Full Transcript

Utsav Somani: Let's go. Alright, guys. Stream 138. Today is a special one. I know most of you are celebrating a break today. Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to people who are celebrating, but thank you for giving us your time. We've got one and a half hours lined up. I think we're speaking to eight, nine individuals today, The Foundery and also our friends at TON Southeast Asia. So let's bring Wing and Jon to the show. Let's welcome them.

Dhruv Sharma: Absolutely.

Utsav Somani: Guys Hey, Wing and Jon.

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Hey, guys.

Utsav Somani: Good to

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): see you guys. Great to see you.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): So Thanks, Adam. Thanks having us.

Utsav Somani: We made a post about this on Saturday. There's a personal bit of history for me because when, I was joining AngelList to lead, the India business in 2016, Jon was the first reporter at TechCrunch to cover AngelList India. And then when I joined AngelList and I was doing syndicates, Wing was my first account manager. That's how I got connected. And then we ended up investing in Southeast Asia via an IC vehicle. We invested in what? 35, 40 companies, Wing?

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Yeah. Yeah. Thirty thirty three, I think, out of that first fund to be exact. So yep.

Utsav Somani: Crazy. And now to do TON Southeast Asia together, it's amazing. So I think I mean, a bit of context, I think, will be useful about what you guys are doing now. Jon, you are a journalist. Now you have taken up a new role as well. Wing is an investor. So maybe just give us, like, a one, two minute introduction about what you guys are doing right now. Wing, John, anyone who wants to start.

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Alright. I can kick it off. Sure. So yeah. I mean, as Utsav mentioned, you know, we've been friends for a while now. So I was looking back. It's been seven, eight years since we've, we've known each other. So really time time flew by. But at that time, I was working at AngelList. You know, fast forward seven years later, two funds deployed across the region, across Southeast Asia. Now I'm a GP at Analog Ventures, so based out here in Singapore, actively investing in Singapore-based companies, but also across the broader Southeast Asia region. We're super excited by what we're seeing on the ground today. And, yeah, really thankful for the opportunity to kind of pick up where what you what you guys have done for India, do something similar for Southeast Asia. And to you and to the the broader team, we're super excited to get this rolling.

Utsav Somani: Jon, what's up in Bangkok?

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): I agree. Yeah. No. I'm really, excited. I think I've always wanted to do a podcast or do some video related activity. Somehow, I've not got there. I was a, I guess, online journalist for over ten years probably. If you say, like, everyone still asked me about, TechCrunch. I was there for almost almost five years. But since then, I've worked at other media companies. I moved into the relative dark side of, consulting and, and, comms. So right now, I help companies, basically do their their own kind of kind of, story storytelling using the kind of skills I picked up as a, journalist. So whether it's, like, talking to journalists or actually building their own, direct comms, which I think has, never been more important. So, we're seeing that in US. A a lot of companies are doing this, are going direct and doing thought thought leadership. So it's probably about time that that also took place in this part of the world where we're at. So, yeah, excited to talk more about that in the future and, obviously, also to be here and to start this show and to help, shine some light on the great companies that are in our part of the world.

Dhruv Sharma: Speaking of, John, tell us more about your part of the world. You guys start streaming tomorrow. What do you intend to cover?

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): I mean, there's there's so much in this in this part of the world. I think it's it's kind of it's always been, chronically underreported. So when I was a reporter, like, we only had one person in, in Southeast Asia. So there's so many different countries here. I mean, you got six different countries. I think in terms of tech and tech founders, there's a lot of great companies that are out there that are that are growing, at a really strong kind of pace. So we're gonna shine some light on those founders and what they're doing. Obviously, AI is gonna be a big a big part of that. So looking at how companies in this region are building products using AI and, you know, how adoption is, going. On the on the founder side, we've got some really great guests who are, actively writing writing checks, deploying funds, so kind of pick their brains on what, how they see this region, what's interesting in terms of the countries, and also, obviously, the different sectors too. So, hopefully, provide more intelligence on, you know, what's going on out out here between all the noise and, all those companies that are out there too. Right wing, any any great guests we can talk about at this point, or are we keeping that under wraps for now?

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Think we're gonna we will show off our guests a a little closer to to our launch, and we'll have some more guests come on as well. But, yeah, I mean, I think there's just exactly what John said. There's so much happening in the region. Right? There's 11 countries here. Each of kind of the big tech country, countries have on their own story. They have what's happening in Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, kind of positioning itself as a new financial hub. I think part of the story that I'm really excited about for the region is this new generation of companies we're seeing come out of here. Right? So you have the first generation of companies, Grab, Gojek, Sea Limited, go public, spawn new companies. But what we're really seeing now in the ecosystem is a new generation of companies that are born in Singapore or headquartered in Singapore, but really serving a much larger global market. Right? You had the Manus story that everyone was talking about earlier this year or last year. You have Airwallex moving their headquarters from, Australia now now to Singapore. So there's really it's really an interesting time for the region. We're finally starting to see kind of global companies come out of Singapore, come out of Southeast Asia. And I think John and I hope to be a small part of covering those stories and those journeys and really just trying to really articulate and tell the story of this region more towards a a larger and hopefully global audience as well.

Utsav Somani: What are the major startup cities right now in Southeast Asia where you see the most activity?

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Yeah. I mean, I think it's definitely Singapore by far. Right? I think at one point, you kind of had Indonesia, Vietnam kind of booming, Thailand, Malaysia slightly far further behind. But as of today, I think we're seeing a lot of action happen in Singapore, and it's a congregation of a lot of different reasons. Right? One is you're seeing, like, a lot of the top founders from Indonesia, from Vietnam, move out to Singapore to start companies using this as the headquarters. We're seeing a lot of Chinese founders, actually. Right? Like, if you're a founder in China today, you can't really build for the West, for US, for Europe out of China. You have to redomicile, often move out to Singapore as that next core market. So Singapore positioning itself as the gateway between the the East to the West is a is a really interesting theme. So I think, by far, number one, Singapore. Some countries on the rise, cities on the rise, like Philippines and Manila, I think, is actually quite interesting. English-speaking, large population as well. A lot a lot happening there. I I just came back from a trip to from Kuala Lumpur, so a lot of interesting happening and things happening in Malaysia, especially in the Johor area with data centers. Yeah. I think those are kind of, like, the core cities where I'm seeing a lot of action right now. Yeah. I don't know, John, anything you wanna you wanna add to that.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): Yeah. I think I see you're right. Like, Singapore is usually the place because that's where the the capital is, to be honest, and I think that's where most of the talent is. But I think you do see companies where it's quite hard to say what country they're actually from, right, because they might have people across the region in different places. I know, Thailand's been quite popular in the past with doing that. Right? You put your C-levels in, Singapore or if you're doing Indonesia, they're in Indonesia, and then Thailand has some options for people who might want a better quality of life than they'd get in other in other places without breaking the bank for the company. So I think, yeah, there's all different kinds of, models out there. I think the way in the last couple of years, products can be created using AI and how AI has changed the workforce and how companies work, I think, has also impacted where people sit. So to be honest, I don't have all the all the answers, and I'm quite excited to talk to founders, on the show and figure things out in real time as you kinda see it. Right? So we don't I'm sure there's folks who have, people across various different places. I mean, I was doing some work with a company in Indonesia, and I figured they must have about 40 people. And they've got, like, 850 people, and they're and they're hiring more. So there's all these stories that don't get talked about often, sort of out there hiding in, plain sight, and hopefully we can, shed some light on them and, learn from them.

