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We shut down FrontRow 2 months ago, and are returning the remaining capital to our investors.
The last 4 years were a lot. Here's a bit about what happened, what I learnt, and more importantly how I felt ->
Ishaan Preet Singh
2,267 posts
Ishaan Preet Singh
@ishaanpreet
peeking at the future || partner @LightspeedIndia || advisor @cartesia_ai || biz, tech, food, history || make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth
online
Joined December 2012
- Rapido used a static OTP i.e. as a user I always get the same 4 digit OTP - it’s one of those small touches that’s just so logical and delightful every time I book but so counter intuitive that I had never thought of it.
- Dark stores in basements of apartment buildings with pneumatic pipes into my kitchen that deliver in 30 seconds is the future. Quick commerce is just a middle phase.with everyone getting into 10mins delivery - the day we reside in urban malls isn’t far behind 😵💫
- Comparing Delhi and BLR metro 15 years after construction begins BLR Metro (2022): 52 stations, 56.1 km length, 0.5 mn daily ridership DEL Metro (2013): 145 stations, 188 km length, 2 mn daily ridership I guess data backs the anecdotal slowness of infra creation in Bangalore
- Dunzo's brand recall is definitely something to just marvel at - I still say Dunzo despite it not being possible anymore
- Very very anecdotal but the number of friends from India attending Coldplay in Bangkok/Singapore has to be a signal of a *step jump* in consumer spend and international travel?
- Seemed like a lot of friends from college are building exciting cos so I tried to list out companies from our batch and was pleasantly surprised: - 5 companies that have raised $25M+ - 30+ venture funded founders - 20+ founders I know are building cool stuff but too early to
- The censorship by mob is very real. Facing it changed my view on how much I care about propaganda that I viewed as noise. TLDR: the helplessness when a mob comes at you is very scary. And it 100% changes behaviour and policies, and the content you consume. Quick story -> In
- If you had 10 Cr and an infinite network to spend to level up the startup ecosystem in India, and could do *absolutely anything" what would you do?
- I'm going to spend the next decade investing in early stage startups in India. I’m excited to be back @LightspeedIndia investing across consumer and AI, working with an amazing team to help even more amazing founders.
- I think people vastly underestimate how large content spends have gotten in the last few years These 18 apps cumulatively are at ~$400-500mn ARR for paid content (excluding ads) in India. This was nearly zero revenue 5 years ago.
- Headout, PocketFM and Ultrahuman (amongst many others) are all now above $100m revenue - they really are paving a new path for Indian startups selling to the world! More to come 🤞🤞🤞In '24, @headout's revenue (not GBV 😉) crossed $130M; up 8x from the post-Covid baseline. Our CM2 margins grew to 30%+. We were profitable with double digit EBITDA margins in sight and are growing faster than the ecosystem. The managed experiences model we pioneered works.
- Coming to Delhi after a few months: “oh new metro station, oh new flyover, oh new office complex” Coming to Bangalore after a few months: “oh 1 new inch on the the Sony signal flyover”
- We’re hiring for an Associate at Lightspeed (form to apply in replies). I have a soft spot for this role, since it’s how I got started in the startup ecosystem. Some reasons I loved it - You expand your ambition and imagination - you meet the smartest people in the world
