Shows
Maharajas of ScaleS2 E11 Jag Chima of iPlix: Hitting Business HatrickJag Chima is a second-generation businessman of a different kind. He has built multiple businesses, from mobile retailing to real estate to celebrity fitness companies. The interesting thing about each of these companies is that he has timed them well and made a success out of them Jag has scaled them to meaningful heights within the confines of the market that he was working in. A chance discussion led him to launch and scale a celebrity fitness company that has literally trained all Bollywood A-Listers His latest venture is again timed well, focusing on the...
2022-08-0352 min
Maharajas of ScaleSharmin Ali Season 2 Episode 10 : Bringing Emotion and Empathy into contentEmotion is at the heart of everything that we do as humans. As the adage goes and what we are witnessing with modern day Twitter wars, the pen is mightier than the sword. However, using the right words to evoke the right emotions seems more like an art than science. Can technology help us write as well as Kalidasa or the Bard? This is the place where Sharmin Ali is focusing her energies. Sharmin traces her origins to Shantiniketan, the hallowed place of Rabindranath Tagore. Being a Bengali, Sharmin spent the first few years of her professional...
2022-08-021h 20
Maharajas of ScaleS2 E9: Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail fame is back with a bang!Mention the name Sabeer Bhatia and it evokes memories of startups, the excitement and frenzy of the dot-com era and more. Sabeer Bhatia is a well known name for pre-millenial Indians who all grew up on the dreams of having a startup and exit like Sabeer did with Hotmail. Sabeer and his co-founder arguably kicked off the dot-com boom. The $400+ Million acquisition of Hotmail by the then pre-eminent company Microsoft opened the eyes of entrepreneurs, investors and industry watchers to the possibility of what the internet could bring. Sabeer was the first in a long...
2022-07-181h 09
Maharajas of ScaleS2 E8: Gaurav Mathur of SafeGold : Channeling India's Gold AddictionGaurav Mathur had a life similar to Hrithik Roshan's life in the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. He was on the trading floor of the London Stock Exchange and thought his life was set. He could not believe that someone like him who roamed around in chappals (Indian for flip flops) was doing that kind of work, rubbing shoulders with amazing people and getting paid such insane amount of money. However, something kept nagging at him. That he was a misfit in a large organization and that he had to do something different bigger and run his own organization. After...
2022-06-061h 19
Maharajas of ScaleWinning with a D2C Brand : Pilgrim Cosmetics' Anurag Kedia: Season 2 Episode 7What does it take to build a D2C brand? How can we become successful at it? We live in the age of individual and local brands. Not a day passes without us discovering a brand in cosmetics or food or another consumer product introduced to us. The advances made by industries make it possible for anyone to launch brands and products with a bit of work. In this in-depth episode, Co-Founder of the successful spa chain Four Fountains De-Stress Spa and Co-Founder of Pilgrim Cosmetics Anurag Kedia takes us thru his journey, how he spotted the opportunity for...
2022-05-241h 24
Maharajas of ScaleS2E6 - Bringing health insurance access to millions at scale affordably- Plum's Abhishek PoddarInsurance is a very interesting business. Nobody thinks they need one until they face a certain situation. For a country with chronic illnesses and perennial under penetration of healthcare facilities, systemic solutions have not necessarily kept pace with the needs of the people. People in MSMEs or in the unorganized sector don't have access, let alone the right pricing. The result is a large number of uninsured and underinsured employees with no health insurance benefits. This problem begged for an intervention and that's a problem Abhishek Poddar of PlumHQ is solving. Abhishek Poddar is a...
2021-12-0259 min
Maharajas of ScaleLoanTap's Satyam Kumar : Making Loans User FriendlyLoanTap's Satyam Kumar enjoyed a cushy life as a senior banking executive. By the mid-2010s, he experienced a glass ceiling and felt that he had plateaued. In addition, the growing Indian vocal and connected millennials, the black swan event of demonetization, and the startup wave pushed the market in a new direction. Users who wanted better products and the Indian Government's Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile (JAM Trinity) greatly aided LoanTap's Satyam Kumar's push towards better digital products. Driven by the ability to authenticate users electronically and the millions of young users online, LoanTap made a...
2021-09-041h 22
Maharajas of ScaleMagic Pin's Anshoo SharmaAnshoo Sharma joined Bain Consulting in Boston and cut his teeth in the world of management consulting. Anshoo moved to India when Bain opened an office and soon moved to the emerging world of Venture Capital. After watching startups rise and fall, he was itching to start one himself. He teamed up with one of his buddies and soon they launched Magic Pin in the world of Hyper-Local in the year 2015. Why is Magic Pin still standing where others have disappeared? Magic Pin's Anshoo Sharma and his team had a clear agenda and goal from...
2021-08-281h 42
Maharajas of ScaleJumbotail's Karthik VenkateswaranJumbotail's Karthik Venkateswaran is an interesting man. He came from a middle class background and rose to the rank of a major in the Indian Army. After a decade of serving in the army, his heart bled for something else. That something else was a larger goal - a goal of makings people's lives better. Making people's lives better is a common thread we see across a variety of entrepreneurs who are working on goals and problems that are very large. Karthik wanted to work in India's large retail sector and on large problems but had no...
2021-08-201h 31
Maharajas of ScaleViraj Bahl of Veeba Foods and Sauces - Building and Scaling an Unlikely Foods Giant StartupViraj Bahl of Veeba sauces is an interesting man. Upon graduation, his father told him that he would have to earn his way into a life of prosperity. His father told him that he would have to earn outside the family business. He would have to establish a basic lifestyle before participating in the family business. Once he established a basic lifestyle, his father was good for his word. Viraj joined the family business - Dr.Oetker's fun foods around the year 2003. Amidst the back of the IT Offshoring and India's decade of growth, Oetker took off...
