Shows
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelLessons for founders from an early backer of Figma, CRED, Curefit, Airtable, and Postman | SeedToScale SpecialsFounders today are building in an environment shaped by constant technological shifts and evolving team dynamics.
In this episode, Gokul Rajaram, Partner at Marathon Management Partners and early backer of companies like CRED, Figma, Curefit, and Postman, shares how he thinks about building startups that endure. Drawing on his experience as a product leader, investor, and board member, Gokul reflects on the patterns he’s seen across hundreds of companies.
The conversation explores how founders navigate inflection points, scale teams responsibly, make irreversible decisions, and earn trust over time—with customers, teams, and investors. Gokul also speaks candidly about what tend...
2026-02-1049 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelHow investors evaluate startups: Insights from India's leading VCs | SeedToScale SpecialsBehind every funding decision lies hours of evaluation founders never get to witness.
This episode of SeedToScale offers a rare backstage pass into the room where ideas are dissected, and where a simple yes or no is anything but simple.
Seasoned investors, Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner at Elevation Capital, and Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV, sit for a discussion with Anand Daniel, Partner, Accel, to unpack what really happens, from the first cold email to the final investment committe vote.
The conversation goes beyond the cliches and gets brutally honest about how thousands of startups get filtered.
2026-02-021h 11
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelHow August Is Building the 'World’s Largest Consumer Health AI' | Decoding AI Episode 12Doctor visits are short. Health journeys are long.
In this episode, Anuruddh Mishra, Founder & CEO of August AI, talks about building an AI-led health companion designed to support patients beyond brief clinical interactions. He shares how August is built to retain personal health context over time, stay available when questions come up, and help people make sense of scattered medical information across their journey.
Watch the full episode for the complete conversation.
Chapters:
0:09 - Intro
0:33 - What is an AI health companion
3:06 - As an engineer, why did you choose to get into this field related to health?
8:04 - Did...
2026-01-2344 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelHaber: Building Smarter, More Efficient Factories with AI-Driven Automation | Decoding ManufacturingEveryone’s talking about generative AI.
Few talk about industrial AI: where the data meets the factory floor.
In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Vipin Raghavan, Co-founder & CEO, Haber, explains how Haber is using AI to close the loop between lab and line, turning process data into real-time chemistry control and measurable profit impact.
From automating dosing systems to building trust through prediction accuracy, Vipin breaks down what it takes to bring AI into legacy plants, why Haber prices by production output instead of licenses, and how vertical depth and reliability built a zero-churn business.
He also talks about India’s ma...
2025-11-1130 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelMastering Data: How Turing Is Powering the Next Leap in Artificial Superintelligence | Decoding AI Episode 11Everyone’s talking about AI models. Few talk about the data that moves them forward.
In this episode of Decoding AI, Jonathan Siddharth, Founder & CEO, Turing, explains how Turing evolved from a global developer platform into a research accelerator, fueling the world’s top labs and enterprises with bespoke, interdisciplinary training data.
From RL gyms to post-training pipelines, Turing is engineering the human-in-the-loop systems that are quietly pushing us toward ASI.
Chapters
00:00 – Intro: The Future of Intelligence
01:11 – From Stanford to Rover: Jonathan’s Founder Journey
07:05 – The Idea Behind Turing
09:28 – Why Post-Training Is the Real Edge in AI
12:49 – How the World’s Smartest Humans...
2025-11-0834 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelBuilding AI-First Products: Lessons from Microsoft on the Next Era of Productivity | Decoding AI Episode 10The next big shift in AI isn’t about models getting smarter, it’s about how we work.
In this episode of Decoding AI, Aparna Chennapragada, Chief Product Officer for AI Experiences at Microsoft, shares how AI is transforming the workplace from tools that assist us to teammates that collaborate with us.
Aparna draws from over two decades of product building. From Akamai’s internet backbone to Google’s AI-first products, like Lens, and now leading Microsoft’s AI strategy. Her insights go beyond features and hype, focusing instead on what it takes to build AI products that last.
Here’s what we ex...
2025-11-0737 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelFabheads: Building Advanced Composites for the World’s Most Demanding Industries | Decoding ManufacturingEvery metal behaves predictably, but carbon fiber doesn’t.
Its strength depends on how every fiber is laid, making it one of the hardest materials to automate.
That’s where Dhinesh Kanagaraj, Founder & CEO, Fabheads, comes in. Their breakthrough “adaptive tow placement” technology lets machines think like craftsmen, achieving fiber-level control at industrial speed.
With software-driven automation and smarter material handling, Fabheads is achieving 3-10X productivity, up to 40% fewer rejections, and reduced waste.
Watch this episode of Decoding Manufacturing to see how Fabheads is transforming carbon fiber manufacturing.
Chapters:
0:24 - Intro
0:28 - Revolutionizing the carbon fiber industry
1:05 - Misconception about au...
2025-10-2822 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelAther Energy: Building India’s Next-Generation Electric Scooters | Decoding ManufacturingFor decades, India’s two-wheeler industry perfected manufacturing at scale,
but not innovation. Then came Ather Energy.
Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, shares how Ather built every layer of the EV stack, from battery architecture to charging infrastructure, entirely from scratch.
From a lab at IIT Madras to India’s one of the largest electric two-wheeler brands, Ather’s story is one of conviction over conditions.
Tarun and his team built what didn’t exist: suppliers, technology, and manufacturing processes, turning obstacles into opportunities.
In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Tarun shares insights on building deep R&D culture, scaling hardware with pre...
2025-10-1430 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelAgniKul: Building Rockets for India’s Leap Into Space | Decoding ManufacturingWhat if a rocket engine could be 3D-printed in a single shot?
What if a launch pad could move wherever permission is granted?
That’s exactly what AgniKul is building. In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder & CEO of AgniKul, shares how the team is reimagining rocket design and manufacturing from the ground up.
From single-piece 3D-printed rocket engines to mobile launch pads, AgniKul is showing how India’s manufacturing ecosystem can power deep tech innovation at global scale.
He also breaks down:
• Why rockets had to be redesigned for today’s smaller satellites
• How India’s private space ecosys...
2025-09-3032 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelBuilding World's Fastest Text-to-Speech Model: Lessons from Smallest.ai | Inside the Engine RoomHow fast can AI really talk back?
For Smallest.ai, the answer is 45 milliseconds.
In this episode, Akshat Mandloi, Co-founder, breaks down how they built one of the fastest and most efficient voice AI engines, proving that systems thinking, not scale, wins in the real world.
He shares insights on continuous retraining, evolving architectures, and the hidden engineering layers that make Smallest AI a leader in real-time speech intelligence.
Want to see how the future of AI sounds? Watch the conversation till the end.
Chapters:
0:31 - Intro
0:37 - The secret sauce behind the world’s fastest TTS engine
1:43 - Different ap...
2025-09-0514 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelBuilding the world's fastest inference engine and redefining enterprise AI: Lessons from Simplismart | Inside the Engine RoomThe fastest solution is not always the smartest one.
Even the world’s fastest inference engine can’t win on speed alone.
That’s why Amritanshu Jain, Co-Founder & CEO of Simplismart, emphasizes adaptability as the true goal. For enterprises, it’s not just about running models at lightning pace, but balancing cost efficiency, speed of execution, and scalability across dynamic environments.
In a world where conditions evolve rapidly, adaptability is the edge that keeps businesses ahead.
Chapters:
0:25 Intro
0:39 Core innovations in the engine’s architecture
4:07 Mental model around building modular blocks
6:26 Solving the gaps in MLOps
17:41 Approach with hiring
23:17 What kind of te...
