Chicken and hot sauce are a match made in heaven! Today, I’m joined by Mikhel Rajani, co-founder of Naagin Sauce, India’s first and favourite hot sauce brand. Five years ago, Mikhel and his co-founders spotted a gap in the market, and now Naagin Sauce is a household name, partnering with KFC India and taking Indian Ghost Chillies global. In this episode, we talk about: How they built the brand from scratch. The spicy challenges they faced along the way. Mikhel’s insights from 15 years in...

The world is getting fatter! In this episode, we dive deep into fitness and nutrition with Adarsh Gopalakrishnan, founder of Move101 in Chennai. Move101 is a unique strength and conditioning gym tailored for regular folks with little to no training background, and it also offers online coaching. Adarsh’s journey into fitness began in an unexpected way: he started working out to impress a girl who liked the biceps of a popular MTV VJ. He had no biceps and he wanted biceps and he started...

On a mission to make intimacy easy, approachable, and fun. Today my guest is Anushka Gupta, co-founder of MyMuse. MyMuse is India’s first bedroom essentials brand, dedicated to making intimacy easy, approachable, and fun for Indians everywhere. Anushka and her husband started in a small apartment and now operate a warehouse serving over 150,000 customers across 1000+ Indian cities. They've also built a massive community of over 100,000 followers on Instagram and other social media platforms....

Experience real cricket at home! In this episode, I sit down with Prince Thomas, co-founder of MetaShot, a Bangalore-based gaming startup. MetaShot offers a unique and immersive cricket experience through a cutting-edge metaphysical smart bat. Prince shares how the idea for MetaShot emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss the early days of development, from the initial prototypes—a cricket bat with a sensor and a copy of EA Cricket 2007—to securing significant investments from...

Step into the dynamic world of Indian menswear fashion with our latest episode! Join us as we sit down with Karan Singh, the creative force behind Aristobrat, a brand renowned for its premium men's clothing. In this insightful conversation, Karan takes us on a journey from his inspiration drawn from a transformative trip to Scandinavia to the inception of his own fashion empire. Delve into his innovative financial strategies, including the use of factoring, and gain a deeper understanding of...

Drawing inspiration from the timeless game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, today's guest is Lalit Kalani, the Founder of Rock Paper Rum, an innovative Indian Rum brand prominently featured on Season 3 of Shark Tank India. In this episode, Lalit delves into the journey of launching his venture, shedding light on navigating the competitive Mumbai market, mastering branding, product development, and effective marketing strategies. He talks about India's complicated relationship with alcohol. He offers...

Driven by love for Table Tennis. Megha Gambhir, is the amazing co-founder and CEO of Stupa Sports Analytics. Her company is revolutionising the world of sports by providing athletes with cutting-edge analytics and insights to improve their performance. She talks about how she got started with a MVP - an Excel spreadsheet, to now working the ITTF and multiple international federations on her client list and a number of global clients. She talks about leaving a well-paying job to figure...

Making India sleep better: More than 55% of Indian adults face trouble falling asleep at least three nights a week. Today, I speak with Surbhi Jain, the founder of Neend, a free app offering stories, soothing sleep sounds, meditation, and more to help users unwind and nod off. Launched in 2021, Surbhi shares how she started this journey after contracting Covid and struggling with sleep issues. She released the MVP on YouTube, experiencing significant organic growth. Surbhi discusses building...

Universal factories of the future. Today my guest is Gokul NA, Co-Founder of CynLr. a pioneering deep-tech startup dedicated to the radical reinvention of dynamic vision-enabled robots, unlocking the potential to create the 'universal factories' of tomorrow. In this enlightening discussion, Gokul takes us on a journey back over a decade, recounting the humble beginnings with his co-founder in a modest office that evolved into a sprawling 13,000 sq ft research space. This state-of-the-art...

From a 13-year-old dreaming of becoming a YouTuber to now leading a 6-figure video content agency, today I speak with Pratham Jindal, Founder and CEO of Praper Media—a content agency collaborating with some of the biggest creators on the planet. In this episode, he shares insights into launching the agency, recounting the story of securing his first customer by spending 100 Rupees on a super chat. Pratham delves into his unique hiring philosophy and offers perspectives on AI, Chat GPT, and...

Hello everyone, Thank you for listening to the latest episode of the Indian Startup Show. It;’s been a while but we are back with a bang. It's a tough job market out there folks! , and on today's episode, we have an expert to guide us through it. I'm joined by Sarabjeet Sacher, the founder of Aspiration Jobs, with a profound passion for coaching professionals in areas such as career growth, career development, job search strategies, and interview techniques. He shares valuable insights on...

Enabling the well-being of more than 355 million Indian women through products, experiences, and experts. Today my guest is Aruna Chawla, founder of Salad, a lifestyle planner mobile app that support women to better manage their health throughout the menstrual cycle by providing personalized nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle advice. Aruna talks about her own personal journey of being in and out of hospital. She talks about building an MVP without a CTO or developers. Talks about why they...

