#PayItForward - Founder insights on building successful consumer-tech businesses with Mukesh Bansal

I do case a few questions in this conversation, but this is as much about, as the title says, pay forward. I have long felt that so many people helped me along the way. All of our success is standing on the shoulders of others and sometimes we don't really realize it or recognize it. But I have always felt that there is a responsibility to hence give back really what you have received. And I know Mukesh is compelled by that and that's the reason he is joining this pay forward. So as this is as much about questions all of you might have, but I have a few of my own and we do that first and you can raise your hands in 10, 15 minutes and we'll keep taking your questions along the way. So but welcome to this session today. Mukesh, you know, just going, I have questions on your book, no limits which I enjoyed very much, but when you get to that a little later, I kind of want to really understand your construct and context to what you need. Before, before I started to question something, I want to share in the chat. The audience may not be aware of you know and even by the way you may not be aware of my association with you was long before the starting you know, in tragedy. So in 2000, when I was just literally bouncing around in the area and I don't know a lot of personal eye and I mean, so you were kind of one of my heroes back there, I was very all of us in the and I community, no aspiring to be on the boarder, etc. And then the first time in an opportunity to meet with you, yeah, you know, a lot of courage to just show up with the water's room and it wasn't you, but you've been a phenomenal mentor and guide for last 30, 40 years and I think I've seen you kind of you know, and there are many many other entrepreneurs because it's the whole benefit from your progressive guidance and so on. So in many ways, you know, this talk is a platform but I see you live it and personally benefit enormously from that so I just want to acknowledge that and obviously, I really have to do whatever I can do to one side, to continue, you know, into the division that you bring for. That's a very kind comment, I didn't know about the background story and I wish I'd met you in the area but our paths didn't cross in the sense we both lived in the same region at that time but our paths didn't really cross, but you know, a story that not many people know is how I actually ended up investing in minteraps and sometimes, you know, people ask me a lot of logic to how investments happened and in fact, I still remember it was my daughter's 10th birthday, it was a Harry Potter theme and it was, you know, I'm a super mom or at least I tried to be your think I am one. So I had all these gifts for my daughter that I wanted personalized and I had ordered them in US and my husband was visiting there for work and but for various family reasons. He couldn't, he came back two weeks earlier or a week earlier or something and so all the gifts I had ordered were, I didn't come and I was like now panicking. So I started searching online to see what I can find in India, I came across Mintra and I ordered and I was really complex order, you know, can you do this, can you do that? I still have the Hogwarts marks that I ordered on, Mintra, send the picture or whatever. So, and you know, the party was on Saturday and I kept talking to somebody on the other end and out to be a stosh but, you know, I'm saying it is for my daughter's 10th birthday, it has to be there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, the Friday night 11 p.m. he came home and dropped the order saying no and he kept calmly reassuring no, don't worry, we will get you on time. And I said, you know, any company and I just discovered it online and I said, you know, any company that cares about the customer so much because my experience, my first experience at Mintra was so good, right? And, you know, was, I said, you know, any company that cares about customer service so much is going to succeed. No matter what they end up selling, they may be selling shoes like Zappos, I mean they succeeded because of incredible bar they set on selling shoes and if you asked customer survey, nobody would have said, yeah, I'll buy shoes online, you know, it doesn't feel logical, right? But if you tried them at No Risk at all, their experience was so great that you kept going back, right? And you did exactly that with Mintra for me and so, you know, sometimes and you were a very young company at that time and any congress wasn't really very clear. But everything you did, you did with such a high bar, I said to one of our associates, why don't you call the company and ask them to come meet us and that's how we invited you to come to Calary. So, you know, your customer on the other side could be a venture capitalist, could be, you know, just a customer doesn't matter and you, how you produce or provide service to every single customer and then you know, for me, the pride about Mintra, of course, we made a lot of money and, you know, I've thanked you privately and this is opportunity to thank you publicly. I think sometimes founders don't realize that for funds to survive succeed and continue to provide funding, they have to show phenomenal returns back to their investors and it's no different than any of your personal investing you do. If your fund is not performing or if your investment is not performing, you're not going to continue to put your money into it. And our investors is the same way and, you know, so, you know, in the first meeting with you for me, I had a lot of meaning because it was a first company in India. I thought that we understood customer care and you continuously in every board meeting, you would sort of focus on that from there on to say everything you did. You did with your utmost interest on the customer and of course, and I believe, then now that has contributed a lot to your success and there's a lot that goes into making that happen. Everybody wants their customers happy but it's not just a snappy of finger but I wanted to share my story with you. This is clearly unscripted but, you know, I wanted to share my story why I invested in Mintra, you know. Thanks for, you know, good to know the backdrop and I'm glad to be able to reach and do everything in the order because, you know, that you're taking early better with trying to get started the whole Mintra journey but I think somewhere, you know, through some of the books that we need supposed to come in, that we need to, I've heard a user of Amazon from 93.org, you know, it's in the start, you know, somewhere in that whole idea of customer obsessiveness, you know, kind of got into the system and you are right, I think, from as leaders onwards, you know, just spending a lot of time on the ground and we need to understand who the customers are, what they do, what they want and just, you know, the way to create that delightful experience for them, the new development journey, just do, you know, few small things you had mentioned, you know, just a bit, small, different side, you know, this, there was, you know, in 2012, an afternoon to a profession, I