Ola goes against Microsoft! | Roundup #152 | The Startup Operator

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Startup Operator Roundup. I'm Roshan Karyapa.

[00:00:05] And I'm Gunjan Saha and together we break down the biggest headlines of India's growing

[00:00:09] startup ecosystem. If this is the first time you're tuning into the channel then please

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[00:00:28] So, Adam Mohan here. What are we talking about?

[00:00:32] Why are we speaking like this?

[00:00:34] Okay, for those of you who haven't watched Avesham, you guys should definitely check it out.

[00:00:38] It's a killer killer movie.

[00:00:40] It's a must watch movie.

[00:00:41] Yeah, shout out to Fafa. Although I don't know if he needs any shout outs from 20,000

[00:00:47] of us but yeah, fantastic movie. But yeah, what are we talking about today?

[00:00:52] So this week we'll be talking about India's very own GPD, Kruthrim. Well there's

[00:00:56] a bit of feud going on between Ola and Microsoft and this story has taken a very

[00:01:01] juicy turn. So we'll be exploring that. And talking about Microsoft, Microsoft

[00:01:06] last week also held its Build Conference. This is the WWDC equivalent for

[00:01:12] Microsoft. We'll be doing a quick recap of that. And also Silicon Valley,

[00:01:16] there are some talks of Google planning to acquire HubSpot. HubSpot currently

[00:01:21] is valued at $31 billion. So this will probably make it Google's biggest acquisition

[00:01:26] in its history. Closer home, Google is also in talks with the government.

[00:01:31] They're planning to start manufacturing drones in India and they're planning to

[00:01:34] set up a plant in Tamil Nadu. And there are talks in the Silicon Valley where

[00:01:40] a lot of startups want to shift their domicile to India.

[00:01:44] Reverse flipping they call it.

[00:01:46] Reverse flipping.

[00:01:47] Garbhaapsi, I like to call it.

[00:01:50] Swadesh movement. But this is happening because the Indian stock markets are

[00:01:54] more favourable to tech IPO's it seems. Last week GoDigit also went public

[00:02:00] and Esau Buybacks are back. It's none other than the most active company

[00:02:04] doing buyback. This is Urban Company who had the fifth round of this

[00:02:08] program worth Rs. 203 crore.

[00:02:11] Many a party's view from Urban Company folks.

[00:02:14] Alright, so let's get started. So Kari what happened last week?

[00:02:24] Tomorrow we have the IPL finals and RCEV is not there.

[00:02:28] Sorry guys, I did tell you folks that I don't watch matches so that we win.

[00:02:34] Don't tell me you ended up watching.

[00:02:36] Yeah, I'm sorry I bit the bullet. I just thought that I can make an exception

[00:02:41] and I watched half the game and that was enough for us to lose.

[00:02:46] Fantastic comeback from the boys and hopefully we pick some decent bowlers

[00:02:52] for next time. Congrats to Virat also, Orange Cap and what not.

[00:02:56] And congrats to DK as well, what a man. Completely reinvented himself in the

[00:03:02] second half of his career and so on.

[00:03:04] RCEV may not have won the IPL but the weather is back.

[00:03:07] But the weather is back right and hopefully next year will be like

[00:03:11] Isala Cup-Namde time.

[00:03:13] That's next year, this year the cup is in Kolkata.

[00:03:16] Hope Springs Eternal.

[00:03:19] Okay, let's get started.

[00:03:21] Talking about cricket, do you know in 1983 when I think it was the first time

[00:03:26] the Indian team qualified for the World Cup finals and that time the then

[00:03:30] BCCI president Mr Salve was mistreated by the World Cup organizers in England.

[00:03:36] He wanted extra tickets for MCC and he was denied it.

[00:03:39] And that really infuriated him and that set the foundation for what

[00:03:44] became the BCCI we know today.

[00:03:46] It was a clash of egos.

[00:03:48] And we are seeing something like that play out today in the startup space.

[00:03:52] There's a feud between Microsoft and Bhavish that started when

[00:03:56] LinkedIn deleted a post by Bhavish where he called out the West's

[00:04:00] vokism and quote unquote pronoun illness.

