Siddhartha Ahluwalia 01:07

Hi, this is Siddhartha Ahluwalia, welcome to The Neon Show. Today, I have a partner who is an investor in Neon and a very dear friend on the podcast with me. Nishit Garg, partner at RTP Global.

RTP Global is a brand name today in the venture capital world in India and across the globe. They focus from Seed to Series A to Series B stages and have huge amount of successes in the portfolio in the past 20 years. Nishit has been an operator turned investor.

Nishit’s life began at Flipkart. He was one of the rockstars at Flipkart for 11 years and then he switched over to the VC world. And VC world was not new to him.

Previously, he had been at Tiger. Nishit, so glad to have you on The Neon Show.

Nishit Garg 01:52

Thanks Siddhartha, glad to be here as well.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 01:54

We will start by your journey, right? Where did you grow up? What were your parents doing?

And what led you to choosing IIT Delhi?

Nishit Garg 02:02

So I grew up in Meerut.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 02:05

I am also from Meerut. I didn’t know that. So my family used to live in a Defence Colony.

Nishit Garg 02:13

Okay, so I grew up in LLRM Medical College. My father was there. My family is still there in Meerut.

So yeah, I grew up there. Went to DMA I out there. And then after 12th, I gave my JEE options, like options of joining at my rank.

I was getting Civil Engineering everywhere. For me, one of the core things at that point was that I really wanted to be at a place where there is enough exposure. And so I really wanted to, and this was in my mind, I wanted to choose Delhi and Bombay over the other respectable IITs as well.

And that’s how I joined IIT Delhi. There is no science around that. Amazing experience there as well.

You know, first of all, when you go to an IIT, you really get humbled. Because almost everybody who came in is a rockstar in their schools, toppers, generally good. And the moment you land, you are, you realize that you are not the only one.

That your competitive ground has changed. So it takes a while to figure out your identity there, your space there. What are the things you want to focus on?

And I think one of the key learnings for me there was that you really need to prioritize well. You cannot do everything. Like in my earlier life in school, I used to do a lot of extracurriculars, sports, academics, everything.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 03:32

And you still managed to get, let’s say, a 3-digit rank or a 4-digit rank?

Nishit Garg 03:35

4-digit rank, not a 3-digit rank. But I think, but it was, and when I came to IIT, probably everybody was doing that. Lots and lots of people were doing that.

So, and my, I really, my first two semesters, I was a 6-pointer at IIT Delhi. And, but then I, you know, it, I got like my act together where I really want to prioritize. So I figured out, you know, this is, there’s a certain focus that goes on academics.

There’s a certain focus that goes on industry, industrial projects, building exposure. And certain focus on beyond, not beyond a certain point on extracurriculars. So, yeah, I ended up with a 8-point GPA, which was respectable, I would say.

And I graduated from IIT Delhi in 2007. It was probably one of the best placement seasons ever. And I got placed at ITC in their projects division.

Did two years of project management. I was like a construction manager at a site in Gurgaon, in Manesar, effectively. So that gave me, again, a great exposure very early on.

The great thing with organizations like ITC is. So I was there managing, you know, 300, 400 blue collar workers on the site. And as a 22-year-old, that’s like, that’s an immense responsibility.

You are scared, but also you pick up. I think that was one of the biggest things ITC gave to me early on in the career. And then 2008, when the financial crisis happened, my life did not change at all.

I was, and that really troubled me that, you know, my relevance to the world is probably not that much. And that continues till date to be my biggest FOMO. Being irrelevant to what the world cares about.

And with that thought, I did an MBA. Went to IIM Bangalore, spent a couple of years there. Joined a consulting firm.

Did not enjoy it that much. And then I really thought about what do I want to do next. Did a bit of research.

Figured out that there are two companies doing well globally. One is Amazon in the west, Alibaba in the east. So then I thought, why not go to e-commerce?

Probably this is the future. Applied to anything and everything in e-commerce that I could get in 2011. And one of the companies which I got a few offers.

But Flipkart was one offer where I met people. The amount of energy I saw in those folks, it was just infectious. And I moved from Gurgaon to Bangalore, joined Flipkart.

Early years in Flipkart, I was really fortunate enough to be thrown at, say, the critical problems that the company was facing. In my first year, I did a lot of 3-4-3-4 month projects. First one was setting up supply chain processes for return.

Second was category level P&Ls. And then Flipkart was launching fashion. So building the entire infrastructure and processes for fashion.

Then did marketing and merchandising for fashion for about a year. So basically there was supply chain operations, marketing, merchandising. It was a very well-rounded exposure, I would say.

A lot of learnings. And then Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who is the current CEO of Flipkart, joined from Tiger at Flipkart. And I worked very closely with him for a year.

On the business side, he was the CBO, I was assisting him. So then the first Big Billion Day happened, which was a great event for the country. A humbling experience because while it met its numbers, the customer experience wasn’t great.

But it was an inflection point for Indian e-commerce. The first Big Billion Day. After that, e-commerce went to the nooks and corners of the country.

Before that, it was just tier 1 cities. So yeah, at that point of time, I was also 30 years old. I was thinking what to do next.

Wanted to probably be a part of another 0 to 1 journey. Again, Kalyan had become a mentor by then. Reached out to him that can you introduce me to some of Tiger portfolio startups who are early..

And he was building an India team. He asked me to join him and I joined him. And the idea was to work with probably a lot more of them.

So I worked with 10 odd companies during my stint there.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 07:55

Which were companies if you can remember?

Nishit Garg 07:57

Some of them, Delhivery, InShots, Grofers. In those days, Grofers, now Blinkit. Few, Culture Rally was one.

So around 10-11 companies. There were also companies that I had an experience of very early shutting down. As part of that.

But again, working with a really varied set of founders and problem statements was the excitement at Tiger. And the move from Tiger back to Flipkart was also just driven by people.

So Kalyan had moved back to Flipkart for his role as CEO. And he asked me to come as his Chief of Staff. So joined him for one year as Chief of Staff.

Then Flipkart wanted to revive its Books, Beauty and General Merchandise business. So Kalyan asked me to rebuild that. So for 2 years I rebuilt that.

I still probably claim that that was one of my best stints at Flipkart.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 08:55

The second stint.

