Three failed startups. One of India’s biggest B2B exits. Then returning 75% of investor money in the next venture. An entrepreneur who’s lived that arc is bound to have insights for anyone building or thinking of building. Paras Chopra, founder of Wingify (sold for $200 million), Nintee, and now Lossfunk, joins us this week. We discuss the small decisions that quietly define your startup: what product to build, how to structure your team, and why setting the right communication culture early can...
Jul 04, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 319
50% of products and features built are never used. To build the right product, every founder must answer two questions: Are you solving a real problem? And are you solving it the right way? Technology has rarely been democratic, it’s often elitist. So at times, it ends up solving made-up problems that don’t really exist. Yet, some companies have built truly great products. What sets them apart? Do they share any similarities? Are there lessons for entrepreneurs? We have with us Krishna (Vasanth)...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 317
Geopolitics is now measured in Nanometers. Anything with a battery or a plug has a semiconductor inside. But these chips aren’t just tech anymore, they’re shaping who becomes the next Superpower. In the 1980s, India was just two years behind the world in semiconductors. Today, we’re 12 generations behind. What went wrong? India’s top semiconductor expert, Raja Manickam, returns to The Neon Show to break it all down. We discuss how the U.S. lost the chip race it started, China’s strategic rise, a...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 316
There are No Checklists or Frameworks on HOW TO BE A VC? So how do you even know if it’s the right path for you? Unlike most jobs, venture capital comes with an extremely long feedback loop. It can take years before you know whether the bets you made actually worked out. That’s why most seasoned VCs say: only choose this path if you're in it for the long haul. This conversation will help you think through that choice. Whether you’re considering VC as a career, love building businesses, or just w...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 315
Vertical SaaS customers don’t buy software for 10 months, they buy it for 10 years. That’s the opportunity and the challenge. Switching costs are high, which makes it hard to get in but once you’re in, you’re in. But regular SaaS playbooks don't work here. Forget PLG. Forget design partners. These industries have been burned too many times by bad software. Here, Trust defines GTM. Think warm introductions and on-site meetings, not cold emails and Zoom calls. But for founders building in vertical...
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 314
Recko's acquisition by Stripe is one of India's biggest B2B exits. It's a great headline. But headlines don't tell the full story. They capture one final outcome not the numerous obstacles faced. In this episode, Saurya Prakash Sinha, co-founder of Recko, tells us what really happened behind the scenes. From the early days when no one was buying, no VC was funding, and they had just $500 left in the bank to building a product Stripe couldn't ignore. Saurya also shares hard-won lessons about prod...
May 30, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 313
The dollar will lose its status as the world’s reserve currency & the greatest wealth transfer in history is already underway - warns the founder of one of India’s fastest-growing unicorns! In this episode, Deepak Garg, founder of Rivigo and AnywhereJobs shares why Rivigo's iconic Relay model succeeded, and what ultimately limited it. He predicts Zomato's dominance, questions funding choices of startups and shares why India may miss the AI revolution without a radical energy shift. From Bitc...
May 23, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 312
Venture capital is much fancied today. Is this job which looks like cutting cheques for products and founders you like, for everyone? As for any work, there are traits you should have and some which won’t help you on the job. We have with us Kushal Bhagia (All In Capital), Karthik Prabhakar (Peer Capital), and Rajan (Upekkha). Three people who interestingly all began as engineers and took different career paths to today become Fund managers of leading VC firms. All In Capital’s $24M pre-seed fun...
May 16, 2025•55 min•Season 1Ep. 311
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” In this episode of The Neon Show, Vishwa (Co-founder of ZenDuty) is joined by Rahul Sasi (Co-founder of CloudSEK) and Ananda Krishna (Co-founder of Astra Security). They share how AI feels magical now. And how as founders they are trying to sprinkle this magic everywhere from how building products to building teams and everything that matters. This episode is packed with valuable insights for anyone interested in startup cul...
May 11, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 310
In this episode, we sit down with two exceptional founders. One who is going after the biggest category, and one who created a new category and became its leading player. Vijay Rayapati (Co-founder, Atomicwork) and Khadim Batti (Co-founder, Whatfix) share their hard-earned insights on what it truly takes to build a great company. From closing million-dollar deals remotely to building AI-native organisations and cultivating long-term leadership, this conversation goes deep into the real playbook ...