2025-09-0528 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelReimagining E-Commerce with an AI-Native OS: Inside ShopOS | Inside the Engine RoomWhat if your entire brand could run on autopilot?
Sai Krishna, Co-founder, ShopOS, shares how AI agents will redefine the way brand-owners build, market, and scale businesses.
From smarter catalogs and campaigns to fully automated brand orchestration, he explains why AI is the perfect draft engine, giving founders a head start on every creative and operational task.
Sai breaks down the rise of ambient agents: AI that works quietly in the background to optimize pricing, discovery, and customer engagement at scale.
Finally, he paints a bold picture of the shopping page of the future: dynamic, hyper-personalized, and tailored to every...
2025-09-0517 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelBuilding the future of agentic actions: Lessons from Composio | Inside the Engine RoomIntegrations are the hidden bottleneck in modern engineering slowing teams down, draining time, and killing creativity.
What if AI could automate that completely?
Soham Ganatra, Co-founder & CEO, Composio, shares how his team built one of the largest hosted MCP platforms, where AI coding agents autonomously build and manage integrations end-to-end.
From early experiments with LLMs to tackling agent reliability, tool design, and scaling through community-led GTM, the conversation dives deep into how Composio is transforming developer productivity.
Chapters:
0:24 - Intro
0:35 - The problem statement Composio aims to solve
3:20 - The differentiator between Composio and others
5:34 - The secret behind high...
2025-09-0519 minSeedToScale | Curated by AccelBuilding Agentic AI for the Enterprise with Ema | Decoding AIWith GenAI on the rise, software is evolving from a tool that needs constant supervision to an intelligent partner that handles tasks autonomously, similar to human assistants. This shift promises a future where enterprises are more efficient, with AI seamlessly integrating into daily operations.
In Episode 1 of SeedToScale's Decoding AI series, Accel's Anagh Prasad explores the future of enterprise software with Surojit Chatterjee, Founder and CEO of Ema, a company which elevates Agentic AI to the enterprise level.
Surojit explains how the next generation of enterprise software, driven by Gen AI, will be radically different from the current systems. These...
2024-08-2741 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelTimeless Lessons for the Future | SeedToScale Specials2023 is particularly momentous to Accel as we complete 40 years as a global fund and 15 years in India.
As we celebrate this milestone, we hope to share insights from the firm’s shared history with you, in this riveting two-part podcast series.
We begin with a look at the past, and how startups and investors evolved over the years; moving on to investing today, and why many call 2023 the year of reset in VC.
Finally, we look to the future, with timeless lessons the next generation of investors must carry forward.
2023-08-2129 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelLearnings from 40 Years in VC | SeedToScale Specials2023 is particularly momentous to Accel as we complete 40 years as a global fund and 15 years in India.
As we celebrate this milestone, we hope to share insights from the firm’s shared history with you, in this riveting two-part podcast series.
We begin with a look at the past, and how startups and investors evolved over the years; moving on to investing today, and why many call 2023 the year of reset in VC.
Finally, we look to the future, with timeless lessons the next generation of investors must carry forward.
2023-08-1655 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelInsights #79: Future of Insurance | Learnings from Varun Dua, Founder & CEO AckoLike in most markets, India is a large but under-penetrated insurance market. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp uptick in life insurance premiums, bringing it at par with the global average of 3.2% of GDP, non-life premiums - health and motor insurance - continue to lag at sub 1% of GDP, compared to 2% for developing Asian countries and 5% for developed economies. In a low-income economy, paying up premiums to protect against potential long-term downside is not a top priority for people. However, this will grow. As India’s GDP and per capita income grow, more people will beg...
2022-08-1246 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelInsights #78: Future of Mobility | Vivek on Bounce’s Journey & Inevitable Adoption of EVsIndia, frequently referred to as the two-wheeler factory of the world, serves a tremendous market both in India and abroad. About 15M two-wheelers were sold in India in 2021 and 3.7M two-wheelers manufactured in India by the top 4 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) were exported. By 2030, the number of two-wheelers sold in India annually is expected to reach 35M representing an about $30B market, growing at the back of limited penetration of affordable public transport (public transport only serves 7% of the total trips at present) and the ever-increasing cost of not-so affordable four-wheelers.However, with rising fuel prices and...
2022-06-0158 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #77: Future of Banking | Reflections from Niyo’s Vinay BagriBanking opportunity in India is tremendous, with overall banking assets expected to reach $3T by 2025, with deeply under-penetrated private credit markets which account for ~50% of GDP (vs. 150%+ for developed economies).Despite this large opportunity, customer experience and engagement in traditional consumer banking in India is broken and has been so for over a decade.With the increasing digital penetration in the country, customers armed with their smartphones are looking for an easy, seamless, quick and personalised experience and their expectations are ever-evolving.Neo-banks attempt to fix the broken customer journeys and provide a...
2022-05-1942 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #76: Untold Seed Stories | First 500 Days of BizongoB2B marketplaces are different. There are tremendous opportunities, but also different challenges. This arises from the business model itself. Having to cater to both the supply and demand side is one thing, the other is adjusting to the nuances of the products and commodities being bought and sold. This is different for every domain and therefore there is nothing that can be replicated. Everything had to be thought through first principles.One example of a company that did exactly this is Bizongo, the largest business-to-business online marketplace for packaging needs in India. Bizongo has been a...
2022-04-1842 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #75: Untold Seed Stories | First 500 Days of MensaThe D2C ecosystem has truly found its feet in India. There are now a lot of great brands making niche, high-quality products for targeted audiences. The e-commerce wave has given them a channel of distribution that they own. But as the market matures, there are other needs for young D2C startups. They need marketing, sales, and brand talent, things which they can’t easily get access to in order to grow as fast as they want to.Ananth Narayanan’s Mensa aims to solve this problem for the new D2C economy. Mensa is a hous...
2022-03-2237 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #74: Future of Open Source | Abhishek Nayak on Appsmith and Building Open Source ProjectsHow is the world of Open Source faring in a landscape that is being overturned by Web3 and its ascendant new technologies? It’s an important question and not just in the realm of entrepreneurship and products. Open Source was the first promise of some kind of a technological revolution, where everyone could build and use things they want to with help and support from a real, tangible community.Where is that promise now, what is being built out of it, and where does it stand with the advent of new technological paradigms?That’s the t...
2021-12-1349 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #73: Future of Crypto | Raghu Yarlagadda on FalconX's flight and what it meansIf you know about Crypto, you can’t have missed FalconX, I’ll still give you a brief: FalconX is a blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech-focused cryptocurrency brokerage and digital asset trading platform. Accel has been proud partners since the startup’s inception, and we’ve been cheering on their success loudly!Crypto is definitely here. With the slew of recent advertising and coverage around it, plus the FOMO that investments in it are generating, we are definitely overdue for a discussion on the space.And we have just the thing for you.Pratik Agarwal...
2021-11-1043 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #72: Future of Edtech | Learnings from the Duolingo journeyEdtech is a category whose time has come. The pandemic and its attendant ramifications have meant that Edtech is now one of the hottest spaces for innovation and growth globally. This also means that a lot of new Edtech startups are coming up, with newer visions and interpretations of what the future of learning and education can look like.And they have a lot to navigate around and wade through in a rapidly evolving landscape.Which is why we bring to you this conversation with Bob Meese, the Chief Business Officer of Duolingo, one of...
