S1, EP17, 2020 Entrepreneurs Club: INDIA SPECIAL & Limechat: Serial entrepreneur, Aniket Bajpai, and launching a Titan VC backed e-commerce solution in the fastest growth tech hub on earth

Speaker A: Now to growing concerns about total cases in the US now top 8.4 million.

Speaker B: You must stay at home. The new variant of coronavirus is out of control. You can't be serious. Man, I hate you. 2020. Well, that was a pile of crap. I know. Uh, however, we did see some amazing tech companies emerge from the crisis. And this podcast is me going around the world talking to founders of these companies. And, uh, some of these founder stories are absolutely amazing and can't wait to share them with you. So from San Franc, go to Sydney. My name's Ben kenright. Introducing the 2020 Entrepreneurs Club podcast. Welcome back to the 2020 Entrepreneurs Club. Today I'm excited to say that we're taking our first trip down to India. And India is one of my favorite places on this planet. I love the people, I love the culture, the sounds, the craziness of it. I love the food. Oh my God, how do I forget the food? That's not my favorite part. But India in recent years has become a tech powerhouse where it once was, seen often as an outsourced destination. Now there's unicorns coming out of India that are rivaling the biggest unicorns in Silicon Valley. In 2019, Bangalore, which is like, uh, the San Francisco of, uh, well, South Asia, really was the fastest growing tech hub on the planet. And it seems some amazing brands coming out of there. An amazing brand is here today as well. They're called Limechat and we're with their co founder, Aniket Bajpai. And these guys are a serious Indian tech startup. They're backed by Stellaris, Y Combinator to name but a few. And Aniket is going to tell us lots about it and the Indian tech scene in general. So without any further ado, welcoming Aniket Vazpie of Lime Chat. Hello, Aniket, how are you?

Speaker A: Hi. I'm doing great. Really excited by this entire thing.

Speaker B: So tell us a little about yourself.

Speaker A: I'm Aniket. I, um, am the, uh, co founder of Limechat. And I graduated from, uh, college from IIT Delhi, which is one of the premier tech institutions in India in 2018. And uh, this is actually my second startup. Right after college I was actually into research, into AI research and I did research at MIT for six months, after which I returned to India and I started my first startup called Conscience, which was in the news and social media analytics space. And we were able to, both me and my co founder, who was my batchmate from IIT Delhi, we were able to exit the startup and by December of uh, 2020. Sorry, December of 2019. And then we started Limejet.

Speaker B: Okay, so you've had a busy few years. Um, so tell us about your first startup, uh, what was this company called and uh, how long were you building it before you exited in 2019?

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, so um, uh, my co founder actually uh, he had a five year program so when I had graduated he was still in college and I actually went to uh, do research but I did not feel at home that I did not feel that that was my purpose. So I actually returned to India and I actually got in touch with my co founder and we just started brainstorming different ideas and at that time, uh, the elections were coming up in India and uh, a lot of there was a huge demand for news and social media analytics, uh, both for political parties as well as for brands in general. And we felt that since both of us had a very strong background in AI, if we create some good technology there, uh, uh, the tech could actually become an edge for us. Uh, because the current players in the market were four or five years old at least and they had like very outdated technology. They had keyword based matching, they did not have the latest NLP systems. So we thought that let's get into this, let's just get our hands dirty. We did not have any idea about how to do a startup, uh, uh, how to think about ideas, how to validate problems. But we just went ahead and started doing it and we were able to get an MVP ready in two or three months itself.

Speaker B: Okay, what period in time is this? You mentioned Indian elections. I should probably remember that for the news at the time. But for our listeners, when you and your co founder are uh, looking at this, this opportunity, what period in time was this?

Speaker A: So the elections happened in the Lok Sabha elections, which were the nationwide elections. They happened in April and May 2019. And so we started working on this early in Jan, Jan 2019. So we really had just a very short clock. We had just had four months to get a product ready. So we actually there was only one, one and a half month of campaigning before the election. So we had around two, two and a half months to get our MVP ready. Okay, that time you focused only on news.

Speaker B: And what relevance does, Aside from the fact that news um, is obviously very important around election time, what other relevance did that election have to the inspiration and catalyst of Lime Chat?