just happened to need a one customer feedback and the feedback basically went something like this. It was actually a cushing with, you know, incredible praise but the person commented on, I placed in order and next hour the product showed up, this was, you know, we did the 12 and it was not something, you know, we were optimizing for, but just, just, just observing the amount of joy and surprise and the customer's presence. I think, you know, that's a great way to get, you know, customer love, definitely designers apply to it in a way where at least five percent of our orders are needed within two hours. So, just based on the one feedback, you know, we decided to build that and those few person, you know, people, they become absolutely loyal because no one is expecting in your order online, people is thinking that these are ways and someone showed them a dose of it next one hour and you are just stuck with the blown away. So, I just know a small example of keeping the ear to the ground and just to, what customers are saying, I think, you know, can be this proportion of dividends, I think, you know, it's a strategy, it's a choice, but it requires you to make sure that the question of bringing a concept from our duty, you're fortunate enough to be aware of it and it just may be part of the culture. In a occasion, I still so clearly remember a food meeting and you might not actually in your HSRA out office that you had that new building. And then the warehouse was one or two roads down that we could walk over and you said, you know, we are a technology company, first and foremost and I want to invest in our warehouse in such a way that when we get the order, it gets shipped out within two hours. Now, of course, when it takes to reach and all of that, but, No, I'm just whistling. early on in the company cycle and I you know remember I thought about that and I said this is the reason why how much of a money took on it through it to discounts and that was the sort of big sort of look over your shoulder competitor we had at that time and you know it didn't survive too long and they burned a lot of money. So there is this notion that funding rules everything of course funding is important just like money life is important for many things so when it's not the only thing and I still remember from the very beginning you said we are as much a technology company as we are a passion company and maybe just those choices you made these are some of the I feel keen sides not just the fact that you got funding and you never really caught that much funding for Mintra you know and you had to struggle at the beginning for funding maybe later I got a little easier but when a company is successful and someone is as successful as you are for most people it looks like it was an easy fact you know you had this you had that you had that but the way I remember your story is you know you you succeeded because there were some keen sides you brought to the table not the bowl not you know blah blah it's your responsibility it's on your shoulders to convince everybody not every decision you made everybody think it sees through and say oh wow that's you know so there's lot of skepticism but you have to have the insights you know conviction and then you have to carry others along at times until it becomes clear to others what you see that they can't see right and so it wasn't just funding in fact funding is something you had to struggle at least at Mintra not as much a pure fate but we'll come to to clear fit in a minute how you took lessons to do in plan and what you did but what were those keen sides that you think that really helped Mintra succeed so I think you know let's call them because you know the sides are especially you think I think at some point you know in my search for one in the part of the relationship I think I became a student of entrepreneurship and trying to understand what is this game all about right how does work and I'm very fortunate to work for four different startups in the area and two of them died one really stucked you know continuously and only one was reasonably successful so it gave me exposure to lot of things you know and some of the things that you know that I took away from my experience I've tried to kind of lift to those insights of this because one of them is if you lift to fight in the day you were right you know we had a lot of more funding struggles but I was very clear and very very clear to our team that we will not die you know whatever money we have we'll always have a you know more than 12 months or away it's very easy to ensure that you know whatever money or divide by 12 as long as we don't want you know more than that in a month you are not going to die in three months right so we went through from 2007 to 2011 all kind of you know difficult period but you were never you know very very very period were not in the danger of you know dying so that is one thing second you know I do that the human culture is so important you know and I've seen that you know the startups are part of that outstanding people in a bad environment bad culture the struggle is that not equal to 1 plus plus 1 plus 1 is you know here less than 2 so I was very clear I wanted to build an environment where people are really pumped up you know coming to work and even that was to 1.2 in ceremony so in very area one of the starter is to work but I would drive from San Matilda to Santa Clara after you know 45 I would reach the parking spot and I would be listening to audio books hooks again and that company has such toxic culture I was just sitting in the parking lot and listening to my audio book but I enter half into our motivate and and you know but I really like to know if I ever do a company I don't want to build an environment where people are you know waiting the parking lot because the inside is so toxic that sitting in a bar at the third and third is you know so for everyone's soils very very conscious about building an environment where people feel great about coming to work if it is very positive they feel they give you the stability is become evangelistic what the company is trying to do so there's other thing you know I think I think that's one of your probably head up here. Coordancing, really taking you know building culture has a core part of what management is making it priority you know sometimes when I head up really the right to the product or right business or that's something that's going to be really well for me trying to be able to come back and be able to work on that experience and be good about those choices and other last thing I'd say is not compromising on the core values so very vicious enough they could look came together you know some street lockers I don't but values for just things something that you can still compromise on, connecting on that's the basis of the art machine and the bond people that agree so those are some of the money I think has established a very strong condition for a big crowd at many companies and some time be sound on it. So in a case you know it sounds like if you take care of your customers you take care of your employees you take care of your investors the three case key stakeholders in your