The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

Srikanth Iyer is the Co-founder & CEO of HomeLane, India's largest startup in the home decor space, backed by Sequoia, Accel, Stride Ventures, IIFL Asset Management among others investors. Srikanth is a serial entrepreneur and industry leader, having started his entrepreneurial journey as the co-founder of Edurite Technologies, which eventually was acquired by Pearson India, where he spent the next few years as the CEO and responsible for bringing technology enabled education to millions of schools in India and making Pearson a leading player in Indian education. He is also a Venture partner with Unitus Ventures, an impact fund focused on India.Episode notes: 1. Where does Srikanth find the courage to enter and dominate industries in which he has no or little prior experience? (3:56)2. Framework to excel as a generalist in business (8:33)3. Developing stronger leaders within an organization (14:48)4. How to the best people at various stages of company development (20:50)5. Mantra for building successful businesses (29:00)6. Keeping it simple in business (39:39)7. Values, culture and teams at the early-stage vs later-stage (51:07)8. Srikanth’s advice to younger self (1:05:53). . . Social links:HomeLane on Twitter: https://twitter.com/homelanedecorsSrikanth Iyer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/srikanthiyPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Chanakya Hridaya is the co-founder of BlackBuck. Founded in 2015, BlackBuck has been a pioneer in bringing the offline operations of trucking online, be it matching a shipper with a trucker or reshaping the infrastructure around trucking to facilitate payments, insurance, and financial services. Today, BlackBuck is India’s largest trucking network, and our robust ‘Freight’ and ‘Fleet Management’ technology platforms deliver reliability, efficiency and seamless experience for shippers and truckers. The company has raised $364M till date from Tribe Capital, Trifecta Capital Advisors, B Capital, Sequoia, Accel and Tiger Global. In today’s episode, we will cover: 1. How did the idea for BlackBuck come about? (3:05)2. Disrupting the Indian trucking industry (11:15)3. Early days of product adoption and finding PMF (19:40)4. Learning from the growth story of BlackBuck (28:07)5. Framework for problem solving (34:19)6. The hardships of entrepreneurship (40:10)7. Navigating the challenges of marketplace models (47:55)8. Prioritization as a founder as businesses and ideas grow (59:49)9. What has Chanakya discovered about himself while working on BlackBuck? (1:07:40)Social links:Chanakya Hridaya on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChanakyaHridayaPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Ketan Patel is the Chief Executive Officer of Mswipe. Founded in 2011, Mswipe has gone on to become the leading digital payments and financial solutions company supporting the growing merchant community across India.Ketan joined Mswipe in 2021 after 18 years at Kotak where he oversaw management, business development, operations and the use of emerging technologies to disrupt the finance industry. During his time at Kotak, he has headed key verticals including Private Banking, Composite Business Solutions and E-commerce. In his latter years at Kotak, he became a startup specialist helping build 4 businesses from scratch for the bank, one of which being CASHe, a credit-enabled financial technology platform that offers a wide range of consumer lending products and services, which he helped transition from a startup to a profitable and future-ready business.Ketan is a well-known industry veteran in the world of finance and has been recognized for his work many times over his career, including receiving The Economic Times' Young Entrepreneurs Award in 2020.In this episode, we will cover:1. What inspired Ketan to pursue a career as an entrepreneur? (4:56)2. What has Ketan learned about himself as a result of his entrepreneurial journey? (7:01)3. What is Ketan's perspective on the role of a CEO? (10:03)4. Managing stakeholders as a business grows (12:35)5. Why is self-awareness as a leader critical to success? (17:10)6. Looking back on Mswipe's early days (19:44)7. Scaling organizational culture and principles (23:35)8. Long-term value implementation lessons (29:40)9. Decision-making framework for leaders (36:50)10. Dealing with adversity as a CEO (41:06)11. Words of wisdom for his younger self (46:02)12. What is Ketan's vision for Mswipe? (55:56)13. What would the next chapter of Ketan's life look like? (58:48)Social links:Mswipe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MswipePodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Mukesh Kalra is the CEO of ET Money, one of India's fastest growing investment and wealth management platform with a total of over $3B worth of investments under management. Mukesh has over 15 years of experience in building businesses and products from scratch in the consumer internet and mobile advertising space. Prior to heading ET Money, he was one of the core members at InMobi and helped build it from concept into the world’s largest independent mobile ad network. He then launched his own fintech firm, Moneysights, which was later acquired by Times Internet, and Times Group.  In less than 5 years, ET Money has built a solid customer base of over 10 million users across 1400 cities. The platform has been a pioneer in building industry-first technical solutions like paperless video KYC for MF investments, and the country’s first Aadhar-based SIP payment feature, amongst others.ET Money is simplifying the financial journey of new-age Indians by offering easy investment for different needs like Mutual Funds, National Pension System, and safer avenues like Fixed Deposits. In this episode we will cover:1. India: A macroeconomic outlook (3:38)2. Why has India fared better than any other markets affected by the global financial slowdown? (10:20)3. Lessons learned from black swan events (15:50)4. What did Mukesh excel at during black swan periods? (25:12)5. Thoughts on market manipulation in the context of content creators (42:06)6. Why must a founder constantly evolve their mental models (54:03)7. The vision for Indian fintech in the coming years (1:05:28). . . Social links:Mukesh Kalra on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kalramukeshPodcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thedesi_vcAkash Bhat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bhatvakashPodcast on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thedesivcAkash Bhat on Instagram: https://instagram.com/bhatvakash

