Indian Silicon Valley with Jivraj Singh Sachar

Most people dealing with hair loss feel alone. Embarrassed. Like they’re the only one. Anand Dureja felt that too, and built an entire company so nobody else has to go through it alone.Anand Dureja has one of the most impressive CVs in India — IIT Delhi, Harvard Business School, McKinsey, OYO, Urban Company. He could have done anything. He chose to build a hair loss clinic. Not because it was glamorous. Because he had personally lived through the painful, confusing, expensive journey of hair loss and realised the market was completely broken. No trusted brand. No transparent pricing. No reliable outcomes. Just a fragmented mess of unorganised clinics each pushing their own agenda.In 2022, he co-founded Evoke, a tech-enabled, affordable hair loss clinic chain built for the 60% of Indian men who will experience significant hair loss by age 35. In just two years, Evoke has scaled to multiple cities, cracked single-unit economics, and built a repeat patient model where trust does what marketing usually has to.In this episode, Anand breaks down the emotional reality of hair loss that most brands ignore, how Evoke built a clinic model that actually makes money from day one, what McKinsey and Harvard really taught him about building businesses, how data decides which cities Evoke enters next, and why staying lean is the most underrated competitive advantage in healthcare.This is a rare, honest masterclass on building a healthcare startup from someone who gave up everything to solve a problem he lived through himself.📌 Timestamps00:00 – Trailer01:11 – Introduction03:33 – Why Evoke Was Built to Solve Hair Loss07:26 – Understanding the Hair Loss Customer12:26 – The Emotional Side of Hair Loss14:00 – How to Run a Hair Transplant Clinic19:11 – Building a Healthcare Business From Scratch24:24 – How Evoke Hires & Trains Talent28:00 – How Evoke Chooses New Cities32:00 – Using Data to Find the Right Markets37:25 – How to Make a Clinic Profitable45:06 – Building a Lean Startup Team48:44 – Lessons From McKinsey & Harvard54:28 – Advice to Your Younger Self58:18 – Outro🎙️ Guest: Anand Dureja, Founder & CEO, EvokeEverybody is looking for hope. — Anand Dureja#Evoke #AnandDureja #IndianSiliconValley #ISVPodcast #HairLoss #HairTransplant #HairLossIndia #HealthcareStartup #StartupIndia #IndianStartup #IITDelhi #HarvardBusinessSchool #McKinsey #OYO #UrbanCompany #FounderStory #Entrepreneurship #HealthcareIndia #HairClinic #MensHealth

₹22,000 Crore revenue. ₹603 Crore profit. Profitable from day one. And most people have never heard of them. This is India's biggest secret startup.Vasant Sridhar is the Co-Founder & CSO of OfBusiness, India's largest B2B commerce and SME financing platform. While every startup in India was chasing D2C brands, consumer apps and quick commerce, OfBusiness quietly built the invisible operating layer that powers India's entire manufacturing ecosystem. Steel, chemicals, polymers, agri-commodities, apparel, if a small or medium enterprise in India is buying raw material or selling finished goods, chances are OfBusiness is somewhere in that chain.45% of India's exports. 40% of India's employment. 35% of India's GDP. All powered by small and medium enterprises. And OfBusiness built the operating system for all of them.In this episode, Vasant breaks down how OfBusiness chose the sectors nobody wanted to touch, why B2B commerce is the most misunderstood business model in India, how they built customer empathy in industries where trust takes years to earn, why 40% of what they sell is now manufactured or processed in-house, and what a decade of building one of India's most profitable companies actually looks like from the inside.This is not a flashy startup story. No viral campaigns. No celebrity investors. No hype. Just a ₹22,000 Crore business built on discipline, customer obsession, and doing the hard things nobody else wanted to do.📌 Timestamps00:00:00 — Introduction00:02:31 — What problem does OfBusiness solve?00:05:49 — What moves the needle for customers?00:08:36 — How does the supply side work?00:10:51 — How do you choose sectors and geographies?00:14:26 — What do people misunderstand about B2B?00:19:14 — How did you develop customer empathy?00:21:59 — How do you build the right team?00:26:52 — How do you decide what to build next?00:29:13 — How do you decide what to integrate?00:33:58 — Where does OfBusiness add efficiency?00:37:31 — Is the business domestic and export-focused?00:38:11 — How has government policy impacted the business?00:40:53 — What keeps you motivated after 10 years?00:44:42 — How have the challenges changed over time?00:47:54 — What makes a great leader?00:48:48 — What do you look for in young talent?00:54:48 — Is deeper backward integration coming?00:59:34 — What would you tell your younger self?01:02:43 — Outro🎙️ Guest: Vasant Sridhar, Co-Founder & CSO, OfBusiness & OxyzoThe most profitable unicorn in India. The one nobody talks about. Until now.#OfBusiness #VasantSridhar #Oxyzo #IndianSiliconValley #ISVPodcast #B2BCommerce #SMEIndia #ManufacturingIndia #SupplyChainIndia #StartupIndia #IndianStartup #B2BIndia #SoftBank #TigerGlobal #ProfitableStartup #IndianUnicorn #FounderStory #Entrepreneurship #IPOIndia #SMEFinancing