[00:04:03] Since then, LinkedIn which is owned by Microsoft, Bhavish has tweeted

[00:04:08] that you know what I'm going to move the entire Ola cloud infrastructure

[00:04:12] onto Kruthrim cloud.

[00:04:14] And that is a big, big move.

[00:04:16] I mean you have to think of the scale at which Ola operates.

[00:04:19] The entire Ola infrastructure now runs on Kruthrim and not only Ola,

[00:04:23] Bhavish announced that around 2500 developers have signed up to try

[00:04:28] Kruthrim cloud.

[00:04:29] Now well of course it's well known that Big Tech views the world

[00:04:34] from a singular lens which is their lens.

[00:04:36] But in this the entire context of culture, region and views of other

[00:04:42] communities get mostly ignored.

[00:04:44] From zeroing out Azure cost to building our own cloud infrastructure

[00:04:48] looks like the Kruthrim movement in India is really picking up steam.

[00:04:51] But do you think that can sustain?

[00:04:53] Nice segue by the way.

[00:04:55] I mean I didn't approve of that and for a second I was wondering

[00:04:59] where this is going from winning the cup in 1983 and BCCA

[00:05:03] and then Kruthrim but yeah you pulled it off.

[00:05:05] Great stuff.

[00:05:07] Look, I mean so Bhavish is investing in everything right?

[00:05:11] I mean AI, data centers, chips and what not.

[00:05:15] Right and yeah it makes sense for him to deploy his own company

[00:05:21] on the infrastructure that he is building for sure right?

[00:05:24] I mean so there are two ways of looking at it.

[00:05:26] One is that there is a genuine grouse which I could make the case for as well.

[00:05:30] Or I mean this is just a smart marketing ploy to you know

[00:05:34] pivot attention towards what Kruthrim is building right?

[00:05:38] With their data business and what not.

[00:05:40] Right but there is a problem you know there is a problem with

[00:05:43] vokism being infused into all of the technology and applications

[00:05:48] and so on that we use right?

[00:05:50] Because technology and culture is so intrinsically linked right now.

[00:05:53] Right I hate to mention any pronouns and so on and so forth.

[00:05:59] I have nothing against them it's just I don't want to be forced

[00:06:01] to mention he, him or whatever else right?

[00:06:03] I mean but I mean look at LinkedIn for example right?

[00:06:07] Famously you know shouts that on everyone else right?

[00:06:12] And this is going to get a lot more pervasive for sure right?

[00:06:15] I mean there are going to be technologies that will insist

[00:06:18] that we behave, speak and do things a particular way right?

[00:06:23] And so Vavish is absolutely right in saying that you know

[00:06:26] we should opt into that if we want to right?

[00:06:29] So yeah I mean I am not a fan of the whole vok moment for sure right?

[00:06:35] I mean it's really pernicious ideology and kudos to you know

[00:06:40] Vavish for standing up against a giant like Microsoft

[00:06:44] and of course he spun it into a nice narrative on how

[00:06:47] we should build Swadeshi, make in India all of that stuff

[00:06:51] and hopefully it benefits Kruthram's data business as well right?

[00:06:55] I mean yeah overall I mean I think it's a good story.

[00:07:00] It's a nice story.

[00:07:01] But what about Microsoft's business in India?

[00:07:03] I think a major chunk of the revenue comes from Azure.

[00:07:06] See Microsoft, look I mean there I don't know what the deal is

[00:07:12] with AWS and Azure at this point.

[00:07:14] I don't know who's leading as such.

[00:07:16] Maybe AWS is ahead right?

[00:07:18] But with enterprises Azure is a clear number one favourite right?

[00:07:22] And it's a huge huge huge business right?

[00:07:25] We're talking on multi-billion dollar per quarter kind of business right?

[00:07:29] So obviously if you've spoken to folks in Microsoft as I have right?

[00:07:35] A lot of their business priorities revolve around Azure right?

[00:07:40] And so I mean they would have definitely taken note of this

[00:07:43] but I wonder if you know Microsoft is so cohesive that

[00:07:47] they will do changes on LinkedIn because an Azure customer said so right?

[00:07:52] I mean it's very very siloed.

[00:07:55] It's a large large organisation right?

[00:07:58] So genuinely I don't think they can do anything about this as such.