2021-08-121h 39
Maharajas of ScaleAmit Gupta of Yulu Bikes on co-founding 2 unicorns and on his way to a thirdWelcome to Season 2. After a rocking Season 1, we are back yet again with amazing speakers. In this Episode 1 of Season 2, we feature Amit Gupta of Yulu Bikes. Remember those cute small little bikes that we see in the central business districts of cities such as Bangalore, that's Yulu for you. Amit has seen a startup or two in his life. Amit was a founding team member of InMobi, one of India's lesser known Unicorns. At InMobi, not only was he instrumental in InMobi becoming a Unicorn, he eventually worked on Glance, which became a Unicorn created by...
2021-08-101h 16
Maharajas of ScaleEp.50: Anupendra Sharma of SLP - Enabling thousands of entrepreneurs across the globe scale their ventures from the shadowsOur Season Finale - Grand 50th Episode features Anupendra Sharma of the Startup Leadership Program. Today, Startup Leadership Program has grown to enable 4000 entrepreneurs who have raised $3.5 Billion in funding for 2000 ventures spread across 28 cities in 14 countries. Around the year 2006, two different types of people embarked on creating an organization that would enable entrepreneurship. One was Paul Graham of Y Combinator Fame and the other was Anupendra Sharma. While Y Combinator and Paul Graham have become famous and enabled the creation of billions of $ of wealth and transformed ventures, Anupendra Sharma built Startup Leadership Program from the shadows. This...
2021-06-261h 45
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 49: Knorish's Kinner Sachdev - Helping 1000s of Content Creators Launch and Scale AcademiesKinner is an unlikely entrepreneur from the likes of it. With a master’s in molecular biology, he jumped into management consulting. Along the way, he discovered that one of the challenges that enterprises and companies grappled with was making knowledge and learning available to their employees and team members. In the process of helping companies overcome this, Kinner saw an opportunity in making it easy for content creators to launch their academies online. Kinner's Knorish is right in the middle of perhaps the most massive remote working and learning wave we have seen to date. With th...
2021-05-031h 15
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 48 - Sunil Patro of SignEasy - building, scaling to 7 million users, 180 countries, 24 languages & counting..While on a vacation in Mexico, Sunil Patro, an IIT grad and a software engineer at Microsoft, got a call informing him about a job that he had been offered. All he needed to do was sign the acceptance letter and send it back. Simple right? Well not so much. It was like as if he was like stuck in a government office! The struggle in finding a printer, scanner and a fax machine made Sunil realize that this is a problem. This incident led Sunil to finally realize his life long dream of entrepreneurship.
2021-04-221h 26
Maharajas of ScaleEp.47 - Millions of Jobs thru Entrepreneurship Education - Monica Mehta of The Wadhwani FoundationEvery year, Monica watches about 10,000 startups go thru the motions, highs and lows. She watches it from close quarters and gets to see varied practices from across the globe. She sees myths being broken and new models formed. She heads up the Wadhwani Foundation's NEN Program that focuses on teaching entrepreneurship to students. Monica is an entrepreneur's entrepreneur. Having started her own venture about 20 years ago and having spent time with the likes of Omdiyar Network, she has had a ring side view of everything related to starting up scaling and entrepreneurship. What does this vantage point offer her...
2021-04-201h 11
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 46: The Art Of Scaling With Creativity-How Issac Wesley Has Built And Scaled InkmonkFrom dreaming of being an engineer to then being an entrepreneur, the story of Issac Wesley from Inkmonk is truly remarkable. Low scores in mathematics led this young tech enthusiast to take up a design course rather than engineering. Yet, it was Issac's father, an artist first and a printing guy second, who inspired him to start Inkmonk and the rest is history. Focused on small businesses who need printing of visiting cards, flyers, custom packaging, t-shirts, labels and stickers, Inkmonk has come a long way. Listen to Issac Wesley from Inkmonk talk about the art of...
2021-04-071h 35
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 45: Woovly and a Million Bucketlists - How Neha Suyal scaled a bucketlist platform to a millionAn engineer who had the desire to build something after attending the Stanford Insight Programme on entrepreneurship and leadership and here, she also met her Co-Founder Venkat, that is Neha Suyal for you. Her humble beginnings and what she has built, go hand in hand. Checking off entrepreneurship from her own bucketlist despite her simple background, Neha has built Woovly so as to bring together people of similar interests and goals. And thus share their experiences so as to help each other check off goals and ambitions from their bucketlists. How did they scale to more than a million...
2021-03-291h 15
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 44: Head winds and Tail Winds founding and Scaling OnSurity Yogesh and Kulin can be called the Jai-Veeru of the Insurtech start-up space. The two met at ACKO, a private sector general insurance company. And since then, the two have a strong entrepreneurial bond which led them to start Onsurity in early 2020, with the primary goal being enable to allow SME’s to provide their employees with proper healthcare facilities. So In May 2020, Onsurity launched India's first healthcare membership. This runs on a monthly subscription, which enables SMEs to provide health care support to their employees. One, having spent 14 years working in the st...
2021-03-201h 23
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 43: From Trading To Scaling An EdTech Platform To Millions Of Users-Prateek Singh's Journey To Building LearnAppBorn in Abu Dhabi, then moving to Singapore, then to Malaysia and then back to India, Prateek Singh spent most of his childhood travelling. Prateek credits his dad for getting him into trading. This trading experience led him to write a blog called Market Scientists. Here he taught people how to trade. Post Market Scientists came an investing and stock trading education platform called Trade Academy. From here, Prateek talks about the many lessons that he learned from these ventures which eventually led him to start LearnApp. Prateek is a true example that s...
