The Indian Dream

The Pet Care Industry in India... It is estimated to be a Rs. 4000 Crores Market in India, growing annually at about 20% which makes it a great industry to start a new business as there is double digit growth! The industry can be roughly broken down into Pet Foods which is about 60% of the market, Pet HealthCare (20% of the market), Pet Toys and Accessories (15%) and Pet Day Cares and Hostels about 5% Currently there are about 30 million pets in the country, which growing at 10-11% annually. And that's why, Varun, Aman, and Vineet Started Supertails in early 2021. Supertails is on track to achieve Rs. 100 Crores in Annual Revenue Run-Rate in the next few months and have raised $10 million last year in a tough fundraising environment. Deepika Padukone is also an investor in Supertails! On this episode, I talk to Varun about: - The Pet Care Industry & it's Value Chain- The Export Potential of Pet Care Products out of India- The focus on Customer Experience at Supertails- How Supertails leverages Content & Community to build Brand Awareness- Why it's important to embrace failure as a founderTimestamps for quick viewing: (00:00) - Overview of the Pet Care Industry in India & Intro to Varun Sadana, Founder of Supertails(2:55) - Why Varun Quit as the Founder of Licious and the thesis behind Supertails(8:54) - How Supertails was able to raise $10 Mn in a tough environment and why fundamentally good business often find the capital needed to scale(21:47) - The Import & Exports of Pet Care Products in India(26:53) - How Supertails focuses on Customer Experience and how they've made it part of their culture (34:56) - The Importance of Embracing Failure as a Founder (48:38) - How Supertails leverages Content & Community to build a BrandIf you want to stay updated about our latest episodes or just want to say hi, you can join our No Spam WhatsApp group here: https://bit.ly/3Q0To2K

On this episode, we talk to Prateek Shukla, Co-Founder and CEO at Masai SchoolPrateek is an IIT Kanpur Graduate, a Teach for India Alum and Ex-Founder of Grabhouse, a real-estate tech startup that was acquired by Commonfloor and subsequently by Quikr. He's a second time entrepreneur who is picking up his first love of teaching. India has 444 Million People that are in the 0-18 Years Age Bracket. That's 400 Million people coming into the workforce over the next 15 to 20 years. For them to be contribute to India's economic growth, we have a mammoth task of giving them the right skills.We have over 45000 College and Institutes in the country and you would think we are slowly but surely building capacity to educate and train the 400 million people over the next 2 decades.But, the grim reality on the ground that a large majority of students graduating from these institutions have NO employable skills. For example, of the 1.5 Million engineers that graduate, only 3% secure high paying technology jobs. The situation is even worst in Business and Humanities courses. The education industry is a money-making, recession proof business that's being run purely on the fact that every parent wants their kid to hold a ‘degree'. It doesn't matter if it's useful or not, the societal shame from not having one is good enough reason to pour money into getting your child through college for 3 to 4 years.The lack of employable talent coming out of college is HUGE problem to solve if we want to achieve The Indian Dream of becoming a large developed economy with a high per capita income. And to solve this problem, whatever we done so far isn't working. The core reason why colleges suck in India is because there's no incentive alignment. The college gets their fees regardless of the fact that the student might not even get a decent job after graduating. But, what if colleges got paid only after the graduating students earned.And that's where I find the model of Outcome driven education or Income Share Agreements very very interesting. It's a model where the institute only gets paid after students start earning a baseline salary. What this also does is it opens up education to talented students who previously who couldn't afford high fees of these colleges.On the episode today, we have Prateek Shukla, Co-Founder and CEO of Masai School who is pioneering the Income Share Agreement or outcome driven model of education India. Masai is a 3 year old startup that helps students learn coding for free in a 6 months, military style coding bootcamp. They work with students with no coding or computer science background, and train them through their rigouros program. They have an income share agreement where they can make up to 3 Lakhs as a cost for the education, only and only if the students get a salary of more than 5 Lakhs per annum.There's no doubt Vocational Training is key to make large sections of society employment ready and productive. Only on the back of skilled talent, can you build large industries that contribute significantly to the GDP of the country. We've seen this play out in China where they used skilled labor and technology to build the world's Manufacturing hub.For India, a similar opportunity lies in being the Software hub of the world. And for that to happen, we need to train millions of students every year. Over the next 50 minutes, I talk to Prateek about the thesis behind Masai School, how they teach students, what are the execution challenges of training 7000 Students, and about their partnership with National Skill Development Coloration.

Mysore Deep Perfumery House (MDPH), popularly known for their brand Zed Black has built an Rs. 800 Crore+ Agarbatti Business from India. We talk to Ankit Agarwal, Partner at MDPH about how he has scaled the business profitably over the last 17 years on this episode of The Indian Dream Podcast. We talk about the following things on the Podcast: (00:22) - Agarbatti or Incense Sticks Market in India & Policy Changes of 2019(05:05) - Start of MDPH in 1992 after 7 Failed Businesses(08:26) - How Zed Black Brand Started and why it became a hit across India(10:09) - Three most important things about the business: Packaging, Distribution and Fragrance. (16:28) - How Zed Black moved to Advanced Payments with Distributors to Unlock Growth(26:20) - Why Zed Black kept uniform pricing in a business that's dominated by Regional Players with different pricing per region(28:52) - Export Market for Agarbattis (30:39) - The Technology and R&D Investment in Manufacturing. World's Largest Manufacturing Plant of Agarbattis(34:18) - Why Zed Black decided to get Mahendra Singh Dhoni & Hrithik Roshan to Endorse the Brand(40:20) - How should Entrepreneurs take advice from experienced people (45:59) - Why Zed Black's Deodrant Business Failed If you want to stay updated about our latest episodes or just want to say hi, you can join our No Spam WhatsApp group here: https://bit.ly/3Q0To2K

In this episode, we talk to Mathew Joseph. He's a 3rd Generation Entrepreneur who was the Marketing Director at Duroflex before he started a D2C Mattress Brand called Sleepyhead. So, mattresses. It's one of those ‘boring' and ‘unsexy' industries and as we've often discussed on the podcast, it's perfect for building a large, profitable business. The mattress industry in India is estimated to be 12,000 Crores Industry of which 60% is still Unorganized. Traditionally, 3 players dominated the industry, Kurl-on, Duroflex and Sleepwell. All legacy companies built over decades. Then between 2016-2018, atleast 10 new D2C Mattress brands popped up. Some of which have survived and grown to more than 200 Crores in revenue in the last 5 years! Talk about Disruption! What makes today's episode interesting is that we got a chance to talk to Matthew Joseph who not only is the 3rd generation entrepreneur of the family run Duroflex but he's also the founder of a D2C Mattress brand called Sleepyhead! What makes his journey fascinating is that he saw the upcoming disruption from the online players and instead of fighting to defend the legacy brand of duroflex, he set up a completely new brand and business entity to start Sleepyhead! In the conversation today, we talk about the Mattress industry, the value chain and manufacturing process of mattresses, the different types of mattresses, the reason D2C Mattress Industry scaled so well over the last 3 years, how he has built Sleepyhead's brand and most importantly, which is his favorite mattress!  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow me on Twitter @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)DM us on Whatsapp------------------------------------------------------We have open positions in Content Writing, Content Research, Video Editing - Please reach out to me on 8886248842 or sidbetala@gmail.com if you'd like to collaborate on building The Indian Dream! 

