 Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us, and it's great to have you here, Anisha. So you started MyDala in 2009, right? This is before the kind of big rise of smartphone usage in India. Can you just tell us about the story of MyDala? Sure. Yeah, I started MyDala when internet wasn't cool. Neither were startups in India. When parents actually told their kids to go and work with a Microsoft or the likesoft. And so when I started, it was not easy goings, obviously. We couldn't find enough space. We had to, we finally got a dental clinic that decided that they would be gracious enough to share with us. And it was about the time, you know, we felt we were getting a local marketing platform into India. It would be, it was very much needed. What was interesting is when we got there, right after that was the rise of Groupon. And so very quickly we had about 52 competitors. You know, we got our first round of funding. And I need any of the founders to know this here, because this is, I think it's important I never used to share it earlier. And I think it's really important to know this. We had three term sheets, picked one investor, went with them, the whole diligence route, everything. And the day of money transfer, they decided they weren't going to do this. There were too many competitors, the space was really crowded. And so, needless to say, that was as low as you can think of. Yeah, what did you do? Well, apart from the fact that there was nothing to do, I had all these people that we had recruited and we were so excited. We had, you know, the founder, the investor believed we should be going into all these markets apart from just the cities that we were present in. So we had expanded our presence. There's no choice, right? That comes a time in every founder's life, either you call it quits or you just swim. And so it was where that was going to sink or swim. And we decided we were going to swim. We're going to do something about this. And so we basically tried to think of innovative ways of actually reaching the audience that we needed to reach. And a couple of things we plugged on to, Indians tend to love something very simple as ABC, which was Astrology Bollywood Cricket. We heavily leveraged that. We marketed around Bollywood a lot. We actually got Shah Rukh Khan, who was a big Bollywood star to say stuff. And this was all done for free, which worked out really well for us. How did you get him to do it for free? We promoted some of the movies that he was doing. And it just worked out for us. And then the second thing that we did, which at that point we were taking a punt on, was we knew that mobile was big. We didn't understand how big it was going to be. We just knew that the only way to get past the... So in India, credit card usage was really, really low. And at that particular point in time, we knew if we wanted to get to the local cities and we wanted to get to smaller cities, it couldn't be that people were taking out a credit card to make a micropayment. And so we figured we needed to get to the telecom operators, which was the only way, which was mobile, and use their platform and grow. And so I sat outside Airtel, which is the largest telecom operator, in their office for days on end to figure out whether they would take a meeting. Right, because you wanted to partner with them. Desperately so. And we didn't actually get a meeting with them. You didn't. No. But what ended up being a great coincidence was I was speaking at an event and I talked about how important I thought mobile was going to be. And somebody from Vodafone was there, which is the second largest mobile operator. And we ended up partnering with them. And what it led to was basically four months, no, actually eight months later, Airtel reversing into us, the CEO called and said, hey, listen, we've heard you're doing great stuff in marketing. Do you want to talk to us about it? Can we do something cool with you guys? So what is the message from this story? Sit outside Airtel's office and then just give up? No, I think the message is you just got to find innovative ways. I mean, as a founder, you just do stuff. You've just got to get up and you've got to keep moving on and you've got to figure out things. I joke about this. Everybody talks about success now. But I'm an overnight success after nine years. It's not that it's been easy. It's been fairly rough. And when you look back, those were actually good days. I miss my days in the dental clinic when you actually. So the people I recruited then, I was also four months pregnant. And we'd be interviewing people for a startup which was not cool at that point in a dental clinic. So my team really had to have serious vision to see where we were going to go with this. And all those people who joined are still at my dollar. They're clearly mad, renegade to me. So why did you decide to do this if it was so not cool at that time? And mobile usage was also not that high. You can get an audience with the big companies. What kept you going? I don't know. You just, why do founders do things? You want to solve, you see a problem, you want to solve it. You believe that that's the only way to go. And that's what I wanted to do. I believed that we needed a marketing platform where people