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What makes a restaurant worth backing when 80% of them fail? Hotshare, an F&B investment platform that backs restaurant businesses at the outlet level, evaluated 41 brands in its first year and invested in just three. So what made those three worth backing? For Lavanya, Founder and CEO of Hotshare, the answer is not just great food, a packed dining room or a strong brand. She wants proof that the outlet itself works. That means profitability. Clean operating data. Healthy unit economics. Repeat demand. Tight execution. And a clear reason to believe the same economics can hold when the business opens its next location. In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Lavanya to understand how Hotshare decides which restaurant businesses are ready for capital, why traditional venture frameworks do not always fit F&B, and what founders need to prove before asking someone else to fund outlet #2. 00:00 Introduction to Lavanya and Hotshare 03:35 How Hotshare evaluates F&B brands 10:03 Capital flowing into India’s F&B sector 15:32 Hotshare’s “missing middle” thesis 22:57 How Hotshare thinks about outlet-level returns 30:16 The numbers behind a healthy restaurant 34:02 Common mistakes restaurant founders make 38:21 Market research and the data gap in F&B 43:19 Profitability and CapEx benchmarks 53:06 Can hospitality become an investable asset class? 59:12 Red flags and green flags Hotshare watches for 1:01:38 Rapid fire: discipline vs talent, food vs unit economics 1:10:16 BeyondBurg founder Anas joins the conversation 1:13:07 Why Hotshare invested in BeyondBurg 1:28:29 Restaurant recommendations from Lavanya and Anas Hotshare does not fund first outlets. Lavanya wants to see at least one profitable outlet, backed by operating data, signed financials and ongoing MIS, before considering the next one. She also gets specific about the economics, from COGS, EBITDA and rent to profitability and CapEx recovery, and why a strong month matters far less than the trajectory of the business. The conversation also gets into Hotshare’s “missing middle” thesis: many restaurants need ₹50 lakh to ₹5 crore to expand, an amount that can fall between informal funding and traditional institutional capital. Lavanya explains why outlet-level cash generation and yield can offer a different way to think about returns in F&B. Then BeyondBurg co-founder Mohammed Anas joins the conversation. BeyondBurg started in 2017 as a four-seat kiosk selling around 40 to 50 burgers a day. At the time of the podcast, it was doing roughly 3,000 burgers a day and preparing to open its sixth location. Lavanya and Anas talk about what Hotshare saw in the business, from disciplined unit economics and operating data to a focused product, strong systems and a hospitality culture that could hold up as the brand expanded. For F&B founders thinking about raising capital and investors trying to understand what makes a restaurant worth backing, this is a detailed look at how those decisions are actually made. Connect with Lavanya JayashankarLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyajayashankar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mowglikima/ X: https://x.com/LavsJS Follow Jerome Manuel X (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuel Read the transcript for the entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/Hotshare About Prime Venture Partners Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software. Learn more: Prime Venture Partners Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ Learn more about: Hotshare: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotshare.in/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hotshare/ BeyondBurg: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondburginc/?hl=en #F&BInvestment #Entrepreneurship

How was Puma India built, how did Virat Kohli’s one8 come about, and what is Agilitas trying to build in India’s sportswear market? Abhishek Ganguly spent 17 years at Puma, joining when the brand was virtually unknown in India and helping build it into the country’s largest sportswear brand. Puma India went on to cross ₹2,000 crore in revenue, ahead of Nike and Adidas combined in India. Then, after nearly two decades in the industry, Abhishek chose to start again. Today, as Co-founder & CEO of Agilitas, he is pursuing a much bigger idea: can a sports brand from India compete with the best in the world? In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Amit Somani speaks with Abhishek about the journey from Puma to Agilitas and one8, how Indian consumers have changed over the last two decades, why past success can become a disadvantage, and what it takes to build a brand people genuinely care about. Timestamps00:00 Introduction 00:59 Building Puma India From Scratch 05:29 How the Indian Consumer Has Evolved 12:06 Staying Close to the Consumer 16:36 Why Consumers Don’t Need More Products 18:33 “Made in India, Unfinished on Purpose” 21:19 Why Start Agilitas? 