LBB Open House

U • Business

Powered By EPIC ON. A podcast by Little Black Book www.lbb.in on how to build brands better. In each episode, LBBs cofounder, Suchita Salwan takes a deep dive into all things brand building through candid conversations with founders, CXOs and investors behind India’s most interesting enterprises. She asks the questions that keep many young entrepreneurs and business leaders up at night, such as How to best set up your sales team What is the future of marketing Can distribution be your business moat What are good customer acquisition costs benchmarks Recorded as webinars live on the LBB website and app

Episode Zero - Build Brands Better

1 min 49 sec

Welcome to LBB Open House a podcast on how to build brands better. My name is Suchita. And Im the cofounder of Little Black Book www.lbb.in. Well be taking a deep dive into all things brand building marketing, customer acquisition, distribution, and more through candid conversations with founders, CXOs, and investors behind Indias most interesting enterprises. From fashion to alcobev, software to greek yogurt, you will get to hear from people whove built multimillion dollar brands across industries. I am privileged to have access to some of the best in the game and I bring them on the show to ask them the questions that keep many young entrepreneurs such as myself or young business leaders up at night. How to best set up your sales team What is the future of marketing Can distribution be the moat around your business I have learnt so much from my guests through my conversations. And I hope you do too.Oh and before I forget, these episodes are recorded as live webinars, so if you want to watch me have these conversations live and ask my guests any questions, please log on to the LBB app or go to our website www.lbb.in
Nidhi Hola - Director of Partner Marketing, Microsoft

43 min 50 sec

Nidhi has decades of experience working for some of the biggest companies. Currently the Director of Partner Marketing at Microsoft, she is also the force behind making India the largest consumer base outside the US for GoDaddy. What I find most fascinating is her outlook to marketing, which is predominantly from a B2B lens businesses are customers too. Keeping that in mind, I chat with Nidhi about her experiences with identifying and implementing the right B2B marketing strategies. I really enjoyed learning from her, particularly how to think about marketing through first principles. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge Nidhi has, this episode will help you understand consumer psyche and how to effectively drive consumer engagement. Hope you enjoy our conversation.
Matt & Namrata - Founders, Blue Tokai Coffee

43 min 6 sec

Matt and Namrata are the cofounders of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters one of Indias leading coffee brands. They talk about how they built Blue Tokai the journey from starting with an online presence to making it a cult coffee brand in India with plenty of physical locations. I really enjoyed learning from Matt and Namrata. As a coffee lover, there was a lot of insight for me into how the industry works and the challenges a new brand can face. I am very impressed by their strategic decisionmaking, and they gave me a lot to ponder over in my own business. This episode can help you understand how to start a business, adapt, and stay relevant with changing times.
Deepak Sinha - VP Marketing, Bira91

55 min 53 sec

Deepak is the Global VP of marketing at Indias homebrewed beer brand, Bira91. With over 14 years of experience at beverage companies such as Pernod Ricard and MillerCoors, he has led brand development, marketing and sales, and helped emerging and established brands find success across international markets.In this conversation we dig into: what it takes to launch a brand internationally, how Biras been able to scale across consumer segments through its ever evolving catalogue, and trends to make a note of if youre in the alcobev space. Spoiler alert: women drink beer are an audience to reckon with
Kanwaljit Singh - Managing Partner, Fireside Ventures

1 hr 6 min 24 sec

Kanwal has decades of experience from Intel to Hindustan Unilever, to leading investments at Carlyle, Helion and now Managing Partner at Fireside. He knows what it takes to build brands in India. In fact, hes invested in some of my favourite brands like Mama Earth, Epigamia, Paperboat, Boat headphones to name a few. What makes Kanwal uniquely awesome is that hes a straight shooter and youll hear that in todays episode. Our chat is peppered with real life examples and useful data points like Boat headphones super interesting pricing strategy and how brands like Mama Earth have scaled to clock over INR 100 crores of revenue.
Rohan Mirchandani - CEO, Epigamia

1 hr 10 min 41 sec

Rohan Mirchandani is the cofounder and CEO of Drums Food, the parent company of Epigamia. You have surely seen their range of greek yogurts, ghee spreads and smoothies on the shelves in your nearest trade store. Epigamia started out as an ice cream brand and in our conversation Rohan covers their pivot into Greek Yogurt, finding product market fit, raising over 50 million dollars, and how they think about their target market. Rohans passion and energy is palpable and our conversation has plenty of real life examples to learn from.Open House is recorded as a live session Make you check out LBB and sign up for our live chats, where you can ask my guests questions in real time. Head over to the LBB app or www.lbb.in and search for Open House to sign up for the next one.
Vivek Prabhakar - CEO, Chumbak