shouldn't have to pay upfront. You're already so bootstrapped for cash. And here you are trying to market out your business. And I saw a need, and I figured that we could take that and put it on mobile for them. In India, at that particular point in time, the big companies were coming and leveraging social and mobile and everything. But all these small local businesses, there was nobody actually promoting them. And we just saw that there was this space that we could fulfill, which was basically taking all these local businesses, putting them online and on mobile. And it just worked well. Did we know that mobile was going to, I'd love to say I was a visionary. And I thought mobile was going to be this big thing. We knew it would be something big. We didn't know how big. And honestly, it was just, you got to keep trying. And did you have a crisis point in your mind where if I don't get this many users by this point or raise this much money by this point, I'm going to give up? Oh, you're a, founders, no, well, the give up part never came through, but founders are always in crisis mode. You know, I mean, you're always, even now, when you get to a certain scale, you still are in crisis mode because you're always thinking of the next thing. What is the next thing for? You know, we're going international. Well, we'll talk about what I'm doing now, which is moved away from my dollar. But the fact of the matter is you start thinking, how will it work out the new market that you're panning into? So do you think that you're going to quit? No, that didn't come. Well, how do you know when you need to stop and change strategy that it's not really worked in the way that it should? You know, that's a tough one. I actually didn't think of quitting. And I don't think I had a choice, right? There was so much pressure. There were so many naysayers that we had. I mean, in 2011, my dollar's obituary was written. Everybody assumed we were going to die. And so I don't think, I think it was the sheer pressure of having to make it work. Also, I was one of the few female founders in the internet space at that particular point in time. And we've just heard from Atomico the kind of shocking, I was shocked, the statistics for invested capital, European invested capital, I think 93% of it this year has gone to male only founding teams. And in India, you were telling me it's even worse than that? Yeah, it's only 2% of the total funding went to women entrepreneurs last year. So the numbers are fairly dismal. But it's great. It's heartening to see. And so I actually look at the positive. And I think when I actually started going to conferences, I was one of the two or three women entrepreneurs that used to exist. But now we're seeing so many and everybody doing such cool stuff that I actually look at that and say, wow, we've come a long way already on that part. Right, so tell us a bit about she-capitals. You've left my dollar now to launch a $15 million fund for investing in female-led businesses. Yeah, it was something that I needed to do. I believe as founders, it's really important that at some point you pass on the luck or you need to work with others. You had asked me how I ended up where I did. And I think it was because I had great role models that I looked up to. I looked up to women and said, wow, I want to be her. I want to be her. Who did you want to be? I wanted to be this. I interned for a woman named Julie Holdren in DC. I used to work in DC. And I wanted to be her. She could do 30 push-ups. She ran a phenomenal company. I'm up to 15 push-ups, but hopefully. So I think it's really important that we have mentors, role models, and it wasn't always like this. I wanted to be known as an entrepreneur. I used to shy away from stuff because my whole thing was I want to be known as an entrepreneur, not as a woman entrepreneur. So every time they called me for these panels, I'd be like, no, I don't want to do this because I'm an entrepreneur. However, the tides have changed. And I've come the other side, which is to she-capital. So for five years, I've been actively mentoring other women entrepreneurs. And I feel this is something desperately needed, which is women sitting on this side of the table and investing. We all know that that's the only way that the change is going to happen. So a year ago, I went up to my investors at my dollar and told them that I needed to move on and do something. And they were really supportive about it. So in June, officially, I left my dollar and have been running around for the fund. And I'm back to zero. I'm doing the whole, it's like a start-up again. And it's exciting. And it's nerve-wracking. And it's everything. And have you made some investments? Yes, we're just closing out our second investment. What are the companies that you're investing in? You know, so the whole thing is that it has to have tech underlying. But they're really cool. They're doing different things. There's some. The first company is basically farm to table using blockchain and making sure that there's no adulteration on any level for a sugar substitute. And she's phenomenal. I love this woman. And the second one is a company that's doing tampons for the masses, which is not something that exists in India. So they're really, really cool businesses, both tech-driven in different ways. But both something I think that not a lot of investors would have looked at. And is your plan to stay in India? I mean, I spent six months there last year. And I remember before I went out there, someone told me that rule of thumb, everything that takes a day in the UK will take you three days in India. And it's kind of true, right? It's a difficult place to do business. So what's your plan? Are you going to stay there? You know, there's a saying. If you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere. And I think it's same for starting up. I think if you can start up in India, you can start up anywhere after that. So but it's also the most exciting time, right? Because there is so much happening. 