Elevation Podcast

🔊 New Day One podcast episode alert! 🎙️ "I always feel it - am I able to add value to them? And if not, then I need to go back to the drawing board. Think harder, read more, be more aware." This drive to constantly improve and stay ahead of the curve permeates everything Sandeep Jethwani does at Dezerv. As the co-founder of one of India's fastest-growing wealth management platforms, Sandeep knows that in the world of finance, standing still means falling behind. In this illuminating conversation with Vaas Bhaskar (Principal, Elevation Capital), Sandeep takes us through Dezerv's journey of building a trusted brand for India's affluent investors. With over ₹7,000 crores in client assets, Dezerv is leveraging technology and expertise to solve a crucial problem - the severe underperformance of most high net-worth portfolios. Sandeep shares how Dezerv's Wealth Monitor app revealed a startling insight - nearly two-thirds of over 250,000 mutual fund portfolios they analyzed, comprising over ₹60,000 crores, struggled to beat their benchmarks. This resulted in missed gains of over ₹2,500 crores for investors. In this episode, you will gain insights on: Identifying the whitespace in India's wealth management industry Building trust in a digital-first environment The power of personal branding in financial services Balancing multiple subcultures within the organization The journey from the first set of users to ₹7,000 crores AUM

New Day One podcast episode! "We had just one month of runway left, and that was in a fixed deposit." This moment of truth in May 2022 sparked a bold decision that would define Seekho's trajectory. With their backs against the wall, co-founders Rohit, Keertay, and Yash took a leap of faith - they made the platform paid-only, with a subscription model. The bet paid off spectacularly, and today, Seekho boasts more than 500,000 paying subscribers. In this fascinating conversation with Amit Aggarwal (Principal, Elevation Capital), Rohit takes us through his journey of building a "Netflix for learning" targeted at the masses. Seekho makes learning easy and fun - with a learning-focused OTT platform that's tapping into India's massive appetite for bite-sized, engaging educational content. Rohit's journey is filled with counterintuitive decisions - from charging users upfront in a market known for its aversion to paying for content to running a lean team of just 18 people at this scale. These choices, driven by a deep understanding of the Indian consumer and a commitment to efficiency, have set Seekho apart. In this episode, you will learn about: Identifying and serving the learning needs of the masses Evolution of Seekho’s supply engine Hiring for cultural fit rather than specific skills Balancing engagement and monetization for a consumer app

“𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳-𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘥?” “𝘞𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨." Talk about resilience! ⁠Ravi Adusumalli⁠ (Co-Managing Partner, ⁠Elevation Capital⁠) sat down with ⁠ixigo⁠ co-founders ⁠Aloke Bajpai⁠ and ⁠Rajnish Kumar⁠ to unpack their 17-year journey to a blockbuster IPO. The story of how Aloke and Rajnish built ixigo from a small apartment in Gurgaon in 2007 to India’s second-largest OTA by revenue is one of overcoming challenges, bouncing back, and transforming. This is encapsulated in the title of this special episode — “Resilience, Resurgence, Rebirth”. Each word represents a crucial chapter in ⁠ixigo⁠'s journey. The founders were at their candid best and spoke at length about: ➤ Founding ⁠ixigo⁠ when they were broke ➤ Landing on the highest-frequency use case for train travellers ➤ The decision-making process behind their biggest pivot - from metasearch to OTA ➤ That time when they mortgaged their homes to make payroll ➤ Surviving and thriving amidst hyper-funded competitors ➤ Closing two acquisitions in the thick of the pandemic We hope this conversation serves as an inspiration for all founders and aspiring builders out there, and as a reminder that while the entrepreneurial journey may be long and fraught with challenges, it is also immensely rewarding for those who persevere with grit and humility, and never lose sight of their vision.

