Founder Thesis

"ESOPs aren't lottery tickets; they're a calculated risk with a potential for real wealth creation."   This seemingly simple statement from Satish Mugulavalli, Founder and Managing Partner of Hissa, encapsulates the core message of this episode: shifting the perception of ESOPs from "paper money" to a strategic tool for both companies and employees. We unpack the often-confusing world of ESOP...

"You have to be good at collections if you want to be a good lender."   This was just one of Shruti Aggarwal's amazing insights in this episode: lending profitability relies on responsible repayment, not just customer acquisition.  Shruti Aggarwal is the Co-Founder of Stashfin, a digital lending platform in India. She has built a profitable fintech with a loan book of ₹2000 crores and mo...

"The solution to every problem lies in the market, not the boardroom."    Ashok Vashist shares a powerful lesson on the importance of staying grounded and understanding customer needs directly, rather than relying solely on theoretical discussions in boardrooms. This principle has guided WTI's success.   Ashok Vashist is the Founder of WTI Cabs (Wise Travel India), one of India's le...

"We realized that just lending is not the answer. You need to solve a problem for the small business owner."  This quote from Tashwinder Singh encapsulates the core philosophy driving Niyogin's approach. It's not just about providing capital; it's about understanding and addressing the holistic needs of small businesses in India, moving beyond simple transactions to genuine problem-solving. T...

From a $10,000 first customer to multi-million dollar contracts, hear the incredible growth story of Locus! In this episode of the Founder Thesis podcast, Founder and CEO Nishith Rastogi shares key strategies on how a shift from B2C to B2B helped fuel its success in the on-demand economy. Gain key insights into their go-to-market strategy, AI integration, and the importance of building strong cust...

Yamini Bhat is a rare breed - a female founder of a tech startup, but beyond that her achievements are simply phenomenal - Vymo is a global Saas company doing double digit million in ARR, and has raised $45mn till date.  In this episode of the Founder Thesis podcast Yamini Bhat recounts her fascinating transition from McKinsey consultant to the founder of Vymo, a cutting-edge sales automation...

In this episode, we dive into the entrepreneurial journey of Arvind Parthiban, CEO & Co-Founder of SuperOps, a $50M SaaS company. Arvind highlights the critical role of product marketing in startup success and emphasizes the importance of purpose-driven entrepreneurship. Akshay Datt, a serial entrepreneur who has run ventures in employability training and hiring, hosts the Founder Thesis podca...

The global cross-border payments market is on a remarkable growth trajectory, expected to hit $290 trillion by 2030. Amidst this booming landscape, discover how Srivatsan Sridhar successfully navigated the challenges and founded Skydo, a platform which addresses traditional pain points around high fees, delayed settlements, and compliance hurdles and makes international transactions hassle-free. A...

In this episode, Divakar Vijayasarathy shares his inspiring entrepreneurial journey, from overcoming early struggles to building a global financial powerhouse. Tune in for invaluable lessons on scaling businesses, mastering tax dynamics, and creating lasting value in the professional services sector.   Divakar is the Founder of DVS Advisory Group, a tax advisory, business advisory and PE firm...

In this episode, we delve into Rajul Garg's inspiring journey from his beginnings as a budding entrepreneur to a successful venture capitalist. Rajul is the founder and managing partner of Leo Capital, a venture fund that invests in early-stage technology companies. A serial entrepreneur turned investor, Rajul co-founded GlobalLogic, a digital engineering services company that was acquired by a Ja...

Anand Jain lost his father when he was just 12. This experience caused him to step into an entrepreneurial role very early in life and Anand has literally done it all - from selling detergent door-to-door, to repairing and assembling computers to writing software. Despite no academic track record to speak of, Anand ended up getting hired by a tech company in the Silicon Valley in peak dot com era....

It’s no secret that the business model of the internet is basically advertising. Think about what you spend time doing online - there’s a high chance that 80% of the time you are viewing ads.  And you might think that the business of serving ads to consumers is done and dusted, but there are still opportunities for startups to win ad dollars away from the googles and the Metas of the world, a...