Utsav Somani: That is honestly the best way to look at this. Like, I think when Dhruv and I started, we went after, like, big name brand founders that you probably hear about, on every podcast, every news article and stuff. But as we went along, we discovered these hidden gems, like people I mean, space tech has become a big sector that we've covered here. And other deep tech founders were young builders, like nineteen, twenty, 21, 22, and building such insane companies that they would not have a platform to tell their stories. And for Dhruv and me, personally, I think it's become a platform where we get to spend time with eight, nine founders in a week and learn about, like, I think probably eight, nine sectors. So across the 300 people that we've interviewed, founders, investors, operators, it's been just, I mean, mind boggling learning. Like, I think if anyone has tuned in to TON India for the last one year, even seen 50% of our shows, or they go back and read the transcripts, I think it's become a place where you can literally get insights in that particular moment from any particular industry, and that's what we strive to do always at TON India.

Dhruv Sharma: Absolutely. Tell us about the state of media coverage in the region, today, guys, and what is the gap you hope to fill with, TON Southeast Asia?

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): John, I think you're the you're the man for this first.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): I was gonna say, is it gonna have to be on this one? I I think it's real I I think it's so difficult in general. You know? I don't know how how much time have you got to talk about this topic because I could probably do, like, three hours, but I'll keep it short. I mean, media industry is getting a lot a lot harder. Right? Everyone knows that, there's the the budgets out there for journalists are much lower. There's way fewer journalists. Like, for example, CNBC just closed down their, studio in, in Hong Kong, which, you know, CNBC is obviously a huge brand, and you expect that they would have, you know, the the finances to do that. So it shows everybody is, has been has been caught by this. And and, yeah, Southeast Asia never really had a huge number of journalists, to be honest. Like, when I was at TechCrunch, I was the only person there. And then after I left, they never hired anybody else in the in the region. So it's definitely under-covered, and I think that some, part of that is because people who are outside of the region just don't understand. Right? They just think Asia. It must be everything. And, you know, as we know, India, China, Southeast Asia are not the same in any way. I mean, even India. Right? Like, there's so much variation culturally, I'm sure, that you guys have in your, country, you know, let alone Southeast Asia that has, as we said, like, you know, ten ten main, countries out here. So I think it's really tough. And I think for tech as well, like, there's been, a kind of funding winter for tech, which has made it much harder for, anyone to get excited about what's going on because there's no capital that's that's that's going in. But we still see great companies and great founders that are out there. So I'm quite confident that, all the the stories that we covered are still there. They just don't have, the kind of media platforms that they had previously. So, and I and I think, also speaking personally, like, it's always quite hard because you'd have, let's say we were doing I was doing a story on a company. I talked to the founder for, say, thirty, forty, fifty minutes plus. There's only so much of that conversation that you can get into an actual story. Right? There's so much insight and, so many stories that they have that that just don't make it through to the actual finished product that people read. So I'm quite excited to have those those same kind of calls and conversations as you guys do where actually the whole conversation is on the record and is in in the in the public domain because that's the best way for people to learn, as you guys said.

Utsav Somani: Yeah. Otherwise, you can't hide behind edits, man.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): Yeah. Exactly. What do you think, Wing? I mean, you're in a business of, backing companies. Right? And I I guess a big part of that is that they get their their story out there. What's from your point of view, it must be quite interesting to sit there and try to find media outlets that can that can cover these great companies that you invest in.

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Yeah. No. It's it's difficult for sure. And I think part of it is that there hasn't been this new type of of media with this new medium. Right? Like, you know, the quote, the medium is the message. I think doing this livestream video format, we're really kind of committing to go live twice a week for an hour and try to kind of bring the most exciting things to you. I think that in of itself will be a really exciting thing for the region. Right? I think I mean, there's the kind of traditional, online publications. There's the Tech in Asia, e27s of the world. They're still hosting conferences, but we haven't seen anyone fill this gap that you guys have done really well in India. TBPN has done super well in in the Bay Area. And so I think bringing this new form of media to the region, my hope is that it gives a chance for exactly what you've done in India. A lot of young founders, maybe more under the radar folks who are able to come on, tell their story, and for us to be a small part in that, I think that's really kind of the the aspiration for, for this.

Utsav Somani: Love it, guys. You'll fumble, you'll learn, and you'll sometimes hate your time doing these live streams. But end of the day, it'll be worth it. The kind of conversations that you'll bring to life, I think it'll be fun. Before we let you guys go, prepare for tomorrow. What's the latest unicorn count in the region?

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Let me I think the latest that I saw was, 35 in the region, and five of those are decacorns. I think it's something more.

Utsav Somani: I think it's over 50. The last number that I read maybe last week.

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Last week? I think Really? Okay.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): We tweeted about it. Right? Yeah. You have to check our Twitter and put it up pull it up. I know. I wonder how many

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): of the India's.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): I wonder how many of those companies are are still, valued at that, price, though, because I think, some of them haven't raised money for quite some time. So, I think, yeah, well, those guys who raised up to those, valuations are finding it a bit harder to grow into them, which, is probably a great theme we could actually pick up if any founders They know.

Utsav Somani: Do you want to

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): do it twice?

Utsav Somani: And, ask them to tell their story. Great. Be fun.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): Yeah.

Utsav Somani: Awesome, guys.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): Thank you.

Utsav Somani: We'll let you guys prepare for tomorrow. All the very best, and, yeah, let's bring it on.

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Yeah. No. Super excited. I think, also, open call for any founders listening to this. If you wanna talk, chat, feel free to reach out. I think John and I would love to have that conversation. And we're excited to have, well, we can announce one guest, John, John, which is we're gonna have Utsav here featured as a the first guest tomorrow. So we're excited to

Utsav Somani: I don't even know why.

Wing Vasiksiri (Analog Ventures): Pick his brain.

Utsav Somani: I don't know. Like, honestly, like,

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): I'm not doing a post question video. Wasting No worries.

Utsav Somani: You're wasting important airtime on me, but go prepare now. See you. Yep.

Jon Russell (Ellerton & Co.): Thanks, guys. Yeah. Great. Thanks so much.

Utsav Somani: Bye bye. Bye. Alright, guys. We're moving on to our next, second half of the special episode. We've got Vishwani from The Foundery joining us. Vishwani, welcome to TON.

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Hi, guys. Thank you.

Utsav Somani: Awesome. So your story is very interesting. You've done The Grammar Room, then you've done leap.club, and now you're designing programs and becoming the program manager at Foundery with cohort one already done. What goes on behind the scene? What is the job of a program manager at a venture builder look like?

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): I wish I knew, man. You know, it's really funny. My team made me do a reel on this, but, if I could try and if I could try and put it in some some words. Essentially, anything and everything that goes down, precisely in Alibag. So whilst I was part of the founding processes, I would say. So, you know, The Foundery is not a model that's been done before. This whole live residential building is very unique. So we don't have a reference point, which means as program director, I just gotta put together new processes, and that has been a business in itself. Right? Like, we had to build a selection process that didn't exist. We had to build a curriculum that hasn't been done before, all of this in zero-to-one, a mentor network, you know, then match the founders to the ideas because at The Foundery, the ideas are ours in the consumer space. This is not, like, the founders pitching their ideas and, you know, we sort of just funding them and build an investor showcase. So I think it's the most chaotic and rewarding project that I've worked on. But largely, what's been really interesting and what goes on behind the scenes, which is my favorite part about this, is we don't over engineer anything. I don't wanna reduce it reduce it down and say, oh, it's all about the vibes. But a huge part of what we've done at Foundery is just we we operate as a hive mind as we like to call it, which is like we operate like a beehive. So everyone comes with their own expertise. We've got subject matter experts. You know, we've got the likes, of course, of Ronnie, Nikhil, KB, legends in their own field, and then we've also got, like, 21 year olds, you know, with AI, you know, enthusiasts, if I may say so. So it's all of us just coming together, trying to do something for the first time, and really learn along the way. So cohort one was an experiment. Yeah. And now the rubber hits the road.

Utsav Somani: Nice. We can't wait to chat with the five guests coming in from The Foundery cohort one as well.

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): That is the first time this is happening, so I'm quite excited too.

Dhruv Sharma: Yeah. We're excited as well. Vishwani, tell us more about the whole process of arriving at Foundery Market Fit and who who isn't it like who? Who came first and who came last when you were trying to do the matchmaking?