Nishit Garg 08:56

And that role, you know that basically it was a real turnaround story within Flipkart as well. And that generally gave me a lot of confidence in life that you can be part of turnaround stories.

And after that I managed the Flipkart fashion business for one and a half years. And at that point of time it had over 2 stints. 9 years at Flipkart, 8 and a half, 9 years.

I was thinking about what to do next in life. Talking to a lot of startups. The thought at that point also was to either join a late stage startup in a leadership position.

Or a startup which is struggling a bit. I was, I really had at that point of time.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 09:34

You were fascinated by turnarounds.

Nishit Garg 09:35

Yes, I was fascinated by turnarounds. So I thought if there is something like that where you know. I can play a, be a CEO of a company which is small. Needs a turnaround that could be a great outcome.

But this was 2021. I think there was, everybody was flying high. So there were not many opportunities at that point as well.

But I still started getting the energy of the startup ecosystem. Which was very different than the 2015-16 startup ecosystem when I was a Tiger.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 10:07

What was the difference in energy this time and the previous time?

Nishit Garg 10:11

Yeah, I think there was in 2015-16. First of all the velocity was very very low. Success rates of startups in India.

Or I won’t say success rates. Basically the success stories were still not there. Like even in 2015 Flipkart was not a sure shot success.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 10:28

Flipkart, It was a unicorn right?

Nishit Garg 10:31

It was a unicorn but it was not a sure shot success what it is today. Then there were others you know.

Ola was there at that point of time. But Ola was also struggling with profitability. So I think 2018-19 is when a lot of these companies really became what they are today.

But 2015-16 there was not enough, I would say support and examples in the ecosystem for founders to keep trying out newer and newer things.

And that’s what changed in 2020-21. There was a lot of energy out in the ecosystem. Lot of people trying.

I think you can’t deny that there was a lot more money out in the ecosystem. So it was easier to raise. Also people like you, a lot of micro VCs came in who were supporting founders earlier.

And the entire ecosystem was very very different. The number of companies that we, I think even what we meet today in a week during 2015-16 was probably in 1-1.5 months. So that’s an immense difference in the amount of activity that has started happening in the ecosystem.

So yeah, this was 2021. And that is when Galina, who is the other partner from the fund, reached out to me. That they were looking for a partner in the region to set up.

So RTP had been in India since 2011. Invested in actually great companies. Frankly, I did not know about RTP since then because they were very very under the radar fund.

But when I started looking at the portfolio, it seemed amazing. And one of my first few questions to Galina was, How are you so under the radar after a portfolio like this? So I think the conversations went great.

Realized RTP is a 24-year-old fund in India since 2011. Success stories like early days of Freecharge, then CRED, MPL, early days of Practo, Rebel Foods. So a good portfolio out in the country and very well respected in the ecosystem as well.

So I met the entire global team. It was a real global fund that we are not a franchisee of a global fund here. So really liked the DNA of the fund.

And that’s when I joined RTP in January of 2022. And yeah, two and a half years here, going on well.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 13:06

And what was the difference between how Tiger operated and RTP operated when you saw both of them up close?

Nishit Garg 13:14

I think very two different stages of funds. Tiger at that point of time was more series B, C and doing probably the, one of the few funds who were operating in that segment. And so you would not have to really, you know, do a lot of sourcing, do inbound, everybody would want to meet you, show their companies.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 13:40

So I think Tiger established the series B market in India.

Nishit Garg 13:44

Totally. I think there’s a lot of credit to be given to Tiger for the 2011 to 16 work that they did in the country. So the amount of opportunities that got created because Tiger was willing to write so many checks around that point of time without getting into, you know, at a seed stage, unnecessary, you know, you don’t require three, four months of work to invest in a seed stage company. So I think a lot of credit to be given to them for igniting the ecosystem, I would call it.

So yeah, that’s and then series B, C, a lot of companies they supported. So yeah, so Tiger was a very different ballgame. I think Lee Fixel was very well respected out here as a partner.

And then if I compare now, I think it’s a much more competitive market. RTP in India, we operate in seed, series A, sometimes early B. So there’s a stage difference.

There are very well established funds out there who have, you know, been in the country for 10, 12 years. People really respect them. So you have to fight head on with them when you are talking to great founders.

So yeah it’s very different than Tiger in that aspect.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 14:59

And can you tell us more about the origins of RTP Global? Like how did it get formed?

Nishit Garg 15:04

Yeah. So the founder of the fund, he was an academician in his late 40s. He got the entrepreneurship bug.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 15:14

So tell us more about the founder.

Nishit Garg 15:15

So our founder, Leonid, he originally hails from Russia, then became an academician in Canada. So stayed in Canada for a while. And then he was working on, say, those days of early days of… Today, we call it what transpired into internet.

So neural networks and all. And so he launched a network company. You know, it got acquired by one of the big IT firms at that point of time. And then he invested all of them in a company called Yandex.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 15:49

This is when he was 40 years old.

Nishit Garg 15:51

Maybe at this time, he was already in his 50s.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 15:54

And this is year 95 or 2000?

Nishit Garg 15:56

This will be sometime in the late 90s.

So he invested all of it there. And when Yandex made its US IPO, I think that’s generally the origin of RTP.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 16:06

That was a 40-50 billion dollar IPO back then.

Nishit Garg 16:09

Yes. And it was in terms of multiples, I think 350-400x for him. And that was the origination of the capital.

And because he was an entrepreneur himself, he tried to keep that spirit in the fund as well. So 2000 is when basically the fund started. It started in early days out of Moscow.

But then 2011 is when the team really became international.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 16:35

And what was the first fund like? How big was it?

Nishit Garg 16:37

I won’t have exact numbers out there. But what I could say, it was, you know, it was sub 100 million. And we have in the past haven’t raised a lot of external capital.

So most of the AUM that we have today, which is in the range of $3-3.5 billion, is just re-proceeds of that early capital. The Yandex capital. So that’s the journey of RTP.

Again, if you hear that story, it seems very unbelievable. It is the, you know, these are the type of stories that all of us as VCs aim for in terms of returns. So yeah it was very… it was very inspiring.

And Leonid hired few people fresh out of campus in 2007. One of them was Galina, who is the other partner. They became analysts and today are partners with the fund.

So Galina came to India in 2011, early days. And that’s when she started investing in India. So that’s been, and then there was, the fund also started investing largely in US and Europe around that time.

So 2011 is when we really became international as a fund.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 17:46

And tell us about how big has the fund, at least the previous funds been?

Nishit Garg 17:51

So the current fund that we are deploying is a billion-dollar vehicle. The one prior to this was $650 million. The one prior to that was $220 million.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 18:00

So you have taken big leaps.

Nishit Garg 18:01

Yes, there have been big leaps. Again, fortunate enough to have had some great successes because the way our capital structure works is, it’s, we are new, like this is RTP 4 for us. RTP 5 depends on what are the outcomes and liquidities.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 18:16

What are the real DPI’s from this?

Nishit Garg 18:18

Yes, real DPI’s from RTP 2 for us. Yeah, that’s how it is.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 18:21

And tell us about the more of the larger exits that RTP has in the past that has contributed to the current fund.

Nishit Garg 18:27

So there have been great successes globally and in India. In terms of multiples and in terms of absolute capital as well. Globally, Delivery Hero, Datadog have been, Datadog we will continue to be shareholders.

Great, great outcomes for us. Even in the country, like Freecharge was a very good outcome for us early days. So, yeah, I think some of these are the real power law examples that happened for us.

Especially Datadog and Delivery Hero. And that led to what the fund is today.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 18:57

And how much percentage of your total investments are in India today?

Nishit Garg 19:00

So today, roughly one third. So today, you know, the way we deploy our capital is very… we don’t have a hard allocation. But roughly 50% of our capital we invest in, say, as initial checks.

And this we try to allocate equally between, say, US, UK, Europe and India, Southeast Asia. And then the remaining 50% probably goes in the best companies of the global portfolio. But it roughly boils down to one third from that sense.

It does not change a lot.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 19:32

And how has India been in terms of returns for you till now?

Nishit Garg 19:36

India has been great in terms of returns. And that’s, I think, one of the biggest testimonies of that is that the fund really wanted to expand here. Hire another partner, you know, have a team on the ground, a bigger team on the ground.

So India has been a good story. Obviously, there are taxation and all in India, which is not there elsewhere. But inspite of that, you know, we have had, as I said, early days, some good outcomes.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 20:00

Like Freecharge was one of the good outcomes.

Nishit Garg 20:01

Freecharge was one of the good outcomes. There were others. Some of them I cannot talk about.

But, you know, even in the current portfolio from RTP2 and all, there is CRED, MPL, RTP3, Dehat. They are some very good outcomes for us in the country.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 20:17

But you haven’t taken exits out of any of these, right?

Nishit Garg 20:20

No, not as of now. So they haven’t completed fund cycles. And we are also, we see potential in them. So, yeah, there’s no point of exiting.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 20:30

And let’s say, according to the data, right, what makes you believe about India? Because globally, funds like A16Z and others haven’t really entered India because they’re not sure of, can India give that kind of exits or not?

Nishit Garg 20:44

Yeah. See, if you go in the, on Wall Street or in Valley, you know, where VCs are, India is a flirtatious geography, has been, right? Everybody feels, oh, it’s, there’s something there, but probably there are certain problems.

There have been… people are skeptical about returns. People have been in the past skeptical about regulation out here as well. And taxation, you know, all of these things.

So three, four things have happened in which today have given a lot of confidence in investing in India. And one of the biggest things from a returns point of view is Indian public markets have opened up for tech companies. There could be…

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 21:27

That is still theory. You haven’t exited any company to India.

Nishit Garg 21:30

Yeah, we haven’t, but if you look at Zomato, Delhivery, so people now, you have examples, you have benchmarks where you, so you can actually project some bit of your returns. As we speak, a lot of companies are moving back, you know, domiciling back to India as well. So there are a lot of examples now.

So, and there is generally a better belief that there could be exits in India. I think that’s still yet to be seen, but I think in the last three, four years has seen some of them.

If you talk about five years, six years back, nobody had any examples.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 22:03

Flipkart was the only example people had.

Nishit Garg 22:04

Yeah. And it’s not an IPO.

It’s still from that point of view. Some of the IPOs that Indian companies had were still US, right? All of those.

So Freshworks and all were US. So I think in the last three, four years, this macro trend of tech startups looking at India for IPOs has increased. So that gives some definitive benchmarks on valuations, exit multiples, all of those.

That is one. Secondly, I think in the last five, six years, there has been, while there has been regulation, a lot of regulation, especially in Fintech, sometimes in some other sectors as well. But it has also… a lot of areas were probably gray.

I’d say, you know, five, six years back today, they are black and white. So I think it gives you a clear idea of what the playing ground is. So that has also helped people.

There have been a lot of initiatives from the government side on just enabling startups. But there’s a long way to go as compared to some of the more developed countries. But I think there is a way forward.

So macro level, these are the things that have changed. The story about, you know, India consumption, all of those have been there for 10, 15, 20 years. We have the demographic advantage.

The income levels are rising. People are, we are an English speaking nation and can build things for the world. I think that’s the, these are some of the great assets that we have as a country.

So I think a lot of people believe and you need to be here to really believe. You need to, you know, a lot of our colleagues from our global team, when they come to India and they visit and they get amazed by the, you know, in Bangalore, you go to a cafe, almost every table, there is a startup discussion. Either few, somebody interviewing somebody, a new idea discussion, something, something like that.

They really get amazed by the activity here.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 24:06

And do you think the speed or velocity of execution in India matches that of the other developed geographies like Silicon Valley, US, Bay Area?

Nishit Garg 24:15

It is still a bit slower from that because if you look at it, so there are two types of businesses. There are pure tech businesses, there are tech enabled operational businesses. If I talk about tech enabled operation businesses, operations in India is tough, right?

There is generally, there are, if you look at an e-commerce company, e-commerce company, early days, just logistics was so, so tough. So it takes companies a while because they need to take care of a lot of, you know, a lot of stuff in supply chain, in their tech. When you build in, say example, in a logistics company, when you build tech, you have to build tech for somebody who does not understand English very, very well.

And, you know, has not really interacted with maps apps on smartphones and all. So that’s how when, you know, early days of ekart and flipkart delivery, all of them build logistics. It was a very, very tedious and difficult journey for them.

So in tech enabled operations business, India definitely takes time from that. And we as investors understand that when we invest in such businesses, we know it’s not a five year business. It’s a 10, 12, 15 year business as such from that point of view.

When it comes to pure tech businesses, especially SaaS, AI today, I think getting to a workable product is way more easier. Where the question mark today and the thing that a lot of our founders in the ecosystem that takes away their night sleep is GTM in the US. I think that is where every, that’s the big, big question for everybody.

And that’s where I think we don’t have an answer yet.

Totally. There are some early proof points. A lot of Indian companies have started to reach a million, 2 million types of ARRs, but have not a lot of companies beyond a few that you can count on are beyond the 30, 40 million ARR today.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 26:18

But what do you think, right? You have firsthand experience because you were a key part of the Flipkart team, right? Flipkart executed and Flipkart had all those hurdles, right? What you mentioned about, right?

But Flipkart turned out to be an exception. Why is Flipkart type of execution still an exception, not a norm in India?

Nishit Garg 26:41

I think there are, if Flipkart, I would say there is a lot of the credit has to be obviously in any company, but has to be given to the founders out there. There are early stages founders and then having a CEO who also has a founder like mentality. I think that’s really the, if you talk about last 15 years of Flipkart, that has been the story of Flipkart.

Early days Sachin Binny, amazingly focused on customer, right? I remember early days when we even started the returns policy. You always have people who abuse such policies on the platform.

The founders were very, very clear for 2% cases, we will not, you know, penalize 98%. We want to give them, you know, best experience out there. And we should build processes and structures to manage the 2%.

And I think a lot of founders don’t have that type of a conviction on some of those things. They start seeing, you know, P&L leakages in certain areas, and they quickly move away from the core. I think the key thing that Flipkart did over the years, you know, just, just customer, customer, customer was the core.

Even, you know, when 2015, 16, when there was some maturity in e-commerce, growth was getting tough. At Flipkart, it was very clear, okay, identify our customer today. And Flipkart really identified middle India as its customer.

And what does a middle India need? It needs affordability. And anything and everything Flipkart has done in the last 6-7 years is affordability.

Flipkart was the first one to come up with a debit card EMI, because India, they understand India as debit cards, you know. So I think the, just the piece of understanding your customer, staying true to your core, was that, was the secret recipe of Flipkart. Over the years, they have stayed true to that, right?

And what happens with a lot of other startups or founders who do well during times of crisis. Look, Flipkart also went through a lot of crisis over years. Some of it is in some of the books people have written and out there.

But the thing is, you really need to, when time tests you, that is where the core proposition of the company gets tested. And that is where founders also get tested. Do they really believe in the core proposition of the company?

If they don’t, they start putting, you know, band aid here or there, something like that. And then you lose the plot. Yeah, that’s there.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 28:57

And how do you see the Indian startup ecosystem evolve, let’s say by 2030? That’s a fair time frame, right? To describe how the ecosystem will grow, how the country will grow.

Nishit Garg 29:08

So there are a lot of things that are working for the country today. In terms of there has been consistency in policy.

Because, you know, what has happened in the center, that is one. There has been, as I spoke about, there has been a significant increase in good mentors in the ecosystem who can guide founders today. How and when to fundraise, whether to fundraise or not, you know, they are people, have a lot of people who they can go to refine their initial thesis.

How to think about PMF, how to think about scaling up beyond that. Just the talent in the ecosystem is a lot more fungible today for startups. So I think a lot of things are working well for the country.

There are things which need to happen for it to continue like this. One is a lot of companies who are moving back to India for their so-called futuristic IPOs, they need to do well. So if some of those outcomes happen, the trust of the global, I would say, capital holders would continue to increase in the country.

If those don’t do well, as I said, India is still a flirtatious market for a lot of people, they will not touch it. They will take further more time. So you want some of those people to keep coming back to India, deploy more and more capital.

Indian funds also to, you know, just have good DPIs, build bigger funds so that they can. So just the rotation of capital needs to happen a lot more. And for that, a good thriving liquid IPO market is very, very important for tech startups.

I think that’s, I and like at RTP, we believe this is the thing that till 2030, if it gets proven then India like then there’s no stopping the country to be the number one promised land for startups.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 31:10

Global investors also. And you only talked about the IPO markets. You didn’t talk about the other form of exits, the M&As or secondary. What about those?

Nishit Garg 30:19

See, M&As and secondaries, so there are, if you look at, there are two stages of a company when some of these M&As and secondaries happen. One is when you are a great outcome and somebody really big and strategic, you know, sees that you have built something that they can’t build or they would take time to build and that’s when they acquire you. There have been good outcomes in the country, but there are few.

And today, we don’t see, for Indian companies, there aren’t many options out there as well. Obviously, there are companies, for tech companies, there are players in US, there are the biggies, the Googles and Microsofts and Oracle, some of these guys. And they will always continue to play this game.

So if you can build an outcome like that, but, you know, that is again a power law outcome. What is the other way of, other cases where M&A happens is a distress exit for founders. Nobody wants to back on that.

But there is a big, wide majority of startups who would probably not fall into that power law, but will be smallish, great businesses, IPO-able businesses. Today, why do VCs not look at somebody building a really profitable $400 million business? And everybody goes after a unicorn is because everybody really believes in the power law, including us, right?

That’s how venture capital works. But if there is a, you know, there is a series of outcomes of, you know, $300-$400 million of businesses which have been capital efficient, been profitable from early days and good IPOs, I think the VCs will also start thinking very differently for those. So power laws are less, right?

By nature, it’s a power law. And, you know, obviously all of us hope for our portfolios to have, you know, 10%, 20%, 30% companies really hitting it out of the park. But it’s not easy, right?

It’s tough. And we see that in the ecosystem. So to really, there may not be Flipkart type many, many, many outcomes in the ecosystem, but there can be a lot more $500 million to a billion type outcomes in the country.

And there has to be a good exit mechanism for them. And if the, I think probably IPO market is one of the best ones that can play that role. Otherwise, the questions about liquidity and exits in India will remain.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 33:44

Yeah. Tell us more about like power law in action. Like how do you describe it to a layman and how have you seen it in your life?

And what surprises you about it?

Nishit Garg 33:52

See, I think power law is very much in action. Like simply, you know, if you invest in 10 companies, there’ll be only one or two who will probably really, really give you a big outcome. A lot of them will shut down, you know, that’s why.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 34:04

Whenever you are investing in, especially in RTP, when you’re coming at series A stage, you have checked all the tick marks. That this company can give you huge returns.

Why will you invest, right? But still it doesn’t happen in 9 of the 10 cases.

Nishit Garg 34:18

Yeah. See, I think this is a nature of thing. Anything that is, any sector that starts doing well, there will be multiple entrepreneurs who will start going after the problem statement.

The price is there. When the price is there, somebody will claim it at some point of time. But you need to be, but a lot of industries, there will be only two or three people who probably become really big.

But hundreds will try for that. So that’s the reason power law works. And for us as funds, we see that probably a lot of funds take similar bets with different founders.

Today, if you look at the top 8-10 funds, say series A funds in the country, all of them would have a similar bet in the same sector. Say in FinTech, they will, all of them have a SME lending bet. Everybody will have a B2B commerce.

But not everything can become a huge outcome. So that’s bound to happen. You need to believe that you are able to identify the right set of founders who have it in them to really go through that entire journey of 8-10-15 years to continue to execute and be the power law outcome for you.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 35:33

And what is RTP’s checklist to identify these kinds of founders?

Nishit Garg 35:38

I think the founder’s vision is one of the biggest things. For us, founders who are, who really want to go after a moonshot. Rather than, you know, so that’s one of the things that we really go after.

We really check. We really try to get a view. And for that, you know, you have to really understand and know the founder.

You have to spend time with them. Where did they grow up? What motivates them in life? You know, what is it in them? Why are they doing this startup? Right? All of those. So I think that is one of the biggest things. And then that see checklist everybody has.

What is TAM? What is the margin structure of the industry? What type of? I think that is very, very commoditized, I would say view. But I think it comes down to the way founders, it comes down to founders. Till series B or C, it comes down to founders.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 36:35

And right now, right? We talked about venture capital is so competitive. How much of the goal in venture capital or the role in venture capital is winning the right companies today?

Nishit Garg 36:45

I think it’s 100%. It’s just that. Nothing else.

See, there is, as I said, there is no doubt India will have great outcomes in all the sectors we spoke about. And it’s just the economy is so huge. Anything that you pick, there will be a big outcome in the country.

Now, but again, there are probably 100 people trying out something to build in B2B commerce today. Probably there will be 4-5 big companies out there. 2-3 I have already taken, claimed the spots.

So 2-3 remain. And you need to identify those companies and get in them. I think that’s, identifying the right set of founders and companies is the only game in early stage venture capital.

Nothing else. See, there are, there will always be risks. You need to believe that you are backing founders who will take care of it.

That’s the belief you need to have in your founders when you invest behind them.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 37:36

And right now, at such a competitive environment, what gives any VC the right to win? My next question would be, what gives RTP the right to win?

Nishit Garg 37:44

I think every VC has a different right to win. And when VCs and founders come together, it’s a bit like a marriage. You really need to have the right vibe.

You really need to have the right partnership mindset. Like for RTP, the way we think about it is that, see, our founder was an entrepreneur. The team’s background, my background here has been an operator.

We have a team from folks from, you know, who have been operators in their lives and a very good mix of investors and operators. And we believe, you know, having that operator expertise in certain sectors, in certain type of companies, gives us the right to win. That is one.

The second right to win that we have is, we are really global in nature. Like today, if we have to, any of our SaaS companies need certain help in US, we are probably able to connect them to the right people there, help them out with that. So we have identified our right to win as these.

Now, wherever this proposition resonates with founders, I think we continue to win and we continue to have a good success rate. There will always be cases where founders don’t need that. They may need something else, which you don’t have.

It’s perfectly fine. Right. So, and yeah, that’s how it happens.

So, but every VC fund in today’s day, capital is slowly and gradually becoming a commodity, needs to have a right to win. Yeah. And we strongly believe that.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 39:12

And for founders, right? Picking the right VC, because when it’s like dating, right? Everybody tries to show the best side of themselves.

How do they pick that is this the right investor for me?

Nishit Garg 39:24

Like whenever people ask me about this, I tell them one thing, you should talk to whichever fund you are talking to, talk to the founders of that fund. You know, founders can talk amazingly well to founders, give the right amount of feedback about funds, what are they good at, what are they not good at, you know, so, and then the founders can decide. I think there is no point in going to a, there’s a lot of marketing about funds out there.

The real proof of the pudding is talking to a founder who has worked with the fund. There’s nothing better than that. This is what I recommend to any company that we are getting into a partnership with.

We really, really recommend them to talk to some of our founders. They should also understand how do we work along with our companies. So that’s very important.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 40:09

And for founders, right? Today, differentiating between funds almost become impossible because these, these are not like, these are the best of professionals and best of the funds.

And talking to founders also doesn’t give an edge. So, so ultimately you, if you have to, you know, think about a fund’s moat, what it would be.

Nishit Garg 40:38

Okay. See some bit of it depends on your stage of the business. And how do you see your business evolving?

For example, if you are a early stage fund in SaaS, sorry, early stage company in SaaS, and you already have a PMF, you would want a fund that can actually help you get customers. Rightfully so. If you are somebody who’s building a capital intensive business, you want your investors who have deep pockets, who can back you up for the longer term.

So some of these things are very, very much dependent on the stage and nature of the business. And then the third factor is whenever you are getting an investor, it’s like getting, you know, again, it’s dating and getting into marriage.

So you need to really believe that will you be able to survive with this person for 10, 15, 20 years, you know, in marriage, there will always be disagreements. I think that is the beauty of it.

Disagreements may ensure that they’re the, say everybody’s wants to ensure that the company becomes successful. I think that’s the ultimate objective everybody has. Do you believe when you’re getting an investor, that that person will also operate like that for your company?

Will they stand with you in thicks and thins? I think that’s the most important. No company has just a high ride.

