Ep. 1 | Inside India's E-commerce Playbook with Kirti Varun | Interstellar

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Interstellar by Stellaris

Stellaris Venture Partners

9 episodes

4 days ago

Interstellar takes you behind the scenes with the stellar founders, business builders, and next-gen leaders driving India’s startup ecosystem. Hosted by the Stellaris team, our conversations explore the bold strategies, resilience-building setbacks, and transformative scale that define some of India’s most remarkable businesses. Whether you’re a builder, dreamer, or simply curious, join us as we uncover the insights fueling these journeys.

Entrepreneurship

Business

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All content for Interstellar by Stellaris is the property of Stellaris Venture Partners and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Entrepreneurship

Business

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Ep. 1 | Inside India's E-commerce Playbook with Kirti Varun | Interstellar | Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho

Interstellar by Stellaris

52 minutes 34 seconds

9 months ago

Ep. 1 | Inside India's E-commerce Playbook with Kirti Varun | Interstellar | Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho

In the first episode of Interstellar, we sit down with Kirti Varun, former CPO of Meesho, who has worked across Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho, witnessing firsthand how Indian e-commerce has evolved.

Here's what we unpack:

How Meesho pivoted and paved their path to profitability
How does zero-commission revenue model work
What’s the right to exist for Amazon, Flipkart & Meesho
Is Quick Commerce the next wave of commerce
Product Management: Art or Science
Much More

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Reach Kirti Varun: X: https://x.com/kirti_varun_a LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirtivarun/

Reach Rahul Chowdhri: X: https://x.com/rchowdhri LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulchowdhri/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Episode Summary (01:05) Welcome, Kirti Varun! (02:05) Meesho’s pivot from a reselling platform to Bharat's B2C platform (07:15) Tipping point for the pivot (08:28) Creating a shopping app for the Bharat consumer (10:35) Journey from growth-at-all-costs to profitability (12:21) Decision of right-sizing of the company (14:24) Meesho’s zero-commission revenue model (17:14) Characteristics for zero-commission model (18:46) Amazon, Flipkart & Meesho's right to exist (21:32) Quick Commerce for fashion, good idea? (24:31) Flipkart’s battle with Amazon (27:45) Differences in org culture and structure: Amazon, Flipkart & Meesho (30:33) Kirti’s transition from consulting to product manager in e-commerce (36:03) Advice to executives from large company joining startups (40:15) Product Management: consumer insight vs. instinct (43:40) Meesho’s learnings from the live-commerce experiment (45:46) Rapid Fire (52:03) Final thoughts Referenced:

Meesho fastest growing e-comm player; GMV tops $5Bn: Report - https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/e-commerce/e-tailing/meesho-fastest-growing-e-comm-player-gmv-tops-5-bn-report/107153844

Flipkart Plus launches: Similar to Amazon Prime , but without subscription fees - https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/flipkart-plus-launched-similar-to-amazon-prime-but-without-subscription-fees-4979151.html Recommended Books:

Zero to One: https://www.meesho.com/zero-to-one-by-peter-thill-with-blake-masters/p/2xnk1i?srsltid=AfmBOoopGQLn_CecGuMvXF2n-oboGq7ZrJD_tZjmiE3Uf7ZbJmbBzX4v

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse: https://www.meesho.com/siddhartha-by-hermann-hesse/p/6bohlk?srsltid=AfmBOooaNop8yo79eA5kXG6h82EuNE-zWYj56rCJN_5FtBvjaSnf12Xy