Neelayan Sikdar

Bolt raised $1.4 Bn and Fast raised $120 Mn in 2021-22 5 companies in that year’s YC cohort were building Checkouts for LatAM, South East Asia, etc As we were still narrowing down on a problem, this was impossible to ignore. Having seen Flipkart build Amazon of India, Ola build Uber of India, it made sense that “someone will build Bolt/Fast of India” It became a good starting point For our VC experience, we also knew such pattern matching is useful in fundraising We launched the product and had some customers. That’s when stories of bolt and fast failing started to do the rounds on Twitter. There was a lot of drama. It was hard to look away. After some introspection on what this means for us, we realized that 1) Customers were excited about the problem and were willing to pay. To the extent, people were signing up for demos inbound via word of mouth 2) It was merely a starting point. As we started spending more time with customers, we started to see plethora of problems in “effectively engaging customers” they were facing 3) India (our first market) is uniquely different from US (their first market) : Phone number as an identifier, un-standard addresses, low trust, Cash on Delivery, So many more payment options 4) US had likes of PayPal, ApplePay and GooglePay solving this problem making the competitive landscape even more intense I personally think it is a great wedge into the market. It got us the customers who shared several insights turning the wedge into a product, which we hope to turn into a platform. It was also clear that everyone is writing their own story. Pattern matching only goes so far. Is there another company who you think has successfully executed the “X for Y” strategy like Flipkart and Ola? #floBTS This post is a part of our effort to share the behind the scenes of building our company. You can see the other posts by clicking on the hashtag or link in the comments.

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Psychological Triggers that Product Managers at Zepto Use! ⭐️ Do you know that there are 12 Psychological Sales Triggers for Marketing which PM's at Zepto use to nudge millions of users ✨ Zepto Pass is one of the biggest successes that Zepto has achieved in the last few months It crossed over 1 million subscribers in just 1 week of launch and it is giving them excellent results 🚀 Zepto had one of the lowest AOV when compared with Instamart and Blinkit but is growing fast due to Zepto Pass Zepto had 14X revenue growth in FY23 and is on its way to achieving 2-3X growth in FY24 also It is also expected to achieve EBITDA profitability by Sep'24 and is in recent talks to raise $300 mn at a $2.5-$3 billion valuation ---------------------------------------------- Do you think Zepto can beat Blinkit in the profitability race? #quickcommerce #productmarketing #marketing

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You'll always question if the market is overvalued. And that's okay. Let me explain. I felt this deeply when analyzing the Indian markets recently. The numbers were clear, but doubts lingered. I started to think: - Are investors paying too much? - What does this mean for future growth? - Should I be cautious or optimistic? I wish I could tell every investor; It's a complex picture. I took a deep dive into the data and found some insights. Often, markets are a mix of signals. Not always clear, but often. These are the steps I took to understand the valuation: → I looked at the P/E ratio. The SENSEX's P/E ratio of 23.88 is high. Investors are paying a premium compared to historical levels. → I checked the Buffett Indicator. India's market cap to GDP ratio is 102.75%. This is above the 10-year average, suggesting overvaluation. → I analyzed foreign investor activity. In October 2024, foreign investors sold $8 billion in Indian stocks. This was the largest outflow since March 2020. → I reviewed expert opinions. Some experts, like Mark Matthews, express caution. Others point to strong GDP growth as a justification for high valuations. So, while some indicators suggest overvaluation, the economic fundamentals offer a different story. On one hand: - NIFTY trades at ~20x forward earnings vs historical average of ~17x - Small/mid-cap valuations are significantly stretched - FII ownership remains high, risking potential outflows - GDP numbers warrant scrutiny given base effects However: - Corporate earnings growth remains robust (15%+ YoY) - Banking sector NPAs at decadal lows - Domestic retail participation provides valuation support - India's consumption story and demographic dividend remain intact According to me, the key is bottom-up stock selection rather than index-level calls.

