INSIGHTS #76: Untold Seed Stories | First 500 Days of Bizongo

B2B marketplaces are different. There are tremendous opportunities, but also different challenges. This arises from the business model itself. Having to cater to both the supply and demand side is one thing, the other is adjusting to the nuances of the products and commodities being bought and sold. This is different for every domain and therefore there is nothing that can be replicated. Everything had to be thought through first principles.One example of a company that did exactly this is Bizongo, the largest business-to-business online marketplace for packaging needs in India. Bizongo has been a phenomenal success story in the last few years, witnessing exponential growth during the pandemic. Founded by Aniket Deb, Sachin Agrawal and Ankit Tomar, the company is now at a significant point, poised to scale. The team raised funding of $110 million in December 2021 and now stands at a valuation of over $600 million.  As Bizongo scales, we thought this was the best time to get CEO Sachin Agrawal to talk about their First 500 days.I also have on the podcast Prayank Swaroop, my colleague, and partner at Accel, who led the seed round in Bizongo. Prayank has been a part of Bizongo’s journey from the beginning, and he will help us shed light on some of the decisions that helped Bizongo get here.We’ll be diving into the initial days, the evolution of the business model, pivots, and finally the challenges due to the pandemic and how Bizongo overcame them. With Prayank here, we will also take the opportunity to dive into how investors think about such businesses and what they look for in founders and the team when they invest.I thank Sachin and Prayank for coming on and sharing all of these stories and insights about Bizongo’s first 500 days. We wish Sachin and the Bizongo team all the best, they have an amazing few years ahead of them!Summary of the conversation:GMV versus profitable business - 17:14 - 18:31Creating a culture of trust at Bizongo - 26:14 - 27:06Building a bond as co-founders - 29:23 - 30:24What is working capital? - 32:06 - 34:18Business expansion during Covid times - 35:59 - 38:11Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India