Ep 113: Science + Ayurveda - ₹ 500 Cr D2C brand

Join us as we talk to Mahesh Kumar, the Founder & CEO, and Pradeep Gulipalli, the Co-founder and CEO (India) of Tiger Analytics about their story. Mahesh completed his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Bombay in 1999, followed by a PhD from MIT in 2003. He began his career as a summer associate intern at McKinsey & Company, then went on to serve as an assistant professor at the R.H. Smith School of Business and Rutgers Business School, as well as a faculty research associate at MIT Sloan School of Management. In 2011, he founded Tiger Analytics. Pradeep completed his B.Tech from IIT Madras in 2003, followed by an MS from The University of Texas at Austin. He began his career as a Data Scientist at Marketing and Planning Systems in Boston. In June 2012, he co-founded Tiger Analytics and became the India CEO. 🏢 About Tiger Analytics: Tiger Analytics is a global leader in AI and analytics, helping Fortune 1000 companies tackle complex challenges. With over 4000 experts across the US, UK, Canada, India, Singapore, and Australia, they serve industries including CPG, Retail, Insurance, BFS, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, and Healthcare. Ranked among the ‘Best’ and ‘Fastest Growing’ analytics firms by Inc., Financial Times, Economic Times, and Analytics India Magazine. 🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/

Join us as we talk to Arush Chopra & Megha Sabhlok, the Co-Founders of Just Herbs about their story. Arush Chopra is the co-founder and CEO of Just Herbs, while Megha Sabhlok serves as the co-founder and COO. Arush earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Xavier’s College before pursuing further studies at City University of London. He then gained valuable experience working with prominent organizations such as Financial Times, Bloomberg News, The Asian Banker, and Duxton Asset Management. In 2014, he co-founded Just Herbs, channeling his diverse expertise into the skincare industry. Megha holds a bachelor’s degree from Sophia Girls' College, Mumbai, and an MSc in Management from Lancaster University. She previously worked with Burson-Marsteller and Tenon Group before co-founding Just Herbs, contributing her management and leadership skills to the brand’s success. 🏢 About Just Herbs: Just Herbs is an Ayurvedic skincare and haircare brand offering pure, plant-based products made from organic herbs. Free from sulphates, parabens, and animal testing, their customizable formulations cater to specific skin concerns. Certified by Ayush, they combine Ayurvedic principles with natural ingredients for effective, results-driven care.

Join us as we talk to Atul Shinghal, the Founder and CEO of Scripbox about their story. Atul completed his B.Tech from IIT Madras in 1991, followed by an MBA from IIM Bangalore in 1993. He gained extensive experience working with companies such as Madura Coats, Standard Chartered, Capital One, Nedbank, and Old Mutual. In 2010, he co-founded Probe Information Services and went on to establish Scripbox in 2012. 🏢 About Scripbox: Scripbox, India’s leading digital wealth manager, manages ₹18,000+ Crores in AUM across 2,500+ cities. Founded in 2012, it offers customized investment solutions using data, technology, and proprietary algorithms, covering mutual funds, equities, insurance, and financial advisory. Scripbox is recognized as LinkedIn’s 2nd most influential financial services brand globally and has won the Financial Express’ Best Bank Award.

Join us as we talk to Gaurav Agarwal, the Co-founder of 1mg (previously HealthKartPlus) about their story. Gaurav completed his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi in 2001. He began his career as a software engineer at Decru Inc., then served as an engineering manager at Network Appliance, followed by a role as general manager at Zynga. He later took on the position of CTO & Head of Product at HealthKart before co-founding 1MG in 2015. 🏢 About 1mg (previously HealthKartPlus): Tata 1mg is India's leading consumer health platform, aiming to make healthcare accessible, understandable, and affordable. It helps users learn about their medicines, find cost-effective alternatives, connect with doctors, and access transparent, affordable diagnostics. Available as a web portal and mobile app, 1mg empowers Indians to choose the best healthcare services at the best prices.

Join us as we talk to Ramanathan RV, the Co-founder of Hyperface about their story. Ramanathan completed his B.Tech in Computer Science from NIT, Tiruchirappalli, in 2006. He then worked as a software engineer at companies such as Amazon and BankBazaar before founding JUSPAY in 2012. In 2021, he co-founded Hyperface. 🏢 About Hyperface: Hyperface empowers brands and fintechs to offer contextual banking products. Their Credit-Cards-as-a-Service platform simplifies credit card issuance for fintechs and e-commerce firms, providing a ready-to-use card solution.

🎙️Founders Unfiltered Ep-109: Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin. Join us as we talk to Movin Jain, the Founder of Skydo about their story. Movin completed his B.Tech in computer science at IIT Delhi and later earned an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 2011. He gained experience as a research intern at Lyric Semiconductors and Bell Labs Lucent. His career includes roles at InMobi, AVP at Barclays Investment Bank, Associate Director of Product at Ola, Director of Product Management at PhonePe, and Vice President of Products at Meesho. In April 2015, he founded Galleri5, and in 2022, he launched Skydo. 🏢 About Skydo: Skydo, a fintech startup based in Bangalore, is dedicated to making cross-border B2B payments seamless and reducing forex charges for businesses by over 50%. By partnering with leading banks worldwide, Skydo provides businesses with foreign virtual accounts for receiving payments, free from taxation and compliance burdens. Businesses can create their US virtual account in just 5 minutes by signing up at skydo.com.