[00:08:02] So Bhavesh has announced that around 2500 developers as of today have agreed

[00:08:07] to move to Truthroom Cloud and if this gains momentum

[00:08:10] well definitely Microsoft, Google and even the likes of AWS will have something to...

[00:08:14] So Jio is investing a lot in the data centre business also right?

[00:08:18] And they have sort of a unique proposition because they own the bandwidth

[00:08:22] they own the data and they're going to build these sort of hybrid infrastructure

[00:08:27] right? And yeah I mean so Reliance is doing on the internet side

[00:08:33] what it did on the garments and other manufacturers

[00:08:37] other sort of sectors they operate in right?

[00:08:40] Complete backward integration.

[00:08:42] So starting with application to infrastructure to you know

[00:08:45] maybe invest in chips tomorrow and so on right?

[00:08:48] So that will be fascinating but overall I think this whole data centre business

[00:08:52] is like fairly commoditised right now.

[00:08:55] Yeah.

[00:08:56] Okay let's continue with Microsoft.

[00:08:59] Last week at its annual Build Developer Conference

[00:09:02] Microsoft introduced a host of new AI integrated services

[00:09:06] which are targeted towards enterprise and customers.

[00:09:09] Microsoft launched the new updates for their AI service Team Co-Pilot

[00:09:14] which is designed for Microsoft 365 and Teams users.

[00:09:17] It now features agenda management, note taking, chat moderation

[00:09:21] and contextual question answering.

[00:09:23] Microsoft also introduced Co-Pilot Plus for PC

[00:09:27] which is a new Windows based hardware

[00:09:29] and powered by semiconductors from Intel, Qualcomm and AMD.

[00:09:33] Microsoft added Phi3 Vision which is currently in preview

[00:09:38] to its family of small language models.

[00:09:40] It is designed for low computing intensive tasks

[00:09:43] and can transcribe text from images.

[00:09:45] And the new generation of laptops which Microsoft will be shipping

[00:09:48] will come with an inbuilt AI

[00:09:50] that can work without being connected to the internet.

[00:09:53] And lastly Qualcomm also introduced the Snapdragon DevKit at Build 2024

[00:09:58] which is developed in collaboration with the tech giant.

[00:10:01] But I think the best highlight from the event for me was the surprise

[00:10:05] quote, surprise entry of Sam Altman.

[00:10:08] Yeah did you see Elon's tweet about that Microsoft feature

[00:10:13] that it will record everything for posterity and you know and so on?

[00:10:18] Elon said something like no thanks.

[00:10:20] That's like a Black Mirror episode.

[00:10:23] Yeah I mean look all of this AI and everything

[00:10:27] I mean we talk about it every week right

[00:10:30] and the more these folks like talk about it

[00:10:32] the more doomsday it sounds actually you know.

[00:10:35] I miss the times when you know it was like smart calendaring

[00:10:39] and like you know productivity and stuff like that.

[00:10:41] Now it's like you know we're going to get so sentient

[00:10:44] we're going to like tell you what you actually want

[00:10:46] and stuff right I mean oh god.

[00:10:49] I think we should stop talking about AI for a while.

[00:10:51] Scarlett Johansson coming and talking to you

[00:10:54] convincing you to do or not do something.

[00:10:56] I'll be back guys.

[00:10:59] But I think we should stop talking about AI for a while.

[00:11:01] What do you guys think?

[00:11:03] Because there's just a lot of like you know stuff happening on that front

[00:11:06] I think let's take a stance to not talk about AI.

[00:11:10] We'll revisit this in a year.

[00:11:11] Let's put a pin on it.

[00:11:13] Yeah maybe two years.

[00:11:15] Alright anyway.

[00:11:16] Well Google has been in the news for non AI related stuff.

[00:11:20] It is currently in talks to acquire HubSpot.

[00:11:23] Now this could be the largest product acquisition by Google in its history.

[00:11:27] Today the market cap of HubSpot is currently valued at 31 billion dollars.

[00:11:32] And if this acquisition is to go through

[00:11:35] Google will be taking the fight straight to Microsoft in the enterprise space

[00:11:38] which has been dominated by Microsoft.

[00:11:41] We you have been using HubSpot for a while

[00:11:44] and it's a fantastic fantastic platform right

[00:11:47] especially for marketers.