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): So, honestly, the whole premise drove off, picking you can't interview entrepreneurs. Right? Like, let's be honest. This is not something that is cookie cutter in that sense, which

Dhruv Sharma: is quite a bit and almost un-interviewable.

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Yeah. Exactly.

Dhruv Sharma: Not a word, but

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): they're not. And, you know, our tagline is forging entrepreneurs because there is a belief that if if you have enough footwell, we call keeda, that you can be forged into becoming an entrepreneur. Right? So the idea was that we're preparing founders for a world so I mean, so far, we've prepared founders for a world that doesn't exist. Right? Like, ten years ago or even five years ago, what building a company or being a founder meant does not sort of the founder role itself, if I would say, has fundamentally changed. So for us found finding that we actually didn't have a selection criteria. They had to be 18 and above, and we had a five step selection process wherein they also go through an AI interview. And we have these 10 foundry traits that we had identified, which we were looking for in these founders. So, you know, there is coachability, there was resilience, there's obviously creativity, communication, a lot of the factors that we believe, go into the making of, a founder. And this wasn't just for us about cohort one of building these businesses. Right? For Ronnie, KB, and Nikhil, this is GD about building founders that last. So, yes, they can build these companies, but also we wanna build founders in the process. So our founder sort of market fit looks slightly different, I would say, to the usual. And in terms of so was your second question how we pick them and match them to the ideas?

Dhruv Sharma: Yeah. You know, that question was really who was an instant fit and who did take a really long time to place amongst the founders?

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): So we we had about 38,000 applications, and then we ended up with 30 in the final. So a lot of them, definitely did make the cut. And in all of this, we also have a five-day in person boot camp. So after we interviewed 600 of them, we met 82 of them for five-days in Alibag, which was a really high-pressure, high-intensity, sort of vibe check where we spent a lot of time with the 82 of them to sort of finalize the final, cohort, where we were testing them, on the some of the traits that I mentioned. And we had a lot of activities and interactions, one-on-ones, you know, with the mentors, with with the three of them to sort of pick out or sort of identify and observe what those traits were. It's human beings at the end of the day. I don't wanna say it was perfect. You know? I have many nights where I'm like, there was there someone we let go, you know, that should have deserved to make it, or any of that. But after the 82, when we picked the final, you know, cohort, we also had a month between them to chat with them and understand where their passion lies. Because by the time we met them in Alibag, we had just spoken to them or interacted with them for over a month because they've given an AI interview, and then they've given an online interview with a mentor, then they've arrived there. So let's say if you were an applicant and you had written and mentioned and chatted with us in the interview that you're really passionate about, let's say, the jewelry or the fashion space, right, in the consumer business, that is a signal to us. And then we together build out and talk that, okay. Hey. We in The Foundery idea bank actually have three ideas which touch upon fashion and jewelry, and then we put them forward with you and discuss them with you and arrived at it mutually. This did not hold true for maybe three of them. We did have, you know, a couple of founders, and I'm being very candid here because I know that's the format that you guys have here. I think within a week, we kind of, you know, had somebody who just said this is this is not working. So, they dropped off. And then, you know, subsequently so we've had, I would say, about three to four that maybe didn't sort of, make the match to the idea, which is absolutely fine.

Dhruv Sharma: That's also incredibly self-aware of them, another trait you expect in founders.

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Yes. And that's why the live build and the residency is a game changer. I've realized something about being under one roof, you know, living, breathing, eating, all of it together, spending that kind of time. That has really been, something that we've seen super unique because the same founders now, 90 days are over, we're back working from the offices. We often talk about how the momentum's lost. You know, it's not the same and, you know, because we're not together because even conversations happen over meals. Right? There are so many times when in the morning, we've had a presentation and, you know, I remember this really, really well where we would speak about one of the businesses. And at breakfast, the product is x. By lunch, it has become x minus one. And then by the next day, it's like, okay. You know what? Scrap this completely. But that's all happening in real time, and that's been quite something to experience.

Utsav Somani: And the Alibag residential program, I think, is a big part of all of this. Right? What does an average day look like? How do you design for 30 people, like, young, talented builders to stay together and stick together and other aspects of, like, designing this residential program? Like, maybe if you can share that, I think it'll be phenomenal for us.

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Yeah. Absolutely. So we were very clear on Alibag, you know. There was this very immediate consensus. So you actually used to have a 4PM call between all of us for almost, like, ten months, where we would just be like, okay, guys. So how should we do this? This has not been done before. Quite like you said, how do you design for 30 people living together? And then, you know, KB was very clear. We refer to Kishore Biyani as KB. That's just the normal nature we go with. And he's like, I don't want distractions. I want them all. I want clean air. I want palm trees. I want this I want this vibe. You know, if people can do it in Bali, we have Alibag here. So we're like, okay. And then we actually there's an existing space which we had to renovate and put a lot of infrastructure. We needed, you know, breakout spaces. We needed rooms. We obviously needed a good space for them to stay. Because then you're not just thinking about this as an office space. Right? I'm not just designing for people who are gonna work from night. I mean, not that founders ever have time to work, or, like, fixed times to work. But it was really about the environment. And at Foundery, honestly, it's for us what the experiment or what we're trying to see for ourselves here is if you create that right kind of environment environment, that is when founders can thrive. And, you know, that the momentum really comes from there. So So we have a 13-week curriculum, as we call it. These 13-weeks are designed, on a team. So let's say week one was unlearning because to learn, you first gotta empty everything out. And we had Santosh Desai, you know, one of the co creators of Foundery who led this week. This each week. So let's say after unlearning, you went into, brand design and thinking. And there was a sequence we followed. Right? Why did brand thinking come in week two? Because for us, it's not an afterthought. Right? We need our cohort to be thinking actively about brand building from day one while they're building the businesses. Week three became about design thinking. How do you really think of an organization design? Right? Who should your first teams be? Who should your first hires be? What kind of cultures do you wanna set? What kind of processes? You know, then by the time we've gone on to, week five, we've introduced supply chain packaging. Right? We have, one week dedicated to just quick commerce, all of that stuff. So each week was meant to be a sort of sprint wherein we had experts and, you know, folks from all consumer businesses in the ecosystem really coming and not just giving you one hour of gyan. Right? A bunch of our speakers actually stayed with the cohort. So, again, like I was telling through earlier that, you know, those conversations over meals or just over coffee that are happening, there's just constant like, it was always buzzing. Right? We had this we have a gorgeous skylight, where we have our office is right under it. So when we designed the space, we wanted one floor to be for the mentors, which is where the cohort would spend time, with their mentors. And this was a mix of an open space and, of course, you know, we've got the rooms. And then we had a cofounder's office. So it was an open plan office where they would sort of work through the day. And we had fixed and fluid time in a day. So when you ask what an average day look like, firstly, contrary to what, you know, Dibna's here, my my reputation of being a principal is nothing was mandatory. You could show up. So we had folks not attend any sessions, but largely post breakfast, you know, morning time was theirs. They wanna work out. They wanna do yoga, do their thing. We would start off with some sessions, you know, by ten, 10:30AM, which would go on till lunch. And there was speaker time or session time, and there was something what we call which was build time. Build time was theirs. You know, they wanna go work under the tree or in the tree house or by the pool or in their room. That's their call. So build time is what everything that they were sort of imbibing, taking in from the sessions that we were hosting on sort of the theme of the week. Then they would go use that. So let's say if it was supply chain week, build time on that day would look a lot like really identifying, like, figuring out, like, manufacturing units, what's really happening. So we largely followed this rhythm of fixed and sort of build time. And then as we progress through the weeks, you know, we introduced storytelling week because, you know, nowadays founders gotta be really good at telling, those. So we followed a sequence which we actually spent a lot of time trying to design and really think through. Because the zero-to-one business needs you to, like, do 20 things every 20, like, 20 times over. So what would really work and, you know, an average day at Foundery would go from a lot of input. And some days we would be like, guys, are we overwhelming them? Is this too much information? You know, some of them are just blank slates. This might get too much, and we would see the attendance drop off by the evening sessions then. But evenings would be them playing a lot of table tennis and just volleyball and

Utsav Somani: If Dyumna is nodding, on the backstage, she's nodding. So she Yeah.

