Global IndianstoryDeepinder Goyal: The resilient entrepreneur ever hungry for bigger challenges

Entrepreneurship

Deepinder Goyal: The resilient entrepreneur ever hungry for bigger challenges

Written by: Global Indian

(July 16, 2021; 6:55 pm) What began as an intranet website has now turned into one of the biggest food delivery companies in the country. Zomato, a brand that became a billion-dollar empire in just a decade, has now hit another jackpot with its ₹9,375 crore Initial Public Offering (IPO). Such has been the craze that its IPO subscribed nearly five times on the second day of its issue. A feat not many companies have attained. And, the lion’s share of credit goes to its founder Deepinder Goyal.

At the Zomato office pic.twitter.com/0hzeZD9M9g

— Sanjeev Bikhchandani (@sbikh) July 14, 2021

Ever since the record-breaking debut at IPO, Goyal has been at the receiving end of immense support and cheer from other entrepreneurs. From co-founder Pankaj Chaddah and Info Edge’s Sanjeev Bikhchandani and Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the laurels keep pouring in.

Pankaj Chaddha, the co-founder of Zomato, tweeted, “Congrats @deepigoyal & the entire @zomato team! The IPO is a huge validation of the value created through the years and is a landmark event for the start-up ecosystem. Feeling extremely lucky to have been a part of the journey. Keep showing the way! #ZomatoIPO”

Congrats @deepigoyal & the entire @zomato team! The IPO is a huge validation of the value created through the years, and is a landmark event for the start-up ecosystem.

Feeling extremely lucky to have been a part of the journey. Keep showing the way! #ZomatoIPO

— Pankaj Chaddah (@pankajchaddah) July 14, 2021

How it started. How it’s going @zomato @deepigoyal pic.twitter.com/zcNou498UN

— Sanjeev Bikhchandani (@sbikh) July 14, 2021

The humble beginnings

It was while ordering a pizza from his room at IIT-Delhi that an idea of starting a food delivery company struck Goyal. However, it fizzled out soon, and Goyal ventured into the corporate world with Bain & Company. It was here that the idea regerminated when he saw a sea of crowd struggling to place the order at the canteen during mealtimes. With the help from his colleague Pankaj Chaddah, who was also Goyal’s junior at IIT-Delhi, the two came up with a creative solution for saving time spent while ordering food. That was the beginning of Foodiebay.com. Scanning the office canteen’s menu and those from neighboring restaurants made Foodiebay.com an instant hit at Bain.

With the revenue trickling in, Goyal and Chaddah decided to turn their side hustle into a proper business. They quit Bain in 2009 and decided to start their own company.

The positive response encouraged Foodiebay.com to extend its wings to other metropolitan like Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, and Bengaluru, and in one year, they listed over 8000 restaurants.

The game-changing e-mail

Foodiebay.com was doing well for a start-up, but little did Goyal know that an e-mail from a fan would change their lives forever. It was Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the founder of naukri.com and Info Edge, who reached out to Goyal telling him that he would like to invest in Foodiebay.com. The two signed the deal within few days of the email. Info Edge invested $1 million in 2010 in Foodiebay.com.

How Foodiebay became Zomato

With a million-dollar invested in Foodiebay.com, Goyal decided to change the name to Zomato. The entrepreneur soon realized that there was ‘ebay in his brand, and in his words, “one should not build a business on a name which has 5% chance of getting screwed in the future.”

Soon Zomato was introduced to the world with a massive marketing and rebranding exercise.

“We decided to keep the idea of food at the center but choose a name that is timeless and encompassing. We decided on the name Zomato. Zomato’s got a zing to it and is originally a play on the word Tomato. Zomato is not restricted to food either,” Deepinder Goyal wrote in his blog in 2010.

The Global Indian brand

In two years of the start-up, Zomato went international by launching its service in Dubai and Singapore. The same year, Zomato went social with its new tools asking its 2.5 million active monthly users to review restaurants and share their love for food.

In 2013, Sanjeev Bikhchandani pitched Zomato to venture capital giants Sequoia, and in no time, they jointly invested $37 million in the food delivery company, which then had 600 employees and its existence in 11 countries.

