Rakesh Gautham

Zepto: The Byju’s of Quick Commerce? What happens when a quick-commerce giant grows at breakneck speed, attracts millions in funding, and makes headlines for both success stories and controversies? You get Zepto—a startup rewriting the rules of grocery delivery in India. From 10-minute deliveries to ambitious $5 billion valuations, Zepto’s meteoric rise has captured everyone’s attention. But with rapid scaling comes questions: - How sustainable is its growth? - Is it burning cash faster than it can grow? - And most intriguingly, is Zepto heading down the same path as Byju’s? In my latest case study, I’ve dived into: ✅ Zepto’s journey from Stanford dropout founders to Unicorn status. ✅ Its groundbreaking business model and milestones. ✅ The controversies and red flags that have sparked debates across the startup ecosystem. It’s a story full of twists, lessons, and a question that’s keeping the startup world buzzing: Can Zepto maintain its pace, or is a reckoning on the horizon? Catch the full breakdown in this case study. #Link #In #Comments What’s your take on Zepto’s fast ride? Is it a revolution in quick commerce, or a cautionary tale in the making? Let’s discuss in the comments! #Zepto Aadit Palicha #QuickCommerce Kaivalya V. #IndianStartups #CaseStudy #BusinessInsights beehiiv

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Customer Journey is the Key. Lot can be achieved by understanding the customer intent.

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Happy Gandhi Jayanti! Q2 Update @ Salesup Financials - profitable for last 24 months on cash basis Team - Added some great folks around content ( Prataan Chakraborty ) & HR/TA ( Nahid) - Grew the SDR function from 22 folks to 64 people - We were able to put dedicated team members to work on our product sales/marketing Q3 - We are focusing on building a plug and play system for Indian businesses to run there SDR function to grow 10x from here. - Direct International Client Acquisition would take a back seat because of high churn and focus would be to establish deeper partnerships with existing vendors to onboard international customers - Get our product copilot.salesup<.>club to more revenue teams and outbound agencies and solidify a no brainer offer Ps: completed 2 years last month, still feels like yesterday Get back to work!

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Simple Takeaways from Meeting with VC Anup Jain At Startup Mahakumbh, recently talked with Anup Jain, a well-known VC. We discussed how VCs decide to invest, especially in places like Bihar VCs help startups grow by giving money and advice. In Bihar, they want to make a difference and help the economy grow. Looking for teams that can solve big problems and are excited about their work. VCs who understand Bihar are important for the state’s startup growth. Bihar is becoming a great place for startups, and at AbhiCares, I’m excited to be part of this change. #BiharStartup #StartupBihar #AbhiCares #StartupMahakumbh

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This seems to be a fair representation of the market being around 500-600 million USD in India Interesting facts - market is 50:50 between brand and performance ad dollars - performance dollars doesn’t mean Lower funnel as brands born in social first world are buying more full funnel effectively - 30:70 split in favour of micro and nano influencers in terms of atttacting dollars - adtech platforms owning sub 150 million USD market due to challenges in differentiation against independent/specialist agency ecosystem #humanmedia #adtech #influencers #socialcommerce

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Every organization involving tech goes through changes across Frameworks, Languages, and Models to find the best fit. In this ScalerPod episode, Santhosh Kumar, CTPO at Curefit - house of cult, has explained why only one Tech Language was considered at their organization and the benefits of it. #SCALER #ScalerPod #Java #NodeJS

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Sales conversations fueled by facts, not fables. 📈 When your team digs deep into data, every pitch becomes a power move. Forget the flukes—true success comes from being informed and staying ahead of the game. Knowledge is the ultimate sales weapon! Make it available anytime-anywhere!!   Kamal Dutta Neha Gupt Meghna Dutta Akash Gupt   #byteedge #becurious #belearning #byteEDGE #trending #explorepage #SalesSuccess #DataDrivenSales #SalesStrategy #KnowYourNumbers #SmartSelling #SalesTips #SalesExcellence #InformedDecisions #BusinessGrowth #SalesInsights #SellSmarter #SalesProfessionals

