SeedToScale | Curated by Accel

We’re in the early innings of AI, and the playbook for building companies is already changing. In this episode of SeedToScale, Shekhar Kirani, Partner at Accel, sits down with Jason Graefe, CVP of Microsoft’s AI Partner Catalyst Team, to unpack what’s actually changing in the AI era. From building products to winning enterprise customers, the playbook is being rewritten in real time. Jason brings a unique vantage point, working closely with some of the fastest-scaling AI companies globally, while also operating inside Microsoft at the forefront of AI transformation. The insights are practical, grounded, and directly relevant to founders building today. Here’s what we explore in this episode: • Why we’re still in the “early innings” of AI, and what that means for founders • The shift from horizontal AI tools to durable, workflow-driven products • Why the first enterprise sale is always a trust sale • How design partners can accelerate product-market fit • Speed as a moat: why faster iteration is defining winners • The role of “taste” in building products users actually stick with • Why go-to-market needs to be built from day one, not as an afterthought • The “golden age of margin”: reducing costs while creating entirely new products • India’s structural advantage in building and scaling AI startups If you’re a founder, builder, or operator trying to understand how to win in the AI cycle, this conversation is a clear, grounded playbook. Chapters: 0:00 - Introduction 0:58 - India’s startup energy and why this market stands out 2:07 - What’s changed since pre-COVID 3:18 - Global AI ecosystems and where India fits 4:42 - The rise of second-generation founders in India 6:05 - Why startups are scaling faster than ever 7:26 - From Flipkart to AI-native companies: the infra shift 9:12 - Is the AI market already crowded? 10:36 - Why we’re still in the early innings of AI 11:48 - AI in traditional industries: where we actually are 12:31 - The “golden age of margin” explained 13:52 - Startups hitting profitability faster with AI 15:04 - Moving atoms vs moving bits: what AI can’t disrupt easily 17:18 - Where the real opportunities still exist 18:42 - Horizontal vs vertical AI: speed vs durability 20:11 - Building AI products that adapt to enterprises 22:07 - Why personalization creates sticky products 23:34 - Software that feels like it’s built for you 25:02 - Enterprise AI adoption: two buyer behaviors 26:41 - Why the first sale is always a trust sale 28:06 - How to win your first design partners 29:52 - Enterprises are more open than ever to co-building 31:08 - Surviving rapid LLM evolution 32:14 - Taste: the ultimate differentiator in AI products 33:27 - Real-time feedback loops → faster product iteration 34:52 - Speed as the new moat 36:09 - Domain experts vs first-principles builders 37:42 - First-mover advantage in AI 39:03 - How product + GTM cycles are compressing 40:18 - Why GTM must be built from day one 42:06 - Experimentation in go-to-market 43:38 - India as a proving ground for global products 45:11 - Why early customers matter more than big logos 47:02 - Product-led vs forward-deployed models 48:36 - Selling outcomes, not software 50:07 - India’s structural advantage in AI talent 51:19 - The culture of learning driving adoption 52:27 - Outro Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn: / seedtoscale Follow Shekhar Kirani on LinkedIn: / kirani Follow Jason Graefe on LinkedIn: / jason-graefe #SeedToScale #Microsoft #Accel #AI #AIFounders #Startups #ArtificialIntelligence #Product #GoToMarket #IndiaTech #AIStartups

In this episode of PitchCraft, Ixigo MD and Group CEO Aloke Bajpai joins early investor Shailesh Lakhani to revisit the company’s 2016 Series B deck, a moment that captured Ixigo at an inflection point in India’s evolving travel market. The conversation traces how Ixigo moved beyond being a travel meta-search engine by focusing relentlessly on solving customer pain points across flights, trains, and buses, while betting early on mobile growth and product-led innovation. Shailesh reflects on what built conviction after years of tracking the founders: disciplined execution, resilience through multiple crises, and the willingness to pivot from aggregation to owning transactions when customer experience demanded it. They unpack the strategic shifts, and long-term decisions that shaped Ixigo’s journey from startup to publicly listed travel technology leader.

Founders today are building in an environment shaped by constant technological shifts and evolving team dynamics. In this episode, Gokul Rajaram, Partner at Marathon Management Partners and early backer of companies like CRED, Figma, Curefit, and Postman, shares how he thinks about building startups that endure. Drawing on his experience as a product leader, investor, and board member, Gokul reflects on the patterns he’s seen across hundreds of companies. The conversation explores how founders navigate inflection points, scale teams responsibly, make irreversible decisions, and earn trust over time—with customers, teams, and investors. Gokul also speaks candidly about what tends to break early companies, and what quietly compounds when founders get the fundamentals right.

Behind every funding decision lies hours of evaluation founders never get to witness. This episode of SeedToScale offers a rare backstage pass into the room where ideas are dissected, and where a simple yes or no is anything but simple. Seasoned investors, Mukul Arora, Co-Managing Partner at Elevation Capital, and Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Peak XV, sit for a discussion with Anand Daniel, Partner, Accel, to unpack what really happens, from the first cold email to the final investment committe vote. The conversation goes beyond the cliches and gets brutally honest about how thousands of startups get filtered.

“Founders need to stop assuming VCs are Excel junkies.” In this episode of PitchCraft, Pratik Agarwal, Partner at Accel, breaks down how investors really evaluate startups today. We’re no longer in a copy-paste playbook era. Founders are building unfamiliar ideas across AI, consumer, SaaS, fintech, and deep tech and investors are comparing radically different businesses side by side. In that world, numbers alone don’t create conviction. Pratik introduces the CORE framework, a universal pitch memo designed to help founders communicate what truly matters: • Change: What has shifted in the world that makes this idea inevitable now • Opportunity: Why this is a real, urgent problem with undeniable pull • Resilience: How the business can compound, defend itself, and become a default • Edge: The founder’s unique perspective and right to win In this episode. Pratik walks through how this framework is already being used, and why it works across geographies, stages, and sectors. If you’re a founder raising capital, refining your pitch deck, or struggling to get investors to really get your idea, this episode is your playbook.

Doctor visits are short. Health journeys are long. In this episode, Anuruddh Mishra, Founder & CEO of August AI, talks about building an AI-led health companion designed to support patients beyond brief clinical interactions. He shares how August is built to retain personal health context over time, stay available when questions come up, and help people make sense of scattered medical information across their journey. Watch the full episode for the complete conversation. Chapters: 0:09 - Intro 0:33 - What is an AI health companion 3:06 - As an engineer, why did you choose to get into this field related to health? 8:04 - Did you worry about ChatGPT being a competition? 10:15 - How do you look at benchmarks? 14:31 - How is it performing versus human doctors? 15:40 - Why are you a horizontal health AI platform? 17:53 - Where does August AI stand in terms of memory? 21:37 - Is August’s memory different from general purpose memory? 21:53 - Are there any general purpose memory tools or do you have to build everything in-house? 23:00 - How much did you spend on marketing? 24:15 - What did you do in the early days to get this magical market pull? 27:30 - How did you go about fundraising & was it challenging? 33:30 - Aren’t you worried about Google & ChatGPT coming at August with full force once they take notice? 36:00 - Can you help us walk through your version of the world filled with an abundance of clinical knowledge? 38:54 - How do you ensure that AI never crosses regulatory guardrails? 42:36 - In 10 years what will be inevitable with AI in healthcare? 44:36 - Outro Follow Anuruddh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anuruddhmishra/?originalSubdomain=in Follow Anagh Prasad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anaghprasad/?originalSubdomain=in Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale/ #DecodingAI #SeedToScale #Accel #Healthcare #Tech #Medical #Startup #Funding #Digital