With an appetite for global expansion, Zomato acquired New Zealand’s MenuMania, Czech Republic’s Lunchtime, Poland’s Gastronauci, and America’s UrbanSpoon. With its US launch, the food aggregator brand entered the coveted unicorn club with a $50 million fundraiser from Vy Capital and Info Edge.

Trouble in paradise

The food delivery giant started facing trouble in its paradise in 2015 when it had to lay off 300 employees. It even made an exit from 14 countries it was in and reduced its cash burn from $9 million to $1.6 million.

Zomato vs Swiggy

It was towards the end of 2018 that Zomato started to feel the heat from its competitor Swiggy, that was making a big wave in online delivery food. But Goyal wasn’t ready to bow down to competition yet and introduced strict timelines for food delivery in 2015. And within one year, Zomato hit 1 million orders.

In 2018, Zomato felt a huge blow when Pankaj Chaddah, the co-founder, quit the company without any explanation. This was also the beginning of restaurants’ cold relationship with Zomato. So much so that a Log Out campaign was launched by the restaurants alleging high commissions. However, Zomato had a different story to tell and called the restaurants its partners.

It was in January 2020 that Zomato bite into its competition when it bought Uber Eats in a $350 acquisition.

And now Zomato has come knocking on the people’s doors for delivering its shares. How well would Zomato do as a public company? The whole of India’s startup ecosystem would be watching.

Editor’s Take

Deepinder Goyal revolutionized the food industry with Zomato. He literally brought every restaurant to our doorstep with just a swipe on the phone.: A feat that wasn’t achieved in the food business until 2008. Zomato’s rise from a bootstrapped venture to a company that is raising a record amount through its IPO augurs well for the Indian startup ecosystem. For the first time, a new-age Indian internet venture – typically not exposed to public scrutiny – will be dissected and analyzed. This will also be a test of whether India’s equity markets are ready to accept fast-growing, but loss-making companies. The Zomato IPO will be a testbed for Indian startups.

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Published on 16, Jul 2021

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Neeraj Kakkar: The man who’s keeping traditions and memories alive, one drink at a time

(July 28, 2021; 6.15 pm) What are some of your earliest memories? We bet it involves happy times spent with your family and friends over some cherished food or beverage. For instance, it could be chugging a chilled glass of buttermilk after a summer afternoon spent playing in the sun with cousins. Or it could be haggling with the neighborhood chaat wala for an extra cup of spicy golgappe ka paani. Or sneaking into the kitchen to take a swig from that jug of sherbet your mother had prepared especially for the guests due to arrive at any moment. Somehow, memories and food go hand in hand. For Neeraj Kakkar, co-founder of Hector Beverages, it was this need to keep alive traditional recipes and innocent memories that drove him to launch the Paper Boat range of juices. Made with all natural ingredients just the way our mothers and grandmothers did all those years back, the Paper Boat range offers 13 varieties of traditional Indian drinks. These range from the much-oved aamras, aam panna, neer mor, panakkam, chilli guava, thandai, sherbet-e-khaas, rose tamarind, and kokum. [embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTxVEqpGtE[/embed] How it all began As a young boy growing up in Haryana, Kakkar was especially fond

aam panna, neer mor, panakkam, chilli guava, thandai, sherbet-e-khaas, rose tamarind, and kokum.

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTxVEqpGtE[/embed]

How it all began

As a young boy growing up in Haryana, Kakkar was especially fond of Kaanji, a drink made of fermented purple carrots and mustard. His family lived in a large house that also accommodated several other families; their landlady Maati would painstakingly make a large pot of kaanji and place it in the patio. Each child was given a glass... one glass strictly. The drink was delicious and Kakkar always wanted more. He resorted to swiping an extra glass for himself when nobody was watching. When he was caught, of course, he got into trouble, he said during a TED talk.

