In the next 5-7 years, traditional video editing may become less common, transitioning instead towards SaaS-based solutions!!!

I gained this insight from Kushagra Pandya of vidyo.ai at eChai Ventures social this week.

As much vague as it looks, the deliberations on this and various other topics validated the statement. 

Interacting with founders from various sectors always makes you learn so much. This is the power of networking.

Now back to the video editing topic, here are some interesting insights:

- Video content creation is rapidly growing, currently comprising 65-70% The video format of content creation is inevitably growing at a rapid scale. As far as I can see, around 65-70% of the content being created today is video-format.

- Short form content is the way ahead for the marketers. The ever-decreasing attention span of the audience has been the case for success of TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube shorts and many others.

- At the same time, Podcasts has been an interesting marketing funnel for dissemination of information. These podcasts are generally long form in nature with a minimum of 30 minutes till 3-4 hours.

- Video editing of these podcasts to capture the viral elements and put it across in the form of reels and shorts has been the core. And companies like vidyo.ai have scaled it to the next level.

As we see the next change in technology, more and more of such business models will thrive and scale better.

eChai Ventures Jatin Chaudhary GVFL Limited Kushagra Pandya Tanmay Shanishchara Viraj Rajani Pankaj Bhimani Dr Mayank Patel, CFA Nishtha Gurnani Harsha Bhurani  Gaurav Barot Amit Panchal Bhavesh Patel Mitesh Shethwala Ekta Shah Koumal Kalantry ABHISHEK JAIN 

Imagine gathering a few marketing experts in a room and guess what they do.

Probably an intellectual fight over who is more 'creative'. 😄

Well, that was not the case yesterday when we met at eChai Ventures - social at GVFL Limited office yesterday. A productive session conducted by forever smiling Jatin Chaudhary was more than a chai-biscuit gathering.

Very very helpful to learn insights, marketing hacks, AI driven marketing and business strategies. Truly, a #CoRise moment.

Folks, here's an open shoutout to everyone - happy to meet again in person, to discuss more than just hacks. 😎

Jaydip Parikh, Amit Panchal, 🚀Jignesh Thakkar, Nikita Lalwani, Arpan Shah, Parth Brahmbhatt, Himani Kankaria, Viraj Rajani, Ankit Agrawal, Anil Salvi 🍉, Sahil Shah, Tarjani Shah

Founders contemplate whom to approach for funding, while investors consider where to allocate their investments. When one should seek funding or refrain from it is an individual choice. There are no definitive answers to any questions; it's always subjective and often seasonal.

It was an enriching meetup eChai Ventures on very apt topic #funding - learning about this from the best Milapsinh Jadeja sir ,Umesh Uttamchandani sor @mihir joshi sir GVFL Limited , Dheeraj Bhojwani sir !!

Many congratulations to Jatin Chaudhary for completing 15 years to eChai Ventures journey and hosting the show!

Friends and family are typically the first investors in your vision, and early-stage startups often receive initial investments from them.

• Bootstrapping: Self-funding the startup with personal savings or revenue.

• Seed Funding: Initial capital from friends, family, or angel investors.

• Series A, B, C Funding: Increasing rounds of financing from venture capitalists as the company grows.

• Bridge Funding: Short-term financing to sustain operations between major funding rounds.

Pros of Funding:

• Accelerated growth potential.

• Access to expertise and networks of investors.

• Ability to scale operations rapidly.

Cons of Funding:

• Pressure to meet investor expectations.

• Dilution of equity.

Are you part of startup ecosystem?
And which stage you are into , bootstrapping, seed funding, more round of funds , Bridge funding or other??

I am just truly love the energy of all the founders !!

Pankaj Bhimani Ekta Shah Mitesh Shethwala Himani Kankaria Harshal Trivedi Yash Mehta Amit Panchal Nikita A Macquinn Harsha Bhurani Satya Mehta Novin Jaiswal Viraj Rajani Niraj Harlalka Bhavik Makwana Shreyans Panchal 

What a fabulous journey of @eChaiVentures from a local to a global brand based out of #Ahmedabad and connecting people & startups ! Echai has forged new relationships #echaicorise. 

Congrats @jatin10, Kunal &  echai team for nurturing the startup ecosystem when it was not a buzzword!  

We are collaborating with IIMA Ventures to host eChai's Startup Growth Meetup in Ahmedabad today (6th April, Saturday) at IIMA Ventures from 6 pm to 8 pm.