Everyone’s talking about generative AI. Few talk about industrial AI: where the data meets the factory floor. In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Vipin Raghavan, Co-founder & CEO, Haber, explains how Haber is using AI to close the loop between lab and line, turning process data into real-time chemistry control and measurable profit impact. From automating dosing systems to building trust through prediction accuracy, Vipin breaks down what it takes to bring AI into legacy plants, why Haber prices by production output instead of licenses, and how vertical depth and reliability built a zero-churn business. He also talks about India’s manufacturing readiness, cultural differences in adoption, and what the road to autonomous factories really looks like. Chapters 00:00 – Intro: AI that augments, not replaces operators 02:57 – The three universal manufacturing challenges 07:25 – Why now: Connected factories and cheaper edge compute 09:59 – Trust before autonomy: Building accuracy first 13:52 – The pacemaker product and Haber’s zero churn 17:37 – Pricing by the tonne, not by the seat 21:46 – India vs West: Cultural adoption of industrial AI 24:36 – Building T-shaped talent 27:33 – The long road to near-autonomous factories Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale Follow Vipin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vipin-raghavan-6142986/?originalSubdomain=in #AI #Manufacturing #Automation #Innovation #Technology #Sustainability #Industry #Data #DecodingManufacturing

Everyone’s talking about AI models. Few talk about the data that moves them forward. In this episode of Decoding AI, Jonathan Siddharth, Founder & CEO, Turing, explains how Turing evolved from a global developer platform into a research accelerator, fueling the world’s top labs and enterprises with bespoke, interdisciplinary training data. From RL gyms to post-training pipelines, Turing is engineering the human-in-the-loop systems that are quietly pushing us toward ASI. Chapters 00:00 – Intro: The Future of Intelligence 01:11 – From Stanford to Rover: Jonathan’s Founder Journey 07:05 – The Idea Behind Turing 09:28 – Why Post-Training Is the Real Edge in AI 12:49 – How the World’s Smartest Humans Move Models Forward 19:10 – Inside Alan: Turing’s Data Engine & Talent Network 21:17 – How Enterprises Build Their AI Advantage 25:28 – The 100× Productivity Shift Ahead 29:59 – Closing Thoughts: The Future of Work & Intelligence Follow Anand Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananddaniel/ Follow Jonathan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonsid/ Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more updates: linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale #startup #ai #artificialintelligence #turing #data #ASI #artificialsuperintelligence #intelligence #aimodels

The next big shift in AI isn’t about models getting smarter, it’s about how we work. In this episode of Decoding AI, Aparna Chennapragada, Chief Product Officer for AI Experiences at Microsoft, shares how AI is transforming the workplace from tools that assist us to teammates that collaborate with us. Aparna draws from over two decades of product building. From Akamai’s internet backbone to Google’s AI-first products, like Lens, and now leading Microsoft’s AI strategy. Her insights go beyond features and hype, focusing instead on what it takes to build AI products that last. Here’s what we explore in this episode: • Why “adding AI” isn’t enough and what “AI-first” really means • How Microsoft is reimagining productivity for the AI era • What happens when the model starts to “eat the product” • Why trust, timing, and design are key to durable AI • Where founders can find the next big opportunities in AI, from context engineering to workflow intelligence If you’re a founder, builder, or product leader trying to understand where AI is headed next, this conversation is a roadmap. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction 01:32 – Aparna’s journey: From Akamai to Google to Microsoft 05:20 – Lessons from building early AI products at Google 08:15 – Why the timing of AI adoption matters more than novelty 11:40 – The speed of AI change 15:05 – The shift from tools to teammates at Microsoft 19:30 – How AI is transforming productivity inside organisations 23:10 – The danger of “adding AI” vs. building AI-first 28:20 – What happens when the model eats the product 33:05 – Building moats: data, context, and trust 37:25 – AI products that last beyond hype 41:00 – Where founders can build next in AI 45:12 – Closing reflections Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale/ Follow Anand Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananddaniel/ Follow Aparna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aparnacd/ Follow SeedToScale on X: https://x.com/Seed2Scale #DecodingAI #SeedToScale #Microsoft #Accel #AI #ProductDesign #FutureOfWork #startup #aistartups #artificialintelligence #copilot #accel

Every metal behaves predictably, but carbon fiber doesn’t. Its strength depends on how every fiber is laid, making it one of the hardest materials to automate. That’s where Dhinesh Kanagaraj, Founder & CEO, Fabheads, comes in. Their breakthrough “adaptive tow placement” technology lets machines think like craftsmen, achieving fiber-level control at industrial speed. With software-driven automation and smarter material handling, Fabheads is achieving 3-10X productivity, up to 40% fewer rejections, and reduced waste. Watch this episode of Decoding Manufacturing to see how Fabheads is transforming carbon fiber manufacturing. Chapters: 0:24 - Intro 0:28 - Revolutionizing the carbon fiber industry 1:05 - Misconception about automating carbon fiber manufacturing 1:32 - The single most important breakthrough in tech stack 2:07 - Brief explanation of what Fabheds does 2:50 - Misconception about automating carbon fiber manufacturing 3:27 - The single most important breakthrough in tech stack 4:00 - Solving the gap in India’s composite manufacturing ecosystem 5:15 - Carbon fiber 3D printing for aerospace 7:41 - Demand for robotic composite system in a manual manufacturing led industry 8:21 - Elaborate on the tech stack 9:33 - The hardest technical milestone 10:17 - Comparison of robotic automation to traditional manual work 11:05 - The best yet underappreciated tech stack 12:13 - Reasons behind building end-to-end approach 13:52 - What keeps high profile clients engaged to Fabheads 10:39 - The economic structure of Fabheads 15:21 - Biggest growth challenge 16:43 - Operational challenges with expansion 17:58 - Building talent in a niche ecosystem 19:10 - Failures and early lessons 20:36 - Vertical vs horizontal Industries 22:17 - One belief that needed unlearning 23:22 - Success for Fabheads in 5 years down the line 24:06 - Outro Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://in.linkedin.com/company/seedt... Follow Dhinesh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhineshrk/?originalSubdomain=in #DecodingManufacturing #CarbonFiber #Automation #Engineering #Innovation #DeepTech #Composites #SeedToScale

For decades, India’s two-wheeler industry perfected manufacturing at scale, but not innovation. Then came Ather Energy. Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, shares how Ather built every layer of the EV stack, from battery architecture to charging infrastructure, entirely from scratch. From a lab at IIT Madras to India’s one of the largest electric two-wheeler brands, Ather’s story is one of conviction over conditions. Tarun and his team built what didn’t exist: suppliers, technology, and manufacturing processes, turning obstacles into opportunities. In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Tarun shares insights on building deep R&D culture, scaling hardware with precision, and the mindset required to design in India, not just make in India. Chapters: 0:24 - What led to the birth of Ather Energy? 2:23 - The biggest challenges in the early days 7:03 - Why did Ather decide to go full stack? 9:38 - When did it truly feel at ‘scale’? 10:53 - Balance of IP vs speed during scaling 12:15 - Defining decisions in Ather’s journey 13:23 - Views on the current ecosystem 14:57 - Flaws of early-stage hardware founders 20:12 - Hardware vs software-led future 22:11 - India’s manufacturing prowess 25:35 - Manufacturing vs global imports 26:28 - Advice to deep tech & advanced hardware founders 26:52 - Lowest point while building Ather 28:54 - The strongest belief from 5 years ago 29:36 - Doing Ather differently in 2025 Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://in.linkedin.com/company/seedt... Follow Tarun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarunsmehta/?originalSubdomain=in About Decoding Manufacturing: This series spotlights the audacious founders positioning India to lead the next industrial revolution by transforming deep tech into scalable manufacturing breakthroughs. #manufacturing #manufacturingprocess #AtherEnergy #DecodingManufacturing #AtherEnergy #Founder #EV #MadeInIndia #Innovation #manufacturing

