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Hello,

And, it’s a wrap!

A symphony of brilliant conversations unfolded at TechSparks 2023 in Delhi as the titans of the Indian startup ecosystem came together under one roof. The stellar speaker line-up included Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paytm, Kunal Bahl, Co-founder of Titan Capital and Snapdeal, Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, and more. 

Speaking of spectacular, Tata Technologies shares nearly tripled during its trading debut on Thursday—smashing the record for the best listing day performance for an IPO of more than Rs 500 crore.

In other news, fintech firm BharatPe is launching a new lending company, BharatPe Money, to lend to consumers and merchants, Entrackr reported. The new company will likely offer tailor-made loan solutions to MSMEs and consumers, as well as added services, including credit card and utility bill payments.

Oh, and Ola will now offer riders the option to pay their cab drivers directly through UPI from within the app, Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said on X. 

Lastly, here’s a quick explainer of the new Gen Z term—delulu.

Sometimes, delulu is the only solulu!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Deepinder Goyal decodes Zomato’s business
• VSS’ take on an entrepreneur’s key role
• Top lessons from Kunal Bahl

Here’s your trivia for today: Approximately how many taste buds do humans have?

TechSparks

Deepinder Goyal decodes Zomato’s business

A brand is as good as the quality and consistency of work and service, said Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO of food delivery app Zomato. During a fireside chat, Deepinder and Akshant Goyal shared their secrets on how to create a genius brand, how it feels to make profits, and more.

Foodtech giant:

• The only mandate given to Zomato’s marketing team is that every push notification through the app should make the user smile, Deepinder noted.
• The food ordering firm reported a profit of Rs 36 crore in the July to September period, marking a positive bottomline for the second straight quarter in FY24. But the achievement didn’t come easy.
• Talking about the public listing, Akshant said that building a business is a more arduous endeavour than listing on the exchanges.

TechSparks

VSS’ take on an entrepreneur’s key role

Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma told a rapt audience that the decisive factor in a startup’s success was whether it managed to build use cases for its products and services around evolving technology or not.

“As an entrepreneur, your primary role is to keep the company relevant, and be where the vibrance is,” said VSS, as he is known in startup circles. 

No vanity:

• While building a business, free cash flow is the only vanity metric people need to focus on instead of GMV, profit and loss, or revenues, said VSS. 
• He added that the funding winter has been an exaggeration. “It is the weather, my friend,” he said, with a word of caution for entrepreneurs on spending at the cost of profit and loss or cash.
• VSS said that macroeconomic conditions in the global market impacted Paytm’s share price, as inflation rose in the US markets. While private markets allow for vanity metrics, it is difficult to leverage them in the public markets.

TechSparks

Top lessons from Kunal Bahl

In times of sustained failure, seeds of success are sowed, said Kunal Bahl, Co-founder of venture capital firm Titan Capital and ecommerce platform Snapdeal, speaking about the current challenging times in the startup ecosystem. 

Bahl said the funding winter and the other challenges looming in the startup ecosystem today are no cause for concern and, in fact, they present interesting opportunities, offering great respite to budding entrepreneurs.

Finding inspiration:

• Startups backed by Titan Capital—an early-stage venture capital firm—are not worried about the gloom and doom of the echo chamber we are living in but are instead focusing on building a strong product and creating value, he said.
• “In the early days of the company, you are in a chase. Culture is nothing but transparent communication. When the times are tough, the team stands shoulder-to-shoulder with you if you have a good culture,” Bahl said.
• He asserted that Honasa Consumer founders Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh, who took their company public in just seven years of starting up, will inspire entrepreneurs for generations to come.

News & updates

• Stellar results: Salesforce Inc’s stock jumped by about 10% on Thursday to a nearly two-year high after the US cloud and business software company reported stellar third-quarter results underpinned by strong demand for its services.
• Old money: Billionaires minted in the latest year accumulated more wealth through inheritance than entrepreneurship for the first time since UBS started tracking the fortunes of the world’s richest almost a decade ago.
• COP28: The UN climate summit clinched an early victory Thursday, with delegates adopting a new fund to help poor nations cope with costly climate disasters. 

 Approximately how many taste buds do humans have?

Answer: The average adult has anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds.

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