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#Salesforce India has been on an ambitious hiring journey in recent months, striving to secure top engineering talent. Traditional job portals posed challenges with low relevancy, duplicate resumes, and high turnaround times. Creating roadblocks to building a strong team. Instahyre has been a game-changer for the #Salesforce TA team. With Instahyre's AI-powered Instamatch and Advanced Search, Salesforce could finally streamline its talent pipeline. The Instamatch feature allowed recruiters to easily connect with active, qualified candidates from Instahyre’s active pool, eliminating time wasted on uninterested candidates. - A 3x increase in offer-to-acceptance ratio, from 20% to 60%. - 70% of the TA team now uses Instahyre for sourcing, Increasing their productivity. - 7-8 relevant candidates out of every 10 sourced weekly, with lower turnaround time. - One-click diversity filter that supports a diverse tech pipeline effortlessly. For Salesforce, this wasn’t just a hiring improvement it was a strategic shift. Check out the full story on Salesforce’s journey from 20% to 60% conversion in the comments! #instahyre #salesforce #TalentAquisition #salesforcehiring

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Struggling to understand why deals fall through? With Manja.AI’s Deal Breaker Analytics, you get clear insights into the exact factors impacting your sales. Imagine knowing which deal breakers are trending and having a roadmap to tackle them. No more guesswork—just actionable data to drive sales forward. Book a demo now : https://lnkd.in/gvMZyQAS

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📉 Unacademy Lays Off Employees from Prepladder 📉 The lays off in prep ladder seems to show that all the acquisitions in the edtech ecosystem in the last 4 years are now paying their dues.🔄 In a move to streamline all its business operations and have a clearer foresight on its sales channels, Unacademy is getting more involved in the day to day operations of its acquired companies.🛠️ While the push in the Edtech segment is back on the offline channels🏫, the discussions on what is happening to its acquired companies gives us a clear direction of how the company is performing. 📊 Let me know in the comments on what your thoughts around this acquisition, 🤔💬👇 and hope you like the analysis. ---------------------------------------- On the Discussion Table: Kulmani Rana - Cofounder, Fibonacci X Aakash Agarwal - Director, Data Science at Paytm Vishal Kale from DSTUDIO90 SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED -------------------- 🎥🎥 Sohail Khan - Chief builder, The Builders Club Saloni Mehta (Kamdar) Sorabh Agarwal Bharat S #Edtech #Unacademy #Prepladder #BusinessStrategy #TechNews

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Online Degree Programs will soon be Mainstream! You heard me right! Reason: The gross enrollment ratio in higher education in India is 28.2%. This needs to reach 50% by 2035 to help us accelerate our goal of becoming a developed economy. Currently, this figure stands at 88% for the US and 60% for China. Online education will play a major role in this. I was fortunate to host Mayank Kumar, Co-founder of upGrad.com, under the The Bharat Upskill Project. We had a detailed conversation on why online education is important, the role of networking in today’s era, the challenges online education faces compared to offline models, and the skills that will help one stand out in 2025. Some of my takeaways from this conversation are: 1. The education sector faces challenges in quality, access, and affordability. 2. Skills are becoming obsolete quickly, necessitating continuous upskilling. 3. Education requires commitment and cannot be treated as a casual endeavor. 4. Having a mentor or accountability buddy significantly increases learning outcomes. 5. Upskilling is synonymous with lifelong learning and curiosity. 6. Product-market fit is an ongoing process, not a one-time achievement. The full episode is out now on YouTube, and you can watch it using the link below. Link to Watch: https://lnkd.in/gVGqCvya Also, as a bonus, if you share your learning from the episode in the comment section, you stand a chance to win one of the good reads of 2024 as a gift. There are many more such exciting sessions lined up. Keep an eye out. #BharatUpskillProject #Upskill #Learning

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Layoffs is a part and parcel of the 🎯 From your 20's to 40's... One thing that I believe someone has to do is keep adding different skills at multiple job roles from the time you get in your 20's and by the time you reach your 40's you have multiple fronts open at your side, that's the best way. So even if you get laid off and you do not want to start something on your own you are still having that opportunity to be creative and hireable for others. Getting laid off is a process and someone who gets laid off in most of the cases knows it way before this situation comes, so you also have to be proactive and decide if you want to get asked *leave* or You want to take a call and say *Good bye* As a sales person who is now reaching in 40's I have learned this from my profession and keep opening multiple fronts it helps you when you do sales individually or with a team, Career is no more different you are *selling your self and striking a deal for an annual turnover for yourself* so you should always have multiple fronts open and that can happen only with multiple knowledgeable stuff that you learn during the years of work 😉👍 #career #careergrowth #laidoff #google #professionaldevelopment #professionalgrowth #startup