Several years later, as a young man, Kakkar wanted to drink kaanji again; the flavors still fresh in his mind. He also wanted to introduce it in his line of products at Paper Boat, the company he had launched in August 2013 along with Neeraj Biyani, James Nutall, and Suhas Misra under the parent company Hector Beverages. The idea for Paper Boat came up during an office lunch between the co-founders as they mulled over potential business ideas. Commercial production of traditional Indian drinks was hitherto unheard of in a market that was largely dominated by carbonated beverages.

Paper Boat launched with two products: Aam Ras and Jaljeera; both well-known and well-loved across India. The idea took off and today the company offers several more varieties, some of them seasonal. The name Paper Boat too was specifically chosen to invoke a feeling of nostalgia. In 2016, Kakkar had famously said that every product launched by his company would have a tinge of Indianness; and the company has so far stayed true to his word.

[embed]http://twitter.com/paperboatdrinks/status/1405453555801083907?s=20[/embed]

From Haryana to the US and back

Interestingly, Kakkar had worked for nearly seven years with Coca Cola in India, before he did his MBA from The Wharton School in Philadelphia where he was a Palmer Scholar, one of the highest academic honors. He co-founded Hector Beverages with Biyani, Misra and Nutall in 2009 and they began manufacturing Tzinga, an energy drink. The company was backed by Narayan Murthy’s VC firm Catamaran and Bangalore-based Footprint Ventures had also invested ₹6 crore. By 2013, the company had raised a second round of funding of $8 million from Sequoia Capital and Paper Boat was launched later that year.

The team was bent on preserving traditional recipes and spent quite a few months on R&D. As they expanded their product portfolio, Kakkar still wanted to introduce his beloved Kaanji into the market. However, to his surprise the market was overtaken by the common orange and red varieties of carrots and farmers had all but stopped growing purple carrots. The teams research led them to find that purple carrots were being grown in Turkey. So Kakkar flew to Turkey, filled up a suitcase with 20 kgs of purple carrots and flew back to Delhi... only to have his entire stock confiscated. Crushed, Kakkar did the next best thing. He began importing purple carrot seeds from Turkey and had them planted in three cities: Palampur, Ujjain and Ooty. After 13 continuous trials they finally got a crop in Ooty and the company set about producing Kaanji. It's a different story that the drink didn’t pass the quality test and had to be temporarily shelved.

[caption id="attachment_6215" align="aligncenter" width="499"] For Neeraj Kakkar it was this need to keep alive traditional recipes and memories that drove him to launch the Paper Boat range of juices. Neeraj Kakkar[/caption]

Mentors who shaped him

While initially retailers were sceptical to stock the Paper Boat line, the drink eventually grew in popularity and is now available through various channels. But for Kakkar, who has been reinventing the whole ethnic beverage industry, there are key lessons he’s learnt from three mentors who shaped his perception of entrepreneurship. “First, Kanwaljit Singh, co-founder at Helion ventures, exposed me to the world of entrepreneurship during my internship period there. Kanwal encouraged me to work with a few startups in Bangalore who were doing interesting jobs. He also recommended food to be the best sector to start; when Hector Beverages was launched, he became our angel investor,” said Kakkar in an interview in Medium.

The second was Shripad Nadkarni, head of marketing at Coca Cola, and Kakkar’s former colleague, who helped them with the marketing and branding of the company. And the third was Narayana Murthy. “I would say the value system of our organization in some ways is a reflection of his personality. He has also been with us from day zero. He doesn’t interfere with our day-to-day work — he doesn’t tell us about what to do with our strategy, however on the value system, he has always had strong viewpoints and he kind of makes sure that we do not deviate from the right path,” he says.

Challenges to overcome

While the company saw an uptake in sales in FY2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Paper Boat sales in a large way, given the lockdowns and travel restrictions. Airports and Railway stations were important touch points for the brand. While production was completely halted for a brief period in 2020, it gradually resumed as the lockdowns eased. Now, the company is looking to expand its online-only range of products in a bid to thwart the effects of the pandemic and its resultant losses.