destiny the probability that things will turn out okay is probably high I know you spoke about taking care of employees and I've seen how much the cultural thinker and your faith cult is unique and it goes all the way down to the trainer in cult or the very many person at the interal like I said and then you know with investors you always always you know being 100% transparent conducted difficult for meetings with you know a lot of sort of maturity for the only years in the first few years of your you know journey and always insisted that for you your pride also comes from ensuring your investors make money along with you know your employees and only then you make money matters so and I think you'd lift that and many few people do that though we get to that so I want to add that there's one more factor which is you always watched out for everybody's interest including your investor interest which sometimes gets forgotten with them as the other 30 and I'm very grateful for that and so but I have a few people there are lots of people with the questions and I have my own so many but I think we'll just take a few questions and we'll go back to some of my questions I wanted you to the country. Priya why don't you go first and then Pradeep you can ask the question and then Banshika go ahead Priya. I think one is a comment because in location I think you are pretty much an inspiration for a lot of next-generation entrepreneurs that's coming out they're looking into you to see what you've done and continuing to do obviously through mine thread and now a pure fit and that is an inspiration and that shows in whether it's an ink reporter your story or your work on the number of fun companies that are coming out of India and scaling out of India into global markets so one thank you for being that inspiration and that you know India could be the forefront on the innovation that's one you know one thing I would say is like question for you is if you have to look back at journey it's been obviously now it's been extremely successful if one thing that you can go back and change in time and do something different what would that be with a being that's a pure fit journey currently and/or a mindset journey. I think the mood looking I really should be real is you know I started starting in 1999 I was not a three year old that time I tried something for four or five months and I realized that this relationship was true it wasn't really a head boy I was completely in awe of my leave but if I stayed you know long enough again you know I probably would have started by art would you be not early I said you know I decided on other startups and learned a lot in the process that's probably the only thing I'll change you know just start not early I waited in some ways and when I started trying to get out with 10 years of experience with me which was useful in its own way but sometimes we look back on some of the things I would like to change that's from the entrepreneur you know I think I'm not myself I think I'll be with some people have been you know as you grow you can you start doing what you are and but nothing I learned about myself you know I have a if I can call you know what you can't make my mindset what it means you don't try to understand something whatever you are doing like what are the principles how does it work you know and I use that accounting myself you know in understanding business of fashion by doing the job to understand how does the health really work right but if I really compare to make I don't know what they are I probably choose that category I would have been gone ahead and do my masters at PhD and I proxied would have enjoyed but as much as I was talking about a couple of things going to my head I would have been extremely fortunate to know in the office of all the opportunities in the right place right time when our mentors you know you need like you bring some to be able to do well as an entrepreneur so there's not a whole lot of things okay so I do say you're teaching a course on entrepreneurship in some future in some great business schools so I think that is still not ruled out I think so but Pradip go ahead ask your question you have to unmute yourself yeah hi Mugesh so myself Pradip found a great start-up call for our master so Mugesh actually Mintra always accused me always a special for a start-up like us so I would like to know you are that the Mintra growth we can be able to then from social media and talk so would like to know as I found out how you are growing your career in the Mintra what was the learning stage-based stage how you are overcome your mistakes one by one so that growth and just speak about that yeah I think it's awareness see as you are in order to know the other question I think no one really knows in some ways how to do it I think I really generally I you know every context every situation is different so having that awareness of you know you both operate and observe now you know people talk about mindfulness which is a more situation awareness so I think if you have some opportunity to observe you know with your own eyes as those people around you if you are you know want to feel bad what we cannot telling you and process it right you know always find some inside or reports about you know you may like your product a whole lot but your customer may not like your product you know you may think you may have a great person but people who are people for that person you know are not happy you know they can just look hard enough you will find those examples right so I think as of you know if you are able to but you must do observe in first some insights and then have the information you will you know say you know I can do better I did it right it's and it adds up eventually those small ones in this compound I think the moment is someone starts to operate from the vantage point of I know how would you know some of the more successful entrepreneurs you know being there that depends it that such a quite dangerous so I don't think I can not think of it I have already about you know it could be anything you report to us and we need you know hanging out people you know from that you respect and you can learn from but you need you know there is a lot of information you know most of things happen you know in some patterns they were done before there are people who have been in a similar situation and there is very helpful exposing your certain new ideas but I think just be on the ground so I'd say something about the early days of the trial some some just in racial or in a western we were able to to Brazil as the new comes up there which I know study covers coming there and some of the learnings was phenomenal and I used to spend a lot of time on the whole the in fact the whole idea of people think to you know from person I should do fashion for the trade game through you know one of many visits to these malls so yeah just some really level just you know exposed you know being in some ways you know through beyond history yourself observing and exposing yourself to lot of context which is out there and not jumping to you know I was not sure how to do so I also know I'm not sure if you will say you know this I