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Moonshot

24 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 1 rating

Moonshot profiles innovative entrepreneurs from India, Southeast Asia and beyond, who dare to dream big, make an impact and accelerate change. This podcast shares actionable insights on how to start and scale enduring companies from founders and thought leaders who are helping shape the region’s startup ecosystem.

Entrepreneurship Business Technology founder entrepreneur sequoia india southeast asia business startup surge sequoia capital sequoia peak xv partners
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Episodes

CleverTap: A Data-First Approach to Customer Engagement

January 24, 2024 10:24 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MB

Brands rarely interact directly with customers in the digital world, making it a challenge to create personalized customer experiences and retain clients. While working at a media company in 2013, Anand Jain, Sunil Thomas, and Suresh Kondamudi, were faced with the same problem. They struggled to find a product that could leverage data to meaningfully engage with customers. To address this gap, they set out to build CleverTap, an all-in-one customer engagement platform that leverages data, an...

Pioneering Payments: Amrish Rau’s FinTech Journey

November 22, 2023 08:19 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MB

Paying for things digitally is now a part of daily life – but this wasn’t always the case. In 2013, long before the reality of cashless payments had become the norm in many parts of India and the world, Amrish Rau co-founded Citrus Pay, an online payment provider built with a mobile-first focus. This was one of many ventures in his two-decades-long journey to pioneer India’s payment ecosystem in the digital age, culminating in his most recent appointment as CEO of Pine Labs. On this episode ...

Appier: Creating Impact With AI, One Business At A Time

August 30, 2023 09:38 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MB

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are transforming the world of business intelligence and marketing. But before ‘AI’ became a buzzword, it was not easy to convince businesses that the technology could be a game changer for their enterprise. In 2012, Chih-Han Yu launched Appier with a vision to make AI accessible for all. That vision was tough to sell as it was a technology the world had yet to discover. In the years that followed, Appier pivoted many times on its mission to help c...

Mad Street Den: Enterprise AI for the World, Built Out of Chennai

July 26, 2023 06:01 - 39 minutes - 35.9 MB

The dawn of AI is upon us and Enterprise AI is finally getting its time in the sun. With more people experimenting with the likes of Chat GPT, Dall-E, and Midjourney, companies are also moving swiftly to implement AI tools to help them drive productivity and efficiency. One person who’s been building AI tools for over a decade is Ashwini Asokan. In 2013, she left her job as a designer at Intel and teamed up with her husband, Anand Chandrasekaran, a neuroscientist, to launch Mad Street Den, a...

Develop Your Leadership Style: Lessons From Scaling Teams At Stripe

June 26, 2023 06:30 - 42 minutes - 38.9 MB

“The best leaders and founders I’ve worked with have the ability to have conviction about a vision and an opinion, but also the ability to open up the decision or the moment and say, ‘OK, is there something I'm not thinking about?’ or ‘What could I have done differently?’” Claire Hughes Johnson draws on her experience leading and managing teams at Google and Stripe, and reflects on all things people management on this episode of Moonshot. Delving into insights published in her book, Scaling ...

Show Them the Magic: Vymo’s Playbook for Enterprise Sales

April 24, 2023 07:59 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MB

Launching a new software product and successfully driving user adoption and retention is a challenge for many startups. According to sales engagement platform Vymo’s co-founder and CEO Yamini Bhat, the secret is to ‘go live’ quickly and show users their return on investment. On this episode of Moonshot, we take a peek into Vymo’s playbook to learn about some of the key product and sales design choices the startup’s team made to attract and retain users across large enterprise customers. Sho...

Groww: Increase Product Velocity by Empowering Decentralized Teams

December 06, 2022 10:48 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MB

"If you are deciding everything, then you are limited by your own speed". That’s a belief Groww co-founder and CEO, Lalit Keshre, keeps front and center as he and his co-founders scale the investment platform. Keshre believes that by having a decentralized structure, team members are empowered to make quicker decisions around products. On this episode of Moonshot, we chat with Lalit Keshre and Ashish Agrawal, Managing Director at Sequoia India, about key design choices Groww made to take on ...