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Because everything that I just mentioned to you, you know, the not making it to sessions, the playing the TT, it was all Dyumna. Dyumna and Katie had intense rivalry, in the TT matches. So that's why she's, extra echoing what I'm saying. But, yeah, it was it was incredible. I had a lot of formal. Sometimes I wish I was on the other side. But this is what an average day look like. You had the best in the business coming in, talking to you, being super candid with you because there's just 30 of you, and, you know, taking on one-on-one. So we would also schedule so let's say, like, Utsav, if you've came in during fundraising week. Right? You sit with a cohort. You know, we had Rajan of Peak XV, and we also had multiple folks. So if it if it was fundraising week, we had family offices. We had folks from PE. We just we wanted to have them give it to them how it is, you know, what really happens when you step out from Alibag. And then what would happen is, let's say, if Utsav is leaning towards talking to the B2C brands, then we would fix one-on-one time in the office with you. So it's not like they were constantly talking to a group of 30 every day, but really getting to sort of spend that one-on-one time. And so for the cohort too. Right? Like, they got that time to ask questions, you know, sharpen their thoughts and all of that.

Dhruv Sharma: Almost sounds like all the founders are working on two products at once. Like, one is the core product and the other one being themselves. The question, Vishwani, is how much can a person transform inside of 90 days? What did you guys see firsthand?

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Wow. This is actually one of my favorite questions to answer because we get naturally get asked this a lot. I think it's not just the 90 days, Dhruv. It's the fact that they were doing they were in this controlled, not big boss house, for 90 days is where the magic lies. So I don't wanna say that all 30 of them had some, like, 180-degree transformation or any of that. But, you know, we started seeing this really happen gradually. For some, I would say that the transformation was palpable, which just sort of comes out in because when you're seeing somebody every day and you're sort of, you know, spending that kind of time. But I don't think it was just I think it was all of the pieces of the puzzle coming together. It was the unlearning week. I think I saw the first shift in people post the unlearning week. Because, you know, we had some very, very raw and very tough, I would say. You know, it wasn't easy to be sitting there having these some very intimidating folks come in and sort of talk to you. And, you know, we would get that feedback a lot where they're like, okay. This is too much. But I think the transformation that has happened is, like you said, self awareness. A lot of the founders said that Foundery's been like a mirror to them. You know, it's really exposed what it is that they're good at, what they absolutely are not, you know, where they need to lean on us. And that has been the real sort of, metric for us. So how much can people transform in 90 days? A lot. Yeah. But I don't think it's just a product of the fact that we spend three months together. It's, like I said, the environment, that was designed.

Dhruv Sharma: I imagine an experience in immersion like this also triggers a chain reaction. So this is the start of their entrepreneurial journey, certainly not the end of it. And so Yeah.

Utsav Somani: Awesome. Vishwani, this was fun. I think we'll ask you one more question. As a program manager, what are you unlearning, as you head into cohort two?

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Every single thing, Utsav. I'm always unlearning every day. I think but a big one for me would be that you could design the best processes to, you know, your ability, but it comes down to the energy and the environment, that you create and what it is that you're doing in the moments when you're not sort of overloading them with, like I said, all of this information. I think in the process of giving them the best of zero-to-one, I personally feel in cohort one that that might have been a bit much to chew on. So this time for cohort two, I'm trying to see, can we create, you know, more space, give them slightly more build time. Onc, you just find a way to balance that. And, yeah, other than that, we're pretty happy with how things went in cohort one. But, every day is every hour is different. And I think for me, one thing I'm gonna change for cohort two, which we're actively now, prepping for, by the way, is, is just creating a little bit of a finer balance, between lots of folks coming in, lots of per perspectives, but also giving that little bit of time to sort of assimilate it all. I think that's very self aware of us to say that we got that bit not very right.

Utsav Somani: Alright, Vishwani. Wishing you all the best. Thank you so much for giving us your time today.

Vishwani Biyani (The Foundery): Thank you. See you guys.

Utsav Somani: Alright. Now come on part where we get to chat chat with five of your founders. Alright. Alright. The principal is saying bye. First up, we've got Dyumna from NoKlu. Dyumna, welcome to TON.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Thank you so much, sir. Thank you so much, Dhruv. It's a pleasure being here.

Utsav Somani: So So I think I mean, since you're the first one that we've, hosted from The Foundery, so why don't you give us your experience? You've heard Vishwani talk about it in a very eloquent manner, but give us the raw version of it now

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Yeah.

Utsav Somani: As you experienced it.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): I mean, for me, I'm I'm 21. I'm one of the youngest founders at The Foundery. And, I've built And

Utsav Somani: at 21, you've done Ankur Wariku Grant. You've done Shark Tank India, and you've done Foundery at 21.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's been fun. Yeah. So, I think for me, look, I've built a business before. I started building my first at 14, and it took me seven years to get it to any sort of scale. Right? And I'd go to all of these investors, and I'd beg them for their time, and they'd say, please go away. Right? So for me to be at this stage, at this age, to have access to all the who's who's of the country, to have access to these investors, to have access to people like KB, Nikhil, and Ronnie, that can tell me you do not this will prove to be the biggest mistake in two years? Why don't you just fix it now? For me, it's been the experience of a lifetime, and I think I've changed a lot personally. Yeah.

Dhruv Sharma: Fantastic. Tell us what you're building.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): So I'm building this company called NoKlu. It's a jelly-based drinks company. So zero calories, zero zero sugar. We're doing functional jelly. So we're doing energy, vitamin, hydration, and we're building it for young adults of the country. Jelly drinks is a massive market out there in Southeast Asia, but I think in India, our functionality, like, we were lacking behind a bit. Like, hydration is still effos and tablets. Vitamins are still multivitamin. So I wanted to bring in my perspective, and I've worked with young adults all my life. You guys hosted Shreyaans from LinkRunner. He was my first boss. I worked with BlueLearn for two years. I built a college counseling company before this. I've been making content sort of all my life. So it's a target group I understand extremely well, and I saw that we were definitely lacking a beverage that was fit for us.

Utsav Somani: And I mean, the functional beverages as a category is taking over. Why jelly based drinks? Like, what's so unique about, I think, I don't know, delivery or the f efficacy of this drink? Like, what's working in their favor?

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Yeah. Honestly, you know, I, want to position this as musty drinks. Like, I'm not gonna put zero calorie, zero sugar, like, very massively on the pack or talk very highly about the functionality. I think, Jelly, you know, we did these customer trials, and, actually, our generation does not have a very, very fond recollection of Jelly. But Jelly is just such a fun texture, that we can play around with, that we can deliver anything in that no company has explored. It felt like a slam grid waiting to be uncovered. So, yeah, we're we're just exploring this.

Dhruv Sharma: Fantastic. And how are consumers how are the young adults gonna discover this once, you know, you're out in the market with your product?

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Very exciting. So I think that's my favorite part. So I'm a big marketing and salesperson. So I personally already do four to 5,000,000 views on my account, every month. But what we're doing

Utsav Somani: share it. You should promote us, man. Like, promote this appearance of Tio and Yeah.

Dhruv Sharma: Let's just turn the tables,

Utsav Somani: right here, right now. Get some free marketing done.