What if a rocket engine could be 3D-printed in a single shot? What if a launch pad could move wherever permission is granted? That’s exactly what AgniKul is building. In this episode of Decoding Manufacturing, Srinath Ravichandran, Co-founder & CEO of AgniKul, shares how the team is reimagining rocket design and manufacturing from the ground up. From single-piece 3D-printed rocket engines to mobile launch pads, AgniKul is showing how India’s manufacturing ecosystem can power deep tech innovation at global scale. He also breaks down: • Why rockets had to be redesigned for today’s smaller satellites • How India’s private space ecosystem is maturing with clear policy support • Why space tech is the seedbed for India’s next manufacturing wave Chapters: 0:00 – Intro: Rockets for today’s satellites 1:26 – India’s ecosystem: from execution to design 3:03 – The shift: Designing in India & manufacturing maturity 4:41 – Policy clarity and long-time cycles in deeptech 6:15 – Why rockets had to be redesigned for small satellites 7:50 – Breakthrough: Single-piece 3D-printed rocket engines 10:25 – Innovation through young teams & first principles 11:11 – The real challenge: repeatability and process discipline 13:18 – Autopilot, scalability & mobile launch pads 15:27 – Building talent: balancing design and quality 17:13 – People, components, infra: what really matters 18:57 – Policy breakthrough: InSpace and private space in India 19:42 – Testing facilities, ISRO collaboration & documentation culture 25:12 – Patient capital and trust in Indian innovation 28:10 – Founder’s journey: from Wall Street to rockets Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://in.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale Follow Srinath on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinath-ravichandran-09679a7/?originalSubdomain=in #AgniKul #SpaceTech #3DPrinting #RocketEngineering #DecodingManufacturing #SeedToScale #Accel #Innovation #indiamanufacturing

In this episode of PitchCraft Season 2, Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, Founder and CEO of BlueStone and Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, revisit the 33-page idea-stage deck that launched one of India’s most enduring jewelry brands. Back in 2011, BlueStone didn’t even have a website or sales to show. It only had a conviction that India’s jewelry market was ripe for disruption. Gaurav reflects on the choices that shaped the pitch: why jewelry was one of the few categories resistant to horizontal marketplaces, how consumer behavior was shifting from family jewelers to brands, and why design had to be the company’s moat. Prashanth recalls why Accel took the leap at such an early stage: the scale of the opportunity, but more importantly, Gaurav’s clarity of thought and first-principles approach. From 3D renders that changed how jewelry was visualized online to home try-on that built trust, BlueStone redefined how Indians bought jewelry long before omnichannel became the norm. Together, they unpack the original deck, the debates it sparked, and how its early insights on design, differentiation, and consumer trust, still anchor the company as it stepped into the public markets in 2025.

In this episode of PitchCraft Season 2, Chandra Srikanth sits down with Harshil Mathur, Co-founder and CEO of Razorpay, and Vikram Vaidyanathan of Z47 to unpack the pitch deck that launched one of India’s most iconic fintech companies. Harshil looks back on Razorpay’s early days in 2014, when he and Co-founder Shashank Kumar were just two engineers trying to accept payments for a side project, only to realise how broken and outdated India’s digital payment infrastructure really was. Their first deck didn’t have polish or even a founder slide. But it had something better: clarity of problem, product conviction, and deep insight into why existing gateways weren’t working. Vikram shares why he invested in Razorpay when many others passed on the opportunity, thinking the space was crowded. What stood out wasn’t just the market; it was the mindset. Harshil and Shashank approached payments as a product and tech problem, not a financial one. That product-first thinking, combined with early proof of execution, became Razorpay’s differentiator. Together, they deconstruct how the original pitch came together, what mattered more than the slides, and how Razorpay’s core values—customer obsession, product depth, and technical rigor—have remained constant from their seed to scale.

In the debut episode of PitchCraft's Season 2, Chandra Srikanth speaks to Sriharsha Majety, Co-Founder and CEO of Swiggy, and Accel's Anand Daniel as they deconstruct the company's first pitch deck that laid the foundation for one of India's most iconic consumer tech companies. Harsha reflects on Swiggy’s early days in 2014, when the team put together a function-first deck built on a single insight: existing platforms didn’t solve the real consumer problem—getting food from your favourite restaurant delivered quickly. From day one, Swiggy differentiated itself by building its own delivery fleet and prioritizing reliability and speed over scale or polish. Anand shares why Accel backed Swiggy in 2015, even in a crowded market: the clarity of thought, deep consumer insight, and a relentless focus on experience. The founders didn’t pitch a marketplace—they pitched a logistics company with a sharp product lens. Swiggy launched with just a few handpicked restaurants, high-velocity dishes, and an app-first approach that showed early, real traction. Together, they break down how the pitch came together, what stood out in the deck, and how Swiggy’s founding principles—customer obsession, clarity, and operational discipline—have stayed intact from the seed round to the stock market.

Contracts are the backbone of every business, every dollar in or out is tied to one. Yet, they remain one of the most antiquated, slow, and expensive parts of how companies operate. Legal workflows still rely on copy-paste, track changes, and armies of lawyers billing by the hour. SpotDraft is rewriting this story. By treating contracts as the hardest language problem for AI, one that demands accuracy, trust, and reliability, the company has built a Contract Lifecycle Management platform purpose-built for the AI era. From creating dummy datasets to designing proprietary editors, workflows, and repositories, SpotDraft has reimagined how businesses negotiate, execute, and manage contracts at scale. In this episode, Co-founder & CEO Shashank Bijapur, along with Goutam Kurumella, Head of Startup Solutions Architecture at AWS, takes us inside the journey: why contracts are a unique challenge for AI, how SpotDraft combines general-purpose LLMs with its own specialized layers to cut through hallucinations, and the tough trade-offs of prioritizing long-term product over short-term revenue.

India today stands at the cusp of a new wave in advanced manufacturing. With global supply chains shifting, demand for cost-effective innovation rising, and deep scientific talent at home, the country has a chance to create the building blocks of tomorrow’s industries. Specialty chemicals, critical to pharmaceuticals, agro, electronics, and more, are one such frontier. Scimplify is leading this shift. The company acts as a full-stack platform for specialty chemical development and manufacturing, bringing enterprise-grade R&D into India’s underutilized factories. In this episode, Co-founder Sachin Santhosh takes us inside their model: how technology and data are being used to map facilities, why India’s scientist pool is its true edge, and how Scimplify is bridging the gap between lab-scale innovation and commercial-scale delivery. Sachin also shares the hard realities of building in this space, from hiring world-class scientists to balancing reliability with cost, and his bold vision to make Scimplify a mark of trust across global industries. This conversation is a window into how advanced manufacturing in chemicals could be India’s next big leap, powering not just growth, but global leadership.