2021-02-241h 23
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 42: From an HR Executive to Founder of a Multi Million $ Pet Care CompanyMany pet parents have faced trouble finding the right product for their beloved pet, for example one might not be able to find a comfortable blanket, bed, toys etc for their pets, as each of them are very different from each other. One such pet parent is Rashi Narang who, not only solved this problem for her own pet only but found Heads Up For Tails which provides products to help build a deeper relationship between pets and the owners. Hear Rashi speak On Scaling with Unconditional Love for Pets.
2021-02-141h 18
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 41: How to succeed again and again in a world of Failure - GoIbibo's Ashish Kashyap and Amrita Sirohia of IndWealthThe World of Start-ups is fraught with failure. It is estimated that only 1% of Start-ups succeed which means millions of start-ups fail. Yet, Ashish Kashyap's Story is an interesting one. From being Google India's First Country Head to Growing and Selling GoIbibo for a whopping $2 Billion, making it India's 2nd largest startup exit, Ashish's resume in the world of start-ups reads like a dream resume. He is a man with the Midas Touch! But here he is again teaming up with Amrita Sirohia to build IndWealth which has already notched up several early successes. Ashish knows a...
2021-02-061h 37
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 40: From being Jobless to building a Rs.500 Crore Revenues Brand - How Ankit Garg is building WakefitAn IIT Rourkee Graduate, Ankit Garg found initial funding success with a product he created out of his laboratory. But having funding and a good product did not mean success. He realized that managing financial side of the startup had a role to play. He soon shut shop and was out of a job. This meant sleepless nights and sleep walking. Today, Ankit Garg has built a Rs.500 Crore Mattress Brand in Wakefit. Its ironical how he went from being sleepless to building a brand that would assure others a sound sleep at night. How did he go from...
2021-01-301h 22
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 39: How Ajay Kumar is Scaling The Housemonk in India's messy real estate IndustryAjay was a newly mined graduate at MuSigma, one of India's premier Unicorns in the data analytics space. On a fine day, while house hunting, he is bewildered by the commission the broker makes for the little value that he added. Unlike most renters, he feels that he is getting compensated disproportinately compared to the value he added. He takes a deep dive and 2 months later, quits his high paced and exciting job to found TheHouseMonk in 2014. TheHouseMonk currently has over 1000000 properties managed thru its product. They are pushing the levers of scale in the housing sector with their...
2021-01-171h 39
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 38: Ashish Singhal of CoinSwitch - From Amazon Dream Team to Making Crypto Buying super simpleAshish Singhal is a lifelong problem solver. Most people are consider working for a high powered Jeff Bezos team as their end "dream scenario". Not Ashish. Amazon was just his starting point. Having cut his teeth with Bezos Teams at Amazon, he went on to found Urban Tailor and eventually CoinSwitch with a vision to make Crypto Buying as simple as buying groceries. While discussing his story, he gives out a lot of secrets building user base of millions. If you know what secrets to look for, you will find them. DONT MISS THIS EPISODE.
2021-01-091h 17
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 37: Raghu Bharat of CrewScale - Doing the impossible of scaling an elite FREELANCER platformRaghu was a network engineer working for a telecommunications networking firm. Network engineering can be exciting and yet boring at the same time depending upon which part of the industry you worked in. It was in this boring industry that Raghu had an epiphany to start a consumer oriented business and thus the business of home improvement was born. However, he soon left it for a lucrative career in freelancing making over US$200K in a single year and ended up traveling to more than 30 countries in that time while working as a freelancer. That is when he hit...
2020-12-251h 44
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 36: Scaling in the Graveyard of Event Based StartupsSome professions and roles evoke a feeling of exoticness in us. One such profession is that of a Marine Biologist. Aman was fascinated by it and became a Marine Engineer and even worked for the Merchant Navy but stagnated. He broke out and tried his hand at selling T-Shirts which kind of worked out but didn't scale. He tried his hand at propelling civil activism thru a platform called Write for India. Eventually, realizing that creating wealth is the best way to make impact in India, Aman Co-Founded HighApe. How did they survive the graveyard of event based startups...
2020-12-071h 20
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 35: The Giant Leap from Slums to a Multi-Million $ SAAS BusinessAmit Mishra comes from the town of Amravathi in Maharashtra. Originally from a family of teachers, Amit grew up in the Slums of Amravati in whose schools generations of his ancestors as well as his parents taught. Forever taunted by his mother to do something vocational, Amit decides that he would do something that would outstrip everyone around him. From a life where he does all his schooling till 10th grade in Marathi and refuses to relocate overseas as he loves to live in India, Amit's down to earth attitude and dogged persistence in solving a problem...
2020-11-271h 35
Maharajas of ScaleHow to engage with Users at Scale: Billions of Notifications and counting: Vivek Khandelwal of iZootoWhile still in College, Vivek Khandelwal embarked on a journey of discovery with Jagriti a train journey unlike any other that takes young minds to see the best of entrepreneurship and innovation across India. This inspired him to become a creator and an entrepreneur. He shares how he and his co-founders have built a multi million $ SAAS business working with businesses across the Globe.
2020-11-081h 25
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 33_Scaling a Content Tech Startup_Rahul Prasad of Bobble.AIRahul Prasad joined Brother Ankit and built Bobble, a keyboard company that helps Indian users express themselves in Indic languages using their key board. Bobble today has millions of users and thru their recent partnership with Xiaomi, will be loaded onto 30 Million Xiaomi devices but that is not how it all began. Rahul and Ankit want to make it The No.1 Keyboard in the World. Are we there yet? Listen on!
