The Desi VC with Akash Bhat

By: Akash Bhat
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  • Summary

  • The Desi VC, hosted by Akash Bhat, is an award-winning podcast featuring conversations with top investors & founders on trends, insights, and personal/success stories in the India-US startup ecosystem. Our purpose: As an immigrant in the US with deep roots in India, Akash explores the parallels & contrasts between Indian & US VC/tech landscapes. The podcast bridges knowledge gaps, fosters cross-cultural collaboration & celebrates 'desis' making a mark in the US.
    Akash Bhat
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Economics Personal Finance
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Episodes
  • E149 - From Amazon Engineer to IPO: The HyreCar Story | Ft. Anshu Bansal

    E149 - From Amazon Engineer to IPO: The HyreCar Story | Ft. Anshu Bansal
    Mar 1 2025

    Anshu Bansal is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-founded Hyrecar, a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace that allows anyone to rent their cars to Uber and Lyft drivers safely and reliably.

    In today’s episode, learn how a late-night Uber ride in 2014 sparked a groundbreaking business idea that would reshape the ride-sharing industry in the US. Anshu takes us through his incredible entrepreneurial journey—from his programming days at H&R Block and Amazon Prime Music to building the “Airbnb for ride-share cars.” Along the way, he faced direct competition from Uber, financial struggles that nearly led to bankruptcy, and even sold his own car to keep the company afloat. Against all odds, he turned things around and ultimately took the company public in a remarkable comeback story.

    Learn how they validated their concept by going undercover at Uber Driver Hubs, built their first MVP using just a spreadsheet that generated $9,000 in month one, and navigated crucial pivots when faced with competition from Uber itself.


    ⌛ Timestamps:

    • Introduction – The late-night Uber ride that sparked a billion-dollar idea (05:03)
    • Early Career – From coding at Amazon & H&R Block to building startups (05:31)
    • The Birth of Hyrecar – How one conversation turned into a game-changing business (06:31)
    • Cracking the Business Model – How Anshu structured Hyrecar for success (08:43)
    • Proving the Idea – The key steps that validated Hyrecar’s potential (13:13)
    • Ignored by Uber – Why the ride-share giant didn’t see Hyrecar coming (16:25)
    • Reinventing Car Ownership – How Hyrecar disrupted the ride-sharing ecosystem (18:36)
    • Thriving in the Unknown – Why Anshu builds businesses in industries he knows little about (24:27)
    • Lessons from Amazon & Microsoft – What big tech taught Anshu about scaling companies (26:53)
    • Hiring in Startups vs. Big Tech – The biggest differences founders must understand (30:43)
    • The Real Meaning of Entrepreneurship – What it truly takes to build a successful startup (32:43)
    • Personal Struggles & Entrepreneurship – How life’s challenges shape founders (35:43)
    • Finding the Right Co-Founder – The make-or-break decision for every startup (41:08)
    • From Near Collapse to IPO – The incredible journey of Hyrecar’s turnaround (47:41)
    • Building a VC Fund – Why Anshu launched his own investment firm (54:43)
    • Jumping into Cybersecurity – What made Anshu bet on an entirely new industry (56:14)
    • The Biggest Lessons as an Operator – What years of entrepreneurship have taught him (01:01:13)
    • Advice to His Younger Self – The hard-earned wisdom every founder should hear (01:02:03)


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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • E148 - The Ultimate Founder-Led-Marketing Playbook | Aquibur Rahman (CEO, Mailmodo)

