Nithesh retweeted
Left: 5 days before our “first-ever” offline centre was to go live 🤞
Right: Centre Head Abhishek, Aman & me, late into Chhoti Diwali, with this chhota dhamaka team that has beaten some expectations 🔥
Super excited to embrace meeting students & parents in-person with our @leverageedu Rajouri Garden centre 🪴
* we’ve built this company (so far) not just with ingenuity but with massive amounts of feedback, coming from all corners, believers and critics alike.
On this one, have looked upto Lenskart Caratlane Nykaa stores for a long while .. & most of all, we very deeply respect what/how Dmart built, hence experimenting and iterating and learning as much as we can before we attempt scaling this, sooooo …
— if you have followed our journey, & live in Delhi, do consider making a visit, saying hello to my rockstars, and throwing some more wisdom our way ;)
Happy Diwali 🪔
from Team Leverage Rajouri 🏙️
Nithesh retweeted
Thanks for hosting last evening in Dubai 🇦🇪 dear Naveen & @merittoofficial team. Was lovely hearing and learning from university owners/CEOs, & sharing my 2 cents ~ the @leverageedu perspective. Obsessing with the student journey every day for the past many years has meant optimising for every single touchpoint, somewhere with tech interventions, somewhere with full-comfort service layers, at other places with exclusive partnerships, and most other times (what I am massively proud of) the team ground-up innovating to deliver a continuously richer experience.
Even now, at a few million counsellings, we make sure every single student feedback is heard loud and clear across the whole org. It’s by far the most important thing for me personally, and I’m glad that over years the larger team has come together not for a job or task but for a mission that we believe we are fortunate to solve for 🙏🏼
Nithesh retweeted
💡✒️ Reader Contribution.
We came across some amazing bite-sized reviews of season 2 of the Blume Podcast by Nithesh (@mlessp). So we asked him if he would want to share their takeaways for all episodes with us, and he said yes.
Here's a long-read of the notes from Nithesh. In case you haven't heard some of these episodes yet, you can dip your toe through these takeaways and then listen to the episode. You can find all the episodes here: blume.vc/podcasts/blume-podc…
If you have already heard these episodes, do let Nithesh and us know which ones of these takeaways are your favorite.
About Nithesh: A product manager working at a Series C startup, Nithesh is interested in tech, history, books, and cinema. He pens some of his thoughts on his blog occasionally (theidiosyncraticidiot.in).
E1: Peyush Bansal of Lenskart talks about clarity of purpose, customer obsession, and culture.
Compounding is possible only when you believe in the mission more than the metrics of growth, revenue, and external factors about investor expectations.
Peyush’s mission to give glasses to 350 million Indians and work backward from there to plan manufacturing capacities is a brilliant example of a vision-led business plan. His initial days, where he sharpened product focus despite knowing that he would lose revenue, show how vision can enable a person to make tough long-term decisions.
He didn’t bother about the lower contribution of eyewear to his revenue in the short term. Innovation and investment in technology is another lever in operationalizing a long-term vision. Using AI to enable user adoption of online purchases is an innovative long-term vision that Lenskart has pursued.
The founder’s story also underlines how basic things drive big change for a business. For example, empowering people to get an eye test was the prerequisite to expanding the eyewear market. His focus on customer expectations and the evolution of the omnichannel approach is another story fueled by first-principles thinking.
Peyush learned that users weren’t comfortable purchasing at home. Some of them wanted to try on the spectacles before moving forward. So, he decided to open offline stores. The architects of the evolution of Lenskart were his customers. This adds up to a business model that evolved via customer obsession.
And being obsessed with customers helps a founder and a startup to compound.
E2. Raamdeo Agrawal Unplugged: Building Motilal Oswal and Shaping Investment Landscape
Public markets are the place where the compounding story plays out most dramatically. Only a market-savvy person is qualified to speak on the topic. And the podcast chose a seasoned operator to educate the audience about compounding in markets.
Ramdeo Agarwal failed CA exams due to bad handwriting and later due to a slow pace of writing. Fortunately, he passed it after multiple attempts after he fixed his pace and handwriting. This highlights the grit of the founder in a way. Though he was met with challenges, Ramdeo’s passion for markets compounded over these years in a way.