24:20 The Risk of Past Success 25:12 “Disruptors Don’t Disrupt Again” 28:16 Building With Virat Kohli 32:09 Why India Needs a Global Sports Brand 34:16 Why Virat Kohli Backed Agilitas 36:45 Building a Brand From India 37:32 Virat Kohli Rejected 17 Prototypes 39:28 The Future of one8 41:35 Advice for Entrepreneurs A major thread in the conversation is Abhishek’s long-standing relationship with Virat Kohli. He goes back to 2016, when he proposed that Virat should build a brand of his own rather than remain only a brand ambassador. That idea became one8. Years later, when Abhishek left Puma to start Agilitas, Virat became one of the company’s early believers, investing in the business and merging one8 with Agilitas. The conversation also explores why Abhishek believes Indian consumers are evolving too quickly for old global playbooks, why founders need to stay close to the consumer, and why experience can sometimes become baggage. His own reminder to himself is simple: “Disruptors don’t disrupt again.” At the heart of Agilitas is a larger ambition: to build a sports brand from India that can compete with the best in the world, not on price, but on product, performance and brand. Connect with Abhishek GangulyLinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/abhishekgangulyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/abhishekganguly/?hl=enX: https://x.com/gangulyabhishekFollow Amit SomaniX (Twitter): https://x.com/amitsomani?lang=enLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesomani/ Read the transcript for the entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/Abhishek-Ganguly-Agilitas About Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet, and enterprise software. Learn more: Prime Venture Partners Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ Learn more about AgilitasWebsite: https://agilitas.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agilitas-sport/home/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agilitas_sports/?hl=en #SportsEntrepreneurship #BrandBuilding

What does it take to build original deep tech in India, get some of the country’s largest companies to adopt it, and eventually take the business to a ₹1,000+ crore IPO? In 2007, Professor Shashikanth Suryanarayanan started @SEDEMAC Mechatronics out of an IIT Bombay lab. Nearly two decades later, SEDEMAC has become one of India’s standout deep-tech success stories. The company crossed ₹1,000 crore in annual revenue, ships around 1 million motor controllers every quarter, and its ISG (Integrated Starter Generator) technology is now on an estimated 12 to 13 million vehicles on the road. It also reached a milestone very few Indian deep-tech companies do: the public markets, through a ₹1,087 crore IPO that was entirely an Offer for Sale, with no fresh capital raised by the company. In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Shashikanth to explore how SEDEMAC went from building proprietary control technologies to creating products adopted by major two-wheeler and generator manufacturers. 00:00 Introduction 00:59 What Does a Motor Controller Do? 03:53 What Is Control Technology? 08:43 The Sensorless Commutation Problem 16:55 How Technology Creates New Markets 22:44 How Sedemac Reached Millions of Vehicles 27:33 Why India Needs More Original Technology 31:34 “You Will Not Produce a Virat Kohli in Spain” 41:50 What Made Sedemac Work? 47:40 Building a Technical Team 54:53 From Professor to Founder 1:00:27 Getting OEMs to Adopt Deep Tech 1:09:19 ₹36 Crore to ₹1,058 Crore 1:20:08 Competitive Advantage, Profitability & ROCE 1:22:44 The Road Ahead Shashikanth explains SEDEMAC’s work in sensorless commutation and Integrated Starter Generators, but the bigger story is how a technology moves from an engineering breakthrough to something millions of people actually use. SEDEMAC had to demonstrate something customers were not asking for, convince large OEMs to test it, validate it over years, and gradually earn adoption across multiple vehicle models. That leads to one of the central ideas of the conversation: technology creators do not always enter existing markets. Sometimes they create the market itself. Finally, Shashikanth breaks down SEDEMAC’s growth from ₹36 crore in revenue in 2016 to ₹1,058 crore in FY26, and makes a provocative argument: if a technology company has genuinely created something differentiated and reached scale, that advantage should eventually show up in pricing power, profitability and capital efficiency. A