It's excited to explore GenAI's potential for startups. LLaMA 3’s advanced language capabilities and ChatGPT’s real-time conversational AI enhance content creation and customer support. Integrating these models with a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system and APIs, combined with fine-tuning using specific data, ensures tailored sol
I'm glad that Jatin Chaudhary was onboard when I said I'd curate and moderate a women-only panel for this subject. It wasn't a women-only event. Everyone was welcome. But the fact that I had these amazing women speakers from the world of venture capital spend their Saturday evening with us made it a wholesome gathering!
Sharing some snippets here -
Aditi Sinha believes she and her team at IndiaQuotient don't just invest in a startup but marry them! They grow together, brainstorm, pivot if need be and go beyond the boardrooms to show up in the journey. 💰Heavy on India SaaS owing to the growth potential 💰 Highlighted portfolio company FRND for their tightly knit tech team and immense learnings on consumer behaviour and power users 💰Interesting investments this year include Utsav App in the spiritual tech space and kim.cc 💰Recommends listening to The 20-minute VC by Harry Stebbings 💰Hiring: For founder office roles in Series A and Series C startups in her portfolio companies
Ashna Agarwal believes growing up in a Marwari family fuelled her curiosity since childhood. So she'd not just visit a restaurant for a family outing but also ask questions around how'd they make money to run that business. 💰In her work at Jungle Ventures, they invest in seasoned entrepreneurs and write a cheque size that's relatively bigger at that funding stage 💰Interesting investments this year include NIC Icecreams and Atomberg Technologies 💰Recommends reading The Economic Times and Inc42 Media that covers a large chunk of news without burning a hole in your pocket with all the paid subscriptions 💰Hiring: For a D2C startup in her portfolio company - Brand marketer with 7+ years of work experience
Vaishvi Bansal and her friends ran a Shark Tank style competition in college. From conceptualisation to execution, it was a three-month long rigorous learning that led to a total of eight startups raising around 25 Lacs! That was her first taste of what it takes to raise funds and "once you taste the blood, it's difficult to not go back to it", she quips. 💰 In her work at Marwari Catalysts, they are mostly the first ones to write a cheque for the startups and bring co-investors with them 💰Just the way founders look for a product market fit, they look for a founder market fit to ascertain that it's a good match! 💰Highlighted her portfolio company Turms (Bigphi Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) which has MS Dhoni promoting it 💰Hiring: Her portfolio companies are hiring. You can visit the company's website for details
We ❤️ the elevator pitches from founders along with some thoughtful questions from the audience!
Sunday Cheer: Share a picture with your pet in the Comments! The last pic has Nivin Joseph's Paris 🐶
Feeling grateful about interacting with co-panelists from various industries for a marketing panel discussion organised by eChai Ventures & Growth School in Bangalore.
Some 'Ahaa' moments for me were:
1) Ayushi Mona Singh gives an incredible example of vimal panmasala to showcase how key it is to know your customer 2) Siddharth Kumar (SK) talking about how topicality can be leveraged for addressing key consumer pain points in your industry 3) Sanjeet Kathuria discussing challenges of tough industries like fintech especially while planning GTMs of various markets 4) Chandana Pitta having an incredible B2B SAAS marketer journey with a hypergrowth start ups and she sharing snippets of this wonderful journey 5) Deepu Sukumaran Nair explaining the 'why', 'what' and 'how' of personal branding on Linkedin.
The audience was incredibly wonderful and Jatin Chaudhary thanks for moderating the session so well :)
🦄 Thank you for joining us in the eChai Ventures Product Growth meetup at Urban Vault 1515, HSR, Bengaluru! 🚀
Recapping a few highlights:
Aditya Vikram believes nothing succeeds like success. People want to be on the winning team. ➤ Helping people in the hour of need (start of Covid) by working on contactless deliveries at Amazon was gratifying. Though it also meant cutting short paternity leave. ➤ If India eCommerce market is growing by 100, Meesho is growing by 65. ➤ Co-signs what his mentor would say, "You become a seasoned product professional - not by building products but by shutting them down" ➤ If there was a product he may have liked to work upon, it'd be eSports FIFA ⚽ ➤ Hiring at Meesho for his team 📢
Alok Agrawal says he joined Microsoft because of his wife. He may have been a Chef or a Cricketer in a parallel world 🌎 ➤ Loved working on a product that helped people in the refugee camps. Contributing to the social impact it had felt fulfilling. ➤Eye popping numbers - MS Teams grew from 18 mn to 200 mn users during Covid. This growth was massively fuelled by Android phone users in the emerging markets. ➤ Being a PM is not as sexy as it sounds. Go for it if you like it while knowing that it's just a role. ➤ Hiring alert: His team at Mailmodo is hiring talent.