His love for markets keeps him in the game even when the situation is bad. According to Ramdeo Agarwal, loving what you do is more important for compounding. In addition, the founder had the vision to grow into a big organization and not stay as a small mom-and-pop shop. From this conversation, one is reminded that trust is the biggest reputation marker in fintech.
Ramdeo’s friendship with his co-founder Motilal over bike rides and their mutual passion for markets must be the most authentic story of founder collaboration, sui generis. Compounding friendships and business relationships are essential for a corporatized organization to grow and thrive.
The episode revisits Ramdeo’s framework for evaluating a business; both good and bad calls reflect the risks and limits of frameworks. It also calls into question the nature of VC funding and the type of businesses that get capital. His investment story around Airtel stocks is instructive. One learns that even the best frameworks for stock evaluation may not work in a new scenario, and every case deserves an attentive pair of eyes.
The stock market may offer front-row seats to the compounding stories of the world, but it need not be the final judge on the matter.
E3. Trust, Scale, Triumph: Nithin Kamath's Zerodha Unveiled
The Zerodha story is well known. Obviously, it is the most famous bootstrapped startup in the country.
But this episode unravels a few new things. Its founder, Nithin Kamath, has plans to create an institution similar to Berkshire Hathaway, which could eventually allow investors to own a part of his company.
A key thing I learned from this podcast was that a company should only list if it can predict its future earnings and thereby give investors some guidance. Karthik adds that the best founders underpromise and over-deliver in markets and cites the DMart founder as an example of this trait.
It was fascinating to know that Zerodha invests in causes like climate change to keep its team together—yet another brilliant episode on compounding. The conversation reveals that the founder’s non-profit initiatives were also designed to leverage the power of compounding. This is probably an approach that others can adopt while designing their CSR initiatives.
It’s easy to talk about thinking long-term, but you learn how hard it is only when you hear a real story with real constraints.
E4. IndiaMART Founder Dinesh Agarwal on Internet Business Start-up
Marketplace products either compound and grow into behemoths, or they fizzle out in the race as yet another wannabe.
Dinesh Agarwal provides a unique view on compounding. A business that compounds not only generates higher profits but also sees a widening of margins. Dinesh’s vision and passion for the business attract the listener’s attention during the podcast. It’s amazing to know that a founder can remember the annual revenues of his org by heart (over 20+ years).
Karthik delivered a memorable fact in this episode. I learned that venture capital in its early days was meant for deep tech innovations like semiconductor technology. However, seasoned entrepreneurs like Agarwal believe businesses that are not deep tech should generate profits from day one. One can’t ignore that many businesses that get VC funding are not in the deep tech space.
The story of Indiamart’s shift from export to B2B is quite fascinating. One learns that flattening growth and the absence of compounding can also be a driver for innovation and pivots.
S2 E5. Manish Sabharwal from TeamLease on the upside of being a second-time founder
Manish spoke less about the compounding story and potential of his company, Teamlease and focused on the compounding story of India. At the same time, he identifies barriers preventing India from achieving its true potential. Regulatory cholesterol and lack of civil service reform are on his list.
“The instinct to preserve is different from the instinct to create. Campaign in poetry but govern in prose. [..] Every time you double revenues, you choke on your growth.” This remark by Manish highlights how a new framework is required to reap the benefits of compounding at different levels. The platform on which the growth and compounding engine is built requires upgrades occasionally.
According to Manish, the early days of a better education model are evolving. Instead of a bipartite agreement between the kid and the university, we need a tripartite contract between the university, employer, and the kid. Degree apprenticeships are one way to do it, and Teamlease has been playing with such ideas recently.
Manish has an interesting view on job losses due to AI. He believes that it is not India’s problem at the moment. According to him, forty percent of our labor force has zero productivity already. So, AI-powered productivity would probably address the underlying inefficiencies before affecting job losses due to AI.
He says that strategy is the most upstream skill. He recommends the book “History of Strategy” by Lawrence Friedman. Sounds like an interesting read.
Manish outlines his strategic thinking framework with the concept of a jagir and amanat.
One who optimizes for personal gain may not appreciate the importance of compounding. At the same time, the person who understands his social and ethical obligations is better placed to appreciate the importance of compounding and reap its benefits.
