Indian Startup Ecosystem EXPLAINED - How To Be Profitable? ft. Ritesh Malik | FO 49 - Raj Shamani

should focus anymore. usually you don't make money in startups. life is not like shark tank. entrepreneurs those who make it big it. looks very fancy it's not so india is a. country you know it's a very uh. hostile country to do anything.

in today's episode of figuring out we. have an entrepreneur who started his. journey in the final year of mbbs with. an augmented reality startup attack in. the year 2016 he built innovate one of. the india's biggest and the best. co-working spaces which was incubated by. y combinator later it was sold to oyo. for more than 200 crores he's also one. of the most active angel investors in. the country who's invested in more than. 100 startups like joe stocks p safe. truly madly.

and. in this episode we've talked about. what needs to change with india's. current education system. how to deal with competitors what is. stopping india to become truly a world. power what type of starters fail and. succeed how to build right culture for. your organization. and the one thing which every. entrepreneur is wrong about we have dr. ritesh malik with us so make sure that. you watch this episode till the end. because this is one of the podcast which.

is very different which talks about what. is wrong with the current system in our. country what is wrong with india what. every entrepreneur gets it wrong about. everything in the startup so instead of. talking about rights we have talked. about wrong make sure you watch this. episode till the end. deepak.

that 90-year cycle economic cycle change. see it's a very subjective one very hard. to comment on it. but in my opinion. the sole way to get. any currency accepted. is to have the blessing of the. government at least in the foreseeable. future. agar government currency banker. or if there is any.

intersection where because by the end of. the day we are governed by a law. we are not a free. hold uh organization as a country. and typically there are small countries. that may legitimize cryptocurrency but. a country like india in my opinion it. will take a lot of time okay at the same. time. true value of. cryptocurrency will is also of a lot of. question mark right now. typically i know a lot of people who say.

we are using cryptocurrency for. converting cash into crypto yeah now uh. these kind of things are definitely and. obviously. uh blockchain has a lot of advantage but. we really need to be very. careful about mass scale adoption of a. technology which has. uh. which which may have potential down. risks. so i think it will take time u.s dollar. abibi i think.

is still one of the most sought after. value holding uh. tenders in the world ah so i was reading. that sometimes the technology is super. good. but it's good technology. but a disadvantage that it's a. technology which is understood by few. so. much adoption. it gets control at the end of the day by. the people who understand.

benefits. so that was a question in india china. and mass economy. here people don't understand how the. basic economy works yeah yeah how do you. expect them to understand the economy of. crypt. see the challenges with our education. system. we are not taught the three most. important things of life. 99.99 of all problems of humanity are.

across health. relationships. again i'll tell you health relationships. and wealth. and we are taught that wealth is more. important than relationships. relationships are more important than. health. it's actually other way around if you. see. uh. this is very interesting there was a. survey done by more than. fifteen hundred participants whose age. was higher than ninety four in the us.

okay and onset. what would you give advice like you've. been on this planet for. 94 years 94 95 100 105 years what is the. advice that you will give to. uh people who have to traverse time. so. not even a single one said. that. money. is more important than health or. relationships. ninety percent of the respondents said.

that. relationships will define your happiness. health will elongate time. and you should have money for downturns. but. quantum of money is always a question. mark your satisfaction can be and. obviously basic money is obviously very. important i'm not discounting the fact. that money is a legal tender to exchange. value it is very important but. but at the same time. larger focus on relationships and health. is something which can truly make you.

happy and the last thing which i believe. is that. education system now. it's not changing today we are still. learning about 1965's. how are we with mechanical engineering. uh chemical engineering these are good. things but. curriculum needs to be we need to be. forward and that is why we are building. pluksha university it's not for profit. technology university of the future we. we should not be teaching things of the. past. we should be teaching.

it's good to know but it's not. relevant in today's age the question is. why did ashoka think how did he conquer. there were only two kings who conquered. hindustan the first one was ashoka the. second one was. now the thing is what was their thought. process.

how did they think is more important. than when were they born so i think. continuous focus on on and then. obviously wealth management of wealth a. lot of people. the humans are not good investors. if you see humans they. 90 percent of people lose money in their. lives the reason is they're not good. investors. because they don't understand the. basic concept of inflation they don't. understand the basic concept if you. understand inflation you'll never do an.

fd. yeah if you understand and taxation you. will never do an fd. you will always do a corporate bond. if you understand. compounding you will. never invest in a stock at one go you. will always do an sip if you understand. see if you understand risk mitigation. you will always create it uh. levers to ensure that wealth erosion. does not happen. so i think. these things need to be taught.