Zetwerk: Digitizing India’s Manufacturing Supply Chain

September 05, 2022 09:48 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MB

India's manufacturing sector, which contributes 18% of the country’s GDP, is on the cusp of change. This highly labor intensive sector, which is plagued with logistical and technical issues, is undergoing a transformation as workers upskill and companies start to digitize their processes to improve efficiency. In 2018, Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vishal Chaudhary, and Rahul Sharma launched Zetwerk, a B2B manufacturing network that offers companies manufacturing solutions across a w...

CoinSwitch: Taking the FUD out of crypto

August 01, 2022 10:23 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MB

In 2017, a group of hackers in India figured out a way to get the best prices on cryptocurrencies at any point in time by aggregating data from all the crypto exchanges. That was the origin of CoinSwitch, a startup with a mission to ‘make money equal for all’. The platform gained traction, went through a few pivots and soon became one of India’s largest cryptocurrency trading apps. On this episode of Moonshot, we chat with CoinSwitch co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal and Sequoia India Managi...

CoinSwitch: Taking the FUD Out of Crypto

August 01, 2022 10:23 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MB

In 2017, a group of hackers in India figured out a way to get the best prices on cryptocurrencies at any point in time by aggregating data from all the crypto exchanges. That was the origin of CoinSwitch, a startup with a mission to ‘make money equal for all’. The platform gained traction, went through a few pivots and soon became one of India’s largest cryptocurrency trading apps. On this episode of Moonshot, we chat with CoinSwitch co-founder and CEO Ashish Singhal and Sequoia India Managi...

LingoAce: Accelerate Growth with Moonshot Talent

July 01, 2022 09:57 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MB

"We need to do the hardest thing. If you choose the easy things to do, many people choose that way. That route is very crowded." It’s this mindset that propelled Hugh Yao to grow LingoAce into a global startup with a team of over 4,500 teachers. The EdTech platform, which was launched in 2017, started out offering Chinese language courses for kids that used gamification to make learning fun. In 2022, the platform rolled out its English program in just three months – something Hugh credits to...

A quick start guide to building an enduring company – In conversation with Doug Leone

May 25, 2022 08:17 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MB

Doug Leone has led Sequoia Capital for over 25 years, overseeing the firm’s international expansion. Throughout his time at Sequoia, Doug formed partnerships with companies like Nubank, Medallia, ServiceNow and Wiz. He’s seen thousands of pitches and worked with hundreds of founders as they grow and scale their startups. On this episode of Moonshot, Doug chats with Sequoia India Managing Director Rajan Anandan about some of the insights he’s gained over the past two decades working with star...

A Quick Start Guide to Building an Enduring Company – In Conversation With Doug Leone

May 25, 2022 08:17 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MB

Doug Leone has led Sequoia Capital for over 25 years, overseeing the firm’s international expansion. Throughout his time at Sequoia, Doug formed partnerships with companies like Nubank, Medallia, ServiceNow and Wiz. He’s seen thousands of pitches and worked with hundreds of founders as they grow and scale their startups. On this episode of Moonshot, Doug chats with Sequoia India Managing Director Rajan Anandan about some of the insights he’s gained over the past two decades working with star...

Meesho: A No-Frills Approach to Democratising E-Commerce in India

May 05, 2022 11:33 - 43 minutes - 39.4 MB

Millions of people across India buy and sell goods on e-commerce platform Meesho every month. The platform fulfils an average of three million orders a day. Meesho, which started off as a social commerce platform helping millions of women and homemakers run businesses from their home, is now on a mission to democratise e-commerce in India for millions more. Launched in 2017 by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, the platform is bringing down costs and lowering barriers to entry for many mercha...

Lemonilo: A Community-First Approach to Building a Consumer Brand

March 11, 2022 09:12 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MB

Instant noodles may not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think of healthy food, but Indonesian startup Lemonilo is disrupting the country’s consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry by offering a healthier version of Indonesia's favourite instant meal. The company is building relationships with communities to educate them on the importance of healthy living, while leveraging technology to get healthy snacks into the hands of consumers quickly. On this episode of Moonshot, Lemonilo'...

Hangry: Finding New Opportunities in Crowded Spaces

February 14, 2022 10:17 - 22 minutes - 21.2 MB

Indonesia’s food delivery sector is a crowded space - dominated by industry giants and an increasing number of startups all vying for a slice of the pie. It’s also an industry that’s rapidly growing, with more cloud kitchens opening across the country to cater to young, tech-savvy Indonesians looking for a variety of food options to be delivered right to their doorstep. Hangry, a fast-growing cloud kitchen startup that launched in 2019, is feeding this demand by offering international cuisin...