like you say strong opinions loosely held so you know they have conviction you know to be part you know the part of the conviction but then when data shows you otherwise sometimes you should be able to let you go and we need to leave for this strong conviction loosely held I really like that location because I remember you you know among many pivots and pivots is not like a like a you know sharp 90 degree turn necessarily guide but some key decisions you wanted to focus on way to see exclusively and not go forward with p2p and not water to spend more time trying to salvage that business and likewise focusing 100% of your energy on lifestyle e-commerce and all of those were not that obvious at that time you know why those would succeed and then again from passion you have pivoted first to weight not the company pivot as a fashion talk leadership that you brought to the country you pivoted to becoming an entrepreneur in health and fitness so you know that's a short pivot again so you love to hear what we're in team to thinking that but let's finish a question that and shika when shika had before we jump into this which from being true to your plate when shika go ahead but he is funny with the location on the off of all sort of young individuals and india I just want to say what if you are an inspiration for having me or that's Friday night and he's second key I think my question is he's engaged to you how intentional you between the idea of cult figures was it was it of me and power right because I get a sort of very important that has the necessary important to do the good and also to miss one he I think my question is so female founders received only about 2.8% of total startup investment in recent years and that number that's really been deteriorating as part of palani capitals are there any specific initiatives to pay for the way for next generation of female founders thank you so much that goes for my question panshika on the last question which I just take 30 seconds somebody would think I planted you across that question because they actually initiated you we are going to be launching and you hear more about that it's most likely last week of July and so if you watch Calary's face either club house or LinkedIn you will learn more about it it's a question that matters to me a lot too and I've been thinking about that in fact our research shows that where a purpose the CEO in India you know the amount of funding has been 1.4% where women is one of the co-founders the funding has been 5.7% so obviously it can't be that it's a woman that are under missing factor it's something that's missing in the investment criteria I think or evaluation so I don't know what I can do about it but I want to do something and we have initiated we are launching so I leave it at that because the session is not a discussion for that but okay go ahead yeah I'll just add up so panshika you know the second important it's a very extreme thing I'm doing something that needs to be discussed a lot more if you need to pay attention to it after I do understand is not being clear and structurally a good search in is a challenge even you know my own journey as an entrepreneur as a leader at highly university and I just so on I've been accurately aware of it sometimes stumped at the the manual problem but the starting point is to glad you ask the question to keep asking and to understand and the people the ecosystem over the ability to large in the minds so a variety of initiative these deep structural society cultural problems you know that's very deep but I think it's just want to underscore you know I see a lot of you know women audience perhaps a lot of inspiring women and the groups so it's just an important question I get I don't have good answers but you ask my current journey was a lot more deliberate and I'm in tragedy I think at the time you know what we want to do kept on evolving eventually leading to a second can pivot but for second instant I was able to think a little bit about which is I want to work on and I try to find something where business opportunity and passion can go inside and for me health and fitness in that was no brain you know I've always been into sports and then all kind of fitness at various stages of my life and I still wouldn't have started only for that reason but I had a conviction that health is you know about to take a big way it will matter a lot in every once in a while and there is opportunity to build a large business health space so that you know intersection of something with the natural connect and a large business opportunity is work on this to try to build something that space. So in the case you know maybe we just expand on that question so we knew which it was a question of passion right that you were really interested it's not that you were an expert in health space right so compared to funding at Mintra versus funding at Q-fake in terms of hitting people to be me in what you were doing and and going about building one of the India's greatest brands in my opinion though I'm an investor and I'm biased but I'm also a very active paying customer of a cult and shows everyone at Calary not because we give them any discounts to do that okay she hasn't offered that to us so you know but they just do need us be you know, transformative. And in fact, we have everyone share their new year goals with us. It's just like a fun thing when we come back in the office every year. And I'm really surprised how many of them say, "I plan for X number of cult sessions." Very specific, right this year. And a few of them have like number of cult sessions in a year, over 300, which means they kind of want to go to cult every day. And you can do that with your customers, that's phenomenal. So maybe just the cult journey including how you handle the pandemic. You know, what are the takeaways there? I think that would be very helpful both from the troubles of the pandemic that I think you have transcended very well. As well as just trying to convince others to help you to join your journey rather in the vision you had for better health, better fitness for India. So one of the idea of cult is, you know, the core inside is extremely simple. And because of my association of health and fitness, you know, it was not a difficult to arrive at, which is, everybody wants good health. You know, no one will say, "Look, it's not in on my list to be healthy." But most people struggle with it, because your student health is difficult. It requires motivation, you know, to cause figuring out what kind of work out for you, showing up at the gym. And, you know, being disciplined, you know, about your food, about your sleep. And so how inside was, it just people want health, health is difficult. Can we make it easy and fun? So everything that happens in cult, you know, all the choices we have made, all standardized workouts, reviews, you know, how trainers are trained, the ambience, the music, everything that's just, you know, serving their world, but can we make fitness fun and easy? And what happened? Then you made fun and easy. It's very easy for people to, you know, the experience-print cult, which is traditional gym is, you know, so much in cult, as a