2020-10-171h 12
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 32: Scaling a News Startup in India in the Age of Sensationalism: Anuradha Kedia of The Better IndiaIf you are an entrepreneur wanting to make a difference, the question is - what are the challenges in scaling a News Startup in India in the age of Sensationalism. Anu and Dhimanth began The Better India as a blog, they have stayed true to their roots of bringing a balanced perspective and news about what is right about India. More than a decade later, their monthly audience has touched 70 million. This is their story of how they did it!
2020-10-021h 26
The SpotlightThe Unstoppable Entrepreneur | Krishna Jonnakadla of Maharajas of Scale“Normal is Boring.”As a 16-year old boy, he was fascinated by business stories and forging a different path. Fueled by his curious mind, our guest today, Krishna Jonnakadla went on to explore a variety of sectors from accountancy to technology to media and fashion. He is now the Founder of Maharajas of Scale, a not-for-profit podcast focused on Indian Entrepreneurs and co-founder of FLIT, the Fashion Locator In Town which he set up to scale independent and designer brands in Fashion and Lifestyle in India. He also happened to venture into a successful online media company and...
2020-09-301h 21
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 31: Working with Ronnie Screwvala and Scaling Healthcare :Abhishek Shah of Wellthy TherapeuticsAbhishek Shah of Wellthy had an interesting upbringing. He was an engineer and had a scientific bent of mind. Having parents who were successful entrepreneurs, he had seen them run their ventures but existing care not catching up with their lifestyles. Working with Ronnie Screwvala and investing in startups gave him an outside in perspective on ventures. How did he combine the two to build and put Wellthy Therapeutics on the path to scale? That story is here!
2020-09-2148 min
Maharajas of ScaleJharkand to Japan and Entrepreneurship: Sanjeev Barnwal of MeeshoSanjeev Barnwal can come across our typical IIT Grad. Coming from the small town Jharkand where the dream is to crack IIT, he did not just that but went on to work for Sony in Japan. But a chance discussion with his old buddy led him to pursue entrepreneurship and found Meesho. And he has never looked back. Listen to this small town boy who is going places!
2020-09-041h 00
Maharajas of ScaleEp.29: From Boy Next door to failed Restaurateur to successful IOT Startup : The Unlikely Story of Gotama Gowda of Open AppGotama is a very unlikely entrepreneur. His father's career inspired him to tread a different path - one of Journalism, only to be later smitten by entrepreneurship early on. Gotama had a very different start. He tried his hand at a Quick Service Restaurants and a bakery. One failed to launch and the other succeeded but with a series of twists and turns that led him to launch and succeed with an IOT startup. Listen to him talk about How he launched and scaled an enterprise IOT with almost no sales or entrepreneur background? This story has it all!
2020-08-271h 13
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 28: PC Mushtafa of ID Fresh : Being unable to have 3 meals a day to breakfast to millionsPC Mustafa or PC as he prefers to be called had to walk miles to go to school. At a certain point, he considered dropping out as he was a below average student. He continued this streak of being a below average student into adulthood. Smitten by the IIM Campus in Bangalore and being unable to summon the courage to request the security guard to let him take a peek, he swore he would get in right royally. He eventually got into the hall of fame. Around the same time, he was throwing around ideas with his...
2020-08-141h 19
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 27: Akshay of Leverage Edu: Giving flight to thousands of students dreams of studying abroadAkshay Chaturvedi's entrepreneurial journey is a story of humility and persistence. An entrepreneur at heart, Akshay is excited about the impact a startup can have. He begins a venture putting students and mentors together. A few thousand downloads and a few months later, he realizes that he needs something much bigger. Something that will bring in revenues and is monetizable. He shuts down the venture and embarks on a journey of learning, working at Snapdeal and doing an MBA at ISB. In the process, he realizes that what he was personally doing - helping other potential students g...
2020-07-3056 min
Maharajas of ScaleEp.26: Deep Bajaj of PeeBuddy: Toilet - A Love Story - Of a different kindToilet - A Love story - but of a different kind. In the movie Toilet - Ek Prem Katha, Akshay Kumar builds a toilet for his wife who refuses to live with him because his home lacks a toilet. Deep Bajaj went a step further and helped millions of women. Deep realised on a road trip with pregnant wife the complications women face with personal hygiene and toilet cleanliness or the lack of toilets. Deep's start-up Peebuddy and Sirona- hygiene products for women, was a result of several bad experiences all the women around him faced including h...
2020-07-2258 min
Maharajas of ScaleEp.25: Nischal Shetty of Wazirx: How we used a simple formula called ETC to scale two startups to millions of usersAn inventive young entrepreneur breaking the conventional myths of start-ups with his zealous attitude. On a journey to finding solutions and emerging trends, Nischal self-taught organic growth hack and founded start-ups that are today lashing definitions in the ecosystem. A passionate coder, realised his IT corporate job did not let him understand the impact he was making to the end-user. This quickly lead to a career switch at BURRP - One of India's earliest restaurant discovery platforms. After learning the ropes of start-up Burrp, he launches CrowdFire which notches up millions of users. Using a simple formula c...
2020-07-181h 05
Maharajas of ScaleEp.24: Shrijay Sheth of Legalwiz: An Entrepreneur who helps entrepreneurs avoid heavy lifting on legal mattersShrijay Seth came from a reputed business family that was into the business of offset printing for generations. He followed the trodden family path of acquiring a management degree from the US. However, working in the US for Legalzoom and his own inner entrepreneurial spirit prompted him to jump headlong into entrepreneurship. Most of us work at a job and imagine either changing jobs or growing in the same organization. Shrijay took the awesome things that Legalzoom stood for and set about to replicate the same for Indian entrepreneurs by founding and setting up LegalWiz on the path to...
