The Termsheet Podcast

On today’s show we talk to Mohit Mathur, co-founder & CEO of OneFitPlus, a real money gaming platform. There is an old saying that everybody has a book inside of them. Our lives are like a movie plot that leads from one point to another. But just like movies some life stories stand out from the rest. Some plots are just more compelling and worth knowing about. The story of today’s guest Mohit Mathur is one such compelling story. Mohit is the founder of OneFitPlus, a D2C fitness brand that has been scaling new heights in the fitness equipment business. The brand has clocked revenues of INR 150 Crores in the last fiscal and is on track to do more than 200 crores in the current one. Mohit’s is an unlikely success story whose career path has transcended traditional trajectories of growth and development. It is very rare for somebody to go from waiting tables to staking everything to build an enduring business. Today, I talk to Mohit about his journey so far and peel the layers to understand what motivates him as an entrepreneur and what are the takeaways for other founders building new brands. You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

On today’s show we talk to Aneesh Reddy, co-founder & CEO of Capillary Tech, a business to business technology platform shaping consumer experiences for brands across the world. From improving your in-store experience at Starbucks & Walmart to helping your favourite fast-food chains whip up that bucket of wings or pizza minutes faster, Capillary Tech is helping over 300 brands across 30+ countries stay consumer-ready in today's digital era. And today, we bring you the story of Aneesh and Capillary Tech. Aneesh worked with ITC before starting up Capillary. He raised a total funding of over USD 125 million. He raised his first angel round without even a deck! Today, CapillaryTech powers over 100,000 stores and the company is profitable with over USD 70 million in Annual Recurring Revenues. We will hear not just his startup's but also his journey from the corridors of IIT Kharagpur to stores of Singapore and beyond.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

 Today’s guest is a two time founder and I had the special privilege of observing him work from very close quarters.  Paavan co-founded Winzo Games which was funded by the seed program of Kalaari Capital, where I had also worked . This is also one of my favorite episodes because of the candid conversation we both had including some very difficult conversations. Paavan earlier co-founded Zostel & Zorooms which has been in news since its ill-fated acquisition by Oyo Rooms. Not to be deterred he then went on to founding Winzo a Real Money Gaming platform targeting the next billion users. With over 25 million registered users, 5 million monthly users and a Billion transactions  Winzo has become a serious contender in India’s gaming space. I talked to Paavan about the lessons from his Zostel experience and his vision for Winzo.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

Who could have imagined that 4 friends meeting in a college fest would end up building India’s leading lifestyle video app with over 75 million downloads and 25 million MAUs. Trell today is a massive lifestyle social commerce platform. With over 5 Million DAUs it has surpassed even Twitter & Pinterest in India.The story of Trell is really the story of the founders’ resilience. Getting rejected hundreds of times by investors did not discourage them; If anything it emboldened the team to repose faith in the product and the solution they are building. As more and more people downloaded the app and created content on it, it has become clearer that Trell is solving vernacular video blogging in a very unique and sticky way. What’s more interesting is much of the success Trell achieved happened well before the controversial ban of TikTok. Today I ask Pulkit Agrawal on how he oversaw the turnaround, his challenges around fundraising and the life lessons this experience has taught him. listen.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

 Indonesia is  ASEAN’s largest economy with a nominal GDP of 1.1 trillion dollars and a GDP per capita of USD 3800 which is approximately twice that of India’s. A unique feature of Indonesia is that it’s an archipelago meaning it’s not a contiguous land mass like most countries are. Instead, Indonesia is a collection of Islands which makes moving people and things across the country very challenging. As you can imagine logistics in Indonesia is an extremely inefficient & costly affair. In tier 2 and tier 3 cities, shipping costs can often add up to 40 per cent of e-commerce basket sizes, serving as a major barrier to mass e-commerce adoption in the country. Today our guest is Phil Opamaratawongse, the co-founder & CEO of Shipper, an Indonesian logistics startup that offers a multi-courier shipping platform and distributed warehousing and fulfillment network. Shipper aims to solve three major problems in Indonesia’s logistics: a myriad of different warehousing and shipping options, lack of price transparency, and inefficient trackability.  Listen to Phil's story of building Shipper.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