Speaker A: Uh, I think uh, we realized that that was very far from what we wanted to do, the political domain and all. But uh, the, the process of starting up the process of making something which people want, which is adding value to other people, and building a team around you, trying to solve very cool, hard problems, which will have an impact like that really, uh, ignited inside us, and we realized that that was our purpose and that is what we really wanted to do in our life. So, uh, after we exited, we were very clear that, uh, these are the things which work and these are the things which did not work. So next time, let's try to, uh, let's try to build something which adds huge value in a field which we are also very excited about. And, uh, that is why we spent around two to three months finding out the right field. And then we, like, started Linechat in 2020.

Speaker B: So let's rewind to that moment. You've officially launched in January 2020, and you are a 2020 entrepreneur. So welcome to the club Aniket. Now, at this point in January, you've built the mvp, right?

Speaker A: You mean for Lime Chart? Yes, line charts. We were actually just ideating stuff, uh, in the beginning of 2020, we actually started even building the MVP around March.

Speaker B: Right, okay, I understand now. So you've, uh, officially launched before, you know, technically having that mvp. Well, on paper, anyway. So this is the fascinating part of being a 2020 entrepreneur. It's January. You've committed to the concept Lime Chat. Great concept, by the way. And you and your co founder, uh, are putting this together, and then something weird starts happening in the world, and next thing you know it. Come March, the global pandemic's hitting as, uh, soon as it's entered India. It's pretty bad, obviously, the size of population. Um, talk us through those initial few months of when you're putting this company together and you can see Covid coming and how that started to affect the plans that you'd had in place.

Speaker A: We were actually talking to a lot of people remotely from Jan, and we were basically looking around or making some effort in the customer service space, especially around, uh, automation and all. And we felt that chatbots were a very, very crowded industry at that point. We did not, like, know the different nuances in the chatbot industry. So we just tried to talk to a lot of people to get an understanding of what works and what doesn't. And around March was when Covid really started growing, and it hit India really fast. Like, nobody really saw it coming. And one. One day, suddenly, a lockdown was announced where you just had to, like, m. You just had to stay inside your home, and it was, like, extended several times. So effectively, the Lockdown went on for more than a month and at that point uh, our potential customers, for them the problem was uh, exacerbated a lot by the uh, by the lockdowns especially because uh, they had huge teams of customer service agents. They had 10 customer service agents for example, which um, and they had no means of monitoring them remotely, maintaining a quality of work, maintaining that they're putting up, putting enough time or even that the agents had the right equipment to answer the queries. So it was a huge, huge pain point for them. And right after Covid, E commerce really started picking up. And since uh, what we do is we actually help, help these E commerce brands in India give uh, an end to end buying experience on chat so people can actually come uh, to WhatsApp or any other chat channel and complete a purchase right from there. And earlier this was being done by agents and not by automation. But during COVID these volumes went up several fold. Like they became 3x or 4x the previous numbers and they just could not hire agents remotely and put them to work. So it was a kind of boon for us as well and it put a lot of pressure on us to get a product done in time so that we can uh, so for us personally it was very hard, uh, like also managing our team completely remotely. We hired everyone remotely, uh, and uh, we communicated. It was hard communicating in the uh, beginning. I actually moved into my co founder's house because of that.

Speaker B: Oh really?

Speaker A: In the pandemic? Yeah. So that there are no communication issues.

Speaker B: Well we've had some really interesting founder stories so far on the podcast, but you're certainly the first who moved in with his co founder. That's, that's amazing. That's dedication. Aniket. I like that. Um, so let's walk back a bit. Tell us more about the product Limet. We can understand the concepts and why the initial idea was forming and how it all of a sudden became relevant. Walk us through. In basic terms, what is Limet? How does it work?