with values to us from a very very early. stage so okay coming back to the main. point which you said. wealth is not as important as. relationship relationship is not as. important as health right it should be. other way around. a subsequent reason. do you think the reason is key. we celebrate wrong things we celebrate. because when you look at let's say media. we look at people we look at examples we. look at role models we are celebrating. those role models because of the the.

amount of fame they have the amount of. money they have is if people. uh. value other things or what's what's the. reason like why. is it happening because i've always had. the same feeling key i value wealth more. than anything else and most of the. people i know around my family my. friends they all at least in my age. people value wealth my parents they. value relationships and then when you. look at my grandfather grandma they. value health the most so it's it's it's. with generations so i think obviously.

age matures you and you start. understanding the true value of. if you ask my dad. what is the most important thing now. he's in that phase where he says your. relationships and health. uh when you don't have money you always. focus on so. as humans we always focus on things we. don't have it's as simple as that we. never focus on things that we have if i. have a good wife. i will. still. focus on what are her shortcomings if i. have a good child i will still focus on.

what are. her shortcomings i think. as humans we are negative we we we we. just want to look at things. that are not good with us and we are not. we never contend it and i think. typically speaking uh. today in today's day and age. as a creator you have an opportunity to. actually now inflation in the past four. years. mass adoption of the word inflation has. come if you see google trends people.

have started knowing about inflation due. to creators. due to creators like yourself due to. creators like ranveer like ankur because. you are the new age heroes and teachers. of india. you have a lot of responsibility on your. shoulders because you are the. distribution engines of the right. content. what you post. will. attract value and vice versa so i in my. opinion uh. and this is my true opinion.

you should not be bogged down and and. schooling should start at 8-ish. it should end at 16 then you should have. a gap two years then you focus on maybe. college. education is an experience on how to. live. not what to learn. unfortunately if i ask you a question. did you read math. you did right yeah.

are you going to use pythagoras theorem. in your life right now. the question is why aren't we teaching. value systems why aren't we teaching. honesty trust uh building relationships. uh having a good health we are. commoditized and see media. media needs to be more responsible we. consume. what we consume consumes us it's as.

simple as that media. needs to celebrate the right things. unfortunately because we are negative. minded. beings as as a as a as an animal what. who who a homo sapien is is that. we want to consume negative content. we want to see hindu muslim fighting. unfortunately that's the truth and that. is why media will always be. biased towards revenue. or towards their value creation their. value creation does not happen on. positive news unfortunately so negative.

news is the reason in india is a chaotic. country is because even in 20 you see we. are in this century and if we are again. fighting because of hindu muslim. it's it's it's shameful it's not it's. not something that you should even and. hear about in your life yeah i've. stopped watching tv i cannot watch it it. induces so much frustration. for this country and you lose hope. what kind of a country are we you know.

one of the major reasons which i feel it. starts why media is like this why we're. talking about all of these things is. at least in our education system. we are always taught. to. just follow. we are never taught to ask questions and. raise questions from day one harmony.

[Music]. as we grow we are always looking for. instructions. so with media also media understands. this that's why media calm is to put out. to put out facts in front of you and. grace questions but what media is doing. technically they're instructing you in. some way nudging you towards one. direction they're basically opinionating. opinion and i just feel very sad when i. see a lot of journalists shouting on the. top of their voice is.

i i'll tell you i miss duration it was. so calm it was so quiet it was relevant. news. i just feel that um. media's job is to lay out the facts not. be the fact and lastly i'll also tell. you a very interesting thing. and this is something which i always. tell journalists. in startup ecosystem. the good part is whatever you give. limelight to will attract people yeah. if i close the lights of this room.

our media celebrates fundraisers. that's the worst form of celebration. raising funds are.

that is what true success is. so i just feel. we celebrate things for the wrong uh and. this needs to change last year so many. founders got so much recognition kissing. the saw million casinos. our startups. so i just feel that and also what is the. common currency of store of wealth that. is another as as humanity we need to see.

how do we how do we value storing wealth. the question is i have a question to say. uh a company which was say valued at. 100 crore rupees. just got. listed at say 30 crore rupees. now the value of the founder in just. five days becomes say hundred crores to. 30 crores how can you equate wealth so. in my opinion wealth metric and wealth.

understanding is very difficult how do. you i don't understand tomorrow if. there's a small mishap of tesla you. cannot so i think continuous uh and and. non. fidgeting wealth creation needs to come. and there needs to be a global standard. for that. i think that is very important so i'll. tell you a very small example i sold my. business for a very small value but i. have everything in. check in my bank account. now i'm more wealthy than a founder.

who's 2x of my. net worth but it's all in the papers. and his papers say that he cannot sell. his stocks for the next six years now. who's more wealthy according to media. that gentleman is more wealthy but in my. opinion i'm not saying i'm wealthy or. i'm not wealthy but i'm just saying that. the. concept of wealth and equation of wealth. also needs to be added in terms of your. relationship quotient your your health. all these things once you build a. holistic form of wealth no i think that.