Bye Bye Potholes! Today I have the pleasure to talk to Sourabh Kumar, co-founder of PotHoleRaja, a social venture that 's on a mission to make India & the world pothole-free. He got the idea After reading a tragic story about a woman who lost her life due to a pothole. He gave up his highly paid corporate job to fill in potholes around the streets of Bangalore at 5AM! He didn't tell his parents but he started getting goosebumps when random strangers started to praise his work and...

Content is king! Today my guest is Gautam Madhavan CEO & founder of Mad Influence and influencer management agency. They do more than just connect creators and brands. They do digital marketing, social media management, content authoring, and providing consulting services to businesses. They are trying to create the biggest content companies in the world. In this episode he talks about how he got this off the ground by seeing the shift from Blogging to Vlogging 2017/18, realising the...

Building the next wave of technology. Today my guest is seasoned investor Nitin Sharma, general partner & co-founder of Antler India. A global early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the defining technology companies of tomorrow. They're one of the fastest growing VC firms in the world. In this episode he talks about his 15+ year investing experience. He talks about how they help early stage founders. He talks about the differences between American entrepreneurs and Indian...

India is expected to be home to 700 million gamers by 2025. So Today my guest Piyush Kumar, he is the Founder and CEO of Rooter. A game streaming and E-Sports platform. Rooter has emerged as the largest player in the Indian gaming category, with close to 50 million downloads, making it the No. 1 app in the ‘sports’ category on the Google Play Store since October 2020. Rooter is at the perfect intersection of Gaming and Content surge in India. So he talks about how it got this off the...

Sport tech and driving sports engagement. Today my guest is Amit Purohit CEO and founder of Fantasy Akhada, a fantasy sports platform that provides you with an opportunity to play Fantasy Cricket, Fantasy Football and Fantasy Kabaddi by using your sports knowledge and skill. So today he talks about building a hyper growth sports tech startup, going from the 181st fantasy app to being in the top 5 , amazing stuff. He talks about the USP - focusing on customer delight. Talks about marketing...

Get your popcorn ready! Today my guest is Shalibhadra Shah, CEO & Co-founder of ABC Talkies. An online movie platform for filmmakers to submit their films and for cinema lovers to watch independent cinema on a pay-per-view model. He talks about what motivated him to get this off the ground and what problem they are solving . He talks about how they add value to the filmmaker and talks about the business model & revenue streams including variable ticket pricing. He talks about...

Launching rockets into space! My guest is Srinath Ravichandran CEO & co-founder of Agnikul, a Chennai-based Indian aerospace manufacturer specialising in building launch vehicles capable of taking micro and nano-satellites to Low Earth Orbit, on-demand. He started as an outsider , working in finance but his heart was always in aerospace. In this episode he talks about the crazy amount of networking, cold calling professors and asking himself some existential questions to get this off the...

Transforming storytelling. Today my guest is Summit Nayak - Co-founder of Ekank. They are building a storytelling platform, democratising non-fiction by bringing lost and forgotten history to the forefront. He talks about how they got this off the ground. Talks about ignoring the experts who told him not to build the product because it wasn't cool enough. But since launching they have 13.8 million monthly active users, spending in total 74 million minutes on the app and have raised a cool...

Disrupting the traditional fashion supply chain with digital intervention. Today my guest is Pawan Gupta. Co-founder and CEO of Fashinza. They are digitising the supply chain to make it more efficient, transparent, fast, and sustainable. It all started with a trip to Jaipur the clothing manufacturing capital of India - not to talk about manufacturing but pain points. He will discuss what those pain points are! He talks about how they went from building the MVP using WhatsApp, AirTable and...

Make your startup investment ready! Today my guest is Priyanka Madnani, Founder & CEO of Easy to Pitch. Easy to Pitch is one of the fastest-growing one-stop pitching solutions for start-up founders & entrepreneurs looking to raise capital for their unique ideas. Since starting she now helps over 500 startups and reviewed over 5000 decks. So in this episode she talks about how she spotted a gap in the market for pitching solutions. Talks about helping founders and what investors are...

Your 24x7 singing buddy! Today my guest is Gopal Krishna Koduri CEO & co-founder of Riyaz. A music learning app that offers an easy and convenient way for aspiring singers to practise their music lessons anywhere, anytime make music learning accessible and affordable. He talks about his love of classical indian music which inspired him to build this app. How the app works. He talks about building a venture-funded, steadily growing music learning app that is used around the world....

Make Memes Earn Money! Today my guest is Kyle Fernandes CEO & Co-founder of MemeChat. Founded in 2019, it is a platform that allows users to create viral memes and get rewarded for them. So in this episode he talks about how he came up with the idea. Talks about being a hyper growth startup (25 million memes , 6 million downloads, 1.3 monthly active users). Talks about how he designed & developed the app from scratch. Talks about getting funding from 500 Startups. Next he talks about...