Ayush Anand

OpenAI declared war on Google yesterday and 82% of Indian shoppers are already on their side without knowing it. ChatGPT now has "Instant Checkout." You can search for products, compare options, and complete purchases without leaving the chat window. 700 million weekly users can now shop directly through conversations. Within hours of this announcement: 📌 Etsy's stock jumped 16%.  📌 Shopify gained 6%. The market immediately understood what this means for traditional e-commerce. When people use ChatGPT for shopping, they convert at 4× higher rates than regular websites, and that is because users spend 14 minutes per session on Ai tools like ChatGPT as compared to Google's 5 minutes. India's position in this makes it even more interesting: → 87% of Indian shoppers believe AI tools help them shop faster, with AI-powered interactions showing higher engagement rates (Walmart Retail Rewired Report India, 2025) → 62% of Indians make purchases influenced by AI recommendations vs 30% globally (EY India, Aug 2024) Traditional shopping makes you open multiple tabs, visit different websites, and compare prices manually. ChatGPT collapses this entire journey into one conversation. For small businesses, this could level the playing field. A seller in Jaipur gets the same access to global users as Amazon does. For established platforms, the threat is real. Why would customers visit your website when they can complete everything through a conversation? The companies optimizing for AI discovery today will own tomorrow's market. Is your business ready for AI-powered shopping or still relying only on traditional search?

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Every founder in B2B dreams of selling a huuuuuuge platform. But this can be a huuuuuuge mistake. The almost magnetic pull towards positioning as a platform makes sense: ✅ higher perceived value ✅ bigger ACV ✅ better customer stickiness ✅ greater investor appeal But not all multi-product companies have the makings of a true platform. Whether you position in the market as a platform or a suite of products starts way earlier in the startup journey — beginning with your product strategy. (Yes, ideally your marketing strategy & product strategy should have collaborated since day 1... but they rarely do). The normal flow goes something like this: 1) a founder creates a product that solves a problem related to a use case 2) customers come with adjacent use cases and say, "can you help us too?" 3) not wanting to turn away revenue, founders will say, "yes!" 4) each different customer segment has different needs 5) the founder starts building for all these different segments 6) suddenly, they're left with a collection of disconnected products At this moment, the founder has two choices... 1️⃣ market & sell these products individually 2️⃣ attempt to combine them into one large platform Because of the positive associations with platforms that I mentioned above, most founders will opt for the latter. And yet... a lot of time, no category really exists that makes sense of all these disparate use cases. No company is shopping for a solution that can help them incorporate their startup in Delaware, AND contribute to carbon removal projects, AND set up identity verification (among many other unrelated use cases, as with a product suite like Stripe). Most founders (who are not the Collison brothers) will embark on a multi-year "category creation" process, attempting to cover an undisciplined product strategy with marketing fluff. And yet, the founder would have been much better off keeping these products separate. If each product is doing sufficiently well (as they were/are with Stripe), the startup should (eventually) be able to fully staff each product line and achieve healthy individual P&Ls. On the flip side, some companies DO begin with the end in mind. Companies like Clari started with a simple use case (like forecasting) but then began to own the connected use cases in order to create a true one-stop shop for revenue teams. Their platform angle ACTUALLY makes sense because their ideal customers likely ARE doing forecasting, prospecting, mutual action plans, etc all at once. And so, they likely would consider Clari as a powerful consolidation tool that could replace a handful of tools to solve one big connected workflow. -------- One caveat: → there's another definition of "platform" that is widely used and refers to software that others can build their own software on top of (i.e., Shopify, Salesforce, etc.) I am referring to the other, more colloquial definition of "platform" used in product packaging.

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10 startups. $100,000 each. 200+ investors in one room. In India, raising your first cheque is often harder than building your product. Most founders I meet say the same thing: > Building an MVP is possible > Getting the first 100 users is possible > But convincing an investor to back you? That feels impossible. The truth is, funding in India is not just about numbers. It's about access. The right room. The right introductions. The right mentors who believe in you before the world does. That's why events like Hustlers Mela 3.0 by PedalStart matter. This year, they're investing $100,000 each in 10 early-stage startups. And at the end of the cohort, those founders will pitch live in front of 200+ investors, VCs, and family offices, one of the biggest founder-investor gatherings of the year. Exceptional startups could even walk away with up to $250,000 in soft commitments for their seed round. But beyond the money, it's the network, the mentorship, and the exposure that can change the trajectory of a startup. 👉 Founders, apply here [Link in the comments] 👉 Investors, join the network [Link in the comments] Because sometimes, one room is all it takes to turn an idea into a company. If you're building, this might be the room you've been waiting for. #Founders #Seedround #Startups #Entrepreneurs #Investment