Reading Time: 10 mins

Naval Ravikant: The AngelList founder and angel investor popularly known as Tech Buddha

To him, managing a fund is more of a hobby. Yet, AngelList founder Naval Ravikant is known as The Angel Philosopher and Tech Buddha — monikers that are testimony to his knack of bringing a philosophical and pure science perspective to the tech industry. Besides being an evangelist for the startup ecosystem, the Indian American is a successful backer of famed names such as Uber, Twitter, Yammer, FourSquare, and Stack Overflow. Struggle-filled beginnings Like most successful founders, the 47-year-old's entrepreneurial journey is speckled with failures; in his Outliers podcast Ravikant says that success only comes after one has given up on it. When he launched Epinions back in 1999, it came with its own share of challenges. After exiting Epinions (now Shopping.com) there was a decade of struggles before he tasted success with his 2010 venture AngelList, a one-stop-shop for the early-stage tech ecosystem that helps entrepreneurs raise money and recruit talent. Delhi to NYC Originally from Delhi, Naval moved to New York with his mother and brother at the age of 9. It was here that he was exposed to the world of technology and went on to graduate from Dartmouth College in Computer Science and Economics followed by a brief stint with the Boston Consulting Group. AngelList established him as one of the most influential names in Silicon Valley. It all began as a way to open up Silicon Valley and the tech industry to the rest of the world. From

ata-contrast="none">Outliers podcast Ravikant says that success only comes after one has given up on it. When he launched Epinions back in 1999, it came with its own share of challenges. After exiting Epinions (now Shopping.com) there was a decade of struggles before he tasted success with his 2010 venture AngelList, a one-stop-shop for the early-stage tech ecosystem that helps entrepreneurs raise money and recruit talent.

Delhi to NYC

To him, managing a fund is more of a hobby. Yet, AngelList founder Naval Ravikant is known as The Angel Philosopher and Tech Buddha

Originally from Delhi, Naval moved to New York with his mother and brother at the age of 9. It was here that he was exposed to the world of technology and went on to graduate from Dartmouth College in Computer Science and Economics followed by a brief stint with the Boston Consulting Group.

AngelList established him as one of the most influential names in Silicon Valley. It all began as a way to open up Silicon Valley and the tech industry to the rest of the world. From a time when people rushed to strike deals before it became public information to today where thousands of investors and early founders transact transparently, AngelList has been a clear game-changer.

Ravikant is a deep thinker who likes to constantly challenge the status quo on most things. Today most entrepreneurs believe that networking is of utmost importance but the startup backer has a contrarian view. In an Outliers podcast, he said if one is building something interesting there will always be more people wanting to know you than you want to know them.

In a collection of interviews, he published on his website, Ravikant says one can realize one’s philanthropic vision by running a business.

“Others believe wealth creation is fundamentally at odds with an environmentally healthy planet. They view it as a giant zero-sum game. That’s a false narrative... There is a word environmentalists love: sustainability. If nothing else, for-profit businesses are financially sustainable. You can do a B Corporation, which has a dual mission.”

As a startup backer, it is the quality of the team that seals the deal for him. Matt Oesterle, an entrepreneur and one of his recommenders on his LinkedIn profile states,

“There’s no better angel investor to have on your side… If he believes in you, he sticks with you through the good and the bad, goes out of his way to help whenever you need it.”

Ravikant has personally backed more than 200 startups besides serving as an advisor to several companies and is on several boards too. He occasionally blogs and tweets, and is a partner in MetaStable, a cryptocurrency hedge fund.

He is a voracious reader with a legendary fascination for science. In his interview with Shane Parrish on Farnam Street, he said, “Science is, to me, the study of truth. It is the only true discipline because it makes falsifiable predictions. It actually changes the world.”

Typical workday

For Ravikant, a typical day just doesn’t cut it. He wants to break away from the idea of a 40-hour or 60-hour workweek. It is important to really enjoy what you do. During one of his AMAs in November 2020, he told a Twitter user,

“Find work that doesn’t feel like a sacrifice and then you won’t be thinking about retirement.”

