Shows
IN THE HAUSD2C Explained Best : Saksham Mendiratta in Talks with Arman Sood (Sleepy Owl) | In The HausCoffee is not for the faint hearted and neither is this episode. We’re exploring the entrepreneurial spirit of Arman Sood (Founder- Sleepy Owl) a man who founded his hyper-growth product with ZERO corporate experience.
In this, taste how Arman hot brewed his education in law, to finally cold brewing his own venture with patience and discipline. We dig deep on how he plans and ideates for a demographic larger than he expected and continues questioning every step of the process.
Arman goes beyond to correlate his innate love for sports and how he integrates sp...2022-10-301h 11
IN THE HAUSThe Brand We Didn’t Know We Needed | Taran Chhabra (Neeman's) | Saksham Mendiratta (Lights Out)This shoe brand takes comfort so seriously that the founder sleep-checks it! Passion runs down from the founder’s office to the man delivering the shoes.
The ache to come up with a brand which makes people look good, feel good and do good for the environment birthed Neeman’s. Taran Chhabra- the founder of Neeman’s is an ex-business analyst who spent years in the US making sense of why he was pushed to switch his footwear before stepping into work after a 2 hour run to the train station.
In this we discuss how the up...2022-10-1658 min
IN THE HAUSThe mindset behind India’s leading healthcare platform | Gaurav Agarwal ( Tata 1mg) | Saksham Mendiratta (Lights Out)Tata MG is India’s largest healthcare with a footfall of over 260 million.
In conversation with the CTO and Co-Founder of Tata 1MG - making healthcare affordable, accessible and available in over 1800 Indian cities.
We take a dig at how being an entrepreneur in this day and age is a lot like running - putting one step ahead of another and positively expecting defeats once in a while.
Watch us discuss some core values and metrix which builds an efficient team and how empathy and answerability goes hand in hand with it. Gaurav is...2022-10-0954 min
IN THE HAUSMindset Behind Creating India’s Largest Neo Bank | Sumit Gwalani (Fi) | Saksham Mendiratta (Lights Out)Over 1 million Indians are on FI!
Talking about how decades of tech & banking wisdom distilled to build India’s most successful Neo Bank.
In conversation with Sumit Gwalani - the man who built GPay in India. He belongs to a team of eccentric individuals, who are genuinely revolutionising money management in India. In this, we discuss India’s entrepreneurial muscle and how education system has evolved through the years.
We also tap on the importance of having a good idea in this time when investor risks are bullish and supportive.
Sumit and h...2022-10-021h 05
IN THE HAUSWhat goes inside the mind of a consumer-focussed venture capital fund | Kanwaljit Singh (Fireside Ventures) | Saksham Mendiratta (Lights Out)Saksham Mendiratta (Founder, Lights Out) is In The Haus with Kanwaljit Singh (General Partner, Fireside Ventures). As India stands at the cusp of explosion in consumer-tech, there’s a clear evolution & maturity that this sector is currently witnessing. Moving away from traditional businesses of the late 90's, the new age consumer economy is diverse & galloping. Amidst these, Kanwaljit has managed to keep his sanity and make some brilliant bets. But what’s the mindset one needs to be part of the unicorn race as a consumer-tech startup?
This episode is an eye-opener for every investor & entrepreneur that has...2022-09-2555 min
IN THE HAUSMindset of a founding product designer at a fintech-lifestyle product | Harish Sivaramakrishnan (CRED) with Saksham Mendiratta (Lights Out)Saksham Mendiratta is In The Haus with Harish Sivaramakrishnan, Head of Design at CRED.
Harish is the founding designer at CRED. His radical approaches to designing products has created an almost cult-like following for him in the design community in India.
Saksham & Harish dive into the mindset it takes to be the Founding Designer of a venture like CRED, his journey with Kunal and his mindset on what design is to a product.
It’s a power-packed conversation that would push you to re-think everything you knew about product design so far.
...2022-09-181h 29
IN THE HAUSMindset while scaling a billion dollar house of brands | Ananth Narayanan | Mensa BrandsSaksham Mendiratta is In The Haus with Ananth Narayanan, Founder of Mensa Brands.
Mensa Brands started off in the pandemic and claimed a unicorn status within it’s first year, thereby becoming the fastest unicorn in India.
Ananth’s journey with McKinsey, Myntra and Medlife has had some experiential ups & downs. He talks about learnings from each of his stints and what pushes him every single day to build a better entrepreneurial venture.
Saksham & Ananth dive into the mindset it takes to be the Founder & CEO of a venture like Mensa, every single day...2022-09-1151 min
IN THE HAUSLeadership lessons from a 19 year old, while scaling a billion dollar grocery business | Aadit Palicha (Zepto) with Saksham Mendiratta (Lights Out)Saksham Mendiratta is In The Haus with Aadit Palicha, co-founder of Zepto.Zepto started as an experiment during the pandemic; (born out of personal need to get instant grocery delivery in Mumbai). Over a quick span of time, it became so relevant and formidable that it pushed Aadit to drop out of Stanford to build this into a full time venture.Raising their latest round in May 2022, for USD 200 million, it bumped Zepto’s valuation to USD 900 million. But the challenges of building a hyper-scaling venture at 19 years is an interesting one to watch from the outside.Saksham & Aadit di...2022-09-041h 23
IN THE HAUSEP 0 - In The HausIn The Haus is an attempt to refresh how conversations on podcasts are viewed. In here, we focus on the mindset of the founder and not really their milestones. We go deeper into the why’s and how’s of who they are rather than the business they run.