rare look at what it takes to turn deep-tech innovation into a scaled business in India. Connect with Professor Shashikant LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shashikanth-suryanarayanan-6ba85010/Follow Jerome Manuel X (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuel Read the transcript for the entire podcast here: https://bit.ly/SEDEMAC-Mechatronics About Prime Venture PartnersPrime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software. Learn more: Prime Venture Partners Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ Learn more about: Website: https://www.sedemac.com/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/sedemac-mechatronics #DeepTech #OEM #Innovation #Entrepreneurship

India’s alcohol beverage industry is worth around ₹5 lakh crore, and spirits make up roughly three-fourths of the market. But building a successful alcohol brand in India involves much more than making a good drink. 00:00 Introduction 01:21 How Big Is India’s Alcobev Industry? 02:13 Why Spirits Dominate India 04:00 The Alcobev Ecosystem & Jobs 07:00 India vs Global Alcohol Markets 10:00 How the Indian Whisky Market Has Changed 14:00 Premiumisation & Changing Consumer Preferences 18:00 Building Premium Indian Alcohol Brands 24:54 How Radico Kaitan Built Categories 27:46 Are Alcohol Companies Profitable? 29:05 What Does It Take to Launch an Alcohol Brand? 35:00 Building a Brand Beyond a Great Product 40:00 Distribution, Retail & Getting on Shelves 45:00 Why Every Indian State Is a Different Market 50:00 Regulation, Excise & Government Control 55:00 How Alcohol Brands Scale Across India 1:00:00 Indian Whisky vs International Brands 1:10:00 The Future of Premium Indian Spirits 1:18:29 Ankur’s Favourite Spirits 1:21:52 Final Thoughts Ankur Sachdeva has spent around 25 years in the Alcobev industry, with stints at William Grant & Sons, Radico Kaitan, the Kajaria Group and Allied Blenders & Distillers. He was also involved in bringing Glenfiddich and The Balvenie to India, and today is building premium Indian whisky brands of his own. In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel sits down with Ankur Sachdeva, Co-founder & CEO of Uppal Brewers and Distillers to understand an industry that most people consume, but few understand as a business. They start with the scale of the Indian market. Ankur explains why India's alcohol industry looks very different from global markets, where beer is the largest category, while spirits dominate India and account for around three-fourths of the market. The conversation then moves into the rise of premium Indian spirits. Ankur discusses brands such as 8PM, Magic Moments, Jaisalmer, Rampur, Indri and Royal Ranthambore, and how Indian companies have identified gaps in the market and built brands around them. But a good product is only the beginning. Ankur explains what it actually takes to launch an alcobev brand: from having a clear idea and building the product to manufacturing, capital, distribution and getting consumers to pick it off the shelf. He also talks about why a clever bottle or an unusual flavour may make an interesting product, but that alone does not necessarily make a successful brand. The episode also gets into the economics of the industry, including why established Alcobev businesses can operate at strong EBITDA levels, and what makes the category attractive once a business has established its model. For anyone interested in consumer brands, whisky, premiumisation, distribution, regulation or building businesses in India, this conversation gives a detailed look at how the alcobev industry actually works. Connect with Ankur SachdevaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asachdeva/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ankursachdevaind?igsi=MTdwNGljOGZ2dWtudg== Follow Jerome Manuel X (Twitter):https://x.com/JeromeAndManuel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuel Read the transcript for the entire podcast here - https://bit.ly/Prime-Venture-Partners-And-Uppal-Brewers-And-Distillers About Prime Venture Partners Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software. Learn more: https://www.primevp.in/ Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ Learn more about: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uppal-brewers-distillers/ Website: https://soorahi.com/ #IndianStartups #Alcobev #Whisky #ConsumerBrands #Entrepreneurship