Naval on Twitter

[embed]http://twitter.com/naval/status/1404508591193612289?s=20[/embed]

[embed]http://twitter.com/naval/status/16325629716?s=20[/embed]

Watch Naval on YouTube

Reading Time: 5 mins

Born in Chicago, settled in India, Anjum Babukhan set up a school that makes a difference

(October 7, 2021) Anjum Babukhan's is an unconventional story. Born and brought up in Chicago, she moved to India for her husband. But where she could've basked in the glory of her new life, she decided instead to channel her energies into branching out on her own. A keen learner herself, she found the education system in the country outdated and set out to make a change in her own small way. She founded Glendale Academy, a co-education school that laid an emphasis on holistic growth and a nurturing environment, in Hyderabad. The concept clicked and today, the brand has flourished into a chain of private schools that was ranked number 1 in Telangana and at number 8 in India by Education World. For close to three decades now, Anjum has striven to transform lives through education, which remains her top priority even today. Otherwise, the award-winning educationist can teach you a thing or two about martial art form like Tai Chi or Chinese exercise Qigong, show off her urban sketching skills and Yin-Yang art, display her Ikebana expertise, become a dance choreographer or wow people with her Zumba and Yoga moves. In everything that she does, Anjum sets the standards

e a dance choreographer or wow people with her Zumba and Yoga moves. In everything that she does, Anjum sets the standards high.

By leaps and bounds

“I do my best and let god do the rest,” smiles Anjum, settling down for an exclusive interview with Global Indian. Her desire to achieve and a passion to convert her dreams into reality led to the birth of Glendale Academy. She took off with one school in the early 2000s; 25 years later, Glendale has expanded by leaps and bounds.

“We now stand as number 1 in Telangana and top 10 in India; we are known for our pedagogy – the art of teaching and holistic curricular approach more than anything else," informs a beaming Anjum, the Director of Glendale, as she looks back at her illustrious journey.

From America to Hyderabad

Born and raised in Chicago in the United States in a conservative family, Anjum is the eldest of four siblings. Her Indian Muslim parents immigrated from Hyderabad in the 1970s. "I keep traversing between continents, cultures and conditions. Whether it was adapting as a bicultural child of immigrants in the US to moving halfway across the world to India and adjusting to the social constructs of the society here, I pick out elements of what I choose to harmonize in my symphony of multi-layered and multi-cultural being," says Anjum.

She was a high honor roll student, who won several scholarships on graduating from high school before she went on to study Psychology in the honors program at Loyola University, Chicago. While in her last year at the University, Anjum met an international student from Hyderabad, Salman Babukhan, whom she married after college. Anjum moved to India in 1995 after pursuing her Masters in Education Administration and Instructional Leadership at University of Illinois.

Entrepreneurial journey

Within months of her settling down in India, she discovered the education system here was outdated and rigid. She wanted to change things, so Anjum set out on a mission. "We wanted to create nurturing spaces that develop every child's multiple intelligence spectrum, physical capabilities, creative potential, 21st Century life skills and multicultural awareness. At Glendale, our focus has always been and remains on cultivating competence and character," she informs.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8i9DT5BbkI[/embed]

A lifelong learner, Anjum is not only keen on sharing her knowledge, but also adapts and evolves with the changing times. "Everyone changes and everyone evolves. From my teens, 20s, 30s, and now in my 40s, I have grown more effective in my career, confident in capacities, resilient in challenges and comfortable within my own being as time moves forward. In the biological paradigm, those who adapt not only survive, but thrive," says the mother of three.

Anjum has many feathers in her academic cap. Among them are the outstanding academic achievement awards in the Presidential Academic fitness awards program signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and President George HW Bush in 1990, as well as an "academic and leadership excellence" award presented by Hyderabad foundation of Chicago.

The eternal Global Indian

Describing herself as a Global Indian American Muslim, Anjum is constantly pushing the boundaries. Even now, she is strong in her academic pursuits in her quest for lifelong learning. With courses like Strategy in Action and Project Zero from Harvard, courses from Cambridge and recently a Design Thinking course from Stanford D school, she exemplifies her motto of learning every day. The visionary leader that she is, Anjum says she loves to learn anything that contributes to building her own multiple intelligence spectrum.