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There are two types of #startupfounders- 1. Extremely Foolish 2. Extremely Genius Ngl, this is what i used to think…however, lately i’ve realised that there’s actually only one type, the former. You have got to be extremely foolish (and borderline insane) to willingly let go of a much more comfortable and easier life in exchange for a decade of 24-hour work days and stress. If you do the math, it’s never a “smart” decision, considering how big a factor “luck” is, for any successful startup. So when an extremely foolish founder starts a company, which is statistically 90% likely to fail, there’s a small possibility that they could survive long enough to see it become successful and then be labelled as a “Genius”. Remember, “Genius” is only in hindsight, never in foresight. I guess this is why Steve Jobs said-

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Do you want to get hired at top startups as a Product Manager? Thrive successfully in your current role as a Product Manager? Want to get promoted in your product career? Then this podcast is for you! I had a great time interacting with Mayank Agarwal, the Director of Product at Urban Company, who has also worked as a Project Leader at BCG and in Process Excellence at ITC. A graduate from IIM Bangalore, Mayank shared invaluable insights. In this video, we discussed about various topics : 🌟 Product Management vs. Management Consulting 🎓 Choosing the right career path for MBA grads ❌ Common career mistakes to avoid 📈 Tips for getting promoted in your organization 📱 Building products for millions of consumers 🔍 Learnings from working at startups, established companies, and consulting firms 📝 Key things a Director of Product looks for when hiring PMs and APMs 💬 Communication and Stakeholder management for product management Don't miss the podcast! Check out the link in the first comment. #productmanagement #productmanager #hiring #jobs

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I once applied to Zomato for product management role. Didn't get a call. Now I am enrolling as a Zomato delivery partner after the latest news. p.s: It is a good initiative because delivery partners are close to customers. But I don't know how they can do proper product discovery or write user stories with right edge cases or groom engineers or launch product or measure metrics or know product analytics. Will Zomato train them ? I am assuming education qualification of delivery agents is high school passout and age limit is 18 years. Deepinder Goyal sir kaise hoga ? I know you definitely know much more and much better than me sir but I mean diversity is ok but if just mentioning the problems users are facing or feedback /inputs can suffice, then we need to change the definition of product manager. Next Uber drivers can be product managers and astrologers in Astrotalk will become product managers because they are regularly talking to customers and can give feedback/insights. This is just my opinion and I maybe wrong because I have limited knowledge and experience but I always have my opinions. The news : https://lnkd.in/g9mAUwKa #product #productmanagement #productmanager #productmanagers #zomato #deliveryagents #hiring

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🚀 Key Takeaways from the Elevation Kickstarter on B2C Monetization🚀 I recently attended the "Elevation Kickstarter: New Era of Consumer Monetization" by Elevation Capital, and it was an incredibly insightful experience! The event highlighted how the monetization playbook for consumer apps in India is being completely rewritten. Founders and experts shared their first-hand experiences of building capital-efficient businesses by monetizing early, a strategy that is becoming a game-changer in India’s digital economy. Key Highlights: 🔑The New Playbook for Consumer Apps: 1️⃣Moving away from "chase users first, monetize later" to early monetization models. 2️⃣With direct monetization growing faster than digital ads and now a $3B market, Indian users are proving they are willing to pay for value. 🔥Lessons from ShareChat’s Journey: 1️⃣Ankush Sachdeva (Founder, ShareChat) shared insights into how ShareChat is leveraging microtransactions like virtual gifts to scale sustainably and effectively. 2️⃣The fireside chat emphasized the importance of tailoring monetization strategies to user preferences. 💡Panel Discussion: ‘Choose Your Model: Monetization Strategies That Work’: Prashant Sachan (AppsForBharat) discussed monetizing virtual religious services, bridging tradition with technology. Rohit Choudhary (Seekho) highlighted the power of subscriptions for education, skill-building, and regional content. Sanidhya Narain (Dashtoon) showcased how AI-driven storytelling and micropayments can open global markets. 📊Monetization Models in Action: 1️⃣Micropayment: Accessible, low-cost transactions that drive user engagement and revenue. 2️⃣Subscriptions: Predictable revenue streams that build long-term loyalty. 3️⃣Performance-Based Advertising: A trust-driven model gaining traction in the Indian ecosystem. 🚀Future Trends: 1️⃣AI Integration: Revolutionizing content creation, personalization, and cost-efficiency, making scaling more achievable. 2️⃣Digital Payments: Pivotal for fragmented markets like India, enabling smooth monetization at scale. This event was a deep dive into how early monetization and capital efficiency are transforming the Indian consumer app ecosystem. A huge shoutout to Elevation Capital and the stellar panelists for sharing their journeys and lessons. 💡 What’s your take on these trends? Which monetization model resonates most with you? Let’s discuss in the comments! 🚀 #Monetization #ConsumerApps #IndiaStartups #AI #DigitalEconomy #ElevationKickstarter #CapitalEfficiency