@BKartRed @peyushbansal @Raamdeo @DineshAgarwal @Nithin0dha @zerodha @Rainmatterin @Lenskart_com @MotilalOswalAMC @MotilalOswalLtd @IndiaMART @TeamLease
Nithesh retweeted
13 years back, was on #WeThePeople @ndtv hosted by @BDUTT Ma’am as an @AIESEC_DU student. Tonight, full circle somewhat, hosted by rockstar @rishika625 on a very important development 🇮🇳 🇨🇦
That aside, I think (& I hope I was wrong) - we @leverageedu are the only folks in #StudyAbroad #CollegeAdmissions who have put business-later and STUDENT-FIRST. Every panel or space or piece I’ve been a part of last week or so, almost always the only voice calling out facts granularly, as is. >> There are things that have become okay, and yet there are things which are still not okay and might take a while, or longer.
Dear students - play the long games in life, it ain’t about one degree and one specific year, it’s about your career; research hard, stay with the facts, study what you love, & set yourself up for success 💙
Watch #WeThePeople with @rishika625 | India-Canada standoff: What it means for the Canadian dream?
On the panel: @Akshay001, Aditya Bhati
Nithesh retweeted
Economic Times follow-up story from the powerhouse Ed journalists @sreeradhabasuET & @prachivermaET
While my / @leverageedu existing comments went extinct very quickly, the headline is still intact, sadly. Though over the last 24-36 hrs, things have calmed down a bit ~ atleast specifically with respect to study abroad. More universities are sending emails like the one below: – at Central Region, Singapore
Nithesh retweeted
The last week has been a roller-coaster. And I have never seen student emotions spiral the way they have. This one is a solid piece from @Unibrowverse @moneycontrolcom 👌
By the way, unknown to most people, there was a large Canadian University delegation moving across key cities in India as the entire situation was unfolding. I am sure their on-ground assessment of things had something to do with the advisory released by over two dozen 🇨🇦 Universities, quashing a lot of ill-stuff, calming down students, and going overboard with support 👏
Over the weekend, we were also able to speak with our 🇮🇳 Consulate, who reinforced that students’ safety / success is right on top of their list. – at Central Region, Singapore
Leverage Edu also released an advisory on September 21 that read “...as effective immediately, we are stopping all new applications to Canada until there is more clarity. We are asking our students to redirect plans towards the US or UK if possible.” @Akshay001
Nithesh retweeted
Wanted to call out @UnionBankTweets & @TheOfficialSBI for what’s been an incredible internal turnaround re study abroad education loans, the teams we work with are absolutely fantastic. May your tribe grow, Indian aspirants > the global heroes of tomorrow, need PSUs like yourselves to adapt and compete and outbid, & you seem to be at it 💯
Among private banks, few come close to the hustle of @IDFCFIRSTBank & @AxisBank, I have been deeply impressed, rather inspired, in all my interactions with the leadership of both these institutions. Their unsecured loans for Indian students are unbearable today. Look forward to deepening our relationship with you.
@flydotfinance continues to approach this segment student-first, as is in our DNA, students need to get the BEST LOANS, at the BEST TERMS, all the HIDDEN STUFF PUT RIGHT OUT THERE, with zero BS, and a fantastic world-best after-deployment service wherever you be in the world. Continue to be incredibly proud of what the team has been pulling through. This year, we will hit $100M+ in our education loans’ segment, and now closely working with selected banks in designing better offerings.
🎯 piece by @tam_arund for @TheKenWeb – at Zurich, Switzerland
“Earlier, 80% of our loans came from NBFCs. Now, they bring only 50%—with banks forming the rest,” said @Akshay001 , founder of study abroad startup @leverageedu and its financial arm @flydotfinance
the-ken.com/story/who-will-f…
Nithesh retweeted
last time a POTUS met Stalin was in Berlin 1945 😌
Attended the #G20Dinner at Kaveri Table hosted by Hon'ble President of India @rashtrapatibhvn.
@POTUS @narendramodi
Nithesh retweeted
Couldn’t agree more with @Akshay001
In so many daily interactions with different nationalities across the spectrum, Indians 🇮🇳are generally perceived as smart and hard workers ‘contributing’ massively to the respective global economies and building ‘Brand India’ globally >> leading to further FDIs and trust / faith in the potential outcomes from investing in India & Indians.
Spoke to the morning bulletin at @WIONews, re India’s #G20 presidency & the massive contribution of Global Indians to India’s new stand in the global order.