[00:11:49] But what do you think if it comes under the Google Cloud umbrella?

[00:11:52] What's going to happen?

[00:11:53] Yeah this could be a great acquisition for both.

[00:11:56] Look I mean Google has made some phenomenal acquisitions in the past.

[00:12:01] I mean YouTube, Android, Maps and perhaps you know dozens of others that I'm missing.

[00:12:07] They used to be really good at that.

[00:12:09] And I don't know why but they've just kind of slowed down on those big acquisitions.

[00:12:14] I mean YouTube they paid one billion dollars.

[00:12:17] And I don't know what it was.

[00:12:18] I think 2007, 2008 not sure.

[00:12:23] Or maybe 2010 I think.

[00:12:25] So they've kind of lagged.

[00:12:28] And if you look at Microsoft on the other hand

[00:12:30] they have ramped up on their acquisitions and so on.

[00:12:33] Linked in at 26 or 27 billion.

[00:12:36] OpenAI again their famous investments and so on.

[00:12:39] So perhaps I mean Google has to play catch up on that front.

[00:12:42] Also if you look at their consumer business

[00:12:44] I feel like they've capped out on the number of users and so on.

[00:12:48] I mean it can only grow.

[00:12:50] You know they're already at a billion user sort of a scale.

[00:12:54] I mean how much more will you grow?

[00:12:56] So right now I mean it's about average revenue per user

[00:12:59] and monetizing the base as such.

[00:13:02] So they're perhaps looking at the enterprise business.

[00:13:06] Again just a comparison.

[00:13:09] Microsoft is famously enterprise and has done phenomenally well in that.

[00:13:13] So if you look at Google's enterprise foray

[00:13:17] with Google Cloud and whatnot

[00:13:19] that business has grown like seven, eight times.

[00:13:21] It's doing maybe 30 billion or something right now.

[00:13:25] So I think that is a way forward for Google.

[00:13:29] That's what they've realized.

[00:13:31] Look I mean we have to be serious enterprise folks.

[00:13:34] And HubSpot offers a fantastic opportunity for them right?

[00:13:37] Because you know HubSpot I think is doing a couple of billion dollars

[00:13:40] in revenue valued at about 30 billion right?

[00:13:44] If you look at really how much HubSpot can grow into

[00:13:48] I mean it could become an SAP or a Salesforce

[00:13:51] or a Workday or an Oracle and so on right easily.

[00:13:55] Okay because HubSpot is not the you know

[00:13:59] not the application or the company you knew about 10 years back right?

[00:14:02] I mean they're not like all cute small business type of focused.

[00:14:06] I mean they do have obviously like a freemium version and whatnot

[00:14:10] but they're also steadily going enterprise right?

[00:14:13] And it's expensive now you know.

[00:14:16] It's one of the most expensive markets.

[00:14:18] Yeah 25-30k easy right for a year.

[00:14:21] So that being the case they can grow into the next Salesforce

[00:14:25] or SAP and whatnot right?

[00:14:27] And yeah Salesforce what is it at?

[00:14:30] 35 something billion in revenue right?

[00:14:33] I mean 2 billion and 35 billion right?

[00:14:35] I mean there's just a heck of a lot of delta there right?

[00:14:38] So I mean HubSpot is like a high potential sort of a foray right?

[00:14:47] Acquisition for them.

[00:14:49] They will I guess have to pay a premium I suppose right?

[00:14:52] HubSpot was earlier valued at their peak

[00:14:55] at about 45 billion or something right?

[00:14:58] They're down from their peak.

[00:14:59] They're not making money at this point.

[00:15:02] I mean they do have losses, losses that they're funding.

[00:15:07] And from HubSpot's perspective as well I mean it gives them just that

[00:15:11] peace of mind that look I mean there is the Google cash cow right?

[00:15:14] I mean Google has 100 billion something in reserves.

[00:15:18] So yeah infinite runway essentially right?

[00:15:21] So they can go and focus on growth and just go and become that next Salesforce

[00:15:27] or whatever without really being too tight with the person worrying about

[00:15:31] like quarters, a quarter kind of a thing right?

[00:15:34] Which they will have to being a listed company.

[00:15:37] So yeah I mean overall I think it's a fantastic acquisition.