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In my opinion, subscriptions for the mass market does not work in dating apps. For a niche audience maybe. But definitely not for the mass market Let me explain When we take a subscription for an OTT platform, we know that there is a large content library that we will get access to. But when I take a subscription for a dating app, it is a roll of the dice - akin to gambling. Because I do not know whether I will find a love partner or not by paying the subscription. Hence in English dating apps only 3-4% users buy a subscription Contrast this with the approach that we have taken at flutrr . We have Microtransactions priced between Rs. 30-70 and bundles of such microtransactions ( at a discount) . In each of these Microtransactions, the user is very clear what he/she will get if he/ she pays. There is no ambiguity and know false expectations . Therefore more than 18% of our users buy these Microtransactions. And this fact coupled with our very low Cost of Acquisition will not only help us reach profitability but also help us scale with minimal capital Another benefit of this approach is that users can use the app without buying Microtransactions immediately. Therefore , their lifetime and longevity on the App goes up giving us the opportunity to convert these users to paying customers in the future. If at any point of time we decide to seriously monetise eyeballs thru advertising, this will help us immensely In fact, we have tied up with CouponDunia to offer our users free branded coupons. When they redeem the coupons we get a revenue share. The user is happy to get an offer without having to suffer intrusive ads. And we make money too Building for Bharat is about creating a win-win proposition. It is a difficult game. But hugely scalable and profitable. And in this Jio leads the way.

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How to build a growth system? You see, growth is the output of every product. Retention - acquisition and monetisation are the inputs. You cannot build a growth system for a dumbass product, the product should create great value to the user so that the user organically comes on to the app with their natural frequency to experience the value. You then build a system that not only increases this natural frequency (increasing retention) but also building acquisition and monetisation loops while the user is experiencing the value of your product. These three things, retention - monetisation - acquisition, wont act like a funnel, rather they work as a system of compounding loops driving sustainable, repeatable and massive growth over time, but it all depends on creating product value first, if you're pre-product market fit, get to product value fit first, then a growth system. Now, how to build a growth system? We have a process and to keep it straightforward we call that the growth process. This process is specifically designed to make sure that we are removing human biases from the equation so that we can understand how to intentionally pull the levers within our growth system to produce more growth rather than trying things at random. for example, for driving retention - along with the product value - the growth process uses design and leverages the user psychology to create consistent positive experience in every screen, setting up the user for experiencing the value so the user genuinely feels delightful and aha, and build natural and manufactured loops (like notifications) to create a habit and experience the product value again and again for driving retention. In the same way, for acquisition - we have our growth models and for monetisation we have experimentations. Covering one by one, going forward.

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DO YOU TAKE FEEDBACKS SERIOUSLY? As a founder, product developer, product marketer etc, understanding your users' needs and pain points is crucial for building a product that truly stands for excellence. Many ask for reviews in terms of star ratings but are these taken into account and worked/improved upon. If not, here are ways to help you with this 1. Engage Directly: Work with your team on meeting with real users in the real world. Conduct interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Nothing beats hearing directly from users. 2. Create Feedback Loops: Implement feedback forms within your product. Make it easy for users to share their thoughts anytime. This is where star ratings come into play. 4. Social Media Listening: Nowadays, if you want to know the truth about your product, social media is the best. Engage on there as a founder to her customers. Seek out social platforms and communities where users discuss your product. Engage with them to gather insights. This is where your social media marketing team comes to work. 4. Beta Testing: This works like magic. Offer early access to new features and solicit detailed feedback from a select group of users. Share your thoughts on other ways you get feedback #Entrepreneurship #ProductDevelopment #CustomerFeedback #StartupLife