Terms like brain drain etc are sad, when the truth is that:
a) someone sitting in London or New York or anywhere else all over is as much a patriot as anyone else living within the borders is,
b) their hard work and reputation and wins has played a massive role in building up India’s reputation, a lot of the $$ that flows into India for investment is also because of Indian work ethic, product on display by @sundarpichai @satyanadella & so many more,
c) the money that even average Indians living abroad send back, for family, for investments etc - form a large part of our overall $£€ inflows — so let’s celebrate them & make them an equal part of the India story,
d) our ethos as a nation, and even the tag-line of this #G20, is “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” (also our holding company’s name @leverageedu @flydotfinance @flydothomes) - aka “the world is a family”, that’s what our history has been & that’s how our future should be - with others, together, that’s what India is,
& e) as India now becomes the most populous nation in the world, that day isn’t far when we comprise the largest # of working professionals, and then I’d rather have Indians winning all over the world, EVERYWHERE 🙏🏼
Nithesh retweeted
Spoke to the morning bulletin at @WIONews, re India’s #G20 presidency & the massive contribution of Global Indians to India’s new stand in the global order.
Terms like brain drain etc are sad, when the truth is that:
a) someone sitting in London or New York or anywhere else all over is as much a patriot as anyone else living within the borders is,
b) their hard work and reputation and wins has played a massive role in building up India’s reputation, a lot of the $$ that flows into India for investment is also because of Indian work ethic, product on display by @sundarpichai @satyanadella & so many more,
c) the money that even average Indians living abroad send back, for family, for investments etc - form a large part of our overall $£€ inflows — so let’s celebrate them & make them an equal part of the India story,
d) our ethos as a nation, and even the tag-line of this #G20, is “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam” (also our holding company’s name @leverageedu @flydotfinance @flydothomes) - aka “the world is a family”, that’s what our history has been & that’s how our future should be - with others, together, that’s what India is,
& e) as India now becomes the most populous nation in the world, that day isn’t far when we comprise the largest # of working professionals, and then I’d rather have Indians winning all over the world, EVERYWHERE 🙏🏼
Nithesh retweeted
Thank you @Inc42 @meha1387 for this interesting take on our journey at @leverageedu @flydotfinance 🙏🏼
I have been saying this for the last 3 months, first to myself, then to my team, and then to my mentors — that it feels like everything we have done uptil here, was to just get to ‘this point’ ~ this is like a starting line of sorts. Anything everything, mistakes made, learnings done, the pivots, the experiments, the growth levers, the gut punches that worked, all to be able to get the ticket 🎫 to play the big game, where you get a shot at building / impacting at the scale you always dreamt of.
Promising that we will work way harder than we ever have, keep our heads down, and execute with absolute sharpness every single day! Leverage It!! – at New Delhi, India
Until a larger part of FY22, @leverageedu burnt a lot of cash- but now it has been making consistent strides towards profitability
For instance, they would spend about INR 6 Cr a month on performance marketing, which today has come down to nearly INR 15 Lakh👇
A thread🧵: (1/8)
Nithesh retweeted
This is a fantastic step by the @RishiSunak 🇬🇧 Govt! “Student-first” 💯 as we’d like to call it at @leverageedu @flydotfinance
Over half decade, while pursuing our mission, we have time and again tried to raise our voice against both - shady colleges + scrupulous fly-by-night admission companies who charge students exorbitant sums by selling “immigration” and then disappear! While this is a great move at one end, it also needs to be reciprocated by a similar effort from the other side (& I just recently wrote about that: teapaw.org/akshay001/status… )
This new ‘crackdown’ is not just a blessing in disguise but also has fantastic benefits lined up:
• reduces maximum fee universities can charge for classroom-based foundation year courses to £5,760 – down from £9,250 currently
• more transparent apprenticeships & T Levels to Skills Bootcamps / essential skills courses ++ easier for employers to take on apprentices
The announcement talks about having a platform where students can figure what’s the right Uni/ Course etc for them, guessing this will be similar to our @leverageedu AI Uni Course Finder - leverageedu.com/course-finde…
But most importantly, it aligns with something that I have said for so long — OUTCOMES IS WHAT MATTERS - & hence a student needs to be given the visibility of life-after, down to that last penny spent, right up there on day 0!
