The Kalaari Podcast

“However big or small, make it a good business, make it a clean business, make it a business you are very proud of” The pioneer of online travel in India, Deep Kalra ’s vision for MakeMyTrip was simple - to make travel easy for people. Today MakeMyTrip is India’s largest online travel portal and has changed the way India travels. It was a pleasure to host Deep on our #PayItForward session, where h...

“Be confident that you can achieve anything.” - Pankhuri Shrivastava, Founder, Pankhuri Back in December, we had the privilege of hosting  Pankhuri as a speaker on our CXXO live audio session. It was such a heartening conversation. You could sense the sheer passion and grit that Pankhuri had towards creating a larger impact on society and empowering more women. She shared her life lessons, her jou...

The online healthcare market is over $100B, growing rapidly. Digital health is here to stay and will witness massive adoption. To share more insights on the growing adoption of Digital Health, we hosted Dr. Ashwini Zenooz, MD & CEO, Commure on our #CXXOCollective session. On this episode, we discuss the growth of Digital Health, delve deeper into the trends in the space, and more. The CXXO Col...

“As you grow as a company and have hundreds of employees, the only way to communicate effectively is through documented or codified company cultural values making it very important to establish these things early on in a company’s journey”.  - Beerud Sheth, Founder of Gupshup and Elance. We spoke to Beerud to get his thoughts on his journey building two successful businesses, his leadership mantra...

The Indian logistics sector, already a $200 billion market, is set to grow at over 10 % CAGR in the next five years to reach around $330 billion. Hyperlocal logistics is the next big thing in logistics, growing at roughly 32% CAGR globally. Dunzo has been at the forefront of building a hyperlocal logistics business in India.  To share more insights on India's  Logistics opportunity, we hosted...

Food Tech startups have revolutionized Indian eating habits drastically in the recent few years - with so many options at the touch of a button and the convenience of receiving a variety of cuisines at your doorstep, hassle-free. India’s online food industry is set to become an $8 billion market by 2022, due to rapid digitization and growth in both online buyer base and spending. To share more ins...

The first nine months of 2020 saw India rise to the number one spot in mobile game downloads worldwide, clocking 7.3 billion installs and raking in a 17% market share of the installs volume. To share more insights on India's Gaming opportunity, we hosted Paavan Nanda & Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-founders, WinZO  on our Hindustan Hamara session on Clubhouse, hosted by Vani Kola , MD of Kalaa...

“For an early stage company, the founders themselves are the brand. Your brand is really about what people talk about you or your company when you leave the room. Being consistent in your message and your stories is going to be the key to building a strong personal brand.”    Hear more on what Paroma Roy Chowdhury - Chief Communications Officer, Dream11, Priya Rajan - Managing Director, Silicon Va...

Whether it is raising funds, finding your product-market fit, or striking a work-life balance - being an entrepreneur comes with its own set of challenges. Navigating these tides can be difficult, but also come with many learnings.  On our first CXXO Collective session, Ghazal Alagh , Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Mamaearth , Shradha Sharma , Founder & CEO, YourStory Media , &...

“Look for someone who recognizes your long-term thinking, vision, and passion for building an enduring brand and business.” Kunal Joshi & Aayush Tapuriah, the Co-founders of Elevar Sports, shared their insights on and how to approach fundraising for the first time. Some of the key topics we cover: - Elevar Sports founding journey - Choosing the right co-founding team - Tips on approaching fund...

“There have to be complementary skills across the founding team and a clear understanding of each one's roles and responsibilities.” Ritish Reddy,  Co-founder and CEO of Zluri, shared his insights on starting up, choosing the right co-founders, and how to approach fundraising for the first time. We discuss: 1. The opportunity that Zluri is pursuing - the importance of SaaS management as a cat...

To understand how to startups should approach M&A deals, we had a conversation with Aakrit Vaish , Co-founder & CEO, Haptik, one of the world’s biggest conversational AI platforms. Aakrit also shared his tips on scaling, and on investing in emerging startup opportunities, in this Kalaari Podcast episode.  Some of our key learnings from the episode: 1. An acquisition can be an exit or a sta...

Cryptocurrency is disrupting the world of finance, but is it here to stay? To share more insights on India's Crypto opportunity, we hosted Nischal Shetty , Founder & CEO, WazirX ,  on our Hindustan Hamara session on Clubhouse, hosted by Vani Kola , MD of Kalaari Capital . Hindustan Hamara focuses on conversations with the shapers of India's digital future. Every session we talk to in...

Since 2016, over 600 DTC brands have been funded in India, with 16 brands making $50M+ in ARR. With online shoppers expected to grow 2.5x in the next 5 years, DTC brands could be looking at a $100 billion addressable consumer opportunity in India by 2025. To share more insights on the DTC opportunity in India, we hosted  Darpan Sanghvi , Founder & CEO, MyGlamm , on our Hindustan Hamara session...

Back when Dream11 was founded in 2008, fantasy sports as a category did not exist in India. Today, they have more than 100 million users and are clear market leaders. We kickstarted our first #PayItForward session with Harsh Jain , Co-Founder, and CEO of Dream Sports . We spoke about what inspired Harsh to start Dream11, choosing the right investors to partner with, building the right company cult...

There are around 12 million Kirana stores in India, which account for 90 percent of domestic retail and FMCG sales. Digitization of the Kirana stores is where the big opportunity lies. On this episode of the #PayItForward Series, Sandeep Deshmukh shares his experiences and key milestones from his journey of building ElasticRun , India’s premier Kirana commerce platform. The Pay It Forward series,...

India’s gig economy has the potential to add over 90 million jobs to the economy and add 1.25% to India’s GDP. To share more insights on the gig economy and consumer platforms, we had Abhiraj Bhal , Co-founder of Urban Company , on our Hindustan Hamara session on Clubhouse, hosted by Vani Kola , MD of Kalaari Capital . Hindustan Hamara focuses on conversations with the shapers of India's digi...

How do you build successful enterprise technology businesses?   Sindhu Gangadharan, an enterprise technology veteran – with several years of leadership experience at SAP and multiple board positions at leading technology firms – shares her insights on the enterprise tech opportunity and how to build a successful business on our ‘Behind The Scenes podcast.   A few key topics Sindhu discusses during...

Agriculture and allied sectors contribute roughly 14% ($276 Bn in 2020) to India’s GDP. Yet we have to date not witnessed a tech unicorn emerge from the sector, despite having over $600M in VC funding over the last 5 years.  #Agritech is one of the most important sectors for innovation and inclusivity in India. To share more insights on this sector, we had Taranjeet Singh Bhamra of Agnext on our H...

90% of internet users in #India prefer to consume content in their local language.  The next big opportunity in India is #vernacular .  We kickstarted our Hindustan Hamara session on Clubhouse with Aprameya Radhakrishna of Koo India and Sourabh Gupta of Vernacular.ai , hosted by Vani Kola , MD of Kalaari Capital . In this episode, we discuss the vernacular opportunity in India and how it's sh...

The difference between a good company and a great one is the company culture.  When Abhinav Asthana started Postman , it was supposed to be a side project. Today, Postman is used by over 11 million developers and 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies.  But what truly sets apart Postman is the company culture that Abhinav has built over the years - keeping the developer community as their core focus,...

Back in 2014, hardly anyone in India knew about Xiaomi.  They had zero market share and adopted an online-first distribution plan, which was unheard of at the time for smartphone brands. Today, Xiaomi is a clear market leader, with over 28% of the smartphone market in India. They sold over 10.5 million units just in Q1 2021 & have more than 3000 stores across India.  We spoke to the man behind...

In 2019, 3% of the total startup funding in India went into Deep Tech ventures. In 2020, this number shot up to a whopping 14%. India’s #DeepTech ecosystem has grown rapidly over the years. Today, over 2100 Indian startups are using deep tech practices in their operations. To throw more light on this sector, we have Atul Batra on our #BehindTheScenes Podcast. Here are some of the key learnings fro...

Branding is a powerful tool. It represents what you stand for and helps build an emotional connection with your audience. But building a brand is an art, and often the tricky part in any product success. Harish Bijoor helps us decode the nuances of branding in this #BehindTheScenes podcast episode. Here are some of our important learnings from this conversation: 1. For young startups, it is import...

The leadership brand, the talent brand, and the culture brand are three things that startups should be learning more about. We invited Abhijit Bhaduri to share insights about the evolution of HR’s role in creating value for companies.   Some of the points we cover in this #KalaariPodcast: How to attract great talent Creating excellent employee experiences  Making employees brand ambassadors  #Lead...