🎙️ Sandeep Patel (NEPRA - Let's Recycle)
🎙️Ankur Agarwal (Medkart Pharmacy)
🎙️ Udit Goenka (TinyCheque / FirstSales.io)
🎙️Ishit Jethwa (Ludic)

I'll be moderating this meetup.

We are collaborating with Draper Startup House to host eChai's Startup Growth Meetup in Bengaluru today (6th April, Saturday) at Draper Startup House Koramangala from 6 pm to 8 pm.

🎙️ Manish Maryada (Fello)
🎙️Aalap Sanghvi (Immersfy)

Free registration at eChai.Ventures 

We are collaborating with Pro Zero Carbon, CoKarma - Coworking Space and Ewoke Studio for Wudbox Climate Dialogue in Hyderabad today (6th April, Saturday) at CoKarma Hitec City from 6 pm to 8 pm.

🎙️Shruti Rawal (Ewoke Studio)
🎙️Rashi Agrawal (Banyan Nation)
🎙️Dashveer Singh (Maharaja Carpets India)
🎙️Sundeep Singh (C-Forth Energy)
🎙️Nikhil Somani (Somani Packaging)

It will be hosted by Charu Dhyani & Shantanu Sharma (Pro Zero Carbon & Wudbox)

Free registration at eChai.Ventures 

Couple of things I noticed during a conversation about sales strategies for #startups organised by eChai Ventures in partnership with GVFL Limited.

1. Most questions were around negotiation and pricing.
It is natural to think that the most difficult part of sales is getting the customer to agree on a price point. This is because that's what we as entrepreneurs hear most objections on. It is also because that is fairly relatable and happens to all sales folks.

But it is important to remember that whatever happens in the room (or video calls) is only 5% of the sales process. 95% of sales happens outside of negotiation and pricing.

Negotiation is just one of the stages.

Building a predictable, repeatable and scalable sales engine is significantly harder than handling negotiation. I'd strongly recommend focusing on the sales engine a lot more, a lot early.

2. People do not focus enough on building trust.
Trust is one of those very few things - takes a life-time to build but a moment to lose. Most folks did not realise how valuable proofs, cases and testimonials can be if used the right way and how quick it can make the sales process.

One of the recommendations is - early on, see if you can ride on trust built by someone else. If your #agency does not have enough clients yet, work with an existing agency as a sub-contractor. If your #product does not have enough users/customers yet, launch on marketplaces like AppSumo.

3. In an effort to show our expertise, we end up ripping apart the customer.
No one. Absolutely no one wants to be told they are wrong/incompetent over and over. The customer already realises that they have a problem to be solved and that is why they are there to have a conversation with you.

Once you establish in first few minutes of the conversation that you can help them fix that problem, stop pointing out their mistakes. Consider using cases and portfolio to showcase your value. Consider existing ROI calculations to convince them on the pricing.

4. No one likes being sold to.
But all of us love an interesting conversation. Ultimately, sales is just interesting conversations. Asking open ended questions to understand them better and sharing your experiences to show them who and what you and your company are.

Doing this as a genuine individual (neither as a sales person nor a strategy) has helped us significantly at both Clientjoy (Acquired by Synup) and at Momentum Ventures.

Strongly recommend treating prospects like a person. Not like a bag of money or a record in your #CRM.

Lastly, focus on the process. Everything else will fall into place.

Thank you Jatin for considering me to join in on this discussion with Vikas from Magenta Insights and Shrijay from LegalWiz.in. It was meaningful. Looking forward to the next one.

No professional epiphanies or LinkedIn gyaan today.

Just a bunch of folks that met through the Ahmedabad start up community and became good friends.

Thanks eChai Ventures for doing what you do best- connecting likeminded folks who sometimes just want to laugh over a good cup of chai.

Founders have lives, too 🙂

Arindam Sengupta Faraz Wadhwania Rushabh Shah Jatin Chaudhary EduFund

This post celebrates the incredible impact of #networking and the pivotal role eChai Ventures has played in expanding my knowledge and connections within the industry.

A special shout-out to Jatin Chaudhary, whose support was instrumental when I was navigating the beginnings of this vibrant ecosystem. The relationships forged through #eChai meetings have turned out to be not just valuable but transformative.

Witnessing Bull Agritech's growth has been a joy. The dedicated approach and profound industry insights of its founders, Hit Desai and Divyajeetsinh Chauhan, clearly set them apart and paved their path forward.

Heartfelt congratulations to the entire Bull Agritech team—here's to soaring to new heights and achieving even greater milestones.

A big thank you to Faraz Wadhwania for being part of this journey. Your involvement and connections have made the job a lot easier.

|Fundraising Alert|

I am humbled to share the news of the $100K fundraise of Bull Agritech as their Fundraising Advisor. Personally, this is the first instance of aiding a fundraiser as a consultant.