"One should explore their many sides across identities, capacities, cultures and ways of knowing the world. Every aspect one has in them can be channelized and optimized. There is no one like you and never will be. Be the best version of yourself always," she advises all those embarking on a journey. A globetrotter, Anjum says she keeps wanting to bridge the best of both worlds with what she likes and lives in both places. "I guess we are all travelers in this world," says Anjum, who is also a TEDx speaker.

Global Indian Anjum Babukhan

Staying true to her roots

With an experience of over two and half decades in implementing the best teaching methodologies, she has also authored a book, ABCs of Brain Compatible Learning, which is a guide for all educators.

The one Indian-ness, she says, that remains with her is the Hindustani language, be it Urdu or Hindi, which is a way to know, enjoy and be enriched by culture. "Nothing can be as colorful and vibrant as ethnic apparel and accessories. But even if I feel comfortable with the secular and pluralistic ideals of countries I call my own, my belonging may be questioned by the right-wing powers of the majority at times, whether it is in the US or India," says Anjum, who has won innumerable awards, accolades and recognition not just individually but for her institutions as well.

Anjum, who received an honorary doctorate in education by the National American University and National Institute of Education and Research, has an interesting take on Brand India. "As long as Brand India maintains its pluralism, secularism and humane values on which the nation was founded upon, it will grow stronger, taller and wider by harnessing the strength of unity in diversity. If it is inclusive, striving for justice and opportunity for all, Brand India will be a potent force like no other."

Follow her on LinkedIn

Reading Time: 8 mins

Kunal Shah: The Indian entrepreneur who went from selling henna cones to running a $4 bn business

(November 9, 2021) He has run over a dozen businesses since he was 16 before founding his current success CRED, a business valued at over $4 billion. Meet Kunal Shah, the serial entrepreneur who has been making all the right moves sans any fancy MBA or engineering degree in his portfolio. What he has though is a keen business acumen and an eye for startups that hold great potential. The philosophy graduate, incidentally dropped out of his MBA course at Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in 2004. But not many know that there was a time when this Global Indian would sell everything from henna cones to pirated CDs to support his family, which was then in the financial doldrums. The entrepreneur from Mumbai Born and raised in a Gujarati family in Mumbai, Shah’s father was into the pharmaceutical distribution business in South Mumbai. Shah realised the importance of money and financial independence early on in life when his family faced a financial crisis. That is when he went on to do several odd jobs to support his family: from selling henna cones and pirated CDs to running tuition classes and running a cyber cafe, he’s done it all. When Shah graduated in Arts and Philosophy from Wilson College, he chose

al4.jpg" alt="Global Indian Kunal Shah" width="960" height="640" />

The entrepreneur from Mumbai

Born and raised in a Gujarati family in Mumbai, Shah’s father was into the pharmaceutical distribution business in South Mumbai. Shah realised the importance of money and financial independence early on in life when his family faced a financial crisis. That is when he went on to do several odd jobs to support his family: from selling henna cones and pirated CDs to running tuition classes and running a cyber cafe, he’s done it all.

When Shah graduated in Arts and Philosophy from Wilson College, he chose to not join the family business and instead opt to work with a BPO called TIS International Inc as a junior programmer in 2000. In 2003, he even enrolled for an MBA at Narsee Monjee, but dropped out soon after. In an interview with YourStory he said, “I realised that I was better off learning on my own than through a structured programme, because the curriculums and theories were a lot more designed for scoring marks and not really understanding things. So, to me MBA as a format did not work,” he said.

Shah met Sandeep Tandon, an investor in TIS, who struck by Shah’s personality soon developed a lasting professional relationship with him. Shah worked with the BPO for over 10 years, before deciding to branch out on his own.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4px19xzK7zI[/embed]

The entrepreneurial streak

He then spent time working as a freelance designer and programmer before building a small SaaS company that underwent several changes and pivots to finally become Freecharge. He’d founded this with Tandon, and successfully ran it until 2016 when he chose to bow out and went on to serve as chairman and advisor to many companies such as BCCL, chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, an advisor to Y Combinator and Sequoia Capital India. Incidentally, Freecharge was eventually acquired by Axis Bank.

