Inside the mind of Anand Chandrasekaran, on building 5 products with 10m+ users and angel investing

The Neon Show

Anand has worked with some top companies in SaaS & Product roles - Yahoo, Airtel, Snapdeal, Freecharge, Facebook & currently at Five9.Since 2014 he has been an Angel Investor in over 50+ companies, some of the popular one’s being - Yulu, Khatabook, and MoEngage among others.In this podcast, Anand shares his experience of building consumer-friendly products & becoming a successful Angel Investor. Notes - 01:10 - Journey of one of the best product thinkers in the country - Entrepreneur in SaaS (2001-2008), Multiple Product Leadership Roles across few of the best companies in the world 2008 - Present (Airtel, Snapdeal, Facebook, Five9) and now an investor in startups 2016-Present (Rupeek, Khatabook and 48 other companies) 03:16 - Joining Five9 after Facebook04:09 - Leading acquisition of Whendu and Virtual Observer06:55 - Five9’s future plans with over $400 million ARR and becoming a Decacorn soon09:42 - Working in India with Airtel, Snapdeal & Freecharge (from 2013-16)13:12 - 50+ portfolio companies as an Angel Investor - Khatabook, MoEngage, Innov8 etc.16:56 - Investing in Rupeek - Building a customer-friendly product in a market with very low NPS19:32 - Investing in Nobroker - Solving rental issues on consumers21:16 - Investing in MoEngage - Solving the user engagement marketing needs with SaaS23:00 - Exits from Fynd & Innov8 - More of a founder & team bet, than a market bet!28:37 - Failures Startups face - Cash burn without Product-market fit & Lack of team chemistry36:50 - Covid-19 crisis - Not just conserving cash but creating solutions to tackle it38:16 - Working & learning with Marissa Mayer (Yahoo), Mark Zuckerberg & Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Gopal Vittal (Bharti Airtel)44:15 - “The tools that people continue to pay for during a crisis are the ones which grow in the long run.”51:02 - His first principle of being an Investor -“You are not the Hero of the story, the founder is!” - Just be founder friendly53:01 - His second principle of being an Investor - ”You make your money with the success, but you make your reputation with the failures.” - Being with founders during their bad times54:30 - His third principle of being an Investor - Not to exit from a company, as soon as it breaks-out56:10 - In India would it make sense for Angel investors to Exit-early at a good valuation?

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