Ankit Kedia is the Founding Partner of Capital-A. He is a second generation entrepreneur who has held senior leadership positions at Manjushree Technopack Ltd. (MTL), India's largest rigid plastic packaging company. With a penchant for institutional marketing and a credit of designing the Key Account Management program, Ankit has been instrumental in the 5x growth of revenues and EBIDTA at Manjushree, where he devoted 15 strong years. He was also instrumental in raising private equity capital from Kedaara Capital and helped in the acquisition of two rival companies, before divesting controlling stake to Advent International in 2018. In this episode we will cover:1. What does Ankit really love about venture capital? (3:10)2. Ankit's perspective on India's macro economic climate (6:30)3. Market fluctuations in the early stages of investing (8:50)4. Founder-market fit and how it influences a fund manager's investment decisions (14:48)5. Learnings from investing in Indian startups (17:56)6. How to identify the best startups (22:24)7. The most difficult thing for a fund manager of a micro VC fund (34:40)8. Ankit's perspective on the Indian early-stage venture landscape (36:53)9. Why did Ankit choose to invest in tech startups rather than traditional manufacturing businesses in which his family had had a lot of success? (41:10)10. What has Ankit the LP learned about Indian VC that he can use as a fund manager today? (44:15)11. What would Ankit advise his younger self? (46:51)12. Advice for entrepreneurs and fund managers (48:55)​

Manish Taneja is the co-founder and CEO of Purplle, an online beauty and wellness retailer and a recent entrant into the unicorn club. He brings a wealth of experience having spent some of his finest years in venture capital (Avendus Capital), private equity (Fidelity Growth Partners India) and investment banking (Lehman Brothers), before turning a founder. In this episode we will cover:1. Manish's biggest takeaways from the last two years of building Purplle (4:18)2. What has Manish discovered about himself and his role as a leader in general? (17:08)3. As a founder, how does Manish deal with difficult decisions? (27:02)4. Influences and influencers who have had an impact on Manish’s life (38:23)5. Where does Manish see Purplle in the next decade (49:20)6. Manish's advice to his younger self? (59:58)