India today stands at a once-in-a-generation moment to establish itself as a global leader in advanced manufacturing. With deep-tech innovation, shifting global supply chains, and a rising domestic market that demands scale and affordability, the country has the chance to build world-class products, not just for India but for the world. Aerospace, EVs, semiconductors, and clean energy are just a few sectors where this ambition is becoming real. Sarla Aviation is one such story. The company is building India’s first mass-market flying taxis, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed to tackle the unique challenges of Indian cities. In this episode, Co-founder and CEO Adrian Schmidt takes us inside their journey: why India’s density makes it the perfect market for aerial mobility, how simplicity in design unlocks affordability, and why creating an indigenous aerospace supply chain is critical for success. Adrian also talks about the hard trade-offs, range versus payload, cost versus complexity, and the bold vision to make flying taxis not a luxury for the elite but a true mass-mobility solution. This conversation is a glimpse into the audacious bets shaping India’s future of transportation, and how advanced manufacturing can propel the nation into the skies.

Every economic superpower has been built on the backbone of manufacturing. Today, with global supply chains being rewritten and the world moving from cost to precision, resilience, and IP, India stands at a rare window of opportunity. Advanced manufacturing is no longer our quiet revolution. Decoding Manufacturing brings you the voices of India’s boldest builders, decoding what it takes to reimagine manufacturing on the global stage and shape the country’s future. #founders #startup #startupindia #indianstartup #manufacturing #advancedmanufacturing #precisionengineering #precisionmanufacturing #sarlaaviation #airtaxis #flyingtaxi #haber #fabheads #scimplify #entrepreneurship #atherenergy #agnikul #sattelite

AI is rewriting the rules of education, turning personalized tutoring from a privilege of the few into a possibility for every student, regardless of where they live or what they can afford. For millions of students in India’s tier-2 and tier-3 towns, the barrier to quality learning has long been financial and geographic. Arivihan is breaking that barrier. In this episode of Decoding AI, Accel’s Anagh Prasad sits down with Ritesh Singh, Co-founder and CEO of Arivihan, to unpack how his journey from Indore to IIT, and his own struggles with access to coaching, which inspired the mission to democratize education. The conversation dives into how Arivihan is solving deep challenges in edtech: building trust in AI tutors, ensuring accuracy and engagement, and keeping costs low while serving students in Bharat. Ritesh also shares why he believes AI tutors will soon transform the coaching industry and make quality learning universally accessible.

It’s almost a consensus view that India can’t build its AI future on borrowed code. It needs infrastructure rooted in Indian languages, accents, and real-world use cases. At the heart of this mission is AI4Bharat, an open-source initiative building cutting-edge AI models for all 22 official Indian languages. In this episode of Decoding AI, Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, sits down with Professor Mitesh Khapra, one of the key architects of India’s Indic and open-source AI movement and co-lead of the AI4Bharat initiative at IIT Madras. A former researcher at IBM and now a faculty member at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, IIT Madras, Mitesh has been instrumental in laying the groundwork for India’s AI stack. The conversation traces the journey of AI4Bharat, from early experiments mapping real-world problems to a focused effort on building foundational language technologies that power applications across sectors. Mitesh shares how the team is bridging data gaps, enabling synthetic data generation, and competing with global benchmarks, all while staying open-source. This episode unpacks why India needs its own AI infrastructure, what makes AI for Bharat technically and culturally distinct, and how startups and developers can plug into this growing ecosystem to build truly inclusive AI solutions.

How fast can AI really talk back? For Smallest.ai, the answer is 45 milliseconds. In this episode, Akshat Mandloi, Co-founder, breaks down how they built one of the fastest and most efficient voice AI engines, proving that systems thinking, not scale, wins in the real world. He shares insights on continuous retraining, evolving architectures, and the hidden engineering layers that make Smallest AI a leader in real-time speech intelligence. Want to see how the future of AI sounds? Watch the conversation till the end. Chapters: 0:31 - Intro 0:37 - The secret sauce behind the world’s fastest TTS engine 1:43 - Different approach from the traditional auto-regressive model 2:41 - The process behind the parameters of efficiency and quality 4:00 - The one unique thing Smallest.ai is solving 4:57 - Lessons from calibrating the speech models 6:20 - Building different corpuses for different languages 7:29 - Solving the hallucination problems 9:33 - Mental model for building the initial team 12:17 - The most exciting part to take on 14:16 - Outro Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale Follow Akshat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshat-2503/ #AWS #InsideTheEngineRoom #LLM #AI #Innovation #Scale #AIModels #Voice #Language

Integrations are the hidden bottleneck in modern engineering slowing teams down, draining time, and killing creativity. What if AI could automate that completely? Soham Ganatra, Co-founder & CEO, Composio, shares how his team built one of the largest hosted MCP platforms, where AI coding agents autonomously build and manage integrations end-to-end. From early experiments with LLMs to tackling agent reliability, tool design, and scaling through community-led GTM, the conversation dives deep into how Composio is transforming developer productivity. Chapters: 0:24 - Intro 0:35 - The problem statement Composio aims to solve 3:20 - The differentiator between Composio and others 5:34 - The secret behind high SWE-benchmark 7:29 - How is Composio powering rapid development & prototyping 8:45 - Identifying the initial customer base 13:23 - Were there any specific use cases that were surprising? 15:06 - Mental model around team building 19:37 - Outro Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seedtoscale Follow Soham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soham-ganatra/ #AI #AWS #InsideTheEngineRoom #Developers #Tools #Automation #ArtificialIntelligence For more insights on building AI-native startups and scaling developer ecosystems, watch the full episode of AWS Inside the Engine Room. #AI #AWS #InsideTheEngineRoom #Developers #Tools #Automation #ArtificialIntelligence

What if your entire brand could run on autopilot? Sai Krishna, Co-founder, ShopOS, shares how AI agents will redefine the way brand-owners build, market, and scale businesses. From smarter catalogs and campaigns to fully automated brand orchestration, he explains why AI is the perfect draft engine, giving founders a head start on every creative and operational task. Sai breaks down the rise of ambient agents: AI that works quietly in the background to optimize pricing, discovery, and customer engagement at scale. Finally, he paints a bold picture of the shopping page of the future: dynamic, hyper-personalized, and tailored to every buyer’s unique context. Chapters: 0:26 Intro 0:39 House of Model’s journey and the problems it is solving 1:40 The core problem 4:27 The future of e-commerce with AI 7:27 How the idea is being enabled 13:10 A future with no clicks 14:13 Advice on fundraising 17:36 Outro Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://in.linkedin.com/company/seedt... Follow Sai on LinkedIn: / 5aitec #AI #Ecommerce #AICommerce #UnicornStartup #SeedToScale #Accel #AWS #InsideTheEngineRoom #Tech #Innovation #Startup #Founders

The fastest solution is not always the smartest one. Even the world’s fastest inference engine can’t win on speed alone. That’s why Amritanshu Jain, Co-Founder & CEO of Simplismart, emphasizes adaptability as the true goal. For enterprises, it’s not just about running models at lightning pace, but balancing cost efficiency, speed of execution, and scalability across dynamic environments. In a world where conditions evolve rapidly, adaptability is the edge that keeps businesses ahead. Chapters: 0:25 Intro 0:39 Core innovations in the engine’s architecture 4:07 Mental model around building modular blocks 6:26 Solving the gaps in MLOps 17:41 Approach with hiring 23:17 What kind of technology & research excites you? 28:42 Outro Follow SeedToScale on LinkedIn for more insights: https://in.linkedin.com/company/seedt... Follow Amritanshu on LinkedIn: / jainamritanshu About the series: The builders of India’s AI revolution are opening up their playbooks. From evolving stacks to scaling breakdowns and tough infra trade-offs, Inside The Engine Room, in collaboration with ‪@amazonwebservices‬, dives deep into the lessons every founder wishes they had on Day 1. #AI #AWS #MLOps #InferenceEngine #AIstartups #Amazon #AIInfrastructure #Founders #InsideTheEngineRoom #Accel #Simplismart #SeedToScale

