E91: Gaurav Hinduja (Co-founder & MD, axio)

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Gaurav Hinduja is the Co-founder and Managing Director of axio (previously known as Capital Float). It brings together pay later, credit and personal finance management under one seamless brand experience. On a mission to make credit worthy for all, axio leverages technology to deliver innovative financial products to millions of individuals across the country, including vast sections of traditionally under-served consumers. axio is the brand name of CapFloat Financial Services Private Limited, a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) registered with the Reserve Bank of India. The company has raised over $200M till date from Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners), Sequoia India, Lightrock, Creation Investments Capital Management LLC, Ribbit Capital, and Amazon.

Gaurav brings deep operating experience in India with detailed knowledge of complex supply chains. Prior to axio, he ran operations for Gokaldas Exports, India’s largest apparel manufacturer employing 40,000 people with $250 million in revenues. As COO, he had complete P&L responsibility for a major business line and led the implementation of lean manufacturing across company units.

In today’s episode, we talk about the journey of the unknown, something many founders go through especially when they start business in domain they’ve had little or no prior experience in.

Episode notes:

1. What inspired Gaurav to pursue entrepreneurship? (3:35)

2. Do founders really plan ahead when they build businesses? (6:37)

3. Why Gaurav and his co-founder, Sashank Rishyasringa decide to start axio? (8:18)

4. What inspired Gaurav to pursue an idea in a field in which they had no prior experience? (11:08)

5. Impact of Silicon Valley exposure in Gaurav’s entrepreneurial journey (15:52)

6. Early days of company formation and customer interactions (18:43)

7. When did Gaurav transition from a doer to an enabler in the company-building process? (26:44)

8. The significance and impact of early-stage investors (30:37)

9. Creating moats as the company expands (33:30)

10. How do you gain customers in a competitive market? (37:35)

11. How does Gaurav make decisions, and what is his decision-making framework? (44:30)

12. What has Gaurav learned about himself during all his years of being in business (50:33)