Founder Thesis

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...

After a career in U.S. investment banking, Nikhil returned to India to build Imarticus, offering offline-focused boot camps to upskill fresh graduates. Unlike many in the space, Nikhil views Imarticus as an education business rather than an edtech company, with a fundamental focus on delivering real learning outcomes. This approach has helped the company grow and reach an annual revenue of 300 cro...

Every year millions of young people migrate for jobs or education, creating a big market for hostels and paying guest accommodations. However, succeeding in this business depends on managing the operational complexities and getting the small details right. Zolo, one of India’s largest co-living companies, has mastered this challenge, currently managing living spaces for 60,000 people. In this epis...

Neeraj Khandelwal is a passionate Indian who aspired to serve his country as a civil servant. When his initial plan fell through, he channelled his determination into exploring new ways to fulfil this objective. He saw the transformative potential of cryptocurrency and invested in building India's crypto infrastructure, leading to the creation of CoinDCX. In this episode, he decodes how crypto wil...

"The enterprise AI market is completely open; everyone needs it. Adoption will grow dramatically in the next ten years." Anand Mahurkar's insight underscores the explosive growth and universal demand for AI solutions in the enterprise sector. Anand Mahurkar is the Founder & CEO of Findability Sciences, a Boston-based AI solutions firm. Under his leadership, Findability Sciences has grown signi...

Deepak Sahni shares his remarkable journey of building one of the largest diagnostics companies in the preventive space. Starting his entrepreneurial journey as a teenager, Deepak has consistently dared to dream bigger with each venture over the last two decades. In this episode, he reveals the secrets behind scaling Healthians to a revenue run rate of over 500 crores and raising 80 million dollar...

Small businesses in India often face delays in payments from large corporations due to complex bureaucratic processes and stringent payment terms. The TReDS system, developed by the RBI, aims to resolve this. With TReDS, businesses can receive immediate payment by selling their invoices to a financier, who then collects the payment from large corporations. In this episode, Sundeep shares his exper...

"We were not building a short term new age brand, we were building a very disruptive new age product. But we wanted to build a legacy brand." Priyanka Salot shares a powerful insight: The Sleep Company isn't just chasing trends; they're building a lasting brand with a revolutionary product, focusing on long-term impact and customer loyalty over quick wins. Priyanka Salot is the Founder of The Slee...

As solar panels become more affordable and government subsidies make them attractive, homeowners can now switch to solar energy for the same cost as their current electricity bills. In this episode, Shreya Mishra provides practical advice and insights from her entrepreneurial journey- she talks about her first venture, Flyrobe, and how she joined SolarSquare to build its retail side. She also shed...

Edul Patel founded Mudrex with a strong belief in cryptocurrency as the future of money. For the past 7 years, he has been building the infrastructure for its mass adoption. He estimates it might take another 10 years to see widespread use. This episode dives into the concept of money and the potential future of currency, offering thought-provoking insights for those curious about how the world wo...

Every few years, a new trend in the startup world catches the attention of VCs and this episode features a founder who has successfully navigated multiple such trends in the Indian startup scene. Gaurav Agarwal began his entrepreneurial journey with ZipGo, a ride-hailing startup that competed with industry giants like Ola and Uber. After an exciting journey with ZipGo, which eventually led to its...

Sriram started his journey solving security problems for Texas Instruments, but his passion for tackling hard issues led him to the world of entrepreneurship. Now, 17 years later, he’s taken on the challenge of building a platform enabling companies to provide convenient, safe transportation for their employees while minimising the number of vehicles needed. In this conversation, he talks about bu...

Kunal is reimagining banking with Freo, a digital platform that covers all three key financial services: payments, savings, and lending. In this conversation, he spills the tea on the rollercoaster journey of his first business in talent assessments, which eventually got acquired, teaching him valuable lessons along the way. He talks how these experiences helped him hit the bullseye with Freo and...

"Every skin has its own story." Romita Mazumdar's profound statement encapsulates the core philosophy of Foxtale, a skincare brand built not just on efficacy, but on deeply understanding the individual narratives behind every customer's skincare journey. It's a rejection of a one-size-fits-all approach, embracing the diversity of needs and experiences. Romita Mazumdar is the Founder & CEO of F...

Explore the critical role of high-quality schools in addressing the root causes of low education standards in India. While Edtech solutions provide temporary relief, Kunal argues that building and running schools is a lasting solution. He shares his journey, his significant challenges, and how he successfully scaled JBCN Education. Get notified about the latest releases and bonus content by subscr...