AI is stepping into uncharted territory, assisting decision-makers with high-stakes, low-frequency calls that shape the future of enterprises. These decisions require more than historical data; they demand fresh insights, domain expertise, and a deep understanding of context. That’s where Bridgetown Research comes in. Bridgetown’s AI agents autonomously conduct deep research—interviewing experts, gathering proprietary insights, and identifying patterns to deliver real, actionable intelligence. In this episode of Decoding AI, Anagh Prasad, Investor at Accel, sits down with Harsh Sahai, Co-founder and CEO of Bridgetown Research, to discuss how AI is transforming decision-making at the board level. With a background spanning Amazon and McKinsey, Harsh shares his journey of bridging a career in AI and consulting to build an AI platform. The discussion explores how Bridgetown is tackling the complexities of high-stakes decision-making—leveraging AI to gather insights, enhance research depth, and improve judgment at scale. Harsh shares how AI agents can proactively collect and synthesize information, enabling decision-makers to act more confidently and clearly in an ever-changing business landscape.

Meesho is redefining the role of AI in e-commerce, driving innovations that scale to meet the demands of millions. From handling over 60,000 voice bot calls daily to managing 'trillions' of features, AI is embedded in every facet of Meesho’s operations. In this episode of Decoding AI, Anagh Prasad, Investor at Accel, sits down with Debdoot Mukherjee, Chief Data Scientist and Head of AI at Meesho, to explore the transformative impact of AI on one of India’s largest online marketplaces. Debdoot shares learnings from his early days of machine learning at Myntra to shaping Meesho’s AI-first marketplace. The discussion dives into Meesho’s use of AI for solving complex challenges, such as optimizing matchmaking between users and products, and developing scalable machine learning platforms. Debdoot also shares how open-source frameworks drive innovation at the company. This episode offers a compelling look at how AI is transforming industries and presents invaluable lessons for anyone looking to build and scale AI-driven solutions at large.

Google DeepMind stands at the cutting edge of AI innovation, solving some of the most intricate scientific and engineering challenges. From protein structure prediction through AlphaFold to enhancing energy efficiency in data centers and advancing robotics for real-world applications, DeepMind is shaping the future of technology. But how can AI startups in India leverage DeepMind's insights? In this episode of Decoding AI, Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, speaks to Dr. Manish Gupta, Senior Director at Google DeepMind, APAC to find out. Dr. Manish shares insights into the current landscape of language models, spotlighting groundbreaking work like the IndicGenBench project. The conversation dives into how Google DeepMind focuses on foundational technologies while empowering startups to create transformative solutions in sectors like healthcare and education. Dr. Manish also offers valuable guidance for startups, elaborating on Google's Trusted Tester Program and its collaborative approach to IP sharing. Dr. Manish also reflects on India’s distinct position within the global AI ecosystem, emphasizing the country's unique opportunities and challenges, and the potential of AI in scientific breakthroughs, including its role in advancing fusion energy.

India is making strides in artificial intelligence, blending academic rigor with real-world applications. In Episode 4 of Decoding AI, Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, is joined by Professor Balaraman Ravindran of IIT Madras, a pioneering figure in Indian AI research and application. As the founding head of several prestigious AI-focused centers, including Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science & AI, and the Centre for Responsible AI at IIT Madras, Professor Balaraman discusses how IIT Madras is driving innovation in AI research, language models, healthcare, and more. Key highlights include IIT Madras's work on Indian-language AI systems, such as translating NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) videos into multiple languages and collaborating with the Supreme Court to make legal documents accessible in regional languages. On the healthcare front, groundbreaking initiatives like Garbhini tackle maternal and fetal health challenges unique to India. Professor Balaraman also provides insights into how startups can engage with IIT Madras's vibrant research ecosystem. Looking ahead, he emphasizes the importance of solving uniquely Indian problems, urging startups and investors to focus on creating value within the country instead of catering to first-world markets.

Simplismart is an AI infrastructure company building the critical platform-agnostic middleware to deploy, train/customize, and serve open-source AI models in production. With a very small team and under $1M in funding, these two Bengaluru-based founders built the world's fastest inference engine. In Episode 3 of our Decoding AI series, Amritanshu Jain, Co-founder and CEO of Simplismart, joins Anagh Prasad to discuss the startup's remarkable pivot. Initially built as an AutoML platform, Simplismart's breakthrough came when they happened to discover the speed of their inference engine after a conversation with a potential customer. In this episode, Amritanshu also elaborates on the open-source versus closed-source debate, noting that the comparison is complex and requires significant education. He emphasises that it is not simply about declaring one model superior to the other but understanding the broader context and specific advantages each model offers. While open-source solutions can offer high customization and cost efficiency, the choice between open-source and closed-source models ultimately depends on the unique needs and constraints of the enterprise.

GenAI is growing rapidly, evolving from a mere tool into an intelligent partner that empowers businesses to scale with greater speed and efficiency. In Episode 2 of our Decoding AI series, Vishwesh Pai, Senior Director of Product Management for AI Platform at ServiceNow, and Anagh Prasad, Investor at Accel dive into how large companies are navigating the opportunities in enterprise software, especially with the rise of generative AI. Vishwesh reflects on his journey from leading AI initiatives at Amazon Alexa to spearheading AI development at ServiceNow, where he leads the company’s efforts from India. Vishwesh discusses how ServiceNow leverages generative AI to enhance customer productivity and agility while addressing legal, ethical, and security concerns. He emphasizes the company’s focus on AI safety and trust, which are critical in the enterprise space. According to him, generative AI presents a “golden opportunity” for ServiceNow to deliver more value to its customers and accelerate product development. Listen to this conversation for deeper insights into how large companies like ServiceNow are navigating the AI revolution and the challenges and opportunities for startups in the AI space.

With GenAI on the rise, software is evolving from a tool that needs constant supervision to an intelligent partner that handles tasks autonomously, similar to human assistants. This shift promises a future where enterprises are more efficient, with AI seamlessly integrating into daily operations. In Episode 1 of SeedToScale's Decoding AI series, Accel's Anagh Prasad explores the future of enterprise software with Surojit Chatterjee, Founder and CEO of Ema, a company which elevates Agentic AI to the enterprise level. Surojit explains how the next generation of enterprise software, driven by Gen AI, will be radically different from the current systems. These new applications will break down data silos and access information across the enterprise to create adaptive, real-time user interfaces that respond dynamically to user needs and roles. Watch the full episode as Surojit shares how Ema is designed to bridge the gap between AI capabilities and business needs, and how Gen AI, much like past technological revolutions, is poised to create more jobs and opportunities than we can currently imagine.

2023 is particularly momentous to Accel as we complete 40 years as a global fund and 15 years in India. As we celebrate this milestone, we hope to share insights from the firm’s shared history with you, in this riveting two-part podcast series. We begin with a look at the past, and how startups and investors evolved over the years; moving on to investing today, and why many call 2023 the year of reset in VC. Finally, we look to the future, with timeless lessons the next generation of investors must carry forward.