In this episode, we host Kavita & Anand (Co-Founders at Voiro) to talk about Ad-Tech Industry.Technology has fundamentally changed how we can consume and interact with Sports Content. And that has resulted in a meteoric rise in the value of Sports Leagues and Sports Celebrities. IPL, Formula 1, NBA, NFL, all these leagues have seen tremendous growth in their revenues over the last decade thanks to rising media rights, new ways of monetisation and fan connects! All of this comes down to the evolution of Technology. Smartphones, high-speed internet, social media - everything has snowballed into positive tailwinds for Sports Content and that's the reason why the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Netflix are bidding to get media rights for these sports leagues. In this episode with Kavita and Anand, we'll talk about the trends that have resulted in the rise of the value of sports leagues and sports celebrities.  If you haven't, check out the Voiro Podcast! They talk about the world of Ad-Tech, Marketing, and Social Media on their weekly podcast series! ---------------------------------------As I've mentioned in the last couple of episodes, there's a lot going on at The Indian Dream - some good, some bad. I talk about it all towards the end of the episode.If you want to tune into that directly, skip to (35:11). ---------------------------------------We have open positions in Content Writing, Content Research, Video Editing - Please reach out to me on 8886248842 or sidbetala@gmail.com if you'd like to collaborate on building The Indian Dream! 

In this episode, we host Kavita & Anand (Co-Founders at Voiro) to talk about Ad-Tech Industry. We're all familiar with how big the Digital Ads market has grown over the last decade. To put some numbers, in 2012, the Global Digital Ad spend was close to $100 Billion. Today, that stands at more than 600 Billion dollars - a healthy 20% growth every year. In the next few years, $1 Trillion dollars will be spent on Digital Ads globally. With the rise of Ad Spends, the technology that supports that industry, often called as Ad-Tech has seen an exponential rise. As we've often discussed on the podcast, selling shovels during a gold rush is a great way to build a large, profitable business. Today, Voiro is a SaaS Platform that helps media companies run their Ads business, and in the last 9 years, they've had a ring-side view of this meteoric rise of the Ad-Tech market. What makes their journey even more interesting is that they've part of the team that runs the Indian Premier League's Ad's business! Practically from Day 1 of Hotstar, in fact it wasn't even called hotstar back then. We'll first talk about how they went from build a service business to build a software product, then we'll talk about the landscape shift that's happened from broadcast to digital technology, then we talk about how the entire world of Ad-Tech come together to form a value chain and lastly we talk about the emerging trends of privacy, regulation and content creation.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow me on Twitter @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)DM us on Whatsapp------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce businesses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!

This is Part 2 of the series where we discuss India's Digital Infrastructure.Here are our Research Notes for the episode. Open Network for Digital Commerce or ONDC has been in the news lately. Currently, online marketplaces (Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal) follow a platform model. In this model, they have end-to-end control over the entire e-commerce transaction process, right from seller on-boarding, customer acquisition, order fulfilment, complaint redressal, and managing payments. Right now, all these processes are being controlled by a single entity.ONDC's open network will 'unbundle' or break down this complex system of small activities into separate micro-services that can be addressed separately by any entity. These organisations can chooses to perform one or more of these activities. As a result, the proponents of ONDC say that if it is successful, ONDC will democratize e-commerce, increase competition and accelerate growth.If it is democratised, one big change through ONDC will be that it caps referral commissions for platforms that send shoppers to a seller at just 3% – much less than the roughly 30% cut charged by Amazon, Flipkart and others.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!------------------------------------------------------Here are some research notes that we compiled or referred to for this episode:Jefferies Report about ONDC - tonne of details not available elsewhere.Twitter Thread by Aditya Kondawar - helped us structure our thoughts.

The Indian Education System needs an overhaul, especially college education. The current system produces students that barely have the necessary employable skills. In this episode, we talk to Aditya and Raj of Stoa School to talk about the Indian Education System, the problems that exist, how they can be solved and their insights from building Stoa over the last two years. If you haven't already, do subscribe to Stoa Daily. This is one of the best newsletters if you're interested in business and management. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)DM us on Whatsapp------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce businesses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!

The business of Drones is one of the most exciting themes to look out for in the next 5-10 Years. With wide ranging applications, Drones are set to be a Rs. 15,000 Crore industry by 2026. We have with us, Vipul Singh, Founder of Aarav Unmanned Systems. They manufacture drones and provides integrated services for Geo Surveys. They recently bagged a Rs. 15 Crore contract from Survey of India to map out entire Haryana. Vipul is also the founding member of the Drone Federation of India and has had a very interesting journey working with the central government and various regulators to create the Drone Rules of 2021 that were the key to unlock this market. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)DM us on Whatsapp------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce businesses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!

On this episode of Quick Takes, we talk about the USD 100 Bn B2B E-Commerce Market in India and the recent entry of Grasim into this market. ------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!

This is Part 2 of two part episode on Wine Industry in India and Sula's impending IPO.In the previous episode, we discuss about the Business of Wines in India and a brief history about Sula. In this episode, we take a deeper look at the business of Sula Wines based on the IPO prospectus that they filed. Sula is a ~Rs. 450 Crore business with ~Rs. 52 Crore in Profits. It's been built over the last 20+ years by Mr. Rajeev Samant and the stellar team. We discuss how Sula has been able to dominate the market through a mix of great marketing, product and distribution strategy along with retaining key talent with generous compensation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)DM us on Whatsapp------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce businesses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!------------------------------------------------------(01:40) - What will it take to build Sula (06:28) - Sula's People Strategy and Executive Org Structure(10:51) - Sula's Investments in Property, Plant and Equipment is their Moat(17:35) - Analysis of Sula's Working Capital Cycle(24:51) - Sula's Strategy of moving away from Imports/Distribution of Foreign Brands to focus on building their own domestic brands(29:23) - Sula's Brand Strategy - House of Brands(33:52) - Sula's Distribution Strategy(36:24) - Alternative Marketing, Sula Fest, Wine Tourism(44:13) - Closing Comments on Business of Sula

This is Part 1 of two part episode on Wine Industry in India and Sula's impending IPO. Wine is a Rs. 1500 Cr ($200 Million) market in India that's growing fast. Sula's DRHP filings are a great read to understand about this market and what it takes to operate in complex alco-beverage sector in India. In this episode, we focus on the market as it stands today, talk about the global trends that might shape trends within India and what the future could look like. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)DM us on Whatsapp------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!------------------------------------------------------(02:12) - Overview of Wine Market in India(06:00) - Why Maharashtra and Karnataka are major wine producers (Hint: Policies)(08:43) - Why winemaking is a capital intensive business, thanks to the large land holding required(11:13) - Global Wine Market, special focus on chinese market(17:44) - A Case for why the wine market in India will grow(19:11) - History of Sula

This is Part 1 of the series where we discuss India's Digital Infrastructure. Over the last few years, the Indian Government along with the support of iSpirt,  have build India Stack. We're now close to seeing the full potential of India Stack with the recent launch of Account Aggregator, which will soon be followed by Open Credit Enablement Network. In today's episode, we deep-dive into the world of OCEN and discuss how it has the potential to unlock the $300 Billion MSME Lending market. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!------------------------------------------------------Episode Timeline: (02:02) - What is India Stack and how it's been the foundation for India's Digital Infrastructure(04:49) - The $300 Billion Credit Gap in India's MSME Sector(07:26) - The current models of BNPL are NOT the lending market that we need to develop the country(08:46) - The Challenges with MSME Lending - High Costs(10:04) - Why MSME's prefer to take Loans from Informal sources(17:07) - What are Account Aggregators?(22:07) - Why we've not seen a true Loan marketplace and why API Standardization is important to unlock the lending market(28:54) - What will the lifecycle of loan look like when its powered by India Stack(33:14) - 'Lending as a Feature'(40:26) - Lend & Forget model vs. Lend, Monitor, Collect Model (Balance Sheet vs Cash Flow Lending)Here are some research notes that we compiled or referred to for this episode: ISPIRT - First Open House on OCENLoan Service Providers & Cashflow LendingThe Indian Dream's Research on India's Fintech Infrastructure

On this episode of Quick Takes, we talk about the ban on Single Use Plastic by the Indian Government and the investments that are happening in the alternatives of these products. ------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!------------------------------------------------------

On the episode today, we have with us  Amit Khatri, Co-Founder of NoiseCheckout our Youtube Channel and Subscribe! A couple of themes I've tried to focus on in the discussion:Ofcourse, we speak at length about bootstrapping. The decision to bootstrap, and how it impacted the journey of NoiseWe also talk about Product Differentiation and how important it is to focus on Customer Needs to launch productsLastly, we talk about Manufacturing of Electronic Goods within in IndiaThis is a fun episode with a company that's not been covered by the traditional media houses, coz they haven't raised any funding.