70% of our population is under 40. That means there's a whole consumer market that's coming up, almost like close to a billion people that are coming up in the consumer space. It's so exciting right now. The startups and the startup scene is just really interesting. I wouldn't want to be anywhere right now except India, because it's cool to look at China, too. But the numbers are staggering, right? I mean, I spoke at a conference where I told them that my dollar had 38 million subscribers. And there was pin drop silence, because those are not the numbers you hear in the European countries. So it's not, you're not playing on, you know, large quantity, quality, but you're playing on quantity. And there's so many people that you're reaching out to. Same, you know, you're looking at China. And China has, you know, 300 million app downloads is what, you know, companies are talking about. Those numbers are just phenomenal. So you, but there's, I mean, there's also a criticism that's often leveled against the Indian and Chinese tech industries, which is that they're imitative, but they're not innovative. And I mean, is that, in your experience, is that true? Do you think that there is a kind of ceiling to the ambition of companies there? You know, so first of all, it's an interesting argument. And NCR actually came up with a study that says, imitative innovation is also a great form of innovation because it's all modified. No innovation is real in itself. However, that being said, I think the first generation of tech entrepreneurs did take models that existed and, you know, more of them. But there's an interesting form of innovation going on in India right now. Some argue against it, and I know you've heard the word juggard innovation. And juggard in India, in Hindi basically means some way of fixing something that's broken. And so it's the most frugal form of innovation that you can have. Right, I'm really excited about it. I actually think juggard is how my dollar got to where it got to. But juggard is often a criticism, right? It is, because people think it's a shortcut, all right? But it's also the most inclusive form of innovation. It is innovation at its most basic level. It's innovation, you know, essentially for the common man. And it's not necessary, right? Juggard innovation is also one of the most phenomenal companies. So in India, missed call is a, it's an interesting concept. You don't call people, you miss call them, and they call you back because, you know, there's not to save some money. And so this, there was actually a female founder who took that and made that a marketing model. Who would have thought of that? How did she do that? She essentially, and she sold it to Twitter, she essentially made, you know, you could call, you could do a missed call into companies as a marketing. So, you know, instead of calling and finding out about a product, you did a missed call and the company would call you back because you didn't want to waste money. Wow. And it was an instant hit. So it was a different form of juggard innovation, you know? But even at the most basic level, if you all, you know, Google it, Barefoot College is a college that's out of India and now has spread across 80 countries. It's basically women from villages that have never gone to school who are making solar panels and lamps and other things. And now they've taken this and taken it to Africa, Indonesia, different parts of the world and they're actually innovating. So I actually think juggard or frugal innovation is at the best and especially, I mean, you know, looking at the population, you know, we've really taken that. So I don't consider it a criticism. I'm excited for it. I think there are a lot of new startups. There is a statistic that says India has about 14,000 startups. That's about, you know, the third largest startup ecosystem. I think it's really interesting. And what do you think are the main hurdles for those startups? Is it raising capital? Is it getting face time with big corporates? Is it bureaucracy? You know, so the criticism always comes out into bureaucracy and all. But I actually think, you know, the government's been really supportive. Even at Slush, we have about 30 startups that have been sponsored to get here from India. And, you know, no startup environment has a lot of intervention from the government. It's probably a good thing. And the startup ecosystem is interesting right now. It'll be interesting to see where it's headed. There's a lot of money flowing