2023 is particularly momentous to Accel as we complete 40 years as a global fund and 15 years in India. As we celebrate this milestone, we hope to share insights from the firm’s shared history with you, in this riveting two-part podcast series. We begin with a look at the past, and how startups and investors evolved over the years; moving on to investing today, and why many call 2023 the year of reset in VC. Finally, we look to the future, with timeless lessons the next generation of investors must carry forward.

Know what is harder than pivoting when the going gets tough? Pivoting when the going is good. On the surface, most metrics were scaling efficiently for Urban Company (previously UrbanClap) at the end of 2015. The tech company mainly generated leads for at-home service providers. But founders Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra recognized that improving the experience of suppliers and customers would require deeper involvement. They needed to build a full stack marketplace with trained professionals. Eight years later, the company is valued at $2.8 billion. After proving their chops by taking the beauty industry online, Urban Company went on to digitally connect customers with a range of professional services including cleaning, repairs, electrical works, plumbing, and carpentry. When they first looked into the space, at-home services in India had been full of holes. The founders, all three from IIT Kanpur, knew that the problem had the potential to keep them busy for a lifetime. So they joined hands in 2014 to bring in organization and digitization. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3UnptTO *** 0:00 - Introduction 1:20 - Origin story 4:10 - Early days 9:33 - Product-market fit 14:25 - Picking the right service 16:30 - Testbed 17:40 - Zero-to-one phase 21:15 - Scaling the company 24:30 - Key strategic decisions 27:40 - Value to service partners 32:40 - Disintermediation 34:10 - Creating value on both sides 36:30 - Navigating COVID 39:50 - Leadership and culture 43:20 - The future

At their core, marketplaces are in the business of efficiency. Deeply optimized supply was the need of the hour in the world of construction, where access to materials was fragmented and unreliable. Souvik Sengupta of Infra.Market and Prashanth Prakash of Accel talk about transforming the manner in which real estate companies buy for their projects. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3UnptTO

What does it take to build a timeless marketplace? Time. Long-lasting marketplaces have little to do with restless hustling, and a lot to do with clear research and balancing gut calls with data calls. You can trust that bit of wisdom because it comes from Mukesh Bansal who knows the ups and downs of entrepreneurship in India more intimately than most. As founder of Myntra, head of commerce and advertising at Flipkart, and now as founder-CEO at Cult.fit, the relentless entrepreneur has sold fashion, fitness, and almost everything in between. Mukesh was one of the first startup folk to have brought the Bay Area ethos to the Bengaluru ecosystem. Over the last 15 years, he has steered companies through teething problems, pivoting and scaling missions, as well as acquisitions. In this part of a series of conversations sponsored by Accel, Mukesh shares his favourite entrepreneurial hits and misses. Joining him is Subrata Mitra of Accel who has been among Mukesh’s earliest backers. He shares wisdom not just for the benefit of founders but also for venture capitalists as they go from backing two to four to 20 companies. Over the course of chatting with Pankaj Mishra, the duo sum up their journey so far in many quotable quotes. *** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

When Niraj Singh started up Spinny, the used-car market in India was already crowded with cash-rich competitors. More and more Indian buyers were leaning towards buying pre-owned cars because of the better value they offered but the landscape was still full of potholes and barriers. There were few trusted intermediaries, and no convenient way for buyers to go through the sea of options or for sellers to find the right price. That is where Spinny came in. Niraj Singh founded the full-stack platform for buying and selling used cars in 2015, together with friends Ramanshu Mahaur, a fellow alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi, and Mohit Gupta, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad, who moved from Flipkart to join as operations head. A car lover himself, Singh wanted to address the pain points in the sale and purchase of a used car. “When you're buying your first car, it's a very important, very aspirational, very emotional purchase for you, and your entire family. It was very clear that we are not going just after the used-car market opportunity, but we are going to solve (an issue) of trust, experience and aspirations of people,” he said in an interview with Pankaj Mishra, co-founder of the digital media publication FactorDaily, a journalist tracking start-ups, with over two-and-a-half decades of professional experience. Sellers put in a request to sell their cars on the website. If it passes a 200-point test by an inspection team, Spinny sets a price, features the car on the site, and takes over the responsibility of selling the car. Buyers have the assurance of buying a Spinny-certified vehicle and the added benefit of a 1-year warranty. The company takes care of all the paperwork, from registration to title transfers. Among others, Spinny competes with OLX, Quikr and CarDekho in a market that was valued at $23 billion in the financial year 2021-2022 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.5 per cent until FY 2026-27, according to a report by IndianBlueBook, an auto technology platform, and Das WeltAuto, the pre-owned car business of Volkswagen India. After starting operations in the National Capital Region (NCR), centered on Delhi, Spinny has expanded into Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Indore, Coimbatore, Lucknow and Kochi. It became a unicorn with a valuation of about $1.8 billion, when it raised $283 million last year from a consortium led by Abu Dhabi-based ADQ, Tiger Global and Avenir Growth. This interview is part of a special series brought to you by the Indian unit of Accel Partners, which has backed some of the most significant marketplaces that have come up in India including food delivery platform Swiggy, e-commerce company Flipkart, TaxiForSure, which offers ride-hailing services, and Urban Company, a provider of home cleaning, appliance repair, beauty treatment and handymen services to customers at their doorstep. Joining Pankaj Mishra in the chat is Niraj Singh, who at the time of founding Spinny, already had two start-ups behind him – TechMonkey, an Internet media company, and Locus Education, an IIT-JEE prep venture with offline and online presence. They dive into the details of going from a marketplace model to a direct full-stack model, the business of trust, and the basic rules of team building.

Conversation HighlightsIn addition to asking if the sector is unorganized, ask whether it is inefficient. Know exactly what kind of a profit pool is available there.There are businesses where a tight testbed is not possible. So find your fulcrum. It takes trial and error but look for the side where your tech intervention as a marketplace will drive the most value.Fairness is an easy sell. Both sides of the marketplace appreciate fair policies and practices. Once built, marketplaces are not static. They are in dynamic equilibrium. Pay attention to both demand and supply and balance them.Unknown mistakes are okay. Don’t make known mistakes.

Cutting out the intermediary helps many industries. Not so in manufacturing. It needed a middle layer. Suppliers routinely failed to deliver on time, and customers failed to pay on time. To improve trust and speed, Amrit Acharya and Srinath Ramakkrushnan introduced Zetwerk as a B2B marketplace for manufacturing in 2018. Zetwerk began as a hub for steel fabrication. Within six months, its business went from a topline of ₹1 crore a month to ₹10 crore a month. Since then, the company has expanded into more than 10 categories and is valued at $2.7 billion today. The company has transformed the space with high-quality products, increased transparency, and fewer and shorter delays. The backbone of its operation is technology. It uses dashboards to track each order at various stages in real time so that suppliers can stay on schedule and customers can get regular updates. Manufacturing appealed to Amrit because he had dabbled in it fresh out of college. In several ways, it prepared him for starting up – because ‘building’ things from scratch is common to both worlds. In this part of a series of conversations sponsored by Accel, Zetwerk CEO Amrit Acharya participated along with Prayank Swaroop of Accel Partners, who has backed the company right from the early days. They discuss the brass tacks of setting up a B2B marketplace with Pankaj Mishra. * Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