is when you can truly decide. whether you are wealthy or not very. interesting point and you talked about a. startup question. which i wanted to ask is. do you think that what what's a startup. purpose like what's a success right. do you think. selling a business successfully is. success or is it like holding on to it. and then making it yourself like what's. the purpose. if you're selling it right don't you. think you kill your own purpose that hey.

i was going to revolutionize xyz space. and then i've killed it so. the purpose of startup is. to. continuously. add value to your consumers and. customers life. irrespective. of what's happening within the company. so that should be the purpose. typically. and this should happen. by making a profit on every transaction. so this is what how i feel.

you'll feel happy about it because you. know you're making two rupees on every. transaction and if you do it one lakh. times every day with me. you're going to make two lakh rupees. every single day. right. and i will while i will lose money on.

books. i can show that i am selling. 1 million rupees worth of goods to raj. on a daily basis. while you are making money but my gmv. will keep on increasing. now what happens is that. this is not the right way to do business. the purpose of business is that radish. gives you 10 rupees and. you. you give me 12 rupees back on every and. you feel happy about it the customer. needs to be so i just call these sticky.

products products and i call this the. natural traction phenomenon. build a business where there is a. natural traction don't do unnatural. traction so natural traction means that. a consumer once he gets exposed to your. product. she or he really want to come back pay. for the product and use it and then tell. their friends about it this is the. natural traction phenomenon whenever i. invest and i've invested in more than. 100 startups i always see what is the.

natural traction of the business not the. inorganic traction in organic matter. so. what is the repeat and. example when i invested in joe stocks i. had invested in them in 2015 i think. i just saw one thing that their natural. traction of the product at that point of. time was phenomenal whoever attended joe. stocks wanted to come back and attend. joe stocks in person again. so they were when i invested in keto.

keto is a startup which does uh these. crowdfunding platforms. kunal right yeah now when i invested in. in them i realized that people wanted to. really come back to it because they felt. happy about it. so i realized that. that is the purpose of a startup when we. built innovate our focus was that can we. revolutionize this industry and is there. a genuine pain. so example but interesting raj. uh if you go to kanpur to one of the. offices of kanpur you cannot enter.

inside garments. this is. and we wanted to revolutionize this for. india i don't know wait we said you come. to an innovate i would love for you to. go to one of the innovates we said we. will not copy your book we will we are. going to build our own design thesis and. we are going to build the best.

productivity experience for humankind on. the planet at a price conscious level. so the goal was the moment you enter and. innovate you see. good design. very good ac amazing wi-fi good coffee. and a place where people can come and. start being a part of community. and when we started doing that for that. people wanted.

those. so. at unit level. you can be you you you can never. you can never ever lose money at unit. level this is my particular belief there. are very few businesses like facebook. that need to lose money at unit level to. start with but 99 of the businesses have. a clear-cut product market fit okay so. now you talk to our product market fit. or unit economics. cooperative it's very important to have.

this kind of product your sticker tabi. you can charge a premium from day one. right so what are the attributes of a. sticky product what do you think like. two or three things in a product which. stand out. here product. i just feel that. is the. pull of a brand important so this is. very interesting if you. drink. starbucks coffee.

in. an average store you will never. appreciate starbucks. they are not the best coffee makers in. the world. if you know their vision statement they. say to be the best. purveyor of. coffee for humankind. now. they might not be the best coffee in the. world but. they are they have uh they have built a. cult around them. rajchamani might not be the best creator.

in the world but you have followers. because you have built a consistent cult. around it and i think that cult is very. important people. a. benefit they do not want to buy features. they want to buy benefits they want to. understand what does this product do to.

me. example if someone is teaching dance. dance people don't want to learn dance. people want to use dance as a way to. remove depression to be more active to. be healthy to be more. to to be a better public speaker to be. more outspoken uh remove introvertness. so i think. selling features is is very easy selling. benefits is very hard. and that's the difference between the. samsung and apple so i just feel that.

you should and secondly your. core you should understand what is the. core problem of the customer so when we. started. innovate. he said we don't want to because that. was not problem of my customer. my customer does not want to drink. alcohol at 12. what they want to they might like it for. one or two days they don't want to do it. every day. we realize that our customer wants five. things and talk to your customers the.

easiest way to build a good pmf is talk. to your customers on a daily basis. survey i know wait when this is very. interesting i thought people would care. about light about uh so many things. community a lot of things i was shocked. to hear what people said five consistent. things about innovate they said that we. we will leave innovate. the first one was wi-fi. okay they said you up with your. wi-fi and we are not going to come to.

