Interstellar by Stellaris

Membership and loyalty programs are one of the most powerful growth levers in consumer businesses, yet 90-95% of them fail. Most companies treat them as a feature bolted on top of the product. The ones that survive treat them as a strategic operating system built into the core of the business. In this episode of Interstellar, Rahul Chowdhri speaks with Anuj Rathi, Founder, Profound Club. Over a ca...

Travel is one of the earliest internet categories in India, yet it still feels unfinished. Millions of people book flights in seconds… but still walk into hotels to book a room. Planning a single trip involves dozens of decisions across multiple platforms, spread over weeks. And despite all the progress, trust remains the biggest bottleneck. In this episode, we brought together Deep Kalra (MakeMyT...

Experiences are emerging as a new layer of India’s consumer economy. From large global concerts to hyperlocal community events, consumers are increasingly stepping out not just for entertainment, but for identity, belonging, and participation. This shift is creating entirely new opportunities and challenges in building platforms that connect consumers to real-world experiences. In this episode of...

As the world around him changed, Rohit Kapoor chose to reinvent himself. Curiosity led him into the startup world — from reimagining Indian hospitality at OYO to now powering India’s food story at Swiggy. His biggest learning: Hyperlocal logistics is one of the toughest businesses to build. Under Rohit’s leadership, Swiggy’s food marketplace now partners with 2.6 lakh+ restaurants across 720+ citi...

Enamoured by Bangalore’s startup ecosystem, Nandita Sinha launched her own e-commerce venture in 2012. The learnings from that journey took her to Flipkart, where she rose through the ranks, leading multiple businesses and driving customer growth. For the past 4 years, she’s been at the helm of ‪@myntra‬ one of India’s largest fashion, beauty and lifestyle ecommerce platforms - steering it to robu...

Why is this a Quick Commerce category and not e-commerce or offline-first? What’s the right to exist for a vertical player - why won’t horizontal platforms win here? Does this category demand a unique buying experience? And finally - how do the unit economics scale to a large outcome? In this episode of Interstellar, Rahul Chowdhri and Mayank Jain unpack India’s Vertical Quick Commerce opportunity...

Switching from a coveted FMCG job to an industry that was barely taking shape was one of the riskiest career moves in 2011. But Smrithi Ravichandran took a leap of faith into ecommerce when most were still figuring out what it meant. What drove her? A strong belief that technology would transform how Indian consumers shop and behave. As one of Flipkart’s earliest employees, Smrithi has lived throu...

With an IIT KGP degree, an MBA from Harvard, and a comfortable consulting job at BCG New York, Abhinav Sinha had every reason to stay back in the US. However, in 2014, he packed his bags and returned to India with a mission: to be part of something entrepreneurial. He took a leap of faith and joined @-RiteshAgarwal at @OYO when it was barely a year old. In doing so, he left behind the comfort of c...

Before the world caught on to online services, Saurabh Jain was already building them. In 2014, he launched DezignUp - a bold bet on home design services going digital. His journey took a turn when the company was acquired by Livspace. From there, there was no looking back. Saurabh went on to become the third co-founder and CEO of Livspace India, helping scale the brand to 65+ cities and redefinin...

Zero Commission Models: Disruptive or Just a Pricing Play? Startups like Meesho, Rapido, and Namma Yatri have disrupted their industries with zero commission models, by removing sales-based commissions while keeping costs low for customers. But the big question remains: Are these models really unique, or are they a different way of arriving at the same business economics? In this bonus episode of...

Today, Fastrack, Wildcraft and Licious are household names that we all recognize. Behind these iconic brands is the creative mind of Simeran Bhasin – and her story is one for the ages. After making a mark at Titan and Wildcraft, Simeran ventured into the startup world. In 2016, she launched India’s first and only young girl-focused innerwear brand. While she has made her fair share of mistakes, sh...

In the first episode of Interstellar, we sit down with Kirti Varun, former CPO of Meesho, who has worked across Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho, witnessing firsthand how Indian e-commerce has evolved. Here's what we unpack: How Meesho pivoted and paved their path to profitability How does zero-commission revenue model work What’s the right to exist for Amazon, Flipkart & Meesho Is Quick Commer...

Interstellar takes you behind the scenes with the stellar founders, business builders, and next-gen leaders driving India’s startup ecosystem. Hosted by the Stellaris team, our conversations explore the bold strategies, resilience-building setbacks, and transformative scale that define some of India’s most remarkable businesses. Whether you’re a builder, dreamer, or simply curious, join us as we u...