Prime Venture Partners Podcast Sushant Junnarkar on Building a Business, Running Out of Runway, and Knowing When to Stop
Mar 26, 2026
Sushant Junnarkar, entrepreneur and former online-grocery founder who turned his shutdown story into a book. He recounts early traction, press buzz, and tech limitations. He digs into rising competition, the funding vs scale trap, last-ditch pivots, and the hard decision to wind down. Short, candid, and full of startup realities.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Euphoric First Orders Kept The Team
- Early days were painfully slow: Sushant refreshed analytics seeing only himself on the site until the first order arrived.
- The first orders and repeats validated the model and kept the initial team committed.
Competition Forces Technical Maturity
- Competition raised the benchmark and exposed product/tech gaps, forcing architecture and team changes.
- Jugaad fixes stopped working; Sushant moved from Ubuntu restarts to re-architecting systems under pressure.
Explore Partnerships And Pivots Before Shutting Down
- Try alternative partnerships or pivots when VCs won't fund scale; pursue retail tie-ups or niche pivots as Sushant did.
- He approached retail chains, tried gourmet and pharmacy pivots, and even sent a desperate mail to Mukesh Ambani.