Dhruv Sharma: You can start interviewing us for

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): whatever it would

Dhruv Sharma: be out of state.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Yeah. 100%. But so with with my last company also, we never did 1 rupee of marketing. Right? So I think what we have is this. I think founders in the country right now either don't have the capital to experiment or are not maybe young enough to bet on content. And I have both. Right? I have this money that I can put on anything. So what we're doing is I'm just doing stunts. Like, I'm having fun with it. We're building India's Bosch boy band as a side as an IP, and we're gonna do a concert with that. We're doing an India wide tour from Kashmir to Gania Kumari from mid October to mid November, which I'm sure will, you know, bring in about 15 to 20,000,000 views to the company. What we're gonna do is we're just gonna keep doing what other brands can't. Maybe they can't afford to because their market is too polished or their product is too expensive. We've been doing stuff like we did a jelly eating competition last week, and 1,000 people sent it to their friends. Right? And we're gonna do that across the country. So I think what we're gonna keep doing is we're just gonna keep organically going viral. That's why we're not bringing any celebrity on board as such right now. So keep bringing strong, keep bringing content, and and see where that goes, see where that takes us.

Utsav Somani: Interesting. So you have a very nice perspective on marketing. And one of my friends, he was on the show as well, Neil Gogia, recently. And what he said that when you talk about marketing and influencer led brands, I think what happens is that product is still the king Yeah. Or the queen.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Yeah.

Utsav Somani: So in your case, like, what are the I mean, tell us about the product a little bit more. Like, what flavors are you, taking out? When should one have it?

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Yeah. Yeah.

Utsav Somani: What is the yeah.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): So I think a couple of unique insights we had there. Right? This is a zero calorie thing, first of all, which I think is a very interesting thing to play around. Right? This is also a snack-to-drink hybrid. So our product is made of Konjac jelly. Now a question a lot of Indians will have is, k, a jelly made gelatin because, you know, that that would make it non veg. It's absolutely not that. We are using a plant root, which we are sort of meshing up, and we're using that to create the jelly in the drink. So first of all, it's completely vegan. It's zero calorie. So I think there were a couple of insights. One, that there is no snack-to-drink hybrid that exists today. Maybe that's a protein shake, but we also saw that all of these functionalities and these functional products that are being marketed, they're being marketed towards the gym room. What about the college kid that's running between classes that has an internship to go to that's then coming back and building their own business, and they just need something to take them through the day. So I think in terms of use cases and, honestly, you know, right now, everything I'll be telling you guys is hypothesis, but there are some some ways we could use this also. At night, you wanna have a dessert or or a snack, you know, or something that's gonna just let you wind down for the night. What are you having? Right? It's a problem I've struggled with. In between classes, you're tired. And like was saying. Right? Like so I've dropped out of college as well. So for me to stay awake in any sort of lectures was extremely tough. What do you have in your class? Right? What do you have between classes? So and in this, we can insert any sort of functionality. Like, down the line, we could have melatonin, collagen. We could have jelly sticks. We could have kids' SKUs. So I think just add in in term to explore that, there is there is a lot. And in terms of flavors, we are thinking, obviously, your standard grape, lychee, blueberry. But then, also, can we have some mocktail flavors or explore fusions and flavors? We could also do an an we're also thinking of an anti hangover supplement down the line. So so there's just a lot that we're very excited with. But this jelly as a category, I think that will have to catch on with college kids. That's my responsibility to make them try it the first time, because it hasn't been so widely explored. But I think once we make them try it the first time, they'll be back for the second.

Utsav Somani: Alright, Dyumna. Thank you so much for coming on to you. And when can we try your products?

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): By the by the end of this year for sure.

Utsav Somani: Alright. Wishing you the best there. Cheers.

Dyumna Madan (NoKlu): Thank you. So thank you, Dhruv. See you guys. Come. Come.

Utsav Somani: Next up, we've got Aishwarya from Please Undo. Aishwarya, welcome to the show.

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Hi. Thank you, guys.

Utsav Somani: Before we ask you what the company does, I think the name itself is interesting. Did the The Foundery give it to you? Did you come up with it? What was the thinking behind that?

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): I think it was a team effort. So we actually go through an extensive exercise where we do a lot of brand thinking and the culmination of that is coming with a brand star, which clearly defines what you do and how is that different from the competition. And the end of that exercise is to come up with a name. So we had a bunch of names and then all of us just sat together and just picked one that just felt captured the brand, the the best.

Dhruv Sharma: Fantastic. Tell us more about, like, tell us more about what you're doing.

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Yeah. So Please Undo is a consumer health and wellness brand that makes products for the consequences of modern living. And the idea is very simple. Right? For most of human history, we have never lived like how we live today. We've always moved more. We we didn't sit at desks for ten hours. We ate also very differently. Somehow, it looks like we have more access to food than ever before, but getting the right nutrition has become the hardest. The amount of stress that we take nowadays is just unprecedented. Right? So modern life comes with a lot of consequences on the body that shows up as fatigue and and and tiredness and aches and stiffness way earlier than we should be getting. Please undo and undo just that. So it looks at modern life consequences and we make products that help with relief, relaxation, or recovery.

Utsav Somani: And what is the form factor and product form look like?

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Yeah. So, actually, the categories range from topicals to ingestibles for now, and, eventually, we will even have massagers and those kinds of products added. So, for example, this is a prototype, but this is, tech-neck relaxing roll on. What we're hearing is that a lot of people are spending time on their laptops and are getting neck and shoulder stiffness and ache at the end of the day. So it's, it it's I I call it a massage, in a bottle. It's just soothing hot and cold sensation that that that you get with a very pleasant smell, very different from what exists, right now. Another product that I'm really excited about because I'm a headache sufferer myself is a is a headache ingestible sachet. The insight behind that is that when you when you're someone who gets recurring headaches, and 200 million people in India get recurring headaches, the only first line of defence is your paracetamol. But when you're having to take it so often, you you start feeling guilty because you don't want to be taking another another pill. Right? So this ingestible is a guilt-free, better first line of defence that you take at the first sign of headache and hopefully reduce the intensity enough so that you don't need to take that paracetamol. Really excited about this one. Yeah. So we have a whole bunch of topicals and then this ingestible

Dhruv Sharma: actually super exciting, Ashura, because it's almost like you're birthing a new category. Because, like, if if you think of a spectrum on the one end, on the one end, it's we have, like, pain relief medication, and and on the other end, it's people that tell you go take, you know, go on a wellness retreat or something like that, and this is right in between. But when you're creating a new category, you have to also create consumer awareness. How are you gonna go about doing that?

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Yeah. So, I mean, one thing, that helps when you're creating a new category is delivering it in a format that is, accepted by the consumer. So hydration as a category is completely taken off. That whole power power sachet, putting it in water, that habit is already very familiar. So the headache sachet is going to be in that format. But, yes, this will require, education, demand generation. We're expecting to do on Meta or Google. You know, we're gonna rely a lot on the ingredients and educating, consumers about the ingredients and why that is there in that formulation, I think will be one of the key factors in driving trust on that product. But but headache as an issue or, like, achy neck and shoulders, this is already prevalent problems. It's just about convincing them that this is going to actually deliver the efficacy that we're seeing it will.

Utsav Somani: I remember my grandparents, and my parents also talking what very fondly about that tiger bomb, which people used to get when they were traveling overseas and get it from Thailand or Singapore just as a gift. And, that was, I think, the OG pain management one point o. But trust is a big part. Right? I mean, Tiger Balm has been there for a while. How do you think about formulations, earning trust, doing clinical trials, or real human studies?

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Yeah. So, we will start off with consumer perception studies. So we're already doing, those, parallelly right now. With consumer perception studies, we will be able to quantify exactly how many people felt, what sort of relief, and how long, and that will be communicated. So I think that is the first leg of trust. Second is, as I said, the ingredient education is gonna be important part. Eventually, we will do clinical studies on this, where, although those those clinical studies will be done when once there is some traction on the product, for now, we will be relying on secondary literature on the ingredients to educate the customers.

Dhruv Sharma: Maybe let's try projecting five years out, Shwarya. Once your full product portfolio sort of materializes and takes shape, how will a consumer's life be materially different from how it is today?