Apr 28, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 309
CRM is a category often equated with its market leader, Salesforce. Hence, companies and investors question the viability of building a business in this space. Nilesh Patel, founder of Leadsquared, who built a Unicorn in CRM, joins us today. We discuss the category, the business, and its competitors. With Byju’s as their first large deal, Edtech brought over 40% of their customers. Then the industry went through a downfall, but Leadsquared survived by a well timed expansion. From lack of capital...
Apr 18, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 308
Meet Sharad Sanghi who built India’s first data center, he spent 25 years building Netmagic, India’s largest data center company. He came to India in 1995, worked at VSNL as the country was discovering the internet, and built a company focused on internet for businesses. Now he is building Neysa, an AI cloud startup, which recently raised $50M to help businesses adopt AI, all from India. With Neysa businesses can use AI without writing a lot of code or use five different tools to run it. And do ...
Apr 11, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 307
In this episode of The Neon Show, we bring you into the room with someone who’s spent over a decade backing India’s most ambitious companies. We're joined by Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel. With over 14 years in venture capital, Prayank walks us through his journey of discovering and building expertise in specific sectors—from cybersecurity and developer tools to SaaS and marketplaces—and how VCs identify the categories they truly understand. We dive into how Accel chooses best founders, and ...
Apr 04, 2025•52 min•Season 1Ep. 306
Is it time for investors to move beyond the valley when analyzing India? Dev Khare, Partner at Lightspeed agrees. He shares with us an interesting view on two funding models: The Silicon valley model begins with raising millions of dollars & going through huge negative cashflow for years. Hopefully building a great product or maybe even creating a new market. And a few years later, comes out with super fast growth & revenue potential of millions & billions of dollars. Whereas, in the...
Mar 28, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 305
In this episode, Avnish Bajaj, Founding Partner at Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India), shares what it takes to build one of India's most competitive VC firms and land the best startup deals. With over 20 years of experience, Avnish has been at the forefront of India’s venture capital industry. He co-founded Matrix Partners India in 2006 after a successful entrepreneurial journey with Baazee.com, which he later sold to eBay, serving as its Chairman & Country Manager. From founder to angel i...
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 304
In this episode of The Neon Show, we have Sharad Sharma, founder of iSPIRT, the technology think tank behind India Stack, Health Stack, and other digital public goods. If you want to understand where India’s digital space is headed, how AI can shape its future, and why strategic autonomy is critical, this episode is a must-watch! 0:00 – Introduction 03:12 – India’s aim to prevent digital colonization 05:00 – Democratising digital infrastructure 07:09 – UPI’s 2012 vision: intraday loan for Rajni ...
Mar 15, 2025•1 hr 59 min•Season 1Ep. 303
In this episode, we have Vishal Jain, CEO of Zerodha Fund House, who brings over two decades of experience in building ETFs and passive investment products. From launching India’s first-ever ETF with Benchmark AMC in 2001 to now leading the country’s first passive-only AMC, Vishal has contributed through various roles to India's financial markets. We break down: - The history of mutual funds in India from the 1960s to today’s ₹68 Lakh Cr AUM industry. - Why index funds & ETFs are transformin...
Mar 07, 2025•44 min•Season 1Ep. 302
A seasoned investor who ran India's Finance Ministry. This week on The Neon Show, we welcome Jayant Sinha—Investor, Policy Maker, and former Minister of Finance & Civil Aviation. Mr. Sinha shares how the government builds innovative investment solutions for startups and large-scale funding programs for institutions. He played a key role in launching a ₹2,000 crore Fund of Funds, which invests in startups through domestic VCs. He was also instrumental in establishing India’s Sovereign Wealth ...
Feb 28, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 301
In this episode, Sharath shares his journey of building two successful AI-driven enterprise solutions. Sharath Keshava Narayana, founder of Sanas and Observe shares his market-product fit approach of winning enterprise clients in the US- Identifying large, underserved markets and solving their biggest problems. He also dives into fundraising stories, from getting into Y Combinator to attracting top VCs, leading to an $8 million seed round. Sharath emphasizes why founders must be great sellers an...