Join us as we talk to the co-founders of Whatfix - Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar Namburu about their story. Khadim earned his Bachelor's degree in Engineering from University of Mumbai and a post graduate degree in IT from IIIT Bangalore. Starting his career at CMC Ltd., he worked at Huawei, Applabs Technologies and Kenexa. He co-founded Whatfix in 2013 with Vara. Vara completed his Bachelor of Computer Science and then pursued his Masters in Computer Application from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. He joined Huawei, where he met Khadim and joined forced with him to start Whatfix. 🏢 About Whatfix: Whatfix is a digital adoption platform designed to help organizations enhance user engagement and productivity with software applications. It provides in-app guidance, interactive walkthroughs, tooltips, and training content to simplify the onboarding process and ensure users can effectively use new software. This platform aims to reduce the learning curve for users and improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of software adoption within organizations 🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/

Join us as we talk to Ashok Hariharan, the CEO of IDfy about their story. Ashok earned his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State Engineering and went on to complete his MBA at the Indian School of Business. His career as a hardware engineer includes positions at Acterna, Coree Networks, Marconi Communications, Laurel Networks, and Astuto Networks. He also served as a strategy manager at British Telecom. In 2008, he founded Gaboli Online Services and has been the CEO of IDfy since May 2011. 🏢 About IDfy: IDfy is an Integrated Identity Platform that combats fraud with advanced KYC, KYB, and verification solutions. Recognized by Deloitte and Forbes in 2023, IDfy performs 2 million daily verifications. Key offerings include APIs for verification, a video onboarding platform, RiskAI for risk management, IDfy360 for custom workflows, and CrimeCheck for legal history checks. 🌐 For more visit - https://ajuniorvc.com/podcast/ Playlists🎬: 🎙️Founders Unfiltered: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1r_yCxtrkFtTqwgoKj8f66 🎥 AJVC BTS: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2SqAGAJ0_rS1--1u82jvfL 🦄 Start-up Chronicles: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_0ujPMygWRZQcJBK250BXbC 🔎 AJVC Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_00SpPyAU_zhicXdehoNuBd 🎯 Deep Dives: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_2BHzAOji1wBEKjXo-go7e6 📈 Founder Insights: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUZb75L7Qi_1L3HjHLvNUQgPWGrfcoc-q 🎤 About the Hosts : Aviral Bhatnagar is a VC at Venture Highway and is the Founder of A Junior VC. He started the A Junior VC Newsletter in 2018 after observing whitespace in conversations in the Indian Venture ecosystem. He completed his B. Tech from IIT Bombay and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Mazin Biviji is a Product Owner at Agoda and a founding member of A Junior VC. He previously worked at Deloitte as a Senior Consultant. He completed his MSE and BSE from the University of Michigan and his MBA from INSEAD. 🌍 Join us at https://ajuniorvc.com/community/ to be a part of an exclusive community and grab the opportunity to question and hear our guests live every Sunday. 🚀 AJVC: https://ajuniorvc.com/ ✂ Editing Credits: 1. Neel Panji - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neel-panji-598b7b176/ 2. Sweta Singhania - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sweta-singhania-755b92183/ 🔎 Research: 1. Ayush Kumar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayushkcs/ 2. Sahil Nizam - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahilnizam12/ 3. Aditya Chauhan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-chauhan-27b298177 4. Deepthi Nagoorkar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepthi-nagoorkar-64408085/ 00:00 Intro 02:24 Rapid Fire 08:24 Early Days 17:02 First Company 19:01 Meeting the Co-founder 20:33 The Idea 22:30 Post Ideation 23:51 Failure of the First Version 25:20 Start of the Enterprise Business 25:53 Initial Pitch 28:32 Growth Stage 29:50 The Struggles 31:21 Leadership lessons in Growth Phase 33:36 Vipassana 35:12 The North Star 37:07 Culture and Transition 38:57 Leadership Development 41:58 The Website 45:10 Fraud 1:00:18 Accelerated Growth 01:04:26 Unfiltered Feedback #ajvc #startups #india

Join us as we talk to Uttam Digga, the Co-founder & CEO of Porter about their story. Uttam completed his integrated MSc in Economics at IIT Kharagpur in 2012. Following that, he held positions as an Analyst at both HSBC and J.P. Morgan before launching Porter in 2014. 🏢 About Porter: Porter goes beyond logistics, fueled by their mission to 'move a billion dreams, one delivery at a time.' Embracing 'Own It,' they've grown rapidly with 7.5 million drivers and 15 million customers. Backed by $150 million in investments from leaders like Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, their tech-driven approach sets new standards in last-mile logistics.

Join us as we talk to Ranvir Singh, the Founder and CEO of Kissht and Ring about their story. Ranvir completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 2001 and his MBA from IIM Bangalore in 2005. He served as an associate partner at McKinsey & Company, held the position of Managing Director at Si-Creva, and established Kissht in 2016. He is also the founder and CEO of Ring and a founding member of FACE. 🏢 About Kissht & RING: Kissht is a fintech platform that provides instant, seamless credit to consumers for purchases at both online and offline points of sale. This next-generation financial technology company strategically aids individuals in increasing their borrowing capabilities. RING is a top fintech company in India, emerging from the success of Kissht. It excels in data-driven lending and serves over 11 million customers, with 40% from tier 2 cities and beyond. RING provides both short and long-term loans for business, personal, and recurring needs.