#DamaniTalks

Livspace is an online retail platform for in-home designs & furniture for home improvement. The platform enables users to fill out forms, book professionals & receive quotes for the designs. The company provides installation services.

Ramakant Sharma is the co-Founder of Livspace and an active angel investor. Before founding Livspace, Ramakant was a core team member and Vice President of Engineering at Myntra, leading fashion e-commerce. He has around 11 + years of experience in software product development, product management, entrepreneurship, and online marketing.

Here's what you can learn from this episode:

- Ramakant's journey from IIT-K to Myntra to Livspace

- Why those that do not "start-up" are really the ones taking the most risk

- The growth of e-commerce ARPUs from ₹100 ARPU to ₹8-10 lakhs and where it is headed

- Why you should be selling solutions and not products/services

- How can founders being a business in areas where they have no prior knowledge

- The secret sauce behind the success of Livspace

- How to calculate LTV in spaces where there will be 1-2 lifetime transactions

- Principles of current age economics

- Why Ramakant became an angel? What is he looking for in founders? How to reach out to him?

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Kredily is a SaaS platform to help HR Professionals manage their data efficiently. Kredily aims to become India’s largest free platform for salaried employees.

Devendra Khandegar is the Founder & CEO of Kredily. He is an IIT Kanpur alumnus who earned a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the institute & then went on to pursue his MBA from IIM Lucknow. He has leadership, fundraising, and managerial experience from working in different roles with Axis Bank, GVFL Ltd, and Jasdan Wind Energy

Here's what you can learn from this episode:

• How did Devendra's education at IIT Kanpur and IIM Lucknow help him to develop entrepreneurial skills?
• What was Devendra's role at Axis bank? How did his experience in AXIS Bank help him in his journey to Kredily? Which sectors did Devendra handle in AXIS bank?
• What companies/sectors did Devendra invest in GVFL Limited? Which were his favorite investments from GVL Ltd? Why?
• What were the roles Devendra essayed at TracxnLabs? What inspired Devendra to leave a well-established workplace where he was heading a key role and hack it out as an entrepreneur? What was the biggest takeway from his TracxnLabs journey?
• Why is Kredily different from dozens of HRMS platforms in India? What are the different services Kredily provides to HR Managers? 
• Devendra's experience with fundraising? Was it difficult for him to raise funds during the pandemic?

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ASAPPP provides customized products and services that have enabled them to deliver highly efficient business solutions to their worldwide clients through unmatched expertise and cutting edge technology.

Avinash Gupta  took the 3rd plunge into entrepreneurship by founding ASAPPP  in 2017. In his early days, he started selling digital cameras below the market price in India. After pursuing his education in IIT Bombay he revived AVN Marketing, which was the same company that would later metamorphose into Bookmycab. He sold Book my cab in 2016 and is now a co-founder of ASAPPP.com and an investor.

Here's what you can expect to learn from this episode:

• How was the Indian startup ecosystem in Bihar? How did Avinash decide to pursue M.Tech in IIT Bombay after founding AVN Marketing and running it for a year?
• What was Avinash's role at Financial Technologies and in the project for the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius?
• How was the idea of Bookmycab born? What was Avinash's mission at the outset initially?
• How did the market change when Ola and Uber entered the fray? What were the biggest Challenges Avinash faced?
• What was the trigger that told Avinash that he must sell Bookmycab? What was the biggest takeaway from this BookMyCab journey?
• What is the USP of ASAPPP? What made Avinash choose this type of business?
• What type of businesses is Avinash investing in? What are some of the companies he has invested in?

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LeapClub is on a mission to get more women in leadership positions through a private and community-led professional network.

Ragini founded LeapClub in Jan 2020 along with her cofounder Anand Sinha. She was previously working in Zomato for 6 years, during her tenure there Zomato Gold was founded which broke the internet and redefined the path for Zomato.

Here's what you can expect to learn from this episode:

• Why did Ragini decide to go to the UK to study and not the US? (Lancaster University)
• How did Ragini's experiences growing up as an army child do something for her career?
• Why did Ragini choose to join Zomato which was less than 6 years old at that time?
• How was Zomato gold created?
• How Ragini is building on the Zomato gold legacy with LeapClub?
• Why did Ragini choose to open a Women's only club?
• Ragini's experience raising money and how she convinced her investors?
• What the LeapPaid membership is all about?

