Z47 Moments

Z47
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  • Updated Biweekly

Zero to Infinity, by Z47, is a podcast series dedicated to the founders, startups, and all within the ecosystem through candid conversations on what we think it really takes to survive in this wild startup world. In a world where we are endlessly engulfed with information in all its forms and sizes, this is our attempt to create, curate, and bring to you the insights and reflections that we have had the luxury of having learned the hard way through all the years spent in truly understanding what it takes to build and nurture a startup from ground zero.

  1. 5d ago

    From a Small Town in Assam to India's First AI IPO | Srikanth Velamakanni, Fractal

    Srikanth Velamakanni built an AI company before most people knew the A in AI. In 2000, long before ChatGPT, he and five co-founders started Fractal Analytics with a simple bet: that math could predict human behaviour and help companies make better decisions. The market wasn't ready. HDFC took 18 months to convince. Citibank made them prove themselves against 100 in-house PhDs. They won on accuracy, stayed profitable, and 26 years later Fractal became India's first AI company to go public. In this episode of Unstarted, Srikanth sits down with Avnish to talk about the story behind the story. Growing up middle class in a small oil town in Assam. Why he never thought he was founder material, and the Narayana Murthy lecture that changed his mind. If you are building, or still unstarted, this one is full of hard-won lessons on conviction, timing, co-founders, and staying relevant across 26 years of technological change. Chapers 0:00 Intro1:15 From a small town in Assam to Fractal2:47 Math plus human behaviour: an AI company before AI3:34 "I never thought I would be an entrepreneur"5:01 The Narayana Murthy moment5:54 Not money: building a 100 year company6:57 Conviction vs market readiness9:32 When the market is not ready (ICICI, HDFC)10:27 The Citibank bake-off against 100 PhDs12:00 Compounding your core passion15:44 The two co-founder types you actually need18:39 Finding your ICP without chasing noise19:16 26 years of AI, from regression to transformers23:08 Strategy is what you refuse to do26:24 Elected CEO, then asked to leave in 6 months28:02 Defining the company's values after crisis29:19 Raising money and investor expectations31:34 Will AI make Fractal obsolete?33:58 Why Fractal was built in Mumbai36:30 Advice: build what OpenAI cannot kill

    From a Small Town in Assam to India's First AI IPO | Srikanth Velamakanni, Fractal

  2. Sep 24

    From a village to building a profitable business in 3 months | Amit Lakhotoia | Founder, Park+

    Amit Lakhotia moved from a village in Churu, Rajasthan to Delhi at 10, speaking Marwari and barely any Hindi. Twenty people shared three rooms. His father couldn't afford the school fees, so he made a bet with the principal: if his son didn't come first within a year, throw him out. That year Amit scored 19 out of 20 in Maths and Hindi, and 1 out of 20 in English. His tuition was waived from class four through twelve. He went on to NSIT and IIM Ahmedabad, helped scale MakeMyTrip, Paytm and Tokopedia, built a taxi business that was four times Ola's size before shutting it down, and then founded Park+ — which raised its first cheque two months before COVID shut down every mall and office in the country. In this episode of Unstarted, Amit talks to Avnish Bajaj about when to walk away from a working business, the vitamin versus painkiller test for choosing what to build, why he picked parking as the wedge into the car ownership market, how access control emerged from the worst possible timing, and why brand and revenue aren't a trade-off if you think creatively. Unstarted is a series for founders, by founders, with questions crowdsourced from the audience. Guest: Amit Lakhotia, Founder & CEO, Park+Host: Avnish Bajaj, Founder & Managing Director, Z47 Chapters 0:00 Intro: the founder who gets away with scolding me1:14 Churu to Delhi, and 20 people in three rooms2:09 Arriving at school with no English3:04 The bet his father made with the principal5:01 How he survived that first year5:47 19 out of 20 in Maths. 1 out of 20 in English.7:21 NSIT, IIM-A, and where the confidence came from9:20 Sitting in his father's shop and deciding to drop out10:12 Turning around the IIM-A souvenir store12:15 GetMeCab: profitable in month three13:42 Why he walked away from a business 4x Ola's size14:50 Q: I want to start a business. How?17:57 Vitamins vs painkillers18:38 The two ideas he shortlisted, and why parking won21:24 Q: How do you measure progress during a pivot?21:36 Two months in, COVID arrives22:52 Turning a pandemic into the access control business24:38 The metric that mattered: client acceptance25:35 Revenue vs brand, and getting signage for free27:43 Closing: build the network, and give before you take