Subrata Mitra, Co-founder and Partner at Accel India and co-author of Down But Not Out, shares what decades of backing Indian startups have taught him about building companies that survive setbacks, adapt through uncertainty and keep going long enough to succeed. 00:00 Introduction 01:01 Why Subrata Wrote Down But Not Out 03:08 The Founder Stories Behind the Book 09:29 The Map, the Compass & “Long-Term Greed” 13:44 What Makes a Founder Resilient? 15:46 How Investors Evaluate Founders 17:21 How Founders Learn, Adapt & Evolve 21:12 The Role of Mentors, Coaches & Family 25:13 Finding Your Mission Beyond Money 27:32 From Generalist to Specialist 30:01 The 2 Things Founders Should Focus On Every Day 30:50 Why Relationships Matter More Than Grades 36:55 Find Your Unique Skills & Double Down 39:08 Why Startup Culture Should Make Room for Joy 43:01 What Subrata Would Tell His Younger Self 44:40 Why No Startup Goes Straight Up & Advice for Young Founders When Subrata Mitra wrote the first cheque to Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal, he says a $200 million outcome would have made them happy. Flipkart crossed that milestone so quickly that nobody stopped to treat it as a major marker. It eventually became one of India’s biggest startup success stories. But the more interesting story is everything that happens before the outcome: ideas that do not work, difficult decisions, founders who have to change, co-founder challenges, unexpected opportunities and the resilience required to stay in the game for 10 to 15 years. On this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Amit Somani sits down with Subrata to discuss the ideas behind his book Down But Not Out, which brings together stories of Indian founders who experienced major setbacks but continued to build. Subrata explains why entrepreneurship is more like a Test match than a T20: you need the stamina to stay long, but you must also recognise the right opportunity and hit the ball when it comes. The conversation explores what Subrata looks for in founders, why it can take eight to nine months to understand whether a founding team has what it takes, and why the ability to evolve may matter as much as what a founder knows when they start. They also discuss coaching, mentorship, family support, complementary co-founder skills and the transition from being a generalist founder to becoming a more specialised leader as the company grows. Connect with Subrata Mitra https://www.linkedin.com/in/subratamitra/ Follow Amit Somani X (Twitter): https://x.com/amitsomani?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesomani/ Listen/Watch this podcast on Spotify: Apple Podcasts: Read the transcript for the entire podcast here - https://bit.ly/Prime-Venture-Partners-And-Accel-India About Prime Venture Partners Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software. Learn more: https://www.primevp.in/ Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ Learn more about: Accel: https://www.accel.com/news/portfolio #IndianStartups #VentureCapital #StartupInvesting

Piyush Shah, a legendary Indian Founder of 2 Unicorns (InMobi & Glance) shares why India's AI strategy has to look nothing like Silicon Valley's or Beijing's, and what founders should build instead. 00:00 Introduction 00:48 Why the Country That Invents AI Rarely Wins 02:16 US vs China vs India: India's AI Opportunity 03:55 How China Is Winning the AI Race 09:38 AI Startup Ideas for India 12:52 Consumer AI vs Enterprise AI 14:20 Why Consumer AI Can Bankrupt You 16:45 Why Enterprise AI Will Win First 19:57 Distribution Is Still the Biggest Moat 21:43 How AI Startups Should Go to Market 25:14 Physical AI Startup Opportunities 28:37 What US Enterprises Want From AI Startups 32:45 Why Purpose Is a Competitive Moat 35:58 How InMobi Uses AI Internally 37:47 AI Sales, AI Agents & Enterprise Automation 42:16 How Leaders Should Drive AI Adoption 44:50 AI Won't Replace You. Fear Will. 46:09 The Fastest Way to Learn AI 47:32 My AI-Native Chief of Staff 48:52 How AI Changed My Personal Life 52:38 Final Thoughts Every general purpose technology gets invented once and scaled somewhere else. Germany invented the printing press. Britain built an industry on it. America turned that industry into an economy. Piyush Shah, Co-founder of InMobi and Glance, thinks the same pattern is repeating with AI right now, and he's convinced most founders are drawing the wrong lesson from it. On this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Amit Somani sits down with Piyush to make the case that copying America's invention-first approach or China's industrialisation-first approach would be the wrong move for India entirely. Instead, Piyush lays out what he believes India's real opportunity looks like: not the smartest AI for the world's most sophisticated users, but AI that raises the floor for a billion people who've never had access to a tutor, a doctor, or a financial advisor in their life. The conversation doesn't stop at strategy. Piyush and Amit get into why consumer AI has a cost problem nobody's fully solved (he calls it