"I felt like the Formula 1 car driving in the rain knowing that the guy coming at the back is going to have a great time" shared Mithun Sacheti, Founder of CaratLane - A Tanishq Partnership

In my day's dose of podcasts, it was wonderful to hear an entrepreneur being born out of a family business, one that built in what wasn't a sunrise sector yet still a category creator - jewellery! Mithun not only set the path for start-ups in the space but paved the way for everything operations from negotiating the need for it with courier companies to convince the need for it to the banks and even had to explain the concept of online cross-border buying and selling of jewellery to the government, keeping it all ready for the ones to follow.

Some aspects that stayed with me-

- Relationships and your network: The importance of building relationships leading to mentorship backed by one's capability. He mentioned two core ones with Srinivasa Gopalan and how he got Raakesh Jhunjhunwala to listen to him while he got his numbers up after the insights Raakesh Jhunjhunwala shared (listen for more context- it's worth it)

- Partnerships led growth: Partnering with Cartoon Network to introduce a range of products for the 0-5yrs old and also working closely on introducing products with themes like Doremon and Harry Potter exponentially increased their TAM (total addressable market)

The Titan Company Limited partnership is one that went through its course, it gave both brands enough leverage to grow. #Founders, if you want to hear your heart drop for a few minutes, listen to the Titan-Caratlane story shared in the first 30 minutes of the podcast

- Reverse due diligence: The team travelled across the country and even to the US to understand their potential investors. While VCs have a stringent DD (due diligence) process, the founders knew they had to be aware of who they were getting onboard

- Holocracy: Roles > Titles ( What's in a name right? It's more about what you do) and that's exactly what the CaratLane - A Tanishq Partnership spirit was. Your work defines your role, not your title.

It made me smile to hear this last bit when Mithun Sacheti shared with Karthik B. Reddy that the Power of compounding = Sleep peacefully!

Podcast link