2021-10-0456 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #71: Future of Credit Cards | Innovation and Challenges in Indian FintechCredit cards are one of the most ubiquitous financial products in the world. We all use them everyday, they are part of our lives.But as the world changes and our spending and consumer behaviour changes along with it, so have our needs with regard to financial products. We now have different financial behaviors and the exciting field of fintech is ready to serve us according to our own preferences.Credit cards are the first logical step in this revolution.Over the last couple of years, several startups in India are trying to d...
2021-09-0740 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #70: Future of Beauty and Personal Care: Tracking the evolution of the category in IndiaFrom lipsticks to hair care to bath and body -- there’s little to nothing that the average shopper cannot find that covers all beauty and personal care needs. And what’s more, the shopper can browse through multiple brands within the same unified platform.It is to talk about this vision that I am joined today by Prashanth Prakash, senior partner at Accel and the man behind the glam himself -- Darpan Sanghvi, CEO and co-founder of MyGlamm, India’s fastest growing direct-to-consumer beauty brand. MyGlamm is one of our more recent investments in the bea...
2021-08-0657 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #69: GRIT Stories | The most resilient Indian startup you haven’t heard ofIn the latest episode of Grit Stories, I spoke with Baskar Subramanian, founder and CEO of Amagi. Baskar has been an internet entrepreneur and startup founder since before either of those terms were really a thing. Having started and sold his first startup in his mid 20s, Baskar, along with a group of friends, started looking for new problems to solve. The group set their sights on disrupting television advertising with technology, the startup that became Amagi.The startup ecosystem, Indian or international, sometimes focuses too much on the loud and the noisy. But there’s a...
2021-07-231h 01
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #68: GRIT Stories | The Ups & Downs of Aprameya's Startup Life, from TaxiForSure to KooAprameya is no stranger to the entrepreneurial journey. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Koo, a microblogging platform catering to the Indian vernacular. Koo was born as an offshoot of Vokal, a vernacular question and answer platform. Within one year, it amassed over a million users and became a force of its own.Before this, he was at the helm of TaxiForSure, leading it to a successful acquisition by Ola Cabs back in 2015. I was part of this journey, and Aprameya’s clarity and grit has been something I’ve been aware of throughout.This w...
2021-07-0947 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #67: GRIT Stories | The hurdles on the way to Spinny's successCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.com
Share your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India
00:00 - 03:16 Introduction
03:17 - 5:26 Tough beginnings and what shaped Niraj
05:33 - 7:25 Grit to get to IIT-D
12:34 - 13:42 Support of the ecosystem being very low back in the day
14:53 - 17:23 Lost his father but bounced back in 3-4 months and started his second company
31:42 - 33:51 Going with the full stack model even though the new investors pulled the term sheet
35:22 - 37:37 Restarting with the new business model: What happened after the investors pulled back?
39:43 - 41:28 How...
2021-06-2559 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #66: GRIT Stories | Vedantu's Hard Road to Success by Vamsi KrishnaThe story of Vedantu is a heady mix of grit, determination and conviction. The Bangalore based startup, which raised almost 200 million in 9 rounds, has had a journey and a story that will definitely inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. The startup witnessed 4.5x to 5x growth in the last financial year on each of its core metrics. And the growth trajectory has been rocketing upwards with 12x to 15x growth in the past 2 years.
But how did it get here?
In this candid conversation with Anand Daniel, Vamsi Krishna, co-founder and CEO, talks about the unseen struggles of an entrepreneur...
2021-06-101h 01
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #56 - Sairee Chahal on building SHEROESThe 56th episode of the INSIGHTS podcast features Sairee Chahal, Founder and CEO of SHEROES- a social networking platform with over 20M women. Sairee is also an Aspen Fellow and serves on the board of Paytm Payments Bank. She has been an entrepreneur for 15+ years. In this episode, Sairee shares insights on building successful products around communitiesTo learn more about Sairee’s inspiring journey, tune in to the latest episode of the Insights Podcast by Accel.
2020-08-1447 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #55 - Vetri Vellore on using OKRs to build a resilient and agile businessIn this episode, we hear from Vetri on what OKRs are, how they are different from other goal-setting frameworks, how businesses can go about adopting them, and some common challenges and pitfalls to be careful about.To learn more about how you can adopt OKRs as a powerful tool in your organization to increase alignment and engagement around achieving goals, tune in to the latest episode of the Insights Podcast by Accel.Listen hereSpotify Soundcloud Apple Podcasts
2020-07-3138 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #54 - Farid & Shashank on starting up in collegeIn today’s special episode of the INSIGHTS podcast on ‘student entrepreneurship’, we cover the journeys of two well-known founders in the startup community whose entrepreneurial journeys started right from their college days: Shashank Murali from Tapchief and Farid Ahsan from Sharechat.We hear from Shashank and Farid on their early life and college days, how they decided to take up entrepreneurship, how they arrived on the idea they went after, how they worked progressively to build their companies, and finally how they would do it differently if they were to do it all over again. Liste...
2020-07-1649 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #53 - Neeraj Arora on learnings from his WhatsApp journeyIn this episode of the INSIGHTS podcast, we have with us Neeraj Arora, who played a pivotal role at WhatsApp as an early employee and then as the Chief Business Officer. We hear from Neeraj on his early career days, non-obvious career moves, learnings from the WhatsApp journey, the multi-billion dollar Facebook- Whatsapp deal, his experiences from investing in India, and finally some advice for startup founders.Listen hereSpotify Apple Soundcloud
2020-07-0346 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #52 - Scaling your SaaS Startup with Sudheer Koneru and Anand JainListen hereSpotify Apple SoundcloudAnand and Sudheer give a glimpse into their respective startup journeys - skillsets they brought from their previous experiences, new challenges that they were not prepared for, and milestones that marked their journey. The podcast covers all the different phases of their journeys: from identifying the problem to go after and building the MVP to scaling the product, figuring out monetization, and solving for Sales GTM and funding.To learn more about what it takes to build scalable global SaaS companies out of India, tune in to the latest episode of the Insights Podcast by Acc...
2020-06-1953 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #51 - Alex Lazarow on looking beyond Silicon Valley for global innovationListen hereSpotify Apple SoundcloudAlex throws light on how the entrepreneurs from frontier markets are reinventing startup best practices and offering a brand new playbook for innovation that looks different from that of startups in the valley.The podcast centres around the shift of innovation from the silicon valley to the global playground. Alex talks about the incredible stories of entrepreneurs in emerging markets who maneuver challenging environments to build resilient sustainable businesses that create large social impact.To hear more from Alex on global innovation trends, tune in to the latest episode of the Insights Podcast by Accel...
2020-06-0432 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #50 - Mukesh Bansal on leveraging physical & mental fitness to achieve peak performanceListen hereSpotify Apple SoundcloudMukesh shares how his journey as a leader has evolved over the last decade and in times of COVID, what got him to write a book, and how he manages to carve out time to give back to the community.The podcast deals with some of the most relevant topics in today’s times: focusing on holistic health, improving performance, and giving back.Notes:02:10 – Productivity in COVID times03:39 – Settling into the new rhythm of running the company05:36 – Executing fast through decentralized decision making09:36 – Hacks for manag...
2020-05-1530 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #49 - The state of the VC ecosystem amidst COVID-19 crisis: Prashanth Prakash & Subrata MitraListen hereSpotify Apple SoundcloudSubrata and Prashanth share an on the ground view of the state of the VC ecosystem in India amidst the COVID situation and what to expect for the road ahead. They share advice for founders as they plan for the tough times ahead along with learnings and observations from previous economic downturns including some of the positive outcomes.The podcast clears the air around what founders can expect the fundraising situation to look like in the next near future.01:27 – Comparing COVID-19 times with dot-com bubble burst and 2008 recession06:23 – Efforts going on in...