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Plum provides health insurance and benefits marketplace for employers. They offer coverage for employees, spouses, children, parents, and siblings. Employees can also customize insurance plans with multiple health benefits.  

Abhishek co-founded Plum in 2019, the 3rd startup under his belt. He has previously worked at McKinsey, Google, Swaylo, and graduated from IIT Kanpur and Stanford Business School. Join us on Thursday at 9 pm

Key takeaways from this episode:

• How did Abhishek's education help him in his entrepreneurial journey?
• What did Swaylo do? What was Abhishek's role there? How was his first experience with a startup was at Swaylo?
• What was RentZeal? What was Abhishek's inspiration for RentZeal?
• What was Abhishek's role at Google? What was his experience like leading the launch of Google Pay? What was his takeaways from Google’s work culture?
• What is Hypertrack? What does one need to accomplish to become a co-founder 3 years after a company has been established? How was Abhishek's first experience of raising VC money like? How did he develop a patent for “Systems and methods for receiving sensor data from a mobile device?”
• What does Plum do? What made Abhishek decide to start a company in a space where you have no experience? How did COVID19 affect operations/valuation?
  

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Alteria Capital is India’s largest Venture Debt fund, focused on innovative startups backed by strong VC sponsors. They provide financial solutions to help entrepreneurs transform and grow their businesses to their full potential.  

Ajay Hattangdi founded the company in 2018 and has been an expert in the venture lending space since 2005. Alteria Capital marks the 3rd startup he has founded under his belt. He has also founded a non-profit called Praja Foundation, which conducts research and provides information on civic issues to citizens, media, and government.

Here's what you can expect to learn from this episode:

• Why did Ajay go to the U.S. for his education and make the conscious decision of returning to India, even though he could have gotten a higher paying job among other perks?

• What made his first job at Citibank a high-stress environment, and why wasn't it what he thought it be like? What life lessons did he take away from his 12-year experience at Citibank?

• How did Ajay convince his superiors at Citibank to invest in a new line of business — venture debt. What were the challenges of establishing this project in India at a time where there were only a handful of venture capitalists?

• Why did Ajay quit his comfortable job at Citibank to start his own venture debt fund? How did he convince his wife and his peers that this was a good idea? How long did it take to do the market research and talk to experts in the industry?

• Why is the team such an important factor when starting a business? What is the difference between a bad-performing employee and a bad employee? 

• How does Alteria get ahead of its competition and not just provide startups with capital, but a holistic approach to supporting their portfolio companies? 

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Everest Fleet is a fleet management company of 800+ cars that run under Uber in Mumbai and Bengaluru. They are now one of the leading players in the fleet market in the short time since their establishment.

Siddharth founded Everest Fleet in 2016. He is an angel investor-turned-philanthropist and entrepreneur, with 100+ startups in his portfolio. He strongly believes in social causes and giving back to society.

Here's what you can expect to learn in this episode:

• How did growing up in an entrepreneurial family helped him learn about being a businessman every day, learning about the volatility and the highs and lows of running a business.

• Out of 100+ investments, which investment is his most memorable one? Why does he prefer investing in younger founders?

• A founder's role should be to focus on growth and innovation rather than management. What is the importance of good delegation, and what qualities should a leader look for in his team?

• How did Siddharth figure out how to efficiently run the Everest Fleet cars 24x7, despite others believing it wasn't possible? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this approach?

• How did Everest Fleet adapt to the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown in just 4 days? How did they convince their drivers, law enforcement, and their customers that they were ready to handle the situation?

• How did their response to COVID-19 essentially develop a new service line and open them up to a whole new customer base?

• Siddharth’s Book recommendations: Measure What Matters by John Doerr, and The 3G Way

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Repup.co is a B2B SaaS hospitality platform that provides services from booking confirmations to upsells and all the way through to driving positive online volumes.

Pranjal Prashar is a second-time founder who started Repup with his co-founder, Vineet in 2015. Repup recently merged with Hotelogix and AxisRooms. His first company, Piquor, provided photo booths for locations/functions such as malls, weddings, etc.