Your spices were ground 3 months ago. Your milk lasts 15 days. And nobody told you. Anant Goel found out — and built an entire company to fix it.Anant Goel co-founded Milkbasket in 2015 — pioneered overnight, contactless grocery delivery in India, scaled it to hundreds of thousands of households across Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and sold it to Reliance Retail for $40 million in 2021. Most founders would have stopped there.He didn't.While Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart raced to 10-minute delivery, Anant asked a completely different question — what if the problem with Indian grocery isn't speed? What if it's freshness? What if the spice you're cooking with today was ground three months ago? What if the milk in your fridge lasts 15 days because of what they put in — or took out?That question became Handpickd — India's first zero-stock, zero-inventory fresh commerce platform. No warehouses. No packaged SKUs. No forced bundles. Just farm-fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and spices delivered exactly how you'd pick them yourself. The platform has already turned EBITDA positive in Gurugram, raised $22.5M in funding, and is now expanding to Bengaluru — one fresh delivery at a time.In this episode, Anant breaks down why quick commerce is fundamentally getting freshness wrong, what his "time compression theory" reveals about modern food, why Indian consumers only waste 4% of groceries versus 40% in the US, and what it really means to build a sustainable business when everyone else is chasing growth at any cost.This is the comeback story nobody expected — and the food truth nobody wanted to hear.📌 Timestamps00:00 – Trailer00:59 – Introduction02:17 – Meet Anant Goel & The Handpickd Story05:00 – Why Quick Commerce Gets Freshness Wrong09:00 – The Time Compression Theory15:00 – Zero Warehouse. Zero Dark Store. Zero Cold Storage.22:00 – How Indian Consumers Actually Buy Fresh28:00 – Why Handpickd Sells Fewer Products Than Everyone Else35:00 – Building a Supply Chain With No Inventory42:00 – Dairy, Spices & Expanding Beyond Fruits & Vegetables50:00 – Lessons From Building & Selling Milkbasket to Reliance58:00 – Hiring & Building Culture During Rapid Growth01:03:00 – Where Is Commerce Heading Next?01:09:00 – Advice for Founders Building in Consumer Commerce01:12:20 – Outro---🎙️ Guest: Anant V. Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, Handpickd | Founder, MilkbasketNext time you open your grocery bag — ask yourself. Is this actually fresh?