Pharmeasy began in Mumbai by taking snapshots of patient's prescriptions and manually uploading them and transcribing them into the system. From its humble beginnings to processing over 38,000 to 40,000 orders a day or a massive 2 million prescriptions a month the journey must have been arduous and exhilarating at the same time. Today, I am super excited to bring you this special episode as we start our second season. I spoke with Dharmil Sheth, co-founder & CEO of Pharmeasy at length about his journey and that of Pharmeasy. I hope you will enjoy this episode as much as I did taping it.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

In the second of the two part series, we continue our quest to find out whether it is luck or hardwork that entrepreneurs credit their successes to?Part 2 covers Prasad Kompalli of MFine, Sameer Maheshwari of Healthkart, Vijay Arisetty of MyGate, Raghu Ravinutala of Yellow Messenger and Sandeep Deshmukh of ElasticRun.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

In the first of the two part series, we find out the answer to the age old question of whether it is luck or hardwork that entrepreneurs credit their successes to?Part 1 covers Anand Anandkumar of Bugworks, PC Musthafa of ID Fresh Food, Chaitanya Ramalingegowda of Wakefit, Sairee Chahal of Sheroes and Manoj & Madhav Nuthakki of 42Hertz You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

A Billion with a B. That's how many messages Yellow Messenger processes annually through its AI conversation platform. Yellow Messenger enables businesses to automate workflows for customer and employee engagement with minimal human intervention. It integrates with multiple communication channels like Microsoft Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, and other digital assistants. Growing over 5X YoY since 2017 Yellow Messenger is fast emerging as one of the few winners coming from the hyper-competitive chatbot landscape.On the show today I spoke with Raghu Ravinutala, co-founder and CEO of Yellow Messenger, and how he and his team are revolutionizing customer and employee engagements.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

Since India's Independence just 2233 Shourya Chakra awards were given by the Indian government. Shoury Chakra is one of the highest peacetime gallantry awards. Aspirants must meet a very high bar to be eligible for one. Naturally, the awardees belong to a very select group of overachievers. Now, imagine a Shourya Chakra awardee also building a highly successful tech startup. The odds are extremely low. Today on the show we have Vijay Arisetty who defied these odds. As an Airforce Pilot he was awarded Shourya Chakra for saving hundreds of lives during the Indian Ocean Tsunami putting himself in grave danger. As a tech startup entrepreneur he founded MyGate which processes over 6 million check-in requests every day. Enjoy this episode. You will leave thoroughly inspired after listening to this incredible story. You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

Imagine a network of over 100,000 kirana stores doubling as hubs to supply goods to other kirana stores and consumers directly. This allows FMCG brands and eCommerce platforms to directly access millions of rural consumers without having to invest heavily in distribution networks. This is exactly what ElasticRun has achieved. Today almost all top FMCG brands work with ElasticRun to distribute their products to the remotest regions of the country. I spoke with Sandeep Deshmukh the co-founder and CEO of ElasticRun about his journey so far. Also, catch a sneak peek into CloudPhysician, an early stage healthcare startup providing a smart ICU solution. CloudPhysician is founded by Dr. Dhruv Joshi & Dr. Dileep Raman.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

True grit is the phrase that comes to my mind when I am asked to describe PC Musthafa. His story is truly a rags to riches one and a testament to his perseverance and never quit attitude. How else would one describe somebody who went from being a daily wage laborer to an IIM graduate to building a company that is worth INR 1500 crore.But, the story of ID Fresh Food in itself is a very special one too. To standardize and organize the Indian breakfast market by introducing pre-packaged Idli Dosa batter is truly disruptive. It seems very obvious now but as an idea many have dismissed it and even ridiculed it. As with many disruptive ideas it takes a visionary to visualize and execute it. On today’s show PC traces his journey from being a school dropout who was struggling to get three meals a day to becoming Breakfast King of India.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au 

Some startups disrupt the incumbents and some are category creators. Healthkart and Muslceblaze belong to the latter. In just 10 years Sameer Maheshwari, Founder & CEO of Healthkart successfully created a giant in nutrition market. Until 2010 when he started out nutrition supplements as a category barely saw any product innovation. For a young nation that has taken a fancy to working out and physical fitness, there was an unhealthy choice between expensive imports and harmful knockoffs. And this has changed now, thanks in no small part to Healthkart & Muscleblaze. Today Healthkart is a company with revenues exceeding INR 250 crores a year and a 20% marketshare.  On today’s show we talk to Sameer about his journey building Healthkart. Business has always been in him. As a kid an enterprising Sameer sold Bhelpuris to make some pocket money. I had a blast doing this episode.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