Speaker A: So I'll start by talking a little bit about the pain point which these brands face. And all uh, these uh, e commerce brands actually have their own websites on Shopify or Magento or Woocommerce. And uh, on these websites give a very individualistic buying experience where the user has to go read a lot of content, make a lot of buying decisions and then actually purchase the product. And because it is so uh, hard, uh, there are huge drop offs when people actually browse these websites. Only around 2 to 3% of the people who come to the website, actually end up purchasing. We actually talked to a lot of people in the industry and to customers to find out why they were dropping off. And we realized that uh, especially in India people really want a kind of personalized interactive experience like you get in a store where you just go with your concerns, uh you get a personalized product recommendation for your concerns, for your concern and you just ask uh, a few relevant question about the questions about that product and uh, uh, the salesman is actually able to answer those questions and uh, not give you like huge amounts of content which are irrelevant and uh, you're able to, you don't need to spend too much time in checkout. Once you have made a decision you can just go and go ahead and pay. And uh, what we realized because of our strong background in AI was that we could actually create this kind of in store experience on any chat medium like, like WhatsApp or Messenger or even the website chat. And when people hear chatbots they think that it is that kind of dumb pop up which they just have to avoid. It is not going to solve any of their problems. And we realized that that was because of some outdated tech which was being used and which was not keeping up with the times. And what we decided was we would actually just focus on e commerce brands, not try to go after the whole world and uh, just try to create a very compelling buying experience on chat so that people who are dropping off from websites we can actually engage them in a personalized and interactive way and they might feel that uh, they're actually interacting with a human sales agent so they can actually complete their purchase on chat itself. So that is what we build at line chat basically.

Speaker B: Okay, and what type of clientele are you typically seeing use this? You mentioned consumer brands but give me an example.

Speaker A: Right, so uh, we have a lot of mid m to large size beauty brands, skin care and hair care brands, uh uh, health and wellness brands. So in India there is this company called the man company which is one of our clients. They are a men's grooming and beauty uh, brand basically. So we have uh, most of our brands are in the beauty, personal care or health and wellness space basically because there we are able to give the best kind of consultative experience on chat.

Speaker B: So the man grooming is a fascinating one. Is this the health and beauty sector taking off in India?

Speaker A: Yeah, actually the E commerce, uh the revolution in e commerce brands has been happening uh, like at a huge pace all throughout the world and especially in India. And this has been accelerated a lot by the pandemic. So I think this phenomenon, uh, of E commerce brands earlier, like E commerce companies, just used to uh, go to marketplaces like Amazon or Flipkart in India and they just used to list their products there and sell. But there you lose that personal connect with your customer. So all of them eventually have started going to their own website where they can control the experience even more. They can maintain that personal connect with customers. Uh, so this has been a huge phenomena in India and even globally in the world. So that is why Shopify is one of the largest SaaS companies now, which actually they have $150 billion kind of valuation. So yeah, I think E commerce brands are a very, very exciting field and a very growing market. That is why we decided to like, focus on them.

Speaker B: Is it the uh, with India, is it the size of population that made it inevitable that E commerce would boom as soon as more of the population had access to technology?

Speaker A: Uh, yeah, I think that definitely played a huge role because uh, yeah, if you had a, if you have a small population then there is still a limit until which e commerce can uh, grow. But since it is a huge population, like since the past 10 years, E commerce has continued to grow in India and it is still growing very rapidly,

Speaker B: as is the Indian tech scene. So let's talk about that for a minute. I must say India is one of my favorite countries on earth and I've against India for years and I've worked in technology for a few years now and I kind of just never stuck my head up and looked around, uh, uh, at what was going on in the tech scene. It was only when I worked at my last company and we had an office in Bangalore that I realized how serious Indian tech was. A lot of people look at India as the outsourcing center. Uh, you know, it's where you can get stuff done cheaply. It's almost, um, you know, typecast as such. Uh, but when I've been researching recently, I found some really impressive stats. Bangalore is the fastest growing tech hub globally in 2021. Uh, I read a stat that said India is actually ranked third globally in terms of VC investment in tech startups. And you've got some app unicorns that have come out of India in recent years, such as Fresh, uh, desk, um, something that we use in the recruiting industry called Zoho. Not sure if they're quite unicorn yet, but there is amazing tech and talent in India right now and you put that alongside consumer behavior as in more and more of the population having access to technology. It's an exciting time for India as a global tech superpower. Moving forward. Uh, I know you're planning to have your operation in Bangalore when, when we're allowed to leave the house again, you're allowed to stop living with your co founder. Um, but yeah, it'd be great to get your insight as a first guest from India as to the tech scene on the ground there. Uh, and how that synergize with the line chat story so far.