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A startups journey is defined in these 3 stages: A. 0 to 1 B. 1 to 10 C. 10 to forever. But for the team, the journey is between those stages, not in those stages. When you reach at 1, you have to move from A to B. Moving A to B requires changing gears. It is very very difficult. Lot of failures happen during the gear change. You commit to a higher fuel consumption without immediately seeing any change in revenue. You lose a lot of your team members. You are required to unlearn-relearn a lot of things. But for the outside world you are still at 1. It's even worse when you realise that there is no clear demarcation for when you have arrived at 1. There are just symptoms. The regular growth levers stop working. Fuel efficiency goes down, there is a invisible resistance from all direction. But for the outside world you are still at 1. What helps in this situation? A set of believers, in the team and outside. Be very transparent with them. Albeit small, this set of believers is earned while you are happily running in those stages. When you may not need them at all.

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The best investors don't just understand startups - They've built, scaled, and exited them! Every founder dreams of that moment. When the metrics finally work. When customers become evangelists. When the exit happens. But very few investors have actually lived it. Arjun Vaidya has. And that changes everything for Ideabaaz founders. He didn't just study consumer brands, he built India's largest Ayurveda brand online. Scaled Dr. Vaidya's from zero to 2M+ customers across 16,500 pin codes. 5,000 orders a day. 80+ products. Forbes 30 Under 30. Then took it to acquisition by RPSG Group, one of India's first D2C exits. Today, as Co-Founder of V3 Ventures, he backs the next generation of many consumer founders.. What makes Arjun Vaidya invaluable to Ideabaaz: → Operator credibility: He knows what it takes to go from 0-1, 1-10, and exit → Consumer expertise: Deep understanding of D2C, platforms, enablers → Pattern recognition: Sees what works (and what breaks) in Indian consumer businesses → Founder empathy: Been through the sleepless nights, the hard pivots, the pressure He's walked the path our founders are walking. Private equity at L Catterton. Then founder. Then investor. He understands both sides of the table because he's sat on both. At Ideabaaz, founders don't just pitch for capital. They connect with Titans who've done it, who know that building in India means solving for trust, distribution, and retention, not just raising rounds. Arjun Vaidya sees the founder building category-defining brands. The one solving real consumer problems. The one playing the long game with patience and precision. That's the mentorship that builds exits, not just rounds. Ideabaaz is proud to have Arjun Vaidya as one of our Titans. Jeet Wagh Sabbas Joseph Raj Nayak Kailash Gandhi Dr Atul Hegde Thirumalai Madhavnarayan Vinod Rustagi Madhula Sathyamoorthy Ganesh Raju Amrrit Achipallya Suranjika Mohapatra Ronak Jatwala Raghavendra Hunsur Mukund Galgali Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited IITM Global Turbostart YAAP House Of IPs TapstartX Anupam Bansal Archana Jahagirdar Shaili Chopra Jimmy Mistry Rishabh Mariwala Pawan Jaggi Sandesh Sharda Priyanka Salot #Ideabaaz #FounderInvestor #D2CExit #ConsumerBrands

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Builder.ai's $450M Collapse: The AI Unicorn That Was Actually "A Guy Instead" From $1.5B valuation to bankruptcy in months. Here's what every AI founder needs to know: The Deception Chain: → 700+ human developers in India manually coded apps → "Natasha AI" was just a chatbot collecting requirements → 300% revenue inflation through fake contracts with VerSe Innovation → $60M in circular invoicing without actual services The Warning Signs Timeline: 2019: Wall Street Journal exposes AI claims 2023: CFO position vacant during critical growth 2024: Whistleblower allegations surface 2025: Viola Credit seizes $37M, bankruptcy filed across 5 countries The Brutal Math: ↳ 90% of AI startups fail within 5 years ↳ 75% engage in revenue overstatement ↳ Only 3% achieve successful exits ↳ 1,000 employees lost jobs ↳ 500+ customers lost apps and data Critical Lessons for AI Founders: → Technology Transparency: Build real AI before claiming AI-powered solutions → Financial Integrity: Hire experienced CFOs early, not during crisis → Business Model Reality: Align pricing with operational costs → Governance Strength: Experienced leadership with proper oversight The Ripple Effect: Global AI investment declined 18-45% across regions post-collapse. The hype-driven era is ending. Swipe through our Global AI Forum breakdown → Research shows the AI industry needs substance over spectacle. Builder.ai's failure wasn't market rejection it was self-inflicted through systematic deception. Key Takeaway: Hype can fuel growth, but only substance sustains it.