2020-07-031h 02
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 23: Out-Innovate: Scale Stories from Delhi to DetroitAlex Lazarow comes from the small city of Winnipeg in Canada. Coming from this small town, having a first hand view of m-pesa's growth and working in Venture Capital with the likes of Omdiyar network gave him a perspective about startup playbooks. The strategies and tactics and playbooks that entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley employed fascinated. They fascinated him so much that he decided to dive deep and chronicle their stories. 200 interviews and numerous discussions later, this fructified into the book - Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs from Delhi to Detroit Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley. We are always...
2020-06-2654 min
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 22: Anindita of YogaBars - Delivering Healthy Breakfast at Scale to millionsAnindita is a pragmatic entrepreneur. She loves to trek and travel and it was during her jaunt in the US that she thought about delivering Tasty and Healthy Breakfast options to Indians. When she looked around, she realized that there were hardly any Tasty and Healthy eating choices and she decided to jump head long into entrepreneurship along with her Sister Suhasini to start Yoga Bars. When they started, no one was making breakfast bars in India. And India's varied temperature conditions meant that recipes and manufacturing processes that worked overseas would not work in India. It was similar...
2020-05-151h 07
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 21: Prasanna of Upekkha - SaaS is the future of innovation, employment and wealth creation in IndiaIs one exit of $17 Billion (Flipkart) good or 300 exits of $50 Million good? In case you are wondering if this is a trick question, the answer is no. If you think it's the one $17 Billion exit, you're wrong! We think that it should be both. We need both . Now, let us ask a different question. What do you think about SaaS? If you thought SaaS is boring, think again! Prasanna runs Upekkha and he calls Upekkha a catalyst. He might have as well defined SaaS as Startup Success as a Service. Why? Because that is what he seems to be...
2020-05-081h 27
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 20: Sonal Verma of GlowRoad - From Accidental Entrepreneurship to Scaling Twice in different domains.Dr. Sonal Verma, a Medical Doctor by profession found herself become an entrepreneur, courtesy of her marriage with Kunal. She channeled her medical background and her analytical ability into building and scaling their first successful venture - Healthcare Magic which was acquired by a US based Health Insurance company - Ebix. Back on the success of this exit, the same team parlayed into Social Commerce, driven by Sonal's desire to help women better their livelihood. What sounds like a scandalous work from home opportunity was turned into a dynamic social commerce platform. The team achieved 100 times growth in a...
2020-04-181h 23
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 19: Varun Sheth of Ketto - The Boy Who Harnessed The Internet to solve people's problemsVarun Sheth had a normal childhood. Growing up in Mumbai, he spent his younger years as any boy about town would. When he grew up, he worked in investment banking, the hallowed career option for many. Yet, he felt a hollowness. He saw the internet and e-commerce grow in India exponentially and decided that this would apply to crowd funding as well. Although the start was shaky and it took several years to find product market fit, the team that also had Kunal Kapoor of Bollywood fame as a co-founder eventually scaled in helping people who could not fund...
2020-03-2746 min
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 18: Jimit Bagadia of Social Pilot - Making the scary switch from IT services to Product and Scaling in AhmedabadThere are dreamers, there are doers and then there are some who are dreamers who are also doers. Jimit Bagadiya of Social Pilot falls into the third category. Jimit had built a fairly successful IT services business which involved developing and maintaining programs, platforms, products and tools for Clients. Yet, he was hankering for more. Sooner or later, the treadmill nature of the IT services business gets to one running it. Many dream of building a product that would relieve them from the tyranny of the revolving door nature of revenues from IT services. Making the switch from being...
2020-03-1441 min
Maharajas of ScaleEp 17 - Meghna of Indiqube - Starting from a small town in Rajasthan to Scaling IndiQubeMeghna Agarwal graduated as a Company Secretary and a CFA around the same time 9/11 happened. It was not a great time for jobs or starting up. Yet, coming from a business family, she dug into her entrepreneurial instincts and teamed up with her soon-to-be husband Rishi. Together, they started a company in recruitment that has eventually led them to starting up Indiqube, one of India's well known emerging scale stories in the Managed Workspaces or Coworking sector. It is a witty look at a lady who is driven by passion and has a rare clarity in what she wants...
2020-02-221h 08
Maharajas of ScaleEp. 16: Mahesh Murthy of Seedfund - From Copywriting to leading Channel V, India's Best seed Fund and the Space RaceMahesh Murthy is a name that most entrepreneurs who started up in India between 2000 and 2012 know. Mahesh went from being a copy writer in Silicon Valley who helped Jeff Bezos with the "Everything store" campaign to leading Channel V and founding Seed Fund, one of India's best known seed funds that funded storied names such as Red Bus, Chumbak, Carwale, Voonik etc. Both his Seed Funds won the best fund award, a rare feat. Having funded some of India's storied startups and seen good exits, Mahesh is now trying his hand at Space, a new and exciting frontier. In...
2020-02-211h 31
Maharajas of ScaleEp.15: Abhishek Desai of Cricheroes - Unlikely Cricket Success story, Creative mind, Failed attempts, Scored Digitally at ScaleA creative techie, a fount of ideas goes from IT services to Social Tech Product success. Abhishek Desai filled the gap for cricketers and came up with CricHeroes to keep tabs on their neighbourhood and local league matches. It also became a platform to showcase the talent of young aspirants. He started with "Gully" cricket and Digital Scoring. Cricheroes now has a user base of more than 4 million cricketers in over 50 countries. It is an unlikely success story coming out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. His journey is one of passion and perseverance. This is his story.