In this episode of Business Munchies, we talk about Battery Swapping & The Business of Petrol Pumps .  If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream.Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week)Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!)------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!------------------------------------------------------Episode Outline:(00:48) - Battery Swapping - The Policy, Importance, Future(26:54) - The Business of Petrol Pumps

Very excited to launch the first episode of a new segment that we'll be experimenting with on the podcast. These Quick Takes are going to be less than 15 minutes where we discuss all the interesting market trends, government policies or anything that we believe could be interesting for people who are interested in all things business! In this episode, we discuss the Resurgence of the Toy Industry in India. Here's the link previous episode where we predicted the resurgence of the Toy Industry: Feb 2021 - Predicting the resurgence in Toy Industry in IndiaYou can also check out the newsletter where we talk about the Toy Industry.  Link Here.

In this episode of Business Munchies, we talk about the Sneaker Reselling Market in India and the state of the Mental Health market in India.  We also do a quick take on the Ethanol Market in India.If you like the content we create, I need 30 seconds of your time to help us reach more people. Do one or more of the following, depending on how much you love The Indian Dream. Subscribe on Youtube (Posting 5 Videos every week)Follow us on Instagram (Posting 3 Reels every week) Follow us on Twitter @sahil071 & @sidbetala (Trying to figure out Twitter!) ------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!------------------------------------------------------Episode Outline:(08:36) - The Rise of Sneaker Reselling in India(32:33) - The State Of Mental Health Market in India & Opportunities (58:00) - Content Recommendation for the Week

In this episode of Business Munchies, we talk about the recent Drone Mohatsav and about the Make in India push for the Indian Defence Industry.  ------------------------------------------------------**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl.PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce busiensses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention! ------------------------------------------------------Episode Outline:(02:11) - Update on Drone Mahotsav - Government Organized Event for Drones(21:35) - Why India needs to manufacture its own defence equipments(55:27) - Content Recommendation for this week Reference Links: Link to the announcements on Drones MohatsavLink to the Drones Episode on The Indian DreamLink to Drones for Agriculture ResearchLink to Research on Make in India for Defence Equipment. 

On the episode today, we have with us  Ankit Agarwal, Founder of Phool.CoCheckout our Youtube Channel and Subscribe! Did you know India produces 8 Million tonnes of Flower Waste that comes from Temples, Events and various other sources. And a lot of this waste lands up in rivers like Ganga, Yamuna and adds to the pollution.This problem led to the birth of Phool, a brand that's known for its natural agarbattis.A D2C Brand on the face of it, a bio materials company underneath, this was a fascinating conversation with Ankit Agarwal, Co-Founder of Phool.Co.Episode Outline: (03:01) - What led to identifying the problem of Temple Waste and birth of Phool(07:26) - Initial Journey of Phool(15:54) - Going ahead with the idea despite advice from Industry Experts(32:08) - How the World Economic Forum Video came about. Lessons on Bootstrapping(37:55) - Creating Fleather (Floral Leather)(47:38) - Solving Waste Management by building sustainable businesses (50:12) - Value Chain of Temple Waste Recycling(01:01:36) - How did Alia Bhatt become Phool's Brand Ambassador 

In this episode of Business Munchies, we talk about the fast growing world of Healthy Snacks and talk about Sahil's experience with Mushroom Coffee and Fully Automated Hotels in US.**This episode is brought to you by PushOwl. PushOwl is a web push marketing app built for e-commerce businesses. Trusted by more than 25000 brands across the globe, PushOwl lets you turn one-time store visitors into subscribers, send highly-visible web push notifications, and increase customer retention!**  Episode Outline:(01:44) - Sahil's Experience in a US Business Exhibition(03:09) - Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee, Mushroom derived products in India(05:27) - A peak into the future - Fully Automated Hotels in US. (11:29) - Start to the Discussion on Healthy Snacks(14:13) - Why this industry is set for good growth(19:59) - Government's focus on Food processing Industry(22:13) - Startups in the space of Health Snacks(26:05) - Different Segments within Healthy Snack Market(33:50) - What does it take to start a Healthy Snack brand(38:15) - Target Market for Healthy Snacks(41:23) - Opportunities in the Health Snack Industry(45:21) - Infrastructure Businesses(53:40) - Independent Certification Body that does testing for various products?(59:44) - Content Marketing - The differentiator in D2C Health Snack Brands(01:01:56) - Our Movie picks for the weekRelevant Links: Mushroom Farming EpisodeJiwa foods Soulfull Foods Episode on The Indian DreamFood Processing EpisodeFood Processing Market Size and Growth in IndiaLink to newsletter comparing how Snack manufacturers game the ingredients to call products healthier! 

In this episode, we host Verne Harnish, the author of the bestselling book 'Scaling Up: Why some companies make it and why other's don't' As an entrepreneur, there are 3 key phases of business building. The first is the the Zero to One journey. Where you take an idea and test it in the markets and build a small business around it. Then comes the 1 to 10 Journey Where you to convert the initial success to product market fit, build a team and scale it to a few more customers. And then comes the 10 to 100 Journey where you press the pedal and build large business.The Scaling Up book is one of the best books that helps you understand what it takes to scale for 10 to 100 journey. It is a must-read if you're an entrepreneur with a small to mid sized business. On the episode, we deep dive into two key topics that are important in a Scale Up Journey - Pricing & Compensation. Verne discusses some frameworks and examples to help entrepreneurs think through these topics. Episode Timeline: (02:38) - How did Verne Start Entrepreneur's Organization (EO) with Steve Jobs(07:36) - Four Levers of Scale Up(09:47) - Deep Dive into how Founders should think about Pricing (14:32) - B2B Pricing (19:35) - Interesting Story about Pricing (25:36) - How to think about Compensation during Scale Up(35:29) - How to implement Profit Sharing Compensation Scheme(43:04) - Two Important Habits for Entrepreneurs Relevant LinksGood Better Best Pricing - HBR ArticleConfessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything

Hello Hello Hello! Another Business Munchies Segment and this time we talk about the upcoming Venture Capital Winter, Startups we'd like to take a bet on and why Siddharth has stopped Angel Investing.Hosted by Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala). We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter, reels on Instagram and Clips on Youtube. Follow us there to stay updated!