you. wi-fi is at the it's a basic hygiene for. a co-working. you have so many co-working spaces. beautiful. and wi-fi. you don't like it. second i thought up. [Music].

they said we want hygienic washrooms. and then we realized and i quoted this. that if you want to know a man's. character. talk to him for an r. if you want to know a office's character. go to their washroom. washrooms are. dirtiest places in india yeah and we. said here because. we use washrooms on a regular basis and. that experience so what we started doing. hamare washrooms. we started giving listerine we started. giving in uh uh.

sanitary pads we started giving brush we. started giving in toothpaste perfumes. just making it a fairy and and washroom. should be as hygienic as your washroom. as your bedrooms. the fourth one we thought up to light. ige. we realized fourth one there they needed. was it should be near a metro station. and the fifth one was that you should do. events to build the community part of it. so we realized that. we focus on.

like. fancy yogi they don't care about it. so i think for entrepreneurs i always. tell them see on that is why. entrepreneurs who build. businesses on their own problems end up. doing better because they are very close. to the problem be very close to the. problem yeah. so i like what you said. pretty problem. when. i let's say i have certain problem with. xyz stuff.

and i want to solve it. i might solve it for eight type. stakeholders for example i may be on the. supplier side or maybe at the consumer. side. so. firstly first thing is you learn from. other industries other competitors but. an obvious competitor right. how do innovate how does like innovate.

make sure give my v works the other. standard so i'll tell you two things one. and this is my kunji this is my guide. for. uh fighting with people who. are who have more war chest than you. okay. you will always have this challenge. people will start businesses in your. industry and they will not they will. have more capital than you have the. easiest way. and and people think that it's very.

difficult to fight with them it's very. easy actually. the first thing that you do is stay. silent. today i'm talking about our competition. by building the business i never used to. talk about the competition. don't give them limelight don't give. them anything they will spend a lot of. money. on entering the business they will spend. a lot of money on educating your. customers about co-working. google trends. and they started in fact we are grateful.

to we work that they started co-working. in india because that legitimized the. industry. don't say anything the second is. darwin's law is something which i really. like the theory of. survival of the fittest. it is not the fastest who will survive. it is not the largest who will survive. it is the one that changes and adapts to. the changing environment on a daily. basis.

that is why dinosaurs are no longer. there. that is why. whenever there is a fight. between a leopard and a deer. essen. because it's not the fastest because. leopard can. is the fastest but it can only run fast. for a couple of seconds. but dear consistently because he has to. run for his life. so my only idea here is that. don't fight with them don't talk about.

them but at the same time learn from. them. people usually just sublime their. competitors give the bikara if you ask. me today what wework has created is. beautiful irrespective of all the. challenges but i i think personally. we've learned so much from wework from. the fact they were actually the builders. of the co-working in the world yeah so i. think. be open learn from the competition. go to their centers and. and talk to their people spend time at. wework you will improve your business in.

ways unimaginable. and the third part is. if you can't do anything no the only. thing where they cannot fight with you. is the fact that we are a small business. we can be close to our customers. have large ears and a very small mouth. learn from your customers talk to them. and take feedbacks.

foreign can you personalize your brand. and people and this is this is i don't. need to comment on this but this is very. simple personalized brand people want to. hear from the brands they want to know. they don't want they now now they no. longer just want to consume a brand they. want to consume the. cult that comes with the brand the. thought process that comes with the. brand. people don't want to consume what you.

are saying maybe other creators are. saying but they want to. they they want to hear from your mouth. because they want to consume the cult of. your thinking. so i think building that is why. community first brands that is why. you will never find nike written. anywhere in the world yeah last time. that i saw nike written on a billboard. was i think 2007 or 8. it's just that tick. because and nike's vision statement is. so beautiful. to be. and to be a source of innovation and.

empowerment. to every athlete in the world. now just imagine you're wearing nike. shoes you're not an athlete but they. have an asterix mark on athlete. for us anyone who cares about being fit. is an athlete now. this is so beautiful if you if you just. see this i just believe that for every. brand you need to be fundamentally teen. cheats. so.

so i think building fundamentals from. day one why are you doing it a lot of.

people ask me here. when is a good time to start i say the. best time to start a business was. yesterday the next best time is now. provided you have a true value solving. problem and you should be passionate. about it you should not start a business. i started co-working because this was a. genuine challenge for me. you are starting this because this might. have been a genuine challenge for you so. sarah blakely who's the founder of spanx. said a very interesting thing she said.

that the biggest the reason why i. started banks was the fact that i was. not able to find those kind of pantyhose. which i wanted to sell to the world so i. think what are important you should if. you're not passionate about the problem. though you will quit because it's hard. but once you are passionate about the. problem. i just got engaged to my wife and me and. my wife were. screwing up the. chairs of at innovate. and we realized that because we are so.