This podcast is always about bringing unique stories of maverick founders. 42Hertz's story is as unique as it comes. 42Hertz is a software solutions founded by Manoj Nuthakki. Manoj & his brother Madhav were able to achieve something that many startups are hoping to do too; to build a profitable company and give an exit to themselves & their investors. 42Hertz was built by the brothers without raising any external capital and was acquired by Cisco in 2019 in a multi-million dollar deals.On today’s show we talk to both Manoj & Madhav about their journey building a sizable business fast and delivering a multi-million dollar exit. We also talked about what this acquisition means to them and their employees and what's in store for them in the near future. You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

World Health Organization recommends a doctor-population ratio of 1:1000. In India we have 0.7 doctors for every 1000 citizens. Unfortunately this ratio is not set to improve dramatically over the next decade, even as the number of doctors graduating every year is steadily increasing. To make matters worse India spends only 3.5% of its GDP on healthcare, compared to 5.2% of China’s and 17% of the USA. And majority of this is by private sector.So, policy makers are increasingly turning to technology which could hold the solution. Only technology through Artificial Intelligence could provide an answer to this incredible shortage of medical professionals in our society. And our guest today is building India’s leading AI driven healthcare platform. On today’s show we talk to Prasad Kompally of MFine and how he is building an AI-powered healthcare platform that provides instant access to high-quality and reliable healthcare, especially for non-emergency conditions.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

Out of an estimated 500+ million internet users only 200 million or about 35% are women. This imbalance extends to India's fledgling startup ecosystem as well. In 2019, only 12% of funded startups had at least one woman founder.  But, there are already a few woman founders who are dreaming big and building companies that could impact India in a massive way. Sairee Chahal, founder & CEO of Sheroes, is one such woman founders. Sheroes is India's largest women only social network with over 20 million registered users.In this episode, I ask Sairee about her experiences growing up in a small town and dreaming to leave a mark on this country through her work. We also talked about her vision for Sheroes and what motivates her. She still has the spark of an entrepreneur and her passion is contagious.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Intro music by Andy Slatter. Additional background music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

Since Penicillin was discovered, bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics. As a result, antibiotics become ineffective and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spread to others. Every year some 700,000 people die of Anti-Microbial Resistance. This toll is worse than the Covid19 pandemic and is getting worse by the year. By 2050, an estimated 10 million people will die due to AMR. But, large big pharma has no interest in addressing this pressing need due to the unique economics of antibiotics. So a handful of smaller biopharma companies are picking up the slack. Bugworks Research, founded by Anand Anandkumar, is one such company. In today's episode, I ask Anand about his journey and experiences in building Bugworks. We also talked about his childhood, his family, and what motivated him to gravitate towards biomedical space despite his engineering background.You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

'Taking chances' doesn’t always result in disproportionate success. It could also result in spectacular failures. But, a failure can become the catalyst for producing a new success and a new win. I am a huge fan of such stories of resilience and perseverance. I love them because they give us the power to hope for a better future even during trying times just as we find ourselves in today.Today’s episode is all about taking chances. Wakefit Mattresses is a testament to the determination and resolve of its founders. Between the two of them, the founders, Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda have endured a total of 3 startup failures before they built Wakefit. In the inaugural episode, I sat with Chaitanya, to track his journey from a failed startup founder to building one of India’s wildly successful D2C businesses with sales of over INR 250 Crores annually. You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com. Music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

Welcome to the Termsheet a show about the dreamers, innovators, over-acheivers and their ideas that are building the tomorrow today. It’s about celebrating the people who take chances and display true grit and resolve against formidable odds. The stories of entrepreneurs are stories of hope and inspiration. Hope, because despite evidence to the contrary, it emboldens these otherwise ordinary people to dream of extraordinary things. Inspiration, because it’s just not enough to wish for something. They need to inspire others to see their vision, share their dreams and give life to that vision.  Termsheet is an attempt to bring these stories of hope and inspiration to you.Each week I interview game changing founders from the Indian startup ecosystem who are hell bent on changing the status quo. Join us every Monday for stories of people who are reinventing themselves while changing the lives of millions around them.I am your host is Karteek Pulapaka, co-founder and partner at Java Capital. You can find me on Twitter @tweet_kp. And, check out our website at https://www.thetermsheetpodcast.com.Music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au