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founders, if every pitch you don’t convert spirals you down - this is for you. when we started thinkly labs, every call that didn’t close would throw us off completely. we would not only obsess over the entire call but also sometimes cut our ask by 40% just to get a yes. because in our heads, a lost deal meant not hitting our target. but here’s what we learned the hard way: we had to improve the top of our funnel. when you don’t have enough at the top of the funnel, every lead feels precious. every call feels like the only shot, making us sell from desperation instead of confidence. once we fixed that, the pressure disappeared and lead to a couple of things: 1. we repeated our pitch so many times, it became better iteratively 2. with the pressure off, we could pitch with confidence and we were closing more clients. so if you’re obsessing over your pitch right now, stop focus on top of your funnel. ps. ps. if you want to book demos through your content, reach out to us.

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How do you build a global smartphone brand from scratch in a market ruled by Apple and Samsung? Once upon a time, after co-founding and scaling OnePlus into a cult brand, Carl Pei walked away to start over. Most people thought he’d lost it. The smartphone market is a graveyard of failed challengers. But in 2020 he launched Nothing, together with his old colleague Akis Evangelidis, who now runs as President of India and co-founder. The early days were scrappy. A small London HQ. A design crew pulled in from Dyson and teenage engineering. Factories in India and China. Their first product, the transparent ear (1), was more than earbuds. It was a statement: design can still surprise and that a new challenger was in town. This was their ticket to play. Then came the Phone (1). With its glowing glyphs on the back, a clean Android skin, and bold branding, it instantly stood out in a sea of identical black slabs. Four years later, Nothing has shipped more than 7 million devices, clocked $500 million in sales in 2023 with 150% year-on-year growth, and is on track to hit $1 billion in revenue in 2024. But the real differentiator isn’t the hardware. It’s how Carl and the team tell their story. Carl goes on YouTube, not just to market but to spar. He addresses negative reviews directly. He even reviewed the iPhone himself, turning the tables on Big Tech. The brand’s content is witty, transparent, and fun. That’s why younger, design-obsessed buyers feel like they’re part of the movement, not just customers. Now, Nothing just announced a fresh $200 million Series C at a $1.3 billion valuation. The round brought together Tiger Global, Qualcomm Ventures, Nikhil Kamath, Tony Fadell, Steve Huffman, GV (Google Ventures), Highland Europe and others as believers. The new bigger and bolder goal: build AI-native devices and a future where, in Carl’s words, “a billion people will have a billion different operating systems.” India has been one of Nothing’s most important markets. E-commerce has been the great distributor. The appetite for bold, design-first products is massive. My wife just bought a Nothing phone, and I get why it clicks. It feels fresh. It feels different. The bigger question is what this means for India’s own hardware ecosystem. Can founders here take inspiration, be bold, and build for the world in this new AI-native era? We’re already seeing success from Ultrahuman, and big sparks with Deepinder Goyal backing a former team member Surobhi Das with LAT Aerospace and even the team building NeoSapien. Moral of the story: Specs don’t create cult brands. Stories, communities, and founders who show up with authenticity do. Nothing proves that even in the toughest hardware market, there’s space for a new voice. The challenge for India now is to take that lesson and build hardware startups that go truly global.

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Here’s what almost every D2C founder get wrong (and it’s not their ads) 👇 They hire an agency to “run ads”. But never ask: • What’s my hero product strategy? • What should my bundles be? • How can I upsell post-purchase? • What’s my repeat playbook? Ads aren’t your growth engine. They’re just the fuel. Our clients start to see traction — by touching their ads only in week 3. Why? Because we fixed the funnel, not just the traffic. You don’t need a better ad guy. You need a better growth lens. If you want your marketing partner to think like a co-founder, not a media buyer, let’s talk. #D2CGrowth #MarketingStrategy #BrandBuilding

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Yesterday I got asked the most popular question: What’s the fastest way to grow a SaaS startup? Answer, just 3 simple things. 1. Raise millions dollar Before writing a single line of code. 2. Hire a 20-member team Before getting your first customer. 3. Spend on billboards and fancy branding Before revenue. And congraculations, Your startup is selected for “How to go bankrupt faster then expected." With, 1. $00000 in depth 2. 25 employees salary to pay. 3. Great branding which noone like. Just kidding, 😂 Here’s my real answer Building a SaaS startup isn’t about shortcuts. It’s not about speed. And it’s definitely not about the destination. But it’s a journey Between the founder and the market. Which begins with identifying the problem. And ends with delivering the right solution. And everything in between? It’s just market testing the founder - For his vision. - For his purpose. - For his patience to build. So, SaaS founders remember. Don't look forward to destination, Before you have start enjoying The Journey of to be. (Other wise, you will be soon get, welcome to bankruptcy club of SaaS)... 😂 P.S. Would you like to get membership in Bankruptcy club ! If so, comment down to get added.... 😂

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