Sumit Malpani shares a hack from his work at Porter. "Follow Your User" and think of your user occupying a chair in every meeting that you sit in. ➤ During Covid, worked on the Ola Emergency product for people in essential services. Contributing to the impact it had was gratifying. ➤ Worked on Moj for Creators and built various Gamification modules for Creators at ShareChat, acquiring ~200k high quality creators, improving creator retention by 8pp. Reference reading: https://lnkd.in/gveZWpfw ➤ If there was a product he may have liked to work upon, it'd be Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. because it is a complex product with a great user experience. It is accessible, reliable and frictionless. From its colour coding to safety-related nudges, visual cues to clear instructions, everything adds to user delight.
It's a wrap! Do share resources - books, podcasts, newsletters, courses, platforms and communities that are helping you with your journey as a product professional. ✨
The event drew a diverse audience of over 45 attendees from 20 different countries, featuring a dynamic conversation between investors and founders, providing invaluable insights into the intricacies of fundraising.
Closing the event with a networking session, the audience engaged in meaningful conversations with a diverse array of startups and founders.
Events such as this play a crucial role in fostering connections, knowledge exchange and collaborative growth across international boundaries, empowering entrepreneurs to drive their ventures forward.
This event wouldn't have been possible without the support of Karan Bahadur and Jatin Chaudhary. Special thanks to Waleed Arshad and Mohammad Mustafa Hassan for their encouragement and support throughout the event.
Here's to many more successful collaborations and impactful events!
🦄 Thank you for joining us in the eChai Ventures FinTech Day meetup at Urban Vault 477, HSR, Bengaluru! 🚀
Sharing glimpses from our gathering -
Mohankumar Swaminathan has seen the pivots and the growth at Scripbox in his 8+ years of being with the organisation where he is a product leader in his current role. With only 1,000 certified financial planners in India, their offering is a productised version that makes wealth management easier. So if you are not a Do It Yourself person and would like to let them Do It For You with all the years of domain expertise, then check them out now!
Nishant Prasad from Wint Wealth comes from a legal side and built his understanding of everything that goes into the business by leading with curiosity. That puts him in a position to not just interpret circulars by the regulatory bodies but also speak the language of his colleagues to decode how this affects everything else. Fintech picked up massively during Covid. People had time and money to think about investing! Investor protection Vs Progression is always a conversation to have.
Ravi K. Goyal believes there is no substitute to hard work. He is a seasoned professional in the Fintech space and started his entrepreneurial journey around 3 months ago. He is building rural-focused NBFC in secured lending. When asked about what's a major challenge in his industry, he says it has to be Recovery, among everything else.
Saloni Mehta believes that money is very personal. Everyone wants different things from their money. At Jupiter, she is working towards helping people see everything in one place and manage their money wisely. A framework she loves is - Track, Analyse, Decide, Act' in that order. If you are looking to sharpen your knowledge on finance, she highly recommends the book 'Let's Talk Money: You've Worked Hard for It, Now Make It Work for You' by Monika Halan.
It's a wrap! Do share resources - books, podcasts, newsletters, courses, platforms and communities that are helping you with your journey in becoming a smart investor ✨
🌟 What a weekend! Had the privilege of engaging with amazing audiences on two different stages, discussing startups, brand building, and product marketing.
On Saturday, I shared the stage with esteemed founders Ankita De and Rapti Gupta at an eChai Ventures event, moderated by the fantastic Penchala Tharun 🚀. We delved into topics ranging from marketing and communities to startups and product marketing, with a special focus on the fintech space. A big thank you to eChai and Jatin Chaudhary for this opportunity! 🙏
Simultaneously, I had the pleasure of interacting with numerous entrepreneurs who are passionately building their own ventures. The insights gathered from diverse industries, from healthcare to the evolving Indian solar market, were truly enlightening. 🙌
On Sunday, the learning journey continued at a MyCaptain event, where I connected with over 80 individuals exploring the intricacies of Product Marketing.
