Shantanu Deshpande

Bombay Shaving Company · Delhi-NCR

Founder of Bombay Shaving Company and host of The BarberShop, publishing candidly on D2C brand building in India

Why they're worth your time

He talks about the parts of D2C that pitch decks skip: why a category has to be built before a brand can be sold into it, what it costs to move from online-only to retail, and where the unit economics actually break. The podcast pushes other Indian founders into the same specifics.

Background

Shantanu Deshpande left McKinsey to found Bombay Shaving Company in 2016, now part of Visage Lines Personal Care alongside the Bombae brand, operating at a scale of several hundred crore. He hosts The BarberShop with Shantanu, a long form podcast with Indian founders and CEOs, and posts frequently on LinkedIn about building a consumer brand, hiring and founder life.

Known for

Positioning Category design Retention & expansion Partnerships

Where they're public

Their own channels. Read the work first.

LinkedIn X Podcast

Others on the same ground

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