[00:15:41] This is also not the first time that Google has been in talks with HubSpot for an acquisition.

[00:15:46] Look yeah you bring up a good point right?

[00:15:48] Which is the externalities.

[00:15:51] Now I don't know if an acquisition of this scale will go through.

[00:15:54] Okay because the US regulators have been very very cautious about this right?

[00:16:00] I mean they've struck down previous mergers and acquisitions of this scale.

[00:16:05] Look at your Google getting triggered.

[00:16:07] Wow like irony in many parts but yeah I mean the regulators have been

[00:16:15] not so kind with these kind of acquisitions, large acquisitions right?

[00:16:21] I mean any large acquisition is at least a year or so in the making.

[00:16:25] So it's going to take time.

[00:16:28] But yeah overall a fantastic win and man kudos to Dharmesh and Brian Halligan right?

[00:16:36] What amazing, amazing, amazing founders like seriously amazing founders.

[00:16:41] Now you know like building an entire category, going up against like multi-billion dollar behemoths,

[00:16:49] listing a company, building a community, helping people with a new way to market their products and so on

[00:16:58] and then being acquired by perhaps the top five biggest software companies in the world.

[00:17:05] What a heck of a journey, heck of a journey seriously.

[00:17:09] So you've been doing this in what less than 20 years?

[00:17:11] Yeah, yeah. So yeah awesome.

[00:17:15] So while all of this thing is happening in the West, Google also has its eyes set on India.

[00:17:20] Alphabet which is Google's parent company is set to commence drone manufacturing through its subsidiary in Tamil Nadu.

[00:17:27] Google currently offers drone delivery services to businesses across the US, Europe and Australia

[00:17:32] utilizing a fleet of lightweight autonomous delivery drones.

[00:17:36] Now this entire surge in drone market is spurred by an emergence of a lot of drone startups in the country.

[00:17:42] We have Idea4 that went public recently for a 94% premium.

[00:17:47] Drone Acharya also went public in 2023 and Delivery is now venturing into drone manufacturing.

[00:17:53] Other logistic players in the space is also exploring similar routes.

[00:17:57] The cabinet also has been in favor of you know of accelerating the space.

[00:18:04] So do you think there is something for Google to gain here?

[00:18:07] Yeah, for sure right and again kudos to Tamil Nadu.

[00:18:11] They've attracted yet another electronic manufacturer to sort of set up base there.

[00:18:17] I mean they're leading all these exports from India.

[00:18:21] I think the fight is now coming in between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

[00:18:24] Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra.

[00:18:27] Yeah, I mean we're seeing some solid competitive federalism for sure right.

[00:18:31] So again kudos to all of these states.

[00:18:34] So Google has probably done I think around 350,000 something deliveries apparently through drones in Europe and elsewhere.

[00:18:44] They have a subsidiary called Wing under the alphabet ARM that is supposedly leading this initiative.

[00:18:53] Drones are awesome man and drones are going to get more and more prevalent.

[00:18:58] I was reading one stat about you know this whole drone warfare and what not.

[00:19:02] I mean it takes like some multi-million dollars to like hunt down these drones right.

[00:19:08] Which cost like a few tens of thousands of dollars at best right or a few thousands of dollars.

[00:19:14] So it's going to get more prevalent in defense and logistics and elsewhere right.

[00:19:20] And here again 2021 I think or 2022 we had the new drone policy.

[00:19:26] Which had a lot of very forward thinking regulation right.

[00:19:30] I mean in terms of defining go no-go zones, in terms of drone pilot licenses and what not right.

[00:19:36] I mean it really eased the way for the ecosystem I would say.

[00:19:41] So yeah fantastic stuff.

[00:19:43] Yeah we're going to see more drones.

[00:19:45] The government also announced a PLA scheme of 120 crore rupees right.

[00:19:50] So of course the government is putting in money in this space as well.

[00:19:54] Okay I think we have spoken enough about big tech companies.

[00:19:57] Let's talk about some companies that are planning to go IPO.

[00:20:01] Earlier if a startup wanted to go public especially SaaS.

[00:20:04] The most preferred route was to list on NASDAQ.

[00:20:07] I mean we have seen when Freshworks do that.

[00:20:09] And that also seemed logical because for most companies US is the largest market.