inference CAC), why distribution remains the real moat even in an AI-native world, and why "purpose" might be the one advantage that's genuinely hard to copy. Piyush also opens up about how InMobi and Glance have rebuilt themselves around AI internally, and how AI has changed the way he runs his own life, from an 18-year-old AI-native chief of staff to using AI to understand his family's health reports. If you're building an AI startup, thinking about India's AI strategy, or trying to figure out whether your business model can survive the AI shift, this conversation offers a real framework, not another hype-cycle. Connect with Piyush Shah LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/piyush-shah-0583412/ Follow Amit Somani X (Twitter): https://x.com/amitsomani?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesomani/ About Prime Venture Partners Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm backing exceptional founders building category-defining technology companies across SaaS, fintech, AI, healthcare, consumer internet and enterprise software. Learn more: https://www.primevp.in/ Follow Prime Venture Partners: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2780448/admin/dashboard/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/Primevp_in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primevp_in/ Learn more about InMobi: https://www.inmobi.com/ Glance: https://glance.com/?c=BAU&pid=Social_X_bio&shortlink=6md9fteh&source_caller=ui

What You’ll Learn: 00:00 Introduction 02:13 Why Marketing Owns Zero Board KPIs 08:54 There Is No Killer Marketing Campaign 15:41 Why Your First 10 Customers Matter More 24:16 The Biggest GTM Mistake Founders Make 33:48 How AI Is Changing Customer Discovery 43:11 Demand Generation Beats Chasing Leads 53:02 Why Value Wins Over Price 1:02:47 The New Rules of B2B Go-to-Market 1:11:26 Rapid Fire with Alon Waks Rethink your B2B SaaS GTM strategy from pipeline to persona SpotDraft’s CMO Alon Waks shares the framework behind $100M raised and 450+ customers. Ask a B2B founder about their killer marketing campaign and most will have an answer ready. Alon Waks will tell you that answer is wrong. There is no killer campaign. There is no one channel. And most of what founders think of as marketing is stuck in one-to-many land when it should be one-to-few. That is where this conversation starts, and it does not slow down. Alon is the CMO at SpotDraft, the AI-powered contract lifecycle management platform backed by Vertex, Qualcomm, Prosus, and P&G Invest, now serving customers across the US, UK, and APAC. In this episode with Prime Venture Partners, he opens up the playbook he actually runs day to day: - How he defines persona versus segment (and why founders keep starting with the wrong one) - What changes as a company moves from 0 to 1 to 10 to 100 - Why he thinks paid marketing has become a race to the bottom that most founders are still throwing money at. He also opens up his playbook for B2B influencer marketing, an angle most CMOs will not talk about publicly. He explains why validation has quietly shifted away from Gartner and toward peer-to-peer conversations on Reddit, LinkedIn, and community forums. And for the Indian founders trying to crack the US, he lays out exactly which cities matter, what not to do on outbound, and when to make your first local hire. Toward the end, Alon gets uncomfortably honest about what marketing actually owns on the board KPI list (spoiler: almost nothing) and why that changes everything about how you should measure your team. If you are a founder, a marketer, or a CMO building a B2B SaaS GTM strategy from scratch, this is the one to bookmark. Connect: Alon Waks on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alonwaks/ Spotdraft: https://www.spotdraft.com/ Prime Venture Partners: https://www.primevp.in/ Jerome Manuel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromermanuel/ About Prime Venture Partners: Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm partnering with exceptional founders building category-defining companies from India. #GoToMarket #B2BMarketing

