“5 years later… when you look back, you should be proud to the decision you took – that’s the easiest parameter…!” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Manish Taneja, the co-founder of Purplle.com. Hear about Manish’s journey from private equity to visiting beauty stores on the weekends with his flatmate and then eventually starting Purplle. Listen carefully as he deep dives on the importance of understanding your customer deeply, building for Bharat and using data to make decisions. Do...

“Just the power of sitting behind a screen and selling to the entire country/world is something that just drew me to it (ecommerce) instantly!” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Bharat Sethi, the founder of Rage Coffee. Hear about Bharat’s journey of building and exiting his first startup (Idecorama) until he arrived at the idea of Rage Coffee. Listen carefully as we deep dive on brand building with a limited budget and choosing brand ambassadors. Don’t miss Bharat’s insights on the...

“The moment you ensure that every single order that you pack and deliver is being received in the way you want to receive it – that it when business starts making sense!” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Aakash Anand, the founder of Bella Vita and now IDAM House of Brands. Hear about Aakash’s story of navigating and then establishing leadership in a crowded space with Bella Vita. Then, hear him deep dive on the concept of a house of brands and talk about how he is playing out this...

“India celebrates 500 Cr moments every year. And, being a part of the large and small moments of every Indian – that’s my goal!” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Tarun Joshi, the founder of Join Ventures – a brand that is innovating in the the celebrations and gifting space in India! Hear about Tarun’s journey from a aeronautical engineering to investing and then eventually starting up. Listen carefully as Tarun breaks down verticalizing the supply chain and solving the complex...

"...Entrepreneur who started a 20 machine unit now has 200 machines - this through the pandemic. So what we did really well is how we treated all the people associated with us". In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Yogesh Kabra, the founder of XYXX– a brand that is disrupting the inner wear space in India! Hear about Yogesh’s journey from an incubator in the US to, starting up back home. Listen carefully as he share his insights on scaling sustainably, excellence in manufacturing,...

“Every brand has a…mission statement – we have a purpose statement. We want to eliminate taboos…”. In this episode, join Arjun as he interviews Vikas Bagaria, the founder of Pee Safe – a brand that literally created categories like toilet hygiene and menstrual hygiene in India! Hear about Vikas Bhais’s journey from humble beginnings in Kolkata to cargo, defence, safety and eventually launching D2C. Don’t miss the insights on new revolutionary product development, influencer marketing as it...

Episode 26: Taran Chhabra, Neeman’s  “Comfortable, all natural, durable, sustainable and made in India – this is something we set out to solve”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Taran Chhabra, the founder of Neeman’s shoes – a brand that Indian made sneakers a reality! Hear about the journey of a sneakerhead who moved back from a analytics job in the US, completed 500+ trials and 24 months later launched his product. Dig deeper into the his journey on building a business with his...

“With logistics getting simpler and D2C brands getting smarter…one of the big trends is that you’re going to see a lot of Indian brands on global shelves!”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Akshay Ghulati, the co-founder and COO of Shiprocket – India’s largest e-commerce logistics aggregator. Hear about Akshay’s journey from Wharton & HBS to Smile Group and then from there to Amazon and Shiprocket. Learn about Akshay’s experience as a product manager at Amazon and what he...

“We dream of building some really impactful brands which can create at a global scale and we will build the infrastructure to take it there!”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Nitin Agarwal, the founder of Globalbees – one of India’s largest e-commerce roll up players. Hear about Nitin’s journey through the finance world and start-ups till he finally decided to start up again with his friend Supam (the founder of First Cry). Through the episode you can hear Nitin’s excitement about...

“I also saw that you were the CEO of the company and seeing a female as a CEO...that just makes my day!” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Ahana Gautam, the powerhouse behind one of India’s fastest growing D2C food brands – Open Secret. Hear about Ahana’s inspirational journey from Bharatpur in Rajasthan to IIT, P&G, HBS and finally starting up. Through the episode you can hear Ahana’s enthusiasm and zeal to unjunk snacking and provide tasty yet healthy alternatives to Indian...

“The key thing is to know how to get into a consumer’s mind – at one level it is an art but it’s also a science”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Harsh Mariwala, the man behind one of India’s most iconic FMCG brands – Marico. Hear Mr. Mariwala’s story 30+ year journey as he takes us down memory lane on the evolution of retail in India. A lot of us may not have done business in the 80s and 90s and so the episode has gems on navigating the business environment and scaling to an FMCG...

“My sense is that we will see 8-10 more Mamaearth/Boat size startups in India (soon)”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Chirag Taneja, the co-founder of one of India’s hottest  D2C enablers, Gokwik. Hear Chirag’s story from banking, starting up, leading revenue at Bombay Shaving Company and finally starting the Gokwik journey. As all of us are seeing D2C brands growing exponentially, Chirag explains the need for enablers who solve existential and operational problems for founders....