2020-02-141h 16
Maharajas of ScaleEp.14 KNM Rao of Quick Ride : Farmer to Tech Entrepreneur and putting a dent in India's Urban mobility problemA farmer by genes became a programmer by accident. K N M Rao observed his colleagues facing problems with their commute and believed carpooling was a way to solve that problem. It is a thought that has perhaps crossed our minds but he went a step ahead and took action. Since several startups had already attempted and failed, Rao not only had a chance to do one better but also fix what was wrong in earlier attempts. It is a master class in entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, he believes that one should connect to the problem, be persistent and...
2020-01-071h 03
Maharajas of ScalePratik Shah of Specs Makers - Expanding with house maid's loan, chakra management style and loving RetailAn educated MBA working in corporate world US, accidentally jumped into his family business. Pratik Shah’s determined thinking to get into his family's retail business caused conflict between father and son. He started enjoying retail along with his equity research. Together with his wife, they planned to give SpecsMakers a shot and raised funding from angel investors. With his chakra style of management, they scaled from one store to 300 plus stores and implemented the idea of franchising. As an entrepreneur, he believes that success should not get into your mind, it should be in your heart. This is hi...
2019-12-251h 02
Maharajas of ScaleAditi Balbir of V Resorts - Pivoting, Scaling, Creating Impact and Profitability in Local IndiaPassion for traveling turned Aditi, a professional, into an entrepreneur. ‘V’ stands for lush green ‘view’ in V resorts. Aditi gave life to small properties. They hired local talent, trained them hospitality and got women to work to make gift packs like squashes and licensed it. Initially they started with 5 resorts and scaled through contacts by words of mouth and now are proud managers of 125 resorts. UN has recognized V Resorts as First model coming out of a developing country which looks at using the local resources and is perfect in creating a secular economy.
2019-12-201h 05
Maharajas of ScaleMeeting Bill Gates, missing the Smart Phone wave and scaling to 50 Million usersWith experience from working on prepaid recharge products and a technical mindset, Abhinav and Abhishek started building solutions for financial inclusion. Each time they ran out of cash they pivoted to figure out where to grow and how to survive. Eko has built an intermediate layer between consumers who do not have access to digital money and are unfamiliar with English. They have catered over 50 million unique consumers and got little over 150,000 intermediates. Abhinav shares the key to his success story to our young Indian entrepreneurs and notes hard work, patience and perseverance and the leaves to success. His...
2019-12-111h 01
Maharajas of ScaleStory Telling at Scale - Solving The Access Problem at Scale for Indian Language content with Ranjeet Pratap Singh of PratilipiRanjeet Singh could barely afford to pay for his education. Coming from a not so well to do family, reading was a luxury. He satisfied his passion to read by making deals with shopkeepers who sold books to watch their stores while they were away, borrowed books on Teacher's library cards so he could borrow more and hustled his way to read. Ranjeet who mostly read Hindi books at that time and counts Nirala as one of his favorites realized that Indian Language content suffered from an access problem both in publishing as well as in reading. Pratilipi is...
2019-11-261h 12
Maharajas of ScaleHealing India at Scale with Amit Munjal of Doctor InstaAmit Munjal was an investment banker and a management consultant. A chance brush with Tele Medicine while vacationing in Hawaii got him thinking about how he could bring access to medicine and quality healthcare to the masses in India. American Laws prevent Doctors from practicing across states but Indian laws have no such restrictions. This and a lot of others was what Amit discovered while he launched Doctor Insta in India. The journey for him has been fascinating and frustrating. This is his story.
2019-11-221h 02
Maharajas of ScaleFailing to Scale and 3rd Time LuckySampad, Aditya and Akash met on Twitter. They worked together before but their bonds were formed on Twitter. After building camaraderie and bonhomie on Twitter, they made two attempts at building a tech startup. Their second effort was about helping hyperlocal merchants attract users closeby. With no traction, Instamojo moved on and that is still a work in progress in the startup world. Their 3rd outing into Payments was where they hit scale. This is that story.
2019-10-251h 04
Maharajas of ScaleEpisode 7 - 37 Doctors, 2 Exits and Inspired to ScaleComing from a family of 37 Doctors, Dr. Ritesh Malik was destined to be a Doctor. Or so his family thought. From studying Medicine in Tamil Nadu near the forests which once housed the brigand Veerappan to his latest exit with Oyo, you Dr. Ritesh Malik's story is a fascinating one. Even more fascinating is Project Guerilla. Give it a listen!
2019-10-231h 03
Maharajas of ScaleMoonlighting to Scale: Starting Up Remote, 10 Yrs of Inverting the SaaS CurveSantosh Panda failed twice before starting up with Explara. He started up Explara remotely from London in moonlight mode and bootstrapped it with his earnings till it was sustainable. Explara is a DIY event management platform for professional events that has inverted the SaaS revenue curve by being India First and World Next. With a down to earth attitude and unconventional hiring style, Santosh has built Explara quietly into successful at scale business.
2019-09-2056 min
Maharajas of ScaleCreativity at Scale: 1800 Ways to Drive Kids' Imagination - Flinto BoxHaving trouble motivating your kids or getting your kids to grasp concepts? Tired of the rote learning system that dominates India's education sector, Flinto Box and Flinto Class might be the answer. Co-Founder and CEO Arun Prasad discusses their journey of building perhaps one of India's most creative startups. At 1800+ experiences for kids across ages 2-10 thru Flinto Box and hundreds and thousands of experiences at Pre-Schools with Flinto Class, Flinto Learning Solutions is bringing a refreshing change to India's education methods. Flinto looks like a typical IT company by looks but that is where the similarity...
