EP11: Reinventing Ayurveda for the Billion User era & D2C investments ft. Arjun Vaidya

Thank you so much for coming all the way to Bombay to do this with me. Do you think that this empire could have been even bigger if you would have not exit now and exit is a point in time decision and it is a very individual decision. You can never time come after you you can never buy at the bottom and sell at the top. What was your immediate reaction when this deal happened? What was going through emotionally in your head? You take a call to sell your business. You taking that call 150 people. How you going to tell them? That was the hardest thing for me. What was

your upbringing like? Any pivotal moments? Even if you're not the most talented person. If you show up every day, when the opportunity comes, you'll be the one to grab it. How did you create that balance? Did at any point in time, you're compromising on the traditional values. I'm not changing the formulation. I'm not changing the product. I'm not changing the science. I'm putting a wrapper around to make it appealing, palatable, and accessible to him. Did you also feel that you have at any point in time given out some something some information that's too

vulnerable? I told you something today I've never told anyone before. What sports and fitness mean to you? You can say hey are just better shots all shots in play the right shots but no mistakes is not a relevant thing today. What is that area that gets neglected because I'm sure no one can balance it all or can you? It's uh waves. One thing gets more attention than the other at any given point of time. If you had to pitch Ayurveda to an alien, what would your oneline pitch be? [Music] This episode is brought to you by Super

Checkout, the world's first AI powered checkout that lets you split, combine, or co-ay with friends and family in real time. Whether it's shopping, gifting, or travel bookings, now everyone can chip in with ease. Check out smarter with Super Checkout. The Hustle Group Company. Let me introduce you to the Hustle Group Company. It's a lifestyle brand that's redefining streetear through the power of fashion, self-belief, and resilience. The second one being Discover Dollar, which is an AIdriven tech company that helps brands and retailers recover hidden dollars

from overp payments and leakages. Docs Now's intelligent platform empowers businesses of all sizes to rapidly collect, manage, govern, and collaborate on the data front, transforming your documents and making sure there's an impact on the business bottom line all in a secure and a single environment. Hey everyone, welcome to yet another episode of the innovators and disruptors podcast. I'm your host Abhaya Tandan. Welcome back. And today's episode is special because we are sitting here in Mumbai for this conversation which is going to revolve specifically around D2C

ecosystem how to scale up brands modernizing IOA and so much more. And for that we have an amazing expert joining us today. His name is Arjun Vya who's been the founder of Dr. Vedyas. He's probably been the first D2C startup to have a landmark exit. He has helped so many EOS I mean ecosystem players out founders out in the D2C ecosystem. so much more that he has done and we're going to talk to him about this. Thank you so much Arjun for joining in. My pleasure. Firstly, thank you so much for coming all the way to Bombay to do this with me. Uh and I've been seeing all the

episodes and I've been having so much FOMO and waiting for my chance. So I'm excited to speak to you and and have this conversation. That's very very kind of you. You are you are humanity personified in a lot of ways that I've seen you and interacted in the past as well. Thank you so much Arjun for taking out time. Lovely, lovely having this conversation and Arjun, there's going to be so many things that I want to dive deep uh I mean dive deeper into today in this conversation. I'm not sure if we'll have so much of time but some of the things and probably one of the first

things that I do want to address in this conversation is the fact that you know you are the sixth generation vya right in the family of vyas who have developed more than 100 formulations of ayurveda and you have been able to modernize that by making sure this is accessible to huge number of people out there right I wanted to understand do you think that this empire could have been even bigger if you would have not exit. Now I think you ask an interesting question and I was I teach at this uh university um I teach e-commerce and D2C which is in itself such a cool thing that Indian

universities are teaching these kind of things but I was talking to the kids yesterday and I got the same exact question. My answer to that question will always be an exit is a point in time decision and it is a very individual decision. Right now what do I mean by point in time? I mean at that point in time given my frame of mind Trisha's frame of mind where the business was what the offer was and what we saw in the next 12 to 24 months is something only we could see and hindsight is always 2020 but there's no point looking at hindsight

right a batsman who gets out on a particular ball can say 10 times I should have played that shot but in that moment like I I train for example in parallel right and I was discussing with someone yesterday when you're in practice and the coach tells you to play the volley in that way, you'll play the volley in that way. But when there's a match situation and the pressure is on, nine times out of 10, you won't get that shot or you won't play that shot in the way that it's supposed to be played. So an exit is a point in time decision and at that point in time given where we

were, our age, our experience, the offer that was on the table and the growth scope that we saw of the business. And by the way, no one in 2021 could foresee the scale that e-commerce would get, the growth that e-commerce would get, the ability for Indian brands to reach 1,000 cr like we're only four years later or 3 years later from 2021 somewhere. And at that time, if you told us and any entrepreneur by the way, not just me, that brands would actually hit 1,000 crores in sales and they would be T2C brands, none of us would believe you. M so I think given that circumstance which

was we got a very fair offer we thought that we had tapped out the growth online or were tapping out the growth online the future of the brand was offline uh at that point I thought it was the right decision now it was one of the first few exits in India and the D2C ecosystem and in general in the startup ecosystem it was just about starting right right exit wasn't a very well-known concept today when we have seen maybe a 100 exits in the last four five years. Now people celebrate exist. That time people came to me and said, "Oh, you sold your business. Did your dad need money? Did

you need money? Did you get greedy? Why did you do this?" Right? And a very close friend and mentor of mine, someone who's 10 years senior to me from the ecosystem I really respect. He called me and he said, "Look, Arjun, people will tell you whatever they want. Some will congratulate you, some will tell you it's all of that. I think you've been greedy. I think you've done it for the money and I never expect you to do that." M and of course at that time I I didn't take what most people said seriously but what he said I took

seriously and two years later he came back to me and he said I think you made the right decision and you timed the market well. Now you can never time time you can never time the market you you can never buy at the bottom and sell at the top. But at that point I thought it was the right decision and three and a half years later or 3 years later I think I stick by that for me at that point is the right decision. Now would you sitting in my shoes have taken the same decision? Maybe not. But that may have been the right decision for you. It was not the right decision for me. Makes

a lot of sense. I mean that that's so fair to say that this is very perspectivedriven at the point in time decision. Right. So it's the other thing I'll say which is very important is your view of business and your view of yourself. Right? So I spoke to someone yesterday who said why do all of you and he's a more traditional uh legacy business third gen he said why do you entrepreneurs always want everything fast want to lose money want to scale fast want to sell your business I don't get all of this I have too much emotional attachment to my business I

want to build a legacy man I'll never sell it so I said that's fine that's okay that's your choice and you may never want to sell your business he said what will What do you do if what will I do if I sell my business? I am my business and my identity is my business and I don't know what I'll do with my time if I sell my business. Now, I never had that thought. That's good. I said at 29 years old, if I've sold my business and I've got the financial freedom to be able to do anything in life, including 6 months off, one year off, I am clear I'll be able to do something in life.