Speaker A: Right. So yeah, because of the booming tech uh, scene it has been really great. Yeah it is really exciting uh, building, building something out of India uh, because and it is also the growing tech scene also helps a lot because you're able to hire the right kind of people who have experience building this, building, building tech for building world class tech basically which uh, will help you compete even with US based companies or uh, you will, you have like experienced business development, marketing and sales guys who have experience selling both inside India and outside India to Southeast Asian markets, to the US markets. So I think the main uh, the main ways in which this helps is in the way of network effects basically that you're able to find like minded founders who get advice, you're able to find a uh, large number of sources of funding to different VCs, you're able to find the right talent, most importantly who can actually get things done and compete at a global level. So like when all these things come together it actually creates a very uh, interesting formula where you can get great things done.

Speaker B: It's very interesting. And India is so strategically placed. You are right in the middle of Europe and Southeast Asia. Your time zones match up with the US and Southeast Asia better than they do from the uk. Uh, so you put that technical talent, the ability that's on the ground there now mixed with the access to networks. As you said, it's an incredibly exciting time for Indian tech companies but also other countries uh, outside of India that are looking to invest in uh, upcoming um, you know, tech hubs and India is certainly exciting on that front. So talk us through the, the founding team that you've put together and the investor network. Um, let's go through those early stages. I can see on your LinkedIn, uh a few of the, few of the names there. But I'll let you tell this story. Where did it all start on the funding route and building that team?

Speaker A: M. Yeah, so uh, my co founders, uh, my batchmate from university, uh and we also did our first startup together. So it was natural that we would start this also together. And when we started uh, we were actually able to raise our angel run even before we had a very concrete idea. And that is because I think uh, our first set of investors, our angel investors, to their credit, they were able to uh, they had confidence in our ability to execute because of our first startup. And after talking to us. So uh, these are actually the founders of Snapdeal, which is one of the biggest E commerce players in India as well. So Kunal Bell and Rohit Bansal, these are the guys who actually invested in US uh, in Jan 2020 even before we had a concrete idea. So they actually helped us uh, during the ideation process, figuring out the right idea and then building the, a little bit about building the initial team as well. And we were very fortunate to build a great uh, uh, to get in touch with great people, very motivated people, very energetic people and very smart people who are now part of our founding team. And because during COVID a lot of people actually lost their jobs, which was bad in some ways but, but for us it unlocked a huge talent pool and we were actually able to get some interesting people, uh, some very smart people to take risks with us and to help us out and they ended up eventually uh, joining, joining the team. So that was a really great experience. And after we were able to get some good traction, uh, we launched in August 2020 and we were able to get some great traction in the coming months. So uh, in December we were able to close our seed round as well. And in our seed round we got Stellaris Venture Partners in PI Ventures which are one of the uh, one of the best SaaS investors in India along with uh, a ton of angels like the CEO of Flipkart and the CEO of Livespace and the CEO of Oran and uh, some, the CEO of some consumer brands like Marmot and Mosaic Wellness and some, some other people as well. So uh, we were very fortunate to get uh, really good investors in our seed round and we are, we are like continuing to expand our team now.

Speaker B: Okay, so money in the bank. What was the total value of our seed round? Anika?

Speaker A: Uh, we have raised around 750k in our seed round.

Speaker B: Okay, so you got 750k US USD?

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: So what's next in terms of uh, roadmap? We've got seed round in. What's the next step for Lime Chat?

Speaker A: Ah, uh, so up till now we have been actually focused on getting a product right and solving, understanding the pain points and building the right tech solve that pain point. And we have around 20, 25 clients in India now to validate that. But uh, we actually have the ambition and the vision to become uh, a global world class player. And what we're uh, thinking of as a next step is to actually expand in the US markets and in the global markets in General. Because uh, US has the largest number of D2C brands so it just makes sense to go there for us. So uh, we will be starting our US expansion soon with uh, we will be hiring people building our product as well as uh, business development team so that we can actually move towards the US market in the next six months very fast.

Speaker B: Okay, that is very quick. Um, and are you going to keep all product build in India with sales customer success team on the ground in the U.S. are you going to look to split that development team up as well?

Speaker A: Right. I think uh, up to now what we have uh, what we are thinking is we will keep our team mostly based in India and we will just sell to customers there. Uh, actually we got into Y Combinator as well since you had asked what kind of people had backed us but, and we had the option to go to US early but we felt that it would be a huge push going uh, to just like take three months and go right now. So we thought that let's take our time, let's build out the right team and let's move slowly and then uh, in the next six months, gradually we should uh, talk to customers, understand their pain points there as well like we did in India, and then start selling aggressively.

