Founders Unfiltered

In today’s episode, Prashant talks about this journey of navigating a web of regulatory hurdles, riding through the pandemic, and most importantly -  building trust into the DNA of 1mg! We also learn about his transition into the TATA group and how this cements his aspiration of building India’s largest and most admired healthcare brand! As always, we leave you with a gem of unfiltered advice...

Last fortnight Chargebee appointed its Chief Financial Officer, a few months after turning unicorn in an incredible year for Indian SaaS For more details: https://ajuniorvc.com/chargebee-saas-unicorn-india-startup-revenue-zuora-chennai-case-study/

When Pandemic struck in 2020, the banking industry was ready for disruption- the act of physical visits to bank or ATMs had to be done away with - which gave a golden opportunity to a new form of Banking to emerge- known as Neo Banking. Jitendra Gupta- our guest for today -is the one of the most known faces in the Fintech space – he is also the co-founder of Jupiter- a mobile first neo banking pla...

Last fortnight, Paytm opened India’s biggest IPO. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - Will Paytm’s Rollercoaster hit IPO Gold? Link to article - https://ajuniorvc.com/paytm-ipo-fintech-rollercoaster-mall-wallet-business-unicorn-startup-india/

Jaynti was born and brought up in a small town in Ahmedabad. He studied at a local college, where students’ ambition was limited to getting a job at TCS. Jaynti too followed a similar path and took a job at an Indian corporate. A friend introduced him to YC’s Hacker News - a website focusing on technology and budding startups. Desiring to work with great people, he tried cold mailing people at top...

Last fortnight, Zee and Invesco continued their major tussle, hot on the heels of Disney+Hotstar breaking records with the IPL and Facebook rebranding itself to Meta.   Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - Who will win Media’s Game of Thrones.   For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/media-google-zee-invesco-ott-netflix-winner-tech-startups-inshorts-dailyhunt...

Raghav went to study in the US not knowing what to expect. Living there was an entirely new experience for him. Even simple things like purchasing groceries had some technology involved for increased convenience. He worked in the Bay Area as a software engineer at emerging startups including Yelp & Twitter. After 2 years, he realized the world outside SF was full of opportunities, with many pr...

Last fortnight, India added 500 more “Tech Crorepatis” as Freshdesk Inc IPOed at a valuation of  $13 billion making it the first Indian SaaS company to get listed on Nasdaq. For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/freshworks-india-saas-zoho-unicorn-ipo-story-history-girish/

Jaydeep grew up in a Bengali household that loved food. While working in Pune, he missed the Kathi rolls he loved growing up and decided to start a restaurant as a side project. The two launched Faasos, a restaurant serving rolls, and outsourced its operations. Jaydeep then went to pursue his MBA at INSEAD and landed a job at McKinsey London. After 5 years, he returned to India and had to choose b...

Last fortnight, Billdesk was acquired by Prosus’ PayU for $4.7Bn, making the combined provider the largest online player, and the acquisition the largest after Flipkart. For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/billdesk-fintech-prosus-payu-acquisition-unicorn-razorpay-history/ More info on: https://ajuniorvc.com/

Tarun took the aspirational middle-class education route. Being a good student in high school, he prepared for Engineering Entrance and got a decent rank to get into IIT. Growing up, he had no exposure to how businesses worked.  This changed when out of curiosity he joined his institute’s entrepreneurship cell and gradually developed an interest in building products. But it was not something...

Last fortnight, OfBusiness raised $160M, joining the stampede of 26 unicorns this year. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 33: Can OfBusiness help SMB's get Supply Smarter? For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/ofbusiness-b2b-financing-supply-unicorn-india-startup-zetwerk-inframarket/

Kabeer grew up in a small town in Dadra & Haveli, where starting one’s own business was unheard of. After completing his MBA, he started working as a sales executive at Airtel and later became a product manager. After spending a few years there, he decided to leave and spent a year doing nothing before finally starting his first startup. A location based service that offered coupon codes for l...