Worst case, I'll invest this money well and continue my life. But I definitely don't do only that. But I was not fearful that I would not find anything. A lot of entrepreneurs including my dad who has run a business successfully for the last 42 years in the jewelry and watch space attaches his identity with his business and he cannot detach that and so he will never sell his business, right? Or he won't sell his business until he's operationally active. Makes sense. Maybe when he's not and he doesn't know what to do and all of that, maybe he'll think about something. M

there's a deep association for a lot of Indian entrepreneurs of their identity with their business identity and it's difficult to detach. I did I I did not have that fear that I won't be able to detach it. You said today I I I'm the founder of Dr. this today. I'm the co-founder of V3 Ventures, right? Life, that's what I do. I run a venture capital fund, right? But I don't have an issue that you say I was the founder of Dr. I'm very proud of it. Do I miss it? Yes, I do. I miss it a lot. I miss the hustle. I miss the grind. I miss the large team. I miss the excitement. I

miss the emotion. I miss my Dha's name and running that business. Right. I miss being on the upper trajectory. I miss all of those things. And I'll always miss all of those things. And in the future, I hope that I'll start one more business. I'll still miss Dr. Vince because it was my first one, right? But I'm okay with my decision. Yeah. In fact, this is such a fantastic point, right? Because I've uh noticed this that we talk about disassociation, right? You don't even as an entrepreneur to be rational about what you're doing, about your products. They say it's very

important for you not to be in love with those products. You have to be passionate about the problem it's solving and not be not to be in the love with the product. And that is how you'll be able to take certain rational calls which are almost necessary in today's day and world. Right? So it's hard it's hard to not love your product. Like if you ask me today which was my favorite product I launched at Dr. Vas. It was my first product. It's a hangover product called live it up. I did whatever I could in my

capability effort hours of the day to make that product a success. I would say it was a reasonable success but not a runaway success. What do I mean by that? I mean that when my company was doing 8 cr a month that that brand was contributing at max 15 lakhs a month it's not even my top 10 sellers but I had such deep emotional attachment to that product. I never gave any other product in my Dr. Via's journey as much effort as that product. What I mean by effort I mean that for the first year that I launched this product I was at a restaurant bar club

bar or lounge three nights a week standing outside sampling this product. Wow. I was at I knew every wedding planner in Bombay every wedding planner in India actually pushing this product to their weddings like this week I got a message saying I need 800 packets of li up for a big wedding I'm posting I was like by page but that's what I did with that product and if you if any time I see anybody consuming live it up talking about it and and I went for a wedding maybe 45 days back and someone organically on the

wedding WhatsApp group said, "Does anyone have live it up? It's a lifesaver." And you still have that butterflies in your stomach, that warm fuzzy feeling that I created this stuff, you know, and I loved it. So, it's hard to dissociate yourself with products as a founder and that's why you need to have a good R&D team, a good consumer insights team, a good customer service team to give you those insights because you will always love what you create. Yeah, you'll always love it, right? But I think there's an important conversation to be had about rational

decision making and dissociation between shareholder value and operations of a business. Right? Makes sense. The probably the two massive Indian business houses that have been able to do this and and you hear about in the west all the time, right? There's professional management. There is uh different people on the board who are the promoters of the company and different people who are the CEOs and CEOs of the business. And examples of this in India are now Marico. Harsh Marial has given the reigns to a professional. His son Rishab is a very good friend of mine. He sits

on the board of Marico but he runs a investment fund which is his own family office right Sharp Ventures Asian Paints Pidlight massive massive business houses that were promoterdriven that grew to a scale where they believed that professionals should be running the business is it easy not at all if you have that last name and you have that legacy and you've been in the creation of that business or your family has it's difficult to dissociate but sometimes it can be a great thing And so I'm not talking about that level of extreme at a startup level, but as the

CEO of the company, you have two responsibilities, right? One is to drive the operational excellence in the business, but two is to drive shareholder value. True. And as a shareholder who's also a CEO, you have to wear a different hat when you're a shareholder and a different hat when you're a CEO, right? Because of sense. Yeah. as a shareholder or as a owner of my family block in that business. My mom, my dad, my brother all held equity in my business. As a CEO of the business, I would take XY decision. But as a shareholder, when I saw that

value outcome being created for my family, I took it. Did that mean that I could have still been the CEO of the business after I sold my equity? In a theoretical world, it could have been possible. Right? In reality, it was very complicated, very difficult, and didn't wasn't the right thing for me to be the CEO of the business. Uh but there are circumstances where that happens as well. Makes sense. You keep the person as the CEO but they maybe exit their shareholder position. Very interesting. In fact uh and these are complex thoughts. It's not it's not something

that's very common in India very often spoken about in India and people will take time to learn it but but it will come. No, this is very true and actually like you said these are complex thoughts because uh while you're speaking about this there are so many other pointers coming out in my head right and very very uh uh interesting perspective on share shareholder value creation as well right that you spoke about in fact I had years ago read this book called as a hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz right and one of my friends gave this book to me in end of 2016 when

I was starting my business wow so I when I first read it the first half of the book talks about a I mean the journey of Ben horror second half is all about lessons right uh lessons learned the first half was almost like a fiction novel right the ups and downs of a founder and this the first time I was actually reading that and I was like wow this man has to be solid steel right or iron to be going through those kind of emotions and still being able to operate racially to continue to keep building it back right after all the ups and downs that he saw in fact uh there was a point

in his journey where mentions that after he sold his company he cried like a baby. I wanted to also ask your perspective you know and you know different people have had looked at it in different ways. I've seen people celebrate it because that's an amazing milestone in life. Some people think of that milestone in a sad way that you know like you said that you know their identity has been now disassociated with that with the whole professional entity that they had created. What was your immediate reaction when this deal happened? What were you what was going

through emotionally in your head? There's different parts to the journey of selling a business, right? Uh so there's the excitement when you get the offer. Then there is the sort of strange emotion and emotional turmoil of should I sell, should I not sell. Then there is the sit down with relevant st stakeholders and discuss the implications of what you're doing. discuss the pros and cons and there are lots of arguments. Everybody does not have the same view, right? And so my wife, my mom, me, my

dad, my brother, all of us were involved in this decision and and there are discussions that happen about it and you take a call when you take a call to sell your business. You've taken that call. You got 150 people working for you. How you going to tell them you're selling the business? Right? That was the hardest thing for me. And that's when I actually cried. I never cried at at work. All of those things. Entrepreneurs are hard as nails. Right. Right. You have to be. And you got a lot of thrown at you and you have to just take it. Take it. It's like

the Indian batsmen who went to West Indies way back when when helmets didn't even have visors. Wow. And they took the hits from those fast bowlers and they kept going. Yeah. Right. Like Gavaskkar talks about this so much and and that's what an entrepreneur is. You're taking a hit, you're taking a hit, you're taking a hit and then you become numb to the hits you're taking cuz you've taken so many hits, right? And then that moment comes when the money hits the bank account and you're not taking those hits any or or your mind realizes now I'm free from