Companies will go through bad times. And you need to really believe that these are the people who will help me out and stand with me at that point of time.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 42:01

Nishit, you talked about earlier in the podcast that you were very much driven by the fear of being irrelevant and your choices played out.

Leaving ITC. Like most folks, I think in your batch who have joined ITC would have carried it for a long period of time.

Identifying Amazon was not so popular in 2011 or e-commerce was hardly popular in India.

Identifying that and joining that. How is that played over even the current choices? Being a VC.

Nishit Garg 42:32

I think that, I feel that thinking helps me a lot because that this FOMO of relevance that I have always felt in personal life and I’ve driven, my choices are driven by that. In VC also, you are trying to at every point of time, you are trying to predict the future. What’s going to happen.

I think generally that mindset helps you a lot not to get stuck in the short-term wins. And that’s the biggest thing this outlook gives you.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 43:01

Tell me more about it because even a short-term win can make you relevant.

Nishit Garg 43:05

A short-term win can make you relevant for a short period of time. But then, you know, for example, if you are a lot of people who have been, it has happened to a lot of companies in India as well. There have been travel companies.

There have been companies in the classified spaces and all who were very big at a certain point of time. And a new player came and disrupted them because they felt they were too big to fail. Nobody’s ever too big to fail.

I think that’s the realization I have had. So you need to constantly be at your toes consistently, you know, upskill yourself consistently. You know, if you are a founder, make sure, you know, what is your proposition for the company?

Like if you talk about customer experience today, there was a certain point of time, 2008-10. There was no customer experience in the country. Flipkart probably played very, very well on the customer experience.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 44:00

Building the trust.

Nishit Garg 44:01

In building that trust. But what Flipkart was offering in 2013 is commoditized today. Next day delivery people, we are talking about quick commerce now.

So you really need to, you really need to, you know, disrupt yourself. I think that’s the real trick. How do you, as a founder, you need to keep thinking, you know, what can disrupt me?

If you think like that, you will be able to always, your company will always be agile. You will be able to invest in your things. As a VC also, you know, when you work with your companies, what are the things that can disrupt your companies?

From those, obviously you can give those views to your portfolio, but you also start thinking about newer opportunities.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 44:42

But as a VC, this thought, right? You are in the backseat. The founder drives the company.

And whatever advice you give, it’s ultimately the founder. Don’t you think that this characteristic that, hey, can I be irrelevant in VC is not in your control.

Nishit Garg 45:00

It is not in your control, but I think it as a VC, you are, you know, you are, you’re sitting in the stands. You are more like support staff to the team. You need to constantly tell consistently show them the mirror, show them the reality.

And after that, it’s their call. You know, they are giving their 24X7, their, you know, days in and out.

So, but if you believe in something, as a VC, it’s most important to, you know, consistently give that feedback. I think you definitely, one of the biggest mistakes some VCs do is always be really nice to the founders and not tell them what the market realities are or what they’re seeing out there. You know, you can’t, you know, be a great VC by being, by playing a popularity game.

Totally. So it’s very important to do that at the same time, as you rightly said, it is very, no founder will just listen to you because you are, you are on the cap table.

You have given them some money. So I think over time, founders… like your relationship with the founders as a VC, like all my founders that I’ve worked with, they know for what areas, you know, I am relevant and I am not, right?

For certain areas. You know, if I open up my mouth, they will probably disregard it. But if certain areas, they feel I am able to give a right view, they will, you know, listen to it.

In fact, a lot of times they will act, the real, actually, yeah, this is the real, when founders start asking you certain things proactively, bounce off certain things proactively, that is when they really, it shows that they value you for this expertise.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 46:35

That’s when you feel that you are relevant.

Nishit Garg 46:36

Yes. Then you feel you are relevant. And it is okay.

You know, as a VC, your job is not to run a company. Your job is to back the founders and trust that they are going to run the company. So, and VCs think about, don’t, like a lot of VCs have a huge portfolio.

You don’t think about a company 24×7, right? So, you cannot do justice to, and say that I will define the strategy of the company, or I will, that’s something that you cannot do. What you should definitely do is, keep sharing feedback.

What you see, what are the pitfalls of the decisions that the company is taking, what are the goods and the bads. And after that, it is the founders call. That’s how we really operate with founders.

Like, we often have disagreements, but our disagreements will always be within closed doors with them.

And whenever the founders are taking a call, we will stand by them. Because at the end of the day, you have to believe that they have taken into consideration everything, and they are taking the right call for the company. So, that’s how RTP operates globally.

That’s our DNA, right? And it has worked well for us till now.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 47:41

And, according to you, right? You are constantly taking, many kind of risk while betting a company, right? Will they be a winner, as you said, among the top three, four players in their category or not?

What are the risks that you are not okay taking, when you are?

Nishit Garg 47:58

I think some of them are very, very obvious. You know, if you, you have a, like, you really need to, if there are issues that come out in diligence, with respect to, you know, financial, ethical, and those are, you know, the, you know, you just stop the conversation there. Then there are other risks, in terms of, I think, at a different, at every stage, you would want, there is a different combination of, founder maturity and traction of the business, that works.

So, you would not want to take, you know, a risk, where you feel the sector is very, very developed. There are immense, there is immense competition. And there is someone who comes up, with a very, very naive view out there.

So, I think it becomes, it is a very abstract question to say, what risk you are not okay to take. I think, at the end of the day, there is no checklist for a VC. When you invest, when you do not invest, it is a gut call.

So, yeah, if the gut says no, do not invest. And, I think, one big, checklist, or I would say a question, that whenever I invest, I talk to myself, will I be okay to, you know, invest a significant, personal wealth, into this company. If your answer is, no, just do not invest.

It is, it is basically something internally is telling you, that you are not, you are not ready to, underwrite something.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 49:33

And how much of the decision making is non consensus, among the team?

Nishit Garg 49:38

Different funds operate differently. So, we also have a global IC, and there is a certain consensus that we require. And, I think, more than the consensus, it is about getting everybody’s views, everybody’s understanding of, the company there, questions around, what risks, what are the, what could the company’s path be, and that makes us better, investors, internally.

You require, I think, it is not required, we try to build consensus. If you, for us, the way it works is, even after that, if you know, really, want to do something, there is flexibility to do that. We do that, like there has been, when we did our first foray into EV.