🍕🍔 New SummitUp episode! India’s QSR market has been on a tear. 450-500 new stores are being added in this space each year.  However, it still remains massively underpenetrated. Changing consumer habits and rising discretionary expenditure are expected to make QSRs one of the biggest spend pools in the years to come. So what will it take for a new QSR brand to win in this market? In this meaty episode, Chirag Chadha and Vaibhav Chowdhury from our consumer brands practice join Vishy V to decode the secret sauce for building a large, profitable QSR brand in India. Among other things, the conversation digs into: Why QSRs can become VC-fundable businesses Getting the right throughput per store by optimizing menu, pricing, etc, as the first step to find early PMF Figuring out unit economics and the 'box model' to enable rapid scaling Key ingredients for building a strong moat Is the rise of food delivery a boon or bane for QSRs? At Elevation, we’ve been tracking & investing in the sector for over 10 years and have had the privilege of partnering with brands like Chaayos (Nitin and Raghav), which has grown to become India’s most loved and largest tea café chain. If you are building in QSR, we would love to speak with you.

🔊New Day One podcast episode alert! 🎙️ "I always joke with my friends that I did an MBA in sneakers"  Utkarsh Gupta says this with a laugh, but there's more truth to it than you might think. From spending hours at malls observing sneaker shoppers to striking up conversations with strangers at airports, Utkarsh and his fellow co-founder Dishant Daryani left no stone unturned in their quest to crack the code of the Indian sneaker market. This is the story of how two ex-consultants returned to India from the US to build Comet - a brand that embodies their passion for sneakers. In this fascinating conversation with Chirag Chadha and Vaibhav Chowdhury, the founders take us through their journey of building an aspirational lifestyle brand that resonates with India's fashion-forward youth. They discuss how their bold design choices and staying obsessed with the details make Comet truly stand out in the market. In this episode, you will learn about: Identifying the whitespace in India's sneaker market Balancing aspiration and value in pricing Choosing focus over variety in the early days Building a hospitality-first culture Creativity as the X factor in building a new-age brand

🎮 New SummitUp podcast episode! Mayank Khanduja  and Kshitij Jayakrishnan dissect the key trends and opportunities that will shape the future of gaming in India with Vishy in the latest episode of SummitUp. From the cultural significance of gaming to the drivers of explosive audience growth and emerging themes for builders, this episode unpacks the massive potential of India’s gaming ecosystem.

In this episode, Vaas Bhaskar (Principal, Elevation) and Kshitij Jayakrishnan (Vice President, Elevation) from our fintech practice join Vishy V (Head of Marketing, Elevation) to dive deep into the massive vertical fintech opportunity in India. They discuss why the time is ripe for a new wave of fintech innovation focused on serving the unique needs of specific customer segments. The conversation explores some exciting billion-dollar-plus opportunities across segments like schools, international students, tech workforce, and more.Stay tuned for future episodes as we continue to unpack high-potential themes that will unlock $400 billion of value creation in fintech over the next decade! Discover more insights from Elevation's fintech practice at The Bottomline - https://bottomline.elevationcapital.com/

🚀 New SummitUp podcast episode! In the fifth episode of SummitUp, Amit Aggarwal (Principal, Elevation Capital) and Manish Advani (Vice President, Elevation Capital) join Viswanathan V. (Head of Marketing, Elevation Capital) to discuss the massive opportunity in reimagining the travel industry for a new generation of travelers. They explore how rising affluence, changing demographics, flexibility at work, and a shift to experiences are fueling innovation across the travel stack. The episode unpacks Elevation's thesis on the four key layers ripe for disruption: Inspiration, Planning, Booking, and Immersion. Chapters: 00:00 Coming up 01:00 Intro 01:57 Rising affluence & changing demographics 05:57 Flexibility of work-life boundaries 08:21 Spaces within the travel stack 12:11 Corporate travel 12:49 Inspiration: From discovery to serendipity 18:11 Planning: AI meets the guidebook 22:27 Booking: The rise of vertical plays 29:27 Immersion: Curated experiences at scale 33:57 Closing thoughts

