"80 to 90% of income for all artists, even Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal, comes from live events only. YouTube pays barely 1-2 paise per stream today."

This shocking revelation from Gaurav Dagaonkar exposes the broken economics of the music industry. While millions stream their favorite songs, artists make almost nothing from digital plays - a problem that led him to build Hoopr, India's leading music licensing platform.

Gaurav Dagaonkar is the Co-founder and CEO of Hoopr, India's leading music licensing platform serving over 200,000 creators and 125+ enterprise clients including Myntra, ITC, and Marico. An IIM Ahmedabad MBA who rejected corporate placements to pursue music, Gaurav spent over a decade as a successful Bollywood music director working on films like Joker, Heartless, and Lanka. His YouTube channel Songfest has garnered half a million followers. After experiencing the industry's broken economics firsthand, he built Hoopr, which has raised multiple funding rounds and revolutionized how creators access licensed music. Host Akshay Datt explores how domain expertise combined with business acumen created this remarkable entrepreneurial success story.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

👉Industry Economics: Music streaming pays artists only 1-3 paise per play, forcing 80-90% of artist income to come from live performances

👉Market Opportunity: Only 1-2% of venues comply with music licensing laws, representing a massive untapped market

👉Customer Validation: Hoopr interviewed 150+ creators and 50+ brands before building their platform, ensuring strong product-market fit

👉Revenue Model Innovation: Rejecting minimum guarantee models in favor of transparent unit economics created sustainable growth

👉Creator Impact: Independent artists can earn more from a single micro-sync license than years of streaming revenue

👉Copyright Complexity: Indian artists gave away both publishing and master rights, unlike Western markets where artists retained publishing control

#entrepreneurship #startup #musicindustry #creatoreconomy #iimahmedabad #bollywood #musictech #foundingindia #musiclicensing #startupjourney #businessbuilding #artistrights #copyrightlaw #digitalcreators #musicbusiness #startupfunding #productmarketfit #indianstartups #creativeindustry #founderstory #musicentrepreneur #techinnovation #platformbusiness #revenuemodel #sustainablebusiness #startuplife #entrepreneurmindset

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel

"Cash is just a commodity. What truly attracts top entrepreneurs is the connection you build."

Ashish Taneja completely flips the traditional investor-founder power dynamic in this eye-opening conversation with host Akshay Datt, revealing why the best founders actually choose their investors, not the other way around.

Ashish Taneja is the Founding Partner & CEO of GrowX Ventures, one of India's pioneering deep tech venture capital firms. A Chartered Accountant who transitioned from being the India CEO of Vertex (a major UK BPO firm) to venture investing, Ashish has bootstrapped GrowX from angel investments in 2008 to managing ₹400+ crores across institutional funds. His portfolio includes a spectacular 17x return from spacetech company Pixxel, and notable exits to companies like Reliance and NASDAQ. With 49 investments and 9 successful exits over 15+ years, Ashish has become a leading voice in India's hardware and deep tech ecosystem.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

👉Deep Tech Focus: India's future lies in hardware-first companies solving complex problems in space, defense, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing

👉Patient Capital Thesis: Deep tech requires 4-6 year investment horizons versus software's 18-month cycles

👉Dual Valley Strategy: Successful deep tech investing means navigating both technology risk and commercialization risk simultaneously

👉Founder-First Philosophy: The best entrepreneurs choose their investors based on value-add, not just capital

👉Barbell Portfolio Strategy: Combining high-risk seed deep tech bets with lower-risk Series B growth investments

👉Bootstrap Mentality: Building a VC fund through personal savings, consulting revenue, and reinvested returns rather than institutional money

#VentureCapital #DeepTech #SpaceTech #HardwareStartups #IndiaVC #StartupFunding #TechInvesting #DefenseTech #Semiconductors #PatientCapital #FounderThesis #AkshayDatt #GrowXVentures #AshishTaneja #StartupEcosystem #AngelInvesting #SeriesB #SeedFunding #TechEntrepreneur #IndianStartups #VCStrategy #InvestmentStrategy #TechFounders #StartupJourney #ModernIndustrials

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel

"Energy is the only input cost that can be systematically optimized over time."

A game-changing perspective from battery tech pioneer Sheetanshu Tyagi that's reshaping how India's quick-commerce giants think about profitability. This insight is driving EMO Energy's transformation from a hardware company to an Energy-as-a-Service platform.

Sheetanshu Tyagi is the Co-Founder & CEO of EMO Energy, a deep-tech startup revolutionizing India's EV battery landscape. With over a decade of experience at world-class companies including Rivian (as one of the first 50 employees), Ather Energy, and Ola Electric, Sheetanshu has been at the forefront of the global EV revolution. He holds 8 patents for innovative automotive systems and has successfully raised $7.86 million for EMO Energy, achieving a valuation of ₹203 crores. Under his leadership, EMO has deployed over 2,000 battery packs, covered 18.3 million kilometers, and established partnerships with industry giants like Blinkit, BigBasket, and Domino's.

Host Akshay Datt explores Sheetanshu's journey from a 2BHK startup to building India's most advanced battery technology platform.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

👉Hardware-First Philosophy: EMO's contrarian approach focuses on superior mechanical and thermal engineering rather than expensive specialized cells

👉Fast Charging Breakthrough: 20-minute charging capability with 5+ year battery life, solving the critical downtime problem for commercial fleets

👉Immersion Cooling Innovation: Proprietary liquid cooling technology maintains uniform temperature within 1°C across all cells

👉Energy-as-a-Service Model: Transitioning from 90% hardware revenue to 50%+ software and services, offering systematic energy cost optimization

👉Strategic Market Focus: Targeting high-utilization commercial fleets rather than consumer market, doubling rider productivity to 140-160 km/day

👉Sodium-Ion Future: Predicting India's potential to bypass lithium dependency and build sovereign battery technology using locally available materials

#EVBattery #StartupIndia #DeepTech #ElectricVehicles #BatteryTechnology #EnergyStorage #Entrepreneurship #TechStartup #Innovation #FastCharging #EMOEnergy #IndianStartups #CleanTech #SustainableMobility #VentureCapital #HardwareTech #EVInfrastructure #BengaluruStartups #FutureOfMobility #StartupJourney #TechFounder #electricmobility

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel