StartupTalky

Tag: 👨‍💻StartupTalkers

  • Sabina Chopra: Co-founder & COO of Yatra

    Sabina Chopra is an Indian entrepreneur, who co-founded Yatra Online, Private Limited and serves as its Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Corporate Hotels. Prior to that, she served as an Executive Vice President of Operations at the company. She has 25 notable years of work experience in the Travel BPO sector and shares an astounding network within the travel community. She was appointed to the RCI India, where she escorted strategic priorities for the growth of the Indian travel market. She is an active Philanthropist and supports the “girl child” through NGOs. As of 2016, she has an estimated net worth of Rs. 263 crores.

    Sabina Chopra-Biography

    Name Sabina Chopra
    Born Delhi, India
    Current city Bangalore, India
    Nationality Indian
    Education University of Delhi
    Profession Entrepreneur
    Position Co-founder & COO, Yatra
    Net worth Rs. 263 crores (2016)
    Marital Status Married
    Spouse Aadesh Chopra
    Daughters 2

    Sabina Chopra- Personal Life
    Sabina Chopra- Education
    Sabina Chopra- Professional Life
    Sabina Chopra- Co-founder & COO of Yatra
    Sabina Chopra- Business Idea
    Sabina Chopra- Challenges
    Sabina Chopra- Honors & Awards

    Sabina Chopra- Personal Life

    Sabina Chopra - Founder of Yatra
    Sabina Chopra – Founder of Yatra

    Sabina was born and brought up in Delhi, India. She loves to go for a walk and spend time with nature. She likes to play music and is a graceful dancer as well. She has multiple talents and is an inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs.

    Sabina Chopra- Education

    Before co-founding Yatra.com, Chopra headed India based Operations of ebookers, an online travel company based in Europe. She completed her education at the University of Delhi. She took up a Bachelor of Arts degree.

    Sabina Chopra- Professional Life

    Sabina Chopra Entrepreneur

    Sabina started her professional career as a Supervisor/ Manager at Japan Airlines in 1991. She examined airport operations, ticketing, reservations and sales. She served at Japan Airlines for ten years and left the job in 2001. She has handled operations at Air Canada as well.

    She then joined one of the leading European travel agency firm, ebookers (Mr Jet). She worked as the Head of Sales of the Indian counterpart of ebooks for three years and left the job in 2004. She started working at Rac Business Solutions (Aviva Plc) and headed the operations at the company.

    In 2005, she joined a company called Hewitt Associates, which provides financial services owing to risk, retirement and health solutions. She soon left the job to establish her startup Yatra Online Private Limited in January 2006.

    She also served as the Managing Director at Wyndham Destinations, which is the world’s largest vacation club and exchange firm. She worked there for about three years, from March 2017 to July 2019.

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    Sabina Chopra- Co-founder & COO of Yatra

    Yatra Logo

    Sabina is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of corporate hotels at Yatra Online Inc. She examines several operations of the company. Under her leadership, the company experienced a substantial growth with 370 billion travel-related online market in April 2012.

    Yatra Online Inc. is an Indian company which offers online travel agency services. It is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, India. It enables its users to book airline, railway and bus tickets online as well as car and hotel accommodations for customers.

    Yatra is today one of the largest online travel-related websites in India. The company has received funding from Reliance Venture, Web18 and Intel Capital.

    Sabina Chopra- Business Idea

    After working for a bundle of travel companies, she knew how the operations worked there. She thus decided to establish her own travel agency. Accordingly, she co-founded Yatra.com with Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and launched it in 2006.

    They aimed at availing services required for travelling be it, residential hotels, booking tickets, etc. Initially, she worked as the Executive Vice President of Operations at Yatra and later she sat on the position of COO. Some creative ideas like, “holiday-cum-shopping card” in association with the State Bank of India, developed more buzz and customer interests.

    Sabina Chopra- Challenges

    There was a time when Sabina had to take a break to support her family as the woman of the house. In spite of various challenges, she believed that she should never give up on circumstances rather learnt to fight and face them. She eventually returned back to start from where she had left. And today, people see Sabina as a wonder woman of all times.

    While establishing her travel agency, there was a lack of facilities as the market was not ready for her online portal as people were using the offline model since a long time. She and her team struggled to face the rejection of their online model from the airlines and the hotels. They had to make the website lighter as broadband penetration in India was burgeoning.

    Deep Kalra: Founder & CEO of MakeMyTrip | Biography | Net Worth | Education | Story
    Work, assignments, and stress. These three words take up significant time in amillennial’s day. And it’s only going to get more hectic. As a result, most ofus and not just the millennials yearn for that much needed break. A long trip toGoa or visiting monuments usually does the job of shedding so…
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    Sabina Chopra- Honors & Awards

    • She was bestowed with Women Leader in Travel and Tourism (January 2010)
    • World Women Congress gave her Women in Leadership Excellence Award (January 2014)
    • Corporate Dossier- Spencer Stuart, Economic Times conferred her with India Inc’s Rising Women Leaders (January 2015)
    • Financial Express named her in Ecom Startup Angels (January 2015)
    • Iamwire named her among 10 notable women in the Indian Ecommerce Ecosystem (January 2015)
    • She was named in LinkedIn Power Profile 2015. She was featured among the 10 most viewed profiles in India in the Internet Industry among 20 million plus users.
    • She was the Winner 2016 of She the People (October 2016)
    • She received Women Leadership Award for Excellence in Hospitality & Tourism Sector 2016 from Femina World Women Leadership Awards (February 2017)
    • She received Women of the Decade in the category of Innovation & Enterprise (April 2017)

    FAQs

    Who is the owner of Yatra com?

    Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra

    How does yatra com make money?

    There is a prospect of making good money with increasing demand for flight tickets. For domestic hotel bookings, your commission is based on the value of the bookings.

    Does Yatra charge convenience fee?

    The convenience fee for booking tickets through Online Travel Agents like Cleartrip, Yatra and MakeMyTrip has gone up significantly: MakeMytrip, Yatra and Cleartrip are each charging Rs 125 as a ‘convenience fee’.

    Yatra – A Complete Travel Solution with Easy And Luxuriant Travel Bookings!
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  • T N Hari – Story Of An Engineer Turned HR

    The world of the startup has witnessed the rise of many brands that have revolutionized the world. With many big names like Flipkart, Apple, Amazon, and Google shining at the big stage, the startup circuit has also been characterized by the growth of innovative companies. Amongst a few innovative companies, one of the most popular names is the BigBasket. Well, the company is well known for its innovative approach for selling groceries, the team also has a unique HR. Meet Mr. T.N. Hari, the head of HR at Big Basket.

    Read this article to know about the story of T.N. Hari.

    T N Hari – Biography

    Name T.N. Hari
    Citizenship Indian
    Education IIT (undergraduation) and IIM (postgraduation)
    Title Head of HR at Big Basket

    T.N. Hari- Big Basket
    T.N. Hari- Some insights of career
    T.N. Hari- Work
    T.N. Hari- Daksh and later life
    T.N. Hari- as a good leader

    T.N. Hari- Big Basket

    T.N. Hari- Bigbasket
    T.N. Hari- BigBasket

    T.N. Hari is the current head of HR at Big Basket. When it comes to experience, this man has spent long years at Tata Steel, initially as an engineer, and then in HR. Hari is well known as the startup HR guy. Well, we are very sure that you might have not heard about this team before! This experienced campaigner has been through two mergers and acquisitions. According to him, in a startup circuit, jargon doesn’t count in because one has to execute, perform, and make things occur in real-time.

    T.N. Hari- Some insights of career

    Hari has spent over 14 years at Tata Steel. Initially, he worked as an engineer and later on, was moved to the HR department. There, Hari served as the senior HR executive. Apart from being a professional in the business sector, Hari is also a successful author. When we talk about his educational qualification, Hari stands out as a highly educated person.

    He has pursued his engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology and MBA at the Indian Institute of Management. For him, getting into an IIM was important to get a wider view of how organizations work. This is one of the major reasons why at Tata Steel, Hari worked in various posts starting from procurement to corporate planning to design and also at construction sites. Later on, Hari moved to the HR department.

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    T.N. Hari- Work

    It all happened during the time of post-liberalization in 2002. The foreign steel producers were dumping steel in India below the brand’s cost prices. Hence, at this time, Tata Steel faced an existential crisis and had to restructure. Therefore, to have control over the situation, Hari was appointed to be a part of the core team that worked with big manes like McKinsey on transforming. It was a challenging task for the team to create strategic business units, evaluate the employee, and sort out the perfect outplacement services for the employees who were sacked due to the exercise. It was very unlikely that Hari would have been a part of HR if he had continued his tenure at Tata Steel. However, the experience of 2002 gave him the required exposure to gain a new skill set.

    Inspiring words by T.N. Hari

    It was very unusual to see a guy coming from the engineering background to end up in the HR environment. Hari was actively involved in shaping the company’s strategy and analytics function. While working at Tata Steel, Hari found the bureaucratic set up at Tata Steel a little out of track. During his tenure, he realized that it was working very slow in terms of decision making and Hari was a rule-breaker with a blend of the entrepreneurial streak.

    Hence, he decided to explore the better parts of the business circuits. Hence, in 2002, he started his love affair with startups. Post Tata Steel, Hari moved to Daksh, and hence, in the process he rediscovered himself. According to Hari,  a good HR professional becomes a good leader when he/she can balance employee advocacy with business realities without hurting any sector.

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    T.N. Hari- Daksh and later life

    At Daksh, Hari discovered the kick in working for high-growth companies. Therefore, at Daksh, Hari was very instrumental in growing the employee strength from 2000 to 25,000. Later on, Daksh was acquired by IBM and hence, Hari got the exposure of managing the workforce during a merger and acquisition. Well, these were the learnings that he implemented in his future, and as a result of which, Hari is a big name in the Indian startup circuit. The new integration at IBM was a new learning experience. But, Hari says that he would not like to get involved in a similar process again in his life. As per Hari, for successful mergers and acquisitions, mutual respect is critical for both companies. There should be transparency amongst the senior management teams as per Hari.

    Bigbasket business model

    According to Hari, any change in reporting relationship from one organization to another can lead to chaos! Therefore, it is important to insulate the reporting relationships except for the top management for a minimum of 12 years. Post Daksh, Hari landed himself at Virtusa. It was a global IT service provider and hence, Hari found the scope to expand his exposure. IT was at Virtusa where he learned that leadership flaws are exposed more quickly in a global context than working in the alone country.

    After his tenure at Virtusa, he moved to Amba Research and then to TaxiforSure. Presently, Hari works at BigBasket. While working for BigBasket, he has said that the biggest challenge has been to create the right culture and also to stand by it. As per Hari, in a high growth startup environment, the people who are delivering terrific business outcomes begin to violate the culture in small ways. Therefore, Hari feels that dealing with blatantly deviant behavior is never difficult, rather, dealing with the subtle violators is the biggest problem faced by the startup companies.

    T.N. Hari- as a good leader

    As per Hari, a good HR professional transforms into a great leader when he/she can balance realities without hurting either of the spheres. As per him, the HR leaders need to stop hiding behind the jargons and they should start to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the interplay between human psychology and business performance.

    Being a person who has faced multiple difficulties in the startup sector, Hari shall be considered as the leader for aspiring entrepreneurs and HR professionals in upcoming times!

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  • Drew Houston—CEO & Co-Founder of Dropbox | Internet Entrepreneur

    Drew Houston is an American Internet Entrepreneur, who co-founded Dropbox and owns 25% of the company’s interests. He holds the largest individual shares of Dropbox. He serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dropbox, an online backup and storage service. He held 24.4% voting power in the company before filling for IPO in February 2018. As of May 2019, Forbes estimated his net worth of $2.2 billion. Dropbox has received a five star rating in the 2017 Electronic Frontier Foundation in “Protecting Your Data From Government Requests” report. Today, it has more than 500 million users.

    Drew Houston- Biography

    Name Andrew W. Houston
    Born 4 March, 1983
    Birthpalce Acton, Massachusetts, U.S
    Age 37 (2020)
    Nationality American
    Citizenship United States
    Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Profession Internet Entrepreneur
    Position Co-founder & CEO, Dropbox
    Net worth $2.46 billion (2020)
    Father Ken Houston
    Mother Cecily Houston
    Marital Status Unmarried

    Drew Houston- Personal Life
    Drew Houston- Education
    Drew Houston- Professional Life
    Drew Houston- Founder of Accolade
    Drew Houston- CEO of Dropbox
    Drew Houston- Business Idea
    Drew Houston- Honors & Awards
    Drew Houston- FAQ’s
    Drew Houston- Conclusion

    Drew Houston- Personal Life

    Drew was born in Acton, Massachusetts in 1983. He was born to Ken and Cecily Houston. He currently resides in San Francisco, California. He learnt coding when he was just 5 years old. He worked at a industrial robotics startup at the tender age of 15. He has endorsed Hillary Clinton at the 2016 United States presidential election.

    Drew Houston | Founder, Dropbox

    Drew Houston- Education

    Drew pursued his elementary studies from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in the 1990s. In January 2006, he completed Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has been a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and Entrepreneurs Club.

    Drew Houston- Professional Life

    Drew founded Accolade, a SAT prep company while studying in MIT. He took a year off in his junior year, for employment and finished a term early. He also met Adam and Arash Ferdowsi at MIT, who later helped him in establishing Dropbox.

    Prior to the establishment of Dropbox, he worked on a number of other startups including, Bit9 and Hubspot. He worked as a Software Engineer at Bit9, Inc. from January 2006 to May 2007. He was the technical lead for a wreath of interesting Windows internals-related projects for Bit9’s application whitelisting product.

    At age 24, he founded Dropbox with Arash Ferdowsi in January, 2007. He also joined the Board of Directors of Facebook in February 2020, by replacing Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who left the position in May 2019. He is the Co-founder of technology lobbying organization FWD.us., launched in April 2013. It aimed at campaigning for immigration reforms and improvements to education.

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    Drew Houston- Founder of Accolade

    Accolade Logo

    Drew founded Accolade, a bootstrapped online SAT prep company while studying in college. He asserted it as swiftly profitable but, most importantly, it was a great introduction into the world of startups. He founded the company on 1 May, 2004 and served until August 2007.

    He established the company with the help of his former MIT teacher, Andrew Crick. The firm aimed at working on the field of e-learning, education and tutoring. However, he closed the company on January 2008 to work for Bit9 and eventually to establish Dropbox.

    Drew Houston- CEO of Dropbox

    Dropbox Logo

    Drew is the Co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. He founded the company in 2007 with his MIT batch-mate, Arash Ferdowsi, who is today the Co-founder and CTO of Dropbox. It is the fastest growing online storage company, with a valuation of $8 billion with 200 million users.

    They established their startup firm with initial funding from seed accelerator Y Combinator. Dropbox is a file hosting service that provides cloud storage, personal cloud, file synchronization and client software.

    The application software of Dropbox is blocked in China since 2014. There have been controversies for issues including security breaches and privacy concerns.

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    Drew Houston- Business Idea

    Drew is reminiscent of when and how his mind struck to offer cloud and back up services through Dropbox. It was when he left his thumb drive on a bus and was frustrated with the incident. He started thinking of a solution by variably writing down a code with no idea of what he was going to build.

    He struggled a lot while explaining the investors the concept of Dropbox. He then thought of creating a video that would explain the work of Dropbox. Thus, a 3-minute demonstration video was released which thoroughly explained its structure and work within few minutes.

    Dropbox was publicly launched in 2008 and grew very fast with 100,000 users that resulted with their great marketing tactics like viral demonstration videos and referral programs.

    In 2011, Steve Jobs offered him to buy Dropbox. Though Steve was his inspiration, still he refused the offer. Steve then asserted that Apple would come after their market and push them out.

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    Drew Houston- Honors & Awards

    • Business Week named him as one of the “most promising players aged 30 and under”
    • His company, Dropbox has been touted as Y Combinator’s most successful investment till date.
    • He was named among the top 30 under-30 entrepreneurs by inc.com
    • Dropbox was declared as one of the 20 best startups of Silicon Valley.

    Drew Houston- FAQ’s

    Is Dropbox free to use?

    With Dropbox Basic, it’s easy to get to your files from multiple devices—computers, phones, and tablets—for free.

    Which is better Google Drive or Dropbox?

    If your primary use for Google Drive or Dropbox is free storage, Google Drive is the clear winner. Google Drive offers 15 GB of free storage, while Dropbox only gives you 2 GB. However, you can get an extra 500 MB of storage space for every friend you refer to Dropbox, for a maximum of 19 GB of free storage space.

    What are the disadvantages of Dropbox?

    Dropbox, unfortunately, fails to provide users with the latest technology for searches. The biggest letdown is the lack of metadata search functionality. Metadata is information about a file, such as a date it was created. A cloud storage system depends on being able to store large amounts of data and files.

    Who is the CEO of Dropbox?

    Drew Houston – Founder & CEO – Dropbox

    How much of Dropbox does Drew Houston own?

    Houston and Ferdowsi co-founded Dropbox in 2007. Houston currently is CEO and 25% owner of Dropbox.

    Why was Drew Houston successful?

    Drew Houston founded online file-sharing service Dropbox seven years ago. The firm is now estimated to be worth about $10bn (£5.9bn). But it was not an overnight success, and he had several failed ventures along the way.

    How much is Drew Houston Worth?

    200 crores USD (2021)

    Drew Houston- Conclusion

    Dropbox is a tech company founded by Drew Houston, that offers a cloud-based collaboration platform. He is the CEO of Dropbox which he developed alongside co-founder Arash Ferdowsi. Before founding Dropbox, Drew founded web-based SAT prep company Accolade and prior to that he worked as a software engineer for Bit9. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Drew is also the co-founder of the technology lobbying organization FWD.us.

  • Ankur Jain: Founder—Bira 91 & B9 Beverages Pvt. Ltd.

    Ankur Jain is an Indian entrepreneur who founded Bira 91, an Indian Multinational craft beer brand. He is the CEO and Founder of B9 Beverages Private Limited. The parent company B9 Beverages manufactures the beer Bira 91. He launched his beer venture in 2015 and it eventually grew and executed exceptional results from 2017.

    Ankur Jain- Biography

    Name Ankur Jain
    Born 1981
    Born Place Delhi
    Age 39 (2020)
    Nationality Indian
    Education Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
    Profession Entrepreneur
    Known For Founder, Bira 91
    Net Worth Rs.160 Crores
    Father Architect
    Mother Author, Interior Designer
    Marital Status Married

    Ankur Jain- Personal Life
    Ankur Jain- Education
    Ankur Jain- Professional Life
    Ankur Jain- Success Story
    Ankur Jain- B9 Beverages
    Ankur Jain- Bira 91
    Bira 91 – Name & Logo
    Bira 91 – Funding
    FAQ’s
    Conclusion

    Ankur Jain- Personal Life

    Ankur was born in 1981 in Delhi. He moved to United States in 1998. His father is an urban planner Architect and his mother is an Author as well as an Interior Designer. He went abroad for his education. He is married and expecting a baby post lockdown.

    Ankur Jain, Founder Bira 91

    Ankur Jain- Education

    Ankur completed his Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Illinios Institute of Technology, Chicago in 2002. He worked with Motorola for a short while. He then started his first venture in Healthcare Revenue Management in New York.

    Ankur Jain- Professional Life

    After completing his studies in 2002, Ankur continued with his entrepreneurial journey for four consecutive years in US. He then returned to India after selling the New York health-care start up to an undisclosed healthcare provider network. The Healthcare Revenue Management got a new owner and Ankur got good returns. In 2007, he got a job at Reliance Industries but left it post a year. He further decided to start his own venture as a beerpreneur. He has a great taste in beers. He accorded that he wants to taste each and every beer of the world.

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    Ankur Jain- Success Story

    When Ankur acceded to his father that he wanted to become a beerpreneur, his father didn’t spoke to him for around four years. Though his beer brand Bira 91 was launched in 2015 via B9 Beverages, but his journey of becoming a beerpreneur started when he returned to India in 2007.

    In 2008, Ankur started his own venture by importing 20-30 types of beer, which did not exist in India. His engagement in the beer import aided him to learn the taste of the youths. He started discerning the fact that the youth generally preferred lighter flavors and wheat beers. He was well acquainted with the correct point price that made Indian customers delighted to shell. Ankur was thus ready to establish his own beer brand with brilliant efficacy.

    It has been a tough journey for Ankur to escort investors and make them believe in his business plan of international expansion. Today, his venture is one of the fastest growing craft beer brands out of India.

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    Ankur Jain- B9 Beverages

    Bira 91 & B9 Beverages

    B9 Beverages Private Limited manufactures alcoholic beverages. The company offers varied flavors of beer. The company serves the customers across United States and India. B9 Beverages owns and sells craft beer brand Bira 91. It is headquartered in New Delhi, India.

    Ankur serves as the CEO of the B9 Beverages. He founded the company in 2015. The company has raised $20 million in bridge financing from investors – India’s Sequoia Capital and Belgium’s Sofina.

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    Ankur Jain- Bira 91

    Bira 91 is a beer brand manufactured by B9 Beverages Pvt. Ltd., launched in 2015. The company distill beers with ingredients imported from France, Belgium, Himalayas, and Bavarian Farmes. This is how the beer is brought in India with the essence of ingredients circumscribing different parts of the globe.

    In 2019, the company developed two new breweries in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The company is expanding locally as well as internationally to bid a quadruple production capacity. Currently, it operates four breweries in India and has a presence in 400 cities across 10 nations.

    It has been anticipated that Bira 91 may achieve a $502 billion mark by 2025. The market is expected to grow owing to the heavy demand of craft beers. The company counts more than 5% share in overall beer market and more than 20% in premium beer.

    Bira 91 Logo

    Bira 91 derived its name from Punjabi word Bira which literally means elder brother. Bira also signifies the brave one in Bengali. While, 91 represents India’s country code, connoting the brand’s roots. The reverse B in the logo signifies a spirit of nonchalant. The monkey mascot represents the urban millennial as the key consumer of Bira 91. Moreover, it manifests the idea of presenting the brand with a playful identity. Bira 91 has also launched its T-shirts, bags, growlers, ice-bucket and beer mugs.

    Bira 91 – Funding

    Initially, B9 Beverages received an investment of worth $6 million from Sequoia capital India in 2016. Ankur raised $1.5 million from the first investment. It was the very first investment of Sequoia Capital in the Alcohol Beverage segment. Some of the Angel investors of India also invested for the firm.

    In 2018, the company has received a funding of  $50 million by Sofina, a Belgium investment firm. This investment helped the company to grow with $100 million funding. In 2019, Sixth Sense Ventures invested for the firm of worth $4.3 million.

    The apt investments succored support and encouragement and the company eventually expanded to more markets in the United States and Southeast Asia. The funding will also help Bira 91 to leave a footprint on the global market of beer business.

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    FAQ’s

    What does 91 mean in Bira 91?

    The name Bira does not stand for anything literally, however, colloquially it is how a Punjabi would call his brother, and 91 represents India’s Country Code. The reverse B in the logo represents a spirit of irreverence.

    Is Bira Beer good for health?

    Bira 91, recently launched one of the first low-calorie beers to be introduced in the Indian market (90 calories for a 330 ml bottle). According to Jain, said, “Bira 91 Light is the lowest calorie option for any alcoholic beverage in the bar.

    Which Bira is best?

    Bira White is a favorite among the most vehement opposers of beer. It’s a delicious wheat beer that contains a hint of spicy citrus with a soft finish, ideal for the non-beer-drinkers.

    Why is Bira so famous?

    With the Belgians being world-renowned for their brewing expertise, Bira 91’s two initial beers were quickly a hit in India. So much so that Bira 91 couldn’t import the bottles quickly enough, and in 2016 it started making the beers at a facility in the central Indian city of Indore.

    Why is it called Bira 91?

    Originally named after the Punjabi word for brother, Bira, the 91 is derived from the country code you dial for India. Ankur Jain, founder-CEO, describes the beer as “smart and fun at the same time, but not pretentiously so.” ‘Can’t be a Delhi-ite,’ I think, as he says it, though the brand debuted in Hauz Khas Village.

    Conclusion

    “I am a very big beer drinker and work and play is all the same for me. To bust stress I like to go on a weekend trip, and also like cooking vegetarian fare,”  says Ankur Jain.

    Ankur Jain wants to be more proactive to make the Bira 91 premium brand in the Indian market. Bira 91, a whole new beer world, full of flavours, has been discovered and the beer is going to rule the world. The name Bira does not stand for anything literally, however colloquially it is how a Punjabi would call his brother and 91 represents India’s Country Code. The reverse B in the logo represents a spirit of irreverence.

  • Abhinay Choudhari: Simplified Grocery Shopping Through BigBasket

    The Indian startup ecosystem is well known for its versatility, thereby home to some of the best companies in the world across industries. Starting from OLA, which ruled the transportation sector, Zomato which ensures that you don’t work with an empty tummy, to OYO, which provides affordable hotels for tourists and travelers, there’s no dearth of market leaders. One such unique venture is BigBasket. This startup provides home delivery services for grocery items and is a major name in the circuit.

    The grocery retail market in India is growing at around 20% CAGR. E-grocery accounts for only 0.1% of this share. As per statistical data, the online grocery market is expected to be around $10 billion in the coming time. Thus, bigbasket.com has its hands in a pie with a bright future. Abhinay Choudhari was able to build an empire through bigbasket.com; let’s find out how.

    Bigbasket’s—CoFounder
    Bigbasket’s—Success
    Bigbasket’s—Path To Success
    Bigbasket’s—CoFounder’s Guidance
    FAQ’s
    Conclusion

    Bigbasket’s—CoFounder

    The dot com bubble burst was a deciding factor behind the fortune of many big organizations that are wildly influential today. But, it was far from a smooth journey for these companies. The founders of the big basket, including Abhinay Choudhari, had a similar experience. They decided to use the lessons learned from the dot com bust and create a website that could firmly face obstacles of any kind. The five founders of BigBasket initially created a website named Fabmart.com in 1999. This was supposedly India’s first e-commerce store. However, the team realized that not only India but even the rest of the world wasn’t ready for this kind of online store.

    Within a short period, Fabmart merged with a brick-and-mortar chain and by 2006, the founders of Fabmart sold the company. The turning point for the FabMart founders came in 2011. They wanted to try their hand at something new, an out-of-the-box offering. The result was bigbasket.com.

    Bigbasket’s—Success

    Bigbasket is one of the leading online grocers in India today. The company offers same-day delivery across cities with 99.3% on-time delivery, 99.5% order fill rate, and no questions asked on customer return policy. These parameters have highly contributed to BigBasket’s success. BigBasket has also implemented new options like fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and a range of recipe mixtures. A bakery has been launched in Bangalore that delivers bread on order. The company has both iOS and Android apps to allow customers to order groceries any time, any place. There are unique features like “Smart Basket”, a prediction engine about what a customer needs more often.

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    Bigbasket’s—Path To Success

    Abhinay received a first-round investment of nearly 10 million USD from Ascent Capital. This funding was used to expand BigBasket’s reach in the market. For many startups in India, the biggest issue is sustaining their business model in this country of diversity and differences. After researching for over nearly 5 years, Abhinay and his team realized the best way to make their presence felt was by providing personalized service to people across Indian cities.

    BigBasket has taken into consideration the eating habits in different Indian locations; this is a major reason behind people being loyal to BigBasket. The company increased the availability of leafy greens in Mumbai and the supply of a special kind of rice in Bangalore. BigBasket ensures no compromise on the quality of its products. To improve customer experience, the BigBasket team ensured near-time-perfect delivery services for their customers.

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    Bigbasket’s—CoFounder’s Guidance

    While the company has grown into one of the biggest Indian brands, BigBasket still faces intense competition from local startups like LocalBanya, PepperTap, and Grofers. The company was facing heat from many rivals and hence, it was time for Abhinay to gather his team and plan new strategies for BigBasket. The aim was to race ahead of everyone. BigBasket grew its presence in 25 cities with a combination of 150 million customers and considering the expansion, Abhinay decided it was time to bring in a partner. The team aligned with Alibaba which boosted the company’s image over the next two years.

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    FAQ’s

    Who are the founders of BigBasket?

    • Hari Menon
    • Vipul Parekh
    • VS Sudhakar
    • Abhinay Choudhari
    • VS Ramesh

    Who is Abhinay Choudhari?

    Abhinay Choudhari is the co-founder of the BigBasket. He is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad. He has worked with leading IT companies on consulting engagements with key retail majors like Tesco and LEGO.

    Who is the CEO of BigBasket?

    VS Sudhakar and Hari Menon (2011–Present)

    Is BigBasket making profit?

    BigBasket loss widens 6.7% to INR 611 crore, revenue up 36% in FY20. Supermarket Grocery Supplies, which operates online grocery store BigBasket, reported a consolidated net loss of INR 611 crore in FY20, a 6.7 percent rise as compared to the previous financial year at INR 572 crore.

    Is BigBasket successful?

    Today, BigBasket is India’s largest online grocer that receives over 100,000 orders per day. Online grocery shopping is fast gaining popularity among Indians. According to a Redseer report, India’s online grocery retail market is all set to touch $10.5 billion by 2023.

    Conclusion

    Abhinay is an inspiration for many. In an age were rising from the lowest rung of the ladder is more than just a challenge, he and his team established a company after the dot com bubble burst. BigBasket has grown at such a rate that celebrities like Shahrukh Khan endorse the brand. Under Abinay’s leadership, bigbasket.com plans to not only retain its position as the largest online grocery store in India but also become a major player across the globe.

  • Vani Kola: One of the Most Powerful Women in India!

    Women have been trying to make a huge impact on the startup circuit. With names like Sheryl Sandberg, and Vandana Luthra making a huge impact on the daily lives of people, women from different sections of the society have been coming up with ideas and are trying to revolutionize the startup sector. Among the women entrepreneurs, Vani Kola is a big name. Vani is an Indian venture capitalist and has been listed as one of the most powerful women in Indian Business by Fortune India. Vani is the founder and Managing director of Kalaari Capital, which is one of India’s leading venture capital firms. Read this article to know about the success story of Vani Kola.

    Vani Kola – Quick Facts
    Vani Kola – Kalaari Capital
    Vani Kola – Beginning
    Vani Kola – Becoming a Venture Capitalist
    Vani Kola – Venture Partners
    Vani and Kalaari Capital
    Vani Kola – As an Inspiration

    Vani Kola – Quick Facts

    Name Vani Kola
    Born 1964, Hyderabad, India
    Age 56
    Citizenship Indian
    Education Bachelor of Science from Osmania University and
    Master of Science from Arizona State University
    Title Founder and Managing director of Kalaari Capital
    Spouse Srinivas Kola

    Vani Kola – Kalaari Capital

    The Vani Kola biography starts with the fact that she is a successful entrepreneur. She was successful during her time at Silicon Valley and she enjoys working with first-time entrepreneurs. Hence, her main aim is to help the budding entrepreneurs grow as mature businessmen and individuals. Vani has a high success ratio in the filed of venturing and investing in startups. Therefore, she has built a solid reputation for picking the best young minds and guiding them to build successful companies.

    Vani aims at the technology companies in India. Her company Kalaari Capital has funded more than 50 companies across the subcontinent and in the e-commerce category. Some of the most popular investments include Myntra, Snapdeal, VIA, Urban Ladder, and Power2SME.

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    Vani Kola – Beginning

    Vani was born and brought up in Hyderabad. After completing her Electrical Engineering from Osmania University, she moved to the United States to pursue her Master’s degree. After completing her studies, she began working in the technological sector and went on to work with some big names like Empros, Control Data Corporation, and Consilium Inc.

    Vani, after working as an employee for 12 years, took a giant leap in her career and founded her first venture which is an e-procurement company. The company was founded in 1996 and was named RightWorks. After successfully controlling the company for more than four years, she sold 53% of the share of RightWorks for $657 million to the Internet Capital Group. After that, Vani decided to jab entrepreneurship in the face and started with another company maned NthOrbit in 2001. During her four year stint with the company, the company went on to become a leader in the financial compliance market with a global customer base of 70.

    Business venture know-hows from Vani Kola

    In 2005, the organization announced that PepsiCo had purchased its Certus international controls and assurance software and in the next few days, Vani moved to India. This started a new chapter in Vani’s life!

    Vani Kola – Becoming a Venture Capitalist

    After a successful stint in Silicon Valley, Vani started her journey as a Venture Capitalist in 2006. In India, instead of taking up the entrepreneur job, she decided to start a new course by becoming a Venture Capitalist. After returning from the United States, Vani spent all of her time researching, traveling, meeting people, visiting malls, and understanding the Indian market. As Vani was preparing to start the firm, a variety of questions plagued her mind. Some of the questions were tricky and were more of an obstacle in her path such as whether there would be enough entrepreneurs in the startup ecosystem? And was the Indian start-up market-ready?

    But, after wandering across the market sector in the country, Vani had noticed a lot of  signals hinting at a change in the startup ecosystem in the country. As per Vani, a huge transformation was on its way to India.

    Vani Kola – Venture Partners

    Vani moved ahead on her path with positivity. And to make a big mark in the ecosystem, she in collaboration with Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur Vinod Dham and Kumar Shiralagi launched a $189 million India fund. This fund was backed by NEA and was named NEA Indo-US Venture Partners. During those days, NEA was one of Silicon Valley’s most influential capital firms. This partnership ran for around four years, after which the latter organization decided to move out of the joint venture and directly enter the Indian startup market.

    One of the reasons behind the collaboration was that NEA did not have a big presence in the Indian market and therefore, they agreed to back the NEA Indo-US Venture Partners, but, when the organization decided to have a direct presence, Vani seemed that a big confusion was coming up on its way! Therefore, NEA Indo-US Ventures became Indo-US Ventures in 2010. And this was more of an identity evolution than a strategy evolution of the company.

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    Vani and Kalaari Capital

    So, to start a Venture Capital, Vani along with her partner Shiralagi rebranded their firm and named it Kalaari Capital. It is a Bangalore based capital fund team. The Kalaari Capital focused on investing in an early stage on the technology-oriented companies across India. The name is inspired from Kalaripayattu, which is a form of martial arts originated in the Southern state of Kerala. The idea of the team was to create an entrepreneur from a smart brain. Now, within four years, and with 55 investments, Kalaari Capitals has become India’s leading investor in the early-stage business. The team takes care of the entrepreneurs and guides them in every aspect of growth. The fund gets around 2000 proposals per year and is still growing!

    Some of the most successful investments made by the company ar Snapdeal, Myntra, VIA, Apps Daily, Urban Ladder, and Zivame. Also, the team has Ratan Tata as the chief advisor!

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    Vani Kola – As an Inspiration

    Vani Kola is the epitome of women entrepreneurship in India. The ideology to serve the startup ecosystem after becoming successful in a big stage has enabled Vani to become an inspiration for many entrepreneurs in the country. Her sheer determination and willingness to help the smart brains of the country has inspired millions of people to come up with ideas that may bring on a revolutionary change in the way we live. Hence, Vani Kola is an inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs.

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    Who is Vani Kola?

    Vani, entrepreneur, is the Founder and Managing director of Kalaari Capital, which is one of India’s leading venture capital firms.

    Who is the Founder of Kalaari Capital?

    Vani Kola is the kalaari capital Founder and Managing Director.

    What is Vani Kola age?

    As of 2021, Vani Kola is 56 years old. She was born in 1964.

  • Siddharth Kothari – An Angel Investor with a Preference for Vegan Startups

    A stock market is a fascinating place. Many men have tried to decode its workings, tried predicting its unpredictable moods, gained a lot, and lost a lot too. This fickleness adds to the charm of the stock market, where millions of investors flock to daily, aspiring to make a fortune. And, there’s a popular tale from the Stock Markets that: Bulls make money, Bears make money and Pigs get slaughtered; which fits the current situation of the investors.

    Siddharth Kothari is Chief Investment Strategist at the Om Kothari Group. The group was founded in 1971 and has interests in engineering construction, infrastructure, automotive dealerships, manufacturing and real estate. The group’s flagship company, Om Metals Infraprojects Ltd (listed on the NSE and BSE) is a global leader in hydro-mechanical equipment for dams. His startup portfolio has crossed over 12 companies including Grexter, ClearDekho, ApnaComplex, Innov8 and Beardo. Siddharth is a Partner at 2Point2 Capital and Venture Catalyst’s 9 Unicorns Fund. He is also an INK Talks Future Maker.

    Siddharth Kothari – About
    Siddharth Kothari – Journey
    Siddharth Kothari – Investment Mantra
    Siddharth Kothari – Few signs to Trust a Founder
    Siddharth Kothari – Aid to Startups
    Siddharth Kothari – Productivity Hacks
    Siddharth Kothari – Right Time to Invest for a Startup
    Siddharth Kothari – Pitch Deck
    Siddharth Kothari – Best Way to Divide Equity Among Founders
    Siddharth Kothari – 3 Private Companies to Invest in
    Siddharth Kothari – Indian Startup Ecosystem
    Siddharth Kothari – Recommended Tools

    Siddharth Kothari – About

    Siddharth Kothari
    Siddharth Kothari

    Siddharth grew up in New Delhi and went to the British School for further studies. He was the President of the student council and served as the Captain of the Cricket team, and enjoyed playing most sports. Siddharth was an above-average student and studied Finance at Boston University. Shortly, after graduating he read a book about Warren Buffett, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He aimed to be a successful investor.

    In India, Siddharth Kothari considers RK Damani, an idol given his massive achievements in investing and business and a humble attitude despite all of it. Both these great leaders proved to him that anyone can achieve great things in life while keeping a high bar when it comes to ethics. Another fun fact that Siddharth admires about RK Damani is, that he is also a vegan.

    Siddharth has been vegan for 10 years now! He also prefers investing in vegan-friendly companies. Apart from investing in stocks and startups, he enjoys reading non-fiction, watching documentaries, and playing poker. He spends about 3-5 hours a day reading. The rest of the time he is either meeting founders, attending con-calls, or hearing startup pitches. Siddharth Kothari used to spend about a week each month in Bombay before COVID.

    Siddharth Kothari gives credence to the fact that to be a good investor one needs to constantly keep learning and that is what he enjoys the most; whether it is through books, movies, conferences or interactions with founders, or other investors. He enjoys poker, sports, books, and movies. His passion for cinema has also led him to finance films produced by Wishberry Productions, a portfolio company.

    Siddharth Kothari – Journey

    Siddharth first started investing in stocks in 2013 and in startups in 2016. He believes that investing in the stock market is not tough as it is a democratized process for everyone, by setting up a DMAT account, and buy whichever company’s stocks they like. But breaking into the startup ecosystem took him some time as it is a tougher game. Afterward, he started investing in startups through angel networks like Venture Catalysts. When he found some success there, he started getting good deal flow, and so did several direct deals with companies too.

    Siddharth is sector agnostic. He invests for the long term and shoots for high returns, north of 26% CAGR.

    Siddharth Kothari – Investment Mantra

    Siddharth has a similar outlook to a famous investor who once told him: “I look for a smartass founder, in a big-ass market, with a kick-ass product.” It is a cliche to say that the founder is the absolute most important part of an investment, but he cannot turn up the volume on that enough. Siddharth, typically, looks for founders who are hungry and driven. If they are passionate about what they are building then that generally comes through during their pitch.

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    Siddharth Kothari – Few Signs to Trust a Founder

    Siddharth pays almost no attention to which college a founder is from. He himself has seen many great founders who came from unknown colleges, or even no university education, and they still succeeded. What is important in a founder is that s/he should be able to hustle and bring a team together and deliver.

    A startup is like a child and it takes a village to raise a child. Similarly, it takes a group of people including co-founders, mentors, investors, clients, suppliers, etc to build a startup. He believes that this is the founders’ job to sneak out synergies between various stakeholders and keep adapting to change.

    Siddharth Kothari – Aid to Startups

    Siddharth helps startups not just with capital, but also by opening up his network to them, giving his mentorship, and leveraging the strengths of their 50-year-old conglomerate: Om Kothari Group. This could be in the form of better deals with his real estate connections, better hiring using their established HR platform or even access to debt at reasonable rates. Since the Om Kothari Group is diversified in several sectors, synergies pop up for various startups.

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    Siddharth Kothari – Productivity Hacks

    Siddharth shared quite insightful hacks and one of them is Mindful Meditation, which is extremely beneficial to clearing up the mind and being more efficient. Just 10 minutes a day to start off with makes quite an impact. Sitting is the new smoking, so walking meetings are better at times than sitting down for long periods of time. Monitoring screen time is also important as smartphones can be a huge distraction. Very often – the smarter the phone, the dumber the user!

    Siddharth Kothari – Right Time to Invest for a Startup

    Startups should raise money when the environment is favorable and capital is available. If startups try to time it too, well then they might get stuck for long periods without capital as the macro environment can hamper investors despite founders and traction being good. Surviving is very important so raise the money when its available at decent terms. Siddharth believes that getting proof of concept is important to avoid failures at startups. Founders should dip their feet in to test the water before they dive.

    Siddharth Kothari – Pitch Deck

    A pitch deck should be crisp and quickly communicate to the investors what the USP of the product or service is. What problem does it solve? What the founder’s stories are. Why they will succeed. What is the competitive landscape? And what expectations investors should have for the downside and upside.

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    Siddharth Kothari – Best Way to Divide Equity Among Founders

    Siddharth affirms that this depends on the companies. Co-founders should own a significant chunk so as to not over dilute themselves by the time they are done with seed, angel, and Series A rounds. If it is a single founder, they should look for adding one more founder, and if there are already three founders, they should look not to add another. Generally speaking, there are exceptions, such as Infosys, amongst India’s greatest tech companies had six co-founders. Other than founders, deal leads or mentors should also have an equity incentive and there should be an ESOP pool for early and key employees.

    Siddharth Kothari | Chief Investment strategist at Om Kothari Group
    Siddharth Kothari | Chief Investment strategist at Om Kothari Group

    Siddharth acknowledges that founders should not look for keeping maximum equity but optimum equity while negotiating with investors. This is because the investors should also be incentivized with enough skin in the game to add value to the startup. Instead of accepting capital from any investors giving good terms, founders should raise smart money where the investors bring in advantages other than just money. This could be industry know-how, connections to distributors, etc.

    Covid19 is a black swan event. We feel comfortable buying equity in companies with virtually debt free balance sheets flushed with cash as they’re highly likely to survive the crisis and thrive when normalcy returns. They will also benefit from gaining market share of the many mortalities most sectors will mourn.  – Siddharth Kothari, Chief Investment Strategist, Om Kothari Group

    Siddharth Kothari – 3 Private Companies to Invest in

    We asked Siddharth if he would like to invest in 3 Private Companies of his choice today, at a valuation of his own choice, what will they be and why?

    • Impossible Foods (USA) – As they are majorly impacting the plant-based food revolution being led by Beyond Meat, Very Good Butchers, and other vegan food companies
    • Oatly (Sweden) – As they have taken on and are beating the giant dairy industry by leading a massive and important migration towards plant milk in a global manner.
    • Paytm (India) – As they have spearheaded India’s digitization movement and are pushing our country towards digital transactions which is the future

    Siddharth Kothari – Indian Startup Ecosystem

    Siddharth really wishes that Founders and VC’s in India should understand the importance of constantly experimenting, failing, and keeping at it. Actually, startups tend to be at risk-averse because of the fear of failing. But failing is important to keep learning and evolving. Of course, the failure should not cause such a large financial loss that no one can’t survive. But take small losses so that anyone can live to make more. And through these failures and experiments even if one works out well, it can be more than makeup for the duds.

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    One of the largest companies in the world, Amazon, become such a success because of its willingness to constantly experiment, many of which didn’t work as the Fire Phone. But the ones that did like Prime and AWS made history. Same for Google which failed with Google Glass bit hit big with Google Maps.

    Siddharth Kothari – Recommended Tools and Books

    • Screener and MoneyControl are good to monitor and track listed companies.
    • Ken and MoneyLife are great investigative publications that dig deep into their stories.

    Some of Siddharth’s favorite books that have influenced him in a better way are:

    • Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger
    • Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
    • The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai
    • Zero to One by Peter Thiel
    • How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

  • Sarvesh Shashi: Founder & CEO of Zobra (SARVA)

    Sarvesh Shashi is an Indian Yoga Entrepreneur, who is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zorba (now, SARVA). He is a fitness trainer and headed as an entrepreneur in 2013 with the studio Zorba. Eventually, he established 100+ yoga studios in India and abroad. Moreover, he is India’s youngest CEO to have been funded in the Yoga sector by a listed company. He is named in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, Fortune 40 Under 40 India and Business World’s 40 Under 40 India. He is ranked in GQ’s 50 Most Influential list. As of 2020, he holds an estimated net worth of $1 million.

    Sarvesh Shashi- Biography

    Name Sarvesh Shashi
    Born 15 April, 1992
    Birthplace Thrissur, India
    Age 29 (2021)
    Nationality Indian
    Current city Chennai, Tamil Nadu
    Education Chettinad Vidhyashram; Loyola College
    Profession Entrepreneur
    Position Founder & CEO; Zorba (now, SARVA)
    Net worth $1 million (2020)
    Father Shashi Kumar

    Sarvesh Shashi- Personal Life
    Sarvesh Shashi- Education
    Sarvesh Shashi- Professional Life
    Sarvesh Shashi- Success story
    Sarvesh Shashi- Business idea
    Sarvesh Shashi- Founder & CEO of Zorba
    Sarvesh Shashi- Funding via Talwalkars
    Sarvesh Shashi- Founder of SARVA

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    Sarvesh Shashi- Personal Life

    Sarvesh was born in Thrissur, India.  Shashi Kumar, Sarvesh Shashi’s father, is a businessman and the Chairman of Sabari Group. At age 17, his father wanted him to attend yoga classes for which he paid for but could not attend.

    From then to now, he learnt how yoga played a significant role in his mental and physical health. It eventually turned him into an Yoga entrepreneur. Today, he is known for establishing a chain of yoga studios across the country.

    Sarvesh Shashi- Education

    Sarvesh completed his elementary studies from CIRS- Chinmaya International Residential School. He further graduated from Chettinad Vidhyashram and he dropped out from Loyola College, Chennai. He used to participate in various co-curriculum activities like, dance, music, theater and sports.

    Sarvesh Shashi- Professional Life

    At age 21, Sarvesh was asked by his father to join the family business, Sabari Group, which exports consumer goods to real estate, textiles, and fish exports across Indian southern states. But, he took no interest in the family business and was determined to start his career through yoga.

    Sarvesh Shashi- Success story

    Sarvesh credits his father for pushing him to evolve into a yoga entrepreneur. Before taking up yoga, he had anger issues and was ill-tempered. But after spending 5 years with his yoga mentor, Vijayendra, whom he refers as guruji, it helped him become a more grounded person.

    He believed that his own life went ruthless and the benefits that yoga gave him was something that must be out in the market and help more people like him across the world.

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    Sarvesh Shashi- Business idea

    Sarvesh initially did not know how to attract an audience to do yoga. He had no plans of advocating his father for any capital. Eventually, he asked his father’s permission to start his first studio of Zorba in an empty warehouse owned by his company.

    He borrowed INR 16 lakh from an associate to do with the marketing for it. He tethered his guruji to invest INR 1 lakh and take him on the board as mentor. Within four months, Zorba launched its second office in Chennai in 2014 on a franchise owned company operated by (FOCO) model. The third office was launched on World Yoga Day in June 2015.

    Sarvesh Shashi- Founder & CEO of Zorba

    Sarvesh founded Zorba in December 2013 and serves as its CEO. The company has several trainers specialized in various forms of yoga along with the artistically designed studios for conducting yoga classes. It is a renaissance studio based in Chennai, India. Moreover, the global superstar Jennifer Lopez has expressed interest to invest in Zorba.

    Zorba is a Greek word which means living life to the fullest. The company claims to be the only chain of yoga studios in the country that offers 25 forms of yoga like, dance yoga, aqua yoga and so on. It avails its services to customers ranging from two-year-olds to 90-year-old olds.

    Sarvesh Shashi- Funding via Talwalkars

    Zorba went on to raise funds which eventually helped the company in expanding further. Sarvesh approached Dandekar Capital, a Chennai based investment advisory firm. A director at Dandekar Capital helped him connect with Talwalkars Better Value Fitness.

    Significantly, the senior management of Talwalkars visited Zorba’s studios and they liked the concept of Zorba. In December 2015, Talwalkars agreed to acquire a stake by investing in Zorba. The deal proved to be fruitful for Zorba’s growth and it helped the company go national.

    Talwalkars acquired 50% stake of Zorba for $2 million. A large number of Zorba’s studios are located within Talwalkars facilities across the country. Zorba has potently branched out into merchandising, covering apparel, food and music. Sarvesh expects 30% of Zorba’s turnover to come from merchandise.

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    Sarvesh Shashi- Founder of SARVA

    SARVA Logo

    In December 2013, Sarvesh founded SARVA- Yoga, Mindfulness & Beyond, based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The word SARVA is derived from a Sanskrit word which means archer.

    The company has tied with Bollywood Actress, Malaika Arora to launch Diva Yoga, with an aim to encourage women. She is a cordial investor in SARVA and has now become the Co-founder of both SARVA and Diva Yoga. Today, Zorba is known as SARVA and is one of the top yoga startups in India.

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    What is Sarvesh Shashi net worth?

    The net worth of Sarvesh Shashi is estimated to be around $1 Million as of 2020.

    Who is the SARVA yoga Founder?

    The founder of zorba Sarvesh Shashi is also the owner of SARVA as today, Zorba is known as SARVA.

    What is SARVA?

    Sarva is a chain of yoga studios founded by Sarvesh Shashi. It was previously known as Zorba.

    What is Sarvesh Shashi age?

    As of 2021, Sarvesh Shashi age is 29 years old.

  • Sam Ovens: Founder & CEO of Consulting.com

    Sam Ovens is a billionaire entrepreneur who founded Consulting.com and serves as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Consulting.com helps people start and grow their own consulting business. He is also the Founder of a property inspection app for property management businesses company, SnapInspect, which he sold later. He was named Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur with a controversial net worth of $65 million, as of 2017. The Net Worth of Sam Ovens 2021, is much lower comparatively of $10 Million. Moreover, he has also earned Manufacturing and Energy award in 2017.

    Sam Ovens- Biography

    Name Sam Ovens
    Born 10 August, 1989
    Birthplace Auckland, New Zealand
    Age 32 (2021)
    Nationality New Zealander
    Profession Entrepreneur
    Position Founder & CEO of Consulting.com; Founder of SnapInspect
    Net worth $10 million (2021)
    Marital Status Married (2017)
    Spouse Ashleigh Ovens

    Sam Ovens- Personal Life
    Sam Ovens- Education
    Sam Ovens- Professional Life
    Sam Ovens- Startups & failure
    Sam Ovens- Success story
    Sam Ovens- Founder of SnapInspect
    Sam Ovens- Founder & CEO of Consulting.com
    Sam Ovens- Business idea

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    Sam Ovens- Personal Life

    Sam grew up in Auckland, New Zealand to a working-class family. He was taught to live moderately and pursue the cultural path from college to a corporate job. He struggled a lot in order to achieve success as an entrepreneur. Ashleigh Ovens is sam ovens wife after they married in 2017.

    Sam Ovens- Education

    Sam dropped out of his college to focus on his startup business. While studying, he entered the world of corporate job. However, he had to quit the job in order to work for a full-time in his startup business.

    Story of Sam Ovens

    Sam Ovens- Professional Life

    Sam started working at Vodafone while studying in college, at the age of 21. Once he came across the word “entrepreneur”, he then realized that he could be in a position where he could provide jobs to many people out there. He thus dreamt of entrepreneurship as his sole aim after coming across the enchanting word.

    He then decided to quit his corporate job to start his own business. He started his business right from his parents’ garage in New York and later built a huge consulting business empire called consulting.com.

    Sam Ovens- Startups & failure

    PromoteYourself was one of the first businesses that he started. The company was basically a platform for job seekers. The company generated $15,000 in 12 months with zero revenue which was why Sam asserted that the business failed miserably.

    He then thought of starting a second business, which he named ToTheDesk. The business aimed at delivering meals from local restaurants right to desk of office workers. The business was developed with an idea of providing food to office workers who missed out on their lunch because of the long wait to get the food or the ones who did not want to settle on junk food.

    His second business generated $10,000 in 12 months with zero revenue. He failed again but he did not want to lose hope. He dreamt of starting another company but he needed capital for it as he ran out of money and was now in a $30,000 debt.

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    Sam Ovens- Success story

    After the failure of two of his companies, he hardly had any capital. However, he needed to do something to raise capital in order to start a new business. He was skilled in creating business websites while working for his past startups so this experience helped him in inculcating ideas, through which he made capital for his new venture.

    Sam started selling and creating websites for business and capital. This is when he realized the meaning of what entrepreneurship really meant. With every failed business, he learnt a tremendous amount of experience. Post that, he was all ready to establish his third business, SnapInspect. It eventually proved to be the first successful startup launched by him.

    Sam Ovens- Founder of SnapInspect

    SnapInspect Logo

    Sam launched SnapInspect,a property inspection application on 2 March, 2011. He became more strategic while establishing his third startup. He was specific with his startup having sole aim of property management. He focused on his target audience with a much more effective marketing method.