I can bet that almost all of you who are listening to this episode of the Founder Thesis podcast would have interacted with Vehant’s products.     The next time you go into an airport or an office building, take a look at the brand name on the baggage scanner that they are using - there’s a very high chance that you will see Vehant’s logo on it.   But Vehant is so much more tha...

Globally, the market research industry is at least worth a hundred billion dollars!  We really are living in a world where everything is market researched.  The ads you watch on TV, the packing designs of products you use, even the movies you watch - they have all gone through a validation process using market research. The reason for this is simple really.  When a company intends t...

If you want to understand the evolution of Entrepreneurship in India over the decades, then there is really no better story than this.   Srikumar Misra is the son of an entrepreneur who made the mistake of taking a bank loan backed by him home, and his untimely death ended up teaching the young Sri a valuable lesson about the risks of entrepreneurship.     And you might think t...

Whenever we have featured founders who have scaled their businesses meaningfully, it is typically because they have been good at acquiring customers and increasing their lifetime value.  But Mayur Abhaya, our guest in this episode, has scaled LifeCell to an annual revenue of about 800 crores on the back of its strong supply chain & delivery capabilities.  Mayur’s father was a serial...

For a lot of people, hospitality is their ultimate entrepreneurship dream, and they aspire to start a restaurant or a cafe and quit their stressful corporate world career. In this episode of the Founder Thesis podcast - we speak to a hospitality founder who has built and scaled a truly unique hospitality business and given a new age avatar to a very old business. Most of you would be aware of the...

Some founders are born lucky - and some founders are born to fight against tremendous odds and adversities.  This is the story of Vinod Singh who was born in a village in UP which did not even have electricity, and yet through sheer grit and willpower - ended up becoming the CTO of a startup in the UK.  And you might think that this is the happy ending of the story, but like they say - p...

If there is one takeaway from this conversation, then it’s simply this - Boring is beautiful. ProcMart is in the boring business of managing non-core indirect procurements for manufacturers. And by taking care of this simple but time intensive task for companies, ProcMart will cross 1000 crores in turnover this year.  The credit for this massive achievement goes to Anish Popli - the founder o...

It is rare for D2C startups to be bootstrapped because they need to burn cash to acquire customers initially. But the Just Herbs story is proof that there are clever growth hacks that can help you grow your D2C brand while remaining bootstrapped. Arush Chopra was an aspiring actor who stumbled into a role in private equity which led to the start of his journey in the world of startups. He started...

About Arjun Malhotra Arjun Malhotra is the General Partner at Good Capital, an India-focused, seed-stage venture capital fund that he co-founded with his late brother, Rohan Malhotra. Before becoming a full-time investor, Arjun co-founded Investopad, a startup incubator that became a vibrant community hub for entrepreneurs. The 12 angel investments made during this time, including in the future un...

Regular listeners of the Founder Thesis podcast would have heard so many stories of young founders who build their venture straight out of college and keep at it for a decade until they find success. This episode is the exact opposite of that kind of Story. Rajesh Shet had more than two decades of experience in the corporate world when he started SahiBandhu, and that is the reason why in just 4 ye...

There are two types of entrepreneurs that we celebrate. The first one is the founder who raised a lot of money and built a highly valued startup on the back of investor money.  The second type of entrepreneur - which we think is really the more special type of entrepreneur, is one who started from scratch and built up a business brick by brick on the back of his hustle and grit.  HP Sing...

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I tell you that in this episode, we are featuring a Patel who built a business in the US? The stereotype says that he would be running a motel or a convenience store - but this Patel has built a b2b SaaS company that is almost a unicorn.  Nishant Patel moved to the US when he was just 14, and then went on to become a techie in the San Franci...

Amit Koshal’s entrepreneurial journey began while working on a groundbreaking product at Intuit. Now, at TWID, he’s disrupting payment networks by turning reward points into a currency for transactions—an idea refined over five years of experimentation and failures, eventually leading to the product-market fit. This conversation delves into his path as a founder and his vision for a "happily ever...