B2B SaaS Founders Turned VCs Discuss Indian Software Startups | Manav Garg

The Neon Show

Manav Garg is the founder of Eka and Together Fund.
Manav started Eka before SaaS was even a word. We start with Manav's journey from a small town in Punjab to founding Eka, one of India's first vertical SaaS companies. He shares all the ups and down in Eka & his life in the last 20 years. From building and selling from India to global businesses. From pivoting, which few companies survive, to coming out not just alive but highly profitable again.
We also discuss his work with SaaS Bhoomi, future of Indian B2B SaaS, Together fund and Manav’s next mission.
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Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
00:39 - From Small Town Punjab to International Trading
12:08 - Quitting Job & Now What
17:00 - Fundraising Struggles & Launching Eka
23:07 - Scaling Eka from $3-4 million to $10-20 million
26:57 - The Journey of Scaling a SaaS Business From India
30:00 - The Time To Pivot & How to Come Out Alive
35:23 - Build SaaS From India: But Where Are The Lessons?
36:26 - Reaching Revenue Peaks Again After The Pivot
37:23 - Next Mission After Eka
41:14 - How To Plan An Exit Like a Pro
48:30 - Together Fund and Its Mission
54:17 - AI Wave & SaaS: What’s Changed?
1:00:08 - The Growth of Indian B2B SaaS
1:03:33 - AI-First Tools From India
1:08:08 - AI and New(&Old) Industries
1:12:00 - Business Runs On Trust
1:17:20 - Don’t Be Indisciplined About Discipline
1:21:14 - Lessons From 20-year journey with Eka
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Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.
Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.
We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.
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