2020-04-1738 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #48 - How to pick the right idea and launch your SaaS startup?: Shekhar Kirani & Krish SubramanianListen hereSpotify Apple SoundcloudThis is a continuation to podcast #46 on SaaS. In this podcast, Shekhar and Krish dive deeper into the best practices for building a SaaS company out of India.Shekhar and Krish share learnings on the important tips to keep in mind for founders looking to build a large SaaS company: spending time on market research to identify the right opportunity in your area of interest, validating the problem through multiple customer interviews, building strong context on the problem before building the MVP and having the willingness to pay conversation early on. The podcast is filled...
2020-04-0537 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS#47 - How are Startups dealing with the COVID-19 situation?Listen hereSpotify Apple SoundcloudHow are Indian Startups dealing with the COVID-19 situation?This is a special podcast episode that deals with the tough situation that the world is facing today amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and features how the startup ecosystem in India is responding to it.We have 4 guests on the podcast this time around: Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO & Co-founder of Bounce (two-wheeler scooter sharing solution operating in Bangalore & Hyderabad) Abhiraj Bhal, Founder and CEO of Urban Company (managed market place for all kinds of home services) Suman Gopalan, Chief HR Officer of Fres...
2020-03-2046 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS#46 - Building SaaS business out of India for the global market: Shekhar Kirani & Krish SubramanianSpotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/show/1YQdnQ50mmenzWVA2MBsQy Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/insights-podcast-series/id1364412685The several success stories of Zoho, Freshworks, Browserstack, Icertis who have all reached several hundred million dollars in ARR with most of their product built in India give proof points for the possibility to build large scale SaaS companies coming out of India.Unlike the 90s when software was a one-time sale, the subscription nature of SaaS pricing ensures that the interests of the customer and the software vendor are well a...
2020-02-2539 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #45 - 2019 Roundup - 12 Insights for FoundersIn the first episode of 2020's #InsightsPodcast series, we take a look back to round up the learnings that 2019’s series left us with.We kick-start 2020’s #InsightsPodcast series with a special episode that offers a quick roundup of our 2019 podcasts and presents the top 12 highly recommended insights for entrepreneurs.
Finding the right opportunity
The bare essential task of identifying the right opportunity is something that every founding team must go through.
1.Farid Ahsan of Sharechat shares how he and his co-founders went about discovering the idea. “We started observing why people were making...
2020-01-1028 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #44 Aditya and Ruchi share their experience from early days at Facebook and DropboxIn this edition of the #INSIGHTSPodcast series, we have with us Aditya Agarwal and Ruchi Sanghvi, both of whom were early members of Facebook's engineering team.
Aditya was the first Director of Product Engineering at Facebook. He also co-founded Cove, a modern collaboration software company that was acquired by Dropbox, where he went on to join as the VP of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer. He was also on the board of Flipkart.
Ruchi was the first female engineer at Facebook, and went on to co-found Cove along with Aditya and Akhil Wable. Cove was a collaboration...
2019-12-2040 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #43 — Kiran Mazumdar Shaw shares her Biocon journeyIn this episode of the #INSIGHTSPodcast series, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson and MD of Biocon, talks about starting up and her strategic shift to the biopharma industry, and gives young entrepreneurs advice on innovation, problem-solving, and mentorship.
We continue with the #INSIGHTSPodcast series and on this episode, we have with us Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon.
A pioneer of the biotech industry in India and the head of the country’s leading biotechnology enterprise, Kiran is a highly respected business leader and has been named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in t...
2019-12-0650 min
Seed to ScaleRenaud Visage, Cofounder & CTO of Eventbrite, on Taking a Startup through a Recession and then through an IPORenaud Visage, cofounder and CTO of Eventbrite, the leading global ticketing and event technology platform. In the episode Renaud talks with Hadley about moving to San Francisco, joining his first startup and the early days of starting Eventbrite. Renaud details his experience when the financial crisis hit in 2008, which we feel will be especially useful for founders to consider when the next downturn happens.
Renaud speaks to his experience spending time in both the US and European tech ecosystems.
Finally, in the lighting round Renaud talks about why most startups fail, his interest in the trav...
2019-12-0221 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #42 Madhavan Ramanujam of Simon-Kucher gives his take on monetising innovationINSIGHTS #42 Madhavan Ramanujam of Simon-Kucher gives his take on monetising innovation by Accel
2019-11-2248 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #41 — Dheeraj Pandey, Nutanix on thinking long-term to build a generational companyIn this episode of #InsightsPodcast series, we have Dheeraj Pandey, Chairman and CEO of Nutanix, taking us through his journey of building a generational company, its IPO story, and how he built a culture of reading and learning at his organisation.
As we continue with the #InsightsPodcast series, we head to Silicon Valley to meet Dheeraj Pandey, Chairman and CEO, Nutanix. The company helps customers modernise their data centres and run applications of any scale on the cloud. Dheeraj co-founded Nutanix a decade ago and took the company public on NASDAQ in 2017. Today, the company trades at...
2019-11-0838 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #40 - Hans Tung on learnings from the Chinese start-up ecosystemAs we continue with the #INSIGHTSPodcast series, on this edition we have with us Hans Tung, Managing Partner at GGV Capital. Hans, who is a seven-time Forbes Midas Lister and has invested in 15 unicorns over the last decade-and-a-half, leads the US operations of GGV Capital. Some of his investments include shopping app Wish, second-hand marketplace OfferUp, Chinese social commerce company Xiaohongshu, workplace tool Slack, electronics maker Xiaomi, Chinese super app Meituan-Dianping, scooter sharing company Lime, among others.
On this podcast, Hans shares his journey of witnessing first-hand the three phases of the Chinese startup ecosystem: from PC to...
2019-10-2541 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #39 - Hari Menon on scaling Bigbasket and disrupting the grocery industryWe continue with the #INSIGHTSPodcast series, and on this edition we have Hari Menon, Co-founder and CEO of BigBasket, India’s largest online food and grocery store, which serves 10 million customers in 30 cities today.
In this podcast, Hari takes us through the journey of starting and scaling BigBasket and gives a behind-the-curtain glimpse of the years of grocery business experience that led to building an expertise in grocery supply chain and culminated in building India's leading online grocer.
Starting up in the 90s: too early to market
Born and brought up in Mumbai, Ha...
2019-10-041h 05
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #38 — Manu Kumar Jain on scaling Xiaomi and disrupting the India electronics spaceWe continue with the #InsightsPodcast series, and on this edition we have with us Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director of Xiaomi India- a leader in smartphones, televisions, and many other products. Manu walks us through the journey of setting up Xiaomi in India and scaling it to become one of the best mobile phone brands in India in a very capital efficient way.
Starting by talking about his childhood days, Manu remembers growing up in Meerut in a large family with a business background, where the ultimate aspiration was to set up shop- the larger the shop...
2019-09-2056 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #37 – Deep Kalra on building India’s first consumer internet success- MakeMyTripWe continue with the #InsightsPodcast series, and on this edition we have Deep Kalra, Founder and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip, India’s leading online travel company. Today, the company has become the go-to-site for majority of Indians looking to book flight tickets, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets.
In this podcast, Deep takes us through his journey of building MakeMyTrip at a time when internet adoption was still early. He talks about how he helped sail through challenging times to eventually list MMT on NASDAQ in 2010 and finally grow it to today’s scale of $2.4 billion market cap...
