Indian Silicon Valley with Jivraj Singh Sachar Jivraj Singh Sachar

In this episode, we speak with Abhijeet & Vanshika, Co-Founders of KNYA Med - an apparel brand built for medical professional. KNYA is building for healthcare, what Nike is for athletes. They are a very unique brand with a very distinct journey and they are only just getting started.

https://knyamed.com/ - you can check them out here. This was one of the most interesting brands we have hosted on the show and definitely a very fascinating duo of founders, who have shared very deep insights about the founder life and building in a very different market.

Here are the show notes. Hope you like the episode! Follow KNYA, Vanshika, Abhijeet and Jivraj (the host) for more interesting insights, cheers!

00:00 - Preface
01:24 - How KNYA came to life?
03:40 - How to solve for Doctors?
06:40 - Vanshika's Background
09:10 - Abhijeet's Background
11:45 - What is the Market that KNYA is going after?
15:15 - Market Segmentation in Healthcare Apparel
17:13 - Product Range for Medical Professionals
21:54 - Supply Chain Innovation from KNYA
26:49 - Sustainability in Fashion
30:25 - Trust with Doctors
34:00 - Content Strategy for KNYA
39:30 - What does Scaling for a Consumer Brand mean in India?
43:38 - Building a Consumer Brand from Bomday?
52:04 - Transferring Empathy in the Team
56:35 - Personality Traits of the Founders
59:00 - Challenges of the Founder life
1:00:30 - What matters to you and why?
1:02:45 - Mission with KNYA

In this Episode, we host The Perfume Man of India - Aakash Anand, Founder & CEO of Bella Vitta - India's largest new-age perfume brand (INR 600 CR+ in revenue).

Aakash is one of the most brilliant founders we have had an opportunity to host on the podcast and this episode is as fire powered as a conversations can possibly be.

We understand his journey, his energy and his ingredients of success. You are in for a phenomenal ride, have a super one and keep sharing forward.

00:00 - Preface
01:23 - Introducing the Perfume Man of India
03:35 - The Journey
08:06 - Early days for Aakash
09:48 - Meaning of Wealth
11:31 - Identifying which Business to build
15:23 - Do Not Complicate Business Building
18:14 - Bootstrapped vs Funding
20:48 - Why CAC is stupid?
24:30 - Omnichannel Presence for Brands
26:55 - People Management
29:33 - House of Brands
31:57 - The Founder Energy of Aakash
34:00 - How to become a Great Founder
37:10 - What keeps Aakash going post-success?
39:50 - How do Friends describe Founders?
44:40 - Describe the Indian Consumer
47:01 - The Power of Manifestation
51:02 - Expressing what you want
55:22 - What does Aakash fear?
56:50 - Spaces where Big Companies will be formed
1:01:10 - Final Learnings

In this episode, we speak to Arjun Sethi - the Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder of Tribe Capital. He has led Tribe to scale to $1.6Bn+ in AUM and has most recently launched an India focused fund to do Series A investments across the geography.

Tribe is one of the most successful funds of this generation and they have invested in 13+ Unicorns across the globe with a very differentiated way of investing - quant based Venture Investing. They have a proprietary product Termina, which they use to release their famous 8-Ball reports and share with founders.

Through this conversation I understand how Arjun thinks about Venture Capital and how they look at India. This is a great deep dive into one of the most prolific Venture minds of our time.

Hope you have a great time listening!

00:00 - Trailer
01:05 - Introduction
03:00 - Data Fascination
05:57 - How to find your North Star?
08:00 - Role of data in Venture Capital
15:03 - Early Stage Investing
19:45 - The value of Tribe
22:35 - Scalability in Venture Capital
28:10 - Qualities of a Great VC Fund Manager
31:18 - How have startups in Emerging Markets evolved?
37:34 - What works in India?
42:07 - How is Tribe building in India?
45:55 - How to back great companies in India?
49:15 - Incubation in Venture Capital
53:18 - Best Investments for Arjun
56:48 - Process of Investing
59:05 - Benefit of Writing in Venture
1:00:34 - How do Founders & Friends define Arjun?
1:02:20 - How to identify great folks?
1:05:05 - Strong Opinions
1:07:25 - What matters to Arjun and Why?
1:08:57 - What works in the US that we can learn from?
1:11:26 - Always forward!

Varun Duggirala is the Smartest Marketer of India having built The Glitch (acquired by WPP) as one of the largest creative agencies in the country and is the OG Indian podcaster having paved the way for numerous Indian creators & podcasters. His insights on marketing and company building are precious, combined with his views on life - fitness and so much more!

I have been deeply inspired by his journey and persona for a long time and I am so glad to have recored an in-depth podcast to decode his phenomenal insights.

Tune in for an incredible conversation.

00:00 - Preview
00:47 - Introduction
01:38 - What matters to Varun & Why?
04:12 - Well rounded Life vs Outlier Life
07:42 - Values
11:35 - Entry into the Media Ecosystem
16:48 - Looking at things in Hindsight
20:50 - Starting The Glitch
27:35 - How not to complicate Decisions?
32:50 - The Glitch Acquisition by WPP
40:50 - How to be successful as an agency Founder?
47:50 - What is Marketing?
55:22 - Becoming a Podcaster?
01:01:39 - Benefits of Podcasting
01:05:10 - Being a great Conversationalist
01:12:50 - Chasing Dopamine Hits
01:21:10 - Learnings via Podcasting
01:29:15 - Being a Founder Coach
01:36:10 - New Founder Journey with EMoMee
01:42:01 - How would Friends define Varun?

Sanjeev Bikhchandani is an Indian Billionaire, the Father of Indian Entrepreneurship.

He built the first major digital-first company of our generation - Info Edge Group and successfully listed it into a phenomenal digital conglomerate Naukri.com, Jeevansaathi.com - INR 685.94 Billion. Info Edge is also a major investor in two of India's largest new-age startups - Zomato and PolicyBazar, which are both public companies and huge outcomes for the ecosystem.

Through this episode, we uncover a bunch of interesting topics to leverage Sanjeev Sir's generational experiences. Tune in to get all insights from the episode.

00:00 - Preview
00:46 - Introduction
01:52 - Customer Money or Investor Money
05:15 - The India Story
11:00 - Success or Survival?
13:05 - Jugaad since 1990
15:31 - Outlier Founders
19:20 - The Zomato Story
26:28 - What does the Public Market not get about Startups?
30:24 - Operator Investors or Career Investors
33:15 - Governance
41:44 - Long Term?
43:04 - New Age India & Founders
47:39 - The Consumer of India
49:50 - Power of Education
55:00 - Young India
1:01:15 - Mistakes during the 33 years!
1:05:06 - Meaning of Money?
1:07:25 - Interesting Conversations
1:10:56 - Hustle beyond 35 years
1:12:46 - Final Learnings

In this episode, we speak to the ultra phenomenal - Sarthak Ahuja.