Cover for Startup Growth Panel: Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Brands

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Startup Growth Panel: Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) Brands

Wednesday, 26 August 2020

11:00-11:59 PM IST

Hosts & speakers 5

Beatrice Dixon Speaker

Co-Founder & CEO, The Honey Pot Company

Kelly Watters Speaker

Founder & CEO, Western Rise

Saumya Gupta Speaker

Founder, Ten On Ten

Stephanie Sarka Speaker

Co-Founder & CEO, 1 Atelier

Tina Hedges Speaker

Co-Founder & CEO, LOLI Beauty Inc.

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Finding & working with developers I'm non-technical, do I actually need a technical co-founder? If you're building a technology product for the long haul, yes: agencies and...

Paid acquisition basics What are the classic first-campaign mistakes that quietly waste my whole test budget? The usual money-burners: killing ads before they have enough data, changing three...

Talking to customers & user research How do I recruit and interview my competitor's customers without it getting weird or them shutting down? Competitor customers are gold because they've already paid to solve the problem, and...

Getting your first 10 customers I run a two-sided marketplace. Do I get my first customers by starting with supply or demand, and how do I avoid the empty-restaurant problem? Marketplaces die empty on both sides, so pick the side that is easier to bootstrap...

Unit economics & modeling What is churn and how much churn is too much? Churn is the rate customers leave, and it silently caps your growth because you're...

IP, licenses & regulatory When do I actually need to register for GST, and what happens if I sell without it? You must register for GST once you cross the turnover threshold (broadly 40 lakh for...

Failure, pivots & shutdowns Is failing as a founder actually a career death sentence? Not even close, in most serious startup ecosystems a well-run failure is a credential,...

Founder mindset & resilience How do I keep going when I'm demoralized and want to give up? Demoralization is the actual cause of most startup deaths, not cash, so treat it like...

Mentors, advisors & network How do I find a mentor or advisor who will actually help me, not just add a logo to my deck? The best advisors are found through work, not asks: solve a specific problem near...

Founder mindset & resilience Is it normal to feel like a fraud when I have no idea what I'm doing? Yes, and it never fully goes away, every founder is improvising in public. The fix...

Polls

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Money & Legal How do you manage company spends and cards?

IDFC Business Card 1 vote · 100%

Volopay 0 votes · 0%

Happay 0 votes · 0%

EnKash 0 votes · 0%

Kodo 0 votes · 0%

Zaggle 0 votes · 0%

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Sales & Marketing What runs your marketing automation?

HubSpot 1 vote · 25%

MoEngage 1 vote · 25%

Others 1 vote · 25%

Retner.ai 1 vote · 25%

Customer.io 0 votes · 0%

Braze 0 votes · 0%

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Operations Which cloud telephony runs your business calls?

Exotel 0 votes · 0%

Knowlarity 0 votes · 0%

MyOperator 0 votes · 0%

Servetel 0 votes · 0%

Ozonetel 0 votes · 0%

Kaleyra 0 votes · 0%

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Operations Which internet provider keeps your team online?

+9

Jio (JioFiber / Jio Business) 9 votes · 50%

Airtel (Xstream Fiber / Airtel Business) 7 votes · 39%

BSNL 2 votes · 11%

ACT Fibernet 0 votes · 0%

Tata Play Fiber 0 votes · 0%

Spectra 0 votes · 0%

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People & Hiring How do you run payroll and HR?

Keka 2 votes · 67%

RazorpayX Payroll 1 vote · 33%

GreytHR 0 votes · 0%

Zoho Payroll 0 votes · 0%

Kredily 0 votes · 0%

Darwinbox 0 votes · 0%

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Operations How does your team book business travel?

MakeMyTrip 2 votes · 40%

EaseMyTrip 1 vote · 20%

Ixigo 1 vote · 20%

Direct on airline and hotel sites 1 vote · 20%

Cleartrip 0 votes · 0%

Yatra 0 votes · 0%

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Money & Legal How have you funded your business so far?

+9

Bootstrapped 16 votes · 89%

Angel investors 1 vote · 6%

A VC firm 1 vote · 6%

AngelList or LetsVenture syndicate 0 votes · 0%

Venture Catalysts or 100X.VC 0 votes · 0%

An accelerator 0 votes · 0%

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Money & Legal Who handles your GST and tax filing?

My CA handles it 7 votes · 100%

ClearTax 0 votes · 0%

Zoho Books 0 votes · 0%

IndiaFilings 0 votes · 0%

Quicko 0 votes · 0%

TaxBuddy 0 votes · 0%

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Money & Legal Which bank do you use and recommend for your startup?