2019-09-0651 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #36 Naveen Tewari on building InMobi as a global leader in mobile advertisingWe continue with the #InsightsPodcast series with a path-setter: Naveen Tewari, Co-Founder and CEO of Inmobi, India’s first unicorn. Naveen started a product company at a time when most people weren’t thinking about it, went global and cracked the China market, and is now starting a group of companies under Mobi.
In this podcast, he shares a number of great lessons for first-time founders, from how to go through pivots successfully and the role that co-founders play in maintaining morale in an organisation, to scaling internationally and building a culture that is deeply enriching for the empl...
2019-08-2356 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #35 - Nandan Nilekani shares his journey from building Infosys to rolling out AadhaarIn this episode of the #InsightsPodcast series, we have Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder of Infosys and the man who put in place India’s Aadhaar identification system. He tells us about how his time at IIT-Bombay honed his skills, growing Infosys, working on the UIDAI project, and why the ‘thinker-doer’ approach works.
We continue with our #InsightsPodcast, and on this edition have with us one of India’s biggest business legends, Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder of Infosys, its current Non-Executive Chairman and the brain behind Aadhaar while serving as the Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India. He is a Padma...
2019-08-0942 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS#34 Ritesh Agarwal on building OYO – decacorn in the hotel industryIn this edition of the #InsightsPodcast series, we have the man of the hour, Ritesh Agarwal, founder of OYO, largest hotel chain of India that is now operational in more than 60 countries. Ritesh talks about the early days of OYO, how he always had grand plans for OYO and was able to execute them with his able colleagues to scale his company to today’s levels.
Ritesh remembers his childhood self as being the kid who always wanted to do different things. At the age of 13, he was selling sim cards just for the heck of it; at...
2019-07-2634 min
Seed to ScaleJosh Kopelman, Founder of First Round Capital and investor in Uber, Square & Flatiron, on living in Philly, investing in NY and scaling teams beyond Silicon Valley.Josh Kopelman, Founder and Partner at First Round Capital, a seed-stage venture firm that has invested in some of the biggest names, including Uber, Square and Flatiron Health. First Round aims to help early-stage companies build a strong product-market fit and offers some of the industry’s first and best tools from their custom-built software to sharing their deep industry insight with their publication First Round Review.
In this episode, Josh speaks with Eniac Co-founding Partner Nihal Mehta on his journey from being one of the first students at Penn to get an email address to how he...
2019-07-2319 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS#33 Harsh Jain on building Dream11- India’s biggest fantasy sports platformIn this edition of the #InsightsPodcast series, we have Harsh Jain, founder of Dream11, India’s largest fantasy sports platform with 70 million registered users and 10 million paid users. Harsh talks about how he achieved product market fit after multiple pivots while persistently following his passion.
After answering a quick round of rapid-fire questions that reveal his loyalty for Manchester United and Mumbai Indians, Harsh gives a preview of the scale Dream11 has grown to today and the journey that led up to this. He reminisces his high school days in London when he first picked up fantasy fo...
2019-07-1153 min
Seed to ScaleJake Saper, Partner at Emergence Capital, on Coaching Networks, Zoom, and Series A Signaling EffectJake Saper, Partner at Emergence Capital, a leading venture capital firm focused on world-changing enterprise cloud technology, including Salesforce, SalesLoft, Veeva, and Zoom. Jake serves on the boards of Textio, Guru, Drishti, and DroneDeploy.
In this episode, Jake speaks with Eniac Co-founding GP Tim Young about the firm’s thesis on Coaching Networks and how they believe the under-explored side of machine learning is how to apply that same technology not just to automate tasks away, but to help augment workers that remain and make them better at their jobs.
Jake also sheds light on a v...
2019-07-1026 min
Seed to ScaleRich Wong, GP at Accel (recent IPOs = Slack, Crowdstrike & Fiverr), on his thesis of picks & shovels, early bets in mobile and why enterprise automation is the next big thingRich Wong is a General Partner at Accel, a global venture capital and growth equity firm. Rich’s investment focus is on software, internet services, and mobile technologies and he currently serves on the Boards of Atlassian, Checkr, Instabug, Osmo, Qwilt, ServiceChannel, Tune and UiPath.
In this episode, Rich speaks with Eniac Founding General Partner Nihal Mehta on his thesis of picks and shovels and why he placed early bets across mobile with Admob and MoPub.
Rich shares his experience supporting Accel’s investments in Facebook and Slack as well as why he believes the reign...
2019-06-2122 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #32 — Divyank Turakhia on building one of the largest online advertising businessIn this episode of the #INSIGHTSPodcast series, Divyank Turakhia, Founder of online advertising business Media.net, speaks about why entrepreneurs should focus on the right things, keep risks in mind, and must always be nimble.
We continue with the #InsightsPodcast series, and on this edition we have with us Divyank Turakhia, Founder of Media.net, one of the largest online advertising businesses worldwide, which he bootstrapped till he eventually sold it in 2016 for $900 million.
Divyank starts off by talking about his early days growing up in a small apartment in Mumbai, and how he started...
2019-06-2148 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #31 Ashwin Damera of Emeritus on why the founder-startup fit is vitalIn this episode of the #INSIGHTSPodcast series, Ashwin Damera, Co-founder of EdTech company Eruditus, speaks about the effect the 'founder-startup fit' has on scaling a company and the importance of a mentor.
The #INSIGHTSPodcast series continues with Ashwin Damera, Co-founder of Eruditus, an EdTech company that makes Ivy League education affordable and accessible to the world.
Eruditus offers a wide portfolio of customized and open programs delivered in India, Singapore, Dubai, and other global locations. It also runs Emeritus Institute of Management, which provides short-duration online courses. The company currently has 30,000 students across 85+ countries pursuing certificate courses...
2019-06-0743 min
Seed to ScaleBeezer Clarkson, MD at Sapphire Ventures, on reimagining the role of the LP in ventureBeezer Clarkson is the Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures, leading Sapphire Partners‘ investments in venture funds domestically and internationally. Beezer began her career in financial services over 20 years ago and has held various direct and indirect venture investment roles, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson Global Network, which then had $7 billion under management across 16 venture funds worldwide, as well as operational roles in software business development.
In this episode, Beezer speaks with Eniac Partner Nihal Mehta on the genesis of OpenLP, a community effort she spearheaded to foster greater understanding in the entrepreneur-to-LP tech ecosystem, as we...
2019-05-3018 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #30 — Ritesh Arora on thinking global and scaling upWe continue with the #InsightsPodcast series, and on this edition, we have Ritesh Arora, Co-Founder and CEO of Browser Stack, a mobile and web testing platform. In this podcast you will hear about Ritesh’s journey as a young engineer how he pivoted through a few startup ideas before landing on the BrowserStack idea. And how he bootstrapped the startup to more than $20M in revenue - a humongous achievement for any founder.
Ritesh comes from a family background in business, and always had an eye for venturing
on the entrepreneurial journey. Teaming up with his ro...
2019-05-2445 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #29 - Simility's Rahul Pangam on building a $120M company in just 4 yearsOn this edition of the #INSIGHTSPodcast series, we have Rahul Pangam, Founder of Simility, a fraud prevention and risk management platform that was acquired by Paypal late last year.
In this podcast, Rahul talks about his early days working at Google, how he met his co-founders, started off with a focus on building solutions for e-commerce companies, which became interesting enough to pique the interest of larger banks as well as Paypal. And of course, the entire phase of the exit.
Building fraud detection and risk management systems at Google led him to the thesis that...
2019-05-1046 min
Seed to ScaleBrian Feinstein, Partner at Bessemer, on identifying opportunities in vertical SaaSBrian Feinstein is a partner at Bessemer Ventures. Since joining in 2008, has focused on investments in early and growth-stage vertical SaaS, including Procore, Restaurant365, and LiveAuctioneers, as well as supported the firm's investment in Mindbody. Brian is interested in founders who are shaping their industries outside of the Silicon Valley mold.