On this episode, we discuss the path for India's economy to be a $10 Trillion Dollar economy. To talk to us about this, we have Mr. Subhash Chandra Garg on the episode.  Mr. Garg has served the country as ex-Finance Secretary and Economic Affairs secretary between 2017 and 2019. He's an IAS Officer who has served in various key positions across the Central Government and the Govt. of Rajasthan. He has also served as the Executive Director at the World Bank. He has recently written a fantastic book called The $10 Trillion Dream where he talks about the State of the Indian Economy and the Policy Reforms we need as a country. It's very detailed account of where we stand across sectors like Agriculture, Infrastructure, Technology etc and how we can set up the right policies to grow these sectors and achieve the $10 Trillion Dollar Dream.  Show Note Soon! 

On this episode, we host Sajith Pai to talk about the brilliant report he and Amal Vats published called the Indus Valley Annual Report 2022.The Indus Valley Report is a report that captures the beauty of the Indian Startup Ecosystem with relevant data points and helps you make sense of what's happened already and the massive opportunity that is in front of us. The podcast is hosted by Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala). If you like our content,  join our No Spam Whatsapp Group to get summaries of the content we create. In today's episode, we discuss: (02:19) - Why India is a country of contradictions?(06:10) - How India is a combination of different markets - India 1, India 2, India 3(10:42) - Bunking the myth that Indians don't like to pay. What it takes to make middle class India pay. (13:07) - The impact of Jio in India & how India's consumption story is still driven by a small % of the population(16:38)  - Has India achieve Wang Trifecta? (Cheap Internet, Smartphone Penetration, Digital Payment Ecosystem)(19:45) - Why India's Per Capita Income is a cause for concern. (25:21) - India's emerging Manufacturing story and how are Venture Capitalists looking to invest in this sector(32:54) - Understand the state of SaaS, Fintech & E-Commerce(40:46) - Is India an over ventured market? As in too much venture capital flowing in and thus too many startups for the size of the Market?(45:05) - The Rise of Porn in India (Things that were left out of the report!)(50:17) - How does a report like this help a VC make investment decisions(54:42) - Will India see a new set of Founders who can target the Bharat market?(1:00:00) - How should founders think about their Content Consumption?(1:04:00) - How can one break into the Venture Capital world if they want to build a career there?(1:09:49) - How has Sajith's relationship with money evolved over time?

On the episode today, we have with us Shashank Kumar, Founder of PushOwlIf you like the content we create, please drop us a review on Spotify & Apple.And join our No Spam Whatsapp Group to get summaries of the content we create. On this episode, we talk to Shashank about his journey of building, scaling and selling Pushowl. We discuss the following topics: (01:41) - Shashank's Thesis that led to quitting Microsoft, and the initial failures(09:25) - Financial Survival for a Bootstrapped Business & the Entrepreneur in the initial years(13:13) - Fighting the psychological battle of quitting when the times are tough(15:19) - Finding the idea of PushOwl and hiring the first team member(17:45) - How should Indie hackers decide what's a good time to quit?(20:19) - Finding Product Market Fit on Shopify(26:51) - How to Interact with Customers without asking leading questions(29:22) - Hiring for Bootstrapped Businesses (33:14) - Choosing to stay bootstrapped even when there was Venture Capital interest(39:30) - Decision to Sell the Business to SendinBlue(41:00) - Risk of Building on someone else's platform - Platform Risk(44:32) - Headless Commerce - The new wave in E-commerce(47:38) - Advice for young Indie Hackers 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Click here to help TID part time with content creation and distribution.On this episode, we talk about Warehouse, Cold Storage, Virtual Influencers & Portfolio of Small Bets. (00:19) - Update on Portfolio of Small Bets Approach to Building a Career(04:47) - India's First Virtual Influencer, Kaira (09:03) - Why is there a boom in Warehousing in India?(15:08) - Opportunities in Robotics & Automation of Warehouses(19:22) - What it takes to build warehouses and what are the opportunities(25:50) - Aggregation of Warehouses(29:25) - Cloud Warehousing(32:53) - Cold Storage & Warehousing(37:54) - Subsidies for Cold Storage Warehousing(39:15) - Micro Cold Warehouses(46:09) - Problem Areas and Opportunities in Cold Warehousing(47:41) - Portable Cold Storage

On this episode, we have with us Vinay Singhal, Co-Founder of Stage.inIf you like the content we create, please drop us a review on Spotify & Apple.And join our No Spam Whatsapp Group to get summaries of the content we create. On this episode, we talk about Vinay's current startup - Stage. Stage is building the Netflix for Bharat, starting with a platform dedicated for premium video content in Harayanvi Dialect. This is an amazing story of an entrepreneur and a team who has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Before Stage, this team was behind WittyFeed. Wittyfeed became the world's second largest media biz in terms of views, right behind Buzzfeed. One fine day, Facebook decided to ban WittyFeed and effectively kill its business overnight. Since then Vinay and team have gone back to the drawing board and built a startup that's building premium video content OTT platform for Bharat. 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Click here to help TID part time with content creation and distribution. On the show today, we do a dive deep on the Circular Economy, specifically Plastic Recycling and E-Waste recycling. (00:23) - Plastic Recycling in India(20:54) - E-Waste Recycling in IndiaResearch for Plastic RecyclingResearch for E-Waste Recycling

On the episode today, we have with us Ankit Gupta, Co-Founder of Burma BurmaIf you like the content we create, please drop us a review on Spotify & Apple. And join our No Spam Whatsapp Group to get summaries of the content we create. On the episode, we talk to Ankit about the business of restaurants, how food entrepreneurs can do market research, how restaurants are conceptualized and the painful processes that restaurant founders have to go through to get a concept to life! Burma Burma is one of my favorite restaurants, and what makes this even more unique is that its a vegetarian restaurants with no alcohol. A brave counter-positioning in the tough business of restaurants. Episode Outline: (02:41) - Thesis Behind Burma Burma(06:02) - Validating the idea of Burmese Cuisine in India(07:53) - What does it take to start a restaurant?(12:16) - Ankit's advice to people who want to start a restaurant (14:30) - Challenges in the Restaurant Industry(15:12) - The issue with Alcohol license in India(17:00) -  Economics of Restaurant Business(20:00) - The Value and Supply Chain of Restaurants(25:10) - How to market a new restaurant?(27:20) - Burma Burma's scale up journey(28:23) - Challenges with growing through franchising(29:38) - How Burma Burma built its processes and talent pipeline to scale to 6 cities?(32:42) - The Backend team to required to build a chain of restaurants?(35:28) - Decision to enter the D2C Phase with Pantry (37:55) - Surviving the pandemic (41:05) - Scaling up the Burma Burma Brand beyond food(42:55) - What kind of investors invest in restaurant businesses?(44:40) - How has Ankit's relationship with money evolved over a period of time?

On the episode today, we have with us Gaurav Sekhri, Co-Founder of Fratelli Wines. If you like the content we create, please drop us a review on Spotify & Apple.We talk to Gaurav about the journey of building Fratelli and how they went about building the brand, distribution and more importantly, awareness for wines in India. (01:27) - How did the Fratelli journey start in 2006?(02:51) - How did the Sekhri family attain the knowledge of wine making?(05:46) - How did they manage the long gestation period and how marketing of wine became a bigger challenge in the early years(08:28) - How is wine distributed across the country?(12:00) - Why wine marketing and distribution is a slow game?(15:37) - The process of making wine(19:07) - Why Fratelli launched wine in a can?(21:40) - How are different types of wine made?(27:00) - How Gaurav identifies and manages new businesses? 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Click here to help TID part time with LinkedIn & Twitter(0:55) - Update on Altigreen, that raised $40 million in Funding. We've had the founder of Altigreen on the episode in 2020 where he spoke about the work they were doing in the 3-Wheeler EV Market(05:00) - Update on Government's ban of Drones. Sahil's visit to a Drone Manufacturing & R&D Facility and conversation with Drone Labs.  (13:34) - Rise of Disease specific health-tech solutions like platforms for Diabetes, Cancer, PCOS etc and the opportunities in this space. (26:42) - Platform to help D2C Brands partner up with Production houses and do collaborations for shows and movies. (36:23) - Content Repurposing Agency - A global business being built out of India. 