56 min 14 sec

Vivek is the cofounder of Chumbak, one of Indias leading lifestyle brands. What started out as a souvenirs company with kiosks around India is now a force to be reckoned with Theyve got over 75 stores across the country, and have products in over a hundred categories.In this conversation we dig into the impact of Covid19 on retail Chumbaks made a couple of super interesting changes to adapt better to the current environment, and he talks about categories and channels hes excited to build out. Covid aside, we also talked about changes Chumbaks made to position itself as a brand than just a product, and whats coming up for them including an international launch, hopefully soonOpen House is recorded as a live session Make you check out LBB and sign up for our live chats, where you can ask my guests questions in real time. Head over to the LBB app or www.lbb.in and search for Open House to sign up for the next one.
Kunal Shah - Founder & CEO, CRED

1 hr 6 min 44 sec

Kunal is the founder CEO of Cred, and has been the founder CEO of Freecharge, two of Indias foremost fintech companies. Hes seen it all 0 to 1, scaling to tens of millions of users, selling a company, starting up again and has been an angel investor and mentor in a bunch of fantastic startups including GoJek, Razorpay, Zilingo and others. If youre on desi tech Twitter, theres no way you havent heard of or dont follow Kunal where youll often find him sharing his notes and learnings.In this conversation we talk about the target addressable market in India, understanding Human motivations, how to take feedback and the importance of twitter trolls, we get into it all. Kunals a very first principles thinker, and his responses to our questions reflect the same. Open House is recorded as a live session Make you check out LBB and sign up for our live chats, where you can ask my guests questions in real time. Head over to the LBB app or www.lbb.in and search for Open House to sign up for the next one.
Sakshi Chopra - Principal, Sequoia Capital India

1 hr 2 min 13 sec

Sakshi Chopra is a Principal at Sequoia Capital India. She focuses on growth stage companies and has advised on investments across a range of Consumer, D2C and Fintech companies including FiveStar Business Finance, Indigo Paints, Wakefit, Faces, Go Colors, Healthkart, Hector Beverages and B9 Beverages.From Paperboats positioning centred in nostalgia to how Mama Earth grew into a brand with a 100 crore turnover youll hear about how some of Indias most fascinating brands went from 0 to 1, and now are treading the path from 1100, by finding their business moats.Open House is recorded as a live session Make you check out LBB and sign up for our live chats, where you can ask my guests questions in real time. Head over to the LBB app or www.lbb.in and search for Open House to sign up for the next one.
Varun & Ghazal - Founders, Mamaearth

1 hr 4 min 35 sec

Varun and Ghazal are the CoFounders of Mamaearth, which is Asias first Madesafe certified brand that offers 100 toxinfree natural baby care, skincare, and hair care products. In just 3 years, Mamaearth has launched a range of 80 natural products, with over 1.5 million customers in India and is amongst the fastest FMCG startups to hit 100crore run rate in India.The brand started from a personal painpoint Ghazal not being able to find toxin free products for her new born and how theyve taken an initial hunch from product to market to scale is truly incredible Masstige products are a huge opportunity in India and if youre looking to start up in consumer products, were sure youll thoroughly enjoy this chat.Open House is recorded as a live session Make you check out LBB and sign up for our live chats, where you can ask my guests questions in real time. Head over to the LBB app or www.lbb.in and search for Open House to sign up for the next one.
Kusha Kapila - Content Creator

58 min 38 sec

Kusha Kapila is one of Indias most beloved content creators. Over the last few years, she has found a way to create content thats relatable and scalable. Content creators are entrepreneurs themselves and Kusha delves in to how she has scaled to having a following of over a million people with high engagement and sustained relevance. This conversation is a great insight in to the business of being a content creator from one of the best in the game.Open House is recorded as a live session Make you check out LBB and sign up for our live chats, where you can ask my guests questions in real time. Head over to the LBB app or www.lbb.in and search for Open House to sign up for the next one.

Taru Kapoor - GM India, Match Group

53 min 1 sec

Taru is the General Manager of Match Group in India, which has a portfolio of dating products that need no introduction such as Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid. Taru has a wide ranging career having worked with BCG, Sequoia and then Match Group, where she was the 1st employee for Tinder in India and has grown the product from strength to strength. In this conversation, we discuss Matchs full stack product approach for companionship, what Taru has learnt about Indian customers while building Tinder, how dating products specifically in the Indian context have created agency, and how shes grown as a manager and leader over the past 8 years.
Mona Gandhi - Founder, Upraised

50 min 31 sec

Mona was the first female engineer at Airbnb, and led product and strategic growth for the company in the US and then for APAC. Shes been an advisor to us at LBB for the past 6 years I often go to her for advice on marketing, product development and hiring. On this episode, we deep dive into one of my favourite topics marketplaces, and all that goes into building them. What part of demand / supply should one tackle How do you navigate customer and merchant churn Which qualitative benchmarks are needed while chasing quantitative outcomes We cover all this and more. I think this is one of my most enjoyable conversations on Open House so far. I hope it helps you learn something new.
Varun Duggirala - Co-Founder, The Glitch