Give someone a fish, you feed them for a day. Give someone reliable access to seafood in a supply-deprived industry, you go on to create a successful B2B marketplace for fish. Take it from Utham Gowda, the founder of Captain Fresh, an investment banker-turned-fisherman, so to speak. Three years after its birth in 2019, the company has raised $126.5 million in funding at a $500 million valuation. In an industry where the average level of spoilage is 20-30%, Captain Fresh manages to minimize waste in seafood shipments to 2-5%. It was in 2015, while scouting for viable sectors as an investment banker, that Gowda embarked on an aquatic adventure. He was helping a seafood player become IPO-ready. Some years of diving deep into fisheries revealed a fragmented, underserved industry begging for scientific solutions. There was a clear entrepreneurial opportunity, but few had even touched the space. Quite frankly, the waters were muddy. There was a combination of problems: High perishability, seasonality, varying tastes by region and so on. Gowda rose to that challenge with a combination of his own: Research, resources, and people. As an investment banker, he knows the importance of due diligence. As a single founder, he knows the importance of finding the right talent. And as someone who started up a little before COVID-19 hit, he knows the importance of planning and stress-testing. In this part of a series produced by Accel Partners, Gowda was joined by Barath Shankar Subramanian of Accel, a vegetarian who strongly backs the fish-fuelled business. In July 2021, after many Zoom calls between Subramanian's and Gowda’s teams, Captain Fresh raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Accel. They talk to Pankaj Mishra, co-founder of digital media publication FactorDaily, about their journey. * Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

It’s essential to keep things as simple as possible initially, with a total focus on understanding the consumer problem statement. Because when it comes to subscriptions, users drop off a lot — they are commitment-phobic. In the next stage, startups must know how to decentralise well. A founder cannot go on micromanaging a hundred things. Many startups fail because while they thought they solved a problem, they had no idea about its sustainability in terms of how it would scale economically. And as far as possible, until you hit product market fit, keep things as lean as possible. If you start hiring too many people for specific roles, it gets difficult to roll things back when they go wrong. Eventually, it all boils down to two questions: Who are you building for? Do they consumers like your product? In this conversation, Nandan Reddy and Phani Kishan from Swiggy and Accel's Anand Daniel share lessons learned while building and scaling their startup in a crowded market.*** Over the past decade and a half, new-age marketplaces in India have transformed how people buy and sell products and services. From Flipkart to Swiggy, Urban Company, and Zetwerk, each has reimagined "the bazaars," shaping the future of commerce and livelihood in India. Starting November 3rd, we will share stories from the trenches about building and scaling these marketplaces, along with foundational lessons from their journeys.Learn more: https://bit.ly/3DqT87o

About TaxiForSureTaxiForSure, founded in 2011, was the outcome of a drunken conversation in a Bangalore pub between friends Raghunandan G and Aprameya Radhakrishna, who had both been to National Institute of Technology Karnataka and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. Raghunandan was 33 and Radhakrishna a year older.      Three-and-a-half years after it started up in a 100-square-feet office in a Bangalore suburb. TaxiForSure was acquired in March 2015 by bigger rival Ola Cabs, which paid $200 million in a cash and equity deal as it attempted to fend off competition from Uber.   By August 2016, TaxiForSure was gone after Ola integrated its service with its own and fired hundreds of its employees.    Today, Raghunandan and Radhakrishna, who both worked briefly at Ola as advisors before walking away, are successful people and have funded a string of startups. The former has founded fintech firm Zolve and the latter is co-founder of Koo, the Indian version of Twitter. WasTaxiForSure a failure?. Not so if the experience and insights they gained into running a startup in a space like mobility shaped their future roles.   HighlightsResearch, research, research. When things get difficult, and they will, this user research will be your north star. There is a tendency in founders to assume the role of the customers. Stop. You were the customer when you conceptualized the marketplace, now you’re no longer a customer. Build for what the customer wants, not what you want. Happiness. The happiness of the team guarantees happiness of all stakeholders, which in turn ensures happiness of the customer. A happy customer will always reflect on the bottom line.Build a team with diverse backgrounds. If you plan to disrupt a market, try to hire from outside the market. Those within the market come with their mental blocks, and fresh perspectives guarantee innovation.Evolve to where the market will be, not where the market is currently. This will ensure that you’re ahead of the pack.

Like in most markets, India is a large but under-penetrated insurance market. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp uptick in life insurance premiums, bringing it at par with the global average of 3.2% of GDP, non-life premiums - health and motor insurance - continue to lag at sub 1% of GDP, compared to 2% for developing Asian countries and 5% for developed economies. In a low-income economy, paying up premiums to protect against potential long-term downside is not a top priority for people. However, this will grow. As India’s GDP and per capita income grow, more people will begin insuring themselves and their assets. This has happened globally and India is no different.Second and more important, the state of insurance in India leaves much to be desired, both for the insurer and the insured. Improving this can be vital to changing the Indian consumer’s relationship with insurance, and building enduring private companies in the space.We spoke to Varun about his journey building an insurance company, how he approaches building a brand in an industry with established players, and what he sees in the future. He is joined by Abhinav Chaturvedi and Subrata Mitra, investors at Accel who have had a ringside view of Acko and Coverfox.Key Segments3:19 - 7:20 - Varun’s journey from Coverfox to Acko14:13 - 17:43 - Technology’s role in insurance: Underwriting Distributor vs Underwriting Customer17:44 - 20:11 - Future of Insurance: Ancillary Services21:36 - 25:30 - Learnings from the US Insurance Sector36:32 - 40:12 - Managing regulations in Insurance44:31 - 46:31 - What’s next for AckoThe Accel team wishes Varun and Acko all the best in their mission.Blog authored by Sankalpana Agarwal from AccelCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

India, frequently referred to as the two-wheeler factory of the world, serves a tremendous market both in India and abroad. About 15M two-wheelers were sold in India in 2021 and 3.7M two-wheelers manufactured in India by the top 4 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) were exported. By 2030, the number of two-wheelers sold in India annually is expected to reach 35M representing an about $30B market, growing at the back of limited penetration of affordable public transport (public transport only serves 7% of the total trips at present) and the ever-increasing cost of not-so affordable four-wheelers.However, with rising fuel prices and the increasing cost of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) scooters, ownership of personal two-wheelers has become financially challenging.Owing to this, customers are now looking for reliable and affordable personal mobility solutions for their daily commute. This new customer demand, along with increasing environmental concerns and favourable government regulations, has created an urgency for electric mobility and set the stage for the rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).As Accel, we have always looked for new-age solutions that add immense value to consumers and Bounce with its dockless mobility solution presented a great investment opportunity in 2018. What started out as Wicked Ride - a luxury bike rental platform and pivoted to a dockless mobility solution has today become a full-stack EV mobility solution for the Indian masses with 3 core business verticals - electric scooter manufacturing, Battery-as-a-Service and dockless mobility. With a capacity of 220K+ scooters per annum, Bounce launched its Infinity e1 electric scooter in early 2022 and has already received 60K+ pre-orders. It completed 5M+ EV rides covering 27M+ EV mobility kilometres with 1M+ swaps by building India’s largest battery-swapping network present in 40k+ locations across India.To understand this new era of mobility which is rapidly unfolding, we spoke to Vivekananda Hallekere, Co-founder and CEO of Bounce, who has been at the helm of EV mobility adoption in India.In this conversation, Vivek talks about his journey, the various phases of Bounce, EV trends in India and abroad, the inevitability of EV adoption and the need for regulatory support.Key SegmentsBounce’s journey from luxury bike rentals to full-stack EV mobility - 1:15Battery charging, battery swapping and Battery-as-a-Service - 17:00Future of Electric Vehicles - Global and Indian - 26:06State of regulatory environment in India - 44:46Future of Bounce and Energy-as-a-Service - 50:46We thank Vivek for coming on and sharing these insights with us and we wish him and Bounce team all the best for this amazing journey of revolutionizing personal mobility for India.Blog authored by Lakshay Bansal from AccelCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