In the latest episode of SummitUp, Vaas Bhaskar (Principal, Elevation Capital) and Kshitij Jayakrishnan (Vice President, Elevation Capital) from our fintech practice join Viswanathan V. (Head of Marketing, Elevation Capital) to discuss the incredible growth of India’s fintech ecosystem and the $400 billion value creation potential in this decade.They explore how India became a trailblazer in fintech and the key drivers fuelling transformation in financial services. The episode dives into some exciting themes where we are actively looking for founders building innovative solutions. In future episodes, we will be double clicking on some of the themes that will unlock this value creation. Stay tuned!Dive deeper into these themes and discover more thought-provoking perspectives from our fintech practice at The Bottomline - https://bottomline.elevationcapital.com/

Third episode in SummitUp podcast seriesWe're thrilled to launch the third episode in our SummitUp podcast series, where we explore opportunities in India’s burgeoning spacetech sector. Join Vishy V (Head of Marketing, Elevation) as he converses with Akarsh (Principal, Elevation) and Manish (VP, Elevation) on the seismic shifts underway in India’s space economy and untapped opportunity areas where founders can drive disproportionate value creation. The episode/they also give a glimpse of other spaces within the broader frontier tech landscape that we at Elevation are excited about. Related reading: Elevation’s Frontier Tech practice has detailed our thesis on the India spacetech opportunity in this deck - https://elevationcapital.com/summit/insights/Escape-Velocity

There is a saying within Solar Square that customer service is not a department but the entire company. This philosophy, ingrained in its DNA, is made evident by the fact that over one-third of its monthly orders come in through word-of-mouth referrals. Solar Square pivoted from being a bootstrapped B2B solar company to a full-stack residential brand when founders Neeraj Jain, Shreya Mishra and Nikhil Nahar believed it was the perfect moment to go after a $50 billion opportunity. Three years into the pivot, Solar Square has helped more than 10,000 homes and 100 housing societies switch to solar and is today India’s leading residential solar company. In this conversation with Manish Advani (Vice President, Elevation Capital), Shreya and Neeraj speak about creating a new market, addressing the trust gap in the residential solar segment, and accelerating the transition to clean energy, one rooftop at a time.  In this episode, you will gain insights on: Pivoting from B2B and identifying the residential opportunity Going full-stack vs conventional asset-light marketplace model Trust markers in residential solar Being brutally honest about PMF Scaling an operationally-intensive business

We are excited to bring you an insightful conversation between Manish Advani (Vice President, Elevation Capital) and Ankit Agarwal & Varun Limaye (Co-founders, Mesa School of Business), who are building India’s first startup-focused B-school to create entrepreneurial leaders of tomorrow. Ankit and Varun observed that companies across India’s startup and tech ecosystem were finding it difficult to hire talent with market-relevant skills and hands-on experience in business building, especially for business and leadership roles. Having worked in business functions across leading tech companies like Urban Company and Amazon, they understood the future needs of this growing sector and set out to deliver industry-relevant outcome-focused business education for professionals aiming to build a career in the tech ecosystem. The Harvard and Kellogg alumni discuss their first principles approach to reimagining every aspect of a higher education institution bottom-up and how they constructed a unique curriculum by involving the startup ecosystem. In this episode, you will gain insights on: Why Ankit and Varun zeroed in on higher-ed Closing the skills gap for business roles Offline, full-time program as a design choice Immersive startup-focused program structure and faculty How they built the founding batch Mesa’s first 12-month in-person program with 60 handpicked students is currently underway, and applications for its 2025 cohort are now open. Apply here: https://mesaschool.co/

