Zudio might be the largest retail apparel chain in India with ~450+ stores by 2023 end. Other household names like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle & Westside that started way before are ~150-250 stores. I realised that not many people in metro cities have even heard about Zudio, but
1 in every 4 web3 founders I met in Dubai last week were not living in Dubai but were in the process of moving.
India needs to fix regulation asap or we’ll lose a lot of good talent.
Oh, and btw Zudio is owned by Tata under the same umbrella as Westside - Trent Ltd. Trent overall grew ~60% YoY while Westside grew <20%, so Zudio is a HUGE contributor to the growth.
ESOP buyback in India 2021: $435M
ESOP buyback in India 2020: $50M
This is real number we should be talking about. Employees of an early-stage company are their very first set of believers. Wonderful to see the risk reward ratio work for the ones who dream with the founders.
Zudio spends 0 on ads and brand marketing and instead, they put all of that money back into giving the customers cheaper rates. Nothing in the store is more expensive than 999 Rs. They are focused on high volume sales vs high price sales.
They are primarily present in Tier 2/Tier 3 cities and this market is largely unbranded. Most big fashion retailers have shied away from this segment and Zudio has identified this gap and penetrated all the way in.
Without a doubt, highlight of my day - young 16 y/o from Indore currently in Kota preparing for IIT JEE. He had spoken to unicorn founders, done market research and made a business plan along with projections.
LFG 🚀
Last week I met a founder who I respect a lot. He turned down an acquisition offer at a decent price because it wouldn’t make enough money for the employees.
And then today,
@dougleone
said “As a founder you should aim to make your receptionist rich.”
Great minds think alike.
Most importantly, Zudio has managed to create an aspirational brand. GenZ and Millenials account for ~50% of India’s population and Zudio has managed to be relevant to this user. Their Insta feed is as appealing as a HnM or Zara.
I remember being mocked for sleeping 8 hours during my undergraduate days. So good to surround myself with people who now talk about the importance of a good sleep to be productive.
Productivity in a limited # of hours >>> # of hours
Unilever India vs Unilever Parent:
CAGR over the past 5 year - 9.6% vs 2.2%
Return on Assets - 11% vs 8%
Profit Margins - 17% vs 13%
Case in point for a high growth market and lower cost of distribution & production trumping over lower purchasing power.
Re-reading Zero to One after a few years. It hits you differently not matter how many times you think you've internalised it. What an absolute masterpiece
@peterthiel
!
Uber's India2022 report is fascinating
1/ 53% rides were 5 star rated (assume all else 4 star you get ~4.5). App on google play is rated more at 4.7 meaning Product > Service
2/ 400Cr rev from 4.5B kms of riding. ~25% take rate means 4.5 Rs/km revenue = cost/km for a diesel car
Your energy is infectious
@VaibhavSisinty
and listening to the amazing customer testimonials of
@growthschoolio
is a constant reminder of all the good work the team is constantly churning!
When we first thought of bringing consumer brands, enablers, incumbent leaders & platforms together, we imagined for it to be an evening of insightful discussion & community building. Yesterday was anything but magical!
Thx to folks who came & made it a success.
@SequoiaIndiaSEA
Every fun international travel plan starts with the pain of applying for a visa. Why shouldn't the visa process be as delightful as the travel? Why settle for long queues, opaque systems and a patchy Ux when
@travelwithatlys
can change the whole experience!
So excited to see
Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve raised $12.5M Series A co-led by Elevation & Sequoia Capital India (Peak XV), with participation from a16z, SPC, Mantis, and Weekend Fund 🧵
Every early stage, pre-PMF company should ideally have designated people working full time on New initiatives and experiments.
What looks like a random experiment might just be the key to PMF.
This chart by
@Redseer
amazingly sums up the excitement in the Indian tech industry. The 1% to 10% jump will have to be on the back of 250-300 new-age companies going public in the coming decade. Might take longer, but we'll get there.
After 16 years of being in India and 10 years in Southeast Asia, this is another step in the direction of our ever growing conviction. It’s the time to build and nurture the next decades of enduring companies 🙏🏼✨
1/ Today, we are announcing that Sequoia India & Sequoia Southeast Asia have collectively raised $2.85B across a new set of funds, including India venture, growth funds and an $850M SEA fund - our first dedicated fund for the region.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." Charles Darwin
Adaptability in these times of change is key.
Much like the rest of this part of the world, in
#Dubai
for the week. 🙂
Little bird app, help me find more kickass web3 folks in town this week?
Would love to meet! 👋🏽
Investors want to become Founders.
Founders want to become Investors.