Here's what you can expect to learn in this episode:

• Why is this the right time for startups with innovative technologies to test their resilience in the market? How his father's job exposed him to a lot of travel from very early on and building a company around his past travel experiences.

• How did his job as a consultant at Aujas Networks help him understand entrepreneurs and their plights? What did he use from his experience to develop and hone his entrepreneurial spirit? What kind of work experience should founders have before they start their own ventures? Why should you work at small, medium, and large organizations?

• What are the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing your manufacturing to a third party? Why is it never a good long-term solution? How did his first entrepreneurial venture with Piquor help segue him into starting Repup? What did his client, ITC, mention that made the idea for Repup click?

• What made Pranjal and his team decide to shut down their SME vertical and focus only on mid-size companies and enterprises? Why they didn't just reduce the prices of their service. Why does Pranjal believe that if you don't try 100 times, chances are you haven't succeeded yet? How did cold-calling Sanjay Mehta lead to onboarding him as an invaluable mentor, and eventually, funding?

• How did Pranjal convince his investors that India wasn't the market for them, and what were the benefits and challenges of targeting the global market? What did they change about their strategy and their business going global? What do they need to consider before entering a market?

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Posist is a platform that lets owners automate their cloud kitchen operations and manage restaurant business efficiently. They are trusted by over 8000+ clients and are present in 20 countries.

Ashish co-founded Posist in 2011 with his wife, Sakshi. Posist has been his 3rd (and most successful) venture yet. Ashish is a fine example of the journey of a founder going against the grain. He started his first company with no prior work/management experience straight out of college. He exited the telecom space when most players were beginning to enter it. He wrote off his investment in running a restaurant to focus on his strengths and founded Posist.

Here's what you can expect to learn from this episode:

• Can you start and (successfully) run your own business right after you graduate – without ANY other work experience? What made Ashish decide to hire two of his college batchmates and do precisely that? How did he run and sell it successfully?
• Why did Ashish choose to exit his first company, TechnoApex Software, after learning that telecom is one of India's highest regulated sectors? When is it okay for a founder to "give up?" How was the experience of being a part of the Delhi start-up ecosystem?
• How Ashish built Posist from the ashes of a failed venture? Why was it better to quit the restaurant and write off the money lost rather than trying to chase it?
• Why is it more important to have empathy when building a business, rather than a new/unique idea?
• How did support from investors and accelerators like Morpheus changed Ashish's opinion on funding? Why did the brutal honesty from the investors make him realize their true value?
• How did becoming an angel investor make Ashish introspect and realize his mistakes as a founder?
  

Ashish's Book Recommendations:

• Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham
  
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful! by Mashall Goldsmith
  
• The Hard Thing about Hard Thing: Building a Business When There are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
  

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Posist is a platform that lets owners automate their cloud kitchen operations and manage restaurant business efficiently. They are trusted by over 8000+ clients and are present in 20 countries.

Ashish co-founded Posist in 2011 with his wife, Sakshi. Posist has been his 3rd (and most successful) venture yet. Ashish is a fine example of the journey of a founder going against the grain. He started his first company with no prior work/management experience straight out of college. He exited the telecom space when most players were beginning to enter it. He wrote off his investment in running a restaurant to focus on his strengths and founded Posist.

Here's what you can expect to learn from this episode:

• Can you start and (successfully) run your own business right after you graduate – without ANY other work experience? What made Ashish decide to hire two of his college batchmates and do precisely that? How did he run and sell it successfully?
• Why did Ashish choose to exit his first company, TechnoApex Software, after learning that telecom is one of India's highest regulated sectors? When is it okay for a founder to "give up?" How was the experience of being a part of the Delhi start-up ecosystem?
• How Ashish built Posist from the ashes of a failed venture? Why was it better to quit the restaurant and write off the money lost rather than trying to chase it?
• Why is it more important to have empathy when building a business, rather than a new/unique idea?
• How did support from investors and accelerators like Morpheus changed Ashish's opinion on funding? Why did the brutal honesty from the investors make him realize their true value?
• How did becoming an angel investor make Ashish introspect and realize his mistakes as a founder?
  

Ashish's Book Recommendations:

• Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham
  
• What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful! by Mashall Goldsmith
  
• The Hard Thing about Hard Thing: Building a Business When There are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz
  

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