passionate about the fact that human. should be productive. so. now that you you believe in. you know being passionate you believe in. being having becoming. a problem solver of your own problem a. lot of people get into it because they. want to create wealth a lot of people. get into it because it's very fancy. celebrating so is that wrong. i won't say it's wrong but.

you will not. achieve success. if you just enter it because it is fancy. because it's not fancy it's the hardest. job you'll ever do. maybe after boxing like people look at. shows like shark tank and they feel like. it's. see shark tank and all are great shows. by the way but. i really respect shark tank because. they've actually institutionalized the. concept of starting up in india at large. scale that been said. those are shows there's a reason they. are called shows.

they need to feed india it's like media. that been said. life is not like shark tank. life is not uh. and and and people. entrepreneurs those who make it big. if you enter there the uh underbelly if. you enter their life their life is not. easy. it's it's very. it looks very fancy it's not so. people who just do it for the sake of.

fanciness and money they do not make. money that i can guarantee okay so you. invest in a lot of startups and you have. been a very early backer of indian. economy and in startups and everywhere. right what do you think what fails and. what succeeds. i think. purpose is very important why you are. starting i always ask founders why are. you starting this a lot of people say in. a year markets are hard to start this i. never invest in them. i need to understand care. is there a deeper reason for that person.

to start. there's a harvard album. she started a snacks business. and she said i started because i lost my. mother. because of diabetes. because when you are fighting for a. larger impact goal that i don't want. people like me to not have mothers just. because of diabetes. art person they should diabetes. motivation and then you don't quit then. you just focus on the fact that i want.

to make this irrespective of money. coming here money getting dry money. getting flushed i'm going to stick to. this phenomenon and i'm going to make. this big the bigger purpose but okay. warren buffett has said this okay that. this is the hard truth. when it comes to a good operator or a. good founder versus good market always. invest in good market because market. tests the founders do you believe in. this cookie now that you if you like. founder you are passionate about the. product but if the market is downturned.

the founder might face 100. i think market is extremely important. but. so the difference here is i don't invest. to make money my thesis is very. different the reason that i invest is to. create impact i have no intent to make. even a single penny from my startup. investments the day i invest into. companies i actually call myself burnt. capital. i make money from a lot of different. sources with startups i don't.

intend to make money i don't even have a. single unicorn in my portfolio not even. a single unicorn out of 100 companies. only. the reason is i invest in founders who. might not build seven thousand crore. valued companies but who will build. profitable. or near profitable hq level. companies which have a lot of substance. impact is high. tell me. what is the. what is the hard truth about startup. world which which people don't know. about.

that like this is one thing with. everybody is getting wrong. and why you don't know. so one is i think the hard truth is. making money is way harder than it looks. it looks very simple it's very hard. usually you don't make money in startups. neither as an investor nor as a founder. usually. uh. that been said the. another hard truth is. because of so much money being flushed.

into the ecosystem. talent poaching has become a big. challenge. today. the average span of a technology person. in your team is hardly months. yeah so i just feel that uh. while the party was good but now things. will be hot. very confident they will not be able to. so. what's the what's the easy way to now. i'm going to ask you both the questions.

again both the problem what's the easy. way to make money. easy way to make money is. how do people create a patient. be very patient if you want to be. if you want to make good amount of money. in startups be patient. don't chase valuations people. unfortunately chase a lot of valuation. then they actually dig their own grave. the day and you have to realize the day. you get a valuation of 1000 crores the. next round you cannot do at less than 1. 000.

and that is why being rational with. valuations is extremely important the. second part is that people think that. valuations are important but they are. not. technically speaking it won't matter. whether you are valued at 1000 crores or. 100 crores or 500 crores. in the long run. it won't matter paytm was valued at. when they started they actually sold 50. of the business i think to someone 50. so obviously it was a big thing but.

finally they bought it back so i just. feel that. they all everything will correct by the. end of the day when the when. regular customers that is the ipo or. the regular customers of the bombay. stock exchange when they value you know. that is your true value so i just feel. that go slow uh don't worry about. valuations because they won't make a. difference as.

you should focus on how do i create. fiduciary discipline how do i create a. budget how do i create a plan to spend. this money how do i when people get. money they just go all days out yeah. they just want canada. they don't have a plan. can you build an anti-fragile plan where. and think and murphy's law startup is. all about what may go wrong will go. wrong and i'm very confident about this.

matlab when i started a startup makeover. whenever you start anything. because you you do it because of your. heart you get so emotional about it. logic will always get defied when. emotions are involved so. when i started investing into startups i. thought those are my passwords. it took me seven years to get my first.