In this episode Brian sits down with Tim Young, a founding partner at Eniac Ventures, to discuss Bessemer’s thesis around vertical SaaS and their top-down strategy for identifying investments. He digs into how they map out industries by GDP, IT spend and the...
2019-05-0115 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #28 Farid Ahsan of ShareChat on solving problems of a new-age vernacular audienceOn this edition of the #InsightsPodcast series, we have our youngest guest so far, Farid Ahsan, Co-founder of ShareChat, the most popular company in the Indian languages, i.e. vernacular, space. It has over 100 million monthly active users, a feat that they have managed to achieve in less than four years.
On this podcast, Farid talks about his early days at IIT, what motivated him to start up, how he and his co-founders came up with the idea for ShareChat, what has helped them scale, and his learnings from the journey so far.
Growing up in six...
2019-04-2746 min
Seed to ScaleJenny Fielding, MD of Techstars & Founder of The Fund, on doubling down with the NYC tech communityJenny Fielding is the newly appointed Managing Director of Techstars, an organization helping entrepreneurs grow their companies through a process of programming, mentorship, and funding. She has been involved with the organization for the past 5 years, working with the former MD Alex Iskold.
Jenny also is the Founder and General Partner of The Fund, a community successful New York City founders and operators supporting the next generation of NYC-based entrepreneurs.
In this episode, Jenny sits down with Eniac Founding Partner Nihal Mehta to discuss Techstars and The Fund, along...
2019-04-1517 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #27 — Serial entrepreneur Meena Ganesh on creating impact on people’s livesIn this edition of the #InsightsPodcast series, we have serial entrepreneur Meena Ganesh, Co-Founder and CEO of Portea Medical, the leading provider of in-home healthcare services in India. Meena has had an illustrious career spanning corporate and the startup world. We talk to her on what has helped her scale across these various environments.
Growing up across the country owing to her father’s job in the Indian Railways, Meena believes her initial days of studying in Kendriya Vidyalaya served as a very good indoctrination, and helped shape how she treats people today. “Studying in a KV real...
2019-04-0544 min
Seed to ScaleSarah Cannon, Partner at Index Ventures, on lessons from her time working with Obama, Capital G & SlackSarah Cannon is a Partner at Index Ventures focused on investing in consumer businesses. She has had an unconventional path to venture, starting her early career by working in Ghana and as a Policy Advisor on the National Economic Council at the White House during the Obama Administration.
In this episode, Sarah sat down with Hadley Harris, Founding Partner at Eniac Ventures, to share how she went from Ghana, the White House to CapitalG, what led her to join Index in 2018 and why she got into an argument over open source the first time m...
2019-04-0317 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #26 with Shradha Sharma: Beating the odds to build a disruptive media powerhouseWe continue the #InsightsPodcast series, and on this edition, we have the ever-inspiring and charming Shradha Sharma, Founder & CEO of YourStory. In this podcast, we uncover Shradha’s journey from being a young girl from Patna to building the media powerhouse that YourStory has become today, with a team of 93 people, 80,000 stories published, 1 million subscribers and 20 million readers reached.
Being on the other side of the hot seat for a change, Shradha reflects on her successes and how she scaled as a founder over the past decade. From starting off as an idea to tell positive stories (so...
2019-03-2246 min
Seed to ScaleOmar Hamoui, Partner at Sequoia Capital, on the early days of AdMob, a call from Steve Jobs and the secret sauce to Sequoia’s successOmar Hamoui is a Partner at Sequoia Capital, arguably one of the most well-known VC firms in the world, with investments in some of the biggest names, including Dropbox, WhatsApp, Xoom, Square, Evernote, InstaCart to name a few.
In this episode, Omar sat down with Nihal Mehta, Founding Partner at Eniac Ventures, to share his story on building AdMob, one of the most successful mobile ad networks, how it caught the attention of Steve Jobs and Sergey Brin and what it was like being acquired by Google.
From being a...
2019-03-2020 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #25 — Kunal Shah shares anecdotes from his entrepreneurial journeyIn this edition of the #InsightsPodcast series, we are joined by Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO of Cred, and Founder and former CEO of Freecharge.
Freecharge was part of the first wave of ecommerce startups in the country, along with the likes of Flipkart and Paytm. It was acquired for $450 million by Snapdeal in 2015, making it the biggest startup M&A in the Indian startup ecosystem at the time.
In the podcast, Kunal starts off with talking about his early days, and how he started working at the early age of 15 to help his family...
2019-03-0832 min
Seed to ScaleJeff Richards, MD of GGV, on board members: what to look for, how to optimize, expectations at each funding round and managing bad behaviorJeff Richards, Managing Director of GGV Capital, speaks with Eniac Ventures’ Founding General Partner Tim Young on board members: what to look for, how expectations when recruiting & building out your early team and how being a founder is a lot like his experience being a father.
As a two-time founder with more than 13 years building and operating his companies across the U.S. and Asia, Jeff joined the world of venture capital with a wealth of first-hand experience. Today, at GGV, Jeff focuses on enterprise, cloud, and consumer/internet-based brands. His investments include HotelTonight (jus...
2019-03-0727 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #24 - Girish Mathrubootham shares his learnings on building and scaling FreshworksWe continue with the #InsightsPodcast series, and on this edition we have Girish Mathrubootham, Co-founder & CEO of Freshworks. Freshworks scaled from $1 million Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) to $100 million ARR in five years and two months, making it one of the fastest growing companies in the ecosystem, and one of the first VC backed software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies in India to achieve this milestone.
In this podcast, Anand and Girish discuss Girish's early life, and the series of events that led to starting Freshworks. They speak about how Girish's ability to translate even the most mundane stories, his product...
2019-02-2258 min
Seed to ScaleChris Farmer, Founder & CEO of SignalFire on reinventing the venture model with a many-to-many platform, powerful datasets and a full-stack team of engineers and data scientistsChris Farmer, Founder and CEO of SignalFire speaks with Eniac Ventures’ Vic Singh on his early background as an investor and how he flipped the traditional venture model on its head with data-driven insights and a founder-centric thesis.
In this episode, Chris discusses, after years of research, what led him to build SignalFire on top of infrastructure that powers the fund and empowers their founders through data, talent and their expansive advisory network. SignalFire aims to offer founders maximum impact by opening doors to the expertise and services they need to move the needle th...
2019-02-2126 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #23: Elad Gil talks about tackling high-growth problems early onWe continue with the #InsightsPodcast Series with a conversation on the evolving role of a Founder-CEO with Elad Gil, serial entrepreneur, investor and most recently, author of High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People.
Elad Gil has had a lot of experience with super-high-growth startups, having grown Google from 1,500 people to 15,000 people in just over three years. Following the stint at Google, Elad started a company called Mixer Labs, where he expanded the team from 90 to 1,500 in just a couple of years. The firm was acquired by Twitter in just a few years.
It...
2019-02-0834 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #22: Binny Bansal - A behind-the-scenes look at scaling FlipkartIn the first episode of the #INSIGHTSPodcast series for 2019, I had the pleasure of speaking to Binny Bansal – his first ever interview after his departure from Flipkart.
The pace at which Flipkart scaled remains unparalleled in India – it inspires both envy and awe. The pitfalls of scaling too fast are well known but scale is what every startup aspires for. It’s what Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal wanted, and it’s what they achieved, that too in just a few short years.