those hits, right? And I'm free from that grind and I'm free from that roller coaster. and and then you're like a massive burden gets lifted off you because at all points of time when you're a founder you're saying oh my god what if this happens what if my cash flow runs out oh my god what if I'm not able to pay salary on time I'm responsible now in front of 150 people I'm responsible for 150 families oh I have so many vendors who are who who I'm their largest client if I let them down their livelihood is at stake there's so

many moving parts right and then it all goes away true and then you dream And you will do what you always wanted to do, which is go on an endless holiday, watch Netflix in the middle of the day, get fit again, play golf. My my dad and my dad are big golfers. So I started playing golf as well at that time. Take table tennis coaching at 2 p.m. just because you can, right? And then one month later, you're like, "Dude, my calendar has nothing going on today. I need to fill it up." And then you start back getting yourself back into things and and that's the sort of

pathway of emotions that you feel, right? The overall feeling I would say for me was bittersweet. Bitter because you're letting go of something that you think about for 95% of your awake hours. Yeah. Sweet because at the end of the day, every entrepreneur needs an every entrepreneur puts all that effort for something. It could be different things. It could be funding. It could be an exit, it could be a IPO, it could be a strategic sale, it could be anything, right? Every entrepreneur deserves who puts and and you know the as an investor now I

remember telling someone this. I said a founder may be good or bad in your eyes but every founder whether five lakhs a month, 50 lakhs a month, 5 cr a month or 50 cr a month still putting that 13 14 hours a day in and that input goes in regardless of the outcome. Right? So true. When I was doing five lakhs a month and 50 lakhs a month and 5,000 a month, my input was the same. My input was the same. I was putting in all that effort. I was showing up every day and I was fighting. Right. Right. And so you've got to give that respect to those founders. True. I I in the last one year

I've been an entrepreneur uh a year and a half and I realized how difficult it was as compared to some of my prior sts and corporates etc. Right. Even as an investor I had no clue. I mean of course I would interact with having invested in about 30 odd startups myself would interact with a lot of founders and I would always sympathize with them I couldn't empathize. It's only when I went through that grind and I realized one it's a very humbling experience two it takes away your everything you know when you're trying to really build something out it takes away everything.

So like you said right respect is so important you know to be to be I mean it it almost feels that you deserve it. you don't you you just want it right after all the effort that you put in there different reasons like you said but so true very very accurate and so so amazing to hear these thoughts an entrepreneur is always on I'll give you an example right like I would wish that I would have one free Sunday where I could just relax right and I was at a family lunch on a Sunday at my in-laws house and I got a call from a wedding planner saying I need 100 packets of

live it and my office was shut and my office was on the sixth floor of a building where the lift didn't work on a Sunday and I thought to myself 6,400 rupees in business it's not life-changing business it's not right but maybe that person would give me another one lakh two lakh five lakh over the next three years in sales and so I left that family lunch I climbed up six floors I opened the office I took out the 50 packets I got into my car I delivered that product to that wedding plan I did

Right. I play football every Sunday and when I put my phone away to play the football game for those 90 minutes that I play uh now when I check my phone it's not blown up. But when I would check my phone after 90 minutes and I got two calls from my R&D head, you instantly think the worst. Yeah. And when you're getting on a flight and your factory head calls you you in the world because I remember that one moment in Gujarati we have this thing called lagan lakhan which like the writing of the kotries before the wedding and so it was the first function leading up to my wedding

like maybe 40 days before my wedding and it was a I think it was like you know entrepreneur right so like I can't take the full day off so I told my parents the puja will start at 9:00 by 1:00 all the family should be out of the house I'll be going to the office in my gur or I don't know and I'm sitting for the puja and I get six calls from my factory manager and uh he says we are two and there was a new requirement at that time that every single factory and I think it was India wide has to have an affluent treatment pl plant plant for waste water right and they'

given us some less than one month timeline now I said I'll get a good effluent treatment plant. And the uh person who I said I wanted to do it with said it'll take 45 days. So I said I'll just write a note a letter back and say that it will take 45 days and here's the bill and the purchase order that I'm getting this done. On the 35th day my factory manager calls me and says and he called six times and I was getting to this puja and I was like okay I got to take this call. M. So I leave my own wedding puja and he calls me and he says, "Sir, they've cut

the power line until we get the affluent treatment plan." Oh wow. Now I can't do anything in that moment. Right. I cannot do anything in that moment. And so you sit for this wedding puja with all your family there smiling but on the inside you are shaking. Right? Similarly, I was at a Sunday brunch with some friends and as I was entering the brunch, Trisha, who managed our ad accounts, who was with me for the brunch, said our ad account just got banned or blocked. And you're sitting to that brunch saying when the hell will this brunch end? I had to make 20 calls to get this bloody

ad account live because every selling one lakh rupees. Yeah. So, every sing lost, right? Yeah. And that feeling is both good and bad, but it goes away. And so I can sit with you and have this conversation with my phone here that's buzzing but nothing will change the world or break in this one or that won't become my makes a lot of sense you know on a very side you know trajectory but because you mentioned this so the two thoughts that came in my mind one is marginal utility right you don't realize how much you love a little bit of freedom to do nothing or relax the unit

like you said watch movies and so on and binge watch on Netflix and so on and so forth till you realize that you know now there's too much available and now the marginality has gone down so you want to get back into it's a balance and the grass is always green on the other side right because uh when you don't have it you want it and then when you get it you're like oh it's too much it's overload and it's overwhelming to get all of this true very true and uh a pal analogy does parenting you have a little over two two-year-old head does parenting Aisha and does does parenting

bring in similar anxiety issues that you know if you see you kept your phone aside and there are multiple calls from back home from Trisha or someone else or maybe the nanny and then you're like what's happened I think u I wouldn't be so bothered by it until 6 months back when my kid fell really sick and we had to take her to the hospital. Okay. Now if it's my and and and actually very recently as well my dad had a large health issue. He had some issues with his heart and he had to go through surgery. Now I pick up every call. If they are calling me I leave this

conversation to just check that nothing's gone wrong because uh I've seen two circumstances in my family. U parenting has changed me a lot. M it's it's really changed me a lot. One it's made me a morning person. Yeah. If someone called me for anything before 8:00 a.m. on any day, I would just say thank you, but no thank you. Now, I'm okay to wake up at 6:30 and 7 and 7:30 and I'm okay to be in bed by 11:00 and I'm yawning by 11:30 and I'm falling asleep at a dinner by 12:00, right? So, it's made me a morning person. I think the other thing it's

made me is uh structured with my time and uh I just say no. Sometimes I just say it's not possible. I can't do it. Like right tomorrow I had to be at an event in Bangalore. My dad's just recovered from heart surgery. Uh and I just didn't want to go. Sorry I can't go. I don't want to come. I'll do whatever work has to be done in Bombay. But if it's in Bangalore, I just don't want to take that flight. Right. And two years ago me, I'll be taking that flight. Yeah. I take that flight. I'll be back by the evening. I take that