One of the deals that we did, it was, something that, it was a, first, nobody had done that, in the fund ever, we did not, have a great thesis, by the, that point of time as well, but we really liked the founder, and what he was building, and the deal team, here in India, was super, you know, bullish on that. So, we did it, inspite, of not having a consensus. So, different funds operate differently, for us, you try to, achieve a consensus, but we always have, non-consensus bets, and, a lot of times, non-consensus bets, are 0 or 1, like, either they become moonshots, or they become 0, because they obviously, have a lot of risks, and that is why, there is no consensus, but they also have, why somebody will, have a huge, conviction on them, is somebody believes in something, if it comes out to be true, it is a moonshot, that happens.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 51:03

And, how much, target addressable, market risk, TAM risk, you are okay taking?

Nishit Garg 51:11

I think, this is a, ongoing question, in the VC community, because, there are a lot of examples, of companies expanding time.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 51:17

The best companies expand their TAM, there is no TAM at that point in time.

Nishit Garg 51:22

So, you need to…. Flipkart expanded TAM. See, you really need to believe what, again, in the founders, it comes down to that, and a lot of founders, would have thought about it.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 51:33

But first thing founders, don’t really think about TAM, Sachin Binny wouldn’t have, thought about TAM.

Nishit Garg 51:37

They would have not thought about TAM, but they would have thought about, that India has so many shoppers, they have, that a significant percentage, of them would, at some point of day, come online. And, how it will happen, nobody knows, even say, think about, Cred, the way, the business has expanded, amazingly well, in our portfolio. Talk about, like, I have given example of, Dehat, Shashank, has been, as a founder, he always believed in, but if you, start with the TAM or people, today, who are willing to, work with a platform like that, it was very, very small.

He really created the TAM, in Indian agri. So yeah, I think TAM, is, in some cases, it’s a very, obvious answer, where, you know, like, you know, there’s a certain scale, that D2C brands, in a country will have, in our country will have, and, there are funds for, and it depends on the fund math, right? Certain funds, certain size, certain type of return profile, it worked beautifully for them. For certain funds, it does not work.

So you also have to see, what your, the TAM profile matches, your, returns, expectations, fund expectations. So, TAM is a, I completely agree, you know, best founders increase TAM. So TAM is, TAM, is generally, you know, it’s more of a checklist, rather than that, at times, at very, very few times, it is very obvious, that it will be very, very small, does not get into, you cannot do anything about it, but there are times, you would believe that these founders, probably can take up the entire market, as well, if they do well, and expand to other countries, expand anything, and everything.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 53:13

Yeah, I feel most companies, that have passed at seed stage, by most investors, are because of low TAM, and companies like, there are enough examples, Uber, Airbnb,

Nishit Garg 53:24

They created a new business, yeah, business model, all together, consumer need was not there, prior to that, yeah, totally, yeah, so you need to, yeah, I think, that’s where the VC’s gut calls, come out, if your gut call is coming on that, that these founders can actually, do something, special, in spite of, low on paper TAM, you will underwrite them, yeah, otherwise,

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 53:46

There are, companies that even, go into adjacent TAMs, for example, when Notion came out, many VCs passed, because hey, the world doesn’t need, another world, document maker. It was one of those companies that expanded the market of

Nishit Garg 54:04

Think about Zoom as an example. Skype had been there for ages and at that point of time, somebody, everybody look at who uses, video conferencing, right? For corporates, you have in offices, the corporate, the Cisco’s and all, their systems and all, as an individual who uses, see how, just, changed everything, so you need to believe, if there’s a, if a product, can become, a real disruption, can really, then the TAM increases,

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 54:33

And today, because now, there are plenty of second-time founders in India, everybody wants to go after second-time founders, but let’s say, when Kunal started Cred, right? He had huge success, so every VC, wanted to be part of, Cred story, but where does then, it leaves the edge, for first-time founders, who don’t have, a huge operator, background also,

Nishit Garg 54:53

Yeah, no, I think, there is always… They will always have an edge, see there are, the great thing is, a lot of these, first-time founders, also have, today, a lot more, refined worldview, on the problem statement, if you, okay, if you haven’t, thought about it, it came out of a, you know, friendly drinking conversation, with your friends, it’s very easy to spot on, that the person has not, thought about it, right, but a lot of, first-time founders, had thought about, have thought about, their problem statements, we continue, to invest in, first-time founders, as well, obviously.

I think, the difference, where it comes in, first-time founders, if they build, a good traction, you know, that is where, VC, somebody starts, believing them a lot more, so they, second-time founders, you have already seen them do something, so, they can raise, as we have seen, second-time founders, raise huge seed rounds, first-time founders, if they do well, they will raise, better series A and B,

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 55:51

Yeah, and why do you think, in India, there is a specific case, that companies are able, to reach $10 mil ARR, across sectors, but 10 to 100 journey, is the most difficult, for Indian companies, across sectors,

Nishit Garg 56:03

Yeah, if you talk about, say B2C, or SaaS, I think this is the story, it is, see, if I talk about, first B2C, India is just so huge, any sector you put in, like Indian agri, you put in anything in consumer, you do something, if you got something right, you will reach that number, it is just because, yeah, 10 mil ARR, it is just that huge market.

if you take about SaaS, if you are operating in the US, customer base in US, again, your product solves, a basic need, by PLG motion, or some, you know, very early, without building a huge, sales engine, you can reach that, you know, $5 million, at times, $10 mil ARR as well. But after that, a lot of things start, need to play out, you need to think about, a much deeper, like in SaaS, deeper understanding of, what is your net dollar retention, how do you really, land and expand into your clients, how do you manage churn, out there, and it gets a bit more deeper, than just a product problem.

It becomes a, you know, customer success problem, it becomes a sales problem, it becomes an upselling problem, so a lot of new problem statements come in, and you also, are battling competition, in all those areas.

So, and when that happens, few people are able to do that, out of a huge lot, and that’s why, this, after this $5-10 million ARR, you suddenly see a drop, in the people, who are able to achieve it.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 57:23

Whereas, US companies that are able to reach 10 million ARR, they have a high success rate, that, they reach, 50, 100.

