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-6 J • THE KEN PREMIUM UNIQUEMENT

Rapido broke the Uber-Ola duopoly. Can it now break the Swiggy-Zomato one?

Last week, Rapido launched Ownly, its zero commission food delivery app and went straight for Swiggy and Zomato's throat. This is the same company that dismantled the Uber-Ola duopoly with just a simpler model, cheaper rides, and a very different idea of what India actually needs. Their weapon this time is zero commission. They're betting on restaurants that are fed up, customers who want cheaper food, and a rider fleet that's already in place. So we got Kunal Khattar ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkhattar/ ), the investor who backed Rapido from day one and made 88x on that bet to break down whether lightning can strike twice. We also have Gautam Balijepalli ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/balli/ ), who runs one of the largest cloud kitchen operations in India and tells us what it looks like from the restaurant side. Along with our guests, Rahel Philipose and Praveen Gopal Krishnan discuss, can Rapido steal a bite from Swiggy and Zomato? Or is food delivery a completely different beast? _________ This episode of Two by Two was produced by Uddantika Kashyap and mix and mastered by Rajiv CN. If you liked this episode, please share it with your friends and family who would be interested in listening to the episode. And if you have more thoughts on the discussion, we’d love to hear your arguments as well. You can write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com ( twobytwo@the-ken.com ).

-6 j

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57 min
22 MARS

Intermission E01 - Asian Paints (PART 1)

Asian Paints was founded in 1942 by four young Gujaratis in a Bombay garage. Today, it controls more than half of India's paint market. This is the story of how that happened. The company was among the first to tap into the rural market, become a technology company before most people understood what that meant, crack the supply chain, and bring about a new era of Indian advertising. Now, Asian Paints is being met with renewed competition and aggression from Birla Opus, JSW Dulux and Berger Paints. Understanding why this market is so hard to take requires understanding of how it was built. — We also have an interactive webpage exploring Asian Paints' history with reading lists, infographics, and source notes: the-ken.com/intermission. — The full episode runs 6 hours and is split into two parts on podcast platforms. — About Intermission: Intermission, produced by The Ken, dives deep into the histories of iconic Indian companies. Intermission was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our season sponsor. Disclosure: Rainmatter Foundation is an investor in The Ken's parent company. — About The Ken:The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, startups and healthcare across India and Southeast Asia. Since our inception, we’ve published thousands of stories that have been widely discussed, debated and referenced. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more.— Follow us on our socials:Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/theken_web/⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ken/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/thekenweb⁠⁠⁠⁠— We would also like to thank Anupam Gupta, the writer of "The Rise of Asian Paints: Champaklal Choksey, a Doyen of the Indian Paints Industry" (Penguin India, 2024). You can buy the book here: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-rise-of-asian-paints/ — Credits Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao Video Producers: Vijay Subramaniam, Vishnu S, Rajiv CN Audio Engineer: Rajiv CN Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra Art Direction: Kavipriya OG Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath Production Agency: Nesara Films Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap DoP: Subash KP Editing and Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah Colorist: Pranav Bhat Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Himanshi, Jayesh Sahu On-Set Production: Veeresh, Chaitanya and team Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team Set Design: Hritika, Saanvi, Thejaswini Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

22 mars

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2 h 58 min
26 FÉVR.