flight. I'd kill myself and do it. And when you do this and your time becomes limited, right? But your ambition stays the same, you're forced to take those tough calls. It makes a lot of sense. I I realized that, you know, parenting did something similar to me as well. One, it's so strange. I have a 4-year-old and uh he ends up on a Sunday waking up at 6:00 a.m. for some strange reason. rest of the days of the week, he'd probably sleep till 8:00. And that's fine because that gives us a little more comfort. But on a Sunday when both me and my wife want to, you know, make sure that we get

a few more hours of sleep, he except at 6:00 a.m. He's like, "Mama, dada, I'm awake. Why are you sleeping?" And so we have to be up, right? So like you said right the schedule changes are so so necessary at that point of time because you realize very early into parenting journey that the kids going to be up at any point in time in the night. It's up to you to make sure your m you know you manage your schedule in such a way that if the kid is having a shutye right now at 11:00 you do that as well otherwise you don't get to sleep enough. It's so true. It's very interesting analogy

there. I thought that you know uh because in one sense of it your own entrepreneurship venture is your baby and then you have your real baby as well. I don't know if real is the right word biological baby if I can put it this way but yeah that makes a lot of sense but thank you so much. Uh Arjett very interesting I wanted to also get into the specifics of what was your upbringing like you mentioned about your parents having a luxury watch and uh you know jewelry business as well. uh what were the other key moments pivotal moments in your life which has led you

to become an interesting leader a very strong leader with a lot of acumen I also understand that you know you worked at El Caterton as well the PM of uh LVMH as well right uh so could you talk about some of these aspects of your journey any pivotal moments uh so I have uh four important family influences in my life and each of them have had a big impact in my value system which eventually translated into what I did at work, my career, etc., all of that. Right? So, I'll start with my granddad. My granddad was probably the most disciplined person I've met in my entire life. Right? He

wore the same clothes, white safari suit, black shoes, same glasses, same 5 rupee red in his pocket. Woke up the same time every day, went for golf, went to work, went to the same car, came back the same time, watched the news, had dinner in the same thie and went to sleep. And he just repeated that routine forever and ever and ever. Wow. And that is something I picked up from him. Uh because he said, "Look, even if you're not the most talented person, if you show up every day, when the opportunity comes, you'll be the one to grab it." And so I picked that up from

him. And whatever I do, whether it's sport or it's work, I'm definitely not the most talented person, but I'm the most hardworking person in the room. For sure. I will take longer to reach any objective or goal. In sport as well, I have a hand eye coordination problem. I could never bat, so I bowled. In football, I I didn't play football growing up, so I don't have the skill and the talent, but I will outrun anybody on that pitch because that's in my control. Skill is not in my control. I can't score goals. I can't score goals. Now, what can I do? But I'll

outrun everyone on the pitch. Right. Right. So, I think that's that's one thing I picked up from my grandad that I live by. from my grandmom. I picked up generosity do for someone without expecting anything in return. Right? And why why whether it was my journey at Dr. Vedas or what I do now, I do spend a lot of time giving back or trying to give back to people as much as I can. Right? So, uh that's what I picked up from my grandmom. From my dad, I picked up the entrepreneur hustle. He's a founder as well. I would see him fight through

tough times with a smile, right? And he said one very important thing. He said, "Ajun, this is a video game. One day you're up, one day you're down, one day you die, but the game gives you another life and you can restart the game again." Right? And and and that analogy stuck with me. And from my mom, I realized you don't need to take life so seriously. She doesn't take life so seriously. She laughs at herself. She keeps cracking jokes on herself and it's okay, right? And I think that's a great skill to have

because you take yourself too seriously, you keep putting yourself down and keep beating yourself down. And she doesn't do that. Like I'm happy with who I am. I'm fine. So I think a combination of these learnings from the four important influences in my life led to the creation of my personality. Amazing. Amazing. And what was this uh I mean what was the impact of working in Singapore as well after your uh grad as well right grad school. It was a Singapore based fund. I worked in their Bombay office. Uh I think for me to work in a private equity fund in the

consumer space at the age of 21 22 23 my business card allowed me to meet everyone. Any entrepreneur doing northwards of 100 crores in India would be happy to meet me and any entrepreneur below 100 crores would be happy to meet of course because why not right? We were running a fund that invested 30 million plus. It was more than a billion dollar AUM fund and that allowed me to get massive exposure. Massive exposure. I knew MKkesh Bans because he had evaluated the business Myntra. I knew uh Sup from First Cry. I knew Gorav from Blue Stone. I knew all

of these founders, right? I knew Amish, the late Amish from Pepperf. He eventually ended up becoming a mentor when I started my business as well. Uh and that kind of exposure 21 22 23 doesn't come easy. Fantastic. I think uh was it the case that you know the I mean this was all luxury segment my assumption the the fund was owned by a luxury group or the fund was backed or anchored by a luxury group but it was not all luxury investing. So the three portfolio companies that were live when I was in the fund was Fab India, PDR cinemas which are both non-luxury

business and then Genesis luxury which had the Jimmy Chubeta Paul Smith Canali Michael cause distribution for India which I would say is a luxury business but two of the business were not luxury and we eventually ended up making an investment while I was there in a premium dates and premium date products and cafes business called Batil Middle East business best dates in the world et all of that. So, so not complete luxury only focus more consumer premium consumer focus. Very interesting. When was that key pivotal moment in your life when you decided

that you know hey listen now is when I need to build a doctor values. See, I think two years into private equity, I realized that like I'm a 23 year old with no life skills telling a entrepreneur doing I remember telling a two people. One was a large shirts business and the other was my dad. Both businesses doing northwards of 250 CR like telling them a few things about how they should run their business. And I got like straight up like who are you kid? What have you done in life? And at that moment I was like, "Oh, they're just saying it cuz they're being

defensive with their business." But then I thought about it. I'm like, "Who are you, kid? What have you done in life to be here?" And so then I said, "I have to do something else. Something with more uh something with with more operational, more on the grounds expertise." And so I was thinking of going to venture capital or working in a startup. And then my dad died. So when my dad passed away, I remember a promise I'd made to him that I'd do something with his legacy. I was cured of aa using my das formulations that allowed me to play cricket again

which is a big thing for me in life of course uh and so yeah I just said I'm 24 and a half what's the worst that can happen this won't work out that's okay we'll see very very interesting perspectives that you've just spoken about right and the pivotal moment in your life that you thought that you know let's build this out uh I realized when I was researching about you there were you know six generations of vyas uh you know who are trying to who have developed over 100 Ayurvedic formulations and you were trying to create a balance between the Ayurvedic

sciences traditional Ayurvedic sciences and the modern distribution through new channels. How did you create that balance? Did at any point in time you you you felt that you were in some way you know compromising on the traditional values that were coming through Ayurveda through new channels by marketing in a different way. Was there ever a thought like that? I didn't think like that honestly but maybe I didn't think like that because I'm not a doctor and not being a doctor allowed me out of the box thinking. The industry definitely thought like that. They did. Yeah. Yeah.

