Blume Podcast

In this podcast, Peyush Bansal, founder and CEO of Lenskart, India's largest eyewear company talks to Karthik B. Reddy, co-founder and managing partner of Blume Ventures, the importance of hiring the right people in building long-lasting businesses, the pathological obsession of founders to solve a particular problem, which is essential in India's small market, and balancing short-term objectives with long-term goals.  Bansal built Bagskart, Watchkart, Jewelkart, before focusing his energies on Lenskart, and the disturbing statistic where said that 75% of people in India who need specs are not them helped “focus his vision.” And as a reward for his clarity of purpose, IDG Ventures was soon on board.  Bansal was also inspired by Uniqlo’s growth in the West, where it managed to create differentiation in the same category of products. He gives the example of shoes: People no longer just want sports shoes. There’s one for walking, one for fast-paced running, and one for slow running. This trend is expected to continue in the future, with eyewear products being offered to cater to every single need of a consumer.  Bansal also emphasizes the need for long-term thinking and sustainability in the business. They discuss the success of Maruti and the importance of considering the long-term impact of their decisions. Peyush also shares his thoughts on wealth and the influence of Indian entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, who has significantly impacted his outlook on life and career.  For more on the importance of hiring right, check out Naveen Tewari of Inmobi’s episode on X-Unicorns.  https://open.spotify.com/episode/2b0PgICcwg2DQI49zqpWay https://blume.vc/podcasts/blume-podcast/naveen-tewari-on-the-quest-for-a-purposeful-life-the-beauty-of-creating-versus-competing-and-building-a-culture-of-compounding-trust All episodes: https://open.spotify.com/show/227rW4Ee4ob6wRT8U7pJ8s https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/blume-podcast/id1651800944 https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvNGJiMzM3MDQtNjE1Yi00MDU0LWFhZTktYWNlNTAwZmQ0MTk3L2IxZjk3NGJiLWUxMWMtNDZlYy1hNzFkLWIwMTgwMDlkZjk1Ny8xMTViMzZlYi0yNzY0LTRiZTEtYThmYy1iMDE4MDA5ZGY5ODEvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M

S2 E0. Karthik Reddy and Rohit Kaul talk about the Power of CompoundingBlume PodcastAugust 02, 202300:20:58S2 E0. Karthik Reddy and Rohit Kaul talk about the Power of CompoundingAudio Player103000:00:0000:00:001x The Blume Podcast is compounding! Our new season will feature remarkable founders who have dedicated their lives to building generational companies. The focus will be on their tales of courage, anecdotes of resilience, and the stories of compounding. Why are we doing this? Because there is an urgent need to shift the narrative away from the obsession with unicorn valuations and instead highlight the importance of building sustainable and profitable organisations. Karthik B. Reddy, co-founder and managing partner of Blume Ventures, takes us through the motivations that drive an entrepreneur to persist and ride on incremental wins only to create outsized returns in the long term. Warren Buffet attributes his wealth to living in America, fortunate genetics, and compound interest. He is known as one of the best investors and wealthiest individuals globally, with a net worth exceeding $100Bn. Interestingly, almost 98% of it accumulated after his 60th birthday. This is the Power of Compounding, the overarching theme of the current season. In the trailer, we talk about how this compounding can create institutions out of companies and why these stories need to drive upcoming founders to build for the long term. Think of it as the story of the hare versus the tortoise race. Who cares about who leads when 25% or 50% of the race is done? What matters is the end outcome. And as Buffet has shown, it's clear then which path gets you favourable results. In our last season, we covered X-Unicorns. These aren’t your blue-eyed, pedigreed, get every round systematically every year or two and rapidly scale to a Unicorn status in five-six years. They didn’t fit the traditional mould of the type of Unicorn that the media was obsessed with, yet attained long-term success. Check out all the episodes here: https://blume.vc/podcasts/blume-podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/227rW4Ee4ob6wRT8U7pJ8s https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/blume-podcast/id1651800944 https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvNGJiMzM3MDQtNjE1Yi00MDU0LWFhZTktYWNlNTAwZmQ0MTk3L2IxZjk3NGJiLWUxMWMtNDZlYy1hNzFkLWIwMTgwMDlkZjk1Ny8xMTViMzZlYi0yNzY0LTRiZTEtYThmYy1iMDE4MDA5ZGY5ODEvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M

In the finale episode, Sanjay Nath chats up Naveen Tewari of InMobi on building two unicorns, creating an "institution" vs an organization, and not getting phased by feedback. Sanjay also shares how Naveen has been a major influence in his journey of co-founding Blume. Tune in for more.

In this episode, Manish Taneja of Purplle tells Ashish Fafadia of Blume about the perils of moving away from your vision because "some VC told you to" and the mistakes that entrepreneurs should avoid in their journey.

In this episode, Karthik B. Reddy sat down with Prashant Pitti of EaseMyTrip to talk about his journey from IIT Madras and working in the US to returning to the homeland and starting up with his brothers.

In this episode of X-Unicorns, Karthik B. Reddy of Blume Ventures sat down with Ashwin Damera of Emeritus Education about the wisdom of failure, the wrong reasons to become an entrepreneur, and the "three box approach" to build a successful business.

In this episode, Arpit Agarwal, Director at Blume Ventures, sat down with Nitish Mittersain of Nazara Technologies on running a listed gaming company. From coding at the age of seven to bouncing back from an incorrectly timed IPO listing decades later, Nitish's unconventional path to success makes him a true X-Unicorn founder.

In this episode, Sajith Pai, Director at Blume Ventures, chatted with Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-Founder, Group Chief Executive & Executive Vice Chairman at Fractal Analytics. From being wary of becoming an entrepreneur to succeeding as one for 22 (almost 23!) years now, Srikanth shares the incredible story of starting Fractal, trusting bright 20-somethings in their initial rounds of hiring, and building a people-friendly company.

In conversation with Karthik B. Reddy of Blume Ventures, Aniruddha Sharma of Carbon Clean talks about how he bunked IIT exams to walk the lanes of Sand Hill Road, the personal tragedy that influenced his decision to build in the climate tech space, and what made him stay the course even when there was no venture backing.

In our maiden X-Unicorns episode, Arpit Agarwal sat down with Niraj Singh of Spinny to discuss his journey from a small town called Daltonganj to becoming a unicorn founder of an online used cars marketplace. After two failed ventures, Niraj hit on his (literal) billion-dollar area with Spinny. But how do you know your idea works? How do you keep going without the validation of venture backing? How do you make sure you hire for success? Tune in for the answers.