Akshayakalpa is known as India’s first certified organic dairy enterprise. But in this conversation, Shashi Kumar makes it clear that the deeper story has always been farming. In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Jerome Manuel speaks with Shashi Kumar, Founder & CEO of Akshayakalpa, about building at the farm level for 16 years, far away from the usual startup playbook of fast growth, quick scale and easy metrics. Akshayakalpa began with dairy because farmers needed reliable cash flow. Once that started working, the model expanded into animal care, soil management, manure-making, beekeeping, backyard poultry and diversified farms. Today, Akshayakalpa is a profitable ₹60-crore-a-month business working with 2,800 farmers, including 1,200 women farmers. Last financial year, the average monthly payout to each farming family was ₹1.28 lakh. The conversation explores: • Why Akshayakalpa raised no institutional money for 9 years • Why Shashi refused to sell investors a hypergrowth story • How Nithin Kamath invested ₹5 crore in 5 days during the pandemic • Why 27 people took equity in the company when it was struggling • Why each cluster takes nearly 7 years to build • How 2,800 farmers produce what would conventionally need nearly 100,000 farmers • Why 45,000 customers visited Akshayakalpa farms • Why premium pricing is a value play • What founders can learn from building with patience and truth For founders building in India, this episode is a reminder that every great company does not have to be built by chasing the fastest story. Some are built by saying the harder thing early, and still finding the right people to believe in it. Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction 00:38 - What Akshayakalpa is really building 02:06 - Why young people are moving away from farming 10:17 - Making farming economically viable again 15:37 - Scaling through role models, clusters and culture 32:16 - Why Akshayakalpa started with dairy 39:13 - The first 9 years: struggle, frugality and survival 46:02 - Building customer trust through farm visits 48:09 - Why premium pricing is a value play 51:08 - Organic food and the challenge of fundraising in farming 1:15:42 - Investor expectations, Nithin Kamath and long-term capital 1:18:10 - What still keeps Shashi up at night Subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more conversations with founders building enduring companies in India. #AgriCapital #FarmEconomics #FoodSystems

India’s UPI moment changed how money moves. But that may only be the first chapter. As millions of Indians become comfortable with digital payments, a bigger question is beginning to emerge: how will they save, invest, and build wealth over the next decade? In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Amit Somani speaks with Ambarish Kenghe, CEO of Angel One, about India’s shift from payment adoption to wealth creation. From his journey across Google, Myntra, Google Pay, and Angel One, Ambarish has seen India’s digital consumer evolve up close. In this conversation, he talks about what changed after Aadhaar, Jio and UPI, why Indian consumers remain deeply value conscious, how SIPs are becoming a default investing habit, and where the next wave of fintech opportunities may come from. The conversation also explores: • Why 2015 became a turning point for India’s digital economy • How UPI changed everyday money movement for consumers and merchants • Why India’s wealth creation story still has massive headroom • What is driving SIP adoption among new investors • How AI could create a personal CFO or family office like experience for more Indians • How Angel One is using AI across products, operations and customer education • Why learning, unlearning and ownership matter when building teams For founders building in fintech, wealth tech, AI, or consumer products in India, this episode offers a sharp view of where the market has been and where it may be headed next. 👉 Subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more conversations from India’s startup ecosystem. Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction 02:22 - Why AK came back to India in 2015 after 18 years in Silicon Valley 06:26 - The ₹25 checkbox that Myntra shut down in two hours 09:41 - What UPI changed beyond transaction volumes 11:04 - The Google chef who used to get looted walking home with cash 13:12 - India now has million dollar millionaires. What does that mean for wealth creation. 15:57 - Where Indian retail wealth actually sits: 50% real estate, 15% gold, 15% FDs 16:37 - Equity investing at 5 to 8% in India versus 44 to 45% in the US 17:13 - Only 5% of Angel One users trade F&O exclusively 21:15 - The real opportunity for founders building in India's wealth space 27:30 - The family office for everyone and what agentic AI could make possible 29:35 - How Angel One is using AI today with Ask Angel 35:10 - What AK looks for when hiring: learn, unlearn, ownership 40:58 - The Indian founder worth a billion dollars who spends every Saturday on AI