With scale comes having to let go – something that most entrepreneurs struggle with. It r...
2019-01-2552 min
Seed to ScaleShivani Siroya, Founder & CEO of Tala, on raising capital, scaling teams and funding the underservedShivani Siroya, Founder & CEO of Tala, speaks with Eniac Ventures’ Nihal Mehta about her journey from finance to entrepreneurship, and now a CEO of a fast-growth company with more than 270 employees across 5 countries and $100M in venture funding.
Tala is a mission-driven tech company opening financial access across emerging markets. Working for the UN Population Fund across Africa, Shivani saw the lack of access available to millions of people firsthand and started working on ways to solve the problem. Less than 5 years later, she had attracted some of the biggest names in venture capital, su...
2019-01-2419 min
Seed to ScaleMichael Mignano, Founder & CEO of Anchor, on building the company that democratized podcastingFounding General Partner Hadley Harris talks with Michael Mignano, Co-founder & CEO of Anchor, the company making it easy for anyone to create a podcast.
Michael built Anchor to democratize audio. By putting a free, full-stack podcasting platform in the pocket of anyone with a smartphone, Anchor is changing the way people think about audio, empowering everyone to have their voices heard, and pioneering new ways for creators to generate revenue. Anchor now powers one-third of all new podcasts in the rapidly growing market.
Prior to founding Anchor, Michael was V...
2019-01-1027 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #21: Dinesh Katiyar on Cross-Border startupsIn this episode of #INSIGHTSPodcast Series, we focus on Cross-Border startups - particularly software startups that are cross-border in nature from early days. Dinesh Katiyar, our Accel India partner who is based in Silicon Valley shares some of his key learnings from working initially as a cross-border entrepreneur and now as a VC who focuses on this sector.
There is a range of important topics we cover in this podcast:
Sub-sectors in cross-border startups: What are the various sub-sectors within Enterprise Software that Dinesh is excited about? What are some of the nuances of each sub-sector and d...
2018-12-2131 min
Seed to ScaleMark Suster, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, on the current startup ecosystem in LA, why the city was quick to adopt Bird and the challenges facing the future of transportationFounding General Partner Nihal Mehta talks with Mark Suster, one of the very best VCs in the biz and a true pioneer of LA venture capital.
Mark is the Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest and longest-serving fund in LA - all the way back to 1996, long before the region became known as Silicon Beach. To date, they’ve invested in more than $1 billion, with about 50% going to tech companies from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Mark’s investments include Bird, Density, Imbellus, Invoca, MakeSpace, mitú, Nanit, Osmo, and Tact.
In this episode, Mark speaks to how his prior exper...
2018-12-1816 min
Seed to ScaleShahin Farshchi, Partner at Lux Capital, on leading the deep tech boom & science vs engineering riskFounding General Partner Vic Singh sits down with Shahin Farshchi, a Partner at Lux Capital, to discuss his path to venture capital, by way of Detroit, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and founding a company that stemmed from his research in wireless, vital sign monitoring.
Shahin speaks to how Lux spearheaded investments in science and deep tech when most venture capitalists were interested in adtech, cloud, and SaaS. He shares the mistakes he made and lessons learned along the way, such as that time and money are grossly underrepresented when bringing a product to market and how important it...
2018-12-1022 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #20: Barath and Radhika on the Healthcare Landscape in IndiaWe continue with the #INSIGHTSPodcast Series and in this episode, we focus on the healthcare sector and discuss opportunities and the market landscape using examples from the Accel portfolio. To talk about this exciting topic, We have Barath & Radhika, Principal & Sr Associate at Accel whose core focus investment areas are in Life sciences, Medtech and digital health.
On this podcast, we discuss the healthcare landscape in India using examples from the Accel portfolio and what to look for while building out a healthcare company from India :
Examples from Accel portfolio on problems being solved in...
2018-12-0731 min
Seed to ScaleAnu Duggal & Sutian Dong of Female Founders Fund on the inception of the world’s first female-fundFounding General Partner Nihal Mehta sits down with Anu Duggal and Sutian Dong, Partners at Female Founders Fund, to discuss the inception of the world’s first female-focused Venture Capital fund, how they were set up on a “blind date” by Ed Zimmerman of Lowenstein Sandler and have been able to use their unique backgrounds and points of views to make strong investments.
In this episode, Anu speaks to risk tolerance and the challenges they’ve faced while fundraising and Sutian addresses the huge shift in the industry as female founders are securing more capital than ever.
They also discuss building...
2018-11-2614 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #19: Narayan, Power2SME on Building a B2B marketplace for the IndiaWe continue with our discussion on building for India in the #INSIGHTSpodcast Series and in this episode, we focus on selling to manufacturing SMEs. To talk about this important topic, we have Narayan, Co-founder of Power2SME, a "buying club" for SMEs. Narayan is a serial entrepreneur and before starting Power2SME, he was the founder & CEO of Denave, India's largest technology powered sales enabling services company. Previously he held various leadership positions in companies like Oracle and Microsoft.
On this podcast, we discuss the need for a “buying club” for the Indian SMEs, the role of cred...
2018-11-2428 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #18: Rahul Garg on building Moglix — a B2B Marketplace for MROWe continue with our discussion on building for India in the #INSIGHTPodcast series and in this episode, focus on building an eCommerce company for Industrial India. To talk about this important topic, We have Rahul, Co-founder of Moglix, a B2B marketplace for MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operating Supplies). Before starting Moglix, He has held various leadership positions at Google in Asia Pacific and is a graduate of ISB and IIT Kanpur.
On this podcast, we discuss building a B2B marketplace for the Indian Industry:
Choosing the problem — How do you think about the problem to go aft...
2018-11-0930 min
Seed to ScaleJohn Borthwick, Founder & CEO of betaworks on “What is it that we actually want to build?”Founding General Partner Hadley Harris speaks with John Borthwick, the Founder & CEO of betaworks and long-time investor in the early NYC tech scene. In the past decade, John has helped hundreds of companies build products and scale - such as Giphy, bit.ly, Tumblr, GroupMe - and continues looking for ways to improve the model with each new company.
In this episode, John speaks to a recent blog post he published on “Building Bicycles for Our Minds” in which he addresses his perspective on why there is a significant lack of vision for the next wave of technology and what we c...
2018-11-0616 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #17: Prayank Swaroop on exciting opportunities in the Business SectorWe continue with the #INSIGHTSpodcast Series and in this episode, we focus on tackling the Indian market, why selling to Indian businesses is an exciting untapped opportunity and how one can build for India. To talk about this important topic, we have Prayank, a Principal at Accel who invests in B2B, Consumer Brands and Fintech. He has invested in multiple startups solving problems specifically for Indian Businesses across sectors.
On this podcast, we discuss building for the Indian Business and how to go about building it out:
Indian Business Sector — Why it is an exciting space to bui...
2018-10-2729 min
Seed to ScaleClara Sieg, Partner at Revolution Ventures, on the capital gap & being bullish on tier 2-3 citiesFounding General Partner Tim Young speaks with Clara Sieg, a Partner and Founding member of Revolution Ventures. Clara has been featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and named LinkedIn’s Top 10 Professionals Under 35 for VC & Finance.
In this episode, Clara discusses how her hometown of Pittsburgh has evolved as a tech hub and how it has influenced her passion for finding and investing in companies outside of Silicon Valley. She talks about the early days of Revolution and why they were one of the first funds that strategized around the opportunities in second and third-tier cities. She talks about the...
