Moonshot

Fundamentals of Business with Piyush Gupta, Group CEO of DBS Bank

Moonshot

DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta has built his reputation by transforming DBS from a Singaporean bank into one of Southeast Asia’s largest, with a market cap of over $90 billion. While he’s had a 40-year career in banking, he also had a short stint as a startup founder. We had the pleasure of hosting him at our annual growth equity conference, PitStop, in September 2023. In this episode of Moonshot, Peak XV Managing Director Shailendra Singh speaks to Piyush Gupta about the lessons learned from his startup journey, and the approach he’s taken to leading DBS Bank. Show notes: On leaving Citi to launch a startup [01:18]  Speed to market is overrated [03:54]  Make technology the core of your business [05:07]  Find the right partner [05:51]  Having a safety net is not always a good thing [06:30]  Change your attitude towards failure [07:39]  The fundamentals of being a great CEO [08:29]  Focus on your strategy and learn to say “no” [14:30]  Engaging with regulators and policy-makers [18:58]

Cloudflare: Reflections on Leadership with Michelle Zatlyn

Moonshot

Michelle Zatlyn, Co-founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Cloudflare, chats with Peak XV CMO Gayatri Yadav about building Cloudflare, the global powerhouse that stops 209 billion cyber threats a day.  In this conversation, Michelle reflects on the initial struggle to garner support for Cloudflare’s offerings and emphasizes the importance of perseverance, especially in the face of skepticism from potential investors, customers, and employees. She delves into why founders should listen to their own voice and not be deterred by doubters. Michelle also talks about Cloudflare’s approach to customer acquisition as well as the evolution of the company’s go-to-market strategy. While talking about the complexities of building and scaling a company, she also delves into the importance of hiring the right people, as well as the leadership principles that guide her. Founders, it’s ok if others don’t see what you see  [04:19] Finding PMF isn’t always a slam dunk [07:20] Understand why potential customers don’t buy your product [12:53] The importance of tracking progress against a goal [16:29] Reimagining archetypes: “The world needs a new definition of leaders” [20:53]

CleverTap: A Data-First Approach to Customer Engagement

Moonshot

Brands rarely interact directly with customers in the digital world, making it a challenge to create personalized customer experiences and retain clients. While working at a media company in 2013, Anand Jain, Sunil Thomas, and Suresh Kondamudi, were faced with the same problem. They struggled to find a product that could leverage data to meaningfully engage with customers. To address this gap, they set out to build CleverTap, an all-in-one customer engagement platform that leverages data, analytics, and automation to empower digital brands. In this episode of Moonshot, we speak with CleverTap's Anand and Sunil about what it takes for founders to build products that can adapt to changing markets. Show notes: “What if it works?”: Find a spark to get you started [1:38] Adapt your product to changing markets and channels [5:25] What “build for the world” actually means [9:36] Co-founder dynamics: Give each other space and establish extreme trust [12:32] Hire the right people and then let go [16:11] Having a good VC-founder relationship [23:02]

Pioneering Payments: Amrish Rau’s FinTech Journey

Moonshot

Paying for things digitally is now a part of daily life – but this wasn’t always the case. In 2013, long before the reality of cashless payments had become the norm in many parts of India and the world, Amrish Rau co-founded Citrus Pay, an online payment provider built with a mobile-first focus. This was one of many ventures in his two-decades-long journey to pioneer India’s payment ecosystem in the digital age, culminating in his most recent appointment as CEO of Pine Labs. On this episode of Moonshot, Peak XV Managing Director, Shailendra Singh, speaks with Amrish about his early life and how it defined his approach to company-building, his transition from Citrus Pay to Pine Labs, and how building a company with a heart will help a startup as it scales. Show notes: From passbook printer salesman to CEO [4:04] Focus on product-market fit and get cheesy [8:36] Retiring at 40 and other startup exit myths [15:02] The Pine Labs approach to digital payments [21:20] “Be nice to everybody” and other advice for startup founders [26:30] Stay unsatisfied [29:10]