Feb 23, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 300
Venture Capitalists on Venture Capital In this episode we have Alok Goyal and Ritesh Banglani, Partners at Stellaris Venture Partners, one of India’s top VC firms. We go into details on running a VC firm in India. We discuss the ambition of Indian founders, what are the next B2B SaaS billion-dollar outcomes, market-first vs. founder-first investments, decision-making process at Stellaris and why DPI (Distributed to Paid-in Capital) is the ultimate measure of success. If you’re curious about how ...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 299
Ganesh Krishnan is the man behind some of India’s most iconic startups, including BigBasket, Bluestone, Homelane, and TutorVista—India’s first ed-tech startup before ed-tech was even a category. Ganesh explains how he thinks about business opportunities in India, why he keeps it simple, and why Indian entrepreneurs need to keep it simple. He shares candid stories—from raising BigBasket’s first $10M on a flight to successfully exiting an ed-tech company 15 years ago. If you’re curious about India...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 298
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the fascinating history of semiconductors, their evolution over the years, the rise of old giants and new disruptors, and explore why India has yet to produce a leader in one of the most important technological races of all time. Raja Manickam, a serial entrepreneur in the semiconductor industry, shares from his decades of experience about the business and science of semiconductors and offers a glimpse into the future Timestamps 0:00 - Trailer 1:20 - Int...
Jan 25, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 297
India’s leadership story is a fascinating journey full of lessons for anyone looking to make an impact. In just two years, opening up the space economy has led to over 100 new startups in aerospace, sparking innovation and fueling the dreams of a new generation of changemakers. And it doesn’t stop there—India is heavily investing in future-focused areas like green hydrogen, quantum computing, and the blue economy, showing a clear vision for industries that will define tomorrow. Drawing from its ...
Jan 17, 2025•58 min•Season 1Ep. 296
Harish Bhat, ex-Brand Custodian of the Tata Group, joins us to share unique moments from the extraordinary life of Ratan Tata. From creating India’s first indigenous car, Tata Indica, to his on-ground response during the 26/11 Taj Hotel attacks, to the Tata Finance crisis, to leading India’s fight against cancer, Ratan Tata led from the front. Harish shares how he first met Ratan Tata and the personal note he received, highlighting Ratan Tata’s integrity, humility, and more-than-a-businessman ph...
Jan 10, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 295
In 2010, Facebook opened its first office in India, four years after it went online. They needed someone bold to lead their journey in India which had a major customer base potential. That someone was Kirthiga Reddy. Under Kirthiga’s leadership, Facebook not only grew its user base but also planted deep roots in a complex and rapidly evolving digital ecosystem. Today, India has the most Facebook users with over 448 million, followed by the US (258 million). After six years of phenomenal growth a...
Jan 05, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 294
How a 1,500-Year-Old Game Became an Online Sensation It started as a simple idea in 2005—a hub for chess enthusiasts to connect, chat, and share their love for the game. Erik Allebest and Jay Severson, two college buddies with a shared passion for strategy, had just purchased the domain Chess.com for $55,000. Initially, it was a forum, but then the demand for online play began to soar. In 2007, they launched the first subscription-based version of Chess.com. Within a few years, the platform bega...
Dec 29, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 293
These farmers lost around $1.72B in a single morning. It was all because of tit-for-tat import taxes. But what really happened and who were these farmers? It all started when Donald Trump walked into the White House in January 2017, promising to take on what he called “unfair trade” with China. March 2018, Trump slapped $50 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, aiming straight at the heart of China’s industrial ambitions—its "Made in China 2025" strategy. This marked the start of the trade war. A...
Dec 22, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 292
In this episode of the NEON Show, Boris Wertz, a renowned venture capitalist and entrepreneur, shares his extensive journey through the tech and investment world over the past 25 years. From founding a company that was acquired by Amazon to becoming an investor and backing emerging fund managers globally, Boris offers a rich and unique perspective on the evolution of venture capital. Timestamp 00:00 - Trailer 01:40 - Introduction and background 03:17 - Journey as a venture capitalist 04:49 - Bor...
Dec 15, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 291
In this episode of the NEON Show, Ashok K. Lahiri, a leading economist and former Chief Economic Advisor, talks about India’s economic journey and the changes in its tax system. Lahiri shares why India has fallen behind some countries, pointing to missed opportunities in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. He also highlights the importance of India’s democracy and federal system in shaping its progress. Check out Ashok K. Lahiri’s book, India in search of glory, https://www.amazon.in/Indi...
Dec 08, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 290
The world’s largest tech-focused venture capital fund. And the man behind it is Masayoshi Son, often referred to as Masa. At 16, Masa moved to California, drawn by the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley. Before he turned 21 years old, Son sold his first company— a multilingual translator bought by Sharp for about $1 million. Masa returned to Japan and founded SoftBank as a software distribution company. In 1995, Masa made one of his first bold investments— a $100 million for a 30% stake in...
Dec 05, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 289