Mamaearth: Building and Scaling Brands for Millennials

January 13, 2022 02:00 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MB

The quest to find safe, toxin-free, natural skincare for their baby led Varun and Ghazal Alagh to launch Mamaearth - Asia’s first MADE SAFE® certified brand of skin and body care products. In just four short years, the startup has disrupted India’s FMCG space by leveraging tech and innovation to help millennial consumers make natural, eco-friendly choices for their bodies. On this episode of Moonshot, Mamaearth’s Varun Alagh chats with Sequoia India Managing Director, Ishaan Mittal about the...

Kopi Kenangan: Building a Brand People Love

December 17, 2021 12:03 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MB

Indonesian coffee chain, Kopi Kenangan, serves affordable brews made with local ingredients and recipes. The company, which employs a ‘Grab & Go’ model, delivers most orders through its app, making it a convenient alternative to traditional coffee houses. In this episode of Moonshot, Kopi Kenangan Co-Founder, Edward Tirtanata talks to Sequoia India & Southeast Asia Principal, Rohit Agarwal about how he’s building a well-loved brand with authentic Indonesian flavours, a deep understanding of ...

Atlan: Leveraging Founder-market Fit to Build a Global SaaS Brand

December 09, 2021 10:45 - 47 minutes - 44 MB

Prukalpa Sankar is on a quest to help ‘the humans of data’ do more. In 2019, she and Varun Banka launched Atlan, a powerful collaboration platform that helps teams made up of different people, jobs, and tools, work together to translate vast amounts of data into actionable insights. The two developed the idea for Atlan at their prior company, SocialCops, a data-for-good startup that partnered with the World Bank, and helped build India’s national data platform. In this episode of Moonshot, P...

Bibit: Building Trust In A Category That's New To Consumers

November 18, 2021 09:22 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MB

Building trust with first-time consumers is critical for any brand - particularly where their money is concerned. In 2019, Sigit Kouwagam and Wellson Lo launched Bibit, a robo-advisor that makes it easy for Indonesians to start investing and build a portfolio. The country’s stock market, which has long been dominated by institutional investors, is now attracting more retail investors as Millennials and Gen Z look for new ways to grow their savings. The Bibit team started a Telegram group ear...

Unacademy: To Create Iconic Products, Set Iconic Goals

November 03, 2021 06:11 - 1 hour - 57.3 MB

“Early on, we decided that we will play the high-risk high-reward game. We will not be a ‘good company’. Either it has to be a great company or it has to be a failure.” Unacademy, which is on a mission to democratize access to quality and affordable education in India, has helped over 10,000 educators reach more than 50 million learners since it was founded in 2015. Their subscriber base has grown by more than five times in the last year alone. On this episode of Moonshot, Gaurav Munjal, Co-...

Eruditus: Powering Growth With An A-plus Team

October 22, 2021 07:03 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MB

Eruditus, which has partnered with prestigious universities like Harvard, MIT Sloan, Columbia and Cambridge to deliver online executive education courses, scaled by building deep relationships with universities over many years – and by making hiring a number one priority. The company, which was founded in Mumbai in 2010, currently serves students from over 80 countries in multiple languages.  In this episode of Moonshot, Eruditus co-founder and CEO Ashwin Damera chats with Sequoia India Man...

GudangAda: Building a Business Based on Empowerment Vs. Disruption

October 11, 2021 08:37 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MB

Stevensang, who grew up working in his parents' shop, founded GudangAda in 2019 to connect wholesalers directly to a variety of merchants, ranging from large retail chains to independent ‘mom-and-pop stores’, or warungs. The startup has quickly become one of the country’s largest online business-to-business marketplaces. In this episode of Moonshot, Stevensang talks with Sequoia India & SEA Managing Director Abheek Anand about how he drew on more than two decades of experience in leadership ...

Freshworks: Dream in Increments to Create Products That Scale

September 23, 2021 02:49 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MB

Freshworks, which just listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, has become the poster child for Indian SaaS startups that want to build global businesses. Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director at Sequoia India, talks with Freshworks co-founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham about the early design choices on product, pricing and positioning that made the company so successful. The conversation took place in July 2021 during an AMA at Surge, our rapid scale-up program for early-stage startups. Show no...