first-time person, you show up in a traditional gym, you have all these big machines, you know, which is why don't think how to figure out how to operate those machines, learn, read the instructions, you know. It's a nerve-wracking. When you look at it, you show up, you know, all you have to just stand in line and then train a dancer, and then you have to do other people are doing this and copying it, you have fun, you're connecting people. So I think, you know, that insight of making work out for me is, I think it's the reason why a lot of people are able to connect with cult, why, you know, the huge number of people have been able to embark on their fitness journey for the first time. Perhaps we would have struggled with, you know, the other alternate means. I think for our, you know, navigation through the pandemic, it's, you know, one of the other, you know, one of the other phrase that I quite like, you know, it's never letting a crisis go to waste, right? And there's a crisis that inevitable part of any entrepreneur journey. I think the point, you know, any company anywhere and we will can easily arrive at few years where the company would have gone through very deep souls and so on. So for us, you know, the crisis arrived quite unexpectedly, and it is obviously very hard. 100% of this is going to zero overnight, but I think, you're in a few months, we said, what can, you know, how do we use this crisis to our advantage, what can come out of it, right? And what came out of it, we can restructure our costs quite significantly. We can build the digital business. We can prepare better for the most pandemic world, you know, which has led to significant consolidation of old fitness industry we are doing and we're now along this Kultpass product, which in next end of the quarter will have bigger geofood print than we had for our own Kultpass part incentives to go in. So in some ways, you know, I think that there's a mindset of, you know, when the crisis hits, just first accept, okay, we are in a deep crisis, you know. You don't want to ignore it or have wishful thinking, you know, assuming something go away, because, you know, that will not happen. So just recognizing for what crisis, what crisis is and what do you have and what are the cards you're going to play and pay the fullest, you know, sometimes when things are going, but we don't have license to make, you know, home changes, they are difficult, you can remember buying for everybody, but prices, you know, we have found this, it is a license to make big bold moves, you know. And we made many, you know, we were able to spin out each where they shut down some of our offline businesses, launch some new categories, we have got three acquisitions in, you know, last one year, we didn't do any acquisitions a prior three years. So just recognizing crisis, what is it? And then you know, using the license well, you know, and you can come out of crisis, you know, much stronger, which I hope I think, but going to be, so I think that's why that the one with the mindset of failing the crisis and the difference. I think one thing, okay, I would say, and then, Roy, you can prepare with your question next, but one thing I would say, what I observed, um, okay, she is, by the way, Chichu, you know, that's kind of the quote, "Prisis is an opportunity," but, you know, is in a crisis, you have to sort of be more color, so you can think more dearly, right? And what I saw at the beginning of the pandemic is you ask the board to have a call every month or every six weeks with you, walking through, this is what is working, this is what is still challenging, this is what we have answers for, this we don't have answers for, and maybe the board can't solve anything, because they may or may not have, you know, the insight or the experience, but we serve as sort of that sounding word for you to get better clarity on what you want to do. And I've seen this with you always, selecting that's another part of your leadership that has helped you succeed from my observation, is that it's not only about converting crisis into an opportunity, but it is also involving people in the crisis and being open, transparent about, you know, what is working, what is not, and this is something, maybe it's human nature that sometimes we don't want to face the crisis before we are facing it, but we don't want others to know we are facing it, and open how that translates to board startup is, you know, you don't want to tell the board everything, and you don't want to tell them, they also not as to be the sometimes people thing, they might be, so they smell it, right? And so, you know, so really, so that's where the relationship starts, downgrading or deteriorating, but, you know, somebody would think you are a very experienced CEO, so, you know, how to handle the crisis, and of course you do, but you always involve your own team and your board, very openly actively into the dialogue, which I think is a great leadership quality that you have, that you bring that discussion and hence being consensus. And a bit where? Yeah, maybe I'll just add to that right, I think, yeah. We'll work on people in the audience, so we'll work on aspiring entrepreneurs, and transparency, one of those very simple, but extremely powerful experts in both contractors, only to bring some support from our next group of partners, it helps other people empathize with you, it's also great at you, know, for any kind of, you know, silo-friendly or quality start position. Is it, one principle, you know, I have, I wish I need to believe it, and I'm ducked, this makes life so much easier, just being close, you know, everyone has same information, same context, and at least to generally, very healthy environment, and everything, right, so just to, let's go there. No, absolutely, and you, and your practice, day-to-day trip, go head-place. Yeah, thank you, one, thank you, Mokesh, and thank you all for hosting this amazing platform, and the reason I'm here is, please, for people to get inspired, and as well, learn a lot more. So my question to Mokesh is that, the way, the way my companies are built, are fairly, I'm indifferent in the one to 10, or 10 to, sorry, 0 to 1, 1 to 10, and 10 to 100, phases or stages. So how should one learn the goal about building like the company, and these three, like, different phases from a team building and culture point of view? And also, since you are, you know, more so focused on like the health care service, what is, I mean, what are some of the key insights you have learned in the health care sector? Yes, so I think that, you know, the event culture is a company to our positions, and a real big difference scale. I think culture is something that should never change. It can evolve in terms of some of the rituals and politicians, but hardcore, you should never change, right? It's, uh, if you go back, you know, there's some examples. I was in front of the event, I tried to build a world's most, you know, customer offices, you know, company, and they are, they were too good, you know, way back in 85, and they're too good now, and they're like, well, I've been really, you know, beautiful products, you know, from first, you know, magnitude