People weren't so supportive of what we were doing at Dr. Vas when we said we're launching a hangover product and a chavan brush in toffee form. Some people literally said you're bastardizing the industry right like this is not what Ayurveda should be. But see I had a different perspective and my perspective was that this science has so much value to offer. If this science has so much value to offer and people are not using it because they don't understand it or because they're not seeing value in it or because it doesn't appeal to them, this makes no sense. Like yoga was

robbed from India. Yeah. Repackaged and made a multi-billion dollar industry in the US. It's the biggest travesty for us. True. We lost out on billions of dollars of value because we were lazy or complacent and can't let the same happen with. And so I knew that there needed to be a repackage. M I'm not changing the formulation. I'm not changing the product. I'm not changing the science. I'm just changing the wrapper around it. I'm not building the LLM. I'm not building charg. I'm building a wrapper around charg. I'm building a wrapper around ayurvea to make it appealing,

palatable and accessible to a because parents may have consumed aya and very happily consumed it. But ab is not consumed that black bitter sticky paste or chambrush every morning. True. It's not having are you having chant brush every day? Just probably not. Right. But I give you a chavan in gummies gummy or I give you a chavan in a capsule form that feels like a multi but you'll have it and we have to accept that the world has moved on and when the world has moved on we still have something to offer in this modern world but it has to have a modern wrap around it that's all

true that's fantastic and I think modernization happens everywhere and maybe ignorance is bliss and maybe by the exuberance of youth but I never thought that I'm doing something wrong it's fair it's very fair in fact you Sometimes we're too stuck up in the past to realize that you know things are modernized and you have to reook at everything from a new lens. It's not that like you said right it was so apt when you said that you know you're not changing the formulation just changing the form factor in which it is more accessible. the recent conversation with

the presidency of Amaritra Kata Priti Vias. I was talking to her and we were having the a very similar conversation. The analogy there was back in the day when I was growing up Panchantra stories were very often read in the format of the books that they had back in the day, right? But the new age kids today prefer a lot more graphic novels. They prefer a lot of digital content. and she was the one who transformed the company to have the same stories but relook at the moral values that were being talked about in 60s and 70s versus the moral values which are more applicable today for

example good touch and bad touch right so on and so forth and how do you integrate that in the story format in a graphic novel form factor right so very very interesting and very interesting perspective thank you so much for sharing that u another thing that I noticed uh and you've spoken about this in the past that your average age of team members working in Dr. Vyas was almost 25 right what were those some of those key traits that you looked at at 25 because more often than not people do not have enough exposure like yourself said when you started Dr. as you were

about 25 a lot of other people were so young. So what was what was it that you were looking at for PE you know because you were indirectly building an indirect family associated family of sorts right while you're building a business. See we were category creating we were the first brand to seriously focus on online so no specific background would hit the ground running on day zero. Right. Right. And so we were looking for people who had the right cultural fit rather than just the right skill set. The skill set fits of the and excuse me for saying the universes and the records

of the world did not work in my organization. I hired those people. They did not they were like give me a 7 cr 10 cr a year budget. I was like no I'll give you a 50 lakh to 70 lakh a year budget. Now you give me 5 seven crores in sales. Right? So you we're looking for people who had the cultural fit and we had some values like hard work, humility, 100%, honesty, teamwork, customer centricity. We're looking for people that fit that ethos. As long as they fit that ethos, we were also learning along the way. It's not

like I knew how to build a Shopify website when I started. I did not even know what is Shopify when I started my business. I'd never seen a P&L in my life. M I didn't know what a warehouse looked like. I'd never I'd been to like three factories in my life and then I was running a factory. Right. So you learn along the way and you learn with people who are willing to learn. V would be very happy to hear that. No, that's fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing that as well. Uh very very uh interesting thought that popped up in my head a few days back when I was

thinking about having this conversation with you. You know because we're talking about form factors of let's say a capsule. If we had to, you know, repurpose some of that formulation into a capsule or encapsul for 2021 25 like a century from now. What would be the key ingredients of that for people to take back in 2125 in the future uh that will give them a blessing of healthier lifestyle or health? I don't have the answer. Uh the reason I I don't have the answer is a bunch of

things that I'm seeing around me today. One is that medical sciences are advancing significantly and life life expectancy has also advanced significantly. Right? So my dad had six blocks in his heart and he recently underwent a bypass surgery and it is a big surgery and he will have a long recovery and it'll take him time to get better. But the doctor said that as long as he recovers in the right way, I'm giving you 20 more years. For someone with 20 blocks in his heart, with six blocks in his heart, if I tell you that I can give you 20 more years at

age 60, it's something you'll take. Right? So that's one. And so even if you don't do necessarily the best things, medical science can help you live longer. The flip side of that is some of the healthiest people that I know in their mid-4s and early 40s and late 30s are passing away. And we don't know why, right? Maybe it's too much stress, maybe it's too active a lifestyle, maybe it's too physical, maybe it's being too fit. We don't know. My daddy has not really walked for the last 12 years, but she

takes great care of herself and she outlived my granddad by like 10 years already and she's thriving. That's right. She's absolutely thriving. Right. and she was not the healthiest person. So I don't have the answers on what it'll look like. I do know that let's forget 2125. Let's talk about 2025. India is changing. People are reading labels not just of food but of personal care products as well. Right? People are mindful of what they're taking in. People are talking about protein. I went for the match the Mumbai Indians match

yesterday of Hyderabad. A friend carried his food with him from Bombay. He said I don't want to eat in the stadium. So I carried a duba with me and I eat my own food because I want a diet and I want to control my calories and I want to eat quantity based right and so I think we're already on a ride towards consciousness. We're very far away from the west and I didn't think we would ever do this but now today people are thinking three times before having the samosa they're still having the samosa. Yes, they're not not having the but they're thinking three times before

having it because they know what is trans fat and what is cholesterol and what is palm oil and vegetable oil and what is corn syrup they know these things makes a lot of sense I think a lot of your content a lot of content that we have seen on various other channels also has been instrumental in getting that in fact you have invested in some of these companies too if I'm not from the a few others right to speak about some of I mean How do you decimate meaningful information to audiences to to understand what they're ingesting, what they're applying on themselves and

so on and so forth which is so critical today. Fantastic. Uh you have Arjun uh had a lot of awards and accolades over the years uh you know these could be various awards this could be an exit and so on and so forth right what was that one accolade award or key win moment that you felt was the strongest so far? Yeah, I'd say in the business and then personally in the business the biggest accolade or award was when I saw there was a company called GOIQ that maps out your heat map of where your orders are reaching on the map of India. When I saw

16 and a half thousand pin codes and I saw a heat map covering 65% of India to me that was the biggest accolade. One warehouse small team with a dream could reach 65% of India's pin codes in 3 years. Wow, that is really really impressive for us. That's really powerful and that's what e-commerce is doing. Right. So on the business side, I think the accolade was increasing the accessibility of Ayurveda not just to Bombay Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai but to Muzafar, Anantagar and that's deep right? Second thing is more personal.