👏 👏 @GillianKeegan @ProfEdwardPeck @BCC_Jane @RajeshAgrawal @manojladwa @karan_khemka @authoramish @VDoraiswami @_AmitSevak
Nithesh retweeted
Exciting news 🎉 Thrilled to announce our Series C fundraise @leverageedu!
A milestone that sets us up to serve our students across new markets & new services while further strengthening our core. Fortunate to be building this alongside @Akshay001 @rachit_juneja @amanarora2709
Closed our Series C fundraise over the weekend. And that gets us to a new starting line 🙏🏼
We have brought onboard long-term investors, who we believe will help us in executing the vision + strategy across this next phase. Me & the team are super excited about working with them, given the moats we could create with the success of these partnerships.
@leverageedu is focused on
• strengthening existing corridors 🇮🇳 🇳🇬 >🇬🇧, + building new ones 🇮🇳🇳🇵🇻🇳 🇹🇭 > 🇺🇸 🇦🇺
• piloting with new GTMs to further scale down CAC
• continuing to use content-first product-first approach to drive efficiencies
• + further improve value prop for students
We are now more obsessed with a student’s ‘complete success’, right till the end. That’s what birthed @flydotfinance 💰 1.5-2 years back, & now Fly Homes 🏡
Lot more 0>1 happening here. Adrenaline pumping.
On the overall business: Want to more than double our revenue & hit full year EBITDA in next financial year.
Thank you to everyone who wrote in to congratulate and wish us best 🙏🏼
Publicly stated goal remains the same. We want to IPO in the next few years. As a value stock. Where we can retain the same DNA (of #StudentFirst) for Shareholders as well, not just the believers of today but even the guy who enters at that time, playing our absolute best to make them win.
^ though until then, there’s a lot to do, lot to fix, lot to course-correct. We have been EBITDA+ for a bit. But don’t generate cash yet. That’s a big one.
We want to bring even more tech across each of our stakeholders (students, universities, partners, support staff et al) - to make ourselves more efficient, make service TAT topmost not just in our industry but among the best in the world. And we aim to build a strong brand on a frugal budget. Experimenting along the way, like we always have. Learning everyday. Getting a bit better everyday.
Last, and most importantly, privileged to build this alongside a smashing team. They are incredible. I love them. I feel responsible for their success. The 200 Leveragians who own ESOP. The TGIS winners. Leverage = them, their incredible journeys as well 👊🏽
+ fortunate to have super supportive existing investors, who have been patient advisors, helped navigate in challenging times, trusted, coached, and always put the business first 🙏🏼
It’s been fun growing up. Onto the 7th year now. With big dreams. Head down. Ambitious, but cautious. Believer of the macros, but in love with the granularity of the micros that our easy-on-outside complex-on-inside business is :)
Rest, the party has only begun ..
Leverage It!
Nithesh retweeted
Atlas (/ˈætləs/) is a Titan condemned to hold up the heavens or sky for eternity.
I don't have a deep meaning for this one, only life is short and you should definitely get the funny tattoo. The saggier my butt gets, the funny this is gonna be. That's what I call an investment.
ALT Tattoo of Atlas, the Titan, holding up a buttcheek.
Nithesh retweeted
Happy birthday, @leverageedu
6 years young today 🧁 – at New Delhi, India
Nithesh retweeted
Univalley OS launch @leverageedu
At Leverage, we have had a product-first approach from day zero, but been intentional about never building anything for vanity sake. Reverse infact.
How to solve for a stakeholder better. How to improve those input line items. How to build a deeper relationship. How to translate into better delight. Etc etc etc.
To make student experience increasingly seamless, we have engaged in extensive dialogue with partner universities for the last full year. What we learned was simple: we need to empathise with Universities as much, and solve for them - in an easy, simple, plug-n-play style. And that’s how Univalley.com came together, with my co-founders @digvijaygagneja @amanarora2709 & their insane teams (@maverickjiten, @mlessp, Nishant, Vaneet, others) spending countless hours to build this right up from ground, zero to one 👊🏽
I am personally thrilled about everything the students will gain 💯 as a result of Universities adopting the Univalley OS. For now, the ticker to get to 100 Univalley partners starts NOW 🕕
PS: if you are a University reading this, there is an unbelievable promotional discount for the first 15 partners. So what are you waiting for? Get your team a demo ASAP 🙏🏼 – at Kensington, London
