Entrepreneurship
Founder stories, funding traps, and the real mechanics of building in India.
Business Models
1 lessonEarly Traction
1 lessonFounder Mindset
1 lessonFunding & Control
1 lessonGoing to Market
1 lessonOperations
1 lessonPeople & Culture
2 lessonsWhen the Founder Becomes the Reason the Company Can't Grow
There's a strange moment in the life of every growing company. The same founder who built everything from scratch — the hero of the origin story — slowly…
Why Hiring Your Best Friend as Your First Employee Can Kill Your Startup
It's a familiar story in Indian startups. Two college friends decide to start a company together. The business takes off. Investors come in. Revenue grows.…
Scaling
3 lessonsWhy Jugaad Gets You Started and Systems Make You Unstoppable
The word "jugaad" is one of India's proudest exports. It's become a case study in Ivy League business schools. It represents the Indian ability to make things…
The Moment Swiggy Knew It Had Won
In 2015, Swiggy was not yet a household name. It was a small Bangalore-only company competing in a crowded food delivery space. Zomato was bigger. FoodPanda…
The Silent Killer Called "Let's Scale Now"
In 2012, two IIM alumni, Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah, launched an online furniture marketplace called Pepperfry. The idea was simple and ambitious. Most…
Starting Up
4 lessonsWhy Dunzo Couldn't Survive Despite Everyone Loving It
Everyone loved Dunzo. Reliance bought 25%. Valuation: huge. Four years later — near collapse. Why? Ask a Bengaluru resident in 2019 about Dunzo and you would…
Why Paytm Won the Night Demonetisation Happened
8 PM. Modi on TV. 86% of India's cash becomes paper. One app won the night. Why? November 8th, 2016. 8 PM. Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks onto live…
Why Your Friends' Approval Means Nothing in Business
Your mother loves your business idea. Your roommate thinks it's brilliant. Fifteen people liked your Instagram post. None of that is validation. A 23-year-old…
Why India Rewards Execution Over Original Ideas
Budget hotels existed forever. One 19-year-old turned them into $10 billion. Idea? Boring. Execution? Ruthless. In 2013, a 19-year-old college dropout named…
Startup Finance
5 lessonsThe Simple Ratio That Decides If a Business Actually Works
Imagine you own a small pizza place. You decide to attract new customers by spending ₹200 on Instagram ads for each new person who walks through your door.…
Why Ola's Cheap Rides Were Never Really Cheap
Remember 2015? An Ola ride from Saket to Connaught Place cost you ₹80. An auto would have cost ₹120. A taxi would have cost ₹300. It felt like Diwali every…
What Every Founder Learns the Hard Way About Burning Money
In January 2023, news broke that a fast-growing car services startup called GoMechanic had laid off 70% of its workforce overnight. A few weeks later, worse…
Why Byju's Had ₹10,000 Crore in Revenue and Still Ran Out of Money
₹10,000 crore revenue. $22 billion valuation. Could not pay salaries. How? In 2020, Byju Raveendran was on top of the world. His company, Byju's, was India's…
Why a Company with ₹10,000 Crore Revenue Can Still Be Broke
Flipkart did hundreds of crores in 24 hours. They lost ₹15 on every ₹100 sold. Guess which number the press talked about. Back in 2014, Flipkart's Big Billion…