Hosted by serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Saksham Mendiratta, this one’s a breezy conversation with some of the most iconic founders in India.2022-08-3100 min
Design GridCompetition, Experience and Culture in FinTech, with Rahul Saini: PayTMFintech, in a country like India, poses a series of challenges and difficulties - be it penetration across a diverse set of markets, technology accessibility or customer retention. The year 2008 marked the start for one such product in India. It was the year PayTM launched in India as a Payments and DTH Recharge Service. In 2015, they launched their Payments Gateway and then in 2017, they became the first Payments App to cross 100 million downloads in India. For this Season 1 Finale Episode of Design Grid, we couldn’t have thought of inviting a more experienced individual than PayTM’s...2021-06-2356 min
Design GridDesigning for New Age Travel with Kapil Verma: MakeMyTripThe pandemic put a halt to many things: travel and hospitality being one of the worst-hit. With the pandemic here to stay, comfort and pricing isn’t the deciding factor for travel companies anymore. So how do you design for the new-age travellers? Here’s my conversation with Kapil Verma, Product Head at MakeMyTrip. You can catch Kapil at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/getkapil/ Check out what we’re building at Lights Out on https://lightsout.studio/ You could also tweet Saksham individually on @sakmendiratta. Until then, it’s Lights...2021-06-1653 min
Design GridDecoding Payments in India with Vishal Gupta: PhonePeDigital payments have dominated the payments market in India: even more during the pandemic. From hawkers and tea-sellers to college students, the digital payment sector is booming massively. With a consumer base that relies on skepticism, how have digital payment companies managed to gain the trust of consumers through product design?Here’s my conversation with Vishal Gupta, the Head of Product at PhonePe. You can catch Vishal at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishalgupta78/ Check out what we’re building at Lights Out on https://lightsout.studio/ You...2021-06-0952 min
Design GridGen-Z, The Next Big Target Group with Jake Bjorseth: TrndsttrsGeneration Z is a hard nut to crack. They are not a passive herd of consumers but are a complicated bunch of passionate people striving to make drastic changes in the world. They also happen to be the biggest spenders and have revolutionized brand-to-consumer communication.Communicating with the Gen Z Target Group seems like treading on a minefield: only if you don’t listen to this episode. Here’s my conversation with Jake Bjorseth, the founder of Trndsttrs Media, a Gen Z agency that has cracked the code of selling to Gen Z. He’s worked with...2021-06-0241 min
Design GridIndia's Largest Entrepreneurial Startup with Kirti Avasarla: MeeshoOne of the strongholds of today’s businesses is the plethora of small businesses that exist in the market today. And when a startup like Meesho emerges to empower these entrepreneurs, they are bound to scale up rapidly. Meesho, an India-based social commerce startup smack dab in the middle of hyper growth, happens to be one of the seven Indian startups featured on Y Combinator’s top startups list. How does Meesho make a product for such a culturally nuanced audience like India? This and much more in my conversation with Kirti Avasarala, Chief Product...2021-05-2648 min
Design GridHyperlocal Design with Anirban Das: DunzoWhen designing for multicultural audiences like India, cultural nuances need to be incorporated very carefully to build a satisfying product. So how does Dunzo, a hyper-local concierge platform with a proposition unlike anything else, create hyper local products?Here’s my conversation with Anirban Das, the head of Product at Dunzo, one of the few Indian early-age startups that bagged Google’s investment. You can catch Anirban at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anirbandas5Check out what we’re building at Lights Out on https://lightsout.studio/ You could also tweet...2021-05-191h 02
Design GridBuilding Teams & Social Communities with Neer Sharma: HaikuJAMThe most difficult part of building a brand is building communities. These are relationships a marketer can not force their user to have but in these social communities lies the key to developing a long-lasting brand. But it’s the simplest concepts that are easier said than done. That’s why I spoke to somebody who helped build HaikuJam: a community of over one million collaborative writers from around the world. This is my conversation with Neer Sharma, previously co-founder at HaikuJam and Forbes 30 u 30. This one’s for those who believe in exploring the...2021-05-121h 01
Design GridDTC Marketing Revealed with Nik Sharma: Sharma BrandsThe pandemic brought very few positives: the unprecedented growth for direct-to-consumer brands is one of them. As more brands try to ace the online channel to make sales, even more struggle to crack the code of DTC marketing. If you are one of them or have any inclination towards powerful business built entirely on the internet, then this episode is the right fit for you. Here’s a conversation with Nik Sharma, the infamous ‘DTC guy’ and CEO of Sharma Brands & Media. With his expertise in boosting every popular DTC brand known to mankind to where they are...2021-04-2235 min
Design GridDiving into an Investor's Mind with Shashank Randev: 100X.VCHave you ever wished you had the ability to hack into an investor's mind? Well, this episode, you are in for a treat. From figuring the right product-market fit for a product to learning about the future of customer-centric startups, we cover all of this in a conversation with Shashank Randev, the founder VC at 100X.VC. An alumnus of IMI, Shashank’s firm promises to invest in 100 startups in just twelve months. It also is the first VC in India to invest in early age startups with India SAFE Notes. Here’s where the idea of launching your...2021-04-1451 min
Design GridUnlocking Design & Culture with Rakshit Sinha: SpotifySpotify has remained to be one of the most interesting precedents for using customer insights to build better products. When it was launched in 2008, the world could see the first glimpses of a super app coming to life. It chose music: something we have all an unexplainable relationship with and revolutionized it. But how does Spotify exactly ace design humane experiences? How exactly does it understand its users so well? And to answer a bigger burning question: How can designers choose the right work culture?Rakshit Sinha, Senior Product Manager at Spotify speaks about all...2021-04-0757 min
Design GridTrailerIntroducing Design Grid - a deep dive into businesses, products and ideas. Saksham Mendiratta talks to some of the most creative people in the world, to gather their unique perspectives, strategies and ideas on what it takes to embed creativity across products and businesses. Get on the email list at sakshammendiratta.substack.com2021-04-0601 min