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Yeah. I mean, we wanna be the go to brand for anything, discomfort. Right? So any fatigue, any discomfort, any ache in the body, they they should think of Please Undo as the most reliable, safe, option for them to have the first line of defense against that. So yeah. So that's that's what I'm expecting.

Utsav Somani: And before we end the segment, maybe, do you have any interesting day from The Foundery that you wanna highlight and share with us? Any more than any any speaker, any mentor that came to Foundery and you really enjoyed them, them sharing their stories with you guys?

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): I mean, I I think every single day was was insanely unbelievable. Like, it was an insane experience to have someone, some celebrity, some founder coming in to spend the whole day with us. I feel like every day was special in that sense. But but Santosh Desai, he's part of the future team. I think he was, like, hands down the crowd favorite for all of us. Every word he would speak was like an insight that you should note down, honestly. So, yeah, I think I enjoyed his sessions the most on and his perspective on culture and how, India is shifting.

Dhruv Sharma: It was interesting. Book called Mother Pious Lady, I think. I I don't know if he gave away copies, but it's it's like a it's a fantastic read. Everyone should maybe get a copy.

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Yeah. Yeah.

Utsav Somani: Awesome. Thank you so much, Aishwarya, for coming on to you and wishing you the best day in this journey.

Aishwarya Manjunath (Please Undo): Thank you.

Utsav Somani: Next up, we've got Srishti from Evensong. Srishti, welcome to the show.

Srishti S. (Evensong): Hi. Hi. How are you guys doing? I'm so excited to be here.

Utsav Somani: We've had two founders already. We had Vishwani as well. So why don't I mean, my favorite question has become because you all have such exciting names for the company itself and the brand. What does Evensong mean?

Srishti S. (Evensong): Evensong is essentially an evening prayer that marks the transition between the day and night.

Utsav Somani: Okay. So hence the company that you're building. What, are you doing at Evensong?

Srishti S. (Evensong): So, essentially building a company that's, made for the night. You know how everything in the market currently, especially in the personal care space, is built for the day. It's for morning, freshness, task optimization. But what when you come back? You know? What what when you come do you wanna come down from it? What do you do for that? Right? That's that's what the space is that we're building for. You know, when when you think about it, there isn't a lot of white space in the market, you know? But when we arrived at this idea, we figured that 50% of the consumer's day is unowned. No brand owns the night. If I ask you which brand is owning your night, it's probably gonna be a supplement brand or even a mattress brand. But that's still a very small segment. Which brand owns half of your day, you know? And when we arrived at that, it seemed like such an exciting, rare opportunity that in the last twenty, twenty five years, nobody has gotten the opportunity to build in a white space to, you know, create an absolutely new category that does not exist anywhere. Right? So Evensong is a brand that essentially owns the night. It owns 50% of your day. We're launching with multiple categories like home care, bath, body, and then we go on to owning every other aspect of the night.

Dhruv Sharma: Let's maybe go deeper, Srishti. So when you say the night, do you mean sleep or everything that comes before sleep? So like a wind down ritual of sorts.

Srishti S. (Evensong): Yeah. A wind down ritual essentially is what we're building. Right? So the minute you come come back home, from that moment till you wake up the entire twelve hours to not just sleep everything that is before and probably even after, you know, when we expand. So, to tell you the first ritual that we're launching is essentially the ritual of homecoming because that's where our brand begins. Right? So it's everything from that point on and your entire evening and your entire night is what we want.

Utsav Somani: And how does that ritual go on to become a habit? Like, how do you think about that? Because most people end up dropping their rituals because they had bad day or something came up.

Srishti S. (Evensong): Yeah. So this is actually very interesting when

Utsav Somani: that trust in busy lives, basically.

Srishti S. (Evensong): Yeah. This is a discussion I had with Miriel when he had, come down to the sanctum of, you know, how do we create a habit, because who am I competing with here? I'm competing with, your Netflix or your phone, you know, that you wanna stop and do this ritual. So, what we've done with service that we've looked back into cultural intelligence to figure out habits that Indians have already had culturally that we were used to. Right? So we've always had these things that people would come home, they would wash their feet and only then enter the house. They would take a shower and only then fix the bed. They would light and hug her batheens and stick something for their environment. Right? These are things that are very culturally ingrained in us, but the new generation has forgotten. So what we've done to, sort of engineer our rituals is we looked back into this intelligence and we redesigned it for the modern audience. And every product that we have is super easy to use. It's not something that you have to do. Step one, step two, step three, and only then is it effective. Every product can also be used individually, and the ritual is more so, you know, that you're putting down your phone for a minute and you're doing this thing for yourself and the relief that it gives you, the relaxation that it gives you, that's our mode. Because there are so many people that are so tired and they just don't know what to do. So we're giving them that ecosystem. We're giving them these products that, you know, you pick one or you pick three, you're getting relaxation anyway. Right? So that that's the the relief, the, the effect of the product or the effect of just engaging with our ritual is what's gonna try to happen.

Utsav Somani: The feeling, basically.

Srishti S. (Evensong): The feeling. Yeah. This brand is all about the feeling. We're building it as a feelings brand. You know, it's just so beautiful from the name, how we're branded. It's it's a world you step into. You know?

Dhruv Sharma: It's actually super interesting. Like, many people would say at the end of a long day, the only thing you wanna do is just crash in your bed. But, paradoxically, like, you know, night-time rituals, they give you another list of things to do, but those but if you do them in a certain way, it changes your relationship with times. Time slows down.

Srishti S. (Evensong): Definitely. Definitely.

Dhruv Sharma: So so talk to us about that as well. Like, just slowing time down so that there's a clear boundary between day and night.

Srishti S. (Evensong): Yeah. We're we're literally defining that boundary, you know, Dhruv. We also have these products that you don't really have to do much. Like, we're launching with an aromatherapy lead line. Right? So we have a reed diffuser that maybe sits by your door or maybe it sits by your bed and sent because it travels much faster than conscious thought. The minute you're in the vicinity of this product, your body knows it has to calm down so you don't even have to work for it. Right? So while we have all of these, elaborate rituals that people have, we also have really simple products. You know? So, yeah, I think we're coming off, coming into the market with a range, that even if you just wanna crash, we make that, sleep, like, much deeper sleep, much better sleep for you, essentially. Yeah.

Utsav Somani: And how are you thinking about going going to market GDM?

Srishti S. (Evensong): So, a lot of people ask me, you know, how do you make an aesthetic brand go viral? You know, how do you drive all those views? So how we've sort of phased out our strategy is across different touch points. We want people to, sort of feel like they belong to a certain world that we're creating. So, we're gonna launch with a lot of events. We're gonna launch with a lot of touch points where people can come and experience our brand because we're very sent forward. There's a lot of textures and what's a very, very experience for sensorial brands. So certain offline touch points through events. We're gonna do a lot of education led content also where we talk about the ingredients that go into our products. We're gonna do a lot of, UGC stuff. We're gonna do a lot of, studies as well, you know, like, I slept in my hoop and see my squad in the morning sort of thing, you know. So it's different content buckets. It's gonna be a lot of life lifestyle stuff. It's gonna be, offline moments, those kind of things.

Utsav Somani: Any favorite day, moment that you wanna highlight, from the 13-weeks that you spent with The Foundery?

Srishti S. (Evensong): Like I spoke the day that Nir Eyal came down, and he told me that you've really picked a battle where you're competing with, I think, Netflix or sleep right now. And, then, you know, we just walked through it and had a conversation of how do you crack habits, essentially. And, it was it was it it it was recognition, from somebody who has done so much deep work in the category. And, I think I felt very supported when he came and spoke about all the work he's done and how it could be useful for me.

Utsav Somani: Awesome. Thank you so much. I'm wishing you the best ahead.

Srishti S. (Evensong): Thank you so much. Yes. Thank you.

Utsav Somani: Alright, listeners. We've got our fourth guest now from The Foundery, Angad of Kazoom. Angad, by c o n. Zoom.

Dhruv Sharma: How's the sound there?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): How's it going, guys?

