Siddhartha Ahluwalia is a serial entrepreneur, who is currently the host of 100x Entrepreneur Podcast and the Head of Community at Prime Venture Partners. Over the years, he has interviewed over 100 prominent venture capitalists (VCs) on his podcasts which has not only complemented his learnings as an entrepreneur but also expanded his horizons. Today, he talks about his journey from an entrepreneur to a VC and shares his advice for the young and aspiring Indian entrepreneurs on how to build a successful venture, what are VCs looking for in emerging startups and when to raise VC funding. 00:00

00:41 Building AddoDoc and Babygogo
03:56 100x Entrepreneur Podcast
06:53 Flipkart: Making Your Own Luck
11:23 Luck, Persistence, Skill and Planning
14:36 Persistence Versus Pivoting Often
17:46 Advice To Those Who Want To Raise Funds

Building AddoDoc and Babygogo: When Siddhartha was eight years old, he had suffered from typhoid but instead, his paediatrician treated him for malaria, due to incorrect records. While he had to suffer severe allergies, years later, this experience would lead him to build his first startup AddoDoc which ensured doctors could keep track of their patient's records. Excited about solving problems, his next startup Babygogo was aimed at building a community of mothers and doctors addressing the querries of new mothers. Unable to scale both the startups, he realised the importance of bigger markets in terms of raising funds from venture capitals and growing.

100x Entrepreneur Podcast: He goes on to talk about how trying to understand the Venture Capitalist (VC) mindset led him into hour-long conversations and the birth of his popular 100x Entrepreneur Podcast. In his podcast, he exclusively interviews prominent VCs and learns about everything a young entrepreneur needs to build his startup and successfully raise VC money.

Flipkart: Making Your Own Luck: In his interactions with the VCs, he came to the realisation that markets are built by the entrepreneurs. It is only by analysing the micro-trends and taking a chance can both the entrepreneurs and VCs hope for that 100x growth that everyone is aiming for. Flipkart was started by its founders after analysing the market for books but it grew out of a micro-trend and went on to establish the entire ecommerce in India. He stresses on the need for entrepreneurs on being observant in order to establish a leading startup.

Luck, Persistence, Skill and Planning: Sharing his wisdom for the aspiring entrepreneurs, Siddhartha believes that anyone diving into entrepreneurship needs to have the planning in place in terms of understanding and researching the market for the problem they want to solve. No problem is solved overnight, so they need to be committed for an arduous journey which will test their persistence and skills.

Persistence Versus Pivoting Often: While he feels that persistence plays an important role in enabling an entrepreneur to stay focused on his idea, he also believes that to be a truly great entrepreneur, you need to be receptive of the changing needs of your customers and be ready to pivot as often as possible to build the product that your customers will love.

Advice To Those Who Want To Raise Funds: One of Siddhartha's biggest advice for the young entrepreneurs is to never build a business for the VCs but for the customers. While keeping the customers at the centre of your startup is important, he also believes that it is equally important to educate the customers on the need of your product and how your solution can actually enhance their lives. He then goes on to explain the importance of a co-founder who has the right people skills to build a robust team. Siddhartha truly belives that raising VC funds is not an answer to all the entrepreneur's problems but should only be done once you have established business with regular customers. Once you recognise the potential of your startup to scale 100x, then you should go for VC funding.

If you enjoyed this video and want to know more about Siddhartha Ahluwalia or 100x Entrepreneur podcast, please make use of the links below:

Siddhartha's LinkedIn: [ Ссылка ]
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Siddhartha's Medium: [ Ссылка ]

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