Speaker B: Well that plan certainly makes sense with everything that's going on in the world right now. It's not like you can just jump on a plane back and forth to the U.S. even so it seems like you're definitely doing the right thing there. Um, okay, so on entering the US market, what kind of competition will you be facing in this space? As you mentioned, you know, chatbots very saturated. I know you guys are doing something different but generally what's the competition out there and why is Lime Chat standing out as, as that platform of choice?

Speaker A: A lot of the existing chatbot players, they, they're basically simple click based bots which uh, which take you through a predefined workflow or, and they are ah, only able to help you in doing some kind of basic lead generation or there are some bots which actually understand natural language but they do not understand context. They do not carry out multi step conversations so they are just able to help you answer FAQs. And if you look at the sales process for E commerce brands, uh, people don't want to just click on buttons and people don't want to just ask basic FAQs. They want to ask involved questions based on their previous preferences. And we have actually taken all ah, this into account to build uh, flows which are targeted, tailored towards these e commerce brands. And more importantly we have this cool uh, level three AI tech which is based on very recent developments which happened NLP in 2019 and 2020, basically transformers and just GPT3. So we are leveraging that to build, to give a very human like experience and this is something which actually helps improve sales. So if you, if you ask D2C brands, if you ask these e commerce brands, uh, who like, who do you think is the competition to giving to facilitating sales on chat or who is actually helping you uh, increase boost your revenues on chat. So very few names will come in mind. Like there is hardly anyone in the world who is doing this. There are a few companies like Pipestream and Jumper AI. I think these are also global companies which are in this space. But uh, even though in general the chatbot world might seem very crowded, uh, nobody is specifically focusing on facilitating uh, this entire sales experience on chat and uh, for e commerce brands especially. And we feel that we are very uniquely positioned in this way.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, it certainly sounds it. And I know what you mean. I don't know tons about chatbots, but I know it's saturated as a concept. Uh, but a lot of them are very similar. So having a key point of differentiation like this, if that's enabling you to stand out from the crowd, then the market is so big that it's going to make you hugely successful. Right. Okay. So, um, I kind of want to find out more about this co founder dynamics, to be honest. So you've moved in with your co founder, um, how do you get away from him when you've had enough of him?

Speaker A: Yeah, we do have kind of separate rooms, uh, where we have our own downtime. So that is still good.

Speaker B: Yeah, I couldn't imagine doing this because it's such an intense environment being in a startup that uh, you need that separation otherwise you go crazy or you might start strangling each other. Uh, but generally, I mean yours is quite unique that you've been with your co founder, uh, every day throughout the whole of COVID I certainly haven't. I talked to my co founder for an hour a day on Zoom and this is, you know, how the rest of the world is doing right now. And I guess unless you live, um, with your co founder, uh, you ain't with them all day. And as I said, you're definitely the only guest on that's moved in with the co founder. How different do you think it would have been though, uh, had you had done the last 12, 13 months via Zoom?

Speaker A: I felt that we really had a lot of, uh, uh, benefits, advantages in uh, terms of communication because we were staying together and probably, uh, uh, our lack of communication would have meant that things moved slowly and we would have to communicate a bit more, I guess. Like, we would have to, uh, slack and Zoom a bit more and we would have actually, uh, like found out a way to make it work. But I still, uh, felt that it would be very difficult to replace the kind of experience that you get when you're talking each and every day when you're staying together. And, huh, we end up having two or three impromptu brainstorming sessions throughout the day. So these are things which I felt like would be very hard to do in a remote environment. Uh, a lot of people have made it work very well remotely, but I'm very happy that we were together, especially during that early founding days where we have a lot to discuss and a lot of very important decisions to make.

Speaker B: I think most founders that have been on the podcast so far have had facetime with their teams because wherever you are in the world, restrictions have generally eased at some point, and restrictions come back. I know in England now we're probably on our like, 11th lockdown or something. I've lost track. But there were times when we were back in the office and there were times that we were back at home, and then, you know, it was, it was kind of going in and out. But we were quite lucky that we managed to get to market quite quickly. So most of our conversations now are about the running of the business. The collaborative stuff maybe suffers, but it's not essential. Where you guys were, uh, in a build phase for so long, I could see the importance of having someone next to you. But yes, you're right. So many of the guests on here have survived. Well, not have survived, have flourished via Zoom and Slack. You know, um, making the best of the tools that are available. But I think that's what makes people entrepreneurs in the first place. Especially 2020 entrepreneurs like to start a business during a global pandemic or to grow a business during a global pandemic generally means you're a slightly, slightly, uh, crazy beast. So, uh, yeah, everyone's made do, but I'm really looking forward to seeing these teams all come back together. You know, we've got Staff we've never met. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens when everyone's back in the same room. Those impromptu brainstorming sessions that you mentioned, that can happen three times a day and hopefully this generates a whole manner of creativity for all of these startups, uh, out there and more established businesses as well, you know, that have missed that face to face interaction. Uh, so yeah, it's gonna be very, very interesting to see moving forward. You've got uh, team members you've never met though, right?