indian investment return seven years. so i just realized that. though the quantum was like 50 60 70 x. but the i realized that. it's not it's it it'll take time. but if you are patient you are going to. make a lot of money and. whether it is investing whether it is. career choice be patient. and compound every day your energy. should should compound how do you make. sure that your talent doesn't leave you. culture.

culture people don't want to work for. more money people want to work for great. culture. people who are leaving companies. necessarily 90 of them are not doing it. only because of money. the right culture will always be the. cornerstone of every development of. every human resource development team in. the world and i think culture is. something when your core values purpose. vision align with the purpose vision of. the teams. the easiest way. to build relationships be it your.

customer vendor. investor is to build common pursuits. we don't usually i it's not that someone. drinks i don't mingle with them but the. moment someone says i don't drink. the moment that vibe comes out. comes out the moment someone.

how do i define culture is when i was. five years old. my. so what i used to do is when my father. was there dental i used to touch the. feet but when my father was not there. then i did not used to. touch the feet one day what happened my. father was observing.

so that is a culture. culture is what happens when the owner. is not there in the room. i think that is very important. to that and building that. is the hardest is the hardest part. because. it's based on respect mutual admiration.

uh. honesty. trust loyalty long term feedback. there's so many things to do. it's so difficult i i can feel that. because i know so sometimes and you know. what happens. the worst. is. you have an idea of how your company and. people are yeah versus how they are yeah. yeah like and that's when things go. really really. [Music].

and that becomes the problem very hard. so do you think you think that is. if we read more if you understand more. and try to inculcate those abilities. that will be able to solve it 100 i. think culture is a by-product of your. brand exercise. the day you build your purpose and. vision know you will be and a car but. interesting and this is something which. i always tell people your first 20 hires. are going to build the culture. you never build the culture alone it's.

always a team. so uh a lot of people ask me how do we. i've hired wrong people. i realize the easiest way to hire good. people is. instead of doing because people lie on. their cvs 90 people lie on their cv's. cvs are the worst way to of hiring now. the best way is. [Music].

90 percent of the times people lie. that's a good way to test who to hire. who cannot that's a great way to help. and as such in your teams uh play sports. every month. i'm so mad about it.

again you build cult. it's an enabler for cohesion. at the same time you get healthy and at. the same time you start noticing trends. because as a founder you need to see. between the lines who's here for the. money who's here for the uh because a. cut me one bad fish will rotten the. entire pond do you remember of any one. thing where it got very hard for you in. your journey and you were like yes.

i think. every time a bad investment a bad uh. hiring uh extremely poor choice of uh. property extremely. pandemic was hard. uh as a family you you sold your.

business before pandemic but but we were. doing a lot of things in real estate. post selling and at that point in time. also i was still the head of innovate so. pandemic was hard um. when it comes to uh our family. businesses is which we built uh. we have a hospitality business that was. hard and we took a call that america. employs and we will not even. fire or deduct even a single penny. salary of any of the employees so.

the thing they were hard decisions but i. by the end of the day. you don't find these hard because the. more. the more hardships you are you face. the more. it's very simple. it's a glass chamber.

99 of the people of the world they feel. themselves to be so ill confident to. think of a large dream that they don't. and that is why they just. achieved. 26 years.

you are worth you are actually worth. that your worth is actually first in. your mind whatever happens it happens. twice once it happens in your mind and. then it happens in reality. okay good and bad both no it it does. make sense last two questions i have. okay one of them is you travel a lot yes.

right have you like do have you noticed. something in some other country which is. really fascinating to you. kivo india menu or baharu i see jesus. i think uh. india really needs to improve. india is going to see a lot of exodus of. taxpayers in the country i think uh. as a country we really need to learn. from so many countries. classic example.

it's a classic example of great and. human will. do you know how much money they earn. from oil. point nine nine percent one percent they. earn from oil now just imagine we have v. tourists. 4.1 million. 3.9. uae is. bloody.

so what i'm saying is that and we are a. beautiful country. we. you think we don't. put enough efforts in absolutely not you.

as a tourist here you tell me is it it's. it's not safe to be a tourist in india. it's it's. for indians it's not it's not like so i. just feel as a country we need to feel. more safer. we need to come above the communal. violence. while it serves the political parties. very well it is truly degrading.

this is not even matlab now just imagine. that. this is not it's these are not things. where. the country should focus anymore. we should truly focus on what is there. for our country and see we are going to. see the largest human resource crisis by.