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We have case studies of companies scaling after a good amount of slow growth Pintest took 3 years before it started scaling Stripe founders were manually transferring money behind the scenes for an year Airbnb took few months to get their first employee Kunal Shah spent an year researching before starting CRED Sam Altman said their best companies that scaled in Ycombinator came from companies That wanted to solve a smaller problem With a small audience, And some how Ycombinator people convinced These companies to think global When I was working at Truepush, we had 6 months of halo time before we scaled and Became profitable At current company it’s took months to find a winning ad and we could bet on them for a long time after that. —— When you know what things to work on - KPIs - Retention - Your high paying clients - Repetable clients - Channel fit - Positioning to them And working on unit economics. You will have a unstoppable growth. This process doesn’t gurantee success, But it avoids you from big failures. And that’s 90% work done. You just need to get all these right, once. Until then focus on keeping costs low, Generating retention and revenue. When you get that, scale.

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flutrr has a microtransaction pricing model, allowing users to pay as little as ₹25 to access a premium feature on the app. Initially, 90% of these transactions happened through Google Play Store and only 10% through Razorpay. The issue was that Google charges 30% commission on every in-app purchase and has a 45-day settlement cycle. This not only slowed down our cash flow but also took away a big chunk of our revenue in commission. So, we made a simple tweak to the payments UI. We put Razorpay UPI at the very top and Google Play Store at the very bottom of the page. From day one of making this change, 90% of payments went through Razorpay UPI and only 7% went through Google. With Razorpay settling payments the next day and not charging a hefty commission, we solved our problem with just a minor design adjustment. The smallest of changes can drive the biggest results. Keep iterating! #tech #product #startup #datingapp

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Which startup has achieved the best product-market fit (PMF) in the last two years? 🇮🇳 > What truly defines a successful startup goes far deeper than just a high price tag - It's about a product seamlessly integrating into users' lives, solving a real problem in a simple and impactful way. > Zepto - This quick commerce leader has skyrocketed to household name status in just two years. Their secret sauce? A perfect blend of these product-market fit ingredients: 1/ Unmatched Speed: > Zepto's 10-minute grocery delivery caters directly to the urban consumer's desire for instant gratification. 2/ Curated Convenience: > Zepto understands that speed shouldn't mean sacrificing choice. > They offer a carefully chosen range of essentials and everyday items. No more browsing overload. Just high-quality groceries for immediate needs. Makes decisions a breeze. 3/ Frictionless Experience: > Zepto's app is refreshingly simple. A few taps, groceries ordered. Integrates with popular payment options. > Frictionless experience keeps users coming back. Perfect for busy schedules or sudden needs. 4/ Strategic Network: > Zepto's secret weapon? Smartly placed dark stores. > Stock essential items for quick picking and packing. This fuels their 10-minute delivery promise. Network efficiency translates to lightning-fast groceries. - They identified a clear audience (busy urban dwellers), addressed their core need (immediate groceries), and delivered it in a way that's both convenient and personalised. ♻️ Which other companies have hit seamless product market fit in the recent years? #quickcommerce #ecommerce #startups #zepto #venturecapital #LinkedInNews

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Most popular dating apps face one big problem. After 2-3 exchanges, users shift to WhatsApp or Instagram to take the conversation forward. Time spent on the app drops, and thus, user retention decreases. At flutrr this is rarely an issue. We’re building for the youth in India’s small towns—an audience that isn’t very confident about talking to the opposite sex. They’re shy, take things slow, and rarely ask to exchange personal details, letting conversations flow on our app itself. To strengthen user experience, we’ve also introduced AI-driven sentiment analysis. If you’re chatting with someone, our AI understands the sentiment and helps craft responses aligned with the tone—ensuring longer, deeper conversations. Plus, we’ve added generative AI features for music creation and love quotes for moments when words fall short – making connections more meaningful. All these features are not there either on Insta or on WhatsApp. So our users will continue to chat with the app. And this is a first in the global dating industry This is something no other platform offers, and that’s the promise flutrr is built on—enabling genuine, meaningful relationships through innovation. #startups #india #datingapp #genai #product