Speaker A: Definitely. Uh, I think some of our team members, I did not even see their face for the first three months because they had some network issues at their side. So actually saw uh, saw their face when the network got fixed after the lockdown ended. And yeah, it was very unique and I feel like it would take some time getting used to when we actually move back into the office because we have never seen that person, we have never met in person. So it would be like totally weird. And everyone. It might take one or two weeks to get acclimatized.

Speaker B: Interesting point there on the connectivity issues. Was this directly because of lockdowns and the pandemic or was it uh, just a coincidence? Uh, the connectivity issues your team had, was that because of the uh, pandemic? Not that the cables were infected, but was it just because of disruption that came uh, from the pandemic? The infrastructure wasn't uh, in order.

Speaker A: I think there was a general disruption in, in his cell phone plan or in his area, I'm not sure. But uh, because there was a lockdown going on, nobody would come and fix it. So it took actually a month to fix it. And yeah, that is why like he stayed a long time with poor network connectivity. And that is really bad if you're in a lockdown. Like if you do not have the, have good network.

Speaker B: Absolutely, that's what I was thinking. Um, we had a similar thing in London where no roads were getting fixed and now they're fixing them all at once. So every time you try and drive somewhere, there's roadworks every two minutes. So hey, you know, these are little, uh, well they're not little. These are quite significant hurdles of uh, trying to grow a business remotely during COVID The fact that infrastructure isn't being fixed. What other challenges have you had over the last 12 months that are unique to the COVID 2020 entrepreneur experience?

Speaker A: I would say that a lot of the challenges have been around communication and culture, like since people, um, since people talk. So first of all, like, it is very hard. We Actually had to set up communication guidelines so that people over communicate otherwise. Like it actually leads to uh, communication gaps where people, people are thinking differently because they're not uh, talking enough to each other. So that is, that is definitely one kind of challenge we had many, many times where uh, there were communication gaps between people and between teams. And also in terms of culture, like I felt we, in the beginning we were mainly focused on, on uh, on like validating our thesis, right, validating that we were working on the right thing and we did not focus too much on, on culture. So whenever we used to talk to our team members and when they used to talk to each other they uh, usually used to talk only about work related stuff. And they did not have those water cooler conversations or those lunchtime conversations where they just uh, sit down together and get to know each other. So it was very like formal in that sense. And after some time we actually started paying attention to that. So those were, I think those were like kind of challenges which we faced. Uh, in terms of the business I think it has been pretty good because uh, it is easier to sell online uh, remotely than to actually go, go in person to a place and wait for some time, spend time in travel and then sell. And like you also don't uh, like waste a lot of energy in the traveling. And our clients are also flourishing during the pandemic. So business wise there haven't been too many challenges.

Speaker B: The travel component is the, in a way the biggest silver lining for sales led tech companies. And I'd imagine that's especially important in India because for you to scoot from Bangalore to Delhi to Mumbai, back to Delhi, I mean these are days and days of travel here, you know. So to jump on a zoom instead is amazing. Um, you touched on something that does come up in conversations and it's the friendlier element of communication. And you were saying that the informal stuff was missing. So you've kind of formalized informal communication which is very, very interesting. How does that look like if I'm an employee at Lime Chat now or I'm part of the team at Lime Chat? Uh, uh, how are you encouraging that kind of more social interaction as opposed to the professional?