Amazon has a yearly seller conference called Sambhav. I think it was the first time they having Sambhav 2020 Jeff Bezos came down. And they awarded 10 businesses and we got the youth small and medium business of the year and Jeff Bezos handed us that award. Wow. Massive massive accomplishment. H but I brought that award home and I showed it to my dad and she smiled and she said three years I told you you'll make it and you've made it. Wow. That moment was a special moment not getting the award. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah, of course. I

mean it it kind of shows up as well right in some of the conversations that we've had so far that you know you have a lot of sentimental emotional value associated with a lot of uh uh moments of your upbringing you know the kind of connections that you have with your grandparents and your parents as well. makes a lot of sense. Thank you for sharing that as well. uh you know now that we're talking about some of these aspects I also wanted to get into the investment side of your journey right uh after exit you started V3 vented right it's and I think you have invested more

than 80 plus startups or more I think it would have cost personally would be 150 from the fund we are now at 14 wow and I saw the list of those startups and I was like wow right they are dream companies to have come in so early uh you know when you were starting out this what were the key thoughts in your head in terms of investing in some of these was was it financially driven was it about you know trying to solve for some of the problems because I understand that you know once you've run that business and you understand a lot more about how to shape up categories new categories how

to come up with u you know frameworks that can be deployed at scale what were you looking at in terms of making these investments I wasn't so structured about thinking about starting to be an investor I was free and because I was free and I had nothing to do but I had some value to add I gave 12 hours a week in my calendar free to entrepreneurs 24 entrepreneurs 25 minute per session just talk understand problems I started seeing patterns I developed a program uh like a D2C e-commerce cohort that I teach over eight weeks that helps founders solve these problems and then I

said my time mentorship energy and I have money now a little bit of money let me put that back into entrepreneurs that's how the journey really started I love Love it. I absolutely love my job because in the morning I could be talking about someone trying to build a saris business out of Surat and doing saris at 2,000 rupees and doing 8 crores a month, right? And then in the afternoon I could be talking to someone who's trying to build a luxury perfume business um and saying that why are we only buying 3,000 rupee foreign perfumes? Let's buy an Indian brand.

Right? Right. And the evening I could be doing a portfolio review with Koku FM who have grown 100x in the last two and a half years that I've been an investor in the company. And the night I could be having dinner with a founder who says to me that uh if this is not 100 cr is not worth my time and it seems arrogant on the front of it but it shows the level of ambition that's there in India and that that width of exposure in something I absolutely love which is consumer makes me love my job. That's amazing. uh they've also been very very vocal about uh tier two tier three

cities and how you know there's amazing talent out there amazing founders out there who are trying to build and solve for various problems especially in the consumer segment like you said that you know that's something that's very close to your heart uh you know what are the key factors in these tier 2 tier three cities that you think allows for some of these founders to thrive or your belief in these founders because so far a lot of people have kind of attributed it to the cost arbitrage that it's kind of cheaper living in those cities and making a life out of that but uh the

exposure is lot in the metro cities the tier one cities right so why do you attribute it that there's charts of success I think we're getting much deeper in India in the cities that can create high quality entrepreneurs okay I've invested in a business in Kochi I've invested in businesses in Japur in Surat in Ahmedabad in Indor all these cities are producing high quality entrepreneurs when I talk to the founders there they say a few things they say one We don't have a long commute. At a max, we're driving 15 minutes to get to work. Not through

traffic. That means we save 2 hours a day that you guys don't save. It takes me 45 minutes to get to work and 45 minutes to get back from work and 45 minutes to plan when I'm leaving for work and when I'm going to leave to come home because there's so much traffic. You got to time yourself well. Second, talent is not so funible and they don't have 100 options and so they are loyal to your company. Makes sense. And third, uh there's not so many distractions. There's not some catchup event, drink, session like conference happening every week,

right? So you do that once a month or once in two months. The rest of the time you focus on your business and so you're really a horse with blinders and that means execution, execution, execution. Makes a lot of sense. And unicorns weren't made from high quality ideas. They were made from blood squ. They made from blood, sweat and high quality execution because there are many Facebooks before Facebook, many Googles before Google and many apples before Apple. Facebook is Facebook, Google is Google and Apple is Apple because they executed much better than all their

competition. Totally agree. In fact, uh, you know, as a followup, do you think uh, dand fundamentals are better when you're not mixing it up with fancy stuff and Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think that uh Gujarati danda mentality, business mentality, profit first, bootstrap, frugality, it's not talked about enough. But there are multiple in our world 5 10 15 20 million AR businesses doing 25 30% IBIDA in Gujarat. Hundreds of them right that are not coming on podcast. Nobody's talking about them. But that mentality

is there and and and will trickle down to all of us. So again first principles amazing do business for the right reasons to make money actually I'm Gujarati right that's what we live by makes a lot of sense uh you know Arjun you have been an investor turn entrepreneur turn investor again right uh you know you've seen the whole cycle multiple times now uh through your investments as well now I wanted to also understand do you think there are certain key questions that VCs forget to ask that you think they should ask. Yeah, I think the one thing that I've

not liked about the VC industry is pattern matching. Just because something was not successful two years back or some founder was not able to do it or you have done an investment in that space it's not worked out. It doesn't mean take a blanket approach to say I will not do this. I will not invest in this space. I never thought I'd invest in a hospitality business, a hotel business. I now am the largest shareholder after the founder India's largest chain of backpacking host called the host in the six months I value to the business I

said no to the guy three times but every time he came back and he told me something that made sense and so I backed him had I pattern matched and said oh hotels is where investors have lost the most money it's a really hard business I won't do it no someone can outexecute somebody else and solve a very complex problem that you may not be able to solve I found it hard initially as an investor to believe in businesses that could scale more than 100 crores cuz I've not seen it right but it's possible makes a lot of sense well thank you so much for

sharing that perspective too uh because I think perceptions I could be wrong completely wrong about this but I also see that the perception that the VC ecosystem over the year has developed is that like you said the pattern matching right uh then there's FOMO you know because if one big VC invests in a particular sector sector or sub sector suddenly you see a lot more money coming in that particular sub sector right and something that grows cold very very quickly specifically with longerterm profit cycles right so which which draws it to or links it back to the innovation

in the country or R&D innovation in the country as well because sometimes for R&D uh to happen you need longer cycles for revenue generation right because this formulation itself sometimes takes a lot more time And that's where sometimes innovation gets thr unless it's backed by meaningful investments. Now I do understand that uh VCs or investors are at the end of the day looking for ROI on that. Right? So they're not wrong on their side. There are certain gaps in how these two play out together or funds at different stages of the venture could be better

matched. But yeah, I mean this is a very interesting perspective of pattern matching as well that I thought. Do you want to add something to it? Yeah, I think that uh the benefit of the doubt should be given to the entrepreneur. If you see a very high quality entrepreneur that is saying something or doing something that's not been done before, uh give them the credit to tell their story. Sometimes people just say I don't like the space I'm not going to talk to the fun. No, I don't I don't agree with that at all. Makes a lot of sense. Arjun coming from investments now the third

side right which is you as an influencer you have a big zone of influence who've been inspiring a lot of entrepreneurs inspiring a lot of you know folks out there who trying to you know consume your content and it's so powerful because it's personal yet strategic right you've been able to encapsulate through analogies through your personal experiences of content which becomes so much more relatable and people enjoy that through sports analogies for example right and that's fantastic right because that's who you are uh do you at any point of time I have a couple of