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Wondering if Splitwise Inc. should re-evaluate its Pro subscription, currently priced at INR 149/month (INR 999/year) Here is pricing for a few other popular subscriptions in India: Netflix at INR 149/month (Mobile) Swiggy One at INR 75/month (starting) JioCinema at INR 999/year Assuming that primary target segment of Splitwise Inc. is bachelors, either in college or recently employed, is current pricing really the most optimal? Splitwise Inc. has 100M+ downloads on Android, so clearly it has resonated well with users However, recent reviews on Android play store show that users are not willing to convert to customers at current pricing. And they dislike the daily limits and Ads What can Splitwise Inc. do? Not to overstep, but I can think of a few things: 1) re-evaluate pricing - while revenue per customer will go down but more customers and hence higher overall revenue may make up for it (there are services such as Licious that ask for nominal subscription fee, offer significant value in return and keep you hooked) 2) offer group plans - splitting expenses is a group thing, why keep plans for individuals (not straightforward but can be worked out) 3) communicate benefits better - currently "Unlimited expenses" seem to be the only perceptible benefit, value of rest of the benefits can be communicated better (if users indeed see those as benefits) PS: all of this is based on very high level assumptions #product #monetization #pricing #subscription

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Who would invest in founders who have wasted $50M? Koo, an Indian microblogging platform, recently shut shop after raising $50M in capital. Everyone has their views on why Koo failed. IMO, the biggest reason behind its failure was a lack of PMF (Product Market Fit). Koo spent much money on marketing and didn’t build a product people wanted. It kept harping on nationalism, a Twitter for Indians, made in #India. This approach failed. However, this doesn’t mean Koo’s founders aren’t smart or intelligent. I wrote in an earlier post that we shouldn’t be surprised if Koo’s founders raise fresh capital for a new startup. To many of us, this might seem grossly unfair. Millions of smart, hardworking founders are struggling to raise capital while investors are backing failed founders who have wasted millions of dollars. How is that fair? It confirms the widely held belief that the #venturecapital industry is broken and corrupt where a few people with the right connections get all the capital while others don’t see a dime. It shows that the VC industry is a closed group, a cabal where who you know matters more than anything. While these are just complaints, most people who criticise VCs don’t understand how startup investing works. VCs welcome failures. They embrace them because they know failures are inevitable. When VCs invest in 20 #startups, they know 15 will fail. The goal is to invest in startups that can give them a 100x return. Failures are part of the game. They are unavoidable. The aim is to back founders who can build such 100x return companies. Hence, failures are not looked down upon in the VC industry. It’s similar to the American culture where society appreciates the people who take risks, and it easily accepts personal bankruptcies that result from this risk-taking approach. There’s no taboo in failing in the USA and the VC industry. I’m sure Koo’s founders have learnt from their mistakes. It’s an expensive mistake and not everyone is so lucky to have this luxury to spend $50M on their education. ;) However, most VCs will back Koo’s #founders because these founders know how to raise capital and they know how to not build and scale tech companies. Their past failures have improved their chances of future success. In the VC industry, Failure is Good.