Utsav Somani: Kazoom is like the sound?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): I wish

Utsav Somani: I could definitely

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): so, like, first of all, I've had quite a journey in choosing a name. Anyone in The Foundery would know I have gone through more than 10,000 names across eight to nine weeks. Every single week, I presented to, our, mentors with a different name. But the goal was to essentially figure out something that doesn't mean anything. That's something that we can give give meaning to. Kazoom, in my head, is the sound of growth. You ask someone in, like, Indore and they'll be like Kazoom. So I just wanted something that was, like, not uniform across. So, yeah, there's, like, we've just been essentially creating this thing where we can give meaning to Kazoom for all the kind of different hopes we can get.

Utsav Somani: It's like Zomato. Right? When they're probably naming Zomato, nobody would assume that it means something, but now it's Did you get

Dhruv Sharma: the domain for it, Angad?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): We did.

Dhruv Sharma: There you go.

Utsav Somani: Kazoom.com?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): Kazoom.in. We don't zoom. Dot com yet. What

Utsav Somani: are you doing at Kazoom?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): So let me just take you back to your own childhood as well a little bit. If you guys remember, Bournvita, Complan, Horlicks, that's like essentially the first class of milk, even glass of milk, and the night glass of milk a mother would give to their children in the hopes that they could become taller, sharper, and stronger. So the idea very well came from there that we have this huge milk drinking habit in India that correlates to growth. Yet two years ago Food Pharmer made us realize that none of these drinks are actually meant for growth at 80% sugar. And like the Kazoom as a brand essentially is an attempt to fill the gap in growth nutrition in India today. So if you think about the very basis of it, growth is when kids sleep. Yet no brand in India addressing growth nutrition even addresses the night. So the very first product we're coming out with is essentially a evening night-time milk mix that has the right ingredients for kids to be well nourished in this period of growth.

Utsav Somani: Dude, I think Srishti is taking over the adults and the parents, and you're taking over the kids.

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): That's what we we used to, joke about this at The Foundery so much because we have four kids brands. We have, like, AM, PM brands. We have, like, multiple segments covered together. We often talk about how we can, like, create some events together as well.

Utsav Somani: Yeah. You guys should. I mean

Dhruv Sharma: But how do you go about creating something that kids will love and parents will think is actually good for the kids? Generally, those two things are at loggerheads with each other.

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): Yeah. Literally from day one, we've been battling this question of, like, the customer being the parent and consumer being the kid. So we solve for the parent by education and ingredient and good sourcing, and the kid is just a 100% only and only taste. There's nothing else to it. They have to come back. They have to sip it again. So it just threw a lot of consumer trials. We are hosting like consumer trials across the country right now in three different cities, just to get that acceptance rate, flying tests against competitors and stuff as well. So, yeah, very much knowledge for parents and also become an, like, I spend so much of my time just reading about ingredients, reading about, like, various kinds of sourcing, but went to, like, various, like, exhibitions as well to figure out what has been working today. And what is the real gap in growth condition that consumer as a brand can fit into?

Utsav Somani: The Whole Truth was probably one of the first brands, I think, where I mean, people I mean, at least me, I started reading labels because of the Whole Truth. I'm sure many have attempted. Foodfarmer also did a great job, educating our Indian consumer base. But in terms of, like, how do you, I mean, formulate these products? Because I'm guessing you must have some r and d on team, to do these, formulations.

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): Absolutely. We straight up, day one, we're like, who's the best person in India we can find today who can help us formulate this in the right and the most healthy possible way for the kid. We went ahead and found these lovely folks in Bangalore who work with us directly now. It's a team of 10. We have a full nutritionist on, a food scientist, a recovery specialist, like, essentially this whole panel of people helping out us building out this product. And in terms of just, like, ingredients and stuff, we are very, very careful as to what we put in this drink. This cannot be a concoction of chemicals you give to a kid before the sleep. This is like, we are the lowest serving size in the market, the lowest sugar size in the market. We're also the lowest amount of any product you need to take to hit the essentially RDL limits. So the goal is to give the child what they need in this period of growth, and that's all.

Dhruv Sharma: Is there a particular reason you chose to focus on on a night-time growth, nutrition? Let me just call it a supplement angle because there's also there are several opportunities through the day. Right? There's breakfast. Kids take, you know, tiffin with them to school, etcetera. How do you arrive on on this?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): So this actually so let me answer the first part of the question first. Yes. So night-time, we saw as an opportunity because there's a huge milk drinking habit in India. If 10 people drink milk in the morning, six in the evening, and probably three at night, we wanna just care about the six in three. We're hyper specific about this consumer habit because the morning glass of milk is actually very different to the evening and night glass of milk, the purpose of it at least. So when we saw that this does not exist and the consumer side came, it's sitting with a lot of parents and a lot of, kids as well. I was just showing this to KB. Like, see this, like, every single person is after this first class of milk. This part of the segment, I feel like, exists. And, like, one day, I guess, we are gonna do the night-time. This is a beautiful, brilliant idea. And then from there on, we essentially started developing and figured out that it's actually so fundamentally true that, like, kids' nutrition should very well be focused in this period of growth and not just, like, for the first they're just filling the kid up.

Utsav Somani: And what are you learning and learning about, go to market while, selling a product to parents who are using it for their kids?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): So the biggest things that so the last two months have just been figuring spent in figuring out, like, taste, has spent in figuring out the right formulation. And in that process, we realized that parents are hyper specific about what they wanna feed their children, especially in today's age, and the kind that they deserve from us premium brands. So more than adding things, we've been removing things. It's a process of how do we make it more and more simple. The message should be so simple to explain to the parent. If you think about it, most good brands in today's daily image can be just having, like, two or three words. Super You, protein made fun, whole truth, truth and food. Right? Like, so because Zoom is also finding is two, three words, and it's happening through a lot of learning and unlearning the last two words.

Utsav Somani: And what's the price point you're going, after?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): Sure. If I were to map out the market for you, the whole, mass segment that, you know, Bournvita, Complan, Horlicks, they existed about 0.5 rupees a gram. The new age brands, Britso, Whole Truth, and all the new that came after Food Pharmer publicly bashed Bournvita, that said about 2 rupees, $2.2.2 rupees a gram. We're thinking to be somewhere in the middle, like, somewhere a little below 1.5 rupees a gram.

Utsav Somani: Awesome. Should we end this segment with, you telling us your favorite mentor, day, moment, from The Foundery? Ninety days you spent with them?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): There's been so many. Like, the way I describe The Foundery is that every morning I used to wake up and I would alternate between what the hell is going on, and I'm so grateful to be here. So, like, no one particular moment, but you you just had to be there, man. You just had to be there for KB's one liners, for, like, to make sure just, like, saying the most ratchet stuff and just being completely, bluntly, and totally honest with you and telling you, like, what is like, just what works and what doesn't. So no one particular thing, but just as a whole, as an experience, if I were back in this, like, just, life flipped on its head in 90 days. Now I suddenly live in Bombay. So yeah.

Utsav Somani: And what was the age range? Just for my curiosity, like, who was the youngest? Who was the oldest?

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): So Dhruv was the youngest at 19 years old, and the oldest was Ram at 42. So very, like, Dhruv being in college. Ram, essentially one of the first people who brought surfing to India as a sport. So very ranges, like, very people had come from very different parts of life. In fact, the next person you're about to speak to, CK, was my roommate. Both the same age, but taking very different parts to be where we were.

Utsav Somani: Awesome. Wishing you the best, Angad.

Angad Singh Chawla (Kazoom): Alright. Thank you so much. Alright.

Utsav Somani: Alright, listeners. Last and final one, CK from TorqWars. I'm picking up the name from Angad because he used CK. Easier, you go with CK, KB. We've learned so many new, names today. CK, what is TorqWars doing?