2018-10-2214 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #16: Dhruv Agarwala on the problems when getting to scaleWe continue with the #INSIGHTSPodcast Series on importance of execution and in this episode, we focus on the myriad problems and decisions founders face while scaling. To talk about this important topic, we have Dhruv Agarwala, a successful serial entrepreneur who has built companies across multiple Industries.
On this podcast, we discuss what to expect when we scale, and potential conflicts that arise and how to resolve them:
Early days - the thesis for Proptiger and figuring out the core value proposition for the business, and the focus areas
Achieving product market fit quickly...
2018-10-1230 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #15: Vamsi from Vedantu talks about the importance of execution in EdTechWe continue diving deeper into the importance of execution in an early stage startup and how to get it right. We discussed this topic with Srikanth Iyer, co-founder and CEO of HomeLane in Episode #14. In this episode, we dive into the Education industry and look at execution from the lens of an experienced EdTech entrepreneur Vamsi Krishna, Co-founder and CEO of Vedantu.
In the first part of the podcast we dive into the following questions regarding execution in an EdTech startup:
Challenges of execution in early days
Importance of Minimum Viable Product and speed in...
2018-09-2830 min
Seed to ScaleMarah Lidey & Naomi Hirabayashi on how they are disrupting the wellness industry & secured Series ANihal Mehta speaks with the talented founders of Shine Text, Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi on how they’ve built one of the fastest-growing health and wellness companies. Working together at DoSomething.org, they realized the importance of daily peer-to-peer support and seized the opportunity to build a community to help others.
In this episode, Naomi and Marah speak about the early days growing Shine from 50,000 to now 3 million users and their approach to fundraising. They discuss the changing model of investor-founder relationship and how keeping an open dialogue led them to a Series A on Christmas Eve.
Marah and Na...
2018-09-2615 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #14: Srikanth Iyer (HomeLane) on Execution, Importance of Uncommon ServiceWe continue the #InsightsPodcastSeries and in this episode, we focus on the importance of Execution and how to get it right in the early stage of a startup. To talk about this important topic, we have Srikanth Iyer a successful serial entrepreneur who has built large companies across multiple industries. Initially in Education with Edurite (sold to Tutorvista/Pearson) and currently founder and CEO of fixed furniture eCommerce startup HomeLane.
On the first part of the podcast, we discuss the importance of execution and specifically the following topics:
What is execution and why is it important?
...
2018-09-1431 min
Seed to ScaleBrad Feld, Founder & MD of Foundry Group, gives advice to himself in the early days and speaks to why it is important to build long-term fund strategies with conviction and consistency (Part 1)Hadley Harris speaks with Brad Feld, Founder and Managing Director of Foundry Group. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987 and has authored several books on VC and entrepreneurship that are must-reads for everyone in the industry.
In this episode, Brad shares his perspective on why it is important to build long-term fund strategies with conviction and consistency.
Brad talks about one of his heroic figures, Warren Buffett, and how his thesis that everything runs in cycles applies to the cycles of venture capital.
Brad gives advice to himself back in the early days and compares Foundry’s...
2018-09-1013 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #13: 1999 to 2018 — Ashish Hemranjani recaps the BookMyShow journeyIn this final episode on fundraising, we hear from a master story-teller — Ashish Hemranjani, co-founder and CEO of BookMyShow, India’s leader in entertainment ticketing.
Ashish recaps his journey from founding the company in 1999 all the way to 2018 and the various phases of the business ups and downs he has seen over this time period.
In particular, we discuss the following topics in great details:
Early days of BookMyShow including launching India’s first cash on delivery (COD) service
The tough years post the 2001 dotcom bust and how they survived those tough years
How to pick yo...
2018-08-3126 min
Seed to ScaleAlex Iskold, tech entrepreneur, investor & former MD of Techstars NYC, on why raising capital should be a side effect of growth and the importance of finding the Magic MomentVic Singh speaks with startup triple threat Alex Iskold. As a three-time founder, investor in 90+ startups and engineer, Alex is passionate about helping early-stage founders build the next generation of companies and connecting entrepreneurs through a global network.
In this episode, Alex discusses the evolution of the semantic web, why he is bullish on blockchain for the enterprise and the new crop of personalized health startups focused on breakthrough technologies for health and longevity.
Alex also shares his perspective on how founders should approach fundraising, why he believes startups should stay scrappy and his advice for the Best Startup Hack.
...
2018-08-2816 min
SeedToScale | Curated by AccelINSIGHTS #12: Digging deeper into Fundraising with Abhiraj Bhal from UrbanClapToday, we are looking at the same topic from an entrepreneurs’ perspective. We are chatting with Abhiraj Bhal, co-founder and CEO of UrbanClap, a path-breaking company in the Home Services space which has grown from zero to over 300K transactions per month in just over 3.5 years and still growing at a phenomenal pace (3–4x per year).
We are again going to divide the topic into two sub-topics — 1) picking who to raise funds from and 2) the process of fundraising. Key topics covered in this short 30 minute podcast are outlined below.
Picking who to raise funds from
What...
2018-08-1730 min
Seed to ScaleLior Susan, Founder of Eclipse Ventures on why he is bullish on full-stack hardtech startups and what founders should do the second they raise their Seed RoundVic Singh speaks with Lior Susan, Founder and Partner of Eclipse Ventures, a leading investor in full stack companies, combining hardware and software with the data layer. Lior’s journey as a founder of a venture backed hardtech Israeli startup with an outsized exit to Cisco, his time starting Lab IX at Flex to ultimately creating Eclipse offers a unique perspective as an investor in Silicon Valley.
In this episode, Lior talks about the “Broken Market” and why he believes the excess of capital is affecting the ecosystem and venture capital as a business. He gives advice to founders on how to...
2018-08-0818 min
Seed to ScaleChieh Huang, Founder of BOXED, on company culture & how his role as CEO changes every 6 monthsHadley Harris speaks with Chieh Huang, the co-founder & CEO of BOXED, an early Eniac company and one of Bloomberg’s Top 50 people to watch in 2018.
Chieh is a charismatic, natural born leader, and his passion and dedication have grown BOXED from his parent's garage to raising over $130M with hundreds of employees.
In this episode, he digs into his journey to BOXED, from his start as a lawyer to co-founding Astro Ape which sold to Zynga in a few short years. He speaks candidly about how his role as CEO changes every 6 months, the most important qualities when working with co...
2018-07-1412 min
Seed to ScaleHeather Hartnett, CEO of Human Ventures, on the Myth of the Big Idea and looking Beyond the ResumeTim Young speaks with Heather Hartnett, the CEO at Human Ventures. She was NYC’s first female-led start-up studio founder and her philanthropic background brings a unique approach to investing, helping set the firm apart with their Human Network approach.
In this episode, Heather speaks on the “Myth of the Big Idea” and how Human proactively looks at the zeitgeist to see what types of patterns and opportunities are starting to form. She gives the scoop on how this method redefines their thesis to focus on “Reinventing Life Stages,” looking at how each generation experiences life’s stages with unique lenses and w...
2018-07-1311 min
Seed to ScaleMike Maples, Founding Partner of Floodgate, on spotting the Thunder Lizards before they hatchNihal Mehta kicks off Seed to Scale’s opening episode with one of VC’s most prominent investors Mike Maples, the founding partner of Floodgate. Mike has backed some of the most well-known tech companies today, including Twitter, Twitch.tv, Lyft, Okta, Chegg, Demandforce, among many others.
In this episode, Mike talks about his journey from being an entrepreneur in junior high writing video games to being a founder of two IPO companies, Tivoli and Motiv, and how his pivot to investor was his way to remain close to startups in order to “stay forever young.”
He gives advice to investor...
2018-07-1315 min