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How does Product Analytics Work? Let us understand how popular tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, CleverTap, Fullstory, MoEngage, WebEngage etc. work under the hood. Story: The other day I wanted to order Noodles 🍜 for myself and like most of you I headed to our beloved app Swiggy 🚴🏽‍♂️ (sorry Zomato) Here is the journey that I followed: 1️⃣ Open the app 2️⃣ Search for Noodles 3️⃣ Click on one of the restaurants 4️⃣ Add to cart 5️⃣ Apply Coupon 6️⃣ Make Payment 7️⃣ (Im)Patiently wait for the order To make my experience better ❤️ and get me to spend more money on the app 🤑, the product managers at Swiggy need this data. The analytical tools will help the Swiggy team: ⤴ Capture these interactions 📦 Store these interactions ✨ Create reports from these interactions The developers embed a code in the app, which sends the important interactions (app open, clicks, screen change) to these tools. These tools process and store the data at their end. These tools give you a friendly interface to get simple and advanced reports like: 👉🏽 Funnel - How people are moving from one step in journey to another. PMs can Discover any blockers. 👉🏽 Trends - How feature usage is growing or decreasing. 👉🏽 Segments - Creating and analysing various user groups based on behaviour, demographics etc. 👉🏽 Cohort Analysis - Are people engaged in the app, retention quality. and many more. The interactions are sent in the form of events. Each event contains a name and properties to contain any additional information about the event. For example: Button Click event might contains properties like text on button, operation system, app version etc. Similarly user information is also sent and store to relate events with particular users. User information is also arranged in the form of properties, for example: A user can have name, location, favorite restaurant etc. While tools like Mixpanel, MoEngage and other provide out of box solutions for product analytics, many capable teams also choose to do this by their own by following stack: 1. Event Capture from app: Plain Javascript, React, Angular etc. 2. Event Storage and Streaming: MYSQL, Mongo, Kafka etc. 3. Visualization: PowerBI, Redash, Metabase etc. Thats a 101 on how product analytics tools work. Want to know more? You can do these 3 things 👇🏽 1. Become confident in modern technology with our 6 week live program (early bird expiring soon): https://lnkd.in/dsHBqtyg 2. Grab other Tech Made Easy posts from my profile on APIs, Webhooks, Databases and more 👉🏽 Ankit Shukla (#TechMadeEasy) 3. Repost this, to help your network and support #TechMadeEasy. In the next post I will talk about: "How to answer Technical Questions in a Product Management Interview". #productmanagement

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How does Product Analytics Work? Let us understand how popular tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, CleverTap, Fullstory, MoEngage, WebEngage etc. work under the hood. Story: The other day I wanted to order Noodles 🍜 for myself and like most of you I headed to our beloved app Swiggy🚴🏽‍♂️ (sorry Zomato) Here is the journey that I followed: 1️⃣ Open the app 2️⃣ Search for Noodles 3️⃣ Click on one of the restaurants 4️⃣ Add to cart 5️⃣ Apply Coupon 6️⃣ Make Payment 7️⃣ (Im)Patiently wait for the order To make my experience better ❤️ => Get me to spend more money on the app 🤑, the product managers at Swiggy need this data. The right analytical tools will help the Swiggy team: ⤴ Capture these interactions 📦 Store these interactions ✨ Create reports from these interactions 💡 Take the right action The developers embed a code in the app, which sends the important interactions (app open, clicks, screen change) to these tools. These tools process and store the data at their end. These tools give you a friendly interface to get simple and advanced reports like: 👉🏽 Funnel - How people are moving from one step in journey to another. PMs can Discover any blockers. 👉🏽 Trends - How feature usage is growing or decreasing. 👉🏽 Segments - Creating and analysing various user groups based on behaviour, demographics etc. 👉🏽 Cohort Analysis - Are people engaged in the app, retention quality. and many more. The interactions are sent in the form of events. Each event contains a name and properties to contain any additional information about the event. For example: Button Click event might contains properties like text on button, operation system, app version etc. Similarly user information is also sent and store to relate events with particular users. User information is also arranged in the form of properties, for example: A user can have name, location, favorite restaurant etc. While tools like Mixpanel, MoEngage and other provide out of box solutions for product analytics, many capable teams also choose to do this by their own by following stack: 1. Event Capture from app: Plain Javascript, React, Angular etc. 2. Event Storage and Streaming: MYSQL, Mongo, Kafka etc. 3. Visualization: PowerBI, Redash, Metabase etc. Thats a 101 on how product analytics tools work. Want to know more? You can do these 3 things 👇🏽 1. Become confident in modern technology with our 6 week live program (early bird expiring soon): https://lnkd.in/dAqHi9ih 2. Grab other Tech Made Easy posts from my profile on APIs, Webhooks, Databases and more 👉🏽 Ankit Shukla (#TechMadeEasy) 3. Repost this, to help your network and support #TechMadeEasy. #productmanagement

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Swiggy went public today. 3 lessons I learnt from talking to a Swiggy Delivery boy: 1. I should avoid the service road due to ongoing Gas pipeline work 2. Electric scooters are worth the ROI if you use it daily. 3. 3.5% per month is the current market rate for hand loans. The IPO didn't come up. But, we did start a Finance company. I am the Lender and he will get a 20% commission for the lead and guarantee (FLDG). What should we call our innovative startup? Thoughts?

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