What Peak XV's partner exodus says about VC economics

Quick question: Would you give someone your money for ten years if they promised you'd get back roughly what an FD would give you? And they'd also take 2% of your money every single year, no matter what happens, plus 20% of any profits at the end. You'd laugh them out of the room, right? Well, that's venture capital. Peak XV lost three of its partners. Ashish Agarwal who backed Groww, Ishan Mittal who invested in Razorpay and Tejasvi Sharma who bet on Cred. These guys crushed it and they still walked out over "disagreements on economics and payouts." That's when we realized: this isn't a Peak XV problem but a VC industry problem that nobody wants to admit. So we brought in Mayank Bansal, a hedge fund manager who pulled the actual numbers: Crisil data, Peak XV's fund performance, small cap index returns, FDs. All of it. Joining us is also Arundhati Ramanathan, deputy editor at The Ken, who's been tracking these partner exits closely. Mayank's take? "What is happening in the VC industry currently is they are charging the profit shares of that Medallion fund while returning less than index funds, which is blasphemous." Most Indian VC funds are charging 36% profit share to deliver 12% returns while a small cap index fund gave 13.35% over the same period which you can withdraw anytime. So why do the smartest investors in the world keep putting money into this? Why does two and twenty still exist? Fair warning, this episode is number-heavy. We've linked the reports in the show notes so you can follow along. But the punchline is simple: venture capital in India might just be an overpriced underperforming asset class nobody's willing to admit is broken. Listen to find out why the exits are just beginning.____ Additional resources:1. Accel India's fund returns (Newcomer, paywalled) 2. Crisil's AIF Benchmarks Report 3. Indian VCs’ boss wants them to take a pay cut by Arundhati Ramanathan 4. India's VCs are getting disrupted… by India's tax-payers by Praveen Gopal Krishnan 5. The invisible whale that capsized India’s leaky options boats- Two by Two episode 51____ This episode was produced by Uddantika Kashyap. If you liked this episode, share it with your friends, family and colleagues. And if you have thoughts on the discussion, write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com.

26 févr.

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1 h 20 min
22 MARS

Intermission E01 - Asian Paints (PART 2)

This is Part 2 of Intermission's episode on Asian Paints. We'd urge you to listen to Part 1 first to get a full picture of the company's early history and main bets. —Asian Paints was founded in 1942 by four young Gujaratis in a Bombay garage. Today, it controls more than half of India's paint market. This is the story of how that happened. The company was among the first to tap into the rural market, become a technology company before most people understood what that meant, crack the supply chain, and bring about a new era of Indian advertising. Now, Asian Paints is being met with renewed competition and aggression from Birla Opus, JSW Dulux and Berger Paints. Understanding why this market is so hard to take requires understanding of how it was built. — We also have an interactive webpage exploring Asian Paints' history with reading lists, infographics, and source notes: the-ken.com/intermission. — The full episode runs 6 hours and is split into two parts on podcast platforms. — About Intermission: Intermission, produced by The Ken, dives deep into the histories of iconic Indian companies. Intermission was produced with vital support and assistance from Zerodha, our season sponsor. Disclosure: Rainmatter Foundation is an investor in The Ken's parent company. — About The Ken:The Ken is India's first subscriber-only business journalism platform reporting on business, technology, startups and healthcare across India and Southeast Asia. Since our inception, we’ve published thousands of stories that have been widely discussed, debated and referenced. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠the-ken.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, and explore our stories, newsletters, podcasts and more.— Follow us on our socials:Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/theken_web/⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ken/⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/thekenweb⁠⁠⁠⁠— We would also like to thank Anupam Gupta, the writer of "The Rise of Asian Paints: Champaklal Choksey, a Doyen of the Indian Paints Industry" (Penguin India, 2024). You can buy the book here: https://www.penguin.co.in/book/the-rise-of-asian-paints/ — Credits Hosts: Rohin Dharmakumar, Seetharaman G Podcast Producer: Vidhatri Rao Video Producers: Vijay Subramaniam, Vishnu S, Rajiv CN Audio Engineer: Rajiv CN Lead Researcher: Raghav Batra Art Direction: Kavipriya OG Data Visualisation: Anuj Debnath Production Agency: Nesara Films Creative Direction: Sunayana Kashyap DoP: Subash KP Editing and Motion Graphics:⁠⁠ Karthik N Graphic Design and Illustrations: Anusha Sarah Colorist: Pranav Bhat Video Editing team: Sarthak Pujar, Himanshi, Jayesh Sahu On-Set Production: Veeresh, Chaitanya and team Audio: ⁠⁠Murthy and team Set Design: Hritika, Saanvi, Thejaswini Promotions: Pranav Pate, Aakash Raju, Adhavan RK Writer & Editor (Microsite): Brady Ng Product Design (Microsite): Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Ritika Sanikere, Sushmita Vavilala, Karan Kumar

22 mars

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3 h 26 min
22 MARS

India's Northeast millionaires have BS detectors. Wealth managers are learning that the hard way

India's Northeast has always had money. Wealth managers are only now showing up to court it, and finding the welcome chillier than expected. Post-GST, a wave of newly banked business wealth is looking for a home. Sophisticated products like AIFs, PMS, bonds, are finding takers. But Northeastern millionaires play by different rules. They don't respond to cold calls. They don't trust outsiders easily. And they have little patience for managers who can't answer basic questions. So what does it actually take to win a client here — and why are so many wealth managers still getting it wrong? Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

22 mars

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12 min
11 FÉVR.