    From SnapInspect Sam Ovens was making a real revenue and had a real customer base. Prior to SnapInspect, no buyer wanted to acquire his previous startups. This time, he made sure that his product was in demand by pre-selling it. He contacted the property management businesses and pre-sold its software licenses for $5,000. This is how he figured out the process to find what the market wants in advance and avoided the risk of going into debt altogether.

    Sam Ovens- Founder & CEO of Consulting.com

    Consulting.com Logo
    Consulting.com Logo

    Sam serves as the Founder & CEO of Consulting.com, which is an eponymous e-learning company that claims to have over 10,000 paying customers. The company makes its revenue by licensing training programs with offices situated in Dublin and New York city.

    Within three years of the company’s establishment, a single course created 25 millionaires and about 3000 students quit their jobs and worked full-time for themselves with nearly 500-six figure earners. It also brought $20 million in revenue, which helped him to move his business to New York with a downtown office.

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    Sam Ovens- Business idea

    By the time SnapInspect gained profitability, his side business digital marketing consultancy was making more revenue and elevating towards new heights. One fine day, he realized that customer acquisition was a major problem almost everywhere but nobody hardly knew how to fix it.

    He thus decided to elevate his business to a consulting firm by helping people evolve and grow in their business. He sold SnapInspect and used the money to scale his digital marketing consultancy with an aim to master the art of customer acquisition.

    He then started working on a course that anyone could take online and learn the skills required to build their business, which would be valuable for students without the direct involvement of Sam. This is how Consulting Accelerator training program was formed.

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    Who is Sam Ovens?

    Sam Ovens is a billionaire entrepreneur who founded Consulting.com and SnapInspect.

    How old is Sam Ovens?

    As of 2021, Sam Ovens is 32 years old.

    What is Sam Ovens net worth?

    The net worth of Sam Ovens is $1o Million as of 2021.

    What is the name of Sam Ovens consulting Firm?

    Consulting.com is the name of Sam Ovens consulting.

  • Rajan Anandan: Former VP at Google and Angel Investor

    Rajan Anandan is an Indian businessman, who served as the Vice President of Google India. His took up the role of Managing Director of Google across India and South East Asia in August, 2011. He co-founded the first seed fund of Sri Lanka. Currently, he serves as the Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India. Prior to all these, he also held leadership roles with the well known firms Microsoft and Dell. Rajan was also a partner with McKinsey & Co. He is also an Angel Investor in early stage startups.

    Rajan Anandan- Personal Life
    Rajan Anandan- Education
    Rajan Anandan- Professional Life
    Rajan Anandan- Google
    Rajan Anandan- Angel Investor
    Rajan Anandan- Sequoia Capital
    Rajan Anandan- Recent Facts

    Rajan Anandan- Biography

    Name Rajan Anandan
    Born 1966
    Birthplace New Delhi, India
    Age 54 (2020)
    Nationality Indian
    Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University
    Profession Businessman, Investor, Executive
    Position Managing Director at Sequoia Capital
    Net worth INR. 70 Crores (2020)
    Parents V.S Kumar Anandan
    Marital Status Married
    Children 2

    Rajan Anandan- Personal Life

    Rajan Anandan was born in 1966 in New Delhi, India. He lived in India for a short while and moved to the USA for higher studies. He was a bright student and displayed an interest in the technology development field. He is married and has two children. He loves to read books and play Golf.

    Rajan Anandan

    Rajan Anandan- Education

    The Rajan Anandan education resume is filled with very prestigious colleges abroad. He completed his primary education from a private school in New Delhi, India. He then moved to USA and pursued a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He further studied Msc. in Manufacturing and System Engineering from Stanford University.

    Rajan Anandan- Professional Life

    Rajan Anandan is a businessman, Angel Investor and Executive from New Delhi. He provided support to varied startups as an Angel Investor. He partnered with McKinsey firm from 1992-2003. He eventually gained a good knowledge and experience of the corporate world.

    He served as the General Manager and Vice President at Silicon Valley based, Dell Inc. Country during 2001-2008. Post 2008, he worked for two years as the Managing Director at Microsoft India.

    He then worked for Google India and looked after the Google operations across South Asian Businesses from 2011-2019. He gave up his job at Google India and joined venture capital organisation, the Silicon Valley-based, Sequoia Capital in 2019.

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    Rajan Anandan- Google

    Google Logo

    Rajan Anadan started his job at Google in 2011. He managed to build an internet ecosystem for Google. His leadership and entrepreneurial zeal helped him to raise overall internet ecosystem in India. He drove more growth to Google India and revamped the internet ecosystem for the organisation. After contributing for eight years, he ended his position of President at Google Asia Pacific in April, 2019 and Vikas Agnihotri replaced him on the intern role as the Managing Director.

    Rajan Anandan- Angel Investor

    Rajan Anandan has invested on various startups such as, Bangalore-based online lingerie venture Buttercups, Pregbuddy, Druva, Capillary Technologies, Unacademy, TravelKhana, EasyGov., Instamojo, WebEngage, BOV Capital and more. He has invested and gave support to around 80 start-ups until now. He is planning to invest $1.5 million in startups of South Asian countries.

    | Companies invested by Rajan |
    |—|—|
    | Rapido |
    | Pregbuddy |
    | Druva |
    | InnovAccer |
    | Little Black Book Delhi (LBB) |
    | Unacademy |
    | Dunzo |
    | Zenatix |
    | WebEngage |
    | Instamojo |
    | CroFarm |
    | LetsVenture |
    | Indifi Technologies |
    | POPxo |
    | Mypoolin |
    | Mapmygenome |
    | Leflair |
    | MyUpchar |
    | SocialCops |
    | ButterCups |
    | Inclove |
    | TravelKhana.Com |
    | Appknox |
    | Lucideus |
    | InstaLively |
    | Dataweave |
    | Wishberry |
    | AppViralty Inc Explara |
    | Frrole |
    | Avaz |
    | Omnify Inc |
    | Karza Technologies |
    | STREAM.com |
    | Smytten |
    | HashLearn |
    | Plackal-Maya |
    | Threadsol Pvt. Lmd. Software |
    | IOK Labs Inc. |
    | Social Blood |
    | Inc. Aurality |
    | Ciafo |
    | Innov8 Coworking |
    | Dazo |
    | Freshtohome |
    | Fulfil.IO Inc. |
    | Chaska |
    | Monsoon CreditTech |
    | EasyGov |
    | MyShaadi.in |
    | Smartcooky. |
    | Capillary Technologies |
    | WebEngage |
    | BOV Capital |

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    Rajan Anandan- Sequoia Capital

    Sequoia Logo

    Rajan Anandan joined the funding task through Sequoia Capital India, which is a non-profit organisation. He is the Managing Director at Sequoia Capital. He basically acts as an investment advisor and mentor to the world’s top scale-up program ‘Surge’ for startups. Surge is a program for a rapid early progress for startups by providing access to capital, talent, network and company building knowledge. Rajan’s deep understanding of technology and experience in expanding the internet ecosystem will eventually raise the amount of acceptance among customers and businesses. This will advance innovation while building a multi-billion dollar business that continues to grow very fast.

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    Rajan Anandan- Recent Facts

    • Rajan came into the limelight in the year 2019, when he resigned his designation from Google India.
    • He is gradually building his profile as an Angel Investor.
    • Most recently, there was an investment of INR 100 Crore to BOV Capital by Rajan.
    • Rajan provided his major investments in TravelKhana, EasyGov, Instamojo, and WebEngage.
    • Moreover, Rajan mostly focuses on tech startups.
    • He usually posts various startup articles across various social media platforms.

    Frequently Asked Questions- FAQs

    What is Rajan Anandan net worth?

    The net worth of Rajan Anandan is estimated to be around INR 70 Crore.

    What is Rajan Anandan age?

    Rajan Anandan’s age is 54 years as of 2020.

    Is Rajan Anandan an angel investor in India?

    Currently, to help mentor new startups, Rajan Anandan is an angel investor in India.