Parag Dhol is the General Partner at Athera Venture Partners. He started his VC career with ICICI Venture, India’s first venture capital company, in 1993. He followed that up with stints at GE and Intel’s corporate venture arms. Parag joined Athera (formerly known as Inventus Capital) in 2008, shortly after the first close of Fund I. Parag is/was a Board Director/Observer at redBus (acquired), FundsIndia, Lemnisk (buy-back), eTechies (buy-back), Power2SME, PolicyBazaar (IPO), Avaz (buy-back), peel-works, Tricog, worxogo, Pixxel and Clootrack.Parag has a B.Tech. (Mechanical Engg.) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore.In this episode, we will cover:1. Venture Capital in India in the 1990s (2:55)2. What factors influence a fund manager's temperament? (5:26)3. Things that surprise Parag about Indian venture capital (9:58)4. What lessons has public market investing taught Parag about private market investing? (20:29)5. Managing investor biases and blindspots (24:32)6. What investment advice would Parag give to his younger self? (29:13)7. Evolution of Indian VC over the decades (35:10)8. Considering the current venture landscape in India (43:59)9. What continues to pique Parag's interest in the India opportunity? (51:16)10. Athera's vision and the role Parag sees it playing in Indian venture capital (55:08)11. How would Parag like to be remembered i.e. his legacy in Indian VC (1:00:06)

Arun Chulani is an Emerging Markets Analyst at First Water Capital, a fund focused on Indian Equities. First Water’s investment philosophy centers primarily on a long-only strategy, with a value driven and concentrated portfolio approach. Arun is a value investor focusing on hard assets (sectors such as steel, cement, rubber, oil etc.) and cyclicals, taking concentrated bets on preferred plays. Prior to First Water he was with NIG, handling an industrials fund with $400M AUM. Arun is also a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of the LSE.In this episode, we will cover:1. Macroeconomic view of the public markets? (2:24)2. Mean reversal in light of the current market environment (5:06)3. When the market is effectively underperforming, how do you invest? (7:52)4. The economics of hedge funds and their investors' attitudes (12:47)5. How does First Water Capital develop an investment thesis like theirs? (14:30)6. What impact does the budget have on First Water Capital investment plan? (22:15)7. What metrics does First Water Capital use to differentiate its sectors? (27:04)8. How do you assure competition in industries with powerful incumbents? (27:57)9. What factors do funds consider before investing in big businesses? (32:10)10. Extrinsic vs. intrinsic value (36:20)11. What according to Arun is the hardest thing for investors to evaluate (39:12)12. Can a slowdown in one industry affect the growth of another due to the marco-climate? (43:41)13. The effects of trickle-down (45:22)14. Tips for making fund investments in public markets (47:49)15. Industries that Arun is bullish on (51:11)

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda is the co-founder of Wakefit, India’s leading direct-to-consumer, mattress and sleep solutions company. He brings over 19 years of experience spanning entrepreneurship, management consulting and marketing across companies such as IBM, Cognizant, Zinnov Consulting, YourStory and LetsVenture. In this episode, we will cover: 1. The Wakefit origin story (3:25) 2. Building the right culture even when the company is failing (7:36) 3. When did the founders feel that were onto something with Wakefit (12:05) 4. Scaling values and culture as a company grows (19:00) 5. Reasons why Wakefit decided to bootstrap (28:56) 6. Biggest learnings running Wakefit (33:40) 7. When and why do Indian D2C brands opt for the offline retail experience strategy as they grow? (38:39) 8. Tapping into the middle India markets through (42:05) 9. Doubling down on markets in India (45:11) 10. Lessons Chaitanya would share with his younger self (50:05)

RK Rangan is the Chairman of BLinC Invest, a venture capital fund committed to funding EdTech and Fintech startups in India. He is a seasoned business leader with over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry across Investment Banking, Asset Management, Insurance and Consumer Banking. He is a specialist at strategic development and transformation of businesses and has held President/MD and CEO positions with large global corporates.In this episode, we will cover:1. Current state of the industry (3:41)2. Microtrends that influence macrotrends in investment (14:46)3. Indian EdTech: How to create long-term business models and maintain good corporate governance (30:57)4. Is an independent regulator required for Indian Edtech? (36:10)5. What does it take for investors to put their investment thesis into action? (39:15)6. What are the various challenges that a fund manager faces when implementing their thesis, and how does this change over time? (52:38)