Last fortnight, Indian ed-tech startup Eruditus raised $650MM from marquee global investors at a $3.2Bn valuation, becoming India’s 3rd largest EdTech. For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/ Link to the article - https://ajuniorvc.com/eruditus-edtech-unicorn-byjus-unacademy-executive-higher-upgrad/

Gaurav grew up in a family that operated a large apparel business. Seeing his Dad grow the business had sown the early seeds of entrepreneurship in him. He worked in the family business for 6 years during which he witnessed the complete business journey - From IPO to an exit to a PE firm. He decided to take a break and went to do an MBA at Stanford where he met his co-founder Shashank. The two had...

Last fortnight, CoinDCX became a unicorn, putting Indian crypto firmly back into the spotlight after years of wilderness. For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/ Link to the article - https://ajuniorvc.com/india-crypto-startup-tech-coindcx-wazirx-polygon-unicorn-bitcoin/

Souvik grew up in Kolkata in a middle-class neighborhood where entrepreneurship was something alienated and mainly constituted of generational family businesses. After completing his CA he started working at a construction company. He worked there for 5 years, then went on to pursue an MBA. He graduated in 2016 and witnessed the Indian startup ecosystem booming.   However, the B2B space was s...

Last fortnight, India added a record 20th unicorn for the year, almost double in the number of 2020, surpassing the amount of funding raised in all of the last year. Article link - https://ajuniorvc.com/india-startup-tech-upi-jio-infosys-flipkart-gold-decade/ More info - https://ajuniorvc.com/

Abhinav grew up in a traditional middle-class fashion and went on to college to study engineering. Becoming a part of the institute’s entrepreneurship cell, he got exposed to the world of startups. Interacting with founders and hearing their experiences, he had realized that he ultimately wants to become a founder one day. After graduation, he got a high-paying job at Goldman Sachs. After working...

Last fortnight, Digit Insurance raised a $200 million round to make it one of the largest funding rounds in India’s general insurance industry, valuing the company at $3.5B. Article link : https://ajuniorvc.com/digit-insurance-lic-unicorn-india-startup-tech-general-acko/   More info on: ajuniorvc.com

Ranjeet grew up in a small village with less than 1000 population. He used to go to the nearby city on weekdays to attend school and return to the village on the weekend. As a kid he was a voracious reader, starting with first his school textbooks, later devouring Hindi literature, comics, and novels. As he grew up, he slowly shifted to reading English as there was no regional content available on...

Last fortnight, BrowserStack raised $200M, at a valuation of $4Bn, making it India’s most valuable SaaS startup.  Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 28: Can BrowserStack be the World’s Software Tester? For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/browserstack-saas-unicorn-bootstrapped-testing-app-browser-india-startup/

Arjun Vaidya was brought up in a family with a rich culture in Ayurveda. His Grandfather had started an ayurvedic clinic about 150 years ago. He went to study in the US, where he saw yoga repackaged and being sold all over the country. He pondered why India was lagging behind in it’s adoption, the land where it originated from. He returned to India and started a brand to bring ayurvedic products t...

Last fortnight, Tata Digital acquired 1mg for $200M, hot on the heels of its acquisition of BigBasket and its investment in Cure.fit. Join us for a behind-the-scenes peek at the A Junior VC piece - AJVC Unfiltered 27: Can Tata's 20-Year Tech Pivot Spin Up a SuperApp? For more details - https://ajuniorvc.com/tata-digital-tcs-super-app-startups-unicorn-titan-ratan-tata/

Chinmay grew up in Bombay where he was surrounded by small businesses. His father had a textile factory and his mom ran a boutique tailor shop. They emphasized on Chinmay’s education so that he could get a stable job. After graduating from college, Chinmay got a job in Singapore as a software engineer. He later became a product manager and worked in Southeast Asia for 6 years. While working he met...