Speaker A: So we actually have special events weekly on uh, days. Uh, we have uh, for example Saturday we have an hour designated to actually playing games as a team. And we actually, a lot of people we realize actually wanted to learn new stuff so we actually encourage that. So we have several book clubs running inside line Chat itself. There are some people who wanted to learn product management There are some people who wanted to learn history, for example, they have all formed their book clubs and they meet once a week or something like that. So that um, so that actually uh, helps in a lot of informal communication. And um, yeah, in general it has just been uh, we also have started this kind of buddy system program where whenever a new employee joins, uh, they are assigned a buddy who might not even be in the same team. And the aim is that you won't discuss work related stuff with them, you'll just discuss general stuff or culture related stuff or any other problems you are having with them. So uh, the sole aim of that relationship is to foster informal communication. So uh, I said yeah, these are things which have worked well for us.

Speaker B: Now the biggest positive here is it's not forever. These are just temporary measures that we have to implement to make our team feel like more of a team. And it's still fun. You know, it's not like people are begrudgingly taking part in these initiatives that you're doing. But uh, it's also nice to know that we're not going to do this forever. Uh, however, it will be nice to keep some of this when we do go back to normality because you know companies are going to be way more remote. You know, that's the most obvious thing I've said all day. But companies are going to have remote staff forever and ever now. And uh, it will be nice to have the social interaction face to face but still keep the, the digital stuff, the pub quizzes via Zoom that I never thought I would ever do, but quite fun, you know. Uh, so I'm looking forward to seeing the kind of, the hybrid of two ways of working as we emerge out ah, of the pandemic. So what's next? I know we touched on it. What's next in terms of product builds, uh, now that the seed money is firmly in the bank. But uh, and we've also talked about the US expansion but looking a little bit further ahead the next two, three, four years. What do they have in store for

Speaker A: Lime chat in the future? Like our vision is that conversations become uh, a really big medium of commerce, just as E commerce we have this. We are thinking that there is going to be a huge revolution in C Commerce which will parallel that of E commerce. And we want to facilitate that revolution starting with E commerce brands. So we basically want to become like a shopify for chat where if you just, if you realize as a brand you realize that you want to start selling on chat, then you just come to line. Chat, you set up a store there and you just start selling it and our platform will take care of everything. So that is the end goal which we are trying to move towards. And we feel that conversations definitely have some advantages or E commerce in several different type of sectors and for several different kind, uh, demographics of people and we really want to focus on that too. Get, get c commerce soon and I'm

Speaker B: sure you're going to get there. I must say, Annika, I'm very impressed. You're the definite epitome of uh, a 2020 entrepreneur and also the epitome of an India based entrepreneur. And you know, it goes back to how, you know, impressed I am about the Indian startup scene in general and you know, the determination, the fact that you saw Covid come in, you said, you know, I'm going to move in with my co founders to make sure that we're not disrupted in our build. You've made the best of the situation throughout and you put together some very impressive, uh, investor names and you've got a great network around you. So I can't wait to uh, see you progress. Um, what's our final word for listeners out there? Aniket, from the fastest growing startup hub on earth. No pressure.

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, I'm really excited to be part of the 2020 entrepreneurs club and really starting a startup in 2020, going through all the challenges and in the end I think it is really going to be worth it. So my message is just that like, you should never give up. You should just keep on hustling and you should. There's always a problem way, uh, to solve problems and you should just think of creative ways. Keep on thinking of new and creative out of the box ways so that you can like uh, m. You can actually move across a hurdle and solve your problem. That is like amen to that.

Speaker B: Aniket. Thank you so much.

Speaker A: It was a very fun experience.

Speaker B: Overall, I look forward to seeing you again literally in person. I'm gonna make sure I'm straight over to India.

Speaker A: That would be great.

Speaker B: Cool. Well, thanks so much to Aniket. Really enjoyed that story of Indian entrepreneurialism and just entrepreneur realism in general. It's such an exciting country, uh, for business, it's always been an exciting country but for business and technology and uh, their access to technology, such a big population, such an influential country and lots of clever people like Aniket being backed by some serious backers. It's a very exciting time for their country and the tech, uh, industry as a whole. I do have to say at, ah, time of recording, uh, this episode, it's in late May, and India is going through the worst part of the global pandemic. So as much as I am crazily upbeat and can't wait to get back on a plane and go and see Aniket and more Indian entrepreneurs, uh, my thoughts to go out the struggles that are happening on the ground over there right now. Do join us this time next week. We're coming to the end of season one on the 2020 Entrepreneurs Club, but we still have a couple more to go, so make sure you tune in. Thanks for listening and we'll see you this time next week.