We delved into the different strategies of product marketing, and I had the opportunity to walk them through a real-life campaign from Cashfree Payments, viewed through the lens of product marketing. Witnessing the participants' demos and the depth of insights they brought to the table was inspiring. 🎊
A huge shoutout to everyone who attended and engaged in these discussions. Your enthusiasm and curiosity made these events truly memorable. Special thanks to Tejaswi Vuppula and the entire MyCaptain team for this opportunity. 🙏
Looking forward to more such enriching events and interactions in the future!
Thrilled to share that I had the incredible opportunity to participate as a panelist at the meetup delving into the dynamic world of Product Management!
It was a pleasure to join fellow industry experts Sanjeet Kathuria, Harneet Kaur Chhabra and Sanket Bhatt in a riveting discussion on key practices and strategies shaping the field. The turnout was nothing short of amazing with 50+ product and growth folks and even founders showing up for an engaging evening!
Key Highlights from the discussion:
🎯 Being an advocate for customer empathy is fundamental for translating business needs into actionable insights to drive product growth. 🎯 GTM and product development should go hand in hand with a key focus on adopting early design partners and finding distribution channels that work for your startup. 🎯 Experimentation with product features, pricing and positioning can help unfold unforeseen avenues leading to higher customer engagement and business expansion
🙌 Huge shoutout to the organizers and host Jatin Chaudhary and Darshan Suthar for extending the invitation and for orchestrating such a successful event for the community.
Spent a dynamic Saturday morning with a group of dedicated entrepreneurs with eChai Ventures, exchanging invaluable insights and strategies for startup success. 🙌
We delved into key takeaways crucial for entrepreneurial success: 📈
1. Importance of Product Marketing: Emphasized the pivotal role of product marketing in effectively communicating the value proposition and benefits of your offering to the target audience.
2. Understanding CAC and LTV: Discussed the significance of Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Lifetime Value (LTV) metrics in guiding sustainable growth and profitability strategies.
3. PLG and SLG Strategies: Explored the power of Product-Led Growth (PLG) and Sales-Led Growth (SLG) approaches, highlighting their respective advantages and suitability based on business models.
4. Finding Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Stressed the necessity of identifying the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to optimize marketing efforts and enhance customer acquisition and retention rates.
5. Achieving Product-Market Fit (PMF): Recognized the importance of attaining Product-Market Fit (PMF) to ensure that your product resonates with the needs and preferences of your target market.
6. Importance of User Research: Underlined the critical role of user research in gaining deep insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points to inform product development and marketing strategies.
7. Significance of Customer Interaction and Insights: Highlighted the value of ongoing customer interaction and feedback loops in refining products, enhancing user experience, and fostering long-term customer relationships.
Here's to the power of collaboration and hustle! 💼🚀
My recent family visit to Jaipur would have been incomplete without a quick check-in into the start-up ecosystem. A few conversations with Headstarters and a last-minute meet-up with eChai Ventures helped me understand-
1. Jaipur and Rajasthan as a whole believe in business = profit > massive growth 2. Fundraising doesn't take as much precedence as building a sustainable business 3. Some of the most renowned start-ups and businesses like CarDekho Group, Razorpay, DealShare, and even Dexter Ventures have started and been built in Jaipur 4. The community is nascent, close-knit and growing 5. A lot of talent, very good talent is available thanks to the number of colleges and coaching institutes in the region
If you have been to or built-in #Rajasthan, I would love to hear your thoughts. Do tag anyone you would like me to meet the next time I'm in Rajasthan.
around thinking about MVPs and what it took him to build Superblog ai. and also from
Amit Chavan
.
The highlights from my notes say:
- B2C is hard. Sigh. - Build stuff for yourself, solve your own problem. - Do primary research by looking over trends. - Consumer behavior change revolves around three axes: Energy, time, and money. - Your first set of customers will come from your Alpha and beta users. - Your organic channels could be from either of these: - SEO - Build in public - Word of mouth - Good PMs follow revenue/business. - Sales is getting the cheque in hand.