2019-09-201h 27
Maharajas of ScaleExperience at Scale: 2 Decades of Innovation and Starting up “Again” with a WTF DrinkVaitheeswaran - widely known as father of India's e-commerce business has done it all in his life. He worked for a large corporate house before taking a plunge with fellow colleagues to start India Plaza, India's first and foremost e-commerce startup that wracked up innovation after innovation in its decade plus existence between 1999 and 2013. The India Plaza story reads like the George Lucas innovation factory having spawned India Plaza, Fabmart and Fabmall, India's first online and offline grocery businesses. The Offline Grocery business eventually became More which came a full circle after being acquired by Amazon. Vaitheeswaran has started...
2019-09-201h 09
Maharajas of ScaleMafia for Scale: Brotherhood to Founders, 85+ Investor Rejections, Renting camping gear and beyond - Manish Sugandhi of GrabOnRentGrabOnRent CEO and Co-Founder Manish Sugandhi talks about his startup journey. From conducting a Tech Fair to founding a UI/UX startup Perdix to eventually starting GrabOnRent with some of his founders from Perdix, Manish discusses it all. Minted from the Flipkart mafia, Manish also discusses how we was able to leverage that network to make GrabOnRent work.
2019-09-201h 23
Maharajas of ScaleTrading at Scale: 12 Years of Trading, Bootstrapping and the Poker Hand - Nithin Kamath of ZerodhaBootstrapping, Scaling Zerodha, Working with Family and Being Honest with Capital - turning down capital - Nithin Kamath of Zerodha Shares it all on this very first episode of Maharajas of Scale. P.S: There is stuff you've never heard before
2019-09-101h 08
Maharajas of ScaleBees, Humans and the 4 Minute MileIn this episode, we give an overview of the Maharajas of Scale. We introduce you to Bees and Roger Bannister who defied commonly accepted wisdom. They showed that "It does not work until it does". Maharajas of Scale is a Podcast about Indian Entrepreneurs who have scaled big. It is hosted by Krishna, a serial entrepreneur, founder of Flit - The Fashion Locator in Town and MangoMobileTV and a Startup Mentor.
2019-09-1003 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 181 - Is Lite Paper Really Needed if you are launching an ICO?This Episode will answer the following questions:Why do you need a lite paper for?When you need a lite paper? what is the right time?Does it come before or after the White Paper?How is the lite paper different from white paper?Who is the lite paper for?Lite paper is just a teaser or overview of Idea.Which kind of your audience needs what kind of paper?The whitepaper is for - Sophisticated Investors, Crypto Geeks who needs or rather who understands the detailsThe Lite paper...
2018-09-2005 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 181 - Is Lite Paper Really Needed if you are launching an ICO?This Episode will answer the following questions:
Why do you need a lite paper for?
When you need a lite paper? what is the right time?
Does it come before or after the White Paper?
How is the lite paper different from white paper?
Who is the lite paper for?
Lite paper is just a teaser or overview of Idea.
Which kind of your audience needs what kind of paper?
The whitepaper is for - Sophisticated Investors, Crypto Geeks who needs or rather who understands the details
The Lite paper is for - Article writers, small investors, retail investors.
...
2018-09-2005 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 180 - What is a Lite Paper?Lite Paper is almost like a teaser of the white paper. It provides enough information so as to create curiosity about your Idea.
The white paper is the in-depth paper, whereas the lite paper is the shorter version.
How long should it be? It should be 7-8 pages.
What should it Contain?
A high-level summary of the business idea, the problem you are solving, simplification of idea enough to create curiosity.
About Speaker
Krishna Jonnakadla,
Krishna is a professional with over 20 years of global experience. He is currently the VP and Global Business Head of Swych Blockchain Labs that...
2018-09-1505 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 180 - What is a Lite Paper?Lite Paper is almost like a teaser of the white paper. It provides enough information so as to create curiosity about your Idea.The white paper is the in-depth paper, whereas the lite paper is the shorter version.How long should it be? It should be 7-8 pages.What should it Contain?A high-level summary of the business idea, the problem you are solving, simplification of idea enough to create curiosity.About SpeakerKrishna Jonnakadla,Krishna is a professional with over 20 years of global experience. He is currently the VP and Global...
2018-09-1505 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 179: Thinking of doing your pitch deck yourself?, here's our DIY pitch deck guidePitch deck is all about writing your idea on paper. Put rough outline and answering all those questionswe already discussed in our previous episodes. we are humans and we love stories that create emotions and curiosity so write in a storytelling way and of course, a great idea is important.Which tools to use?-Notepad for a rough outline-Refer few already created pitch decks.-Create presentation. (Use any out of powerpoint, Google sheet, Prezi, Canva, etc).-You can always hire a designer for your pitch deck.Always Remember: a Pro...
2018-09-1005 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 179: Thinking of doing your pitch deck yourself?, here's our DIY pitch deck guidePitch deck is all about writing your idea on paper. Put rough outline and answering all those questions
we already discussed in our previous episodes. we are humans and we love stories that create emotions and curiosity so write in a storytelling way and of course, a great idea is important.
Which tools to use?
-Notepad for a rough outline
-Refer few already created pitch decks.
-Create presentation. (Use any out of powerpoint, Google sheet, Prezi, Canva, etc).
-You can always hire a designer for your pitch deck.
Always Remember: a Pro Tip
A great pitch deck is the...
2018-09-1005 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 175- Answering What is an Investor presentation vs an Email Deck?A Crypto or Initial Coin Offering pitch deck is no different from normal pitch deck that people uses in silicon valley. In fact, you can do a google search for best pitch deck if Ihave to create a pitch deck I will probably go with an Airbnb, Uber etc pitch decks (The idea is to learn from the best pitch deckscalled as hacking bright spot if someone already created the best, learn from it.)What is an Investor presentation vs an Email Deck?An investor presentation creates curiosity around your idea and it's...