Long before UPI, smartphones and Aadhaar transformed digital payments in India, mChek was trying to turn mobile phones into wallets. The vision was ambitious. The execution was complex. And the ecosystem was still years away from catching up. In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Shripati Acharya speaks with Sanjay Swamy, former CEO of mChek and Managing Partner at Prime Venture Partners, about one of India’s earliest attempts at building mobile payments. They discuss what it feels like to build ahead of the market, the hidden cost of ecosystem dependency, and why timing is often the hardest variable for founders to get right. The conversation also explores: • Why being early can sometimes look exactly like being wrong • How telcos, banks and regulators shaped the mChek journey • The operational chaos of building fintech in 2006 India • Why distribution does not always lead to adoption • What changed between mChek, Paytm and the UPI era • Why products depending on too many stakeholders are harder to scale • The difference between having the right idea and having the right timing If you are building in a market that still feels early, this episode is worth your time. 👉 Subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more conversations from India’s startup ecosystem. Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:07 - “Unsuccessful” vs failed entrepreneurs 02:25 - Why timing is the hardest thing to judge 03:05 - The moment Sanjay saw phones as payment devices 05:40 - India’s telecom ecosystem in 2006 09:49 - The original thesis behind mChek 17:14 - The hidden problems nobody anticipated 27:35 - Building a payments app inside a SIM card 39:00 - The moment Sanjay felt it might not work 44:04 - The biggest lesson for founders

Some founders build solid companies. A few build something far bigger than what looked reasonable at the time. What explains that gap? In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Amit Somani, Managing Partner at Prime Venture Partners, speaks with Dr. Julie Gurner, Executive Performance Coach on the psychology behind exceptional founders. They get into the self belief, audacity, resilience, and invisible rules that shape how far people go. The conversation also explores: • What “maniacal focus” looks like in standout founders • The imaginary rules that limit what founders build, earn, and pursue • Why tying your identity to your company can lead to worse decisions • Why playing to your strengths creates more leverage than trying to do it all • What AI can and cannot do for leaders and founders If you are building something and want to understand the mental side of exceptional performance, this episode is worth your time. 👉 Subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more insider stories from India’s startup ecosystem. Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:45 - Dr. Julie’s journey into coaching 02:55 - Key lessons from psychology & prisons 06:11 - Traits of great vs good founders 09:28 – Survivorship bias & real success factors 12:33 - “Imaginary rules” explained 17:34 - How to identify your limiting beliefs 20:32 - Separating identity from your business 25:30 - How great founders pivot 28:34 - Handling tough days as a founder 30:46 - Playing to your strengths 33:41 - Why AI is non-negotiable 41:03 - Final tips & recommendations 👉 Don’t forget to subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more real founder stories and insights from India’s startup ecosystem!

Most people think quick commerce is just about delivering in 10 minutes. But it’s not. Behind every Blinkit or Zepto order is a tightly run system of dark stores, pick paths, manpower, and real-time execution that has almost no margin for error. In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Brij Bhushan speaks with Sumit Anand and Rupesh Thakare, co-founders of Inamo, the company building the operational backbone behind India’s quick commerce ecosystem. They break down what it actually takes to make this work at scale, from stores that process orders in minutes to systems designed for speed, consistency, and precision. In this conversation: • What really happens inside a dark store • Why 10 minute delivery is no longer the real moat • The economics behind every quick commerce order • Why platforms are rethinking in-house vs outsourced operations • Why platforms are rethinking in-house vs outsourced operations • Why platforms are rethinking in-house vs outsourced operations 👉 Subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more insider stories from India’s startup ecosystem. Episode Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction to Quick Commerce 01:07 - Guests: Sumit & Rupesh from Inamo 03:36 - How Inamo Started 07:30 - Quick Commerce Growth & COVID Impact 10:45 - Dark Stores & Order Fulfillment Explained 16:24 - Team Size, Attrition & Training 17:57 - Economics & Orders per Dark Store 23:51 - Why Outsourcing Dark Stores Works 30:50 - Differentiation & Scale Advantages 33:09 - Inventory & Demand Management 40:12 - Future of Quick Delivery & Innovations 44:44 - Consolidated Inventory & Seller-Fulfilled Models 46:02 - Market Growth & Long-Tail Opportunities 49:02 - Founders’ Vision for the Next Few Years 👉 Don’t forget to subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more real founder stories and insights from India’s startup ecosystem! #Startups #Entrepreneurship #FounderJourney #VentureCapital #StartupLessons #Podcast #primeventurepartnerspodcast