₹5 lakh membership fee. And you can still get rejected. This is India's most exclusive club — and this is the story of the man who built it.Vivek Narain spent decades in the hospitality industry — working across some of the world's finest luxury hotels and understanding what truly premium experiences feel like. Then he asked a question nobody in India was asking — why doesn't India have a world-class private members club? Not a gym. Not a co-working space. A real, curated community of India's most interesting people — founders, artists, investors, creators — all under one roof.In 2018, he co-founded The Quorum — India's first true private members club, inspired by the likes of Soho House but built entirely for the Indian sensibility. Starting in Gurugram with 450 carefully selected members, The Quorum survived COVID when it had every reason to shut down, and came out stronger on the other side. Today it's expanding to Mumbai, Bengaluru and beyond — with a ₹500 crore vision and a community that India's power players genuinely want to be part of.In this episode, Vivek breaks down why he believes community is the new luxury, how The Quorum curates its members so carefully that money alone can't get you in, what it took to survive COVID as a hospitality business, and why India is finally ready for a world-class private members club.This isn't just a hospitality story. This is a story about building the room where India's most interesting people want to be.📌 Timestamps00:00 – Trailer02:00 – Introduction & Vivek's Background06:00 – The Idea Behind The Quorum10:00 – Building India's First Private Members Club15:00 – How The Quorum Curates Its Members20:00 – Why Money Alone Can't Get You In25:00 – Surviving COVID & Coming Back Stronger30:00 – Expanding to 4 Cities & ₹500 Crore Vision35:00 – What Luxury Really Means in India Today40:00 – Lessons for Founders & Entrepreneurs45:00 – Outro🎙️ Guest: Vivek Narain, Co-Founder & CEO, The Quorum🎧 Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | JioSaavn"Community is the new luxury." — Vivek Narain#TheQuorum #VivekNarain #IndianSiliconValley #ISVPodcast #LuxuryIndia #PrivateMembersClub #SohoHouse #HospitalityIndia #StartupIndia #IndianEntrepreneur #ExclusiveClub #NetworkingIndia #LuxuryLifestyle #FounderStory #CommunityBuilding

His father was in the hospital for 10 days. When it was time to go home, the insurance company said — sorry, this isn't covered. That moment changed everything.Ankit Agarwal grew up across Bihar, Assam, Calcutta and Darjeeling — a true Indian, as he calls himself. Before InsuranceDekho, he was selling goods from Thailand in Calcutta, doing event management, and figuring out life one hustle at a time. Then in 2012, his father fell seriously ill. After 10 days in hospital, the family discovered that years of paying insurance premiums meant nothing — the claim was rejected, and a middle class family was left scrambling to pay lakhs out of pocket.That was the moment Ankit stopped looking for a problem. He found a solution.In 2017, he co-founded InsuranceDekho — starting offline, going to places like Bahadurgarh where nobody else wanted to go, cutting his birthday cake at midnight sitting on top of a car with his team. Today InsuranceDekho has raised $362M, crossed ₹1,290 crore in revenue, built a network of 2.2 lakh agent partners, and is on its way to putting an insurance agent in every single village in India.In this episode, Ankit breaks down how he built India's largest insurtech from scratch, why he went offline when everyone else was going online, how he survived a brutal competitor war eyeball to eyeball, and why he believes — if you want to start something, start now. Don't wait.This is not just a startup story. This is a story about what happens when personal pain becomes national purpose.---📌 Timestamps- 00:00 – Introduction- 02:00 – From Bihar to Building InsuranceDekho- 05:00 – The Hospital Bill That Started It All- 08:00 – The 0 to 1 Journey — Going Offline First- 12:00 – Surviving the Competitor War- 18:00 – Building 2.2 Lakh Agent Network- 24:00 – Raising $362M & Scaling InsuranceDekho- 30:00 – The Future of Insurance in India- 35:00 – Advice for Young Founders- 37:00 – Outro---🎙️ Guest: Ankit Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO, InsuranceDekho🎧 Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | JioSaavnYou make money by looking for a solution — not a problem." — Ankit Agarwal#InsuranceDekho #AnkitAgarwal #IndianSiliconValley #ISVPodcast #Insurtech #InsuranceIndia #StartupIndia #IndianStartup #FinTechIndia #BiharFounder #FounderStory #Entrepreneurship #InsuranceRevolution #D2CIndia #StartupJourney**