Banking opportunity in India is tremendous, with overall banking assets expected to reach $3T by 2025, with deeply under-penetrated private credit markets which account for ~50% of GDP (vs. 150%+ for developed economies).Despite this large opportunity, customer experience and engagement in traditional consumer banking in India is broken and has been so for over a decade.With the increasing digital penetration in the country, customers armed with their smartphones are looking for an easy, seamless, quick and personalised experience and their expectations are ever-evolving.Neo-banks attempt to fix the broken customer journeys and provide a superior banking experience, serving as a layer over traditional banks. This means that customers no longer need to spend hours at their physical bank branch queues, mired in paperwork for everyday banking needs. While doing so, a neo-bank improves access to a whole suite of financial products across wealth management, lending, and insurance through a single platform.As Accel, we’ve always believed that technology can revolutionise banking and attempted to enable that ecosystem, first through our investment in Monzo in 2018, then through our investment in Zolve in 2021, and recently through a growth investment in Niyo - Niyo is a leader in the consumer neo-banking segment in India with a base of 5 million users.To understand this new era of banking which is fast unfolding, we spoke to Vinay Bagri, Co-founder and CEO of Niyo, who is a long-standing veteran in the banking industry in India.In this conversation, Vinay talks about how Niyo came into being, shares some of his reflections on the ongoing changes in the banking ecosystem, draws parallels from other fintech segments and discusses the need for regulatory support.Key segmentsThe large market opportunity for a neo-bank in India - 18:05 - 19:48How neo-banks provide a completely new banking experience - 20:22 - 22:41The success of neo-banks globally - 24:00 - 25:20Customer segmentation in neobanking - 30:25 - 32:12State of neo-banking regulations in India - 36:28 - 39:10We thank Vinay for coming on and sharing these insights with us and we wish him and Niyo team all the best for this amazing journey of revolutionizing consumer banking for India.Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

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

The D2C ecosystem has truly found its feet in India. There are now a lot of great brands making niche, high-quality products for targeted audiences. The e-commerce wave has given them a channel of distribution that they own. But as the market matures, there are other needs for young D2C startups. They need marketing, sales, and brand talent, things which they can’t easily get access to in order to grow as fast as they want to.Ananth Narayanan’s Mensa aims to solve this problem for the new D2C economy. Mensa is a house of brands that invests in digital-first, D2C brands, and scales them globally. Previously, Ananth was CEO of Myntra, which was acquired by Flipkart, and co-founder and CEO of Medlife, which was acquired by Pharmeasy.Remember, Mensa is not even 500 days old!Subrata’s presence is also notable here, as he has had a long relationship with Ananth. Fun fact: Mensa was co-created as a concept by Ananth and Accel working together from the start. We’ll go into more details in the podcast, but Subrata has been in the trenches with Ananth: from ideation to team expansion, and from strategy to building out their tech platform.I thank Ananth and Subrata for coming on and sharing all of these stories and insights about Mensa’s first 500 days. We wish Ananth and the Mensa team all the best, we are definitely rooting for them!Summary of the conversation:6:55 - 8:16 - The India opportunity for a digital house of brands.8:34 - 9:58 - How did Mensa achieve Unicorn status in 6 months?16:35 - 18:55 - How did Mensa use technology top scale?19:37 - 21:37 -  How did Mensa convince founders to sell their brands to Mensa?27:05 - 29:25  - Advice for founders from Ananth & Subrata.Check out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

How is the world of Open Source faring in a landscape that is being overturned by Web3 and its ascendant new technologies? It’s an important question  and not just in the realm of entrepreneurship and products. Open Source was the first promise of some kind of a technological revolution, where everyone could build and use things they want to with help and support from a real, tangible community.Where is that promise now, what is being built out of it, and where does it stand with the advent of new technological paradigms?That’s the topic of the conversation I have the pleasure of bringing you today.My colleague, Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, is talking to Abhishek Nayak, founder and CEO of Appsmith. Appsmith is a startup that provides an open-source low code tool that helps businesses build any custom internal application within hours. And the company has just raised its Series A of $8 million.There's one more Accel connection here: Abhishek was also part of the Accel team for a while.In the podcast, we try to understand from Abhishek about where the open-source world is, how far it has come, and what we can look for from it, and all of it from the lens of Appsmith.This podcast has a lot of takeaways for founders thinking about building open-source projects and companies. Thanks to Prayank for the interview and thanks of course to Abhishek for taking time away from the grind of entrepreneurship to come talk to us!Summary of the conversation 16:00 - 17:57 - Why did Appsmith take the open-source route?11:44 - 13:24 - Why internal apps & not consumer facing apps?24:50 - 25:53 - How to build an engaged community on Discord?30:03 - 31:40 - Why aren't business users adopting open source tools?35:10 - 37:08 - How did Appsmith acquire users?38:52 - 40:50 - Do developers care about design?44:18 - 46:27 - Challenges raising money for an open source project48:24 - 49:32 - Advice for founders thinking of open source projectsCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India

If you know about Crypto, you can’t have missed FalconX, I’ll still give you a brief: FalconX is a blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech-focused cryptocurrency brokerage and digital asset trading platform. Accel has been proud partners since the startup’s inception, and we’ve been cheering on their success loudly!Crypto is definitely here. With the slew of recent advertising and coverage around it, plus the FOMO that investments in it are generating, we are definitely overdue for a discussion on the space.And we have just the thing for you.Pratik Agarwal, my colleague at Accel has been interested in this space for a long time, and he is interviewing Raghu Yarlagadda, CEO of FalconX, one of the world’s fastest-growing companies of the last half-decade.But that’s not just why we are talking to Raghu for this episode. As reported by Bloomberg in August 2021, FalconX saw its revenue grow by a multiple of 30 times in the 12 months (up to June 2021).Evidently, Raghu and the team know something we don’t.And that’s not all.The crypto world is moving at a pace that is beguiling to even seasoned market watchers. There is just so much happening every day. Raghu and Pratik will also attempt to give us a lens into this world and how to make sense of a rapidly changing scene.This podcast has all this and more. It has been one of my favourite episodes recently and we hope to bring Raghu back for more next year.6:57-7:59: Insights that helped in starting FalconX; building a tokenization gateway for institutions8:15-10:26: Why was it critical to focus on institutions and not retail customers?16:00-18:20: Convenience in the institutional adoption of crypto assets 20:39-22:21: De-Fi(decentralised finance) explained23:15-25:35: Nuances of De-Fi; Comparing it with conventional banking system27:22-29:50: Global overview on the regulatory landscape in crypto31:06-33:01: Future white spaces that could be chased starting today in crypto33:03-33:55: Newer opportunities on the infrastructure side in the crypto marketCheck out other episodes from the Insights Podcast series at https://www.seedtoscale.comShare your feedback and suggestions at https://www.twitter.com/Accel_India