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): Oh, hey. It's hey, everyone. TorqWars is currently in the game of building machine sports. So here we are, taking one machine at a time. We're starting out with radio-controlled cars, also called RC cars. We're in the upper segment. We're in the hobby-grade segment. So there's a amateur play segment, which is usually in the sub-₹5,000 range where we use, usually, brushed motors and the materials we use are a lot play oriented, not very upgradable. I'm into the segment of ₹8,000 to upwards of ₹75,000. It's more upgradable, more chaotic. It can go up to in 120 km/h. So it's basically, a sport in altogether. We build arenas for that, and people can come and pay to play in the arenas. We host races for the same. So TorqWars is basically anchored on machine arenas and community. Combining brings both the things together, and, hence, it become the sport. So, yeah, that's what I'm doing over here. And, it has been a bit of journey from the last, five months. And, yeah, that's it.

Dhruv Sharma: What is the age range of the players, CK?

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): I I think gaming cuts through, age. We should see someone at the age of 10 to 12 also and upwards of 50 also. But we have

Dhruv Sharma: Like, a bonding experience almost.

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): Yeah. But I'm kind of focused more on the cadets group. Upwards of 25, five to 35 is somewhere we'll be anchoring on, and then both the sides will find its place itself as they come into the community.

Utsav Somani: And this is, like, DIY kits also?

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): Yeah. We can do DIY kits also. The fun part is that when you buy a, lower budgeted product, you get everything ready to run. When you buy a higher end product, you have to make it on your own or maybe you have some parts missing. Because customability is is something which people really look out when you go upwards in the face. They want to assemble it themselves. Hence, it becomes a DIY over that side.

Dhruv Sharma: Fantastic. Maybe talk to us about how this gives your, you know, your consumer segment, channel for their competitive energy through through machines. Right.

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): So if you look back, right, as far as we can go, we have already had wars, and wars kind of turned into entertainment in a different format. And, we brought a sports post that sports we can make if you look at competitive sports like, boxing, boxing turned into MMA, into UFC. Right? It has always been happening. They've always built arenas in our, society. And I think the new form of arenas is high ropes to look at in a physical manner. But in other manner, there is drone racing which is happening. There are, robotics fights which are happening. So I think people want an outlet. We want a space to, you know, go out and bring out their old self. We are building one of that kind where my understanding of, gaming comes from. And I think the segment of gamers, which haven't been hardcore on, computers and other places, I think they're building a pavement for them to come into the physical world.

Utsav Somani: No. No. I think that's phenomenal. But what is the white space that you identified with TorqWars? Like, is it I mean I mean, Chinese imports, which are happening in big way, and there's toy production being boosted in India, their PLI schemes and many other, schemes which are there to boost toy production. And now I think we're a net exporter as well of toys, I believe. So is your ambition to export this is there a clear white space that you have identified in terms of pricing, in terms of opportunity? Talk to us about that maybe.

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): If if you look at the white space, on the sub 3,000 products, right, there is obviously a lot of, drastic change, on the imports and exports which has happened. But, if you look at the upper side where the value added segment really comes in, there has not been much which has happened. And And even if you look at the cost, the things which we make in India are usually plastics or rubber based. We do inject molding in India for all the toys which we are creating. And, usually, the PCBs are imported via China still, though we have some assembly capabilities which have been getting built in the last five years to six years or say. But I think I think still we are a lot early on to that. The white space right now is completely of the evolution of how the sports has been going on, how the gaming has been. I think gaming has reached to a point where it has been, not moving or innovating a lot. It has changed from hardcore gaming to a content creator of a format and not into the gaming side. I think it has halted its growth. That was one tailwind. Second tailwind, obviously, the cost of, cost of importing has been getting harder and harder. PLS have been supporting. There have been great companies which have been coming up in India on the manufacturing side of things. So it becomes a bit easier for someone like me to also if they also grow and I also grow and the ecosystem grows as a whole in the first segment for us to create. We're more on the sports side of things and not on the machine side of things. We do love our machine. We do love our mechanics, the creation of the same, but that is not where I am starting out with. We wanna take this we wanna build this as an IP. We wanna take take take it global. That is the aim. Start with countries which are already immersed in this experience. And, also, in secondly, parallelly on the commercial side or the very quantitative side we look at. Let's say that the market of 100, globally, 80 to 85 would be a hobby speed hobby sports side of the market, and the 15 would be twice side. But in India, it's a kind of opposite. It's 85 toys and maybe 10 would be, the the hobby sports segment. So I think I think there is a space which can grow into very new to the category very early. I'll say we don't have any, players really doing it full fledged. Hence and I I come from this background in a way. I come from a sports background. I come from the esports background. And it's a blending of bringing all the things together which I've been up to, all over my life. So yeah.

Dhruv Sharma: Tell us about the setup. Like, like, how much minimum space you need, how many minimum players, and then if you're playing a tournament in an arcade, what would that setup look like?

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): So, one. Right? You're we can work on your machine network. There there's not enough space to play. And, coming on to the arena side, which is said in the starting of the pillar. Right? So we are starting on the first arena in Bombay, it's in Bandra. And working on top of that right? So it's a 3,600 square feet size of, terrace which we are working on in building our arena on. Right? So it is a track, basically, and track can be of different size and scale. And as for the size and scale, the cars which gets used on that also changes. So there's a small scale card. There's a larger scale card. It goes by one is to five, ten five, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen. So right now, the one we are building is one is to 14 scale arena. So basically, cards larger than that cannot be run there. So that is there. People can come and pay to play is one. Second is people can bring in their own cars also. We have our own races editions which are specific. It's more like camping. I can go somewhere, set up a track for one day. People come compete, and there's a normal how how your normal competitions happen, and there's a ladder up there city by city, college by college, state by state, and then potentially doing a national league of this sort. So that is the next, three to four years, I think, look like bringing it up to a national stage. And, yeah, that that's where people would be majorly playing. And once once once that cycle and churn is running, then we start putting in more machines. We start putting in drones, idle idle bots. So that's where how it starts becoming a home for the all the machines which are there, which can be completed.

Utsav Somani: So you've told us a little bit about your future product lines as well. And in terms of IP, I mean, you come from the esports background. Live streaming is a big part, like, and people participate and watch online. I mean, it's always fascinating that people wanna watch other gamers, I mean, play for, like, seven, eight hours, online. Like and what are the learnings that you're importing from the esports world into this?

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): One is the community segment. Right? I think I think esports really get the community. Web three really gets the community. And and and for them, community means something more than just, being together or being in a group. They care for they care for the stories which get built. They care for the rivalry which gets built. And the support to the teams is really great. I I I think, in some way, football also gets the same love, which which I've seen over the years. And my learning there would be how do you, you know, how do you how do you bring how do you cater those all those people together? Because they come from very different, varied backgrounds. And gaming kind of cuts through the age, cuts through the skill you come with, cuts through the economic backgrounds. Right? I really find it fascinating. And, I I think I think that that is what we are doing here, bringing in different set of people together. And the only thing is that everyone love machines, and, everyone want to work on them. Once they work on them, they make them go fast and potentially, race and win. So continue doing that for the masses.

Utsav Somani: Through any final closing one for CK?

Dhruv Sharma: The one we've been asking all his friends. Did you have any one big moment at The Foundery, CK? Or was it just like, was it a lot of experiences along the way?

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): It it obviously was a lot of experiences along the way. Considering I was already in a way doing in this one format. I think for me, it was more about the potential of scale you can achieve and look at, and I think, that's get a lot by being in the right, rooms and with the right people and the similar vision everyone has. So I think, that was everything for me.

Utsav Somani: Awesome. CK, thank you so much for coming on our show. We talk for us in, Delhi as well soon.

Chander Kant Sharma (TorqWars): I never seen. I never seen. Mhmm. Thanks, love. Thank you, everyone.

Utsav Somani: Alright, listeners. That's it from us. Stream 138 ends here. Wishing you a happy Ganesh Chaturthi again, and we'll see you on Wednesday at 04:00. Thank you so much for tuning in. Bye bye.