By 2018, he decided to start up again and founded CRED, a member-only credit card payment app. The app allows members to manage all their credit cards in one place, sends them bill payment reminders and rewards them for timely payments. The startup generated massive buzz for its astronomical seed funding round and also for its unique business model.

Shah with his entrepreneurial streak, believes that one needs to risk capital to be able to grow one’s business. At the same time, he wants to see wealth of others grow as well. Shah said, “We see our fundraise as a responsibility to build a rewarding ecosystem for Cred members and an opportunity to share value with stakeholders. Hence, happy to also announce a $5 million ESOP buyback for the team members who have contributed to the Cred journey.”

[embed]https://twitter.com/kunalb11/status/1380039329603461120?s=20[/embed]

In a little over two years, CRED has amassed over 6 million users and is now valued at over $4 billion. But for Shah valuations hold little meaning; he believes that unicorn tags are the hopes and beliefs of stakeholders. Earlier this year he tweeted, “Unicorn tag, high valuations are all vanity metrics till the company delivers profits. Many companies like Amazon & Facebook were loss making for several years but became truly valuable only when they delivered profits.”

Entrepreneur with a difference

Shah is also a keen observer of consumer behaviour and has been focusing his businesses on offering people a great consumer experience. CRED has been rolling out several innovative features for members such as Rentpay to pay a monthly credit card rent for a small transaction fee, CRED Cash, an instant credit line accessible in three steps.

Interestingly, Shah is also not a big believer in degrees and qualifications when hiring talent for his company. “I am a philosophy major, I can’t care about other people’s degrees that much. I do believe in people who are generally excellent and believe in excellence and care about it, it may have demonstrated in many things. For example, one of our team members, a senior leader, has not even done graduation, the best degree that person has is 10th pass, but it’s okay,” he said in an interview.

Apart from running his own business, Shah is also an active angel investor and advocate of India’s startup ecosystem. According to a recent Hurun India report, Kunal Shah tops the list of entrepreneurs with the most number of investments in startups that may turn unicorn in the next few years. He is invested in nine such companies. Shah is followed by Binny Bansal and Ratan Tata.

Global Indian Kunal Shah

He is currently invested in over 50 companies including Ola and Gojek. His reasoning for investing in startups is simple. In an interview with The Ken he said, “The number one thing that I look at is what I can learn from the founders. My thesis for an investment, whether in angel rounds or up to Series B, is to be associated with the smartest minds. I let the founders determine the size of the cheque. During angel rounds, startups look for both money and potential learning or the investor’s ability to guide them from their own experience. Founders who believe I can offer that, approach me. I invest in companies and founders who are introduced to me and whom I can learn from.”

For a Mumbai lad who started off with working several odd jobs to stay afloat, Shah is now actively investing in startups in a bid to pay it forward and fund job creators for he believes that is the need of the hour: job creators.

Follow Kunal Shah on Twitter and LinkedIn

Reading Time: 8 mins

Vandana Luthra the businesswoman who brought the winds of change to the Indian wellness industry

(October 16, 2021) In the late 1980s, when Vandana Luthra came up with the idea of a transformation center – offering beauty services, wellness and weight management programs for men and women all under one roof – many, including her financiers, were apprehensive. Some even dismissed her idea as too futuristic. Back then, the health and wellness industry were doing well abroad but were still unheard of on Indian shores. After all, it was an era when most women would head to their friendly neighborhood parlor, one would that often be tucked into the owner’s home, for their beauty needs. She painstakingly convinced people that her venture as a business model was both scalable and sustainable. Despite the naysayers, Vandana stayed persistent. The convincing took a while, but she secured a bank loan and the first VLCC transformation center opened up in Safdarjung development area in New Delhi in 1989. [embed]https://twitter.com/Vandanaluthra/status/1440666809519067155?s=20[/embed] Woman with a vision Fast forward to 2021 and the numbers speak for themselves. The VLCC health care operates in 326 locations in 153 cities and 13 countries in South Asia, South East Asia, the GCC region and east Africa; the company manufactures and markets 170 hair care, skin care and body care products along with functional and fortified foods, which are sold through one lakh outlets in India and over 10,000 outlets across various countries and e-commerce channels.