2028. like largest this is five years yeah. but. in our country specifically and why. human resources because we are the land. of humans we have so many people here. the biggest crisis we are going to face. is the fact that there will not be. enough jobs. there won't be enough jobs because. businesses in our country and also. skill gap. because of our education system we are.

not able to produce enough. engineering colleges they can forget the. top two or three percent the remaining. 98 to 97 percent engineering colleges. are. mashallah and. so i think we really need to focus on. human resource development. unlearning relearning reskilling. and micro entrepreneurship is so. important abuse. focus in my opinion. so that's the and also see.

just imagine the government is focusing. private placements are not unicorns. unicorn should be in profitability up. unicorn you become bloody 100th of a. unicorn but in profitability you become.

100th of a unicorn and but in true. impact. in revenues there are a lot of startups. who have not even 20 crore revenue and i. know and they are a unicorn. and terms like gmv and all in my opinion. are scam i might be wrong totally i am i. have i'm not at all conservative there. so i don't know but i i just don't. understand that. okay now the last question which was. again in the startup world only so when. you look at silicon valley right there.

have been businesses the the same. ideology we follow there have been. places where for five years businesses. and startups have been. uh running in losses and then eventually. they turned into something big and. something good. so what's happening in silicon valley. which we are not being able to replicate.

a company that got listed in at new york. stock exchange it's in the travel tech. space that's loss making for a very long. period of time. so i agree that amazon has a beautiful. story for that but amazon is also. it is a market leader. we need to see that are you bleeding. just for the sake and also what happens. is that these markets keep on correcting. so i just feel that. in india today and even in the u.s.

u.s may you are seeing a massive. companies. dropbox has lost. 73 of its value yeah. 73 percent of its values. coinbase. i just feel that amazon has lost. 39 of its value so i just feel and these. are large companies amazon is one of the. largest companies in the world so i just.

feel that this correction is good. very good while. as an investor we have lost a lot of. money but. it's a good correction people should. focus on profitability i think. profitability will ensure. all stakeholders are happy. and at least unit level profitability. so that's the that's one of the major. reasons why in india people are not able. to make profits because make sustainable. businesses because we don't focus on. profit and our taxes way too high. [Music].

we have a flat parameter.

and in america it's a different story in. america there is no other competitor. than amazon there is no other player who. which is the second largest e-commerce. store in america till. you don't have an answer to that because. there's no flipkart there is no. oh snap deal there's no these smaller. ones.

so is. the entire market exploded. the reason we became a household old. brand was the fact that indiana.

if you want to build a large business. you need to ensure that your damn. if. your your price point is extremely. sensitive india is such a price. sensitive market you can't even imagine. price center sorry.

restaurant expenditure. between 7th and 12th is the highest. that means. i'm just telling that oh it's it's a. very very price sensitive market they do. so a last question a precise price. sensitivity. do you feel the next level of business.

as a next wave of business people should. start building businesses for the. extreme massey level or mass premium. level. so see that is the premium the premium. is extreme premium which you feel like. million customers. right so we go one level down we want. this mass premium and then.

the question is where do you want to. land. india can so my i always tell this to. founders. don't build for india alone. built for if you are building for india. search for markets which are like india. indonesia similar.

if you are building for. india search for markets its. [Music].

go. so i just feel you should build for the. world to increase your market. segmentation. superhuman is a email company email. management company they charge thirty. dollars india make it good. customer base us matu when they have. said on india. so saying no is so important founders. don't say no.

they want to show. so the solution for that is. build in india for the world yes. yes for the similar types of markets. mcdonald's or starbucks nay i think late. 90s. a partnership. and they said that mcdonald's sells food. items starbucks sells coffee and.

it was a very interesting partnership. and they started rolling it out. it failed massively. the reason was your customers. it's very simple.

mcdonald's. mcdonald's came out with another. partnership. they said let us partner with disney.

that worked very well because and that. was the conception of happy. happy meal. and if you know uh mcdonald's is the is. is the place where maximum number of. birthdays are celebrated just because of. that particular.

will not look like a. simple sort of a co-working player we. will look like a very heavy on design. [Music].

nice that's a that's a great way to. think and align your teaching. about problems. but nice a question. you said. he built global products built in india. for the world right for similar markets. in the world but. why is that like that. india. global brands haini like if you see we. talk about mcdonald's we talk about. starbucks they're cultural. shifts like they formed cultures in. india. there was not a coffee drinking market.

now the urban india started drinking. coffee india was not a burger consuming. market now for us it's like an everyday. thing coca-cola amari. like we used to drink. jaljeera we have completely. like you know just. we've forgotten all of that and we drink. coke and pepsi. so there's a lot of culture we learned. from western world do you think india is. so as brands mature they look for future.

growth. if you see any sort of quarterly revenue. report of any corporations. so while coca-cola is massively. profitable amazon is massively. profitable in the us. they now are looking out for areas.

telecom. you acquire the market the better it is. for you. so that is why all these companies want. to come starbucks is a negative cash.