But these two roles have more in common than we think. Both as investors and founders, you invest in people and stick through the highs and lows to create value. 🙂
It was truly one-of-a-kind feeling to be surrounded by such incredible energy and ambition. Forever grateful to be a part of this family and community
@peakxvpartners
It’s been fantastic to connect with over 350 portfolio founders across India and Southeast Asia in our first set of community events since we became
@peakxvpartners
. We’re so grateful to be able to connect, learn and grow together with you.
#togetherfortheclimb
My all time favourite Charlie Munger quotes:
“I think that a life properly lived is just learn, learn, learn all the time.”
“Take a simple idea, and take it seriously.”
“Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (merely average performance).”
RIP
FarFetch went from $23B in peak 2021 to $250M. Loved what their brand stood for, this is saddening but also a moment to learn:
1. Changes in core business model can be tough to navigate - FarFetch moved away from inventory-free logistics-focused strategy when they acquired New
Read this somewhere today: Return to the past only accentuates our limitations and undermines confidence. It encourages risk aversion and prevents exploitation of new opportunities.
It's key to learn from your mistakes, but equally important to not let history define future.
📢 Buidlers of India 🇮🇳
@sequoia_india
&
@BuidlersTribe
are joining hands to look for the most legendary web3 startups.
Pitch your project, get access to mentoring sessions, participate in AMAs & qualify for Belief DAO grants!
Apply now:
Totally agree! Big believer of working together in-person.
Serendipity doesn't happen over Zoom, and businesses stop being cutting edge in the absence of it.
All of us at
@zerodhaonline
went fully remote during the pandemic lockdown in 2020. While it's been great for some, it hasn't been for others. In this post, K explains why it didn't work for everybody at Zerodha.
Work from home works well for support roles given the structured
“These women are defying gravity, refusing to let anyone define who they are. They are all incredibly focused, hungry, ambitious, and resilient.”
Presenting,
#Spark01
.
#SparkTheFlame
#SequoiaSpark
There’s a transition for every founder from acting fast & closing things by yourself to gradually empowering other team members to lead initiatives.
Enough people talk about how important it is, but not enough stress on how much more important managing this transition well is.
2022 was a year of shifting consumer behaviour in the post covid world dealing with a macro shift. India now has 800M+ active smart phones (95%+ android) and people spend 4.5+ hours on mobile per day! 🧵 on some insights from the
@dataai
report on the state of mobile
There is no reason why Bitcoin and Ethereum should be so highly correlated, or rather correlated at all.
In the next 1-2 yrs, shouldn't these two crypto assets entirely decouple: Bitcoin becomes a store of value and ETH generates value from the network load.
ETH network can today take upto 2.5M transactions/day.
Add zkRollups and other efficient L2 solutions to it, and the number can go to ~150M txns/day
Add peak sharding efficiency to it, and the network is capable of ~150B txns/day
So.Much.Potential.
When everyone thinks it’s a good idea, it probably is not a great idea.
When everyone think it’s a bad idea, it probably is a bad idea.
It’s what’s not obvious to all, that makes it big.
Finallyyy I finished my day at the golden level, well atleast according to me.
@UltrahumanHQ
teaching me how to make small but important changes towards a better lifestyle. 😄
North Indian states and Gujarat have always had lower digital payments adoption than rest of India. But this
@PhonePe
chart really brings out the dominant offline retail consumption pattern and Dhandha economy settling B2B txns in cash in these regions.
Loved getting to know some of the coolest folks in Bangalore’s
#Web3
community today!
Thanks
@paradigm
for co-hosting our first web3 meetup in the city. 👊🏻
Folks watch this space if you want to join us for the next one. Will share details soon!
10M Indians linked their phone numbers to Aadhar just in the last month, while the cumulative PAN Cards linked to Aadhaar are ~5M.
India lives on mobile!!
THE BASICS WORK IN INDIA
Rohit is right about India.
1) First, the basic daily loop of a tech worker is now easy in India. Wake up, hit the gym, open laptop, get coffee, call an Uber, hang out with some friends, etc — that’s all there. Reliable power, internet, air
Very excited to finally announce the Spark02 cohort!
Meet these incredible women solving real big challenges in Climate, Health, Productivity, Supply chain and so much more. So heartwarming to see the community come together and shine.
#SparkTheFlame
Loreal's acquisition of Aesop, the Australian-origin Luxury Personal Care brand, is one of their largest acquisitions in decades ($2.5B). As a fan of the brand, not surprised that Aesop's sales increased by 20x in the last 10 yrs to $537M in 2022 - 35% CAGR vs <10% market growth.