    From a village to building a profitable business in 3 months | Amit Lakhotoia | Founder, Park+

  3. Sep 17

    Building a ₹100 Crore hair care brand in 2 years | Nikita Khanna, Moxie

    Nikita Khanna spent fifteen years straightening her hair before she realised the problem wasn't her hair. It was that nobody had built products for it. She was on partner track at McKinsey her only job ever when she started going down YouTube rabbit holes during COVID, trying to find a sustainable way to manage wavy, frizz-prone hair. She found the answers in Brazil: similar hair texture, dozens of local brands, none of it available in India. When she asked people in the industry whether it was a business, almost everyone told her the category was too small and too random. Roughly 80% of Indians have hair somewhere on the wavy-to-curly spectrum. She built Moxie anyway. In this episode of Unstarted, Nikita talks to Avnish Bajaj about validating an idea before you quit your job, the ABC framework she now uses to evaluate any new category, why she never thought she was cut out to be a founder, learning to delegate and build an org for the first time, running a company with her husband as co-founder, and what it actually takes to build a brand in a market where launching a product has never been easier. Unstarted is a series for founders, by founders, with questions crowdsourced from the audience. Chapters  0:00 Intro: the company we should have invested in00:00 Growing up in Delhi, watching her father build a business00:00 DU, XLRI, and landing at McKinsey00:00 Straightening her hair since 13, and deciding to stop00:00 Finding the answer in Brazil00:00 "Am I even cut out to be a founder?"00:00 Q: How do I validate an idea before I quit?00:00 The ABC framework: assortment, business, consumer00:00 Everyone said the category was too small00:00 Q: How does a young founder become a CEO?00:00 Building with her husband as co-founder00:00 Why viral products aren't the goal

    Building a ₹100 Crore hair care brand in 2 years | Nikita Khanna, Moxie

  4. Sep 10

    He Saved ₹50 Lakh in College - Then Sold His Startup at 25 | Aman Goel, Grey Labs AI

    Aman Goel, founder of Greylabs.ai, joins Avnish on Unstarted for one of the most relatable founder journeys yet — a middle-class kid from Kanpur who was hustling for money from his first year of college and never stopped. Aman is refreshingly honest that his motivation was simply to make money. He earned his first ₹4,000 solving JEE papers, built a content-writing business with his now-wife and co-founder Harshita, and had saved close to ₹50 lakh before he even graduated.  He went on to build Cogno AI - an AI chatbot and voice company for banks - in 2017, before generative AI existed, bootstrapped it to a million-dollar revenue run rate, and sold it to Exotel at 25. Now with Greylabs.ai, he's building voice AI for India's banks and financial institutions.  In this episode he breaks down finding customers in an industry you have no network in, the "student not salesperson" playbook that got him into SBI and HDFC, why he and Harshita split the company cleanly into "she builds, I sell," how to part ways with a co-founder without a fight, picking a razor-sharp ICP, and why in a world of weekly AI launches trust is still the only thing that sells. Chapters 00:00 Intro — a genuinely relatable founder story01:00 Growing up middle-class in Kanpur02:50 "My motivation was money" — where ambition came from04:00 The internet, Silicon Valley, and deciding not to settle in the US05:50 Earning in college: ₹4,000 to ₹50 lakh before graduating08:20 How to create your own opportunity in college11:50 Starting Cogno AI — and the RED vs REL framework15:40 Building AI in 2017, before ChatGPT17:20 Getting into banks: the "student, not salesperson" playbook21:40 Negotiating with SBI as two 20-year-olds24:40 The first customer, and the referrals that followed25:30 The co-founder exit: quick decision, generous separation27:20 Harshita joins: "she builds, I sell"30:40 The exit to Exotel — doubling the ask in 10 minutes34:40 Finding the market first: why he stayed in India37:50 Founder-market fit and picking a razor-sharp ICP40:40 Can AI disrupt his AI business? Why trust wins42:50 Eating your own dog food: building internal tools on Replit44:40 AI adoption in banks — from pilots to 50 lakh calls a month46:14 The coming pricing pressure, and how service is the moat49:20 Closing advice: persistence is the one thing that can't be replicated

    He Saved ₹50 Lakh in College - Then Sold His Startup at 25 | Aman Goel, Grey Labs AI