forward to the latest in life for now. So I think some of the things, you know, why you exist, what is the purpose of it? They should not change, if I as you evolve in the different skills. Inks, you know, it's more like, you know, what's the same, horses, what the horse is like. So you're, the skills and requires to operate different levels. The challenges at home they keep changing. After only two logical ways right either your people from within the company who are able to grow and grow even faster than how fast the company is growing. If as a leader you are able to do good things and you get on those people you get but sometimes you also need to be honest and everyone can't grow as fast and then you need to be willing to make changes and bring in talent from outside. Do you question about health? I think my biggest incentive even after doing so 5 years is the motivation for health is incredible difficulty on a large scale to be able to have enough discipline in your life or in daily basis to practice all the healthy lifestyle is something that people need but it's going to find a very special environment for all kinds of distractions from social media to watch networks to all kind of snacking and so on. For us at this time I think that people are inside and we want to work at a quite in depth level to solve for how we really make it very easy for anyone to have you know being able to practice healthy lifestyle there and almost as a leeching products we have currently working on are for the doing a solid work. Thank you occasion like I said as a average user of cult I can tell you that it has really made a big difference to make this a habit I've always worked out I've always been healthy knowing that any hard work or any big goal like entrepreneurship but any other big goal in life is really a marathon and other short sprints. So your physical mental wellness and whole well-being is very important to pay attention to and it's one thing that I advise all our founders to not look at this as you know just burning both sides of the candles there may be a day or a week when you need to do that but if you're doing that every day you know so I would rather people went home so when time with their family or in the golfing occasion just saying that I'm not going to call for but because you are you know for me it's yoga you know or whatever it is but have other things in life this startup or entrepreneurship can't be end all be all what we define our life as so I think cult has made a very big difference to a lot of people but certainly for me to make fitness a consistent habit so thank you for creating it actually but let's jump to Hidri Shah and then in there and you can ask your question after that so go ahead Hidri Shah maybe then you can go ahead in case you're mistaking some time to figure out go ahead Sure Thanks Vani I'm able to few and hi everyone I'm the product team of as a startup called Manjapai Li the new banking board team My question to Mukesh is what is the opportunity you see for cult I think I'll call it as well as cure fit in the tier 2 city segment I'm not going to go to tier 3 but definitely tier 2 city is a bit more evident what is the challenges and the one you do thanks yeah so I mean end of July so I'm beginning from so in a few weeks though yeah I'll please take you to this to help I just took a very individual equally with the group of people or where you stay on what you background I think everyone has a major or obvious so I think it's as far as health goes but maybe different as what can you afford because you can come allow you to stand on health you may generally have work blessing days because today the person who has a lot of money needs a time which also before the charts apply off so I think kind of far as a cult part of you as you mentioned you need to have different price points we don't think it's more accessible and a lot more relatable kind of for requirements a particular class of the region a couple of us will be like with different certain very age group point of view but from larger opportunity point of view if you are king dog and minister you are do you agree? maybe in smaller town still three towns and I broke it one maybe it was just being able to enter people to go for a boarding walk which used to be very common way back but now probably age of the group and you know what's sad and free content you know may not be as feasible so the solution may different you know monetization may different you know for quite a huge escape rate 40,000 rupees a month per year but for a year do you make a resolution where people are only paying? a few hundred rupees a month right or whatever the price for you but relevance I think I don't think it's there may be some viewers behind in terms of awareness and the belief is to invest the time and money but relevance I don't think there is any conditions at all thanks Mukesh Vishya, are you ready with your question? Hi, hi, hi, I am Mukesh, thank you for being such inspiration thank you for doing this for us I mean it only makes some beliefs stronger now I have one question for each of you one two, one, very simply I mean what are your expectations from a passionate entrepreneur? because you know I feel any amount of net practice you do if you know but really match the actual game so therefore sometimes people expect your entrepreneur or the person who wants to you know make the idea germinate to have all the answers but I feel that it may be a journey where two people more people figure it out collectively what are your expectations from an entrepreneur when you are looking to invest or looking to mentor and by question to Mukesh's so I was lucky to be a partner of a company start-ups myself as creative consultant which you were in Ecoma sector and one of them got eaten up by Jabong with their you know high discount strategies and then by all the merchandise strategies and when I saw people fail around me I realized that the cyclical nature of fashion was something they were not able to cope with so did you have that issue as well and especially you know the nature of fashion sometimes is counter intuitive for example for revenue you may have to sell large fast fashion numbers but the fashion a bourgeois or the crowd which the fashion snoot crowds for you may for that word may support sustainable fashion which is high ticket size so how do you fight that that perception as well as profit together these are my two questions thank you very much As far as my question is concerned I would actually ask that question to Mukesh because he is both seen many more investors and has raised a lot of capital and so what do investors look for and today if some of you are not aware he is an angel investor also very selective angel investor but I think he has done a phenomenal job of building a investment portfolio as good or better than best of venture capitalists out there so maybe he can highly answers your you know fashion question he can also say what is it that any of the opinion investors really look for in founders having so successfully raised capital right and my sense is you know it probably also varies from investor to investor in other bands was on to