01:04:35 · Anirudh A Damani
[01:04:35] S0: I think that's gonna be a game changer. I I I truly believe that consumer finance and and and unlocking consumer finance is gonna be a game changer for the Indian economy. But but specifically in this vertical, like, whoever realizing that the way to get your customer is also to provide a line of credit or a finance bit. I think any D to C entrepreneur, they have to realize that, mean, if you look at The US consumer boom, it it household debt to GDP boomed, and that's when consumer boomed. Right? And I think Label said. In India in India, we're at 11% of GDP in terms of household debt. US is at 70%. China's at 45. That's... You ask me, that's the missing key. Fix that, and I think in in the consumer economy is gonna be at another level altogether. So I completely agree. And mean, I truly, think at some point, I'm gonna talk to you about a couple of our startups also reaching scale, but I think there could be a really good partnership there on the finance and on the other angle. So that's definitely something to talk about. But in between, you know, interestingly, like I said, I don't think you can really, really keep one role for yourself. You've also become an angel, right? And a very interesting set of companies there, right? Catalyze X, Easy E, Beema Pay, Maven, Stage OTT for Bharat, Ashwatat Therapeutics, ProEase, and all in different areas, right? I mean, I, some of these companies have actually met. What's the what's the theme here? Right? What what's got what's got your agency going?
01:06:04 · Akshay Chaturvedi
[01:06:04] S1: No. There's no theme per se. I think largely it's been founders who have known for a while, and I've kind of wanted to participate in the journey and learn from them. I think I've learned massively from a lot of people on that list. And I think it was both ways. I think I was very lucky to have a lot of senior founders around me when I was on my journey. I think I spoke about Vishal, right? So I think every time something would go wrong, would call Vishal at 2AM in the night and tell him that So I think it's very helpful to have something that my friend Ritesh Malik says, who built Innovate and sold it to Oyo, that VCB, husband, BBB, teammates, founders ah but exact and I think ah if you can surround yourself with more builders around yourself, I think the journey becomes so much better in terms of how you can take better decisions. And I think everybody has blind spots, right? It just helps you kind of avoid a couple of blind spots at a time. And I think that is how I have moved about. And I don't have a lot of wealth, which means that I have parked a lot of what I've made up till here in my life into startups because I really believe in giving back. And I love this interesting approach, which essentially one of these folks in The US talks about that you can either do philanthropy or you can create jobs. And kind of investing in startups is essentially you're creating jobs, and it's in substance philanthropy as well. So you're doing good as well. So that's how I think about it.
01:07:56 · Anirudh A Damani, Akshay Chaturvedi
[01:07:56] S0: So how can founders reach out to you? I think we have to get to rapid fire. We're getting nudges from everywhere, but how do founders reach out to you and and what is it that you're looking for? [01:08:05] S1: I am at Akshay zero 01 and always up for a good conversation. I end up calling if somebody tells me that hey, Akshay, wanna chat, blah, blah, blah. I tell them to come into my office after 11PM and stay on for as long as possible, and we can have as many cups of coffee as they want and keep chatting. So either you can end up in my office [01:08:23] S0: somewhere in your office where you are also hanging out post them leaving. [01:08:28] S1: There is one, actually. But either either DM on Twitter or land up in my office Monday to Saturday, any evening.
01:08:35 · Anirudh A Damani
[01:08:35] S0: Akshay zero zero one at the rate Akshay zero zero one. That's the Twitter handle. And guys, reach out to him. I I honestly... I... I've got somebody I'm gonna... I've reached out to you right away. Because I think they could they could also become a great acquisition channel for Leverage. So, Leverage, and we'll we'll definitely Lovely. We'll talk about that. But but I think I think I'm I'm so amazed, truly. I I thought that we would have such a different conversation than the one we've had. It's not even been about like, we talked a little bit about Leverage, but it really has been such a wide range of topics. I mean, it's already been an hour and five or eight or ten minutes or something. Wow, really? Yeah, yeah, it's been an hour and ten minutes since we've been speaking and it's, we've just had such an amazing group of topics to talk about, but I think one thing that I'll take away and I think, you know, if people that have listened through what should take away is that it's the power of the network you create, right? And and I don't remember where I read this, but, know, the it's the the quality of your life or the quality of your entrepreneurship even is probably gonna be squared the quality of people that you have around you. And I think that's that's really... I mean, if you have if you have that 2AM friend, which is a Vishal Gondal who's built built a GoKwik, you've got BSS on speed dial, right? And somebody who'll pick up your phone and and be willing to help. Trust me, that's that's a lot of leverage. And I think Leverage Edu may not, Edu might have just come later, but Leverage was there all the way
01:09:59 · Akshay Chaturvedi, Anirudh A Damani
[01:09:59] S1: through. We added the Edu. [01:10:07] S0: Maybe in seven days you'll have the money to buy it. [01:10:12] S1: It's not that big an announcement, but unfortunately, we had had cases of housing.com being bought for $500,000 and things like that. So I think people are less adventurous about buying domain names as they build companies in 2020 now. But at some point of time, I'll have enough money to kind of get the right domain name as well. [01:10:35] S0: You know, I come... I completely believe that that will happen, and I think you're on the right path doing the right thing. And and I I and I really believe, I think the day that... The day Leverage Leverage Finance takes takes off, you know, from your side, it's gonna be a game changer. It really is. And I look forward to seeing and hearing about that even more. [01:10:52] S1: Thank you, Anirudh. [01:10:53] S0: So, Akshay, think we've got we've got about another five or eight minutes worth of questions left, which is gonna be called rapid fire. I think you've been through it. I know you've you told me that you've seen at least that portion of the show, if not anything else in preparation. So quick thing, it's gonna be about eight to 10 questions. I'll just be shooting them out to you at random. First answer that comes to mind is, you know, go ahead and go ahead and just blurt it out. I'm sure there'll be something interesting to talk about there. You're saying something. [01:11:25] S1: Sure. Go ahead. Sorry. [01:11:26] S0: Yeah. You ready? [01:11:28] S1: Absolutely. Absolutely.
01:11:28 · Akshay Chaturvedi, Anirudh A Damani
[01:11:28] S1: Absolutely. Absolutely. [01:11:29] S0: Okay. Good. So I think this is obviously a Peter Thiel question. One thing that you know to be true, but very few people agree with you on this. [01:11:40] S1: I think think very few people will agree on the fact that there's a big view that don't build in public, keep away from the market, keep under the hood, and then suddenly surprise the market. I think I've been building in public even before building in public became kind of the nomenclature for it. And I think it has only helped me so much in my life. So I... Most people who I work with don't agree with me on this. But I think for me, it's been the biggest, biggest, biggest win in my life, up till here. I've had I've had fascinating people join me on my journey, who I'm very, very fortunate to be working with just because this had seen me building in public. And, they are the ones who are gonna taking the company to the next level right now. I'm just kind kind of And [01:12:22] S0: for the sake of clarity, when you say building in public, what does building in public mean? [01:12:27] S1: It means, a, sharing... So it's likely sharing a journey. It be... It... But it also means more importantly sharing your pains and sharing what you lose, all of those things as well. Ah how open are you about ah kind of ah this is something that I on. Ah this is something that I learned about. Ah I you know what I started reading books and this is something I learnt from them. Ah so I think a lot of entrepreneurs have... And how are you