2018-08-2703 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 175- What is an Investor presentation vs an Email Deck?A Crypto or Initial Coin Offering pitch deck is no different from normal pitch deck that people uses in silicon valley. In fact, you can do a google search for best pitch deck if I
have to create a pitch deck I will probably go with an Airbnb, Uber etc pitch decks (The idea is to learn from the best pitch decks
called as hacking bright spot if someone already created the best, learn from it.)
What is an Investor presentation vs an Email Deck?
An investor presentation creates curiosity around your idea and it's implementation, how are you...
2018-08-2703 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 174- What are some of the best practices while writing your pitch deck regarding cost and time of the process?So you have decided to launch an Initial coin offering or a security token offering, though you have an excellent idea you can not explain it to other peoplethen how will you convince them to invest in your company or startup? Always keep inmind that though the process of raising funds is changed, the traditional way of convincing your investors to invest hasn't. There are many ways to explain your Idea to an investor and pitchdeck is one of them.What is a pitch Deck?The pitch deck is a...
2018-08-2307 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 174- What are some of the best practices while writing your pitch deck regarding cost and time of the process?So you have decided to launch an Initial coin offering or a security token offering,
though you have an excellent idea you can not explain it to other people
then how will you convince them to invest in your company or startup? Always keep in
mind that though the process of raising funds is changed, the traditional way of convincing your investors to invest hasn't. There are many ways to explain your Idea to an investor and pitch
deck is one of them.
What is a pitch Deck?
The pitch deck is a carefully constructed presentation that entrepreneurs create...
2018-08-2307 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 173-Want to Launch a successful ICO, Learn What should be in your pitch deck.A Crypto or Initial Coin Offering pitch deck is no different from normal pitch deck that people uses in silicon valley. In fact, you can do a google search for best pitch deck if Ihave to create a pitch deck I will probably go with an Airbnb, Uber etc pitch decks (The idea is to learn from the best pitch deckscalled as hacking bright spot if someone already created the best, learn from it.)You don't have to be the best pitcher, you just gotta do things right what I mean by thatAll...
2018-08-1903 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 173-Want to Launch a successful ICO, Learn What should be in your pitch deck.A Crypto or Initial Coin Offering pitch deck is no different from normal pitch deck that people uses in silicon valley. In fact, you can do a google search for best pitch deck if I
have to create a pitch deck I will probably go with an Airbnb, Uber etc pitch decks (The idea is to learn from the best pitch decks
called as hacking bright spot if someone already created the best, learn from it.)
You don't have to be the best pitcher, you just gotta do things right what I mean by that
All pitch decks should...
2018-08-1903 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 172- My whitepaper details my idea then why do I need a Pitch deck?You are on a way to launch a successful Initial coin offering or Security Token Offering.so you were wondering you already have a whitepaper which has explainsyour Idea in great details then why do I need a pitch deck for?Let me explain it to you how your audience is going to be divided into four legions:1) Retail Investor2) Institutional Investors3) Sophisticated Investors4) Crypto/Blockchain Geeksso there might be people who after knowing your Idea is in depth and details, They just want to look what's going under...
2018-08-1603 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 172- My whitepaper details my idea then why do I need a Pitch deck?You are on a way to launch a successful Initial coin offering or Security Token Offering.
so you were wondering you already have a whitepaper which has explains
your Idea in great details then why do I need a pitch deck for?
Let me explain it to you how your audience is going to be divided into four legions:
1) Retail Investor
2) Institutional Investors
3) Sophisticated Investors
4) Crypto/Blockchain Geeks
so there might be people who after knowing your Idea is in depth and details, They just want to look
what's going under the hood, How confident a CEO is about...
2018-08-1603 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 171-How long be a pitch deck?In this episode of End to End ICO we are going to talk about Length of the pitch deck. This episode will answer the following questions :What sort of investor did it mean for?Is the investor present in remote?are you there in person while presenting?what is the intended audience?Is it meant for retail investor or educational investor?How many slides should be present?How to explain some sophisticated facts about crypto?what questions that needed to be answered in the pitch deck?What should be the structure...
2018-08-1404 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 171-How long be a pitch deck?In this episode of End to End ICO we are going to talk about Length of the pitch deck. This episode will answer the following questions :
What sort of investor did it mean for?
Is the investor present in remote?
are you there in person while presenting?
what is the intended audience?
Is it meant for retail investor or educational investor?
How many slides should be present?
How to explain some sophisticated facts about crypto?
what questions that needed to be answered in the pitch deck?
What should be the structure of a pitch deck?
What are the goals...
2018-08-1404 min
CryptoKnightsEpisode 170-Pitch Deck: What is a pitch Deck?What is a pitch Deck?The pitch deck is a carefully constructed presentation that entrepreneurs create when seeking funding from the investors.It includes the business idea in the simplest term possible. That's it! Simple RightThese are the key element of pitch decks:1) Clear, Simple and Well Structured2) Detailed and Compelling3) Easy to act onEpisode Contains clear Idea of What a pitch deck is and why you need it? About SpeakerKrishna Jonnakadla,Krishna is a professional with over 20 years of global experience. He is currently...
2018-08-1203 min
Cryptoknights: Top podcast on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Crypto, CryptoCurrenciesEpisode 170-Pitch Deck: What is a pitch Deck?What is a pitch Deck?
The pitch deck is a carefully constructed presentation that entrepreneurs create when seeking funding from the investors.
It includes the business idea in the simplest term possible. That's it! Simple Right
These are the key element of pitch decks:
1) Clear, Simple and Well Structured
2) Detailed and Compelling
3) Easy to act on
Episode Contains clear Idea of What a pitch deck is and why you need it?
About Speaker
Krishna Jonnakadla,
Krishna is a professional with over 20 years of global experience. He is currently the VP and Global Business Head of Swych Blockchain Labs that...
2018-08-1203 min