“I’ll upskill myself to learn to do it and, that’s the reason that Sleepy Owl is the brand it is today”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Arman Sood, the co-founder of one of everyone’s favourite D2C brand, Sleepy Owl. Hear the story of 2 lawyers teaming up with another friend to solve the problem of the poor coffee they had at their offices. Learn about how these 3 founders revolutionized the way the Indian consumer looked at coffee by building one of the strongest new age consumer...

“I joke with my team that I think more as a woman consumer than a male – that’s my instinct ”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Shankar Prasad, the founder behind the original ‘house of brands’ in personal care - Pureplay Skin Sciences. Hear Shankar’s dream career journey with HUL, Mckinsey and Everstone until he finally gave it up to start up. Learn about the importance of purpose in a business and how Shankar chose to be vegan way back in 2014. Also don’t miss Shankar's insights...

“After one big failure (in QSR)… we sold our house - that was where the capital to start Veeba came from”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Viraj Bahl– the powerhouse behind Veeba and the man who brought ‘sauce back to the fore’. Hear Viraj’s story of working in the oil rigs, starting and failing in a QSR business and then eventually beginning his journey with Veeba!. Today, Veeba is a household name but hear about Viraj’s struggle and resilience to crack his first large B2B account...

“The joke was in the city that two guys are looking for some gold plated chicken”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Vivek Gupta – the force behind revolutionizing meat consumption in India. Hear Vivek’s story of switching gears as he moved from being the finance controller of a fund to creating 170 specifications of chicken! Rethinking the supply chain of an age old industry and disrupting it completely is no joke. Today, we take Licious for granted but we must remember that this...

“Building a brand is a bonfire and not a set of explosions”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Varun Alagh – the man behind one of India’s most celebrated D2C brands - Mamaerath. Hear Varun’s journey as he moved from the corporate world of Coca Cola and Unilever into the uncertainty of building a brand from scratch. Hitesh his adjustment from moving from numbers to names when he set out to get his first few customers. Learn specifically about building a brand for the long terms,...

“…the objective of getting into a start-up should not only be to raise capital but instead to build something meaningful and disruptive”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Hitesh Dhingra – the start-up man of the D2C ecosystem. Hear Hitesh’s journey as he talks about his various stints building Letsbuy, Tyroo, Truly Madly and eventually the Man Company. Hitesh talks about how he decided men’s grooming as a category, stumbling blocks along the way and then eventually cracking the code...

“The customer service agent went out of the prescribed script and said we’ll fix your gas stove by tonight but till then, I’ve ordered you Domino’s pizza”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Bharat Kalia. Hear Bharat’s story of leaving a consulting job at Bain and starting a brand creating products for the home & kitchen to enrich the daily lives of modern consumers. Bharat talks about getting into a seemingly difficult category and capturing market share by simply creating better...

“Your face needs a different kind of product from your scalp and this was the logic behind starting Beardo”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks with Ashutosh Valani. Hear Ashutosh’s story of building Beardo to one of India’s most iconic D2C brands and building the men’s grooming category along the way. Ashutosh talks about scaling a brand with his college mate Priyank from 0 to 1 using the most innovative viral marketing strategies. Learn specifically about the right time to say goodbye...

“Challenger means you’re taking someone on so, I have always stuck to and continue to stick to the term insurgent brands”. In this episode, join Arjun as he brings his first investor to the show – Deepak Shahdadpuri. Hear the story of how Deepak got enamoured by the consumer brands ecosystem in India and become one of its earliest backers. Over the last 15+ years, Deepak has invested in and supported 60+ of Asia’s most iconic consumer brands including Sula, Veeba and Epigamia. Learn...

“We took our 1st 6 products to a school in Delhi and they killed my favorite. Kids never lie and so made by 2 mothers is the reality of everything we do”. In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Shauravi, Co-Founder, Slurrp Farm. Hear Shauravi’s story of moving from the corporate world of investment banking and investing to rolling up her sleeves and starting a food brand for kids with her co-founders. Hear about the trials and tribulations of creating new-to-the-world products and...

“Anything that we have a doubt…we set up a 100-150 customer download. By the end of those calls, we have our answer.” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Chaitanya, Co-Founder, Wakefit.co. Hear Chaitanya’s story of moving from management consulting to navigating 2 start-up failures with humility and resilience. He then talks about how Ankit (his co-founder) and him found the idea of Wakefit and built one of India’s largest D2C brands. Through this episode one can learn about rapid...