Did Claude Cowork trigger a real “SaaSpocalypse” or is it overkill?

In early February, Indian IT stocks crashed 6% in a single day—the worst selloff in six years. ₹2 lakh crore vanished. Wall Street lost $300 billion. The trigger? Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, an AI agent that can organize files, parse spreadsheets, and write reports autonomously. For the first time, AI doesn't just assist—it executes entire workflows with minimal supervision. Investors panicked, and experts coined the term "SaaSpocalypse." But is this really the end of software companies, or are we watching an overreaction? Today, host Rachel Varghese unpacks both sides. Tune in. Listen to our episode on Deloitte's AI blunder here. If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

11 févr.

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13 min
11 MARS

AI and the end of SaaS 'playbooks'

“We were so close to the finish line and boom ‘SaaS is dead’. We are restarting…. There is one more round to run.” That’s an honest admission from Avinash Raghava, the founding volunteer and CEO of the pay-it-forward community SaaSBoomi. As someone who has spent years building networks and communities — at Nasscom, Accel, and Together Fund previously — Avinash has a full view of the inflection point that founders are at. They are having to reinvent themselves, change business models and pivot entirely to become AI-native. The idea is to disrupt their own models before the market does. SaaSBoomi is undergoing its own transformation. It is now AIBoomi, with the primary focus of helping founders navigate the new world where old SaaS playbooks are irrelevant. Can there be a new playbook? How does one write it? How does one learn, grow, and create a community along the way? Avinash takes on all of these questions in this episode. The result is a conversation that captures and dissects the crossroads that SaaS is currently at. Tune in! ____ This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN. ____ Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken. Write to us at Zeroshot@the-ken.com. We are all ears! ____ Recommended Reading: Which Software Companies Will Survive the SaaSpocalypse The Three-Body Problem (novel) Dark forest hypothesis https://annual.aiboomi.org/ Over 100 Indian AI startup founders moving to US for funds and talent Voice AI has gone from whisper to commotion. Can the market get any louder?

11 mars

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1 h 1 min
5 FÉVR.

Who is the entry-level software engineer now?

Software engineering as we knew it is over and the entry-level job has vanished. So what do you tell someone graduating today? This question splits even the experts. Arnav Gupta, Engineering Manager at Meta and co-founder of Coding Blocks, argues the knowledge must compress. He says that the future belongs to those who adapt fast and embrace the AI tools.Meanwhile Abhay Saraf, Director at Bushel Technologies and ex-Microsoft, pushes back hard. He believes you cannot build a calculator and stop teaching multiplication. The fundamentals matter more than ever, even if it takes longer to learn them. Together with co-hosts Praveen Gopal Krishnan and Rahel Philipose, they break down what skills actually matter now, why typing still beats voice coding, and whether engineering college should be two years or ten. The answers might surprise you._____ Similar episode:Episode 6 Is the golden era of the (software) engineer over? This episode of Two by Two was produced by Uddantika Kashyap and mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer. If you liked this episode, share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you have thoughts on the discussion, write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com.

5 févr.

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1 h 20 min
26 FÉVR.

India's elite schools are getting pickleball courts. Their teachers are getting pay cuts

Private equity has been buying up some of India's most prestigious schools. The pitch: better governance, professional management, and much-needed capital for a struggling sector. But inside some of these acquisitions, something else is happening. Teacher training budgets are shrinking. Salaries are stagnating. And in at least one case, a school is paying 65% of its revenue in rent — to a landlord owned by the same firm that owns the school. Some investors have made it work. Others have changed something harder to measure.In this episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rachel Varghese speak to The Ken reporters Valli Vikram and Mutasim Khan about how private-equity firms squeeze money out of schools and what that does to them. Read the stories here:Private equity’s priority for Indian schools: pickleball courts over teacher training by Valli VikramThe private-equity handbook for turning non-profit schools into cash cows by Mutasim Khan If you have any thoughts on this episode write to us at podcasts@the-ken.com with Daybreak in the subject line. You can also leave us a comment on our website or the YouTube channel here. Disclosure: Reporter Valli Vikram comes from a family that previously owned a school acquired partially by International Schools Partnership (ISP) Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

26 févr.