your philosophy etc but few things that I have you know I think I'm generalizing basically what I believe in what I see around me I think in the early stage wasting most more attractive people look at teams and by team I sort of mean individuals that usually group of people where they come from but in their own conviction and passion for the space and how well they can work with each other I think is for the early stage it's a very important factor right second point factor is you know I think you need to be a head chef too you know what is the address will market you're paying the attention to or something no matter how good the team is if your team you know which is the reason it is the team was very tiny in the first lesson especially working on and no matter how well they execute it never would ever want to do for a large business so that's certainly you know as you know, or the investors in a pay more and more attention to. I think I'll at least say also that it will do just a good business to observe and keep changing and adjusting. It's very important because in some ways the real learning only starts you know not in the business level. The one meets the road and when you have shipping a product and real customer views, but in that sense it's a very early product already starts so you're able to do process on the inputs coming your way and filter you know some things you will do or some things you know you will do embrace or how do you navigate the dynamics is very important and those are you know. But for me like just you know some of the as Viniciel and I made a really short investment. I think you look for the passion for whatever an entrepreneur is trying to do. If I'm convinced that two things in a person is highly intelligent and also or a high-carbored team. I wouldn't do a really interesting but a single founder. It's just simply because you know the journey is so difficult and so many of the teams are able to navigate the road and I look for a new team called Vickchen Marshall. Welcome to me and Mrs. Skywood. They are building a new studio to launch a blinded robot orbit. I invested in company 2018. After I've done this for the caliber of passion I just asked them one question. Look at this for next 10 years. If I come into Wales and look for next 10 years will you be able to believe because you have that snow maintenance and those that power never said they will and now you have been here for three years down the line. They were there's series of what made their run much of testing and I'm quite often say next year and they're called to come first. We've come to private systems in the Columbia to launch satellite in the off-road. So there are some things you know. I think fashion is a very nuanced question. I just feel I think it's not about the big potential particular segment or it's just you know in industry has a certain you know way that works out. Before you can do anything you know understand you know near-ders new fashion ideas come from how does the fashion inventories like Kilvour know how does it look like? How does relationship be in grads and retailers? What is the role of fashion SKUs which is you know what is a company that for the one season versus cooler SKUs and then it makes choices. What kind of game there are many games possible. So I don't know in general I just say this is the only playbook. There are a lot of factory outlet. They were delivered. They're flashed. All of them were delivered. They're actually segment of value fashion segment. So you just need to know whatever industry you can into. You want to make a decision. What are the rules or industry and then what are the unique angle that you have? You have a significant leverage or differentiation. Okay. So you want to talk about your books. So kind of changing from entrepreneurship and just you know purely stepping back right and I agree with you that books are condensed for four or five hours somebody's lifetime of experience and your book in particular no limits is very easy. Some books are hard to read even if they are content rich. Some books are easy to read and make content accessible. So I didn't know there was an author in you also and that's probably true for all of us. There are many of us in us that can get and use to work different times whether it's author or professor whether it's this or the other. So until I did your book I didn't actually know how good writer and how deep I think you are. So I enjoyed the book very much but I'd like you to just share with the audience who may not have read the book sort of few key insights or essence of what motivated the book and what are some of the takeaways from the book. So what is Genesis of book was not a realisation a long time ago that all of us is a sweet amount of time especially if you want to pay attention to your health you'll be sleeping seven or eight hours and what came out that's all you are given less time. The only way to do more is to have a better productivity you know getting more out of your time without losing your mind. So that's an area I started studying a long time ago and getting learning a few insights which is what I tried to articulate in the book. I didn't summarize it for what is your habit is most powerful thing. If I refers to a sit back and you know how a day is most most of it is not delivered by habit for example. For example, for this you're every single one of you may not relate but you probably put your left sort of voice or right or right. And my average age is you are not making a conscious choice but that's how habits are. So understanding how habits form, how you get, change habits, how you can form something that happens. It becomes auto-vided without going so that's why we do not have a week or a day to research. I don't want my book but it looks like I don't have my power habit or outstanding books. The thing I don't want is my brain to start trying to do that. I have a look at myself and make this concept quite popular. Fixed by myself is good. I have a good idea of being accepting yourself as a certain fixed lens versus being open to that. You can change. You are not really who you are. You don't have to do you think you are who is unchangeable but you can from every situation you can try something and keep evolving more. Exhibit powerful idea and last thing I'll mention is that the relationship between health and productivity is something my optimal journey taught me. The more I invest in health, the more I get back in terms of ROI of effectiveness, energy, focus, longevity of the sustained illness for a long period of time. It may appear that it takes more time out of you but I think it gives back dozens or hundreds of times more in terms of effectiveness. So those are all the key ideas. To everyone in the audience guys I realize that we have actually done over time and there are so many more questions. We will only be able to take part in one or two and we really know that all of you are still in the room and appreciate and value that and keeping this session going. It doesn't feel like we have spent in our location. We would spend another hour and I think I would still have so many more questions to learn from you. But let's have