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Fast forward to 2021 and the numbers speak for themselves. The VLCC health care operates in 326 locations in 153 cities and 13 countries in South Asia, South East Asia, the GCC region and east Africa; the company manufactures and markets 170 hair care, skin care and body care products along with functional and fortified foods, which are sold through one lakh outlets in India and over 10,000 outlets across various countries and e-commerce channels.

Today, her chain of transformation centers VLCC is a brand to reckon with. Vandana’s work also earned her the Padma Shri in 2013, the Enterprise Asia Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2010, and the Asian Business Leaders Forum Trailblazer Award in 2012. She was also ranked 26th in the Forbes Asia list of 50 Power Businesswomen in the APAC Region and was featured in Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India list for five straight years.

Indian businesswoman Vandana Luthra

Long road ahead

But she is not done yet. "By nature, I am a restless person. Though I certainly take great pride in what the VLCC family has achieved, we have much more to accomplish," says Vandana during an exclusive chat with Global Indian. She says that the incidence of obesity continues to rise alarmingly and its related issues are a huge public health challenge. "The COVID-19 crisis has heightened awareness about proactive and preventive healthcare across age groups and that has made a leading Wellness & Beauty services and products player like VLCC even more relevant today. We have a significant role to play in this area," she says.

Vandana says she realized quite early in her entrepreneurial career that there were certain stereotypes that needed to be challenged. "Nutrition is the key aspect of providing wellness, weight management, skin and hair treatments for a 360-degree transformation. Though there were women out there who had very impressive qualifications in dietetics, very few had taken up that academic qualification to make a career in the nutrition domain," she says. Most women would only opt for these courses to attract good matrimonial prospects.

[caption id="attachment_13281" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Indian businesswoman Vandana Luthra Vandana with her husband Mukesh[/caption]

The Delhi girl with a mission

Born in New Delhi in July 1959, Vandana’s father Ram Arora was a mechanical engineer, while her mother Kamini an Ayurvedic doctor. Vandana did her schooling from Mater Dei School before graduating from Lady Shriram College in 1979. She then chose to move to Karlsruhe in Germany for her higher studies in cosmetology and nutrition.

Ask her what she makes of her journey when she looks back, and she says, "Over the years, I have become far more aware about issues than I otherwise would have had I been focusing only on the transactional aspects of creating and nurturing successful businesses," says the 61-year-old.

Recalling her own experiences, the entrepreneur says that one of the first issues that a woman grapples with when embarking on a professional journey is self-doubt with respect to work-life balance. "This issue may be less acute today when compared to two-three decades ago but women continue to struggle with it. If one takes a look at the traditional, stereotypical role of women as homemakers, they will realize that women are inherently good managers, balancing work and home. So, one need not obsess too much about balancing different priorities, it comes naturally to women," says Vandana, herself a mother of two.

"Our 3,000-odd colleagues across 12 countries are the torchbearers of VLCC's success," smiles Vandana. She credits her husband Mukesh and their two daughters who helped her ride the tide throughout her entrepreneurial journey. "Then came along my VLCC family which has grown over the years and has always been my strength," smiles Vandana, who was appointed the first chairperson of the Beauty and Wellness sector skill council, an initiative that provides training under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana scheme, in 2014.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4WHiAs2WAM[/embed]

Giving Back

While her work keeps Vandana busy, it is the Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust, of which she is the patron, that is close to her heart. Founded by her mother, the trust pioneered the concept of educating children with and without disability in equal numbers from nursery to class eight; it has over 800 children in its two schools. Vandana is also the vice chairperson of the NGO Khushii which has projects like telemedicine centers and a remedial school catering to 3,000 children.

On Brand India, Vandana explains how it has evolved over the years to become a multi-faceted icon. "Today, brand India stands tall among the community of nations for its reputation as a unique tourist destination, splendid in its diversity, for its status as a growing economic powerhouse, for its attractiveness as a large and lucrative market of over 1.3 billion consumers, for the respect it commands as a talent nurturing pool for outstanding leaders in the global corporate world. The list is long," says Vandana, who has authored two books on wellness and fitness.

Follow Vandana on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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