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© 2023 Direct to a Billion Consumers
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India is booming with opportunity, yet building a consumer brand here is a Herculean task. With a market of a billion plus consumers, one of the world's fastest growing economies it is also the most difficult to navigate. Join Arjun Vaidya (CEO, Dr. Vaidya’s, Forbes 30 U 30) as he takes you through the world of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs), with some of the best minds from the ecosystem. This podcast features real world insights from founders of disruptive brands like Epigamia, Wow, Sleepy Owl and the Moms Co, who have made great strides in this sector. They'll talk about everything from building a brand from the ground up, convincing the first set of consumers, launching new products, mastering distribution and much more... Tune in and gear up to see how you can go Direct to a Billion Consumers.
34 Episodes
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“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 not miss his advice to insurgent brands on differentiation towards the end of the episode…
1“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 omni channel debate and picking the right distribution channels basis the stage of the company!
“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 strategy with his acquisitions at IDAM. Enjoy as we deep dive into brand creation and scale of multiple business units keeping the same consumer in mind…
“There are multiple brands which will get built over the next 10 years which don’t even exist today… the 100 Cr benchmark will move to USD 100m!” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Swagat Sarangi, co-founder of Smytten. With rising D2C CACs – is sampling the answer (listen to answer this existential question)? Hear about Swagat’s from Mckinsey and Google to starting up with Smytten and disrupting the brand discovery problem. . Listen carefully we dig deep into how sampling to be correctly used, the way to action customer feedback effectively and how data can be the secret sauce for D2C brands to understand and scale consumer experience…
“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 problem of time bound deliveries that sometimes need to reach customers at 12 AM. Enjoy as we deep dive into the most important buzz words in D2C right now: dark stores, house of brands and quick commerce!
"...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, controlling the burn and building omni-channel. Don’t miss Yogesh’s message for tier II entrepreneurs and the story of signing up KL Rahul as a brand ambassador…
“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 should be and the omni channel debate from a veteran of our industry!
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 brother, focussing on building the right brand ethos through influencer collaborations and getting his customer to buy into the mission of sustainabilyt. Do not miss the story of how the name ‘Neeman’s’ came about…
“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 brought back from this experience to logistics in India. Dig deeper into the Shiprocket journey and learn about the rollercoaster from starting up to driving the order fulfilment of 100,000+ small sellers and battling COVID disruptions along the way.
“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 brand creation and the large unbranded white spaces that still exist in India. Learn specifically about the Globalbees value addition matrix and what the process of a “roll up” integration looks like. Don’t miss the end of the episode where Nitin talks about what he is looking for in his next set of acquisitions…
“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 consumers. Learn specifically from her amazing insights on having a learning mindset, being purpose driven and building a strong company culture to enable the team.
“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 giant through the years. Learn specifically from his insights the importance of high quality talent, learning from failure and truly innovating to make an impact!
“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. As the episode wraps up, pay close attention to his views on the trends for D2C in India(from the vantage point for someone who works closely with 50+ brands)…
“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 brands in India. Don’t miss Arman’s tips on the highest quality over quantity when it comes to brand campaigns. As the episode wraps up, pay close attention to his 3 tips on fundraising that he has picked up from his 6 year journey.
“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 on a brand being a ‘promise of value’ and, value being the best moat for any business! As the episode wraps up, pay close attention to his view on trends for beauty and personal care in India going forward…
“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 – Domino’s. From there, learn about the launch of the B2C brand that has now found its way to the homes of Indians across 500+ cities! In this episode to learn specifically about going all in, focussing on execution and playing for the long term outcome.
“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 brand is only ~5 years old. Listen to this episode to learn specifically about creating customer loyalty and serious repeat behavior, building culture in an organization of 3000+ team members and continuing to raise capital successfully till series F!
“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 - Mamaearth. 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. Hear about his adjustment as he moved from numbers to names when he set out to get his first few customers. Learn specifically about building a purpose driven brand for the long term and then hyper scaling it! While many have thought that 100 Cr was the upper limit for D2C brands, Mamaearth has shattered this benchmark in less than 4 years.
“…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 in this space. Learn specifically about creating unforgettable marketing campaigns and building an empowered team to propel the growth of an organization.
“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 products. Learn specifically about tracking data trends as Bharat reveals the secret sauce behind how Lifelong decides which products to launch.
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