- SEO in the future might take a different form, could evolve into chat engine optimization.
And got connected to a few interesting folks as well.
Had an incredible time at the eChai Startup Social Event! Connecting with professionals from diverse industry like #Technology, #Healthcare, #Food, #entertainment, #CA, #Sales & #Marketing was truly enlightening. . Throughout the event, we engaged in insightful discussions covering a spectrum of industries. From sharing experiences of success to reflecting on lessons learned from failures, our collaborative efforts aimed at fostering growth and development were truly enriching.
The enthusiasm and shared experiences highlighted the vibrant spirit of our startup ecosystem. It was pleasure moderate the event and share knowledge.
Connecting with multiple young entrepreneurs at the meetup underscored the importance of collaboration, shared learning, and building a supportive ecosystem. Each interaction sparked new ideas, collaborations, and opportunities for growth.
As the audience was filled with young entrepreneurs, they thrive on the energy and creativity that comes from connecting with like-minded individuals. These connections not only inspire us but also open doors to new partnerships, mentorship, and possibilities for innovation.
Grateful for the opportunity to engage with such a vibrant community of startup enthusiasts at Draper Startup House by Karan Bahadur & curated community by Nivin Joseph enabled by Jatin Chaudhary of eChai Ventures . Let's continue to foster connections, support one another, and collectively drive positive change in the startup ecosystem!
🚀 Recently, I had the opportunity to join an insightful panel alongside some incredible minds - Vandana Jain from Evident Capital, Priyank Jain, Co-founder of Soup-X, and the insightful moderator, Riten (Fueler).
Initially, I had my reservations, but thanks to Jatin Chaudhary's generosity in extending multiple invites, I decided to dive in. Grateful that I could overcome my inhibitions.
I questioned whether I could bring anything new to the table, considering my previous engagements on similar topics. It felt like everything I could share was already out there, accessible as playbooks or online courses. And as for my own and my brand's journey, well, it's right there on the internet for anyone to read.
But here's what this experience taught me:
1. Sometimes, we underestimate the value of our unique insights and journeys. We might think we've shared enough knowledge already, but there's always a fresh perspective or a new angle to offer. Your experiences are your own, and they can resonate with others on their own entrepreneurial journey.
2. The D2C space in India has indeed seen its fair share of repetition, especially in the post-COVID world. It's easy to fall into the same patterns and practices, but true pioneers stand out through innovation. Let's challenge the status quo and explore ways to set ourselves apart, beyond just products and sales channels.
Speaking at Draper Startup House and eChai Ventures event(s) is always a joy, and this time, it reminded me of the unique energy in Bangalore's startup ecosystem. It's an energy unlike any other, with an audience whose enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge were truly palpable.
And as we navigate the D2C landscape in India, let's remember that innovation, sustainable growth and authenticity are our guiding lights. While fundraising remains crucial, our focus should remain on building robust foundations, delivering exceptional customer experiences, and nurturing our long-term vision.
Here's to more enriching conversations and pushing the boundaries of D2C in Bharat! 🚀🇮🇳
I had an amazing time engaging with fellow entrepreneurs and enthusiasts in the startup community. The atmosphere was charged with an extraordinary level of passion and energy.
It always gives me immense joy to be able to share my learnings and lessons from building Amrutam with budding entrepreneurs and start-up enthusiasts.
I also feel grateful to be given a platform to talk about crucial topics that are not spoken enough about, like mental health and female representation in business.
I am forever grateful to Jatin Chaudhary#eChai for introducing me to Sohil Patel, who has been a true friend and mentor for the past decade.
Sohil's guidance and support have been invaluable to my personal and professional growth. Here's a throwback picture from our last dinner together at the beautiful lakeside in Udaipur.
Para as autoridades chinesas, os cristãos são considerados um perigo para a nação. Chineses protestam contra o “Livro Branco”. (Captura de t...
eChai Partner Brands
eChai Ventures partners with select brands as their growth partner, helping them expand market reach, drive revenue growth, amplify brand visibility, and strengthen hiring efforts.
Sai Krishna
Amit Chavan
