The Neon Show
00:39:35 · Bhaskar Ghosh
[00:39:35] S1: the portfolio, we have a small investment in a company called Titan which is in the MSP IT role up area. We are very proud of our clinical trials company called Tilda which is about automation of clinical trials, which is now in the CRO space, which is in the research space, which is doing extremely well. We have a company called Loop, which is not based out of India, which is based out of here. Tilde has its engineering team largely sitting in India, so there is a strong India, but Loop is an amazing company in the entire payment cycle space for supply chain and invoicing. So very promising company, has built amazing software. And we have a bunch more, we have something in legal we can't talk about, maybe we will someday have something in the services aspect of travel that we can't talk about. But in the context of The US market, from USA, we have a lot of companies. Coming back to the India corridor, I would love to see, I mean, the expertise that is sitting in India at all levels, business level, exec level, product level, around all things services is phenomenal. Probably number one in the world. Why shouldn't the AI enabled revolution in those services industries not be happening from Bangalore and Pune and Chennai and Hyderabad? Would love to see that happen more. That will create a much larger talent pool going after this. We are very excited to see those bottom up seed investments, investments happen from Silicon Valley, some from New York. But that is a big area of ambition that I have and helping make that happen from out of India. So that, in a weird way, the AI enabled services tech, the thoughtfulness, the nucleus of disruption is coming from Bangalore itself. That would create a very interesting world. That where the Indian leaders, the Indian investors, the Indian engineers are not just thinking about it in a defensive way, that our industries will be affected by something from outside, but rather they are charting their own course of revolution and evolution sitting in India. Would love to see that happen and help make that happen even more.
00:41:51 · Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Bhaskar Ghosh
[00:41:51] S0: So let's imagine a new age AI services company, sitting out of India, maybe targeting BPO industry, right, and serving The US market, for example. Like how could that kind of company, you know, if you have to think first principle, grow their business in The US, and what would they replace? [00:42:14] S1: So if you look at the BPO companies, I don't know about the really small ones, but I have looked... Taken a look at the mid market a lot. You know, the state called Texas? Yeah. You go to the two cities called Houston and Dallas. Yeah. Huge number of the mid market Indian BPO companies CEOs are sitting in these two cities. So think about it, 90 of the employees, 95% of the employees are sitting in India. But the CEOs are often sitting in these two cities and some in New Jersey. Those are the places where I found it. That is not going to change. I think the same way they are hustling and growing BPO output about getting same analogy as what you and I just talked about in the context of SaaS. Same thing has to be true. That the go to market, the expansion factor of... So the sales and marketing discipline and landing mode has to happen sitting in USA more and more, as it's already been happening. But the actual AI enabled BPO and the services, large part of that headcount and the and kind of the disrupted model of delivering more with less and growing faster with less could happen sitting in India.
00:42:14 · Bhaskar Ghosh, Siddhartha Ahluwalia
[00:42:14] S1: So if you look at the BPO companies, I don't know about the really small ones, but I have looked... Taken a look at the mid market a lot. You know, the state called Texas? Yeah. You go to the two cities called Houston and Dallas. Yeah. Huge number of the mid market Indian BPO companies CEOs are sitting in these two cities. So think about it, 90 of the employees, 95% of the employees are sitting in India. But the CEOs are often sitting in these two cities and some in New Jersey. Those are the places where I found it. That is not going to change. I think the same way they are hustling and growing BPO output about getting same analogy as what you and I just talked about in the context of SaaS. Same thing has to be true. That the go to market, the expansion factor of... So the sales and marketing discipline and landing mode has to happen sitting in USA more and more, as it's already been happening. But the actual AI enabled BPO and the services, large part of that headcount and the and kind of the disrupted model of delivering more with less and growing faster with less could happen sitting in India. [00:43:27] S0: And let's think from first principle wise, right? So they are not building a new industry or they are not getting contracts from a new industry. They are getting contracts from existing industries, let's say banking in The US, where like a Bank of America or JP Morgan is outsourcing the BPO. [00:43:47] S1: Yep. Right? And to be fair, the BFSI sector is a massive sector.
00:43:47 · Bhaskar Ghosh, Siddhartha Ahluwalia
[00:43:47] S1: Yep. Right? And to be fair, the BFSI sector is a massive sector. [00:43:52] S0: Yeah. Yep. So how would they would have to replace the existing BPOs there?
00:44:00 · Bhaskar Ghosh
[00:44:00] S1: Yes and no. That's a great question. So I some people will probably disagree with me. I think these transformations are going to happen in phases. I think the existing BPOs, many... The majority of them are Indian owned companies, in the, say, the India US corridor companies. They... What I'm pointing out is that they shouldn't wait to be disrupted. There will be two kinds of companies coming. One is new age BPOs. That hey, I'm bringing this new BPO which only has 10 employees instead of 100, which can do the same thing as you. Aspirationally, that's where the market is growing. I am betting on that that is not going to happen in one or two years. There's a phase wise refinement of that that's going to happen. So I feel the current BPOs who own these contracts have an unfair advantage in making themselves better. That's like crossing the chasm, that's like the whole problem of... I'm forgetting the phrase... It's like the whole Innovator's Dilemma problem, right? They have an opportunity to make their own processes much more efficient, and I'll give you one anecdotal example. We have spoken to at least five or six India US Colorado CEOs sitting in Dallas and Houston, who are in the... Playing in the mid market. Very often younger founders. $40.50, 60,000,000 in annual revenue. Not hundreds of millions. Not in billions. Tremendous eagerness in changing their how, you know, how their business model. They want to be design partners of these startups. So to me, that group, that ecosystem of mid market founders who are forward facing have a massive opportunity. Partly is, can you disrupt yourself? Will others come in and cannibalize? Third question is, people who are buying from them, is that growing or not? Are those the three parts? Let's get back to your question one more time.
00:46:02 · Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Bhaskar Ghosh
[00:46:02] S0: So my question is, how will the new age AI services company get the business? And I don't think that the older BPO businesses will be able to cannibalize themselves. [00:46:16] S1: They will not be able to cross the canyon. [00:46:18] S0: And they will not be able to realize importance of AI in their business. Because the leaders have to reeducate, they have to replace themselves, right? And it's not possible. So but then there's a business setting and a new company which has built AI enabled services. They have to eat the business which is for example in banking. So they either offer less cost or they offer more efficiency to these banks. So my question is on along these lines.