questions on this right one do you think at any point of time this is perceived as performative act one that you know you're trying to perform by giving personal examples two have you personally felt that you know at there have been times where you feel that you know you've given out some vulnerable information because a lot of your information is very personal as well look uh everything you see on digital if you know me personally it's me h I'm not putting anything that's not me I I don't have somebody else creating the content for me. I don't have someone feeding

ideas into my mind. None of that, right? It's my thoughts, my ideas, my original everything. And that's why I talk about cricket and football and sports and pickle ball and being a parent and being proudly Indian and being patriotic. That's my personality, right? So, uh, have I shared something? I'm not comfortable sharing. No, because I'm only sharing it. I'm comfortable sharing it. I'll share it. If I don't want to share it, I won't talk about it, right? So I think that's on that on performative act. I don't think it's a performative act because everything I've

told you today I genuely believe in. Right. So when you asked me before this podcast is there anything you're not comfortable talking about. I was like no I'll talk about everything. If I'm not comfortable I'll tell you without telling you cut this I'll tell you straight up I'm not comfortable talking about. And so I think no it's a perception I'm talking about. The customer or the viewer can see performance acting and lack of authenticity and they have the democratic power to not follow or not watch or swipe. Right? And so um I I

choose that my digital persona should not be different from the person I am. It's exactly the person I am. Fantastic. So I will be that person in front of a camera, behind a camera in my home. I gave a panel. I did a panel at the Meta office the other day. I cracked the same jokes. It's not like I'm saying something different there, right? Yeah. Two, three days back I was told by common friend. Very interesting. No, that that's fair. And did you also feel that you have at any point in time given out some something some information that's too vulnerable? I mean that

that's a vulnerable piece of information. I told you something today I've never told anyone before and my dad just went through a heart surgery. I'm okay sharing that because I think that from that experience people will relate to their parents also going through health issues not feel alone that they're going through those and will feel that it's not the end of the world and that person will get better and that person who's important to you will get better and you have to be part of that journey to be part of that healing right and so today my dad is feeling down and

I'll go back home after this and I'll work from home and I'll spend time with him and he'll be okay makes a lot of sense no thank you so In fact, uh Arjun, you run this uh podcast called Direct to a billion customers, right? Uh all your conversations, even your short form content is strategic gold in terms of storytelling, right? Uh relatability and so on and so forth, right? It becomes so personal like you just said, right? What's the thought process that goes on behind that? Right? Because a lot of people are trying to be content creators.

uh what I'm trying to say is even I'm trying to be one right uh uh but but what's the process in your head when you think about it I mean I'm sure it cannot be you know it's an interesting thought that's come to my head let's just roll with it right did you do you just do that do you write it down what's the process that goes on behind the whole I wish I could tell you that I I had a real process I don't have a process I will say that my world allows me to come up with a lot of ideas because I'm a VC And so you're constantly thinking of ideas. And so I have a note on my Apple

notes on my phone and I just keep noting down these ideas from any conversation, anything I discuss. There's still the cricket match. I I was sitting next to a parent of a two and a half year old and her kid was watching Coco Melon while she was watching the game and her husband plays for the the team. So her kid had to be there because they're not from India. They're from abroad. M and so I I told her she asked me what's your daughter's favorite song and I said Baby Shark and I said Coco Melon is coming to India and I'm so excited and my daughter's so excited to see Coco Melon

and stuff and she said you know why Coco Melon is so addictive. She said because they use the same colors and the same philosophy as a casino uses to get users addicted to let's say a slot machine. True. And it was a lovely interesting thought. I wrote about it. I I mean I wrote it down in my notes. Maybe next week you'll see a video on this. Makes sense. That's why I am uh it's not a deep process. It's interesting thoughts that come in that are then converted into ideas that are in a consumable format. Makes a lot of sense. Arj you've also been very very vocal about your

love for sports and your recent fascination with pickle if I can take the liberty of calling it a fascination because it seems like that to me. Uh do you want to talk about you know what sports and fitness mean to you? Yeah, look, I grew up a very chubby kid. Um, I was reasonably unfit growing up and had a pretty big impact in my life honestly. And when I lost weight for the first time in my life, I got my first girlfriend. And so I said, I'm never putting on this weight again in my life. Okay. Uh but fitness is an important part of my life because I come

from a family that has u legacy of health issues and so I inherited all of those and uh and I I didn't want to go through that myself. I do do some form of phys physical activity five to six times a week. It helps me decompress. It helps me think better. It helps me be more efficient at work, right? I love doing it as well. Uh but it also helps me with life skills. For example, you're playing a parl game or a pickle ball game and your partner is not doing as well as you. Recently, my partner was not doing well at all and I was getting really

annoyed. And at some point, you hit some really bad shots and I just went, he's like, "Dude, I'm having a terrible game today, but you doing that is making me feel even worse. Just stop it." And I realized that was the worst thing I was doing. I didn't realize I was doing it, but I was doing it right. And that's really bad teamwork and a really really bad behavior as a partner. So I think teamwork, discipline, dealing with failure, motivation, uh winning mentality, never say die attitude, these are all life skills that

come on from the sports field into work and it's very very powerful. Outside of playing sport and work, my best pastime ever is watching sports documentaries because that's where you get into the mind of the sportsman or watching the match. You can't know what they're thinking, right? So, I love spending time with sports people. It's the best thing I can like my favorite thing to do is just sit down with the sports person any sport and I can ask them hundreds of questions because I take away so much from them. Makes a lot. So, I can give you an example, right? I'm good friends

with Robin Utapa, ex-Indian cricketer. Yeah, we play paddle together. I was playing in Dubai with him and uh I made a few mistakes and so I talked to myself and I play sport and so I just said Arjun stop making those mistakes no mistakes from now. And Robin stopped me. He said that is the worst thing you can say to yourself. I said what do you mean? He said the mind doesn't understand negative affirmations. You can say hey Arjun better shots all shots in play the right shots but no mistakes is not a relevant thing to tell your makes a lot of sense that makes a

lot of sense I think uh that's fantastic as an example right negative reformations do not work on your mind it's only the positive reformations thank you so much very fascinating perspectives right and I think uh I love those sports analogies that you keep talking about right in your videos as well you've given a few now as well uh specifically about the whole uh negative uh affirmations not being accepted by the mind. It's so critical today because a lot of people go so hard on themselves and then when the brain is not accepting it the way it is, you

might as well give a lot more positive reinforcement reinforcement based messages to your brain, right? To think more positively and you know deliver better in terms of any operational efficiencies or so on and so forth in life at large as well, right? That brings me to my last question before we enter a very interesting segment too. uh there are Arjun you're a founder you're an investor you've been you know sports person so to say you've been a marathon runner I know you've been doing a lot of other things you've been content creator influencer as well right with managing