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The quick commerce revolution is redefining India's job market! Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart are gearing up to hire over 4 lakh people by March 2025—an impressive leap from their current workforce of 2.6 lakh. This includes 60,000 full-time employees and 2 lakh delivery partners. What’s fueling this massive growth? ✅ Expanding into new cities ✅ Launching more "dark stores" (local hubs for faster delivery) ✅ Adding diverse product categories These companies, which started with 4,000-5,000 SKUs, now offer over 20,000 products! Here’s what’s in store for them: 👉 Blinkit (by Zomato): 1,000 dark stores by March 2025, aiming for 2,000 by 2026. 👉 Zepto: Backed by $300M, targeting 700 dark stores by FY25. 👉 Swiggy Instamart: Post-IPO, 538 new stores by 2028 with an investment of ₹559 crore. The boom is undeniable, especially in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. But here’s the big question—can this model thrive in smaller Tier 3 cities with populations of 5-10 lakh? With growth comes opportunity, and this wave is set to transform both business and employment landscapes. What are your thoughts on quick commerce and its impact on our cities? #QuickCommerce #Blinkit #Zepto #SwiggyInstamart #JobGrowth #Ecommerce #Innovation

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How Zomato's CEO, Deepinder Goyal, Elevated Marketing to Build Stronger Customer Connections When Deepinder Goyal told Zomato's marketing team to make customer notifications more personal, it sparked a new era in their brand communication. Instead of plain updates, the team crafted witty, relatable, and unique messages—ones that resonated with everyday moments and made users smile. This small but powerful change helped build brand loyalty and unforgettable recall, showing the magic of authentic engagement. Taking notes from Zomato’s playbook: ✅ Make it personal ✅ Add humor ✅ Be relatable ✅ Focus on relationship-building This approach isn't just marketing—it's a lesson in making brands feel human. Credits: Netflix India Zomato India #founders #startups #business #entrepreneurship #learning #zomato #deepindergoyal #leadership #growth #marketing

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Country Delight is one of the fastest & fewest Indian D2C brands to >2x valuation every ~1-2 years. How? Country Delight (CD) in 2024 raised ~₹160 Cr in Series E. It initially had a successful PMF, growing bootstrapped for its first 4 years without funding • Valuation jump - Series C Nov'21 : ~$94 MM Series D Mar'22 : ~$428 MM Series E Jan'24 : ~$790 MM . How? » By turning into a Free #Cashflow Machine (-ve WC biz). Somewhat like the retail-tech behemoth Apple! • In the last 8 years - 1.) Average cash collection time from customers has fallen from ~66 days, to just <10 days (mostly pay in advance) 2.) How long do they pay suppliers in? From >10 days in 2017, to ~25-30 days today. 3.) Average cash conversion cycle has gone from >45 days in 2015, to less than ~1 day today. ✓Result? Operating Cashflows >>> Profits » Cash on the books explodes - From ~₹12 Lakhs in FY'17, To over ~₹484 Crores in FY'24! World's "Highest Customer Retention" within D2C? ✓ Dairy category. Almost ~70% of all CD customers acquired ~3-4 years ago give nearly the SAME revenue, EVERY month consistently even till today. New customers add on to these, as CDs marketing spends in last couple of years grew ~5x, simultaneously exploding the free cashflows flywheel. In addition, Cross sell & Up-sell of "high gross margin" newly added products (~60% success rate) like ghee, paneer, vegetables, essentials, etc. In this model "owning customers long-term" gives - ✓ Highest LTV, Lowest CAC, Highest ROCE. Amidst giant peer brands like Amul and Mother Dairy that handle close to ~45M litres / day.. • Country Delight carved its "premium niche" from scratch - Growing ~1.5-2x YoY - From ₹0 to ~₹1380 Crores revenue in last ~8-9 years! - More than 15M deliveries per month - Network of 10,000+ Indian farmers, lakhs of cattle. One of my favourite quote, by the Founder - » Animals are the best non-depreciable assets because they only multiply ;) #india #business #startups #technology #consumer

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