On the episode today, we have with us Dr. Ritesh Malik, Founder of Innov8 Coworking (Sold to OYO) and Founder & Trustee of Plaksha University and an active angel investor who has backed 75+ startups. If you like the content we create, please drop us a review on Spotify & Apple.In this conversation, we touch about three broad topics: The Education Sector in India, The Real-Estate Market, and Angel Investing. Here's an outline of the conversation: (02:29) - The Problem with the Education System in India(10:21) - Why Edtech (in its current form) is just a pill and not the solution to the education system in India? Why we need hybrid infrastructure (Physical + Virtual) rather than just virtual education. (16:15) - How the Real Estate Market has evolved in India and why Shared Economy (Co-working, Co-living, Co-retail, shared warehousing) are the future?(30:24) - Why Dr. Malik has invested in 75+ companies and his thoughts on Angel Investing(35:09) - The Importance of Community Building in Angel Investing 

Hey everyone, welcome to the Budget 2022 special of the Indian Dream Podcast with Sarthak Ahuja. In this episode, we do a complete Indian Dream-style breakdown of the 2022 Indian Budget speech to find the biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs to build new businesses. We discuss every business opportunity from the Budget including Drones training & manufacturing, Electronics & Wearables Manufacturing, Battery Swapping for Electric Vehicles, Ethanol production for fuel blending and so much more! Also, the last 20 minutes of the episode are a complete breakdown on the impact of the new 30% tax on Crypto in India. Listen in if you want to listen to our take on budget 2022.Sarthak's InstagramAll our Research Notes from this EpisodeTID Episode about DronesTimeline(0:00) - Introduction(2:00) - Predictions we got right last year.(4:55) - Electric Vehicles and Ethanol Production & Fuel Blending(12:55) - Electronics Manufacturing(17:50) - Manufacturing Tax Incentive Extension(18:45) - Why were umbrellas mentioned in the Budget?(22:00) - Skill Development(25:23) - What are Surety Bonds?(28:30) - Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics(32:40) - Drones in Budget 2022(35:40) - Land Bank Digitisation(39:10) - Drones Production Linked Incentives(41:15) - Infrastructure development and Ropeways(43:15) - Multi-model infrastructure open API's(45:55) - Vande Bharat Trains(48:30) - Miscellaneous items from the Budget(58:30) - 30% Crypto tax in Budget 2022 and its implications(1:10:15) - Digital Rupee

Today, we have with us Manish Pandey (Twitter), Co-Author of the book Booming Digital Stars to talk about the rise of creator economy and what it takes to be a creator in this day and age. Manish has been the force behind some of India's biggest creators and has helped them with content and distribution strategy. In his new book, Booming Digital Stars, he explores the life's of India's biggest creators and talks about the learnings from their journeys. We're giving away 10 copies of the Booming Digital Stars book to aspiring content creators. All you need to do is follow us on Twitter and tag us in a tweet about the kind of content you want to create! 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Click here to help TID part time with LinkedIn & Twitter(4:00) - The Fertility (IVF) Market in India(24:43) - Disrupting Family Managed Business MBA (40:44) - Rural Influencer Network

We speak to John Mullins, Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship at the London School of Business and author of the fantastic book, ‘The Customer Funded Business'.Timeline:(3:20) - What is a Customer Funded Business?(6:10) - How do Business Authors find the stories for their books?(11:00) - What's the difference between Cash Flow & Profits?(15:30) - How do you change the processes and business mindset from just Profit to think about Cash Flow as well?(22:00) - What is Float? How can Float help you grow your business faster?(27:50) - What is the danger of startups raising capital too early?(39:45) - The Pay in Advance Model(46:40) - The Subscription Model(50:15) - The Scarcity Model(56:15) - The Service to Product Model(58:20) - The Marketplace or Matchmaker Model(1:02:20) - John's thoughts on Ed Tech(1:04:00) - How difficult was it to record his Course?Why do we love this book? Because it shows us how any business can generate more cash in the bank. Most businesses don't fail to grow because they're not making profits - they fail to grow because they don't have enough Working Capital. This means that even if they're making profits, there's not enough cash in the bank that allows them to buy raw materials, pay salaries and all the other expenses to run a business. And that's when they run to VC's to get more Working Capital to grow. The Customer Funded Business provides 5 different frameworks on how businesses can have more working capital in the system and thus more money in the bank to grow! We discuss all 5 frameworks in the episode.Professor Mullins calls these Customer Funded Business Models where you're using your customers to help grow the business instead of just selling tonnes of equity and raising Venture Capital funding. Why give away big chunks of your business when you can find ways to grow without VC money? The best entrepreneurs we've had on our Podcast were those that scaled without venture funding. Then these entrepreneurs had all the leverage in negotiations when they raised money to scale even further. We thought this conversation was especially relevant in today's environment where Venture Capital funding has become ubiquitous.If you want to learn more about how to build your own Customer Funded Business, you can also check out Professor Mullins course on Coursera - How to Finance and Grow Your Startup Without VC. 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Click here to help TID part time with LinkedIn & TwitterTimeline(01:54) - Senior Citizen Market in India(33:27) - Using Drones for Agriculture Senior Citizen MarketMarket SizeCurrently, India has more than 138 Million Senior Citizens. 67 Million Male, 71 Million Female. By 2030, this number is expected to be 200 Million.Estimated to be a Rs. 73,000 Cr market or $10 BillionThe report noted a significant increase in the old-age dependency ratio, which rose from 10.9 per cent in 1961 to 14.2 per cent in 2011 and is projected to increase to 15.7 per cent and 20.1 per cent in 2021 and 2031, respectively. The old-age dependency ratio is defined as the number of persons aged 60+ per 100 persons relative to the age group 15-59.Why this market is ripe for opportunities?Empty Nest SyndromeHigher Spending Power AND Willingness to SpendHigher Education Levels The report said literacy levels among elderly males and females have improved over time in both rural and urban areas, but it noted a huge gender gap, with only 28 per cent female elderly literate as against 59 per cent males (Population Census 2011)Life Expectancy on the RiseNeeds that can't be catered by the startups focused on Gen Z and MillenialsWhat are the main needs for this segment?Health Related - Physical & MentalSafety SystemFinancing SecurityEffective use of TimeIs the Govt of India focused on this segment?Ofcourse. In Jun 2021, they launched SAGE program. SAGE is Senior Ageing Growth Engine. Launched by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerement.100 Cr fund. To invest 1 Cr as equity investment as a startup.The ministry has developed a 9-by-9 grid defining the elder care focus areas for evaluating start-ups and business ideas under this scheme.What are some of the interesting companies in this field in India?Seniority - 31 Cr Income, 65 Cr ExpensesPorteaGoodfellowsKhyaalSamarth Eldercare - 67 Lakhs RevenueEmoha - 4 Cr RevenueWhat are some of the interesting companies internationally?Papa - On-demand Young Pals for Elderly - $241 funding. Maybe $30-40 million in revenue. $15/hr or $15 memberships with additional features.Deveoted Health - $2B in Funding - Medicare Advantage PlansCaring Wire - Content PlatformKuvu - Elder People Renting rooms to younger folks at more affordable ratesGetSetup - $20m in funding, community based courses for elderly.Chirp - Non invasive sensors for elderly care