The only choice you make on a daily basis - Whether you channel your energy to point out/crib about what’s wrong in the world or if you channel it to do what you can to correct it 🙃
This chart amazes me, classic land and expand.
Amazon started off with referral fees, but fulfilment and advertising today constitute 70% of the total revenues from a seller. If not for Amazon, sellers would've spent on 3PL or Google/Facebook anyway.
Climate Change is going to be the biggest problem to solve in this century and everyone would need to do their part.
@Climes_io
is on a mission to democratise climate action by giving consumers the option of carbon neutral consumption - in just one click.
All communication & texting apps should have conversational AI. If I could find a quick answer to some question by asking AI on WhatsApp, my Google Search volumes will drastically decline.
Snapchat is piloting myAI along these lines, very keen to see what Meta will do!
Stopped on my way to buy some fruits and the lady who was selling seemed distracted on her phone. Turns out she was listening to a Crypto pundit who does regular sessions. She said her son has made 3x money, so she wants to learn too.
@peakdelhi
moment? 😅
3 things that stood out in the Amazon quarterly result for me:
1/ Even at a scale of $127B quarterly revenue North America grew at 11% YoY & reduced costs
2/ Comparatively, international markets have stayed flattish
3/ AWS could become bigger than international sales very soon
My Uber driver's son is stuck in Ukraine. He went to do his MBBS as it cost him half of what it would in India. 17 y/o who landed in a new country 3 mths ago thinking he had a new life waiting for him is now stuck in the University basement waiting for a rescue bus
Wars destruct!
In early stages of finding PMF, it’s so important to reduce the number of variables to solve for.
Focused set of early design partners as the first few customers help reduce the scope and complexity of the problem significantly.
Amazon is making sales data public. This was something many analytics players tried to triangulate via different models. Having this available handy for buyers is big - it will give more legitimacy to small business and young brands.
Let's hope they launch it in all geos soon.
Another brand that has had a crazy feat in India is
@UniqloIn
- 63% YoY growth, recorded FY22 390 Cr sales and 21 Cr profits with just 9 stores!
Zara & Uniqlo are interestingly both in the same ballpark of sales per sq. ft.
Apparel may be a tougher biz, but if done right is HUGE
"Luxury (?) fashion brand Zara posted a net profit of Rs. 148.76 crore and revenue of Rs. 1,815 crore for the financial year ended 31 March 2022 in India."
Zara has *only* 21 stores across 11 cities
(Assuming this source is accurate 👇🏽)
So much chatter today about L2s being parasitic to L1s. Literally can’t think of one good argument in the favor of this statement.
L2s scale up L1s, they only just make them more useful!!
I remember looking at and breathing AQI ~ 350 air in Delhi post Diwali and feeling optimistic. I mean 350 is severe and unacceptable to most, but I drew comfort from the fact that it could be way worse.
And well, now, it is. 🥲
Many many congratulations
@ashray_malhotra
@_shivammangla
Today it all seems plausible but staying strong through those 8 years of ups and downs sure must've been hard. Always rooting for you 🚀
After an incredible 8-year startup journey, I'm excited to share a significant milestone: is getting acquired by a leading tech giant! 🚀
#RephraseAI
#Acquisition
Youtube shorts may have a real chance at success!
YT has 2.5B daily active users and Shorts is already at 50B daily views in less than 2.5 years of launch. YouTube’s distribution is powerful, but their revenue sharing with creators is what can drive volumes against competition.
It's hard to not get bogged down by the day to day and keep an eye on the bigger picture.
But all you can do is try. You can't control outcomes, you can only control your actions.
Needed some
#MondayMotivation
today, so passing it on to others
#JustIn
| Reliance Retail launches new
#fashion
retail format ‘Yousta’, opens first store in
#Hyderabad
. All products will be priced below ₹999
⭕️ Reliance plans to open 200 Yousta stores across India by end of this year
#Yousta
#RelianceRetail
Couldn’t be more excited for this! Category creation is hard, but you guys are just killing it. This is just another step in the direction. Super humbled to be a part of this journey.
Congratulations
@Toplynehq
@Ruchin_Kulkarni
@rishenkapoor
@rrkhanna
🚀😄
This is the 1st covid wave when I am with my family. During the first & second wave I was in the States.
While it curbs my independence & forces me to be super careful, I am so glad that I am around. That I don’t feel helpless in case you-know-what.
That’s my
#covid
crucible
@banglani
Scarcity sustains excitement for longer. The buzz in restaurant business fizzles out every 2 years, maybe this could keep the buzz for much longer.