[00:20:15] But now that is changing India is becoming a hot destination.

[00:20:20] But why is this happening?

[00:20:22] It's because the Indian stock markets are now more welcoming to tech companies.

[00:20:25] Even those with 100 million dollars of annual revenue, 20% EBITDA margins and 30% growth.

[00:20:31] These firms can now go public in India, receive lots of press coverage and possibly get a 1-2 billion dollar valuation.

[00:20:38] This however wouldn't happen in a market like US.

[00:20:41] Where firms need to show at least 300 million dollars in revenue for an IPO.

[00:20:46] The valuation given to a tech company in Indian stock markets at almost any revenue level might be higher than that in the US.

[00:20:53] Primarily because 1. Indian retail investors are hungry for tech.

[00:20:58] 2. Many Indian mutual funds have a mandate to invest a certain percentage of their assets in tech.

[00:21:03] And 3. The number of public tech companies in India is low.

[00:21:07] So does this mean you are going to see a lot more foreign tech companies listed in India?

[00:21:12] For starters, I think we will see a lot of Indian tech companies listed in India.

[00:21:16] See, I am old enough to kind of remember Make My Trip listing in NASDAQ way back when.

[00:21:22] And of course we all celebrated the Freshworks IPO also.

[00:21:26] But man, the Indian IPO markets are hungry.

[00:21:30] They are hot and obviously people want to make the best of this.

[00:21:36] And we are seeing sort of a reverse flippening or a garbhaapsi as they called it happening.

[00:21:41] I mean all these folks who went and set up a base in Singapore or Delaware, elsewhere.

[00:21:47] Right for tax reasons, long term capital gains and ESOPs and what not.

[00:21:52] Are all moving back.

[00:21:55] PhonePay and the likes have all made the journey back.

[00:21:59] For multiple reasons. One is obviously if they are operating in something like FinTech.

[00:22:04] I mean SEBI has a bunch of rules around data protection and what not.

[00:22:08] So they have to be here.

[00:22:10] And the second thing on the IPO market itself.

[00:22:15] Some of these large mature companies have to look at liquidity.

[00:22:20] And the Indian IPO markets are pretty awesome right now.

[00:22:25] I mean we are giving solid multiples compared to the US.

[00:22:29] I mentioned this earlier as well.

[00:22:33] Even like a really really really good SaaS company.

[00:22:37] Is trading maybe 6-7 times revenue at this point.

[00:22:41] Freshworks itself is perhaps 4-5 times revenue.

[00:22:44] So that being the case.

[00:22:47] You are going to see a lot more of this for sure.

[00:22:51] I mean companies focusing on India retail investors for sure.

[00:22:57] Also the Indian stock markets are more shock proof to global situations.

[00:23:02] See all said and done we have been the best economy emerging from Covid.

[00:23:06] We are growing 7-8%.

[00:23:09] And inflation is also pretty controlled.

[00:23:12] If that being the case, there is just a lot of appetite for growth here.

[00:23:17] By all estimates of IMF and whoever else you can think of.

[00:23:22] India is going to steadily grow 7-8%.

[00:23:25] Maybe even 10-9% or 10-10% over the time upcoming.

[00:23:30] So all of that put together makes for a fantastic opportunity for these folks.

[00:23:38] Well last week GoDigit or Digit General Insurance made a quiet debut on the stock market on May 23rd.

[00:23:46] They listed for a price of 286.

[00:23:49] That's a premium of just 5.14% over the issue price.

[00:23:53] But the IPO was over subscribed around 9.6 times.

[00:23:57] Now how do you think that the markets are going to react to a tech based insurance company.

[00:24:05] When there are a lot of other players like incumbents present already there.

[00:24:10] Because the estimated PE or FY26 stands at 49.6x for Digit.

[00:24:17] This is a substantial premium in comparison to peers like ICICI Lombard who have a PE of 29x and Star Health which has around 25x.

[00:24:26] You can't compare ICICI Lombard or Star Health with Digit.

[00:24:32] Digit is a nascent business and people bet on potential.

[00:24:36] The stock market price is based on future returns.

[00:24:39] And the younger the company, the more exciting the story.

[00:24:43] Obviously it will be trading at a premium for sure.