flow business they are not making profit. in india but they will make profit they. are looking at they are. india.

and because these are monopolistic. businesses they will continuously inch. by inch increase their. prices. so do you think it's. it's a bad place to start a consumer. business right now. not a bad place just that. risky place tough place it's.

it's tough to do anything in india it's. tough to be everything in india. belief and i'll be very candid about it. so india is a country you know it's a. very uh. hostile country to do anything. so uh. building. up llp.

what i'm saying is that. india is a hostile country first of all. we should know this and because it's a. hostile country opportunities are there. but you need to be you need to really. like the amount of hard work that you do. here and if you get x you would have. gotten 10x there outside india so. it's just that consumer business is my. d2c and all are great opportunities but.

you ask me who is making money in d2c. people in d2c are basically making money. for challenge person and. google or facebook. advertisement. example upi was a great one example. abhijo e-commerce level playing policy.

like arya so the idea is we need to. really empower and we need to be ahead. of technology rather than catching it. catching up with it and there's a. we are actually building an organization. called adif alliance for digital india. foundation to check these kind of. monopolistic behavior and android 96. percent markets here okay. you have to accept it yeah because the.

option. it's it's gone there. is it also the reason my newspaper with. horizon valley in short fee he. i thought. 1771 tax a millionaires have flown away. from india to find or apply dual. residency yeah. is it also a reason kiki because it's so. difficult because it's so hostile people. who have made money or weight made. wealth now they understand that. if they put in the effort with the money.

which they have in some other countries. it'll be easier for them to. how much of a lot of people are. looking at see india is a land of. opportunity they want to do business in. india but at the same time. india also there is a chance that india. can go towards her it's a two-way sword. we have hostile neighbors from. everywhere. [Music]. what i'm saying is there's not even a. single neighbor which is extremely.

cordial with us yeah. we have we have uh and almost like two. of our largest. border sharing neighbors are. equipped nuclearly. at the same time we have disputed. territories at the same time we have. very fragile uh and and a very emotional. population. they don't think. they're very deeply engraved and that is. why bollywood works very well.

and they get swayed by conversations and. content. the future i'll tell you what is in my. opinion what will happen is these large. distribution technology platforms will. control how india thinks. because by the end of the day what. people see they will make their mind.

yeah so. hermit kingdom. so i just feel that people really need. to have their own mind they should. really and for that they need to be. analytical our education system does not. allow you to question. secondly obviously there's so many of my. friends who've left india.

there that's one it's it's something. that it. is a. it's something which is very sad. and india really needs to think about. how do they retain their effluent. okay so last question which is a. question of the day i know you're. getting late. it's. now that we have so many challenges we. have. you know challenges of cac we have. challenges of profitability we have. challenge of price sensitivity uh. infrastructure like a lot of challenges. right.

in. like except. ex after accepting these challenges what. do you feel is the right sector the. right place to do business in like. what can be the best next business where. do you feel is the next big opportunity. [Music]. i think india. let's say ready for example consumer. good skill it's right now d2c means it's. bleeding because of xyz platforms. i i think. a i think the better question here would.

be. first. ask what are you good at. so they're three circles. what am i extremely good at. every person our brain print is a. million times more sensitive than our. thumbprint. so everyone comes with their own sense. of. ability.

so what are you good at. [Music]. second is. what is it that you really. find joy. mother joy as a word is very important. what do you find.

it leaves me fascinated. for me that joy is. traveling real estate. startups technology. and last is what will people pay for. people don't understand a lot of people.

anything related to technology stack. is amazing. you and not only for india but for the. world the good part is today you can. build it from india for the world. freshwater children what i'm saying is. that there are. global companies coming out of india and. india will become a hot spot for talent.

especially technology technology. challenge the second one would be. uh industries. example. manufacturing. india has the potential to become the. next china. and. and and things like industry 4.0. anything robotics. matlab india has the potential to be the. pioneer of industry 4.0 and i called it. rania 53 robotics autonomous vehicles.

nanotechnology. internet of things machine learning. artificial intelligence uh. 5. 5g 3d printing these are things which. are going to engulf us the question is. but. the whole idea is how do you amalgamate. technology with value creation and. finance.

india is a country where. india. technology that is fintech. usa my card system is very good mobile. system is pathetic. india mobile interface modi government. has done a phenomenal job for this kind. of healthcare india can become the true. healthcare technology platform for the. world. so i just feel india. thank you so much for watching this. episode till the end make sure that you.

like subscribe comment and share it with. everyone else around you because you. never know one conversation can spark an. idea which can be the start of your. billion dollar startup so share it with. your friends family members enemies as. well just share it with each and. everybody you never know what happens. next and who you're gonna help in the. process of sharing the right information. until the next episode keep figuring out.

you.