Pooja ask you a question and then maybe one way you can ask his question as we wrap up and catch maybe you can just wrap up after those questions with your words of advice to funders out there who might be where you were in 2007 and eight and the conversation was about that but you would love for you to wrap up the session. But Pooja go ahead ask you a question. Thanks, Madi. Hi, Vani. I'm with this. I actually don't think I could have been better. So I'm going to ask you a second. My question is which is what are the three books that you find yourself going back to whether it's every week every quarter just to remind yourself of the values and the type of entrepreneur that you've got to be? Yes, so there are quite a few but the three visually comes to mind. You know, when you're from this, the Scott Pick, the Jim Collins' book, Good to Great. From all of his books, great. But I think good to great here. I think he grabbed the time list. We can call it a building of a phenomenal business. So there are a lot of principles in which I keep going back to what. Second book, you know, this is a lot of reflective introspective books. There are very short books in that. But Herman Hess's book, I would have already liked probably nine and ten times. You know, every year or two I go back to it. It just, you know, helps put things in perspective and I think it's a dense effect. My particular way, which I quite like and my best, you know, productivity book is a Cal-Linked book called Deep Work where he talks about different modes of working and how in different contexts, different kind of, you know, working can be quite different. He's a very thoughtful, well, he's a computer scientist. He's taught about his deeply and others and the book I heard it three or four times. Now what might I do? One more time. Malveen, go ahead. Ask your question. Thanks, Vani. Okay, it's been a pleasure. You know, I mean, I think you are an inspiration for a lot of authors all across the industry and kudos to what you do. You know, what makes you the person you are. And this is where, you know, I would like to ask you a question about the pandemic, you know, pretty much. What are the words, you know, you want to share about resilience when I think, you know, you've had leave and it can die a concept of making a fitness fund and that's the best learning I've learned from your fit. But I want to understand once the lockdown hit you and, you know, the stores were not really open and you limited, of course, to online. But I wanted to understand how are you looking at that scenario where in which you have this entire team of, of empty number of great, you know, great people has bought it for your team. and everything caught shot immediately. So just want to know about your story of resilience and how you were able to overcome that? For resilience, one of the things I think my mind is going back to, so if you were a star track friend here, so Captain Kirk, in every episode they will get to invite and Captain Kirk will always ask how far you've been from here, and from here, I'll be in a normal situation. I feel that sometimes I'm asking you that question in a normal and worse situation or assume you are in. If you ask that question, honestly enough, you start seeing lot of things, right? So in some ways, you know, our band, the thing journey was that, you know, it is what it is. You have no other situation for what it is. And then you see, you know, what are the parts available and you sincerely asked how we've been from here, and you will see lot of new things, you know, that were not available down the road there at all. There are some beneficial crises. None of us ever want crisis, but they will, you know, support and reform into our labs. And, you know, if you can use it, or first you'll be able to make, you know, wholesale changes, which maybe in your heart you would have known had no right things to do, but you might not have the courage or environment support. And I think, you know, there's other aspect of crisis you went through. I'll just, you know, just submit up on me as a, and I think for the, you know, just input to the, the aspiring entrepreneurs here. Now, one thing I have learned is that for me, it's been now, what I do for years, I've been around startups, right? And I feel, you know, on a bunch of pursue entrepreneurs, just like any other career, it's not about taking a plunge, starting with the idea, getting funding, and making work and so on. It doesn't work that way. It's like any career, you know, things compound over a period of time. Every year that you go through as an entrepreneur, you keep learning. And you know, you learn who you are. And that's a great benefit of entrepreneurship. And I second, you know, your skill set, you know, 10,000 hours, you know, you're placed to any, or domain, including entrepreneurship. So you keep getting better over a period of time, and you can, you know, every learning and failure goes into doing things better every month. So I think that's one important thing for entrepreneurs, long term career. And other is, I think, you know, I feel entrepreneur closely about people. So being a lot of attention to who you were, you know, co-founders, initial people, you hire, you work with, just, you know, being this important attention to, you know, this, you know, this entrepreneurship, not like, like, say, being an author, like a booker, you know, that is how you don't do the questions, you know, help on the entrepreneur, all of all other people, you know, so being able to, you know, how does the entrepreneurs work, how do you get support from people outing it, other people are champion for you. And just, you know, just figuring that that's the problem, I think, with, sir, you, not better. Thank you so much, Mukesh. This was, you know, I happened to be, I shot a visit to the US right now, so I could have had it, that only morning conversation to get my day started, and I know for most of everybody else, this is a evening, and we took up a lot of the evening, and so many people joined. So I know this was a very inspiring session, so I wish everybody the best in continuing to dream, and pursuing your dreams, and, it's always been a pleasure to not only work with you, but to chat with you as a person, and thank you so much for doing this session, and I took away many, a, reinforce learning, so I think everything you said, I've seen you practice, but, you know, just the clarity of the reinforcement of that, so thank you for doing this. For everyone in the audience, keep watching Calary Space. We have many sessions, including on female founders, and what could be some of the things people do together, as well as, you know, from entrepreneurs and leaders, like vocation, paid forward, and then some, you know, you know, you know, you start on your sessions, which go deep into a particular sector, and what is happening in India, and that sector, from sector experts. So, keep watching Calary Space. Hope to see you all again soon. Thank you so much, vocation. Thanks, Wami. I don't really enjoy it, I wish everyone the whole of the rest of the year. I'll be doing it. Thank you. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]