Nishit Garg 57:31

Yeah, I think there is a huge piece of the sales engine, and where, today, the Indian SaaS ecosystem struggles, is the sales ecosystem, a lot of enterprises, or say, mid-market sales, in the US, happens through relationships.

And it takes years, to build those relationships, so, when, an Indian company is expanding there, first of all, one of the, we believe that one of the founders, needs to be there, to really do that, you can’t, and you also need to hire, some people from the ecosystem, who bring along, some relationships with you, and, you have to, until and, unless this happens, both of these things happen, it is very tough to, build multi-million dollar sales, out in the US.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 58:16

What I think is that, Indian founders have become great at building good products in the last 10 years. They’ve also become, really good at customer discovery, so there’s a huge, you know, as I say, pipeline of talent in product management in India, across B2C, and B2B, I think where, Indian founders, it’s a cultural thing, we are not really taught how to sell. I think sales is looked down upon, right? I think it’s called a salesman.

Nishit Garg 58:47

Yeah, it’s not a, it’s not a natural skill set, as you said, it’s cultural, you’re never, you’re taught, never taught to, you know, generally, you know, sell yourself, talk about yourself, all those things, and, but people pick it up, that is one capability piece.

Secondly, see if the customer base, in the US, you need to, really be there, understand what their needs are, have those relationships, and it takes time, to build those relationships, a lot of, in a lot of enterprises, those, you know, if you have to land, an enterprise client, you have to really figure out, some wedge, into that enterprise, with a small team, in a certain, and then expand, you cannot, actually expect, that a big enterprise, will give you a huge contract, from day one.

So there is a, the sales cycles are longer, you need to be really, strategic about it, and consistently, you have to just keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing, keep pushing.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 59:39

Yeah, And, now, your portfolio has several scaled companies, Rebel Foods, CRED. What are your learnings, on scaling, from them, that you are trying to replicate across the portfolio? Or are there any, any learnings, because each company is so, so different in nature?

Nishit Garg 59:56

I think there is, I agree on the second piece, every company is very, very different, every company’s story, is very different, I think two things, that really stand out, or I can say, you founders, who are, again as I continue to think, what can disrupt their companies, I think they are able to,

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:00:13

Kunal really thinks well on this,

Nishit Garg 1:00:14

very, very well,

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:00:16

The kind of acquisitions that he has done, exactly, nobody would have thought that CRED would do B2B acquisitions.

Nishit Garg 1:00:21

Yes, yes, so CRED is a great, great example of that, so, I said, you need to be, a futuristic founder, like, and for that, the best way to think about is, what can disrupt your business, and you keep on building that, I think that’s,

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:00:35

I think, CRED has also been one of the, most criticized companies

Nishit Garg 1:00:38

Yes, yes, and continues to be at times. You know it is but you know as an investor,

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:00:42

lot of memes on CRED coins,

Nishit Garg 1:00:44

Yes, yes, see, the best thing is, competitors are using that as, in their advertisement, which shows actually, it’s a, strong, like there is an identification of brand, out there, consumers really, know it, so, it’s a good validation, probably not in the best taste, but it’s a great validation, so, as an investor, yes, yes, we are very happy with Cred.

There have been lots of ups and downs there as well. And, but they have continued to figure out, right? Kunal is great.

Kunal and the team have really continued to innovate, getting into newer and newer, newer businesses and continue to scale revenues out there. So that is one. The second thing is how do you operate when there is a crisis?

I think every company will go through a crisis, right? There is a crisis there has in the fintech ecosystem. There is some crisis in the gaming ecosystem, but a lot of companies have come out of it, so we are also, you know, investors in Slice and Slice have figured out a path out of the regulation.

And now they’re building it that way. So there is, you really, how do you handle crisis at that point? Are you able to figure out you’re sticking to your core and, you know, figure out a new path for yourself.

I think that really stands out. A lot of companies have to go through certain pivots at times of crisis, including the big ones. Like if you look at Ola, you know, what Bhavesh has been continuing to do a new and newer things, right?

Starting with what he was then Ola electric and now Krutrim, right? That’s a great example. Flipkart has continued to do more and more things, launching new categories, acquiring Myntra at a time when Flipkart had no fashion play, you know, acquiring PhonePe in those days was such a big strategic decision, right?

So some of those things, things have been, you have to take some of those bold bets, which actually can give you a long-term advantage. And for the way to do that is think what can disrupt yourself. And for a, say a Flipkart around that point of time, the question was where would, where else can consumers go, right?

And try to, if you believe that consumers can go on these, these, these destinations, try to have a Flipkart offering for that type… Cleartrip for travel.

There was a pharmacy company acquired. So there have been obviously some of them fail, some of them do well, but you need to do that very, very well.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:03:06

And how do you replicate this across your B2B SaaS portfolio that what can go wrong?

Nishit Garg 1:03:12

I think B2B SaaS has to today, actually, if you talk about in the software space, B2B SaaS space, the only thing every talk, everybody talks about is AI. And it’s a very valid question. How can AI disrupt your business?

Do you have an offering that can take care of that? I think one of the biggest things the Indian SaaS ecosystem continues to have is a cost advantage. As you rightly said, Indians, Indian founders are now able to build great products, they’re building products and not just features, full-scale products.

The art of selling is still to be figured out. I think for, I think SaaS from India has still not seen that type. There are a few success stories, obviously, Freshworks, some of the Postman, some of these have been good stories for the ecosystem, but SaaS in India still needs to have a playbook for selling in the US.

US is the biggest market where people pay for SaaS products. And I think the playbook is not clear today.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:04:17

Thank you so much, Nishit. I enjoyed our conversation a lot.

Nishit Garg 1:04:20

Likewise, likewise.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:04:23

I think a lot of what you contribute today comes from your spending a huge amount of time as an operator at a very fast pace.

Nishit Garg 1:04:30

I think I continue to say, Flipkart was an amazing journey for me. Once in a lifetime, you know, opportunity. Yeah.

A lot of it is that and the people that have been, was fortunate enough to work with at Flipkart, at Tiger and continue to work with today at RTP.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia 1:04:51

Thank you so much Nishit.

Nishit Garg 1:04:52

Thank you, Siddhartha.