all these things plus your personal life what is that area that gets neglected because I'm sure no one can balance it all or can you no I think uh it's uh waves one thing gets more attention than the other at any given point of time. Um, I like doing all of it. Uh, but you can't be good at everything at all points of time. Um, and so it's waves. So right now in the last 3 months, sports, my daughter, uh, and investing has taken a front seat. Maybe in the next 3 months it'll change again. Uh, but I think it

it comes in waves and it comes in waves that are relevant to the kind of work I'm doing as well. That's how I man. It's not easy though. Yeah, absolutely. You got to keep changing a hat. Yeah. Right. And context switching also takes a lot of effort. I think I've got used to context switching but it is hard. M and sometimes uh the wires overlap as well which is hard. Makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much for sharing that perspective too because a lot of people struggle with balancing that out right so like you mentioned it's in the form of waves which which is very

interesting way of or outlook at looking at things. Thank you so much. Now Arjun before we let you go we have a very fascinating very unique segment called as the rapid fire excited very unique right very original to our show but thank you so much for taking out time for this so I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions give me I mean you've been giving duly answers so far I don't think so that would change here as well so you expect that too uh what's a non-negotiable daily habit any daria or ritual that you start your day it seeing my daughter and playing sports/

going to the gym. H interesting considering that you know you've come from a family of uh what's your drink? Is it a kada? Is it tea? Is it coffee or is something else? So no tea, no coffee at all. Never had it in my life. Okay. I've never had a coffee. I think I've had a coffee maybe twice in my life or something. I don't even remember what coffee tastes like or know what coffee tastes like. Not not chai either. Someone forces me maybe green tea but not not so much. So uh my drink of choice number one is water which is what I'm having right now. Uh but of late

maybe sparkling water and kombucha. H interesting. Very interesting. uh you know there's there's so many things that you've been doing but if you could master instantly any sport which sport would you choose at this point in time right now I wish I could master skills at football because my uh friends are making a lot of fun that I don't score enough goals I play defender but my dream is to be able to score enough goals when I want to so football for sure all right you know we spoke about the fact that you know people have reached out to you with various messages

uh across channels you know weird messages this. What's the weirdest DM you've ever received on Instagram or LinkedIn? Uh, I don't know if I should share this, but someone reached out saying uh that and and by the way, I don't get these kind of messages. I'm married with a kid and I make it very clear that I'm married with a kid. So, I give that total married vibe off and I get very awkward when I get these kind of messages. Someone said like, "I I I don't know how to say this, but I really love the

content you create, and I kind of have a crush on you. I'm also married with a kid and all." And not that kind of crush like like I romantically have a crush on you, but I have a work crush kind of thing on you. I got super awkward. I showed it first thing to my wife and I said, "This is what I've got." It makes a lot of sense. You know, all my life I' I've been married for eight years now and I think uh I pic I watched this show called Have You Met Ted something like that for 20 minutes, right? So I used to always do this right at any conversation if there was ever a place in time point

in time where someone would be slightly flirty like have you met Akanga? Who's Akanga? My wife. and they would like oh okay you know I would bring that in very very quickly just so that it doesn't get into that zone of awkward conversation but yeah makes a lot of sense if you had to pitch Ayurveda to an alien what would your oneline pitch be uh to an alien it would be uh something from my planet that will help you something from my planet that will help you heal with no side effects Wow, makes a lot of sense. Uh, what's a

guilty pleasure binge watch sports docs? No, that's not guilty pleasure that I enjoy. Uh, Dubai Bling and for more shots, please. Nice. Interesting. Uh, if you could use one social media platform, only one social media platform for a year, which would very interesting. Why? U, I I've got the most value out of it, honestly. Uh I sold my company to someone reached out to me through cold DM on LinkedIn. Uh I run this fund now and that relationship was started through cold on LinkedIn. So very interesting. What's the most memorable or hilarious moment

from your time as a podcast host or as a guest? I I remember someone came to record a podcast at my house and they they were supposed to come at 9:00 p.m. They came at 11 p.m. We recorded till 1:00 a.m. and we were sitting for 30 minutes as they were taking the data dump out and then they were like it's corrupted. We got nothing. Oh god. Oh god. That's And then we never did that podcast. I'm sure. Cricket or football or marathon running or pickle ball? Which is your favorite at this point in time? Watching or playing? Playing. I mean marathon would

be running. Yeah. Uh playing football. Uh and watching always mobile Indians. Oh, nice. Very cool. Uh favorite D2C category and D2C brand. Right now I'm most excited about lifestyle. M uh and what do I mean by lifestyle? I mean luggage, handbags, watches, jewelry. It's a really up and cominging segment in India. Favorite brand in that segment. I'll say there's a bunch of them, right? I'm really excited by what Mocobara is doing and similar the other luggage guys. Nash assembly doing some great work. I like what's happening in Lab Grown. I just invested in a business

called Jewelbox. There's a celebrity brand called Palmonas that has done amazingly well in the jewelry space. So lots happening in lifestyle and you'll see lots more happening. Amazing. One last question. What's your favorite appil brand? Because a lot of people talk about fashion sensibilities uh apparel as well. So uh I I I'll give you biased answers. Mhm. And and by the way, I buy a lot of Indian fashion. Um I love Snitch. It's a friends brand so it's biased. I love Soul Store. Again, a Friends brand, so I'm biased. I

recently bought from a brand called My Designation. Super cool shirts met the founders. Really really cool stuff. Uh basic polos. Senses and and basic tees as well. Senses pants biased. Very close school friend. I'm an investor. The pan project shoes biased. I'm an investor. Comet. Kickass shoes. Also galabs. I just bought a pair. In aware, all the boys are doing well. XYXX dimens. Uh so yeah I I buy a lot of Indian fashion as far as possible. I only buy Indian fashion. Fantastic and I think there's enough available for you to really go and try those brands at

reasonable price points with really good quality. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much Arjun for those candid very real answers uh like you've done this throughout the conversation as well. So thank you so much for taking your time. And on that note I do want to give you a small gift a hamper. It is not as grand as a coffee with hamper but it's no less because it's highly highly personalized to you and this is coming to you by Copic Design who are on corporate gifting who are into personalized stationary and so much more right they have this unique style of bringing out

some very interesting gifting options for both corporates and consumers. So it's something that we wanted to share with you. So this is this is from Copic Designs. This is for Aisha. Wow. You know personaliz something special for my daughter. she's going to enjoy it when I go home. Thank you so much. This for you. It's been a pleasure. Lovely, lovely conversation and I'm glad we could finally do it and I could drag you to Bombay to come and do this with me. Thank you, sir. What a lovely being here. Thank you so much for taking our time. But I think your perspectives and

the insights that you've shared are going to be superbly valuable to a lot of people out there. I loved a lot of the stuff that you just said actually all all of it. But I actually going to make a lot of these mental notes. I'm going to come back to you with some more questions later on as well. Of course, for our offline chat, but thank you so much for doing it again. Love being in Bombay and to have this conversation with you in Mumbai. My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. See you. [Music] Feel

[Music] free to share your perspectives through comments. Subscribe to the channel and do send us some suggestions as well. Thank you.