With the new infusion, Akassh P., Nilesh Bhalala, Jeet Shastri, Adishwar Jain and Shahin Patel have joined in on the capable.


The Backstory:

Thanks to our coffee connection, I met the founders of Bull Agritech Hit Desai and Divyajeetsinh Chauhan through Rushabh Shah of STIR Advisors with whom I met through Jatin Chaudhary of eChai Ventures. This was my first experience working with someone as an 

#investmentbanker to meet the capital requirements of a startup.

With our close engagement with the founders, we will continue to help them in their capital-raising journey.


About Bull Agritech:

📌 Bull Agritech aims to create India's largest #agricommodity #supplychain by leveraging technology and its network of farmers and commodity processors.

📌 BA facilitated trades worth 35 crores in 24 months. Over 6000 farmers chose BA for selling crops instead of local APMCs.

📌 After reporting a 200% YoY growth, the company aims to sustain a 25% MoM growth and expand in the less penetrated farmer financing market.


Special Shoutout:

We rooped in Khyati Jha from Spectrum Partners to manage the legal side of the transaction. It has now been 5+ deals with Khyati on the legal front in the last couple of years. Bunty Hudda from Hudda & Associates Company Secretaries LLP led the secretarial piece. Harshit Dave also worked as a supporting pillar for the deal.

I extend my heartiest congratulations and support to the Bull #agritech team in their journey to growth and success.

eChai Ventures social conversations are super fun and insightful theme was great "From Zero to Millions".

Thanks everyone for joining in Bhavesh Patel | Leena Parikh | Valay Parikh | Jatin Chaudhary | Bhavik Makwana | Nikita Lalwani | Pankaj Bhimani | Chirag Panchal  | Yug Dave

In the age of overselling and misselling, how do you truly drive sales?

An Incredible event hosted by eChai Ventures X GVFL Limited, delved into this very question: How to get early customers to scaling your sales.

Key Takeaways:

1. Listen & Ask the Right Questions: Allow your target customers to share their pain points. Avoid assumptions, and simply listen.

2. Don’t outsmart your customer.

3. Under Promise, Over Deliver:

It’s easier said than done. Making sales promises you can't keep damages your credibility in the long run.

4. Don’t sell to everyone.

If your customer is everyone then your customer is no one.

5. Invest in PR:

PR means Perception that drives Reality. Create Perception by investing in PR activity.

6. Base your research on facts, not assumptions.

7. Lead Magnets >> Money Magnets: Offer exceptional value through lead magnets to convert target customers into loyal fans.

Last not but least,

8. Find ways to collaborate with people:

Be the person that everyone wants to collaborate or be that person who collaborates with everyone, Read that again.

Thanks for sharing invaluable insights Jatin Chaudhary, Shrijay Sheth, Yash Shah , Vikas Mundhra, Kamal Bansal & Mihir Joshi.

We host eChai's two parallel startup meetups in Bengaluru every Saturday evening, one in Koramangala and the other in HSR Layout. 

Feel free to join whenever you happen to be in Bengaluru and nearby these areas.

The eChai Ventures AI Social was a truly great experience.Yesterday, I had a pleasant time discussing various AI topics. The conversation with folks was enlightening, and I learned more about AI applications. Thank you, Jatin Chaudhary and GVFL Limited, for hosting such a wonderful social gathering.

Where do we all use AI nowadays? Be it in presentations, content creation, scanning interviews, job searches, education, on LinkedIn, reviewing documents, scanning documents, in e-commerce businesses using photography, or applying it to other skills.

The discussion on fantastic use cases was enlightening; there's a saying that a lot can happen over a cup of tea. Such great discussions are not always about showcasing who we are but often about understanding where the world is heading. The interaction with a few folks was great, and I'm looking forward to meeting and connecting with you again soon.

The discussion of AI's beautiful use cases across various domains—be it driving AI Nisarg Pandya, AI-driven interviews Vinit B Yadav, the education sector Niraj Harlalka, or the creation of mobile apps through AI—highlights its transformative power and versatility.

Nowadays, we often see blogs and posts from AI, and you can feel the difference between personally written and AI-generated content. It was also noted that sites using AI-generated content will be penalized, and the day may come when you have to credit your article as being generated by AI as thoroughly pointed out by Dipti Parmar.

Great mission of Ekta Shah founder of Biziverse is to empower Indian MSMEs to become world-class. Also discussion with VIKASH RAJPUROHIT founder of VastraApp, which is Vertical SaaS for the Textile Industry, was truly fruitful.

