"Everything we build keeps the customer in the front seat because the customer makes the product a hero or zero".In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Manish Chowdhary, Founder of Wow Skin Science. Manish talks about his amazing journey from bankruptcy in a business selling laptops, to building one of India's largest digital first brands. Manish talks about the importance of relationships to scale his company, having built the business with his brother and two of his best friends. While Wow has seen the evolution of the e-commerce ecosystem in India, it has kept one principle at its core– customer obsession. Learn specifically how a brand can be hyper-scaled using the power of digital, while building for the long term.

Direct to a Billion Consumers

Episode 4: Manish Chowdhary, Wow Skin Science

“I sometimes think we are a logistics company which incidentally sells furniture.” In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Ambareesh Murty, Co-Founder & CEO, Pepperfry. may not Ambareesh is an e-commerce stalwart and it is not as well known that he was the business head for Ebay in India before Pepperfry. He takes us through the evolution of e-commerce in India over the years and talks about how he was able completely disrupt the furniture space with his current venture. Through this episode one can learn about how Ambareesh and the team built a model to get India to consume furniture online by blending online consumption with an offline experience (Studio Pepperfry). Learn specifically about the taking on complex problems and solving them for the best customer experience – in this case logistics.

Episode 8: Ambareesh Murty, Co-Founder & CEO, Pepperfry

In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to retail stalwart Govind Srikhande. Govind take us through a time capsule of retail in India through his 34 year career. From the evolution of the store concept to the denim revolution, he has seen the industry change first hand through the years. Govind also spends time walking us through his 15+ years at the helm at Shoppers Stop – a company that created the department store concept in India. Understand the importance of building long lasting relationships with partners and learn about India’s largest and longest serving loyalty program, First Citizen. This episode is deviation from our path of digital first brands but serves as an important bridge to show the power of offline retail in India.

Episode 7: Govind Shrikhande, ex Shoppers Stop

“I am who I am and, I will consume products that make me believe in myself". In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Tarun Sharma, Founder of mCaffeine. Tarun talks about how a sore eye led him to stumble upon the use of caffeine remedies, since the 10th century. This inspired his partner and him to create a lifestyle beauty brand based on caffeine. Understand the importance of creating an unapologetic brand with a personality that may not mean something for everyone, but resonates with those who love it. Learn specifically about the need for brands to be data focussed in digital marketing and how an open culture in the organization led to an almost 0% attrition rate.

Episode 6: Tarun Sharma, mCaffeine

"It almost felt like as parents we shouldn't have to compromise on the quality of products and so together.... we decided to build something".In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Mohit Sadaani, Founder of The Moms Co. Mohit talks about his journey from being a consultant at Mckinsey to becoming a parent. Find out the common product problem his wife and him faced as new parents, which led to the birth of a company. Mohit talks about how social media (not mass media) and e-commerce allowed a brand to develop with a community alongside it. Learn specifically about the ability of brands to use social media as a two-way communication channel and pick up relevant and actionable business insights from conversations with patrons.

Episode 5: Mohit Sadaani, The Moms Co.

"A woman focused brand is not niche – it caters to almost 45% of the population! "In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Ankur Goyal, Co-Founder, & Me. A Stanford graduate, Ankur's 'aha' moment at graduation led him to conceptualise this brand focused on Women's health. Dismissed as a niche idea by advisors, he went against the tide - and launched innovative products like PCOS drinks and even chocolates! Share his vision on what it takes to bring people together to develop "new-to-the-world" product concepts. Hear how & Me pivoted channels to build a brand where consumers eventually became brand advocates and ambassadors.

Episode 3: Ankur Goyal, & Me

"Everything is figure-outable"In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Vedang Patel, Co-Founder, The Souled Store. They discuss how Vedang’s lack of job satisfaction led to an epiphany that is now India’s largest fan merchandise store. Vedang shares his insights on the evolution of the e-commerce ecosystem in India and tying up with some of the world’s largest franchises including WWE, Friends and Marvel. Learn specifically about the importance of mindset in entrepreneurship and his knack of picking up learnings from failure and converting them to success.

Episode 2: Vedang Patel, The Souled Store

"As entrepreneurs, the most efficient thing we can do is throw darts but, just make sure that every dart you throw is aimed better and better"In this episode, join Arjun as he talks to Rohan Mirchandani, Founder and CEO of Epigamia (Drums Foods). They discuss how Rohan's move home from the US to India was catalytic in creating one of India's most loved yogurt brands, Epigamia. Rohan shares his learnings of working in the Indian ecosystem, pivoting from an ice cream parlor to FMCG and the importance of customer buy-in for new product categories. See how an entrepreneur used the power of customer feedback to solve India's seemingly unsolvable cold chain problem.

Episode 1: Rohan Mirchandani, Epigamia

"India is a big opportunity.... yet, building a brand in India is a Herculean task"Meet your host Arjun Vaidya, a proud Indian and D2C Entrepreneur. Arjun is the CEO of Dr. Vaidya’s - India’s #1 Online Ayurvedic products brand and also on 2019’s Forbes 30 U 30 list. He is passionate about both Ayurveda and navigating the exciting yet complicated world of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). In this introduction he talks about the key challenges and opportunities of distribution, brand building and e-commerce in the Indian ecosystem. Join him for this podcast series full of real world insights, from founders of disruptive brands and see how they go Direct to a Billion Consumers.

Episode 0: Introduction

India is booming with opportunity, yet building a consumer brand here is a Herculean task. With a market of a billion plus consumers, one of the world's fastest growing economies it is also the most difficult to navigate. Join Arjun Vaidya (CEO, Dr. Vaidya’s, Forbes 30 U 30) as he takes you through the world of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs), with some of the best minds from the ecosystem. This podcast features real world insights from founders of disruptive brands like Epigamia, Wow, Sleepy Owl and the Moms Co, who have made great strides in this sector. They'll talk about everything from building a brand from the ground up, convincing the first set of consumers, launching new products, mastering distribution and much more... Tune in and gear up to see how you can go Direct to a Billion Consumers.

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Episode 4: Manish Chowdhary, Wow Skin Science

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