53 min 57 sec

Varun Duggirala is coFounder of The Glitch a digitallyled creative agency thats worked with clients like Unilever, Netflix, Nokia and others, and is now under the WPP group. Varun is also the host of the podcast, Advertising is a Dead. Each week he discusses the changes and developments in the business of advertising and marketing.Varun has had a fascinating career path an engineer turned PR Marketing student, he worked at MTV and Channel V before starting The Glitch. In this conversation, we run through all things brand, content, experience, and creatorled marketing. We talk about the gradual morphing of advertising into becoming part art, part science. We were also curious about his point of view on podcasting and where the medium is headed, and his experience building his personal brand through his podcast.Theres a lot of tactical and applicable advice in this episode enjoy
Arman Sood - Co-Founder, Sleepy Owl

52 min 59 sec

Arman Sood is the cofounder of Sleepy Owl a new age coffee company thats making good quality coffee accessible to consumers through their cold brews, ready to drink cold coffee, and an array of such coffeebased products.Weve known Arman and his cofounders ever since they started Sleepy Owl, as fresh graduates from Law school, that too and its so great to see them grow and expand their portfolio. In this episode we talk about competition, and how at times a rising tide lifts all boats as it has with the coffee movement in India. Arman also talks about the research and development that goes into launching new products and subcategories for Sleepy Owl. It takes A LOT to build a consumer product, that too one with a limited shelf life from fundraising to hiring, your own personal growth as a leader our conversation covers this and moreIf youre early in your startup journey, you will thoroughly enjoy this episode. Arman is refreshingly honest and upfront.If youve got questions, suggestions, ideas and feedback to share, email us at openhouselbb.in. You can find us on Twitter on FromLBB and Im on suchitasalwan
William Bissell - Chairman, FabIndia

45 min 3 sec

William Bissell is the chairman of Fabindia one of Indias largest leading lifestyle brands with over 200 stores across India that just celebrated its 60th anniversary.In this episode, we talk to William about how to think long term, and differentiate static from signal while building your brand. He gives a really interesting statistic around how the lifeexpectancy of corporates is declining and we dive into what it takes to build brands that can outlast trends. FabIndia has evolved a lot over the past couple of years with Fabcafe, their experience centres more. Given the impact that COVIDs had on retail, William shares his point of view on what the future of retail is, and where lifestyle brands should be investing to reap long term gains.Williams humility and honesty is really inspiring youll hear that throughout this episode We learnt a lot from this conversation and we hope you enjoy it
Tanmay Bhat - Creator

1 hr 13 min 15 sec

Tanmay Bhat is one of the most well knowns creators in India. This episode is incredibly funny and insightful especially if youre interested in the creator economy, new platforms, tools and mediums. We talk about one of 2020s best ad campaigns which is Creds Not Everyone Gets It campaign that featured Bappi Lahri, Daler Mehndi and more fantastic faces. If youve got questions, suggestions, ideas and feedback to share, email us at openhouselbb.in. You can find us on Twitter on FromLBB and Suchita on suchitasalwan
Arjun Bahl, Hanif Kureshi, St+art India

50 min 41 sec

Arjun and Hanif are cofounders of Start India an organisation dedicated to democratising art for the public through street art. Starting out as a project in Delhis Shahpur Jat, Start India today has scaled their street art projects across India from Chennai and Goa to Mumbai, Hyderabad and beyond. Its a mammoth project that involves multiple stakeholders from local governments and municipalities, communities, sponsors and artists, and that theyve been able to transform quaint spaces in India to vibrant art districts is truly commendable. This episode is a little different from other Open House episodes. Let us know your questions, suggestions, ideas and feedback to share, email us at openhouselbb.in. You can find us on Twitter on FromLBB and Im on suchitasalwan
Presenting LBB’s 2021 Consumer & Marketing Trends Report

56 min 58 sec

If youre a brand owner, brand marketer, a D2C brand junkie, an LBB superfan or just hella curious, youll enjoy this We recently released our 2021 Consumer and Marketing Trends Report find it here https://lbb.in/trends2021 if you havent had a chance to browse through it already. On LBB, we engage with over 25 million Indian millennials and have over 100,000 businesses recommended on our platform. Through 2020, we saw consumers shapeshift what they consume and where they consume products and brands. Weve consolidated data points and learnings across our platforms into our super comprehensive report that covers all the consumer and marketing trends that brands should be on top of And in this episode, youll catch a live recording of Team LBB discussing our report. We deep dive into data behind our trends prediction, examples of brands we see incorporating these trends well, and what were going to be doing on LBB in the coming year. Youll hear from vertical heads and leads at LBB. The session is moderated by Suchita cofounder of LBB the Consumer Trends section is covered by Aakanksha and Akshita, and the Marketing Trends section is covered by Abhijeet and Tanvi.