Learnings from being a serial entrepreneur 48:00 Lessons from Operating through Covid -------------------------------- Connect with Rahul:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/startupkesari/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/startupkesari -------------------------------- Connect with us: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupoperator ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​ -------------------------------- If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss -  👉🏽 Agnikul Cosmos and Skyroot Aerospace's fundraises 👉🏽 PhonePe and Groww's acquisitions 👉🏽 Pinelabs and Ninjacart's Valuation and more Highlights:  00:00 Introduction 03:32 Mylab's self test covid test kit 07:00 Pinelabs' Valuation 08:29 Moglix achieves unicorn status 12:17 Wysa's fundraise 15:51 Agnikul Cosmos and Skyroot Aerospace's fundraises 21:35 Ninjacart's fundraise and valuation 25:40 Phonepe's acquisition of Indus OS 28:57 Groww's acquisition of IndiaBulls' Mutual Funds business 30:58 Vembu's wisdom 31:50 Upcoming episodes ​ Hit the like button if enjoyed this roundup, and do not forget to share among your operator friends!  Listen to our interviews and conversations with investors, operators, and founders on your favourite podcast platforms. #startups #unicorns  #technology #roundup #podcast #new --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Rishi Agrawal is the CEO of Avantis Regtech, a regulatory technology startup that offers a multi-tenant, SAAS solution on its web and mobile platforms, enabling a transparent, accountable and efficient risk and compliance management. Rishi spoke about Incentivising compliance, Making compliance data accessible through APIs and more in his interview with Roshan Cariappa. Highlights of this conversation: 00:00 Simplifying Compliance  01:23 Building an application for Compliance 05:32 Key milestones in the Avantis journey 10:12 Principles for navigating compliance in India & Building good governance practices 14:50 How has the compliance process changed? 18:41 Incentivising compliance 21:46 Changes needed to improve Compliance in India 30:55 Keeping up with ever changing compliance laws 34:32 What differentiates Avantis from the rest 37:49 Scaling & productising compliance workflows 44:09 Making compliance data accessible through APIs 45:57 How services business has helped Avantis  49:35 Building a culture of compliance 55:30 Advice to founders about compliance 59:52 Lessons from operating during Covid 1:02:14 Compliance structure required to enable a $5T Economy -------------------------------- Connect with Rishi: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agrawal-rishi/ ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/rishiagraw -------------------------------- Connect with us: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startupoperator ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​ -------------------------------- If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Utrkarsh Roy(@utkarsh_roy) and Divyaansh Anuj(@divyaanshanuj) are the founders of Introbot(@introbotAI), a WhatsApp chabot providing instant help for verified Oxygen, Hospital Beds, Ambulance and other medical supplies to help fight the second wave of the pandemic. In this episode they spoke with Roshan Cariappa about Introbot's impact, how they verified the data of leads for supplies and the originally intended use case for Introbot and more. NOTE: Below are the links for more information and contact for Introbot for anyone who may need it.  Introbot Contacts: WhatsApp ChatBot: https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=12345178991&text=COVID&app_absent=0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/introbotai/about/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/IntrobotAI Here are a few keyhighlights from the episdoe: 00:00 Introduction 01:01 Fighting Covid with Introbot 03:30 Introbot's impact during the 2nd Wave 05:46 Verifying data of leads and sources 08:18 Introbot's original use case 12:52 Traction for business use cases 17:03 How to run a successful  community 21:50 Nuances of Building Conversational AI 27:03 Working with the WhatsApp platform 33:23 What the future holds for Introbot 38:31 Being an Indian founder in 2021 40:50 Lessons from operating during COVID Connect with Utkarsh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utkarshroy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/utkarsh_roy Connect with Divyaansh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyaansh/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/divyaanshanuj  Connect with Us: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup If you liked this episode, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Aakriti is the Co-founder and COO at Wizikey,  a SaaS-based, data-driven communications suite for PR for startups. Prior to Co-founding Wizikey, she founded Boring Brands, a branding agency. In her early career she has held positions at Info Edge, Naukri.com and the like. In this interview Roshan and Aakriti talk about PR and branding for startups and more: Highlights Turning service into product Founding a startup: 2009 v/s 2018 Data Driven PR  Why startups should prioritise PR early Steps to invest in PR How can founders amplify Brand statement  Aligning priorities across different teams Democratizing reach for brands Building for bharat Nuances of being a COO Opportunities in the Indian SaaS ecosystem Pivoting from an agency to a product company Connect with Aakriti: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aakritibhargava/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/aakriti Connect with us: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator ​Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​ ​ If you liked this conversation, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Ravi is a co-founder and CEO of Qapita, a digital equity management platform. Ravi is an angel investor in several startups. He has previously worked in investment banking and corporate development in Asia Pacific region for nearly 2 decades and has expertise in capital raising, corporate finance advisory, mergers & acquisitions, principal investments and the like. In this interview Ravi and Roshan spoke about managing captables and various stakeholders and more! Founding story of Qapita Common misconceptions about Termsheets Key operational constraints and challenges in fundraising  Managing various stakeholders on your captable Best practices to issue ESOPs Prioritising Finance as a function in Startups How should founders view valuation? Connect with Ravi: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raviravulaparthi/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ravi_Qapita Connect with us:  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​​ If you liked this conversation, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Welcome to another episode of The Startup Operator Roundup, where Roshan Cariappa and Gunjan Saha discuss -    👉🏽 Rapido's fundraise  👉🏽 Wayne Burgess joins Ola electric   👉🏽 DRDO & 5C networks' X-Ray Algorithm and more   Hit the like button if enjoyed this roundup, and do not forget to share among your operator friends!   Listen to our interviews and conversations with investors, operators, and founders on your favourite podcast platforms. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Shruti is an engineer and a data and ML enthusiast and is currently a general partner at Array VC. Previously she was an early stage venture capital investor at True Ventures, Samsung Electronics, Lightbank, HighBAR Partners, and the i2A Fund. While at IBM she worked on self learning algorithms that detected user location based on IP addresses, which she later incorporated into the Lotus Sametime product. Later, her company Penseev helped users make better connections with their friends based on social data. Shruti also has an MBA from the University of Chicago, where she polished her finance skills before making the switch from engineer/founder to investor. Shruti and Roshan spoke about investing in enterprise SaaS and the challenges in the space and more; Key highlights below:  Advantages of being a techie in a world of venture capital  Investing in the enterprise   Challenges in enterprise SaaS space  Balancing Build before market vs build with market  How founders can Iterate to find Product Market Fit Navigating through changes in enterprise tech deployment 1 What makes great founders great?  Connect with Shruti:  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrutigandhi/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/atShruti Connect with us:  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator​ Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup​ If you liked this conversation, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message

Eshwar is the co-founder and the CEO of Mukunda foods, a cutting edge food tech company with inhouse R&D, that automates kitchens and is used in several cloud kitchens across the country. Eshwar spoke about the nuances of building a food tech company and more in this interview. Highlights: - Pivoting from a Quick Serve Restaurant to Kitchen Automation - Achieving product market fit in Automation - Nuances of Iterating in food tech - Calculating ROI and justifying value to customers - Nuances of Building a food business - Operating a food business through the pandemic Connect with Eshwar: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eshwarvikas/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/eshwar_mf Connect with us:  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/startup-operator  Twitter: https://twitter.com/OperatorStartup If you liked this conversation, let us know by hitting the like button and share with your friends and family. Please also remember to subscribe to our channel and switch on the notifications to never miss an episode! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/startup-operator/message