[00:24:46] It's not an HUL or whatever.

[00:24:48] HUL trades at a premium.

[00:24:50] But yeah, I mean it's just that at the end of the day it's an insurance business with a tech slash consumer front end.

[00:24:58] They will still have to manage their claims underwrite properly and so on and so forth.

[00:25:06] And run a proper insurance business.

[00:25:09] So I'm a customer of Digit myself and I really really love their customer experience.

[00:25:14] It's absolutely amazing.

[00:25:16] So maybe they will set the bar for some of these other conventional insurers to catch up on that front.

[00:25:25] Because again, insurance has perhaps the lowest NPS across any industry.

[00:25:32] So maybe this is what is required.

[00:25:36] Maybe like a customer focused, digital, new age insurance provider is what it will take for us to sort of up level on the insurance game.

[00:25:48] Also the insurance penetration in India is pretty low and with the merging of more tech...

[00:25:53] It's a huge huge huge market.

[00:25:55] I mean most of the health expenses out of pocket.

[00:26:00] Insurance penetration is less than 15%.

[00:26:03] And again if you slice that number into different ways of looking at it, it's even more abysmal.

[00:26:08] So yeah we need insurance penetration to catch up for sure.

[00:26:13] And all of these folks will drive that for sure.

[00:26:19] IRDAI has to probably allow newer types of insurers to come into the market.

[00:26:25] They've been like again very forward thinking as well.

[00:26:29] So let's see.

[00:26:31] I mean it's an exciting time for sure.

[00:26:33] Well congratulations to the folks at Digit and who are listening to our podcast.

[00:26:38] And also congratulations to folks at Urban Company.

[00:26:42] Another fascinating segue.

[00:26:44] Brilliant brilliant.

[00:26:45] Guys, Gunjan Sahay is like killing it as a host today.

[00:26:50] Anyway continuing.

[00:26:52] Speaking of killing it.

[00:26:58] A round of all the segues.

[00:27:00] Yeah.

[00:27:01] So Urban Company announced its fifth employee stock ownership plan sale program worth 203 crore rupees.

[00:27:07] It is the largest ESOP secondary sale which marked the participation of around 446 employees.

[00:27:14] Till date Urban Company has granted ESOPs to around 1600 employees and ex-employees of the company.

[00:27:20] And of these, 784 employees have participated in five secondary ESOP sale programs.

[00:27:26] Liquidating ESOPs worth 300 plus crore rupees.

[00:27:29] Now that's a lot of money.

[00:27:31] That's more than 120 crore PLA.

[00:27:34] That's a lot for sure.

[00:27:36] Yeah.

[00:27:37] No comments.

[00:27:39] It's spread over a wide base.

[00:27:42] I mean look ESOPs man.

[00:27:44] Like I've said for the most part it's just a pipe dream.

[00:27:47] So I'm just so happy when it happens.

[00:27:49] Even if it is to people we don't know about and people who will not give us parties.

[00:27:55] Absolutely.

[00:27:56] Seriously man.

[00:27:57] I mean come on what is it with you guys?

[00:27:59] Flipkart.

[00:28:00] What else?

[00:28:01] Flipkart, Urban Company, MeShow, WakeFed.

[00:28:04] None of these guys ever give us a party.

[00:28:06] Yeah.

[00:28:07] Man seriously.

[00:28:08] When are we having our ESOPs?

[00:28:10] We need new subscribers.

[00:28:11] New subscribers.

[00:28:13] Okay awesome.

[00:28:15] Well here's a quick roundup of all the key fundraisers that went on last week.

[00:28:20] Sachin Bansal's Navi Fenserve reportedly raised 150 crore rupees or 18 million dollars approximately through non-convertible debentures.

[00:28:28] FinTech Startup SAFE Group raised 13 million dollars from INCOFIN India Progress Fund and Moj Invest.

[00:28:35] Tech Startup Unifi Apps raised 11 million dollars in a seed round led by Elevation Capital.

[00:28:40] And rural focused financial services firm Dwarah Shetriya Gramin Financials raised 10 million dollars in debt from Global Info.

[00:28:49] And from Global Impact Investor Blue Orchard Microfinance Fund.

[00:28:52] So overall it seems like a pretty muted week.