The clever integration of personal website visibility in the background during a concise two-line pitch adds a personalized touch that blends professional presentation .The commendable speed at which these tasks are executed is truly impressive Jatin Chaudhary.

In In the world of finance, as a qualified CA and CISA-certified professional, I look forward to more such use cases in the field, but along with ensuring data privacy and personal privacy. So, to conclude, AI is a companion, and we should use it wisely, not blindly. It can never replace humans but definitely saves time.

Notes from eChai AI Social at GVFL:

Curious about what went down at the eChai Startup Social with GVFL on March 14, 2024? Get ready to dive into a whirlwind of insights and takeaways straight from our participants themselves.

Mitesh Shethwala

, Founder, Currently 

Aditya Shah

, Founder, Because 

Shalin Parikh

, Founder, Entigrity

Nikita A Macquinn

 

Jimish Kapadia

 

Tarjani Shah

 

We use various tools in our office for graphics, images, and presentations, including ChatGPT-4 and its plugins and DALL-E, as well as Microsoft Copilot. We also utilize software that leverages AI in the backend for tasks like GST reconciliation. 

I recently shared a use case and a story titled "A Tale of Technology: AI's Impact on GST" on LinkedIn. You can find it here: https://l1nk.dev/Esd6Z.

I am excited to launch my very first "ReSchool Podcast" episode with Abhishek Desai, founder of CricHeroes, and Jatin Chaudhary, co-founder of eChai Ventures. 

Together, we explore innovative pathways for transforming schooling in our digital era as we dive deep into education, entrepreneurship, innovation, and reschooling. Stay tuned for real insights and inspiring stories!

It was a pleasure hosting enthusiasts and evangelists of Ahmedabad startup ecosystem at @CricHeroes office. Wouldn’t have been possible without  @jatin10 and @eChaiVentures.

Thank you everyone. Let’s do this more.

You can't miss eChai Ventures social when it's all about cricket, chai, exciting stories from individuals and lots of knowledge sharing.

Special thanks to Abhishek Desai and Kuntal Shah for having us at CricHeroes HQ and sharing interesting insights about the Game of God in India and worldwide with their Growing network and love of cricket.

Thank you Jatin Chaudhary for the wonderful social.

Had a pleasure to meet founder & team of @CricHeroes as part of 

@eChaiVentures Social over Chai with echai community. 

It is fascinating to know #Ahmedabad based company has now foot prints in over 80+ countries.

The mobile 1st platform empowers millions of grassroots cricketers to showcase their talent, get recognition and become better with data.

@abhishekdesai #CricketTwitter #VocalforLocal

Thanks to eChai Ventures, I had the privilege to witness the creativity & dedication of budding entrepreneurs along with the opportunity to engage with influential minds during the inspiring panel at IIMA Ventures.

The conversation between Vishvajit Sonagara & Parin Sanghvi on how they started their own ventures even after coming from strong business families was fascinating. Listening to their stories & experiences from Milapsinh Jadeja on setbacks, necessary pivots and achievements in their respective fields was a great motivation.

Really fortunate to have been a part of this productive session & looking forward to others in the future.

A week that was :)

It started by watching the movie #article370 and learning how the events progressed.

Movies such as Border, Uri, Gadar, Bhagat singh etc always lift that “Patriot” within us. A political thriller that Article 370 is, once again lifted that spirit in me. I was so proud to have such leaders who make things happen. Most of us “”speak” and dont “act”. We like to be on those postions and posts to “show off”. The key is contribution. Giving our 100%.

Gujarat Blockchain summit GIFT City Mehsana startup mahotsav with and eChai Ventures meet at IIMA Ventures, IIM Ahmedabad.

Had a super time with fellow members from the startup ecosystem. From Block chain to a Tier 2/3 city. Startups everywhere ! So Glad to see this evolution in Gujarat and super proud to be a part of this.

An enriching weekend at IIMA Ventures at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad 🌱

Organised by eChai Ventures Delighted to be part of an insightful meetup featuring candid panel discussions with visionary founders and leaders. Reelo Quicko Iroller Capital Pvt Ltd Vishvajit Sonagara Milapsinh Jadeja Parin Sanghvi ☕️

The meetup showcased the passion and innovation of early-stage founders through inspiring open pitches. The networking session was equally rewarding, connecting with like-minded individuals, sharing experiences, and building valuable connections. 🙋🏻‍♀️

Grateful for the opportunity to be immersed in this dynamic entrepreneurial community!