On this founder journey, we speak to Rohit MA, co-founder and CEO of Cloudnine Hospitals. It is a chain of maternity hospitals that's spread across 9 cities and has 20+ hospitals. We speak to Rohit about his journey, how he raised capital for the business, how he scaled and the focus on customer experience. Join our No-Spam WhatsApp GroupHere's an episode outline: (03:39) - The Thesis behind starting a Speciality Maternity Hospital(10:05) - The Pros & Cons of having experience in the industry you start your business. (14:29) - The Business & Economics of running a hospital(22:24) - The Genesis of the idea of building a chain(30:24) - The Investment required to setup hospitals and how Cloudnine raised capital for it(43:21) - The Journey of Scaling Up & Building Processes (01:07:09) - Rohit's relationship with Money and how that's evolved Hello and Happy New Year! Hope 2022 is 100x better than 2021 for each one of us! At The Indian Dream, we're excited to bring you business content that's worth your time. And we're kicking off 2022 with an amazing founder! We have Rohit on the show today, the Co-Founder of Cloud Nine Hospitals. For those of you who don't know, Cloud Nine is a chain of Maternity hospitals. In fact, they were the pioneers of dedicated pregnancy hospital when they first launched in 2007. Since then, they've expanded to 9 cities and built more than 20 hospitals. Along the way, they've raised close to 500 Crores from investors like Matrix Partners, Sequoia, and True North!We speak to Rohit about how they came up with the idea to build a speciality hospital when Multi-speciality hospitals were the norm, the economics of a hospital, their customer focus and the innovations that have come out of that. Here's an example of one such innovation: If you've been a parent, you would know that back in the day, the cost of delivering a child through natural birth process vs a C-section were different with the latter being more expensive. This resulted in mis-aligned incentives where hospitals often pushed for C-Section, if when not needed, because they made more revenue. Cloudnine was the first hospital to standardize rates and improve the experience for the to-be parents. Just like this, they've done a bunch of innovations across the process of pregnancy as well as scaling operations. We talk to Rohit about his entire journey, inflection points and the learnings from building a large business in the healthcare industry! 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!This episode is a look back of 2021. This is our first full calendar year of creating podcasts and newsletters for The Indian Dream. Just this year, we've produced ~80 podcasts and written ~30 newsletter talking about Founder Journeys, Market Trends and various opportunities. In this episode, we look back and make sense of the year that's gone by:Top Episodes (01:19)a) Space-tech episodesb) Blockchain with Nischal Shetty from WazirXc) Mushroom & Seaweed Farmingd) OfBusinesse) Business of Hotels & Restaurantsf) Abhishek Goel Biggest learnings (12:02)a) Focus on doing less but doing that betterb) Don't monetise too early in your content journey - it's a labour of love that will monetise eventuallyc) Courses are really hard to do even if you know the subject really well.d) Collabs and inviting people to munchies was harder than I thought.e) It's really tough to motivate people in this kind of setting - got a lot of people who wanted to contribute for free but it just didn't work.f) Follow your curiosity - will lead to great episodesPersonal Lives (26:04)a) Portfolio of small betsb) Siddharth having a babyc) Rollercoaster of habit buildingd) Change in my worldview on entrepreneurship and life in generalPlan for next year (33:59)a) Do less but moreb) focus on distribution for the podcast.c) Keep experimenting with stuff on the podcast and in personal life. d) Keep trying to build it into an asynchronous organisation like AJVC

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Click here to help TID part time with LinkedIn & TwitterJob Description for the Content Associate Job at Blume VenturesClick here to apply for the Content Associate Job at Blume VenturesTimeline(00:00) - Introduction with two Job Announcements(02:30) - Defence Indigenisation in India(24:00) - DAO to fund Scientific Research(36:00) - Teaching Taxation to FoundersBusiness IdeasDefence Indigenisation in IndiaHere's a link to our Notion Page with a bunch of research that we did about defence indigenisation.Defence manufacturing and anciallary services is a complete white ocean at the moment - there is huge growth potential for businesses that enter this market right now.The Indian government has done a great job over the past 20 years to shift procurement of defence from imports to domestic manufactuers and this trend is going to continue over the next decade as the government focuses even more on improving its domestic manufacturing.Part of this is exports, from FY17 to FY19, in just 2 years, India was able to increase its defence exports from just 1,500crores to 8,300crores. That is an insanely fast growth rate and the benchmark for FY24 is to reach 35,000crores of exports. India cannot reach these crazy numbers without some really good incentives by the government to first build a thriving domestic manufacturing base but also one that can stand against the international market. There are a bunch of schemes by the Indian government to promote defence manufacturing in India. MSME's also have a big part to play in this indigenisation. They can manufacture for the big PSU's like HAL, Bharat Forge and all the others. There is a lot of manufacturing capacity in India such as composites, precision manufacturing, sheet metal work, naval work and others that can be used by the armed forces.However, this is a complicated network to get into. You either need capital or contacts.DAO to fund Scientific ResearchDAO's are Decentralised Autonomous Organisations that are operated based on the votes of the members who own the tokens.A big problem in the scientific world is the funding of research by large companies that then biases the results that come out of that.DAO's could be a solution that help fund scientific research without any biases.Teaching Taxation to FoundersUnderstanding taxation is critical to a founder's success, especially in the complicated tax structures of India.However, there are few to no courses to help teach tax at a founder level - MBA's don't teach enough and founders can't become CA's - we need something in between.Social Media can be great to teach stuff like this - Miss Excel makes $100,000/day by teaching excel on TikTok.

We're doing a Book Give Away! We'll be sending copies of 'The Minimalist Entrepreneur' to folks interested in building a profitable internet business. Just follow us on Twitter or  Instagram & tell us about what you want to building using the framework laid out in The Minimalist Entrepreneur book. On the episode, we host Sahil Lavingia, Founder of Gumroad and the author of The Minimalist Entrepreneur. We talk to him about the roller-coaster ride of building Gumroad to a profitable internet business with $10 m in revenue and $1m in profit, and some concepts from the book. Timeline:(00:00) - An Introduction to Sahil & Gumroad's journey(02:52) - Why the name 'The Minimalist Entrepreneur' and the intended audience (05:34) - Differences between a VC backed startup and a small profitable internet business (14:09) - Sahil's journey of coming out of the Silicon Valley/Unicorn bubble (20:55) - Leveraging Communities to discover problems (28:55) - Framework to identify ideas within a community(35:06) - Starting with Manual Valuable Process even before building a product (40:45) - How to start a business without worrying about all the skills you need(47:52) - Sahil's 20 Yr plan to becoming a Sci-Fi Writer(53:23) - Gumroad's recent Crowdfunding round of $5m and how is it different from VC (58:51) - Sahil's Experience of being an Angel Investor(01:03:44) - Sahil's relationship with Money