  5. Sep 3

    Why PhonePe bet on UPI when everyone chose wallets | Sameer Nigam | Unstarted

    Sameer Nigam, founder and CEO of PhonePe, joins Unstarted for a candid conversation on building a company that now serves over 700 million users. From a middle-class naval family to a failed music startup (Mind360), an acquisition by Flipkart, and the founding of PhonePe, Sameer breaks down the thinking behind his "asymmetric bets," why he chose UPI when the entire market was chasing wallets, and how the Big Billion Day payments collapse revealed the problem he'd spend the next decade solving. He also opens up on his 31-year partnership with co-founder Rahul Chari, why he embraces regulators instead of fighting them, what PhonePe's data reveals about how India really spends, and the story behind the IPO that was pulled at the last minute. A must-watch for founders thinking about co-founders, market timing, building for population scale, and knowing when to cut your losses. Unstarted is a show about founders, for founders hosted by Avnish Bajaj.  Chapters 0:00 Intro: meet Sameer Nigam & the "celebrity founder" tag2:15 Family background: a Navy dad and an entrepreneur mom at early TCS10:45 Why tech fundamentals still win (and the Google "75% AI code" point)17:40 First venture: Mind360, the "iTunes for India"22:10 Why it failed: wrong market sizing and the piracy era26:00 Acquired by Flipkart and the B2B pivot34:15 Big Billion Day: when India's payment infra collapsed38:00 Why wallets were never the answer41:20 The asymmetric bet on UPI44:30 Ghar Wapsi: merging back into Flipkart to buy time47:10 Demonetization: luck, timing, and near-zero competition50:00 Obsessing over infrastructure and the right foundation52:30 ICP, population scale, and the "painkiller in the hinterland"55:40 Incumbents push back: ICICI blocking and the RBI visit59:00 What PhonePe's data reveals about how India spends1:05:00 The most anticipated IPO that didn't happen1:08:30 Final advice: don't be an entrepreneur by FOMO

    Why PhonePe bet on UPI when everyone chose wallets | Sameer Nigam | Unstarted

  6. Aug 20

    Shiprocket's Saahil Goel on their IPO, PMF & Building AI for Bharat | Unstarted

    Saahil Goel, co-founder and CEO of Shiprocket, joins us for a candid deep-dive into how a self-taught coder from Delhi built the logistics and enablement backbone powering a huge chunk of India's direct-to-consumer commerce. Sahil takes us all the way back selling his dot matrix printer on Baazee as a kid, teaching himself HTML by hacking "view source," and building websites for cash in college. Along the way he shares the hard-won lessons behind every pivot: why Indian SMEs won't pay upfront, why you should never fall in love with your product, and how obsession with the merchant's problem kept the company alive through years when every investor said the market didn't exist. We also get into co-founder dynamics and trust, what actually changed scaling from 25 to 1,500 people, why culture is the "uncodified personality" of a company set by the founder's actions, and being a "microsurgeon, not a micromanager."  Finally, Saahil lays out his conviction on AI - from writing 70%+ of code with AI, to Shiprocket's in-house voice model built for India's 22 languages, to the "AI for Bharat" mission of reaching the next 58 million merchants. A rich, practical episode for anyone still unstarted. What they talk about: 1. From selling a printer on Baazee and self-taught coding to building Shiprocket into India's commerce shipping backbone 2. The real story behind the pivots  KartRocket to Kraftly to Shiprocket and why you stay stubborn with the problem, not the product 3. What PMF actually feels like, plus co-founders, trust, and scaling culture from 25 to 1,500 people 4. His bet on AI: writing most of the code with AI, an in-house voice model for India's 22 languages, and the mission to reach 60M MSMEs 00:00 Intro - Saahil Goel and Shiprocket02:30 Delhi boy, self-taught coder & selling a printer on Baazee07:00 Business family & knowing early he'd be a founder12:00 Meeting Gautam & the start of Bigfoot Retail Solutions17:00 Co-founders: trust, complementary skills & full commitment23:00 PMF is a journey, not a destination29:00 Stubborn with the problem, not the product35:00 CartRocket to Craftly: the pivots and hard lessons42:00 Building Shiprocket & why B2B behaved like consumer48:00 Scaling 25 to 1,500: culture, micro-surgery & builder mindset55:00 Bias to action vs bias for excellence60:00 AI at Shiprocket: 70% of code, voice for Bharat & 60M MSMEs70:00 The IPO ahead & advice for the still-unstarted