In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, we speak with Sushant Junnarkar, who shares his raw and honest journey of building and eventually shutting down an early-stage startup. Sushant takes us through the complete entrepreneurial roller coaster from early traction and funding to competition, pivots, and the tough decision to shut down. In conversation with Sanjay Swamy, he shares insights on: • The 3 phases of a startup journey • Why startups fail beyond just lack of capital • The funding vs scale dilemma • Founder challenges and decision-making under pressure • Key lessons for early-stage entrepreneurs Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:08 - Meet Sushant Junnarkar & The Book 02:02 - Sushant’s Background & Career Journey 03:11 - The Online Grocery Startup Idea 04:16 - Breaking Down the Startup Phases 05:46 - Phase 1: Idea, Research & Strategy 09:38 - First Orders & Early Traction 12:35 - Early Growth & Press Coverage 14:34 - Competition Enters the Market 16:22 - Tech Challenges & Moving Beyond Jugaad 17:23 - Phase 3: Funding Challenges Begin 18:30 - Last Attempts to Save the Startup 20:45 - When Founder Motivation Declines 23:06 - Who Should Read It 27:42 - Key Advice: Passion & Product-Market Fit 30:31 - Why Startups Fail: Execution 34:10 - Capital, Competition & Strategy 36:10 - Final Lessons on Entrepreneurship 38:22 - Closing Thoughts This is a must- watch episode for anyone building or aspiring to build a startup. 👉 Don’t forget to subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more real founder stories and insights from India’s startup ecosystem! #Startups #Entrepreneurship #FounderJourney #VentureCapital #StartupLessons #Podcast #PrimeVenturePartners

In this episode, the founders of Basil share how they spotted an opportunity in India’s school essentials space and built a design-led brand trusted by over 1.5 lakh families. After careers at Uber and Amazon, they set out to solve a simple but overlooked problem. Kids' essentials did not have to be boring, low-quality, or purely functional. We discuss • Identifying whitespace in consumer categories • Designing for both children and parents • Marketplace-led growth • Building operational depth in hardware • Lessons for founders building in D2C This is a must-watch episode for entrepreneurs, founders, and anyone building consumer brands. Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction 02:00 – Founders’ Backgrounds 03:00 – Inspiration Behind Basil 04:20 – Explaining Basil to Kids 06:00 – Why Start a Startup 07:00 – Early Product Challenges 08:30 – Market Response & Pricing Insights 11:40 – Design-First Philosophy 13:00 – Manufacturing & Scaling 19:57 – Who Really Buys: Kids vs Parents 22:56 – Designing Products for Children 25:10 – Smart Product Design for Organic Growth 31:05 – Building a Brand That Can’t Be Copied 35:09 – Power of User Observation 40:13 – Amazon-Inspired Processes 45:21 – India’s ₹60,000 Crore Kids Market 45:23 – Building Consumer Love 51:28 – Closing Thoughts 📺 Listen to the full conversation and subscribe to the podcast. #Basil #D2C #ConsumerBrands #BrandBuilding #Entrepreneurship #Startups #PrimeVenturePartnersPodcast

In this episode of the Prime Venture Partners Podcast, we speak with Victor, the Co-founder and CEO of Propelld, a company that has revolutionised education financing in India. Victor takes us through the highs and lows of his entrepreneurial journey, from starting his first startup in 2014 to building one of India’s largest education financing platforms. Propelld has already disbursed ₹4,000 crores in loans, helping over 400,000 students achieve their educational dreams. He shares insights on: The genesis of Propelld and its mission to make education financing accessible to allHow they manage risk in education financing through data-driven solutionsThe role of AI in underwriting and loan collectionAdvice for early-stage founders on fundraising and navigating the journey of entrepreneurship This is a must-watch episode for aspiring entrepreneurs and those interested in the future of education financing. 👉 Don't forget to subscribe to the Prime Venture Partners Podcast for more founder stories, insights, and behind-the-scenes playbooks from India’s most exciting startups! #Startups #EducationFinancing #Entrepreneurship #AI #RiskManagement #Podcast #Fundraising #PrimeVenturePartners