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31 min
12 FÉVR.

Ranking TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL: Who thrives and who survives in the AI era?

Last week, nearly ₹2 lakh crore vanished from Indian IT stocks in just four days. A big reason was Anthropic's new product, Claude Cowork. Suddenly investors were confronted with an unsettling reality: what if the work Indian IT has long depended on is now the easiest to automate? For almost 20 years, India's IT giants have been unstoppable compounding machines. They built empires worth hundreds of billions of dollars by doing one thing very well: renting out smart people by the hour to write code and run technology for Western clients. But when code starts to write itself, what happens to these companies? Conversations about IT services usually lump all these firms together, as if they are the same business with different logos. In this episode, we break them apart. We ask a simple but uncomfortable question: in an AI-first world, who thrives and who gets left behind? We take five of the biggest IT services firms in India's orbit—TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech and Cognizant—and rank them on who is best placed right now for what's coming next. Spoiler: the answer is not what the last 20 years of market-cap tables would suggest. To do this, we brought in two people who have lived this industry from the inside. Krishnakumar Natarajan co-founded Mindtree in 1999 and built it into a multi-billion dollar global IT services firm. He later chaired NASSCOM and now runs Mela Ventures, where he backs early-stage deep tech and enterprise startups. Vivek Kant spent over two decades in IT services across Tech Mahindra and Cognizant, then moved to the other side of the table as CTO at Bajaj Markets and as an advisor at Boston Consulting Group. He still codes 3-4 hours a day using AI. You can check out his blogs here. The board is set. The King, the Rook, the Knight, and the Bishop. The question is: who makes the first move?_________ This episode of Two by Two was produced by Uddantika Kashyap and mixed and mastered by Rajiv CN, our resident sound engineer. If you liked this episode, share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you have thoughts on the discussion, write to us at twobytwo@the-ken.com.

12 févr.

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1 h 18 min

The Two by Two podcast is a premium business podcast from The Ken that investigates, discusses and breaks down the most important business stories around you. Hosted from The Ken's newsroom by business journalists Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen Gopal Krishnan, Two by Two will feature guests and experts from across the industry and academia to talk about issues no one else is talking about.

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AFFAIRES
First Principles is a weekly interview podcast comprising authentic, candid, and insightful conversations between some of India’s most accomplished founders and business leaders, and Rohin Dharmakumar, The Ken’s CEO & co-founder. From personal philosophies, mental models and decision making frameworks, to reading habits, parenting styles or personal interests, each episode will delve into what makes each of these leaders unique.

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ENTREPRENARIAT
You’ll spend 90,000 hours at work in your lifetime. How do you make that time count? 90,000 Hours is a weekly podcast from the newsroom of The Ken that helps you navigate today’s changing world of work, where the traditional 40-year career is gone, entry-level jobs are being replaced by artificial intelligence, and staying relevant means constantly reinventing yourself. Hosted by Rahel Philipose and Vidhatri Rao, the show features conversations with the people creating, breaking, and rewriting the way we work.

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CARRIÈRE
The audio edition of The Ken’s Make India Competitive Again newsletter, spearheaded by Seetharaman G. Every Wednesday, our editors and reporters read the latest edition and chronicle what India is doing, will do, and should do—to not just survive but thrive in the chaos unleashed by Donald Trump.

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ACTUALITÉ ÉCONOMIQUE
Join Brady Ng, Praveen Gopal Krishnan, and Rohin Dharmakumar of The Ken as they discuss the big ideas in artificial intelligence. You’ll get the macro view, explore their experiments in practical applications, go deeper than the news coverage you’ve seen, and hear about the implications of the latest developments. Nothing is off the table.

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