[00:28:55] It's like a FinTech week basically.

[00:28:57] Yeah and also it's in early stages and the check sizes are not too high.

[00:29:02] Overall well I guess May has been kind of slow.

[00:29:05] Yeah.

[00:29:06] No it's still hard to raise a series B in this market for sure.

[00:29:09] So talk of the town section we have this very interesting tweet by Vaibhav Dumkundwar.

[00:29:14] He is one of the managing partners at Better Capital.

[00:29:16] He tweets Indian founders are spending an unprecedented amount of time on events and podcasts.

[00:29:21] And he's not sure how they're measuring the outcomes and if it is the best way to spend a founder's time.

[00:29:28] He says often the content is about their company instead of the users and problems they solve.

[00:29:33] And the ROI is low because you're end of the day talking to more founders and not to people who would actually buy.

[00:29:40] So Roshan as a marketer and a podcaster what are your thoughts on this?

[00:29:44] I think it's a straw man honestly.

[00:29:47] I mean you take anything if you like look at a shitty example of doing something and then say that the whole thing is bad.

[00:29:54] I mean you could make the case for anything.

[00:29:56] I mean events, content, thought leadership whatever it is.

[00:30:00] But yeah but he does have a point about not doing podcasts well.

[00:30:05] I mean if you're a new company and pioneering like a completely different category and a new way of doing things and so on.

[00:30:12] I mean are you going to wait for traditional press and media and so on to kind of pick up whatever cool awesome things you're doing.

[00:30:20] Or are you going to like define your own narrative through all these cell phone assets.

[00:30:24] I mean you're going to do it through this right.

[00:30:26] And even just very very tactically a podcast is at least one or two blogs right.

[00:30:32] Three or four snippets, videos, reels and so on and so forth.

[00:30:36] It can be repurposed like 20 different ways.

[00:30:39] Right and at a shoestring budget you know.

[00:30:42] And so I don't see how it is bad at all for founders to sort of invest in that honestly.

[00:30:52] So I think it's a great opportunity and it depends on how you use it right.

[00:30:57] I mean there's also all of this self-promotional stuff that happens you know which we tend to avoid on the startup operator obviously right.

[00:31:06] We're very clear that you know the podcast focuses on insights around execution right.

[00:31:12] So we want to hear stories on how people do X or Y things right.

[00:31:17] How did they go from zero to a million dollars in sales or how do they solve for compliance and fintech and so on and so forth right.

[00:31:25] Tactical stuff that can be actually useful very very practically for our startup operator Jantha right.

[00:31:33] So also another thing which I called out right of talking to end customers.

[00:31:37] I don't think that is the only audience you want to reach through podcast or through marketing.

[00:31:41] You call your customers on the podcast right.

[00:31:44] So you call your prospects and customers on the podcast like for instance let's say I'm selling to CTOs right.

[00:31:50] What a fantastic medium to sort of talk to CTOs right.

[00:31:54] Line up seven or eight prospect CTOs and engage in a wonderful one and a half hour conversation, two hour conversation with them.

[00:32:01] And they will be happy to come on to that conversation as well right rather than like attend a prospect call or a demo or whatnot.

[00:32:07] So it's really about how you use the medium for sure right.

[00:32:11] I have seen it pay very rich dividends for a lot of the companies, Vymo included right.

[00:32:17] It can actually I mean beyond just like brand and whatnot it can actually generate like hard pipeline I feel.

[00:32:24] Awesome that's so interesting.

[00:32:27] Yeah intense rap.

[00:32:30] Alright folks thanks for staying with us right till the end.

[00:32:33] We hope you enjoyed this conversation.

[00:32:35] Before we sign off just a quick reminder to like this video, share with your friends and family and let us know your opinions on any of the topics we discussed today in the comments below.

[00:32:44] Specifically if we should like have a moratorium on AI right.

[00:32:48] I mean not talk about AI for at least maybe eight episodes or something.

[00:32:52] It has become like those Baiju's news.

[00:32:54] Yeah exactly.

[00:32:56] Alright awesome.

[00:32:57] Do all the good stuff. Rate, review, like, share, subscribe.

[00:33:00] We'll see you again next week with more exciting news.

[00:33:02] Bye guys.

[00:33:03] Take care. Have a great week.