into India. There are a lot of big bets being made. You know, one of the largest tech exits globally happened in India, the Walmart flip card deal. And so it's really, it's an exciting time to be in India and see how it's growing. There's new stuff happening every day. There's, you know, new startups that you hear of and cool things. One of the things that, you know, people started questioning when I started with Chigapital was, are there enough female founders out there, you know? But... What, to invest in? Yes, yes. But, you know, oddly enough, there is. There's just, there are so many people and there's such great startups being run. We haven't even pushed out news about Chigapital. And it's just... Why do you think it is that's like so much the vast majority of money goes into male-only founding teams? I think it's the network. I think... I also think women are a little more hesitant to talk about or come up as opposed to guys who are okay with doing that. So I don't think, I think it's equal on both sides. I don't think it's just the network effect. I think there are networks that need to be built out. In India, the most prestigious institution is IIT, which is a tech institution. It's world-renowned. Most of the unicorns that have come up in India and there are about 18 now that exist while in 2011 there were none, are basically IIT founders that have built it out. However, you see that it's all guys and it's the IIT network and there are VC funds that will only fund IIT founders. So it's interesting to see, but I think you're going to start seeing a lot more of this happen on this side of the table too. There are a lot of more people talking. I mean, we saw it earlier today over here too. Diversity and inclusion seems to be the theme everybody's talking about. And do you think like five years from now there'll be an equal number of equal amount of money going into women and male-led companies or is it a longer-term cultural shift? You know, I wish it's five years. It's, you know, I hope it's five years. There's no telling how it'll be, but I do know that I want to see more unicorns or not even unicorns, big company scaling. The goal of Shee Capital is not just the 12 companies that we invest in. We want to be able to make sure that it impacts at least 500 women on different levels. And that's the underlying goal and thesis. And we're hoping that that keeps, you know, multiplying and the multiplier effect goes on. So you've been a founder and now you're an investor. Do you have any tips for the founders in the room? How they should be, what they should be saying in their pitch to you or if they're a female or more broadly to investors to get attention? No, you know, it's, people look at teams. They understand what you, I like, I like straightforward founders. I like people who just shoot straight as opposed to talk really, really big stuff. And maybe that comes from the fact that I was more realistic about numbers. So I think it's very different from different VCs and what they expect. No, but I do have tips for founders in general. I think it's hard, right? And nobody talks about it. Everybody talks about the bigger stuff. It's really cool meeting founders that have come from substance failure, at least in India is not very celebrated. And so it's kind of cool seeing people who've come up from different circumstances and managed to overcome that and just stayed true and dedicated to what they wanted to do. And I think that's what it should be. I mean, just stay true to yourself, you know, believe in what you're doing. Really be a horse with blinders on because there's so much noise out there. We had 52 competitors. If we listened to what there was out there, I don't think we would have survived. It was really about the goal and you focus on the goal and you make it happen. But that's the kind of flip side to the growing tech ecosystems, not just in India, but all over the world, which is that there's more startups competing for the attention of a pool of money that's growing, but more slowly. So I guess my question, some, a few people have been talking to me about this during Slush, that how do you, how do you, if you are a person who thinks that you're true and you've got a great idea, how do you get the attention of a VC investor? You know, one thing that's extremely worrisome to me and I have been, I have people coming up with business models that actually have no base. They talk about funding is the base, you know? To me, a business is a business. It better have, you better be able to run this without having to get funding. You know, there are many businesses. I get there are certain businesses that require innovation and if you're able to justify it, but most businesses at the end of the day, there better be some money that you're gonna make and you should be able to see it. I've had entrepreneurs come up to me and say, look, I want to raise funding is not your business. You know, your core business has to be your core business and funding is just something that'll happen if you're looking. You know what they say, watch me, the God is a wealth, knocks your new door when you least expect it. So really, figure out your business, your core business and say it true to it. Thanks very much. Thank you.