On this founder journey, we speak to Abhishek Goel, co-founder and CEO of Cactus Communications. Abhishek & his brother Anurag have built a culture of excellence into Cactus. They have an on-time delivery of 99.63%! How many other Indian businesses can boast of numbers like that?Join our No-Spam WhatsApp GroupOn this podcast, we've often spoken about how the best place to build a business is where everyone else avoids. Abhishek and Cactus' journey is a testament to that. Cactus communication is in the business of helping science researchers and PhD candidates have greater impact through scientific services and various products  and tools. For example, you're a researcher in Japan and your English isn't great so you can just use Cactus's services to improve your paper and get it ready for publication.This is as niche as it gets! All of this was made in India, but for the world.Now, you'll probably think, sure, it's niche, but I doubt there's enough demand to build a big business in this market. It seems like a small market on the face of it and hard to build a differentiated product. Well, let me tell you some numbers. Abhishek and his brother started Cactus in 2002. In the first decade of being in business, Cactus was doing $15 million or Rs. 100 Cr in revenue! In the next 10 years, they've grown exponentially and will soon be 10x of that with a team of 1200 people.Our jaws dropped when we understood the scale of this niche that looks tiny from the outside. That's the power of niche businesses, they can be outside limelight and build a large, profitable business without the madness of the large consumer markets where VC subsidises the market and makes it into a discounting race!And throughout the years, they've also been leaders in tech in their industry. Through the story you'll hear how they used tech scaling and D2C before those words even existed in our vocabulary. Now, they've been leading the AI/ML/NLP race globally through acquisitions and organic growth.In addition to the usual discussions on the episode on how Abhishek and his brother built Cactus over the past 20 years, we also speak in depth about the emotional journeys that entrepreneurs go through. Despite building this behemoth of a company, Abhishek talks about how we went through his own insecurities and the imposter syndrome he faced even after he had built a business doing more than $10m in revenue. Abhishek speaks very openly about his own experience, the emotional challenges and how we worked through them to build this large organisation!Before jumping into the conversation, we'd like to invite you to join our WhatsApp group where we already have 3000+ other likeminded entrepreneurs and knowledge seekers. We promise a no-spam group so that you can stay up to do date with our latest episodes.Now, onto the episode!

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Timeline:(00:58) - Revenue Based Financing(22:56) -  Translation Services for Movies, TV Shows on Netflix, Prime Video(33:54) - Life Skill Courses for TeenagersBusiness IdeasRevenue Based FinancingCapital is an essential commodity to grow a business. The traditional way of growing companies was Debt & Equity Investments. Debt generally comes from Banks, but they obviously don't like to take risks with unproven or unprofitable businesses. Plus putting up collateral, personal guarantees and what not.The other option is equity. In the recent years, Early stage/Growth equity has become popular thanks to the various Venture capital firms. However, you end up giving up too much equity and it prevents you from building a sustainable/profitable business. This type of equity works for ideas that don't really exist, and if they're successful, they can capture or create LARGE new markets for themselves.But, this leaves behind businesses that are profitable, but maybe not that can grow exponentially. Think D2C Brands, or SaaS businesses. How do you give them access to capital that prevents them from diluting too much equity?Enter Revenue Based Financing - This is where you get access to non-dilutive capital that can be used to grow your business and you pay a fixed fee as well as a share from the revenues to pay off your credit line. It's an interesting new lending product and we discuss the various opportunities around this. Translation Services for Netflix, Prime VideoLast week, we spoke to Abhishek Goyal, Co-founder of Cactus Communications about the large business he has built in the niche of research paper translation. We then applied the same model in the content industry where Netflix, Prime Video and other OTTs are producing so much foreign content that needs to be translated in English and also to other languages. Last year, Netflix had a shortage of agencies who could help them with this and hence had to rely on freelancers. This is an industry growing in double digits, year of year, and hence an interesting place to build a niche business. Life Skills for TeenagersOur education system is messed up and it ends up teaching A LOT of stuff that's never going to be relevant in your life and skips teaching essential life skills like Personal Finance, Health & Nutrition, Sex Ed. The idea is simple, can you build a gamified product that teaches teenagers these essential skills?

In this fascinating conversation about the journey of building a Rs. 100 Cr business from a seed capital of Rs. 64,000, we talk to  Suveer Bajaj,  Co-founder of FoxyMoron & Zoo Media. FoxyMoron is one of India's premier Digital Marketing & Advertising agency. Suveer started FoxyMoron in 2008, when he was just 19. 13 years later, he has been able to scale up the business to 500+ people and built an Advertising Network (Zoo Media) which is 7 agencies under it.  Join our No-Spam WhatsApp GroupIf you like what we do, please consider following us on Spotify, rating us on Apple, checking us out on Twitter and Instagram. Here's what we speak about in the episode: (03:52) - How was FoxyMoron born and what was the thesis?(08:28) - What was the concept of Digital Marketing back in 2008-09?(11:51) - How do young kids, aged 19-20, go present themselves to win contracts from Cadbury, L'Oreal, Force India Racing?(16:44) - How has the hiring journey evolved over time and how important was Culture? (21:46) - Importance of Knowledge Management and the Digital Marketing course at Symbiosis Institute. (30:03) - How is the advertising industry structured globally?(38:36) - Getting a term sheet from a large Advertising Network, the decision to not take it, and the inflection point after that?(42:10) - The Birth of Zoo Media and building/acquiring specialised Agencies(49:45) - The various Business Models of an Advertising Agency(57:57) - The Future of Zoo Media(01:01:54) - How has Suveer's role evolved as the business grew?(01:07:00) - How Suveer's relationship with Money evolved over a period of time?

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated! Timeline:(2:15) - Environmental, Social & Governance standards for big businesses(24:30) - Fractionalization of Real Estate(35:40) - Influencers working with State Tourism Boards(41:50) - Review Website for Cohort Based CoursesBusiness IdeasESG Investing & Business ideas - ESG stands for Environemtal, Social & Governance standards that the biggest companies in the world need to follow. More and more large fund houses are directing the flow of their investments based on businesses meeting ESG standards. There have also been big shifts in the rules in India that are forcing the 1000 biggest businesses in India, as per market cap, to publish annual ESG reports. As a result, the largest auditing firms in the world - PWC, KPMG, etc. - are predicting that the ESG reports will be as big as their financial audits in the next few years. Hence, there is a huge money making opportunity for these huge auditors but also for small businesses that want to enter this field. Interesting linksMckinsey ReportIndian ESG RulesFull Document on Indian ESG GuidelinesESG SmallcaseESG Ideas:Boutique ESG Consulting or Auditing firm that helps businesses with the Auditing and also meeting ESG requirements that have been missed.Content website that lists all the ESG standards and benchmarks that have been set by different businesses so that people can track progress.Countless B2B and B2C opportunities based on different industries. For example, one our previous podcast guests has built a full supply chain with traceability for recycled plastics so that his customers have full traceability on their plastics' origin.Fractionalization of Real EstateReal Estate is a great hedge against inflation and is also a great low risk investment for someone's barbell investment strategy. However, the ticket size to enter Real Estate investment is too high for the average retail investor. Is there a way to democratise this so that smaller investors can also add real estate to their portfolio? Some businesses who are already doing this:Property ShareStrata PropMyre CapitalIntern Army for Tourism BoardsState Tourism boards, on average, are terrible at building User Generated Content. Authentic UGC will drive social media growth in the long run. State Tourism Boards can think of hiring an intern army for a month and send them on a tour of the entire state with the sole job of creating as many instagram reels as possible. Review Website for CBC'sCohort Based Courses, at the moment, are being sold by influencers who are themselves reviewing their own course. A website that's generating User Generated Reviews would help sort the wheat from the chaff in their crowded but fast growing market.