    E148 - The Ultimate Founder-Led-Marketing Playbook | Aquibur Rahman (CEO, Mailmodo)
    Feb 15 2025
    Aquibur Rahman is the Co-founder and CEO of Mailmodo, an interactive email marketing software that helps marketers create app-like experiences in email by adding forms, shopping cart, calendar, NPS and other widgets. It helps companies collect feedback from their users, book meetings with prospects, recover abandon carts, generate leads, all within the the body of the email. The company is backed by Peak XV Partners (prev. known as Sequoia India), Y Combinator, BoldCap, Titan Capital & All In Capital.Aquib has been a marketer his entire career. Prior to founding Mailmodo, he headed marketing at Cleartax, a leading tax & investing platform, where he built and grew the practice from the ground up. And before that he had short but impactful stints at P&G, iProf Learning Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd., and CarDekho.From a small village in Bihar to Super30, IIT Dhanbad, IIM Ahmedabad, and now the Silicon Valley, Aquib has come a long way and defied the odds at every step. Humble, soft-spoken, and incredibly knowledgeable, he brings deep insights into marketing, growth, and startup success.In today's episode, we dive deep into marketing strategies for founders and startups. Aquib shares actionable insights on why founders should position themselves as the face of their companies and how they can do it effectively, proven strategies for scaling market as a strong source of lead generation and brand building in the early stages, and a step-by-step playbook for executing founder-led marketing effectively.This is a MUST-watch episode for every founder and marketing person at startups⌛ Timestamps:Trailer (00:00)Introduction (01:16)Episode kick-off (03:33)How did Mailmodo land its first customer? (03:47)Proven strategies to acquire your first paying customer (05:36)How Mailmodo landed Razorpay as a customer (10:33)Why design partnerships & POCs should be paid (11:55)What is "build-in-public"? What's a good playbook for it? (13:56)What is Founder-Led Marketing & why it works (18:38)The key components of a strong Founder-Led Marketing strategy (20:32)Marketing strategies that helped Mailmodo scale (22:33)How to build partnerships with lesser-known brands (25:12)Is all marketing good marketing? (25:50)The dangers of overpromising & underdelivering (27:18)Examples of founders who nailed Founder-Led Marketing (29:53)When should founders start focusing on Founder-Led-Marketing? (32:15)How customer discovery leads to marketing success (34:03)The biggest mistakes founders make in marketing (40:50)Live Marketing Workshop: Aquib breaks down a real-world example (45:01)How AI is changing SEO: What founders need to know (48:33)SEO best practices for 2025 and beyond (55:13)How AI is reshaping email marketing (59:43)How should a brand think about email marketing today? (1:01:59)Why marketing is all about building relationships (1:06:03)If Mailmodo started today, what would Aquib do differently? (1:09:19)With infinite resources, how would Aquib scale marketing? (1:10:13)🔗 SUBSCRIBE on ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠🎧 Follow us on ⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠📸 Follow us on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠🐦 Follow us on ⁠⁠Twitter/X⁠⁠💼 Follow us on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠🎵 Follow us on ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠💌 BTS content on ⁠⁠Substack
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • E147 - Tips for B2B Enterprise Founders | Yousuf Khan (Ridge Ventures)

    E147 - Tips for B2B Enterprise Founders | Yousuf Khan (Ridge Ventures)
    Feb 2 2025
    Yousuf Khan is a Partner at Ridge Ventures, a seed and Series A stage venture fund investing in enterprise and B2B startups. With a deep understanding of startup growth and scaling challenges, Yousuf not only drives Ridge’s investment portfolio forward but also provides hands-on support to founders, offering guidance rooted in his extensive experience across leadership roles. He currently serves as a board director for Ridge-backed companies, including Archera, Cerby, Chisel Labs, Lightyear, Rafay, and Rewind.Before joining Ridge, Yousuf held several pivotal positions in leading technology companies. He was the first CIO of Automation Anywhere ($6.84 billion company), played a dual role as CIO and Vice President of Customer Success at AI-driven cloud platform Moveworks ($2.1 billion company), and served as CIO at two public companies, Pure Storage (PSTG) and Qualys (QLYS). His deep industry expertise also includes advisory roles with companies like Zoom, Productiv, and Material Security. In this episode, Yousuf shares his journey into venture capital, discussing key insights on building a career in VC, the importance of founder empathy, and the role of self-awareness and diversity in investing.He offers practical advice on how VCs can create information arbitrage, draw value from feedback cycles, and support founders through challenges at scale. The conversation also delves into best practices and strategies for enterprise software founders, covering topics like customer obsession, board meetings, and leadership at scale.⌛ Timestamps:Trailer (0:00)Introduction (1:40)Episode kick-off (3:44)Yousuf shares his experience in venture capital (4:26)Is venture capital for everyone? What should one expect? (5:20)Knowing your 'WHY' before starting a career in VC (7:13)How to become a venture capitalist (9:00)How VCs draw inferences from feedback cycles (11:44)Creating information arbitrage as a VC (14:41)The importance of diversity in a venture team (16:46)The role of founder empathy in investing (18:25)Authenticity: An underrated trait in founders (19:39)Why VCs should have self-awareness (22:07)Common problems founders face as they scale (25:07)Why very few CIOs become VCs (27:00)API to DPI: The journey of an investor (32:34)How to build a strong track record in venture (36:40)Speaking the talk vs. walking the walk (39:00)The importance of obsession in venture capital (41:06)Serendipity and opportunity in VC (43:01)Immigrant spirit, shared experiences, and gratitude in venture (47:37)How Yousuf handles failures or bad investments (59:06)Best practices for running board meetings (1:06:07)The science of creating a perfect board deck (1:08:10)How long it takes founders to master board meetings (1:10:35)Tips for founders on running their companies better (1:12:32)Why the technology industry is inherently imperfect (1:14:15)The importance of operating in "customer mode" (not just founder mode) (1:20:16)Advice for enterprise software founders (1:24:54)What’s ahead for 2025 (1:26:58)Advice Yousuf would give his younger self (1:30:10)🎥 Subscribe to see watch more unfiltered, unscripted conversations that will inspire, educate, and entertain!🔗 SUBSCRIBE on ⁠YouTube⁠🎧 Follow us on ⁠Spotify⁠📸 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠🐦 Follow us on ⁠Twitter/X⁠💼 Follow us on ⁠LinkedIn⁠🎵 Follow us on ⁠TikTok⁠💌 BTS content on ⁠Substack
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    1 hr and 34 mins

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