"Can we be the happiness and wellness reinforcement provider to an entire nation?" That's the bold vision Prashant Sachan is bringing to life with AppsForBharat. He passionately believes in building a foundation of trust, especially critical in the devotion space, ensuring that every aspect of AppsForBharat enriches, rather than exploits, the spiritual journeys of its users. This thoughtful approach to product building underpins the culture of AppsForBharat, which today has more than 3 million people turning to its Sri Mandir app to fulfill their spiritual and devotional needs every month. Prashant advises that if a product isn't receiving sharp user love, it's crucial to keep iterating and changing until it does — a philosophy evidenced by the unparalleled customer love for Sri Mandir. We are delighted to bring you an illuminating conversation between Amit Aggarwal (Principal, Elevation Capital) and Prashant, where they deep dive into the early days of AppsForBharat. They discuss the acute need to provide reliable digital resources and access to services to enable devotion as a behaviour to move online. In this episode, you will gain insights on: Market gap that sparked the idea for AFB How Prashant’s personal experiences influenced the company’s mission Serving different user personas in the devotion space First signs of PMF Journey to monetization When should founders raise capital Chapters: 00:00 Coming Up. 01:00 Intro. 02:00 How did AppsForBharat start? 05:41 What does a typical Indian family look like? 06:30 I started exploring devotion. 07:32 AppsForBharat's daily impact in life. 08:08 User personas for AppsForBharat. 10:44 Sri Mandir: Enabler for devotion. 12:50 30% of users are small business owners. 14:34 What was the scope of opportunity for AFB? 19:18 Roughly 300M people pray daily. 20:28 Elevation Capital's AFB partnership decision. 24:58 First principles partnership approach by Elevation. 26:30 Figuring out the engagement loops. 27:14 What were the signs of early PMF? 31:20 User reviews matter. 33:14 How did AFB acquire its first set of users? 34:34 Scaling Strategy: Second phase approach. 37:08 Prashant's user-centric cultural approach. 39:36 Team building & culture at work. 43:42 People find their purpose eventually. 45:46 Roughly 3M people use the app every month. 48:10 Evolution of AppsForBharat's DNA. 50:22 Revenue and monetization metrics. 52:52 Learnings & takeaways for budding entrepreneurs. 58:54 How to approach the capital journey?

We're excited to welcome Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, the founders of Wakefit, to the Elevation family. In this special conversation with Chirag Chadha (Principal, Elevation), they explore the company's journey from its roots in the online mattress space to becoming a leading name in home and sleep solutions in India. Chaitanya and Ankit state that everything they have built to date is centered around listening to consumers, and not being able to do that is what scares them the most. Wakefit currently operates at a revenue scale upwards of ₹1,000 crore and is on the path to becoming profitable in FY24. Wakefit’s differentiated and full-stack approach on the backend allows it to consistently deliver high-quality and value-for-money products. It is taking its winning online formula from mattresses and successfully replicating it in the furniture category. Today, Wakefit runs India’s largest furniture factory. Join us in this episode, where you will gain insights on: 1. What makes a D2C company 2. How advertising alone does not make a brand 3. Fostering a culture of frugality 4. Expansion beyond mattresses 5. Controlling every aspect of the supply chain 6. Wakefit’s omnichannel approach

In the second episode of our new series, SummitUp by Elevation, Vishy V (Head of Marketing, Elevation) discusses the unique trends in the Indian real estate industry and the potential for significant disruption in the proptech space with Amit Aggarwal (Principal, Elevation) and Manish Advani (VP, Elevation). They touch upon some of the most prevalent pain points experienced today by buyers, homeowners, tenants, and investors that have given rise to emerging value pools that founders can tap into. 0:00 - Coming Up. 01:03 - Intro. 02:22 - Why is real estate a challenging sector for technological disruption? 07:07 - How can technology improve the home-buying experience? 07:27 - Lack of transparency in the home-buying journey: Leading to the iBuying opportunity. 10:21 - Enhancement of construction processes due to low NPS ratings. 12:52 - Consumer experience is being redefined every 2-5 years. 15:23 - Broken rental market: Opportunity to create a better home rental experience. 16:02 - What should consumers expect in terms of a superior rental experience? 20:24 - Are vacation homes emerging as the go-to asset class for young real estate investors? 24:26 - Fractional ownership in regards to vacation homes.