Welcome to a really exciting episode of the Indian Dream - we've wanted to talk to this founder for the past 1 year at least. In this episode, we speak to Vivek Sahni, co-founder and CEO of Kama Ayurveda. For the few listeners who haven't heard of Kama, they are an Ayurveda based Hair & Beauty brand that now has 59 retail stores across the country.Join our No-Spam WhatsApp GroupThe reason we love Kama Ayurveda so much is that they started in 2002 at a time when nobody spoke about Ayurveda or even cared about it. They are pioneers who saw the early signals of the clean beauty movement and the resurgence of Ayurveda in India and staked a claim. This 20 year journey has culminated in Kama becoming one of the best known beauty brands to come out of India with a reported 100cr investment by a Spanish Luxury brand.I'll give you a quick history about Kama and Vivek before we jump right into the conversation with him.The journey to Kama started in 1993 when Vivek moved back to India after studying Design at the Parson's School of Design in New York. After coming back, he started a design studio called Vivek Sahni designs with his partner David Chang. Fun fact - Vivek and Dave ran this design studio all the way to 2013. For the first 10 years of Kama Ayurveda's existence, it was just a side hustle.In 1998 - Vivek worked on a 2 year project to design gift packaging for Khadi India, a government organisation set up to promote the development of Khadi and village industries in rural areas. During this project, they helped create a range of products, protocols, worked with manufacturers, and helped train people to source the best productsThis experience with Khadi India drove the founding of Kama Ayurveda in 2002 as an authentically Indian brand that was steeped in the traditions of Ayurveda. Kama had 4 founders, Vivek Sahni, Dave Change, interior designer Vikram Goyal and Padma Shri awardee Rajshree Pathy. It was Rajshree's connection with Ayurvedic doctors in Coimbatore that led them down the path of Ayurveda.The actual product development took them nearly 2 years and in the end, they started with a range hair and skin products that were authentically Ayurvedic. From 2002 to 2012, Vivek spent about 30% of his time on Kama while the rest was spent on his design studio. The brand grew organically increasing its distribution across pharmacies and hotels in Delhi.We now jump into the conversation with Vivek around 2005 2006, when they got distribution as in-room amenities at Oberoi and The Park hotels and how that impact the brand.Before getting into the episode - please join our No Spam WhatsApp group where we post information about the latest episodes. We already have more than 2500 members in our groups and we'd love to see you there.

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated! Timeline:(00:0) - Introduction(1:59) - Video & Livestream E-commerce (21:43) - Tiger 21 - Peer Network for High net worth individuals (36:54) - No-Code & Low Code Automation Teams at Enterprises & SMEs(41:12) - Indian wear but for OfficeIdea Details: 1. Video & Livestream E-Commerce: Two streamers in China sold $3B worth of products over 24 hours on their livestream. China is seeing a surge of products being sold through Video/Livestream E-commerce. Taobao, the largest e-commerce player in China, saw $65 billion worth of products being sold in 2020 using Video e-commerce. We talk about the opportunities to build around this emerging trend in India. 2. Tiger 21: A peer network of high net worth individuals (HNI) where a group of 15 HNIs come together and transparently share their portfolios and defend the same in front of the other members. The goal is to collectively make good investment decisions. We talk about the opportunities to build this in India and how Social Investing could be done by current Investment platforms. 3. No-Code, Low Code Automation Teams: Software is truly eating the world, thanks to no-code tools that have led to democratisation of technology. In 10 years, every company will be a software company, in that it'll be operated by a combination of different software tools. We talk about how training at enterprises & SMEs for No-code tools, or building an agency to help implement these no-code tools at businesses. 4. Indian wear but for Office: Office wear is primarily dominated by formal wear that's part of western culture. What if there was a dedicated line of Indian clothes for office wear? We discuss this business crazies! 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) host Piyush Kumar, Founder of Rooter to talk about Game Streaming & E-Sports in India. Gaming is a $160B market globally, and game streaming is one of the fastest growing segments within that. Youtube and Twitch are the most popular global game streaming platforms! Youtube has over 40 million active gaming channels. Twitch, on the other hand, has 9 million active game channels, and On an average, there are 2.8 Million people watching a game stream on twitch, at the same time. Twitch had a revenue of $2.3 Billion in 2020. We talk to Piyush about what's happening in Game Streaming in India and talk about the phenomenal rise of Rooter (8.5 Million monthly active users in 2021). We talk about why they decided to pivot, why is game streaming getting popular, and Rooter's monetisation experiments!  Episode Timestamp: (4:00) - The thesis behind Rooter 1.0 - A fan engagement platform for live sports(10:13) - The decision to pivot from fan engagement to game streaming platform(17:08) - Why has game streaming gotten popular? Why do people watch other people play video games?(24:43) - Why compete with Youtube and Twitch (30:56) - How did Rooter scale to 8.5 Million Monthly Active Users (MAU)(36:58) - The business model behind game streaming and Rooter's monetisation experiments(50:16) - E-Sports as a career option(1:06:00) - Why IPL teams should buy E-sports team and create streaming content To get summaries of the content we create, join this NO SPAM Whatsapp group. 

In today's episode we speak to Prashant Sharma, founder of Build by Skip the Line - a combination of a Cohort Based Course and Bootcamp course that takes people from ideation to launching a side-project that can make them financially independent. One of the most popular side projects launched during the Build Cohort is called LetterHunt which generated more than $2000 in revenue in the first 10 days.Join our WhatsApp GroupObviously, you can see why we invited Prashant to join us on this episode of Business Munchies. At The Indian Dream, we're all about building side projects and that's our goal with Business Munchies - to help people find Side Project ideas.Since Prashant is passionate about side projects, this episode is a hybrid - the first 15 minutes are about his journey to creating Build and the community around it. After that we discuss 3 side project ideas including:A resource website to help Indian D2C Brands go abroad including regulations for different niches, CA's & lawyers who specialise in international expansion, etc.Another resource website which just lists which TV Shows and Movies are available on the various OTT platforms in India. A sub-idea that came out of this is to make a content website that just provides summaries of the events of popular daily soaps in India.A platform which connects data from your Smartwatch, Computer and other sources to provide a performance dashboard for your personal life.The 2nd Cohort has just graduated with an incredible bunch of side projects - if you want to join the 3rd Cohort, you can click on this link and sign up.Lastly - our WhatsApp group, has more than 2500+ other founders & entrepreneurs where we share the latest episodes, newsletters and other content we create. We promise you won't get more than 2 or 3 messages each week. The link is in the show notes.Timeline:(00:00) - Introduction(01:55) - What was your career journey that led you to creating Build?(05:25) - What is the difference between a Bootcamp vs. Cohort Based Course?(07:52) - What is the secret sauce for building a highly engaged community?(12:45) - Why do you take Coders & non-Coders in the Cohort?(15:42) - How to think about Side Project ideas(16:39) - Idea: Resource Website to help D2C brands go international(22:56) - Idea: Resource Website to find OTT shows (29:20) - Idea: Performance Dashboard for Self-Improvement

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) host Gajendra Jangid, Co-founder of Cars24 to talk about the disruption in the Used Car Market. To get summaries of the content we create, join this NO SPAM Whatsapp group. Today, we're talking about Cars24 and the $20B Pre-owned or Used Car market in India. In Financial Year 19-20, 4.4 Million pre-owned cars were sold compared to 2.8 Million new cars. This makes the pre-owned car market about 1.5 times the new car market. Started in 2015, Cars24 is now valued at $1.8B. We talk to Gajendra Jangid, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Office at Cars24 about the challenges in the used car market, how they solved for it and scaled so big and Cars24's brand journey. Show timeline: (01:49) - The thesis behind Cars24(08:49) - How did Cars24 build the execution model to address the used car market?(16:42) - Used car market value chain(24:44) - How did they enter the buyer side of the transaction and what challenges did they run into?(31:01) - Ideal state of how used car markets should function from a buyer's perspective(36:15) - Cars24's Brand Journey(42:57) - How Cars24's ambition grew as they went deeper into solving the problem(45:16) - Gajendra's relationship with Money