    Shiprocket's Saahil Goel on their IPO, PMF & Building AI for Bharat | Unstarted

  7. Aug 13

    How two founders sold to a billion-dollar company with no factory | Wootz Work | Unstarted

    Our first-ever episode with co-founders. Karan and Himanshu of WootzWork join Avnish to talk about building a hardware and manufacturing exports company out of India — and why they leaned into a market everyone told them wouldn't work. From an investment banking and Stanford GSB background (Karan) and IIT Kharagpur mechanical engineering (Himanshu), the two met at a previous company where one interviewed the other as head of engineering a one-hour conversation that ran three hours. In this episode they unpack how a single insult ("we don't talk to Indian engineers, we work with Germans") lit the fire, how they closed their first order from India with no factory of their own, and why the naysayers became their strongest signal to go ahead. What you'll learn in this episode: 1. Why starting in a market everyone doubts can be an advantage — and how to tell real naysaying from noise2. How to win your first customer with no factory, no brand, and no track record3. The co-founder decision that actually matters: why the answer is never "the middle"4. How to choose a co-founder — honesty and complementary skills over everything else5. Why customer obsession beats worrying about network or capital early on6. Manufacturing as a system: how fragmentation held India back and how to fix it7. Scaling global sales by hiring domain experts in their 40s–50s who are local to the market Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:00 Karan's path: banking, AirAsia India, Stanford GSB04:30 Himanshu's path: IIT Kharagpur, ITC, and the machines05:15 "We don't talk to Indian engineers" — the moment that lit the fire06:30 The China vs India buying experience: what's actually broken08:00 Why the market was ripe — and betting on exports11:45 Customer obsession: getting the first customer in13:15 The co-founder dynamic: why the answer is never in the middle20:25 Turning the naysaying into conviction22:30 The first order: won with no factory23:12 Why the customer still needs them: engineering vs manufacturing28:30 Managing people with 40–50 years of experience30:30 AI and robotics in the manufacturing story33:40 Closing: why 2.3 is the right number of co-founders

    How two founders sold to a billion-dollar company with no factory | Wootz Work | Unstarted

  8. Aug 6

    Started with ₹8 Lakhs and built a Billion Dollar Company | Abhishek Bansal, Shadowfax

    What happens if you fail with everyone's money? Abhishek Bansal never let himself ask and he thinks that's the only reason Shadowfax exists.He's the first public-company CEO on Unstarted: a middle-class kid from Meerut who quit his job without telling his parents, asked a VC for $5 million with zero orders, and was the only one still standing after the year every competitor died.In this conversation with Avnish Bajaj, they attempt to answer: 1. Should you have a co-founder and how do you actually pick one? 2. What should founders look for in a VC when there are multiple offers? 3. How do you tell your team you're failing?4. Sustainable growth, or aggressive scaling? By the end, you understand his test: accept the failure, name the core problem, tell your team. Because teams don't break on failure — they break on how you behave in it. Chapters 0:00 Intro: our first public company CEO1:19 Meerut, a middle-class home, and IIT Delhi4:04 Parents didn't know he had quit his job7:50 Q: How do you choose between VC offers?8:47 Why he wanted a co-founder, not a skills match11:03 Why not bootstrap?11:28 Asking for $5 million with no product12:23 The ₹8 lakh phone call13:28 The angels who never sold: 1000x and counting14:31 Three offers: $2M, $5M, $9M17:19 Q: How do founders bounce back from failure?17:46 The 2015 crash: five funded, one survivor23:07 Knowing the core problem is the hardest problem28:07 The offsite: profitable in three months28:32 The retention numbers behind the culture29:20 Q: Aggressive scaling or sustainable growth?29:56 "In India, no idea is unique"32:14 The guardrails: unit economics and 50-30-2037:26 The CAPEX model that ran 100 iterations39:07 When the HR team built its own hiring tool40:20 Closing: teams compound, individuals don't

    Started with ₹8 Lakhs and built a Billion Dollar Company | Abhishek Bansal, Shadowfax
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4.5
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About

Zero to Infinity, by Z47, is a podcast series dedicated to the founders, startups, and all within the ecosystem through candid conversations on what we think it really takes to survive in this wild startup world. In a world where we are endlessly engulfed with information in all its forms and sizes, this is our attempt to create, curate, and bring to you the insights and reflections that we have had the luxury of having learned the hard way through all the years spent in truly understanding what it takes to build and nurture a startup from ground zero.

Information

  • Creator
    Z47
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    272
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Z47 Moments

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