+26

ICICI Bank 14 votes · 36%

HDFC Bank 10 votes · 26%

Kotak Mahindra Bank 9 votes · 23%

IDFC First Bank 2 votes · 5%

State Bank of India 1 vote · 3%

Yes Bank 1 vote · 3%

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AI Which AI assistant do you reach for first?

Claude 3 votes · 60%

ChatGPT 1 vote · 20%

Gemini 1 vote · 20%

Perplexity 0 votes · 0%

Grok 0 votes · 0%

Microsoft Copilot 0 votes · 0%

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Asks

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Operations & scaling I am looking for an Operations leader for the next phase at TAFCO. Reach out if you feel you are someone... Ayyan Karmakar

Partnerships & BD I'm looking for a strategic partner in my space. Darshan Thakkar

Product & UX Product leader\managers\owners, looking to collaborate on a market research effort for my startup. Need... Chaitanya Joshi

Looking for an open-source video generator for education/ career development program. Riya Shah

Planning Solo Founders Socials at eChai across cities. A lot of founders are building alone. Different... Jatin Chaudhary

Marketing & brand I’m currently exploring opportunities in Ahmedabad. I have 11+ years of experience in Food FMCG and... Chinmay Parekh

Partnerships & BD Looking for a professional video studio in Delhi for a long-term partnership — not a standard booking. We... Mr Mujtaba

Partnerships & BD I'm looking for resellers or agency partners. I'm open to co-marketing or a partnership with another... Pragnesh Shah

Looking forward to connecting with startup folks in Ahmedabad who play cricket. We are hosting eChai... Jatin Chaudhary

Fundraising & investors I'd value help building a tight list of the right investors to approach. Sudheer Panyam

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Nobody Teaches THIS to Men—and they Should | Manscaped

Nobody Teaches THIS to Men—and they Should | Manscaped Behind the Brand

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D2C 3.0 - How to build a successful brand in India in 2026: Indian Startups News 317 Backstage with Millionaires

Sophia Amoruso | Building Nasty Gal, Turning Down $400M, and Losing it All

Sophia Amoruso | Building Nasty Gal, Turning Down $400M, and Losing it All The Peel

Latin America's Global Bank

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“Curing All Disease by next century is too conservative" - Mark Zuckerberg

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China Just Built a Claude Mythos You Can Download (GLM 5.2)

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New Sales. Simplified.

New Sales. Simplified. Mike Weinberg

The Design of Everyday Things

The Design of Everyday Things Don Norman

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum Alan Cooper

Build Better Products

Build Better Products Laura Klein

Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles

Nawabs, Nudes, Noodles Ambi Parameswaran

The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital

The Entrepreneurial Bible to Venture Capital Andrew Romans

The Outsiders William N. Thorndike Jr.

Don't Make Me Think

Don't Make Me Think Steve Krug

Intercom on Product Management

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On Writing Well

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Docudrama Valley of the Boom Strong primer on the first internet gold rush, hype cycles and the bust that followed.

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Past events

eChai Founders Social

Fundraising for Startups: AMA with VCs and Angel Investors

Crafting Your Brand Online: Digital Marketing Tips for Startup Founders

Finding Your First 100 Customers: Insights and Strategies from Top Founders

Building Your Founding Team: Insights on Finding Co-Founders and Early Employees

Bengaluru Startup Meetup: HSR Layout edition

eChai's Startup Growth Meetup in Ahmedabad

eChai's Startup Growth Meetup in Ahmedabad

eChai's Startup Growth Meetup in Ahmedabad

eChaI SaaS Social in Ahmedabad

eChai Startup Demo Day in Bengaluru

eChai Breakfast Social in Ahmedabad

eChai Startup Demo Day in Rajkot

eChai Startup Demo Day in Surat

Building The Winning Startup Team and Company Culture

Startup Investor Perspectives ft. Milapsinh Jadeja, Founder, Iroller Capital

Startup Growth Stories from Nirma Alumni

Startup Growth Networking Meetup in Ahmedabad

Startup Growth Networking Meetup in Ahmedabad

Startup Growth Networking Meetup in Ahmedabad

Startup Growth Networking Meetup in Ahmedabad

Ep 2: Learnings from Failures - Startup Stories

Startup Growth Stories from Emerging Startup Cities

Startup Growth Networking Meetup + 1:1 Networking

005: Startup Growth Networking Meetup + 1:1 Networking

003: Startup Growth Networking Meetup + 1:1 Networking

002: Startup Growth Networking Meetup + 1:1 Networking

Startup Growth Networking Meetup + 1:1 Networking

CoRise SEA Summit

1:1 Virtual Startup Growth Networking Meetup by eChai.Network

See all past events →

Getting there